So easy and good "we should cook this more often"

I'm looking for idea's...

SWMBO just called and said, "figure out dinner for tonight, kids are driving me crazy, I'm locking myself in the garage and drinking homebrew until you get home"

Lol, so what are those stand-by recipe's you all have that are easy and good. The ones where during dinner you say to yourselves, "This was so easy we should cook this more often!"

For me, it's chili fries. Open some chili, add an extra can of green chili's and toss some french fries in the oven. Top with cheese / sour cream and enjoy.


But I need more idea's. What are your tried, true, easy and delish dinners?

One of my favorite meals we call hamburger gravy. Make some mashed potatoes (real easy and pretty quick in the microwave), brown 1 lb of ground beef in a pan and add. Can o cream of mushroom to the beef. Add salt and pepper and pour over top of the potatoes. Comfort food!


And there's always tacos...

That sounds pretty good! That would be easy and quick too.

one thing i cook thats pretty easy is one package of Spanish rice cooked as per directions and once you reduce heat add a can of corn and brown a lb of hamburger and add that once rice is done

My daughter loves "chicken ala Daddy"

Pound a couple of chicken breasts, make up some stove to stuffing, fill the breasts with stuffing pour in a jar of gravy and bake the sh*t out of it. Wash it down with home brew root beer.

Fast & easy & the kids can 'help'

Grilled ham & cheese - Take some bread, spread real butter on on side of each, brown the buttered sides in a medium-hot skillet, and apply shredded cheddar to the face-up side of one slice. Meanwhile, put some shredded deli ham right on an open spot of the skillet and let it sizzle for a little bit. Place the ham on the other slice, assemble, flip, slice and serve. Awesome and ready by the end of halftime.

Tater tot casserole. Brown 1lb hamburger with whatever seasoning you like, we use salt and pepper and a little red wine and garlic. Put that in the bottom of a small casserole dish and pour a can of cream of chicken soup over it. Top with tater tots and cook according to tater tot directions. It isn't the fastest dish I make but it is the easiest and quite tasty.

Get a crock pot. Requires foresight but it's pretty much, put food in, turn on, eat in 8 hours.

Roast (beef or pork)
Packet or two of powdered Italian salad dressing
Pepperoncini peppers with all the juice
Maybe a cup of water

Put all that in the crock pot and let it go for about 8 hours. Fix any side dish you like or pull it apart and make sandwiches. It comes out super tender and juicy.

When I'm pressed for time and need to crank out some dinner for the kids, my fall back is "Breakfast for Supper", French Toast and sausage (or bacon), with a side of fruit for the produce. The boys love it, and it's fairly painless for me.

Not too quick, but doesn't get much easier. You will need a vertical can roaster, a 12 oz can of your beverage of choice, a small potato, and a pie pan (and, of course, a whole chicken). You can dress it up with a couple of cloves of garlic, some Tobasco sauce, some butter flavored Pam, and even some injectable marinade (I prefer Creole Butter). You can even do this with a turkey, if you have a large enough oven (and a larger can roaster).

Place the roaster in a pie pan, to catch the drippings, and put an open, room temperature 12 oz beverage can in the frame. It cuts down on the mess in the pie pan if you empty up to half the can before roasting, but that's optional. You can use any beverage you like; soda, beer, or even V8. You're using the steam from the can to assist in the cooking, very little flavor is imparted, so use whatever's handy. Dry the chicken well and place right side up over the can. Put a small potato in the neck of the chicken to seal in the steam then turn your oven to 350 degrees. Roast in the oven for about one and a half hours. You can't really overcook the bird, due to the steam keeping everything moist from the inside.

You can add a lot of flavor by shoving an unpeeled clove of garlic under the skin of each breast prior to cooking. When done, just remove the cloves and discard. I sometimes use injectable marinade in the breasts, legs and thighs for an added boost of flavor. You can also spray some butter flavored Pam on the outside of the bird to aid in browning.

