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Update: While we still stand by these easy weeknight dinners (Kat’s still making them!), you may also want to check out our most recent roundup of 5 all-day crockpot recipes and 5 super fast Instant Pot recipes.
For busy women, preparing dinner all too often falls into the “takeout” category. (I’ll admit it: I totally lived off Seamless Web during my law firm years.) But preparing your own meals at home can be so much better — not only do you know exactly what’s in the dinner, it’s almost always cheaper and healthier to make it yourself. We’ve talked about how the crockpot is amazing for quick, easy dinners, my best tips on how to freeze food without a vacuum sealer, as well as great grab-and-go foods for snacking and lunches, but we haven’t totally hit on Reader K’s question before:
I’m starting my first biglaw job next week and I’m looking for a few easy workweek dinner ideas. My husband and I try to avoid eating takeout more than 1X per week, but I’m not sure how I’m going to manage cooking dinner every night with my new schedule. Do you have any advice for making quick and healthy meals during the week?
I can’t wait to hear what readers will say! I know we’ve talked about the crockpot before, but I really do have to stress how great it is — you prepare food in the morning when you still have energy and the best intentions, and you come home to a dinner that’s usually ready to be served up. (And crockpot liners
Oh, I’ll mention a few other ideas for easy weeknight dinners:
– Cook for a month (or two months, or three months) in advance. We did this about a month after the baby (why not before, I have no idea). We spent one weekend making about 8 different recipes (some of them doubled) and then freezing them all so that all we had to do was pull something out of the freezer in the morning. It was an intense weekend of chopping and cooking and checking recipes (and I think we had both crockpots going full blast the whole time, as well as some stuff on the stove) — but if memory serves we got 24 nights of dinners out of it, and it really was great to just pull stuff out of the freezer. There are blogs and books
– Sign up for a meal-planning service. There was just a NYT article about this — for a fee you can sign up for different services that will plan your meals for you based on goals (low carb, low fat, healthy, vegan, etc), what’s in season, and sometimes even what products are on sale locally. I haven’t signed up for any of them yet, but I am intrigued.
– Do some prep work in advance. Anything you can do the night before — pulling ingredients out of the cupboard, measuring spices, opening cans, etc., can all make it that much easier to will yourself to cook when you get home. (It’s also a great way to get other people in the house involved — my husband probably cooks more than I do because I’ll ask him to open some cans before he leaves in the morning, and he’ll end up putting the entire recipe together.) Pre-mixed spice rubs are also a great way to save time (whether made by yourself or purchased) — we frequently will eat white fish with spicy cajun spices on it, or roasted chicken with creole spices — all you really have to do is just put the spices on and cook it.
– Get takeout — but try to be healthier. There’s nothing wrong with takeout, but you don’t want it to involve a fast-food restaurant too often. Swinging by a deli or grocery store to pick up things like grilled or roasted chicken, marinated vegetables, salad fixings — that’s all really easy. Even getting a fresh baguette and a fancy cheese or two can be cheaper and healthier than having a full dinner a restaurant.
OK, without further ado, my absolute easiest 5 recipes.
Chicken Tacos (Crockpot)
- Place chicken breasts in crockpot (frozen or unfrozen — if frozen, just cook for 1 hour on high at the beginning).
- Dump half jar of salsa in. Maybe add a can of black beans (rinse them well).
- Cook for 6-8 hours on low. For dinner, eat as tacos, quesadillas, or just as meat for the salad. (Use the leftover salsa for the meal.)
Beef Bolognese (Crockpot)
- Brown ground beef or turkey on the stove. I’m a fan of Trader Joe’s 95% lean ground beef.
- Dump meat in crockpot. Add frozen onions if you like.
- Dump jar of spaghetti sauce on top.
- Cook for 6-8 hours on low.
- 30 minutes before serving, add bag of frozen broccoli.
- Serve with pasta.
Roasted Chicken (Crockpot)
- Wash chicken. Remove bag of giblets and other yucky things.
- Pat/dump spice rub on top. (I’m a fan of this Creole mix — it’s also amazing with broiled shrimp — but you can purchase them also.)
- Dump chicken in crockpot, possibly with frozen onions.
- Cook 6-8 hours on low.
Creole Salmon (Oven)
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Put salmon on aluminum foil. (I’m lately a fan of Verlasso salmon from Fresh Direct.)
- Dump Potlatch rub on top. (I got this blend from my mother and it’s especially for salmon, so we’ve used this one instead of our own blend.)
- Add parbaked wheat rolls and possibly an ear of corn.
- Cook at 350 for 30 minutes.
Pulled Pork (Crockpot) (from WebMD)
- Dump pork tenderloins (about 1.5 pounds) in crockpot.
- Add 1/4 teaspoons of garlic and pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
- Dump bag of frozen onions inside.
- Add 3/4 cup of jar of barbecue sauce (your choice).
- Add 1/2 cup of beer (non-alcoholic if you have it, or light beer).
- Cook for 6-8 hours, serve with fresh wheat rolls.
Readers, which are your favorite tricks for eating healthy dinners? Share some of your favorite easy weeknight recipes with us!
Original picture credit (2012): Chung Chu via Flickr. 2018 Updated picture credit: Stencil.
Lobbyist
I bought a meal planning service called the Fresh 20 and I cook and eat what they say. Its great, and I waste far less food. Last night was a baked chicken thing with lemon and rosemary and roasted potato/carrot thing. It didn’t even sound that great but my kids loved it. Now I don’t have to think and plan. Each week they give me the shopping list. Even if we eat out once or twice a week (its only 5 meals) it still works out. I highly recommend it.
research lawyer in SV
All of this! Plan the week’s meals, shop once, use the slow cooker and/or prep the time consuming parts on the weekend, cook once and freeze half (or more if it’s a sauce), make things that can be used in different ways so it’s not the same “thing” every night, The Cook’s Illustrated Slow Cooker book is great. For really simple recipes try 3 Ingredient Slow Cooker recipes ( http://www.amazon.com/3-Ingredient-Slow-Cooker-Recipes-Memorable/dp/1592331807).
I have variations for many of the recipes so it’s not always the same. My basic pulled pork recipe is 3 pounds of pork shoulder, and a scant cup of liquid, cook for 9-11 house on low. Want Hawaiian pulled porK? Add some sliced onions to the bottom, and use broth, pink Hawaiian salt on the top and liquid smoke. Want Chile Verde? Use some tomatillo salsa, lime juice and chopped onion. Want BBQ pulled pork? Use a cup of your favorite BBQ sauce. 3 pounds of pulled pork sounds like a lot but it can be used a number of ways – traditional meal with meat and 2 veg, sandwiches on a soft roll, in quesadillas, on a spinach salad, added to risotto with some butternut squash, etc.
