Just curious: what is your family's favorite meal? Not the fanciest and most elaborate, but the one you fix pretty often that they always really like a lot.
Details, please ;-)
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29 comments:
We ate cheesy biscuit and potato cakes a lot.
The potato cakes pretty much speak for themselves. Cheesy biscuit is those instant biscuit with cheese thingies, stuffed with a cheesy meat concoction.
I've been craving it for months now.
Ummm....that sounds really yukky, jon ;-)
Ok, I hope this won't be too hard to find in the US: cod, dry and salted, as we eat in Portugal (I know they do it across the Caribbean too, so maybe you can go to a Caribbean shop).
The recipe is boiled cod with potatoes, broccoli, carrots and chickpeas, all seasoned with lots of raw garlic, onion, pepper and olive oil.
1. Boil the pieces of cod (one for each member of the family) until tender (takes less than 15 minutes. 2. Reserve the cod. 3. Use the water to boil potatoes and carrots. 4. When almost done, put in the broccoli. 5. Use canned chickpeas.
While all these are boiling, chop lots of garlic (a clove)and one onion. Mix the two. Add some chopped parsley or coriander.
In a plate for each member, put the piece of cod, a bit of potatoes, a bit of carrots, a bit of broccoli, a bit of chickpeas. Sprinkle with the garlic, onion, parsley/coriander and pepper. Sprinkle with olive oil.
The meal is ready.
Remember that the tastier the ingredients the yummmier the result. All these are very simple staples, you need to get good quality.
It's all done in 1/2 an hour. The kids love it, it's healthy and economic.
The next day, if there are leftovers, simmer in a pan with olive oil all the ingredients. Add a bit of corn bread and simmer until the bread becomes crusty. Make sure all the leftovers are half-fried and crusty on the outside, smooth in the inside. Takes less than 1/2 an hour.
So there you have two meals.
Two Portuguese traditional recipes: Boiled Codfish with All and Roupa Velha (literally Old Clothes).
Hope you find the cod and everybody enjoys!
Marta from Lisbon
"Ummm....that sounds really yukky, jon ;-)"
Did you miss the "cheese" part?
Our classic kid-pleaser is tacos with all the fixin's. But my fave, fave, favorite magazine is a Martha Stewart publication called Good Food (I think). It's the size of Reader's Digest and everything in it is easy, healthy and quick. I get it monthly and basically do all the recipes. It will definetly give you plenty of new and creative ideas (without a gazillion ingredients or steps).
I never really digged Meatloaf...but this meatloaf is REALLY good and low carbed!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_32839_PRINT-RECIPE-FULL-PAGE,00.html
Let me add that I don't add water and I add VERY little tomato sauce in the meatloaf...maybe like 2 tablespoons.
I also add two eggs instead of one and NO breadcrumbs!
I add mushrooms, onion, bellpepper, celery....and its DELICOUS! My husband and I do one pound of ground beef.
I am dying for someone to try this besides my mom and I to see if they like it.
all this stuff sounds NASTY.
however for those who dont mind a little more work than Betty Crocker I cannot recommend the Americas test kitchen series highly enough. I have never seen the TV show however I have a lot of their cookbooks and almost everything I have made has been above and beyond other recipes.
Alien slug (AKA roasted Pork loin) with mashed potatoes and gravy
Preheat oven to 500.
Take a half loin, rinse and pat dry. Rub with a smashed clove of garlic. Season with rosemary infused olive oil (or add a tsp of rosemary to a tbl of olive oil and use that) then dredge with flour. Shake of the excess flour and place on a rack in a shallow dish.
Cook for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 250. Cook for 50 minutes then check temp with a meat thermometer. It's done at 145 degrees. Use the drippings to make a pan gravy.
Serve with mashed potatoes, a salad, and your favorite dinner bread (I like baguettes).
my kids get more excited when I make black bean burriots which is so easy-peasy that it is a sin. they also rave about my sloppy "zoes"...Manwich rocks!
"Manwich rocks"
Yeah, Katie's kids prefer the cheap little 99 cent pizzas to any other kind, so I just throw a couple of those in the oven as well as a decent pizza, and everyone's happy.
Meat Sauce and Pasta
I like to cook and sometimes make a homemade sauce but also do it the quick way when lazy or have no time. I use a jar of good marinara sauce. It is perfectly acceptable tasting. You can spice it up with crushed red pepper, or some chopped garlic if you like hot and spicy.
Put up water for the pasta. Time the pasta according to the box for perfect pasta.
