Super Fast Meals for Busy Families

As much as I regale the marvels of fresh, non-processed foods, I do serve them. A little TOO frequently, in my opinion. Oh, we’ve made some advances, but no way do we eat salads and fruit slices all day. Wow, that’s actually a TON of work, time I wish I had, lol! So we do eat “ready made” meals sometimes. Because school has begun and tis’ the season for winter preparation and the onset of the holidays, I thought I’d share a few of my “Quicky Meals,” as I call them. They are great for throwing together in a hurry when you suddendly realize dinner has to be on the table in an hour and you have nothing thawed!!!

1. Pasta with frozen meatballs.

Sometimes I skip the meatballs and throw leftover cubed chicken (when we have it) and pesto sauce. Pesto sauce is SOOO good and a little jar goes a long way.

2. Chicken with shrimp and pasta.

I wrote about this recipe here; I call it Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta. It does require some preparation, but not much!

3. Greek Salad with flat bread.

We love this one. It requires almost no cooking (if you serve shrimp, you have to cook it or thaw the pre-cooked stuff). It does require a lot of table setting (a zillion jars of stuff). I wrote a post about some of our favorite salad ingredients here.

4. Tuna Casserole Sans Peas

I hate peas! So my tuna casserole has nary a one. I love tuna casserole because it can be on the table in about 90 minutes. The hardest thing about it pre-cooking the pasta and trying to shake the gravity-sealed cream of celery soup out of the cans. Here’s our favorite recipe for Easy Non-Peas-y Tuna Casserole.

5. Crockpot Manhattan Clam Chowder

This is a great one if you have 15 minutes to spare in the morning. Pre-cook the sausage or crumble the breakfast bacon leftovers into the crockpot, and throw in a bunch of ingredients. Allow it to simmer all day. By dinnertime, the house will smell delicious. Clean up is SO easy, too. My personal favorite is my own recipe, Manhattan Clam and Fish Chowder.

6. Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa

I love this, but the kids have grown out of it. I don’t know WHAT it is about edamame, it makes me feel like superwoman after eating it. It’s just so good. The kielbasa is a little salty and too flabby for me, though. I think the edamame with the tortellini or just the edamame is good enough. I have the recipe here: Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa.

7. Leftover Turkey Pasta Primavera

This is an AMAZING dish, perfect for after the holidays when your fridge is stuffed with leftover turkey. I love it because it is so easy and so delicious. Check out my recipe here.

These are the few recipes in my repertoire that I use for those moments of OHMYGOSHIFORGOTTOSTARTDINNER. Which, incidentally, are occurring a LITTLE too often for my tastes. But I’ve been clobbered with writing assignments with such technical topics like Technical Recruiter Consultant Jobs and electric wiring!

Hey, if you have any Quicky Meals that you want to share, please do! I think the family is starting to tire of my repertoire, lol.

Easy Quesadillas

I went to a Chili’s restaurant for the first time last week. I’m not terribly fond of Mexican food, and I admit I did hesitate a little when going in there. But I ordered some chicken quesadillas, and they were quite yummy. I was astonished at the portion sizes there, I couldn’t even eat half of what they served! I took the rest home for the kids to try. They thought it was Greek pizza!

Well, all this quesadilla eating started to make me want to try cooking some. So I gave it a shot. My concoction turned out pretty good– very basic but nutritious. I decided to add more veggies and less meat in mine, to pack a vitamin punch; not as potent as, say, prenatal vitamins, but pretty good. Of course, there’s alwats room for improvement. Here’s my basic recipe.

Easy Quesadillas

Chicken breasts- boned, skinned and thinly sliced
White onion
Water
Chili powder
Cumin
Fresh or frozen corn kernels
Red pepper, diced
Kale, destemmed and chopped
Shredded cheese
Tortilla wraps (smaller ones work best)
Butter

Cook the chicken, onion, and spices together in a frying pan. Add a little water if necessary. Add the vegetables and cook until just tender.

Butter one side of each tortilla. Place it on a griddle and sprinkle the cheese. Add a scoop of the chicken and veggies. Fry another tortilla and add a little cheese to that. Once the tortillas turn a golden brown, slap the two together to make the quesadilla. Repeat with additional quesadillas.

