Easy and Fast Meals

[yesitslaura]

I am starting NS in just a few short weeks, and I am concerned about what we will be eating - I dont want to spend a lot of time cooking! Can anyone share a quick or easy recipe that they enjoy?

Here is one that I fix all the time - Buy a bag of already cooked frozen meatballs, and a jar of spaghetti sauce. Let those two simmer on the stove until heated through. Pour 3 or 4 meatballs and some sauce into a hoagie bun and top with shredded mozarella cheese. Super easy meatball subs. I usually just serve with a tossed salad and dinner is done!

[cmonkey]

im having the same issue. i have to eat gluteon free so its going to be hard to fig out quick meals and stuff to pack for school since i cant eat pretty much anything in the caf.

anyway something easy i do is i buy chicken legs or what ever is the cheapest on sale ..i got this seasoning i bellieve its called grillmates herb and garlic..i put olive oil on the pan and chicken then season both sides..u can add some veggies and season also..leave in the oven for an hr on 375 and u have a quick meal thats so good i usually make potatoes and study while its cooking!

Handy tip for GF eaters: make meatballs and tuna casserole with rice, instead of noodles. I buy Tinkyada noodles when I need a pasta fix. NOM.

[cmonkey]

Oh, and I've posted this before, but Fix, Freeze, Feast is a GREAT cookbook for students, because it's based on using big quantities of ingredients then freezing. So go to Sam's/Costco, buy a pack of chicken thighs, and you use gallon freezer bags to make 6 meals. Just whip up a sauce, toss it and the meat in a bag, and you're ready for dinner. I thaw them the day before, then you can just cook however you like (crockpot, bake, whatever). If you have a Sabbath mode on your oven, you can even program it to start up before you get home. A surprising number of ovens have them now, check your manual. I didn't even realize I had it until someone suggested it for Thanksgiving. Sweet!

[sweet_b]

I love Thai Peanut noodles. There is a great Cold Sesame Noodle recipe on www.foodnetwork.com, by Tyler Florence.

Great to take to school for lunch as left overs too!

[jadu1106]

:pntrghi:i have one also, i am vegetarian so this does not involve meat, but i'm sure you could add if you wanted to spice it up in your own way. :)

hash brown casserole

1 package of the onion and pepper ore-ida brand shredded hash browns

8-10 oz sour cream (i use regular, but you can substitue fat-free if you like)

about 2-3 spoons of mayo (again you can use reg or low-fat)

some shredded or chopped carrots

1 chopped tomato

1/4 or 1/2 bag of corn (optional) (i only use a little bit)

shredded mild or sharp cheddar cheese

corn flakes for bread crumb topping

salt and pepper to taste

in a large bowl, mix the ingredients minus the hashbrowns together. season the mixture to taste. then throw in the package of hashbrowns. mix everything together. pour mixture in a large glass pan and stick in the oven @ 350-375 for about 45-50 min. 5 minutes before you take the pan out, sprinkle corn flakes and cheddar cheese on top and let it melt really good. take out and let it cool for 5 min and enjoy with ketchup or hot sauce. yum yum! :)

jadu1106 :)

[gumby1411]

Oh, and I've posted this before, but Fix, Freeze, Feast is a GREAT cookbook for students, because it's based on using big quantities of ingredients then freezing. So go to Sam's/Costco, buy a pack of chicken thighs, and you use gallon freezer bags to make 6 meals. Just whip up a sauce, toss it and the meat in a bag, and you're ready for dinner. I thaw them the day before, then you can just cook however you like (crockpot, bake, whatever).

Exactly! I love freezer cooking! I start my ABSN program in 3 weeks (yikes!) and i know I won't have time to cook dinner every night. I cook healthy and can't imagine relying on carry-out or cans/boxes of processed food, chaulk-full of sodium and other junk, every night.

I went to Costco, loaded up on ingredients and cooked several meals last week. I made spaghetti sauce from scratch x 5, we ate one portion for dinner that night and I seperated the remaining 4 batches into freezer bags and froze them - just thaw and heat, couldn't be easier. I also made a chili honey lime marinade (olive oil, chopped cilantro, honey, minced garlic, chopped jalepeno, fresh lime juice) in several freezer quart size bags and added 2 chicken breasts each. It's the perfect size to thaw and throw on the grill (it's just me and my hubby, so 2 is perfect, but you can freeze as many chicken breasts in each bag as you need). I also made Black Bean Salsa Chicken - raw chicken breasts cut into chunks, small bag of frozen corn, 1 can black beans (rinsed/drained), 1 cup salsa, some mexican seasoning (I make my own sodium free version - chili powder, ground cumin, cayanne, garlic powder, black pepper, cumin seeds) and fresh chopped cilantro - toss it all in a freezer bag, freeze. When it comes time to cook, I'll throw it in the crock pot frozen and cook for 8 hours on low. I made 3 bags of this dinner. Check out "Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer". I found it in my library and used several recipes from this book.

Another great tip I learned is to sit down on the weekend and plan the dinners for the week. Grocery shop based on the meal plan. When you get home from class/work and are tired, you don't have to think about what to make for dinner. The plan is there, you just grab the ingredients and start cooking. It has saved me so much time mid-week and also saved me from picking up the phone and ordering a pizza.

I love this topic. Thanks for posting. I could talk about food all day. I think I was a chef or dietician in a previous life...