Brown in a large pan
Ground Beef or ground turkey (for a family of five I think 2-3 pounds of meat).
Drain off fat.
Add to the meat about two jars of Newman's Own Marinara sauce and heat for five more minutes.
Italian bread and butter, pre washed package of green salad.
Red wine
Dinner in ten minutes.
Aunt Missy Cassarole
(you make as much as you want, freeze the leftover part to pull out later and it does seem to have the necessary jon/cheese ingredient)
Brown ground beef with onion and garlic, strain set aside
cook elbow macaroni drain and set aside
can of yellow kernel corn
can of kidney beans (hot ones are good too)
can of black beans
can of tomatoes (italian, mexican, regular)
just enough tomoatoes to wet the misture down
grated cheddar cheese
Layer as deep as you want and let the last layer be cheese. Cook at 350 until heated and all the hidden cheese is gooey.
(I think you could do ground turkey if you don't eat red meat.)
Will everyone eat tuna or sausage? Not together! I've got a couple more recipes if you eat tuna or sausage.
Pasta with sauteed kale and chickpeas with tons of garlic.
Chop kale relatively small -- 1" or so, heat olive oil, saute until really well cooked (we love us some dinosaur/lacinato kale), throw in handfuls of chopped garlic, cooked drained chickpeas, saute until the garlic and chickpeas are cooked and little brown spots start, salt.
Add to pasta and grate a good cheese over the top. California heaven.
Sweet & sour chicken -- combine russian dressing, dry onion soup mix, and apricot preserves; pour over boneless skinless chicken breasts; top with pineapple & diced green peppers. Bake covered for 20 minutes, uncovered for 20 more. Serve over brown rice. Yum!
"Will everyone eat tuna or sausage? Not together! I've got a couple more recipes if you eat tuna or sausage."
There could never be enough sausage recipes in the world.
Our favorites are basics such as spaghetti with homemade sauce, open-faced tuna salad sandwiches, and chicken tikki marsala.
We eat a lot of cold bean dishes during the hot months.
Kidney beans, mayo, celery and bell pepper with whatever spices you like.
Black-eyed peas, parsley, whatever other veggies you like with Italian dressing.
Hot dishes we love: pinto beans, greens and cornbread.
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans.
Tofu lasagne
During the summer, our favorite meal, that we have once a week, is pasta with pesto. Fresh from the garden or the farmer's market, basil is so delicious! Very, very easy. Add cherry tomatoes to the pasta, maybe roast some zucchini. Life doesn't get much better. Good pesto recipes abound, and they are all very easy, if you have a small food processor.
Other favorites: one is what we all call Mexican night. Homemade tortillas and homemade refried beans are the basis for the meal. Grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and whatever veggie is in season. The two basic items, homemade, make this *not* a quick and easy meal, but worth the extra effort, and there are always leftover beans that can be used in other recipes, like huevos rancheros for breakfast on Sunday after church. Oh, yum, I'm making myself hungry.
The other family favorite is pastitsio, a Greek dish that probably was originally Italian. It's easy for me now that I've made it lots, and know how to do two things at once, but does involve two different sauces, pasta, and cheese, as well as adding egg yolks to the white sauce just when you're putting it all together. I also make a vegan version of it for my vegan daughter. You know, I've got the recipe on my computer--I'm going to go right now and post it on my recipe blog--http://elizabethsvegetariankitchen.blogspot.com/ so you can find it there.
Robert’s University of Virginia Nuclear Tuna
Sauté two chopped onions in ample olive oil in a wok;
Stir in three cans of cheap chunk light tuna with tuna juice;
Simmer for five minutes on high heat;
Stir in one tablespoon if turmeric and six tablespoons of bright yellow French’s mustard;
Stir in three tablespoons of lemon juice;
Simmer for five minutes on high heat;
Stir in five tablespoons each of cream cheese and ricotta cheese;
Add salt and pepper;
Slowly mix in 1 box of cooked pasta (anything but spaghetti);
Simmer on low heat for five minutes.
It is ready to eat when pasta has bright yellow, frighteningly artificial appearance.
Momma's Easy Sausage Biscuits/Sausage Pinwheels
She'd make these during the dreary winter months and wold serve them with homemade vegetable soup or tomato soup- or for breakfast
Mix up a batch of biscuits- she used Bisquick biscuit mix a good bit of the time.