I served mine with salsa, but there’s also the traditional sour cream, too. These are even good as leftovers- I had one the next day for lunch, and while the tortilla was a little rubbery, it was still very good.

Chicken and Shrimp Pasta Dish- EASY

Whenever I read the word “shrimp” in a recipe, my eyes glaze over and I pass along. I love shrimp-don’t get me wrong- but all the recipes that call for it are usually complicated uber-gourmet dishes that take 5-6 hours to make and 5-6 minutes to eat. NOT. FUN. I don’t like cooking *that* much, thank you.

But I have actually located a recipe WITH shrimp that is pretty durn good! And it’s easy! I make this from time to time. I found the recipe again after unpacking our storage boxes (we’d stored books in boxes during the house renovation). I’m going to make it later this week. It’s a very satisfying yet light meal. If the husband likes it enough, he may send flowers. You don’t have anything to lose…

Chicken and Shrimp Pasta Dish
serves 6

3-4 chicken breasts, boned and cut into large cubes
1 pound shrimp (you can use the pre-cooked frozen kind to make this super-fast to make- make sure it’s thawed first)
7 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup olive oil
6-7 garlic cloves (add more or less, depending on your preference)
2 Tablespoons FRESH basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning, if desired (add more if you like it)

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the oil. At low heat, add the garlic, basil, salt, and Creole seasoning. Toss in the chicken and the shrimp. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the meats are cooked through.

Serve with cooked angel hair spaghetti or thin spaghetti. Yum.

Another quick fix is to use leftover cooked chicken with the thawed pre-cooked shrimp. It’s a wonderful meal. My family loves it (even the kids).

Four Foods For Friday 109

Hm, here we are, discussing chicken soup. It seems that some folks have had colds recently, eh? Hope you’re better!

Name four of the primary ingredients that YOU use to make chicken soup.

I don’t make chicken soup all that much. I am not a soup eater (unless we are really low on food). I hear it’s really good for you– protein, helps when you’re sick, etc etc anti wrinkle cream, etc etc.. many more marvels… I just don’t like the stuff. But I have made it, and it’s *tolerable.* Barely, lol.

Four primary ingredients, huh? Ummm…

1. Chicken. (I know, DUH, lol) I don’t use breasts or special cuts for soup, though– I make it with the stock I’ve made from a carcass.
2. Onions. A must, otherwise the soup is intolerably bland.
3. Seasoning of some sort. Has to be full of pep. Right now I’m using a lot of the Salamida Pinch Seasoning, it’s very good.
4. White northern beans.

I may also add black beans (well rinsed) if I want real variety.

So, sorry! My meme this week was pretty dull and bland– a lot like my chicken soup!! Hey, Val, let’s talk Italian when you’re feeling better, eh?

Salamida’s Lemon Garlicious on Roast Chicken

I received some of that yummy Salamida marinade– the Lemon Garlicious marinade– from the folks at Salamida. They asked me to try out some of their spices and marinades and mention them on my blogs. Wooo! I love to grill with Salamida products during the summer… but we got two feet of snow, so I don’t think I’m pulling out the grill anytime soon. Some folks still have to pack up their winter pop displays! But I really really wanted to try the marinade, so I marinaded my roaster chicken.

I slathered the chicken with onions and elephant garlic cloves. And I tucked in a few potatoes for good measure.

I baked in a slow oven (300 degrees) for about four hours. Mmmm the house smelled good.

The chicken was incredibly tender; it practically melted in our mouths. The potatoes were SUPERB. I like the light garlic taste of the marinade, but wasn’t too fond of the lemon. I don’t like lemon, in general. This was light enough to make the chicken very luscious, though.

I wrote about the Upstate New York phenomenon that is Salamida marinades here. We love the marinades; I go bananas for the original Spiedie marinade. If you place an order, use the discount code SAUCE3 at Spiedie.com, you will get 15% off your order. The coupon code is good until April 1st. This is the best marinade EVER. It’s not all that expensive, and you can order online, which is nice.

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