Other tricks include cooking things in small multiple quantities. Meatloaf muffins cook very quickly in a standard muffin pan and freeze well. Serving size is easy ( 1 for my 5 year old, 2 for me, 3 for my husband) and they freeze really well in a zip lock. Potatoes au gratin can be done in a bit over 30 minutes in a ramekin or muffin pan. Slice potatoes very thin, layer with shredded cheese, pour a tablespoon of heavy cream over it and back at 350. Variation – use sweet potatoes and smoked cheddar cheese.
And for those who think it’s not worth it to “cook all weekend” , I’ll just say that once you have a freezer full of home cooked goodness because you cooked in larger quantities, you don’t cook all weekend. You cook some and pull some from the freezer. I have a small magnetic white board on my freezer that lists the “meals” so when I plan for the week I can look at the list instead of standing there with the freezer door open trying to figure out what I can pull out.
Diana Barry
Huh. We eat differently than a lot of posters here. I usually make a lot of veggies and a salad, and a meat and a rice/bread/starch. We eat chinese/thai/vietnamese food a lot more often also.
Diana Barry
Hit post too soon. HOWEVER, there are plenty of times when we eat a bunch of veggies, dip or boursin, and some crackers and call it good. (DH will also eat some frozen sausages on the nights we do this.)
Diana Barry
I mean that I MAKE chinese/thai/vietnamese, not that we get take-out all the time. Sheesh.
Amy H.
Oh. I was about to say, “Us too!” But in my case, it’s that we order (well, I order) Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese delivery all the time . . . .
Kontraktor
This is how we cook too. I always try to make sure we are eating a protein, veg, and a little starch/grain at each meal.
JessBee
Related: I want to plug Ziplist.com. It lets you snip recipes off of any page on the internet and add them to your personal box and/or shopping list. It also has a new meal planning feature where you can lay out your recipes for the week, and a shopping list app that automatically sorts the items by section of the store. There’s definitely some bugs in the system (the app displays recipes in your box really poorly, for example), but I love having a button to capture any recipe I want from Pinterest, and I love having the shopping list in one easy to access place.
2L (formerly 1L)
So. Early 20’s law-student here.
I keep hearing about this “meal planning” thing, but am not sure how it is actually done. What do you do? Write down what you want to make, how much ingredients are needed and then what you’ll do with the leftovers?
Thanks, grown women. I really appreciate it. So much about this site has taught me allllll about this adulthood business.
Kontraktor
Yes, we decide what meals we want to make for the week and then get groceries (once a week) for what we need. We will try to take into account extra ingredients- for example, if we make something that only requires half a can of beans, we will try to figure out another recipe that uses the other half of a can or have the same thing twice. Another example of this is tortillas. So we don’t waste a whole lot, we might have quesedillas one night and turkey wraps, using extra turkey from the lunch meat we bought, another night.
If we want to eat out during the week, we just plan for that and buy food for one less meal. It cuts down on waste.
We try to focus on things we can easily make/buy for two- so things like individual pieces of meat, rolls, bulk bin veggies. That way, we can plan exactly how many of each thing we need (ex., 4 chicken breasts from the meat counter because we are having chicken 2 nights, 2 handfuls of greenbeans because they are a size one night, 8 rolls because we want 2 for 4 nights, etc.). For sides like rice/grain, we just buy bags as we run out and use only 1 cup at a time. We really don’t do too much stocking up (save on things like oil, spices, a few random condiments, etc.) so we can cut down on waste and plan at the beginning of the week for only what we want to eat.
zora
sigh, i really wish i could do that, my mom plans out a whole week of meals, but i can just. not. think. that. far. ahead. Too ADD, I guess. ;o)
Kontraktor
To be fair, my husband thinks it’s a bit OCD sometimes and will be like… but can’t we have fish on Tuesday, and I will be like NO because if we eat the fish on Tuesday, we will use too much of some other ingredient we were planning to use Thursday, etc.
It also doesn’t help that his schedule is really erratic so we could plan for a week’s worth of dinners and have him be gone 3/5 nights. So, in that sense, I wish we maybe planned less and kept more on hand for those sorts of unexpected changes.
zora
no, it makes a lot of sense to plan ahead, I really wish I could but it’s tooo much woorrkkkk. Hurts my brain ;o) I sometimes have to throw some food away and I hate it when I do that, of course, i’m only cooking for myself, so even when i do it it’s not very much food, but still. I feel guilty.
SC
Zora, my husband and I often feel the same way as you about it being too much work, even though we’ve done it enough times to know how much it helps during the week. Our latest experiment is to write down a list of our favorite meals – the front of the page is combinations of proteins/ starch/ vegetables or easy meals that don’t need recipes, and the back of the page is some of our favorite recipes and referencs to cookbook pages. When we’re ready to meal plan, we consult that list, pull out what we want to make that week, and make the grocery list. We’re both ADD, and we would create a lot of work by going through cookbooks and creating new projects for ourselves. The list of meals to choose from keeps us focused, and we only consult our cookbooks when we’re feeling inspired to try something new.
O.
On Sunday morning, I pull out some cookbooks, and pick out what we’re going to cook that week. I look through my fridge and pantry to see what ingredients I have on hand (and sometimes the meal selection is driven by the ingredients we have on hand if I am trying to use up something before it goes bad). I make a shopping list with the ingredients I don’t already have, then I go and buy them. As I noted in my post above, for my husband, toddler and me, I plan two dinners that can each be eaten twice, one dinner that will be eaten three times, and a lunch that my husband and I will eat all week.
Research, Not Law
On Saturday, we plan the week’s meals. We pick based on what we have that needs to be used up, our mood, and the week’s schedule. Sometimes we are feeling frisky and just dive into the unused sections of cookbooks. We do some planning around ingredients (a couple of meals that call for cilantro to use up the whole batch, for example) but don’t stress over it since it usually works out on its own. Many people do it on Sunday after they see the newspaper coupons, but we don’t coupon and Saturday is easier for our shopping schedule.
Then we go shopping for everything. Occasionally there are items that we need to buy the day-of, but nearly everything gets bought on one day. Sometimes we make decisions at the store (ie, we planned for a “vegetable” but decide once we see what’s available or the flat iron steaks don’t look good so we switch to the nice pork chops on special), but usually it’s a quick and orderly trip.
If you want my type-A response: I have a piece of paper where I have one line for each day on the top. I write in the meals as we decide and list the ingredients we need to buy at the bottom of the paper. Then the top part with the menu goes on the fridge and the bottom part with the grocery list comes to the store with us. We save the menus to use for inspiration in later weeks.
SJ
I do something similar. I usually eat salad and something for lunch so I have a stash of frozen meals at work or will bring leftovers so that doesn’t require much planning. Then I look at our week’s schedule and plan for for all but one of the nights we’ll be home for dinner because inevitably we’ll get invited out for dinner or have to work late and I hate wasting food. I have a white board where I write in dinner plans for a main and a side or that we’re going out. I do an inventory of the pantry and fridge and write down what we need on a shopping list.