[doublehelix]

One of my favorite dishes which I make quite often...and is very easy! chicken carbona pasta...! I always cook enough so my boyfriend and I have leftovers to take to work the next few days. I will try freezing this while I am going to school.

pasta (I usually cook about a 1lb bag or so)

1 green onion, chopped

chicken breasts, diced (depends on how much you want, usually 4-6 pieces)

parmesean cheese (for the sauce)

half and half cream (for the sauce)

bacon (If I am in a rush I will use microwave bacon, and break it up into tiny pieces to put in with the sauce)

Cook the chicken and green onion together in a frying pan, and start the pasta in a pot... combine the sauce ingredients with some pepper and let it simmer... Then once the pasta and chicken is cooked, combine everything in the pasta pot and toss with a spoon. Yummy! This recipe is so simple, but everyone i've served it to has loved it.

[Despareux]

I make enough of these for about 3-4 weeks worth of meals. Some I freeze for a family meal and others I freeze individually.

Taco stuffed pasta shells

Lasagna

Homemade chicken pot pies

Egg, cheese, and bacon burritos

Stuffed chicken breasts

Chili

Soups

Peanut butter and jelly w/crust removed

Cookie dough

Pancakes

When I'm not reheating the food I've pre-made, I generally use my crock pot and make enough for left overs for my husbands lunch and dinner the next day for me and the kids.

For most meals, I whip up a rainbow salad and if I have extra time, I make sweet potato fries or some other sweet potato dish.

[mkblakley07]

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Artichoke-Chicken/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/White-Chili-with-Ground-Turkey/Detail.aspx

Tacos and nachos are always easy to make.

Chicken and gravy:

1 package of chicken breasts or tenders

1 can of golden mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 chopped onion

1 container of mushrooms (Chopped)

1 tbsp of minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425. Put the chicken in a casserole dish. Then you can either put the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and then distribute it over the chicken breasts. You can also top it with cheese if you prefer. Cook it for an hour or until chicken is fully cooked.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

i was always a big fan of sandwiches with different types of GOOD meats, or homemade egg/tuna fillings, etc. I also did a lot of pasta/herb mixes or use chicken already rotiserred from the store, and mix it with a bag of frozen veggies and some Uncle Ben's brown rice...90 secs in the microwave, low fat, and good for you with low sodium.

I alos brought a lot of leftovers...some leftover steak with some mashed potatoes....YUMMY!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

This takes about an hour/hour and a half to make but it's veryyyyy simple. You can add whatever veggies/sauce you like, I'm just putting what I like below

1 spaghetti squash

1 small eggplant, cubed

1 small zucchini, sliced (and then each slice quartered)

sweet onion - I had a big one so I just chopped off a side and diced it up

garlic - I used 4 cloves, but it's up to you.

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (I like Prego Heart Smart Traditional)

Preheat oven to 325

Poke holes in the squash so it doesn't explode in the oven

When the oven is ready, stick the squash and let it bake for about an hour/hour and a half, until tender (you can tell when the skin is tender to the touch of a fork!)

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a skillet, toss in the onions and garlic and sautee, then add zucchini and eggplant. Once the zucchini and eggplant start to soften I turn down the heat to low and put a lid over the skillet to finish steaming. You want the zucchini and eggplant to be soft!

Heat your sauce.

When the squash is cooked, take it out of the oven and carefully slice it in half (long ways). Spoon out the seeds/pulp in the middle and then take a fork and start scraping at the flesh - it will start to string up, hence the name spaghetti squash. 1 spaghetti squash yields a decent-sized serving, depending on the size of the squash. Mix squash + veggies + sauce and voila! Super-duper low-carb pasta substitute! I like sprinkling parmesan cheese on it, too.

You can add meat or do whatever you want. Some people just season this with salt/pepper/other seasons and butter...others eat it with salsa.

And a side note - the squash will still have somewhat of a crunch to it when cooked - it won't be soft like regular pasta noodles!

[Moogie]

You all are making me hungry! Your ideas sound YUMMY!

Here's a website I suggested to my son, who just moved into his first apartment and will be starting seminary in the fall: http://www.yumyum.com/student/

The recipes look simple but tasty and, since I'm in school, too, I might have to make some of them myself!

I've also found great recipes on the Food Network website. Sometimes they can be a little complex but I've found several that are quite user-friendly for cooks with limited time.

[metricalpound]

This recipe takes a while to make but it last for about 5 days, can fill a person up quickly and can just be popped into the microwave right out of the fridge and still taste as great as originally cooked. So if you have some time on a weekend and want to make food to munch down during the week or something that you don't have to think about when you get home - this is a great recipe. And they are also delicious!!!!!

Vegetarian Rice Balls

You will need:

4 cups of rice

2 bags of shredded mozzarella

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans

1 red pepper (chopped into small pieces)

about 2 cups of crushed croutons or anything that's bready that packs flavor

1 can of italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 bottle of grated parmesan cheese

Oil to deep fry

1. Cook rice

2. While rice is cooking, combine the mozzarella, the corn, the beans, the red pepper , the crushed croutons and half the bottle of the parmesan cheese in a big container. Make sure to keep the liquid with the black beans but take out the liquid for the corn.

3. Combine the bread crumbs and the other half of the parmesan cheese in some sort of container. (this substance is what we are going to roll our rice balls in) =D

4. Right when the rice is finished cooking, combine with the mozzarella-vegetable-crouton mixture. Make sure to keep mixing the substance until the cheese is melted and all the mixture seems to be uniform.

5. Make the substance into balls and roll them into the breadcrumbs.

6. Deep fry for approx. 5-7 minutes until the rice ball has a brown and crunchy outside.

7. Serve with a tomato sauce.