convenience cooking

[DragonfliiMama]

Convenience food is a HUGE issue for us, especially me. I'm not good at eating healthy, I don't enjoy cooking, and it all feels like just too much work, so I do an awful lot of fast food and even at home a lot of snacky junk foods, meals from a box, etc. Dh likes to cook, is good at it, and is much better at cooking healthy, but still doesn't have a lot of time to do it by the time he gets home from work. Plus we are meat-eaters living in a vegetarian household, so that makes it all the more tempting to eat out.

I need recipes that are:
quick
easy
inexpensive
healthy
heavy on veggies
filling
preferably NOT heavy on beans as a source of protein (we can use frozen chicken/fish patties, eggs, and meat substitutes)

some of our favorites are -
spaghetti
pizza (usually frozen or take out :bag)
homemade mac n cheese bake (but this is more time intensive)
bean casserole with rice, cheese, cream of celery soup, chow mein noodles
cheese"burger" pie
sloppy joes / bbq roast (but i can't do the roast in the crockpot anymore :doh)


I need variety, that's not even a whole week's worth of meals right there and I'm getting tired of doing the same thing all the time. I also need some ideas for side dishes that aren't all starch to round out the meal.

[MarynMunchkins]

I like fried rice - and it's easy to make a vegetarian version and then add your meat to it. :)

[hey mommy]

Subbing.. I would like ideas too.

[Macky]

I haven' made these in forever (avoiding canned soups), but I remember them being sooo tasty and super easy!

1 can condensed cream of celery soup
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar (or up to 1 cup, to taste)
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard (I use whole-grain, do NOT use regular yellow mustard)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups cooked broccoli
4 hot baked potatoes, split

Combine soup, cheese, mustard and pepper in a saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring often, until heated through and cheese is melted. Stir in the broccoli and heat through if necessary. Spoon over the potatoes. Serve with a salad and your choice of protein (I'd grill a chicken breast or steak).

---------- Post added at 09:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 AM ----------

Fish is sooo easy and fast to make. Broil or pan fry with salt and pepper and a splash of lemon. Serve with rice and steamed veggies.

Roast cauliflower as a side to your usual entrees. Cut into florets. Toss in olive oil and salt to taste. Bake at 450˚F for 25 minutes. SO good!

Make homemade soups and stews. Most have tons of veggies. Some chili recipes are heavy on veggies, too.

My sweet and sour meatballs have veggies/fruit in the balls and in the sauce (celery, green peppers, tomatoes, pineapple), but you already have mostly ground beef in the dishes you listed.

This Mediterranean Tuna-Noodle Casserole is SUPER delish! You'd still need more veg on the side, a salad or maybe some peas would be good. I think I've done asparagus in season. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/mediterranean-tuna-noodle-casserole

[Can'tTurnLeft]

I can't recommend enough http://thescramble.com/ cookbooks. There are two, and they are both great! There is also an online subscription service that for my family has been awesome in this season. The meals are all ready in less than thirty minutes, they are about half vegetarian, half meat, and don't used a lot of processed foods. Plus my kids haven't found a recipe from there they don't like! Really yummy stuff.

[DragonfliiMama]

So for this week we picked up a bunch of packaged pasta and sauce or rice and sauce dinner type things, and then frozen veggies to add to each of them. I know packaged stuff like that isn't the healthiest thing, but it's better than fast food. I'll have to check out the scramble cookbooks.

[chasingbutterflies]

subbing. this is a real issue here right now too.

[mama_2_many]

Oh I'm subbing too.. I'm just like you!! HAHA

[Redeemed]

Convenience food is a HUGE issue for us, especially me. I'm not good at eating healthy, I don't enjoy cooking, and it all feels like just too much work, so I do an awful lot of fast food and even at home a lot of snacky junk foods, meals from a box, etc. Dh likes to cook, is good at it, and is much better at cooking healthy, but still doesn't have a lot of time to do it by the time he gets home from work. Plus we are meat-eaters living in a vegetarian household, so that makes it all the more tempting to eat out.