I try to shop on Sunday for the week. While shopping I may change my mind on a side but I try to stick to the main since I’ve already done the work of writing down everything needed for a week’s worth of food, more or less.
We also have a stockpile of canned soup, noodles from the Asian market and usually frozen tortellini and pesto cubes so if plans get derailed, we can still whip up something to eat without having to leave home.
I will also say that my husband rarely has an opinion about what we eat as long as it doesn’t involve his off-limits foods so I’ll run my meal plan by him after I’ve completed it but I no longer consult him while trying to plan because he rarely has suggestions. As long as he has veto power, he’s happy.
BKDC
Not a fan of crock pot cooking, but my “go to” meals are often:
1. Soup or baked pasta dishes prepared over the weekend
2. Tacos or kimchi quesadillas
3. BLTs (with veggie bacon)
4. Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, frittata, etc.
5. Pasta with veggies (last night was shells, goat cheese and some swiss chard)
Kontraktor
Salads and sandwiches make great quick weeknight dinners. I have a few hot sandwiches I like to throw together in a pinch: grilled cheese with a few different kinds of cheese/tomato/whatever deli meat in the fridge, sausage sandwiches with sauteed cabbage/mustard/cheese, BLTs (w/avacado to beef up and often soy bacon to make healthier), tuna salad with white beans/tomatos/olive oil/herbs. Add a lightly dressed lettuce salad (drizzle olive oil and acid of choice right over lettuce and mix), some chips or a cut up piece of fruit if you are really hungry, and you have a nice dinner.
Cold salads are also nice because they don’t take too long to prepare. Just the time it takes to chop a few things, rinse, mix, and you’re done. I sometimes like to make a piece of garlic or cheese toast with a salad just to make the meal feel more substantial (plus sometimes you just need a little something hot by the day’s end).
Also, if you have a grill, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make a meal. The mess stays mostly outside, you can easily cook in small portions, there isn’t too much prep work, and the high heat of the grill cuts down cooking time.
BKDC
Yes– panini are a great idea. Haven’t done that in a while.
MamaC
Here is how I make ‘mix-n-match’ meals for a week – fresh, fast, healthy
Cook an entire bag of brown rice over the weekend. Also, make a box or two of your favorite pasta. Both will store for about 2 weeks in the fridge.
Marinade 2-3 meats, put them in the fridge. They will store for about a week.
To make a meal, use some of the rice or pasta, add sauce. Cook the meat (10-15 minutes). Make a veggie, or a salad.
applesandcheddar
FYI, you shouldn’t keep cooked rice that long. Cooked rice goes rancid after about 3-4 days. Brown rice is especially susceptible.
Amy H.
I’m not sure this is universally true. I find cooked white basmati rice and short-grain white rice are fine for 1-2 weeks in the fridge. I don’t often make brown rice, though.
Herbie
Okay. I feel obligated to say something for the good of humanity. Tacos by dumping a jar of salsa over chicken? Is this what passes for Mexican food in the great north? My brain is freezing up trying to contemplate eating such a thing.
Diana Barry
I agree. I do live in the “great north”, but I don’t ever make salsa + chicken and call it tacos. :)
Godzilla
Yes, it does. We apologize. This is why we love visiting Not the North, so that we can enjoy real food.
Research, Not Law
I associate this with the midwest, no?
While I also find it offensive to my foodie sensibilities, I admit I’ve had weeks where I’ve considered it.
Alanna of Trebond
I have to admit, about 90% of the recipes here have made my amazed as to why anyone would bother writing them down.
well
+1. These are all basically variations on Hamburger Helper. Add some meat to a jar of goo!
Lyssa
I wouldn’t call it tacos, but one of my favorite meals growing up was when my mom would take a cut up chicken, dump salsa over it, and cook it in the crock pot for a while, then serve over rice. Yum!
Darn, now I want that! (My husband’s not a salsa fan, and it seems like too long a project for just me, so I never make it. But I might just!)
Herbie
Huh. Maybe I need to try this. I dunno. I’m highly suspicious of jarred salsa unless it’s stirred into melted velveeta.
Anon
I will cop to eating jarred salsa and velveeta with a spoon for dinner on occasion. If you add a protein (sausage? shredded chicken?) it is a complete meal :)
Anon
We have a local restaurant here (in the southwest for what it’s worth) that sells its jarred salsa that is really good!
Kontraktor
What exactly would you call meat + sauce/toppings wrapped up in a tortilla then? Just because a preparation of food is simple or not the fanciest doesn’t suddenly mean it ceases to become what it is. Must such a category of food use heirloom pork, organic avacados from a farmer’s market, and mole made with 30 different spices in order to be considered a ‘taco’?
Also I sort of find the mid-west hate somewhat ridiculous… I’ve met plenty of people in CA, NYC, DC, and all over who have what I would consider to be pretty bad tastes re food. One of the best places I’ve eaten at in the recent past was in Des Moies, Iowa. Pretty sure that there are good foods and people with ‘strange’ eating habits just about everywhere.
Midwest Expat
+1
Midwestern City
I agree. Isn’t this poster from Texas? Like one of the fattest, unhealthiest states in the country?
http://www.businessinsider.com/unhealthiest-states-in-america-2011-12?op=1
Herbie
I think you guys are replying to my comment– I can’t really tell.
I am from Texas, Midwestern City! I too have read that we are one of the fattest states in the country, although I have no idea what that has to do with my comment or jarred salsa or the propriety of same on tacos. Perhaps you’ll explain?
Kontraktor: as to my objections re the alleged–nay, purported— “tacos” in question. Oh girl, if you think fresh pico and some homemade salsa on a corn tortilla + meat + maybe some other things like cilantro/onions and a squeeze of lime is the same as Pace picante sauce, we have a lot of work to do. Tacos are serious business, and they do not involve jarred salsa!! (At least, not any kind I have had.) Yes, I am putting my foot down re tacos, and I don’t care how many of you clutch your pearls. Do your worst, taco infidels!
PghAnon
Saying that these are both “tacos” does not mean she thinks they are “the same”.
You can get tuna in a can at CVS, and you can get tuna at the best sushi restaurant in the world. Are you saying that if I don’t think these are “the same”, I am not allowed to call them both “tuna”?
Anon
As someone who lives in Des Moines, I really want to know where you ate this great meal.
Kontraktor
I believe it was the Flying Mango. We really enjoyed it! The beer selection was good and we thought the food was nicely made, just upscale enough that the higher prices seemed worth it, different from what we could get in our regular area, and just a fun and fresh place to eat. We drove cross country recently and stopped in Des Moines for a night and ate there- it was definitely probably the best meal of our road trip and one of the more memorable meals I’ve had in the past few months (especially at that price point).
Anon
I LOVE Flying Mango – it is frequently billed as the best “hidden gem” in DSM, but every time I go there, there is a long wait (no doubt due to the size), so I’m pretty sure the secret is out. So glad you enjoyed it!