Every time I've done this for friends or family, I've gotten raves. It works in the oven or grill, as long as it's large enough to accommodate an upright full chicken.

Bon Appetit.

Get fresh or frozen chicken breasts.

Add to any oven safe dish you have and.cover with your preferred spaghetti sauce. I used canned.

Set in oven and and let it cook for 45-60 mins at 350 with frozen breasts. Fresh should be done in 30-35 mins at 350. If you slow cook it at 250-300 for a few hours it will fall apart. I top mine of with parmesan cheese and stick it back in for a few mins to melt the cheese if needed. It's often hot enough to just melt the cheese without returning it to the oven. It's a chicken parmesan of sorts. A lazy man's version of course. ; ) Any herbs like basil or parsley sprinkled on top of the chicken when it's served are great also.

Get a can of Chili, make up some mac 'n' cheese, mix and enjoy.

Beanie Weenie:
1 can of baked beans (I like the kind with pork in it) and cut up bologna hot dogs (Like Oscar Mayer) heated in a pan on the stove. My dad used to tell me "That's trucker food." So I liked it and asked for it often. (FYI Dad was a trucker during those years.)

BCM (Like a BLT):
Bacon, Cucumber slices and mayo. Lettuce is a bonus.

Ultra Mac:
This is a little more involved but makes a LOT of food for cheap.
1 family size Velveta Shells and Cheese
1 head of broccoli
1 pack of real bacon bits or make your own.
1 pack of Old Wisconsin lil cheddar smokies or some sort of "mini hot dogs"

Cook noodles as directed but add the dogs into the boil. In a large kettle combine the cooked noodles & dogs, cheese sauce, bacon bits and then shave the head of broccoli into the kettle. stir let sit 3 minutes covered for flavors to meld. Serve.

punkerdru said:

One of my favorite meals we call hamburger gravy. Make some mashed potatoes (real easy and pretty quick in the microwave), brown 1 lb of ground beef in a pan and add. Can o cream of mushroom to the beef. Add salt and pepper and pour over top of the potatoes. Comfort food!


And there's always tacos...

Click to expand...

That stuff is awesome! We will cook canned corn on the side, or on top of the mashed taters too.

Another idea is:

Canned or Frozen mixed veggies
Cans of cream of chicken
Chicken chunks
Mix and heat up and pour over biscuits or bread.

Quick and easy Chicken pot Pie (kind of) meal.

Lots of great ideas!

I hadn't thought about crock pot meals.

About a month ago I had crockpot lasagna at a friends house, she layered everything and turned it on for a while. Turned out really good. I should find out what what she put in there...

Bourbon glazed salmon (easy and quick)

Mix 3 tbsp bourbon
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp ginger
Few cloves of garlic, smashed or diced
4 salmon filets
Marinate salmon in this (1 hr or all day, whatever )

Add some oil to a medium hot skillet. Cook salmon 4 minutes per side. Remove salmon and keep warm, add marinade and reduce into a sauce. Serve sauce over salmon with rice or something.

Fairly healthy too.

Made for dinner last night

1 can of campbells french onion soup to 2 pounds deli roast beef (I like slice #3)
chop 1 green bell pepper 1 onion and a box a mushrooms
add all together and simmer till soup has condensed to a thick sauce

Slap it on a nice sub bread with some swiss or pepper jack
Philly cheese steak

Almost forgot the wife's top secret family comfort dish.

Brown 1 pound of ground beef (or ground meat). Cook up a bag of egg noodles. Drain most of the water from noodles, add 1 can of each: peas and corn (drained) add 1 can of tomato soup. mix well and serve. I miss being able to eat tomatoes now... (I liked mine with ground black pepper.)

sounds like she is taking care of dinner locked away in the garage! beer is good for you, right?

punkerdru said:

One of my favorite meals we call hamburger gravy. Make some mashed potatoes (real easy and pretty quick in the microwave), brown 1 lb of ground beef in a pan and add. Can o cream of mushroom to the beef. Add salt and pepper and pour over top of the potatoes. Comfort food!