I need recipes that are:
quick
easy
inexpensive
healthy
heavy on veggies
filling
preferably NOT heavy on beans as a source of protein (we can use frozen chicken/fish patties, eggs, and meat substitutes)

some of our favorites are -
spaghetti
pizza (usually frozen or take out :bag)
homemade mac n cheese bake (but this is more time intensive)
bean casserole with rice, cheese, cream of celery soup, chow mein noodles
cheese"burger" pie
sloppy joes / bbq roast (but i can't do the roast in the crockpot anymore :doh)


I need variety, that's not even a whole week's worth of meals right there and I'm getting tired of doing the same thing all the time. I also need some ideas for side dishes that aren't all starch to round out the meal.

Thanks for posting this. We have the same issues!

[ShangriLewis]

Do you like Teriyaki? I make tofu, rice, and frozen mixed veggies, and coleslaw. The leftovers are mixed together with more sauce if needed. Not the coleslaw though. I use the coleslaw in place of lettuce and make wraps with flour tortillas. You can use meat instead. They last 2 or 3 days in the fridge. We eat them cold with sirachi hot sauce. They last longer if you don't dress the coleslaw or do it lightly.

I got the idea after eating at world wraps once. It is so good.

How about dinner salads? Pasta salads are nice too. You can eat them warm for dinner and serve them cold for lunches. I am really into leftovers:giggle

[Macky]

No, actually. Some of those pre-packaged foods are not better than fast food. Just because you cook something at home doesn't mean it's automatically healthier. A grilled chicken fast-food sub loaded with vegetables and light on the mayo is going to be much healthier for you than a salt- and preservative-laden, ready-to-make meal from a grocery store package.

Frozen veggies get a :tu, though. Vegetables are flash frozen within hours of picking compared to "fresh" vegetables that have had to travel the country (or internationally) to arrive at your table, losing nutrients as time passes.

[DragonfliiMama]

No, actually. Some of those pre-packaged foods are not better than fast food. Just because you cook something at home doesn't mean it's automatically healthier. A grilled chicken fast-food sub loaded with vegetables and light on the mayo is going to be much healthier for you than a salt- and preservative-laden, ready-to-make meal from a grocery store package.

Frozen veggies get a :tu, though. Vegetables are flash frozen within hours of picking compared to "fresh" vegetables that have had to travel the country (or internationally) to arrive at your table, losing nutrients as time passes.


Well it's cheaper, so it's still healthier for my checkbook. ;) And let's be honest, when I'm eating fast food, it's not a "grilled chicken sub loaded with veggies and light on the mayo". :bag :shrug

[Waterlogged]

Tortilla Soup...
-can of enchilada sauce
-can of black beans (optional)
-frozen corn
-bag of frozen soup veggies
-chicken stock
-can of rotel (diced tomatoes w. gr chilis)
-canned chicken

mix in pot. bring to boil, simmer til veggies are softer. cheese/sour cream as a topping.

bbl

--------------------------------------------------------------------
enchilada casserole

-tortillas
-cheese
-rotel
-black beans (optional)
-canned chicken
-enchilada sauce

layer tortillas, cheese, beans/chicken and sauce. bake at 350 til cooked thru.

-------------------------------------------------------------

[Beth1231]

Biscuit roll outs (or you can make your own with Bisquick). Grease a muffin tin and put one biscuit roll out in each one. Fill up with anything you choose.
Eggs and bacon
tuna and cheddar
ground beef, bbq sauce and a drizzle of honey :yum

Follow the oven directions for the biscuits and you're golden. Easy, fairly inexpensive and filling.

[DragonfliiMama]

Ok, a lot of these look like great recipes when we get back into our own place, but right now, we can't cook with meat. We have a ground "hamburger" that we can substitute for beef, and we can use the frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks, but no actual chicken, chicken stock or broth, etc.

---------- Post added at 12:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------

oh, those biscuit rollouts - do you make them like a little cup with filling? or do you put dough over the top too so the filling is all contained? sounds like our cheeseburger pie in miniature and diversified. yum!