Sara
I do a very fast soup many nights – sort of an adult take on ramen. Start with low-sodium chicken broth (I like the TJ’s cardboard box kind), bring it to a boil with a dash of red pepper flakes and a couple whole (but peeled) garlic cloves (I fish those out later), and throw in some combination of the following:
Pasta (usually frozen tortellini or small dried pasta)
Frozen veggies (peas, corn, spinach, and broccoli all work well, but really, anything you like should work)
Canned tomatoes / tomato paste
Canned white beans
Leftover meat, if I have any in the fridge
Several handfulls of seafood from the TJ’s frozen seafood blend
Salt / pepper / dried herbs
I usually only put two or three of those ingredients in at a time, so for me, it’s not really a kitchen-sink sort of soup, but I suppose it could be. I particularly like the tomato/bean/chicken and pasta/spinach/ extra garlic combinations. And it all comes together very, very quickly – if I put the broth on right when I walk in the door, it’s boiling by the time I’ve changed out of work clothes and fed the cat, and the remaining ingredients take 5-10 minutes depending on what I use.
Is that you Sandra Lee?
All of these recipes basically involve adding meat to some prepared foods. The “cheaper and healthier” usually comes from combining *ingredients* to make a dish. I was also struck by the total absence of fresh produce, and vegetables in general, in any of these meals. There is more to home cooking than “dumping” sh*t into a casserole.
S
I agree that some of the suggestions are somewhat Sandra Lee -ish. But I also know that when you and your spouse both work 10-12 hour days, plus have commutes, it’s difficult to cook well balanced meals from scratch every single night. Dinner salads are great, but I don’t want to eat them every night, especially in the winter when produce selections are somewhat blah.
A few convenience meals are not bad, if they are balanced with more wholesome meals that are not dependent on overly processed, packaged food the rest of the week.
SF Bay Associate
I’m surprised by the extensive use of processed/canned/jarred/dried/frozen food. Chicken + a jar of salsa? Canned pineapple? Frozen onions? Soup mix? Could it really be that people don’t have access to fresh vegetables and fruits elsewhere in the country? Or is that just not part of the food culture there and people just aren’t interested in fresh, whole ingredients? I’m pretty baffled, to be honest. Then again, my dinners often aren’t that elaborate either. Last night was (organic free range) scrambled eggs with (artisan heirloom grain local bakery) bread and (homemade organic) jam and a salad of (local, dry farmed, organic) tomatoes, (fresh, organic) basil, and (real, italian) parmesano reggiano, followed by (organic seascape) strawberries and (heirloom crane) melon. Each week we make pasta with sauteed/grilled veggies that we picked up from the farmers’ market and eat that for several days. We do lots of very very simple meals made with really nice ingredients. Apparently I can never move from California, nor quit my job so I can afford the fancy ingredients.
Also, get the glasslock tupperware from Costco – they are microwave safe since they are glass, not plastic, and dishwasher safe. They don’t stain like plastic does, either. Ours are two years old and still going strong.
Anon
This does not sound like the SF Bay Associate that I remember (who commented earlier about eating cereal for dinner b/c she’s been traveling and the pantry is bare).
SF Bay Associate
Yes, still me. I am truly baffled by the processed food mentioned here. When we don’t have time to grocery shop on the weekends, cereal is a regular “entree” for dinner, which is why traveling to a wedding over a weekend can be really rough on us. We didn’t get to grocery shop last weekend because of a wedding, so Sunday’s dinner was cereal. DH rescued us last night by bringing home some staples from the farmers’ market next to his office he picked up on his lunch break. Odds are we’ll have the same thing for dinner tonight.
Kontraktor
I love food and cooking and the promotion of pure/whole foods and all that. But when I think about the eating habits of others (mostly with regard to the processed and convenience foods), I try to think about how a) a lot of people don’t know any better since it’s the sort of food they have grown up on and come to enjoy so they see the consumption of it as normal and fine, b) ingredients really can be expensive and in short supply in some areas, and c) a little ‘processed’ food now and again really isn’t a bad thing, especially when you consider that you’re probably always going to have to settle for some degree of processing in your food somewhere, so it can be hard to draw the line and somewhat arbitrary in terms of deciding what is ‘okay’ and what is ‘not okay.’
I try to approach home cooking by using as many whole ingredients as I can, but we don’t really deem it a priority to buy heirloom or organic or artisan or ‘fancy’ things like you desribe. I don’t think that makes me or others less concerned about what we eat. Whole foods can be eaten without being organic/heirloom/artisan/etc.
Also, not sure where you have lived, but I spent some time with my husband in a small small town in Mississippi where the only place to get groceries was a Wal Mart. They definitely did not have fresh pineapple, and they certainly were not carrying heirloom or organic anything. We were lucky if we could even find 85-15 ground beef (I usually use 90-10 at worse but usually try to get 96-4). Most of it was 70-30 (not kidding). So… for some people, I sadly do think it is an access issue. Of course it is a chicken-egg problem… is there no access because there is no demand? Or is there no demand because there is no access?
Ultimately I just think food issues are not so cut and dry. I guess this is why Michelle Obama and others are working to change food policy/food attitudes and the like so more people can have access to better choices and tastes/demand can start changing.
well
I agree with your broader points, SFBA, but you do realize that breakfast cereal is about as “processed” as food can be, right? Most grains don’t grow in the shape of flakes, “chex,” or O’s. Even organic ones.
SF Bay Associate
I’ve never lived anywhere outside CA, Kontraktor. I’ve lived in a bubble my whole life and I’m honestly and genuinely curious and confused about the food differences I’m seeing here. I never saw a Walmart until college. And you’re absolutely right that whole foods don’t have to be fancy to be wholesome. I do think that whole ingredients are by and large more healthful than not-whole ones, and organic is not necessarily better, though my understanding is that it is better for the “dirty dozen” of produce.
And very true, well, most breakfast cereal is processed to a degree. My favorite cereal is McCann’s steel cut oats. I like granola and Kashi too, and Kashi is definitely processed to a degree. You make a good point.
Em
Having lived in California (and Oregon) and elsewhere, I can assure you, you shouldn’t leave California/the West Coast. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you can get fresh whole ingredients elsewhere, and sometimes – e.g., in season – they’re even convenient. But the prices are atrocious and the availability is so, so much less. If the equivalent of Berkeley Bowl or even Portland’s New Seasons opened up here in D.C., I would die of happiness, but it’s just not the way of things. Instead, your choices in the city are (a) crazy expensive farmers markets, (b) crazy expensive Whole Foods, and (c) fairly expensive normal supermarkets with limited selection of the kind of ingredients you mention.
zora
Well, the title of the post was “Easy Weeknight Dinners” . There are many nights/days when I do lots of cooking and cook with lots of fresh ingredients from the farmers market. The “Easy Meal strategies” i listed above with lots of frozen ingredients are my fall back for when im having a terrible week or getting home so late, I am too tired to cook well, or when I haven’t had time to shop and I dont have any good fresh ingredients. I keep my freezer stocked with these things so i can easily pull them out and throw together a meal in <20 minutes, and be eating before I pass out from hunger.