On a lightly floured surface, pat out biscuit dough into a rectangle
Take sausage (hot, mild- whatever) and spread (she'd use her fingers and crumble the uncooked sausage over the dough...doesn't have to be completely wall to wall sausage) over the rectangle leaving about a half inch without sausage on an end. Roll jellyroll style and use the part without the sausage to seal the roll into a log.
You can either cut into rings with a knife or use a piece of dental floss or thread and cut the log like you would cinnamon rolls.
Bake at 350 until the biscuits brown and the sausage will be cooked...promise!
(Use a lean sausage if you are concerned about fat content from the sausage cooking into the biscuits.)
All time fave is a summer recipe:
fresh corn off the cob, skillet cooked with a little cream, salt and pepper; boiled cabbage; cut potatoes fried, but not completely crispy like french fries; pinto beans with fresh green onion on the side; a farm cured and thick cut rasher of bacon; and the best part---a super fresh and ripe tomato. Maybe corn-bread on the side. Don't get me started on dessert.
Homemade mac and cheese with real cheddar cheese and cream sauce; delicate french-cut green beans, fresh, and then cooked in steam; a ham---the pink pre-cooked, bone-in kind that you cook for 20 min/lb, score and glaze with a brown sugar based glaze, along with pineapple rings. and yeast rolls with three "parts" so they look like little bread shamrock dinner rolls--parker house rolls will do too.
Sad, but true: my favorite quick & easy-to-fix side is baby spinach wilted in garlic & evoo. *sob* I'm really craving spinach.
Baked salmon (I buy wild, frozen fillets at Whoe Foods or Costco, much less $) brushed with evoo, S&P and a bit of lemon is another quick, easy standby. Ditto roasted chicken. Same idea, just stuff a lemon inside, baste with evoo, s&p, add some fresh herbs if you have them on hand. Your house will smell great!
I also make beef stew in my crockpot. Brown already cubed lean beef chunks in some evoo, s&p and add broth,(I usually use a low-sodium, organic veggie based variety), chunks of sweet potatoes, garlic, onions and whatever other root veggie you like. Sometimes I'll add a can of diced tomatoes too. Cook all day, and when you get home, add some frozen petite peas, diced pepper, broccoli, etc. Great way to use up those half-servings and odds & ends we all have hiding in the freezer.
I also make apple "crisp" in the crock. Cut up a few different kinds of apples, throw in a chopped up pear or some raisins or cranberries, sprinkle with loads of cinnamon, drizzle with honey and let it cook on low for a few hours. Just before serving stir in some granola. (I like vanilla-nut blends for this.) Serve warm.
Fourth Meal from Taco Bell.
http://www.fourthmeal.com
There is no one favorite meal for all our family; there are too many of us to ever all agree. But one that most of us eat and enjoy, that is also easy and usually pretty cheap, is either roasted porl loin or tenderloin. They come from Hormel already seasoned and they are frequently on sale as well. I serve it with baked potatoes, applesauce, sauerkraut, and whatever other vegetables are around on that day.
I can second stefaneener's chickpea/kale dish - it is yummy!
Several of our favorites:
roast beef w/ a twist - sear the beef on both sides and then put in a dutch oven type of pan with potatoes/carrots/celery cut how you prefer them. add 6-8 whole cloves, garlic to taste, and some salt/pepper. pour in a bottle of dark beer and then top off the liquid with chicken broth.. bake in the oven with lid on for several hours at 350. it's a great sunday evening dinner during the cooler months.
pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, and brie: chop 2-3 good sized tomatoes (home-grown and juicy are the best - I wouldn't make this at all in the winter months) in a bowl. chop two generous handsful of fresh basil, 3-6 garlic cloves to taste, add salt and freshly ground pepper and some olive oil - should be able to stir it but it shouldn't be 'soupy" - and then gently cut off the rind of a wedge of brie, then gently tear it into small pieces and stir into the tomato mixture. cover and let sit at room temp for several hours. when ready for dinner, make the pasta of choice - linguine is good, but also pasta shapes that will catch and hold the sauce... once the pasta is done, drain and stir the hot pasta into the tomato/brie mixture - the heat of the pasta warms the sauce and melts the brie... great served with good bread and a salad.
quick and easy: cheese quesadillas with a variety of salsas to dip, with a salad..
(In a small and quivering voice)
I am a good mom. I am a good teacher. I am a sucky cook.
Our family likes veggie hotdogs from the Chevron/Greek deli on Chapman Highway.
becky
Pan fried pork chops, with cooked apples (like apple crisp, or just cooked in a saucepan with some brown sugar & cinnamon.) Green beans if we have some. Even my picky 6yo likes everything.
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