[Waterlogged]

what about canned chicken? i don't understand why it's okay to do frozen chicken nuggets and not canned chicken....:scratch

[DragonfliiMama]

:shrug that's what mom has said is ok in her kitchen. it's mostly about smell, i think. I'm not talking a whole frozen chicken, here. I'm talking chicken patties or nuggets - precooked, breaded, basically just reheating them, or you can stick them in the microwave. we tried grilling stuff this summer, like pull the grill out one night and cook enough meat for the week so we could just reheat it. but the smell of it reheating and even just the thought of it being in the fridge / cooking in the stove, etc was really making mom sick. i'm not sure why the nuggets and fish sticks don't bother her so much, if they don't look as much like meat, don't smell as much, or what... but that's the way it is. :shrug

[Waterlogged]

huh. weird to me. i think the smell of fish sticks is......:sick and i like fish!!

why no beans? no one likes them? what about dairy?

[DragonfliiMama]

:shrug

dairy is fine. we can (and do) do beans, but dh is of the opinion that we tend to go somewhat overboard on them... they do not agree with his digestive system so well... so having other options available is :tu.

[Waterlogged]

what about tofu?

so that tortilla soup would work without chicken. if you add more corn and more cheese/sour cream, it would be pretty filling too. you could also throw in some pasta or rice. all the seasoning comes from the enchilada sauce and rotel, so it's actually really tasty. i get complements which i :giggle at because usually i have just opened like 5 cans of different stuff.....

[DragonfliiMama]

tofu, we do use some, i think... mostly if jimi can sneak it in without me noticing. :giggle I'm not a huge fan. oh, jimi likes to use seitan, too, sometimes. i don't like sour cream, but we could add cheese, rice, corn...

[Waterlogged]

i don't like sour cream either, but i have it available for people to toss in their own bowls. dh LOVES it.....

what's seitan? off to wikipedia.....

[Beth1231]

Ok, a lot of these look like great recipes when we get back into our own place, but right now, we can't cook with meat. We have a ground "hamburger" that we can substitute for beef, and we can use the frozen chicken nuggets or fish sticks, but no actual chicken, chicken stock or broth, etc.

---------- Post added at 12:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------

oh, those biscuit rollouts - do you make them like a little cup with filling? or do you put dough over the top too so the filling is all contained? sounds like our cheeseburger pie in miniature and diversified. yum!

I made the biscuits from flour and milk and butter and such, but here is the original recipe that calls for the convenience biscuits and yes, it was VERY yum! :yum Mine didn't fold over and it didn't make any difference.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Barbecue-Beef-Cups/Detail.aspx
ETA: I used the drizzle of honey instad of the cheese. I bet it's good both ways.

[DragonfliiMama]

seitan is a vegetarian protein... i don't know much more about it, actually, i guess it's something he used when he was cooking at whole foods. :shrug

[Macky]

Ah, I see. Hmmm. Is there any way that you could spend an evening at a friend's house and cook a couple of large meals? If you have some freezer containers, you can freeze them for during the week. Heating up a finished casserole or soup may disguise whatever meat may be in it. Although if the thought of it in her house makes her sick... I'm not sure what to advise. Tough situation. ((hugs))

[DragonfliiMama]

I'm not sure there'd even be room in the freezer anyway... for now we just do a lot of vegetarian cooking. :shrug I probably should get more recipes using eggs - we do use those a lot of omelettes, scrambled eggs w/ veggies, filler for burritos, etc, but more ways to use them would probably be good.

[Waterlogged]

hashbrown casserole...

layer frozen hashbrowns along bottom of 13x9 baking dish.
layer with cheese, green onions, canned green chilis for some kick.
whisk 6 eggs. pour egg mixture over hashbrowns.

bake until cooked through in 375 oven (so a fork comes out clean in middle).

[ShangriLewis]

you can cook potatoes in the crackpot or oven and have a potato bar.

I love the iPad spellchecker:lol

[Can'tTurnLeft]

you can cook potatoes in the crackpot or oven and have a potato bar.

I love the iPad spellchecker:lol

:haha