In another life, those would have been the nights I got takeout, but its much healthier and cheaper for me to toss some stuff from the freezer in a pan with some grains and have a quick meal ready.
If this post was "What do you like to cook when you have time" i would have had a very different response.
Walnut
Thank you Zora. Just…thank you.
Research, Not Law
Yes, good response Zora et al.
Herbie
I’ve read that frozen veggies are supposed to retain nutrients better than what you buy fresh at most grocers, so just a note that relying on frozen veg isn’t bad…
On the whole, I think the fact that people are cooking at home is more important than whether they’re cooking with canned/frozen veggies as opposed to fresh, using short-cut ingredients like soup mix or salsa, etc. The NYT had this fantastic article several years ago about how waistlines correlate most directly with whether you do your own cooking– not socioeconomic status, etc.
I am surprised....
…that people’s reactions to this have not been harsher, SF Bay Associate. I don’t know if you intended to be judgy (I doubt it), but just so you know, this came off as extremely judgemental and healthier-than-thou towards people who eat more processed/prepared/non-organic foods. Also, as has already been mentioned, it does not have to be fancy to be healthy. The same meal that you described, without all the fancy parenthetical modifiers, would have been healthy as well.
Please take the time to appreciate what you have. You are fortunate to be able to afford the foods you do, to have access to them and to have been exposed to healthy eating somewhere along the way. If you feel so strongly that people should not be eating processed foods, perhaps you should donate your time or money to one of the many organizations that seeks to educate people about nutrition / provide them with things they may not otherwise have access to.
I am not trying to be rude. I just thought you should know that this may not have conveyed your intended tone (and this is coming from someone who has access to the same things that you do and is very grateful for her good fortune).
anon
+1. SFBA, normally I enjoy your posts, but the one above came across as very smug. And I am a dedicated patron of certified farmer’s markets and eat an organic vegetarian diet.
SF Bay Associate
I am sorry. I didn’t mean to offend anyone, and I wasn’t intending to be smug. I do realize I am privileged (“Apparently I can never move from California, nor quit my job so I can afford the fancy ingredients”) but I guess I didn’t realize how privileged… the idea that these foods which are so readily accessible here are not accessible elsewhere is truly surprising to me. I guess I figured the “California is Shangri-la” thing to just be baseless hype, so I figured the rest of the country actually had ready access to these foods too.
I agree it doesn’t have to be fancy to be healthy (“And you’re absolutely right that whole foods don’t have to be fancy to be wholesome.”). I was trying to make the point that “fast” doesn’t necessarily require processed food or expensive food. Maybe “fancy” eggs, bread, tomatoes, and basil are expensive at farmers’ markets elsewhere?? None of those foods were expensive here, where in-season produce at farmers’ markets is about the same price as most supermarkets, or sometimes less. Using simple high-quality ingredients can be as satisfying as and less expensive than a meal made with ingredients I would consider more “glamorous” and inherently expensive, like meat or seafood. Eggs are cheaper than ground beef. I should have explained myself better. I can see how I gave a bad impression (and may still), and I regret that.
I think it is a pity that my critics are anonymous. If you want to be critical of me, I wish you would offer it with your usual handle. I think we can all be “virtual friends” without avoiding honest criticism of each other. Criticism is more impactful when it comes from a friend than a stranger.
+2
Not to pile on, but I had the same reaction — and I am an organic-vegetarian-San Franciscan who shops at Rainbow Grocery and farmers’ markets. I think attitudes like this are the reason that many healthy-eating proponents are given a bad name: They come across as sanctimonious and out of touch with the restraints on time and money that many people face when dealing with cooking. People who are cooking at home rather than getting take-out are doing a great thing for themselves, even if they’re eating canned vegetables rather than organic tomatoes. Also, I am not sure what about the fact that tomatoes are dry farmed and bread is heirloom artisan grain makes those things superior. Tastier, maybe; healthier, not sure (though I believe organic is healthier). I would also personally eat a dinner of canned vegetables before I’d have cereal — oatmeal or Kashi aren’t bad for you, necessarily, but they are nutritionally one-dimensional compared to veggies, even canned or frozen ones.
Em
Maybe “fancy” eggs, bread, tomatoes, and basil are expensive at farmers’ markets elsewhere??
Not to pile on, but just for explanatory purposes: absolutely they’re expensive. At my local DC farmer’s market, eggs are $5/dozen (so more than twice what you’d pay at the supermarket; the heirloom tomatoes are probably $3-$4/lb, depending on what part of the season. Could be more. Bread is minimum $5 for a smallish loaf, and trust me – the quality is not nearly as high as what you’d buy in the Bay Area. Okay, the basil you can get for a supermarket-comparable price. But yeah, it’s doable for me as a well-paid single person, but even I feel the pinch.
Diana Barry
SF Bay, I agree with you re: non-processed foods. Although we do pay more for stuff here in the northeast!
harriet the spy
1) California is different. I just moved back to the Bay Area after 16 years on the East Coast, so take it from one who knows: your access to excellent produce at reasonable prices far outstrips most of the rest of the country. The culture, the economy, and the climate of the Bay Area all support heirloom/artisinal/organic/seasonal/local/etc. food in a really unique way.
2) Julie Powell wrote a terrific, trenchant op-ed on this exact issue for the NY Times many years ago – but it was so good I’ve remembered it. I hope others find it equally thought-provoking. My favorite part is this:
“What makes the snobbery of the organic movement more insidious is that it equates privilege not only with good taste, but also with good ethics. Eat wild Brazil nuts and save the rainforest. Buy more expensive organic fruit for your children and fight the national epidemic of childhood obesity. Support a local farmer and give economic power to responsible stewards of sustainable agriculture. There’s nothing wrong with any of these choices, but they do require time and money.
When you wed money to decency, you come perilously close to equating penury with immorality. The milk at Whole Foods is hormone-free; the milk at Western Beef is presumably full of the stuff – and substantially less expensive. The chicken at Whole Foods is organic and cage-free; the chicken at Western Beef is not. Is the woman who buys her children’s food at the place where they take her food stamps therefore a bad mother?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/opinion/22powell_cm.html?pagewanted=all
Bonnie
It’s not just a matter of cost. I usually work until 8 and one day durin the weekend. As much as I’d like to wander around the farmer’s market, that’s just not going to happen. I try to limit processed foods but do rely on frozen veggies. They significantly cut down prep time, don’t rot and are still just as nutritious.
hellskitchen
I don’t know SF Bay Associate, unless you personally visited the farm where the organic eggs came from and made sure the chickens were truly happy and roaming freely or that the berries in the homemade jam in fact were grown facing the sun, you aren’t really eating local/fresh/organic to the extent that you can. (Kidding, but your email made me think of the Portlandia spoof on farm-to-table eating)
SF Bay Associate
Oh dear… I actually have visited the farm where those eggs came from, though DH didn’t go to the farm to get the eggs this time. Chickens were walking around. It seemed like a nice place. And I picked the berries myself and can vouch for their sun access :). Sounds like I need to watch Portlandia and laugh at myself.
hellskitchen
Ha ha! It’s a bit over the top but you might love it. To your original post though, out here in New York, there are lots of farmer’s markets and they are affordable but I just found out that the one I go to uses an Integrated Pest Management system which is mostly organic but uses pesticides selectively when needed. This is a downer… but if I had to choose between this and organic produce from the supermarket which is definitely not local, I don’t know which one would win. So yeah, farmers’ markets are not the same everywhere
I am a banana.