And there's always tacos...

Click to expand...

I remember having that as a kid and it was great! Going to have to make some one of these days. I remember that we used to put ketchup on it too and mix it all up. Sounds odd but it was tasty!

Get a babysitter, order pizza for the kids, take Mommy out to diner. Kids = happy. Mommy = happy. Daddy = hero = possibly lucky

Sounds tricky. But it's extremely easy. Chicken cordon bleu

Take chicken breast and flatten a little, lay on some ham lunch meat and cheese, roll, top with bread crumbs, cook in the oven andddd done

Cambells tomato soup made with milk, grilled cheese sandwiches and popcorn to throw into the bowl of the soup.

Pretty tasty. It was comfort food as a kid.

Also BTW. When the sandwiches were ready to eat, grape jelly spread across the top of the bread. Yum!

What about left over bacon grease?

Heat that stuff up and...

1) slice hot dogs length wise and fry them in it.

or

2) Make popcorn in it old school style. Bacon-P-corn is freaking unworldly good....

D0ug said:

When I'm pressed for time and need to crank out some dinner for the kids, my fall back is "Breakfast for Supper", French Toast and sausage (or bacon), with a side of fruit for the produce. The boys love it, and it's fairly painless for me.

Click to expand...

My parents did that to us as kids except all we usually got was scrambled eggs (nothing in it, just eggs and a little milk) with a side of room temperature canned vegetables. We were "fed" that a lot. I guess when we were especially bad we were forced to eat fried spam slices fried so long they were black and hard. My parents like spam but I do not.

Needless to say, it took a very long time before I could eat eggs after I moved out.

D0ug said:

When I'm pressed for time and need to crank out some dinner for the kids, my fall back is "Breakfast for Supper", French Toast and sausage (or bacon), with a side of fruit for the produce. The boys love it, and it's fairly painless for me.

Click to expand...

MWe had pankakes and sausage for dinner about once a month growing up. Now that I think about it, it was kind of weird really. Sometimes my mom would cook a couple packs of hotdogs and throw saurkraut on top and that was dinner. WTF were we poor or something???

I'm an omnivore, I love some good BBQ, steaks, roasts, wings, stews whatever...

But for me, quick often means vegetarian.

Get some quinoa, cook it. I like red instead of white.
Add broccoli, steamed on top of said quinoa or roasted (heck even nuked, doesn't really matter.)
Add some dried cranberries or golden raisins.
Hit with some goat cheese or feta.
Slap this mixture on mixed greens and hit with soy sauce and/or vinegarette.

Easy. Delicious.

Enchiladas

Take four frozen chicken breasts and put them in a crockpot set to low for 3 hrs or more.
Drain, then add one jar of salsa. Cook for another three or four hours on low.
Mash chicken with potato masher to shred it.
Add one can enchilada sauce and( one can green chilies optional) 1/2 bag of shredded Mexican cheese, mix.
Scoop mixture into tortilla shells Roll them up, place in a casserole dish
cover with another can of enchilada sauce and 1/2 bag shredded Mexican cheese
and bake for 15-20 minutes on 350 until cheese starts to brown

A recipe index would be awesome for this thread

take a roasting pan, lay a bunch of bratwurst in bottom of pan. put a bunch of potato chunks on top of bratwurst. cover with sauerkraut. put some apple slices on top of sauerkraut. pour some wine in. sprinkle with salt and pepper. cover and bake in oven @425 for 45 minutes

instead bratwurst you can use smokies, hot dogs, pork chops

Or

Season and cook pork chops. Lay in bottom of roasting pan and cover with diluted cream of mushroom soup, cover and roast. Serve with mash potatoes, corn or peas. Use the soup as gravy

Cheap and easy version of Salisbury steak.

Mix up two packets of brown gravy per the directions on the package. When the gravy is hot and ready, start putting frozen hamburger patties in the gravy. Don't put them all in at the same time, they'll stick together. When one burger is starting to get browned up on the outside, put the next one in. While that's cooking, whip up some mashed potatoes and whatever other veggie you might prefer. I've found that whole kernel corn goes great with the potatoes and gravy. Kids love it. Doesn't take long, maybe a half hour. And it's not very expensive.