I use lots of frozen veggies because they don’t go bad. There are nights where I thought I’d be home to cook and am not, or days where I find out I’m going to be last minute travelling for a few days thanks to work. I love eating the kinds of things you describe, but I have bought and wasted them before. Food waste is more concerning to me than the minimal nutritional value I’m losing by eating (GASP!) frozen asparagus.
-Lifelong Californian
girl in the stix
Try living in a small town, with one large chain grocery story that caters to “recreationists” —the campers, golfers, tourists from someplace else searching vainly for the nearest Starbucks–the nearest decent shopping 60-150 miles away over mountain passes that aren’t fun in the winter. Since the grocery store’s nearest competition is 30 miles away and a member of the same chain, the produce is routinely mediocre at best. Fresh fish? forget it, even though there are world class fish markets 90 miles away. Yes we do have a bakery (donuts and white bread mainly) and a family-owned meat market that we rush to get to before they close (5/6 p.m.). Having access to good food is a blessing.
Cookies
We do a beef roast in the crockpot (the crockpot works pretty good for us). Beef Roast, pack of onion soup mix and a cup of water. We usually get two meals out of this: first day its beef, veggies and mashed potattoes. The next day we make sandwiches with slices of cabot horshradish cheese on crusty bread.
S
For all of you people who eat fish during the week, are you buying it fresh or eating frozen fish?
My problem with seafood is that I don’t like frozen seafood. I’ve read on consumerist.org and in a few other places that Trader Joes and a few other companies take serious liberities with how they label the fish, and it’s often just some sketchy breed of catfish from halfway around the globe using farming methods that result in a lot of pollution.
Can anyone recommend any not gross brands of frozen seafood? I would like to eat more fish, but I can’t get to the store multiple times a week, and I just cannot force TJs fish down my throat.
Kontraktor
We buy fresh on Sunday and usually eat the fish by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. If we want fish later in the week, we just stop by the market on the night we want to cook it.
Do you have an Asian market near you? The best fish selection around us comes from our local 99 Ranch. They have tons of non-packaged fish in their fish counter, including about 15 types of whole fish they will butcher for you, scallops, salmon, quite a few different kinds of thin white fish, shell fish, and many expensive meaty fishes (sea bass, swordfish, etc.) that usually aren’t more than $12 or $13/lb. I’ve seen similar selection at Korean markets.
Kontraktor
Also, shrimp is apparently one of the only types of fish you can eat from a frozen bag and not suffer too much in quality. I have read this in various places. So, it could be worth it to look into buying a large bag of frozen shrimp and making dishes from there, using only what you need at one time. I buy shrimp in small portions from the counter (probably in most cases it’s been frozen and thawed) and make a ton of super quick dishes: shrimp w chili sauce/pineapple salsa, shrimp w lemon/garlic butter and wine sauce, toss into a pasta primavera with veggies, can use as a topping for salad with tomato/avacado/hearts of palm/red onion… tons of quick possibilities.
Lyssa
For whatever it’s worth, with the exception of a few ultra-fancy restaurant that air lift it in and folks that live right on the shore, it’s nearly impossible to get actual fresh (never frozen) seafood. Most of it is frozen on or right off the boat and thawed when they sell it at the counter. So, even if you think that you’re eating it “fresh” from the seafood counter, you’re probably not (It may suffer less handling, though, than the stuff sold frozen).
Kontraktor
I think that is the differentiator. Fish sold in bags/packs may get additional processing or ingredients to increase shelf life. Plus those fishes might have been frozen for a lot longer, vs. counter fish which was frozen for shipping but thawed upon delivery, hence it is meant to be sold and eaten quickly. As I previously said though, apparently frozen shrimp can do pretty well staying frozen for a very long time so I’ve read it is recommended (especially from a cost stand point) to just buy a giant bag.
Anon
I think if you pay up for quality, frozen fish can be fine (like Costco’s wild caught salmon for example).
A friend of mine catches and flash-freezes his own fish. It stays good for a year, so I don’t think the extra processing is a requirement for shelf life. I tried it after many months in the freezer, and it was as good as “fresh” fish from the grocery store.
Kontraktor
Quality is probably key then. Maybe it is an issue of just checking ingredients to make sure there is nothing else added, buying from ‘better’ stores to better ensure the bag hasn’t been sitting around forever, trying different types of fish to see what you like, and slow thawing in the fridge.Also, I don’t think it’s that weird that your friend’s home done frozen fish is better than a random low end store brand. I think that doing something fresh, individually, and with a lot of care can yield better results than cheap mass production. Kind of like how a lot of people’s homemade jam/preserves are better than even a good store brand. :)
angeleno
I am confused as to why the beef bolognese with jarred sauce requires a crockpot and 6-8 hours of cooking. I am also really, really confused by frozen onions… just, why? Onions aren’t particularly perishable, and don’t require more than a minute of prep to peel and chop. But I am from California, so the dining habits of the great midwest are sometimes mysterious to me.
Fastest/easiest meals I do are usually pasta/noodles, either Asian or Italian, with pan-fried chicken breasts or pork chops (those thin little pork chops cook super fast) and lots of veggies thrown in (artichoke hearts and tomatoes for Italian, broccoli, onions/garlic/shallots, bellpeppers and greens for either, green beans and eggplant for Asian). Although I admit we also keep a Costco-size package of sausages in the freezer for emergency last-minute dinners. Someone gave me the cookbook Robin Rescues Dinner (I think she has a tv show?) which has lots of ideas for quick meals, although I rarely use the recipes exactly.
layered bob
onions make me cry, even when my knives are super sharp. and then I have to wash the knife and the cutting board. and yes, those are really, really small obstacles, but when I have 0 energy, having already-diced onions in the freezer is often the difference between cooking and takeout.
Midwest Expat
I thought Kat was a New Yorker? Not exactly the “great Midwest.”
zora
sometimes i don’t have fresh onions because i didnt get a chance to shop. And sometimes, I am just starving, so yes, chopping multiple vegetables is too time consuming and it is a lifesaver to have a few things i can pull out of the freezer and throw together dinner in less time than it would take a pizza to get delivered to my house.
Also, this is not me, but some people are just not cooks, they are not good at it and don’t enjoy it. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with them. And I don’t know if you meant it that way, but your comment about the ‘mysterious’ habits of the ‘great Midwest’ sounds really condescending.
Is that you Sandra Lee?
I think the “recipes” posted by Kat and in the comments make it clear that no region has a monopoly on dismal eating. I was making a similar point above… and for the record, I’m in Chicago. We have vegetables. You can care about what goes in your body even if you don’t have access to all the bounty of California.
Suzer
I got a programmable rice cooker recently – it’s awesome. Put rice and water in before you go to work, set timer, rice is ready at dinner. Do this with some crock pot meat and/or veggies and you’ve got dinner waiting for you.
My other tip is flavored olive oil. I like garlic olive oil for a quick saute – expensive but worth it. No chopping of garlic (that’s easy to scorch anyway), and adds flavor to a chicken breast, etc.
What type of crockpot?
I’m so intrigued about all the crockpot recipes! I’m totally new to the appliance. For those of you who use them often, what type do you reccommend? Also, what size, 4qt, 6qt? I will be cooking for 2, but like to make large batches and freeze things.
I’m not adverse to spending a fair amount of money on it, as it seems like something I would use a lot, but don’t want to get something expensive just for the sake of spending money. It seems like a programmable one would be best.
Williams-Sonoma carries a 7 qt all-clad one. Does that seem like a good option?
Granola
I did a lot of research before I bought my crock pot, and I ended up buying the one that Cooks Illustrated rated the highest: Crock-Pot 6.5 Quart Slow Cooker. I love it. You can set the time for cooking so you avoid most of the over cooking issues. It’s easy to clean. I made apple sauce using it the other week, and it turned out delicious.
What type of crockpot?
Thanks!
Research, Not Law
We have that one also, based on CI’s recommendation. We’ve been very pleased with it. It’s a nice size, functions well.
AJD
Get a big one with a timer. If you work a lot that will be your lifesaver.
hellskitchen
I do a different version of meal planning – sort of a staggered meal planning. I don’t like cooking all weekend and when I come home, I realize I want to eat right away but have some free time after dinner. So on Sunday, I make a couple of big batch meals (curries or stews or lasagna) and then on each weekday, I do a little bit of prep for the next day. On Monday morning, I will soak some chickpeas. On Monday night, I eat the stew from Sunday and after dinner, I will put the chickpeas in a pressure cooker and chop some salad vegetables – cucumbers, tomatoes etc. On Tuesday night, I’ll make 10 minute quinoa, mix in the salad vegetables and have that for dinner. After dinner, I’ll take the cooked chickpeas and make a curry. On Wednesday, I’ll have chickpea curry for dinner and after dinner, start prepping for next day – probably roast some eggplant and bell peppers, remove skins, chop it all and leave it in the refrigerator. On Thursday it takes me 15 minutes at most to make an eggplant spread and toast some pita bread. This approach works for me because if I have to cook for more than 15 minutes after I come home, I’ll probably cave in and order takeout. But it’s easy to do the prep after dinner as long as I break it into small steps and spread it out over the week.
I use the food I prepare on Sunday for lunch or if I am in no mood to do any cooking on a particular weeknight. I also use a food processor to chop large quantities of onions, radishes etc. and keep them on hand which makes it easy to whip up meals throughout the week.
ML
I’ve tried to love the crockpot, but sadly, I just don’t think it’s for me. I’m not a big casserole type of person, more of a skillet cook. My strategies for making sure I don’t starve:
1. I cook something good two of the three weekend nights when I have more time
2. Husband cooks me something most of the other week nights- at least scrambled eggs with a salad, more often something involving meat;
3. If I get home at 9 and Husband’s not around, I make: scrambled eggs; poached eggs in tomato sauce; bread and cheese; a salad or some quick combination of those things.
One of the things that has always felt weird to me about the crock is that you can’t taste anything before it goes in or as you’re cooking…which feels very odd. I like to taste constantly and adjust the spices, but with the crock it seems like you just need to follow a recipe and stick to it and hope for the best.
Maine Associate
Here is my favorite quick meal: Tuna Noodle. Cook a pound of pasta, like ziti or elbows. While the pasta is cooking, get a microwave casserole dish and spray it with non-stick spray. Put in the casserole dish 1 can of drained tuna, a bag of shredded cheddar cheese, a splash of milk and a can of cream of celery soup (or your favorite cream of something soup). When the pasta is cooked and drained, add to casserole dish and mix well. Cook covered in microwave for 8-10 minutes. You can change up the canned protein by making it chicken, crab or hot dogs (yes I said hot dogs). You can make it a bit healthier by using whole wheat pasta, low-fat cheese and low-fat/fat-free soup.
AT
Late to the game but in case anyone who has subscribed cares, I grew up with tuna noodle casserole as a beloved dish — easiest thing in the world — and my mom’s variant added a cup or two of frozen peas and didn’t have any cheese, just tuna, can of cream of celery soup, and we usually used the kind of wide flat egg noodles.
You can bake it (and add bread crumbs or parmesan to the top) if you want (she usually didn’t), or you can just do it (as I have from college on) the quick and dirty way and mix it all up in the pot once you’ve drained the pasta.
I also LOVE stuffed cabbage, which my mom only made at St. Patrick’s Day. A few years ago we put our heads together and realized we could make a soup/stew with all the same ingredients (plus another can of tomatoes and maybe a little more broth, and bagged shredded cabbage if you’re really pressed for time and don’t have time to slice it) that gave you the same emotional/flavor satiety but was SOOOO much easier to make.
Since then I’ve tried “simplifying” a bunch of beloved recipes mostly to good results. For example, stuffed zucchini has become zucchini casserole, with sliced zucchini medallions layered with the rest of the ingredients. Sure, if I have company I will stuff cabbage leaves and core zucchini halves to stuff them with goodness, but when it’s just me or me and the BF and it’s a weeknight, it’s lovely to have familiar flavors with fresh ingredients in minutes not hours. And both freeze pretty well…
While I’m here, I’ll just throw a quick pitch in for my favorite use of a crockpot – chicken stock. I usually only do 4 days, but Jenny does up to a week. Whatever I don’t use, I either fridge, freeze, or boil down further to make a more concentrated bouillon type substance and freeze that in ice cube trays – or better yet, those silicon muffin tins.
http://nourishedkitchen.com/perpetual-soup-the-easiest-bone-broth-youll-make/
AJD
I cook Real Simple recipes. I find half the battle is chosing what to cook. In some editions they have a grocery list for the entire week prepared and I just order the list off Fresh Direct. That and the crockpot are life savers and I have lost tons of weight since eating more home cooked meals and less eating out.
Hive Mind
The second page of the comments is so smug and depressing. Rock on, Kat – with yo’ bad frozen-bag-of-onions self.
Anon
Agreed. Everyone here is better than everyone else here. Obviously.