'tis the season for grilling. Hot dogs, burgers, sausages, pork chops. Put fresh veggies in foil packets to grill or open a can and microwave.

Spaghetti is always cheap and easy. You can do tomato, Alfredo, or pesto. I like to buy pesto, pan fry up some chicken with it, cook noodles and add the cooked chicken and more pesto.

jmendez29 said:

Cheap and easy version of Salisbury steak.

Mix up two packets of brown gravy per the directions on the package. When the gravy is hot and ready, start putting frozen hamburger patties in the gravy. Don't put them all in at the same time, they'll stick together. When one burger is starting to get browned up on the outside, put the next one in. While that's cooking, whip up some mashed potatoes and whatever other veggie you might prefer. I've found that whole kernel corn goes great with the potatoes and gravy. Kids love it. Doesn't take long, maybe a half hour. And it's not very expensive.

Click to expand...

I do this but with ground beef burgers and cooked first for less grease.

This is a 2 or 3 pot meal, takes about 10-12 mins to make & serves 4.

2lbs med egg noodles, 3lbs favourite frozen veggie mix, 4 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, 2lbs meat (your choice of meat type) cut up fow stew meat, 6 tablespoons butter (or margerine), 2 tablespoons dried SWEET basil (if it doesn't actually say "sweet," it's not & there IS a difference).

Boil noodles as per pkg directions (al dente). Boil meat in an oversized pot, you'll be adding the veggies to this so you'll need the room. After the meat has boiled for about 4-5 minutes, add the frozen veggies & bring to a boil, only boil for 1-2 more mins as you want some crunch in the veggies. Drain noodles and add butter & basil, a couple dashes of soy sauce & a bit of black pepper. Add the cream of mushroom soup straight from the can, add a splash or 2 of beer, or wine, or even milk to help make the thick soup into a creamy sauce.

Add meat & veggies to noodles & sauce, mix well. Serve hot with fav bread/rolls & a generous supply of fav beverage(s). This only takes about 10 mins to make & I usually have everything required on hand anyway. You can change it up by altering the veggie mix, the soup & the meat.
Regards, GF.

Last night made some Thai style fried egg noodles with fish.

2 servings egg noodles cooked
1-2 fillets of firm fish (I used swordfish)

Cut fish into large chunks. Salt and pepper. Pan fry in a little oil (I used bacon grease). Remove from pan. Add a little more oil, 2-3 cloves garlic minced and fry for a minute. Add other veggies (I had bamboo shoots, red pepper and asparagus cut into short lengths). Stir fry until mostly cooked. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp chicken stock, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce. Let boil until thicker. In another pan heat oil and add cooked noodles, fry until heated through.

Build on plate. Noodles. Veggies. Fish chunks. Drizzle with sauce.

Nom

sloppy joes are always easy.

ground beef, ketchup, mustard, steen's cane syrup, and dessicated onions.


I don't know the measurements, I just mix up the condiments and the steen's until it gets the right flavor and you're done.

I always loved Breakfast for dinner as a kid. Still do.

I love waffles for dinner, for topping we usually mix apple sauce, peach sauce, pear sauce, and cinnamon.

Home canning FTW.


Oh and the epic mac 'n cheese sounded good too.

Cheeseburger Pasta is a big hit in our house.

Brown 1lb of ground beef, drain. Add to the beef : 1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1 can beef broth, 3/4 water, and 2 cups uncooked macaroni (or really any pasta will do). Simmer until the pasta is done to your preference. Serve straight up, or add mustard pickles nad hot sauce like i do. Kids absolutely love it, the wife will appreciate you cooking and it tastes pretty darn good.

Pro Tip: Make extra and take it for lunch the next day.

Sounds good, but not sure my family would go for nad sauce.


Actually I might have to put that recipe on the list of things to try.