Zebs
Why is reader K making dinner six nights a week? Are her husband’s arms broken?
Of Counsel
I thought exactly the same thing. Instead of moving straight to resolving the problem, why not try to understand why there is a problem in the first place? Why is she doing all the cooking?
me
I also did a lot of advance cooking & freezing when we were a “new” family with infants, but have moved away from that because of the reasons above & because frankly there’s way too much going on any given weekend to spend so much time cooking!
We love Martha’s Great Food Fast cookbook. Some of the recipes can be made even faster if you do some acceptable substitutions. One fave:
Pasta w/ Sausage and Peppers. SO easy. Use fresh Italian sausage (we do 1/2 pork, 1/2 turkey to make more healthy). Crumble the sausage & saute in a tiny bit of olive oil. Once cooked through, add sliced pre-roasted peppers (available at WH) or the jarred version. Toss with the cooked pasta & about 1/3 c parmesan. Done in the time it takes to cook the pasta.
Chicken quesadillas. Use pre-cooked chicken breast. Cut into pieces and toss with some liquid smoke & jar of mild green chiles. Kids can assemble – they love this.
Broccoli pasta. Cut (fresh) broccoli into florets. (Lovely w/ broccoli rabbe but kids tend not to like . . .) Add to the pasta (orrechiette works great) in the last 6-7 minutes of cooking time. In a small saucepan, saute minced garlic, anchovie paste (or minced 1-2 mined anchovies), & minced red chili. Toss together with copious amounts of grated Parm. We modify this for kids by foregoing the chili and adding red pepper flakes to the adult portions. Kids LOVE this dish.
Janet
I work full-time as an attorney and have 3 children, plus husband and 2 dogs. I am the only cook in our house, and I like to cook, so it’s pretty much all on me, although my husband will prep sometimes or get things started. I cook dinners most nights of the week. I usually get home between 6:30 and 7:00 and can have dinner on the table most nights by 7:30 (my kids are pre-teen and teens so they can wait). Here’s how I manage:
1. Meal plan and grocery shop on the weekend. I plan dinners for Sunday through Thursday nights. We usually go out on Fridays and Saturday is either throw-something-together night, takeout, or pick up a piece of fish, cook it simply, and serve with salad.
2. The crockpot ususally makes an appearance on my counter at least once a week. When I make something in it, I try to double the recipe or make a big batch of whatever it is so I can have leftovers and/or freeze the extras. Some crockpot recipes are better than others — experiment and find a few that your family likes.
3. I am a huge proponent of prepping (and sometimes even cooking) in the morning before I leave for work. I tend to make pretty quick things during the week. If I can chop an onion and set the pantry ingredients out in the morning (and even put out the cutting board, a knife, and the pan I’ll use), it makes the process much faster when I get home. This morning I made soup that took less than 30 minutes all in and is now in the fridge ready for reheating when I get home.
4. Plan one night as sandwich, salad, or quesadilla night (or some similar “homemade” quick and appealing meal).
5. Keep some frozen vegetables on hand for a quick side. I keep frozen peas, edamame, and French green beans on hand.
Bottom line: have a plan, prep what you can in the morning, work in a crockpot or salad meal once or twice a week and you can master the weeknight meals.
Question #2
For those of you who do stir fry, can you recommend some sauces? The healthiest dinner I do on a weeknight is sautéed vegetables over rice or pasta. Despite liberal use of seasonings, it is bland. When it’s over pasta, I end up putting a little cheese on top, though I don’t love cheese; and when it’s over rice, I end up using way too much soy sauce. Tried Szechuan sauce while cooking the vegetables recently and hated it, which is odd because I like it in Chinese food. Am basically looking for some sauce in which to cook the vegetables so that it isn’t so dry/bland (I’d like it to have the consistency of Chinese takeout) but don’t really want to buy a whole bunch of $5 bottles and learn that I hate them. I generally like mild flavors and salt; I tend not to prefer anything sweet.
AT
I think that most restaurant Chinese sauces will have cornstarch or xantham gum or some other thickener in them, and I am a firm believer that the texture of a sauce is almost as important as the flavor of the sauce …. okay, yes, I have texture issues. Anyway, you might experiment with doing something to thicken or emulsify your own concoctions so that they are more pleasing to you. If I’m doing Chinese, I typically saute in sesame oil, and then add soy sauce, ginger, and hot pepper. If you want to add a thickener, you could mix it into broth or a little water and add close to the end and then toss and cook until the extra liquid evaporates and you will have a more “sauce”-y concoction that will hopefully present the flavors you’ve added better.
Ms. Van Squigglebottoms
Lawyer & mom here, and I make most of my family’s dinners, so I have thought about this a lot. Here are a list of some of our favorite healthy & quick weeknight dinners (frankly, I often cook like this on weekends too):
1) Bean burritos – some combo of avocado, tomatoes, shredded lettuce or carrots, spinach, and other veggies – sometimes with some tofu or tempeh – we eat this every week without fail
2) Curries – The cookbook 30-Minute Vegan’s Taste of the East has some veggie curries that are freshly made (from chili peppers, ginger or galangal, lemongrass, etc. – no paste) and only take 30 minutes – they’re amazing!
3) Pad Thai – Lots of chopping involved, but after the rice noodles and tofu are cooked (we eat ours meatless), the whole thing comes together in 3 or 4 minutes
4) Anything from the crockpot. I love the cookbook The Indian Slow Cooker. Most of the recipes call for dry beans that don’t need to be soaked — they just cook while you’re at the office.
5) Salad and soup – Easy to throw together, particularly with a raw (gazpacho!) or quick-cook soup — or soup from a carton in a pinch.
6) Breakfast for dinner – I usually try to throw in some veggies somewhere (scramble usually), but if not, then I serve with lots of fresh fruit.
Mlady
crock pot / slow cooker recipe books
1 – Fix -it and Forget- It by Dawn Ranck and Phyllis P. Good – everything from french onion soup to vegetable lasagne to a harvey wallbanger cake.
super easy chicken – 4 frozen chicken breasts – 1 packet italian seaoning mix over chicken – 1 cup chicken stock
– 8 to 10 hours on low because I always have these ingredients on hand
2 – Fix- it and forget-it 5-ingredient favorites by Phyllis Good
there’s a website and several specialty books such as one for diabetics
My cooking friends gave me a crock pot and the books last christmas since I never thought of cooking as a skill. so I;ve been feeding them.
Of Counsel
“…but I’m not sure how I’m going to manage cooking dinner every night with my new schedule. ”
Is SHE doing all the cooking? That’s problem No. 1.
WishfulSpirit
A rice cooker is a lifesaver. We have one that has a steam food option, and I load the rice and add veggies and steamer-friendly proteins to the top (frozen shrimp works great), set it, go take a relaxing bath, and when I get out, dinner is ready. If you don’t have a rice cooker or don’t want to buy one, try boil-in-the-bag rice and a microwave steamer box.