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.

Beef and Barley Stew
2 lbs beef cubes
2 Tablespoons flour
Ground pepper
1 cup dried barley
2 cans beef broth or stock OR 1 can beef gravy with 1 can water added
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 teaspoon prepared mustard (optional)
1 cup chopped or shredded carrots
1 white onion, diced
1 teaspoon paprika

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and ground pepper. Toss in the beef cubes and coat the cubes thoroughly. Place them in the crockpot.

Toss the rest of the ingredients into the crockpot. Stir everything. You can add other vegetables in there if you wish, such as leftover green beans, etc (just make sure the pieces are small). Turn on LOW for 8 to 10 hours. Stir the stew from time to time. Add a little bit of warm water if the stew needs it.

Tip: remember to sift through the barley before you toss it in the crockpot. You should also do this with dried beans. I commonly find stones in the bags, as big as stepping stones! Well, OK, they are not THAT big, but they sure feel like it when your teeth hits them!

I also make this in a Dutch oven on the stovetop, too. I usually cook that all day on low. You’ll know it’s done when the barley is very tender and the beef melts in your mouth.

Well, I spotted another easy recipe, Penne with Three Cheeses that rates a whopping 4 out of 5 stars. The recipe was awful! I had to force myself to down it. It was pasty and sticky and WAY too cheesy. I thought about giving the leftovers to the dogs, but I didn’t think they’d even eat it, despite all the dog training we’re giving them to eat the scraps. This stuff was awful.

I mention it here because it goes to show you that the ratings mean next to nothing (to me, anyway). In case you are curious, here’s the Penne with Three Cheeses recipe:

10 ounces refrigerated Alfredo sauce
1 cup milk
12 ounces evaporated milk
4 cups shredded Italian 3-cheese blend
1 pound uncooked penne pasta
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

I couldn’t even bear to snap a photo. The stuff was like glue, and the milks and cheeses melted before the pasta was done, so on top of the glue-y cheese, the pasta was chewy.

I guzzled about 5 cups of cold water after having some.

Manhattan Clam & Fish Chowder
Serves 8– leftover soup tastes even better
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 8 ounce can tomato paste
3 cans (undrained) minced clams
1 pound ground sausage, cooked and drained of fat
1 white onion
1/2 red pepper, diced
3 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup carrots, cut into very small circle or matchsticks
4-5 fillets of fish (cooked) (Optional)
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano

Add all the ingredients into a very large crockpot or Dutch oven. Stir well.

If using the crockpot, set on LOW for 8-10 hours, or on HIGH for 4-5 hours.
If using the Dutch oven, turn on medium. Get the chowder simmering, then, cover the pot and turn down to medium-low. Stir frequently and adjust burner as needed so that the chowder does not burn.

Like many chowders and stews, this one gets better the longer it is allowed to sit. You can always make this ahead of time, store it in the refrigerator for a day or two while you go about your merry way buying cheap eyeglasses or whatever…. then reheat and serve. It’s very good. I suppose you could add kielbasa or shrimp to make it into a “gumbo” type of stew, too.

Enjoi!
Allow to cool SLIGHTLY, then serve with hot bread.

What makes this app SO Perfect is that if you add two or more recipes to your Shopping List tab, the app will generate a list combining ingredients for all recipes you’ve selected. YAY! I love that feature!!! To see the combined shopping list, choose some recipes, then go to Shopping List, and click the “List” tab. There you will see a checklist of things you need to buy. It has little checkboxes, too, so you can cross off what you have purchased. YAY YAY! I love this.

I do think it needs more recipes, however. It has a lot already, true, but after I use them all up, I’d love to see more. I’ve only been using the app for a short time, so maybe the app people add more recipes after awhile, I don’t know.

Anyway, crockpots are MARVELOUS things. They make it SO easy to cook. The foods tend to be a little heavy, though, so you may wind up searching lipo 6 reviews after seeing some of the ingredients. But it’s a good app. Thumbs up!

I’ll have more reviews on food apps in future posts. Thanks for reading

Buuuut…. I couldn’t let my kids grow up without once trying Chicken Dumplings, now could I? What kind of mother would I be?! So I found a recipe that made it easy. I can’t say it’s very tasty… they liked it OK, but I didn’t care for it. It is certainly palatable, but I don’t like cream sauces… and this had more sauce then chicken. The original recipe is at Disney Family Food (a new recipe website I’ve discovered). I altered it a little. Here’s what I did.

Like Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 soup cans water
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients, except biscuits, in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters and gently stir into mixture. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours.

Tip
Don’t add water to the CROCK-POT® slow cooker, unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Foods don’t lose as much moisture during slow cooking as they can during conventional cooking, so follow the recipe guidelines for best results.

OK, I doubled the recipe. The “2 cans” soup water made for a LOT of water. I did it anyway….

Looks… interesting….

It was just too watery. So I added potatoes. And carrots. All the Chicken and Dumpling recipes I ever saw had potatoes and carrots. This was turning more into a Chicken Stew…. but I wasn’t going to eat canned cream of chicken soup and chicken cubes! It just didn’t seem enough. Adding the potatoes probably diluted a little of the saltiness from the “bouillon” granules (I used Ramen packets). So more salt is necessary.

End result?

Not TOO bad. I skipped the refrigerated biscuits and served fresh rolls instead. The kids liked dipping the rolls into the soup. And the chicken was marvelously tender and moist. But the overall taste….. eh. OK. It’s always the creamy sauce stuff that I don’t care for.

So this was an OK recipe. I don’t intend to make it again, unless the kids beg me. And they probably won’t. The WILL beg me for Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa, which I am going to make again.

Like everything I do, this is completely customizable. If you like spicy chowder, add a dash of Tabasco sauce. Don’t like bacon or sausage? Use ground turkey sausage. Like more greens or yellows? Throw in some freshly chopped spinach or leftover corn. Just keep in mind that the more you add to your chowder, the more dilute the seasoning becomes. Always do a taste test before serving, and add salt or pepper or garlic powder accordingly. This is my tried-and-true chowder recipe.

Crockpot Manhattan Clam Chowder
Serves 6-9

1/2 pound of bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped
1/2 pound ground sausage, cooked and drained
4 cans undrained, minced clams– save that juice!
2 28oz cans of petite, diced tomatoes
4 medium potatoes, diced into small cubes (I leave the skins on the potatoes)
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped well
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 Tablespoon basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
Throw everything in the pot, including the clam juice. Stir a few times. Cover and set on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 8-9 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cool off a little before serving.

This chowder is terrific served with garlic bread and a small, light salad.

Photo courtesy of LATimes.

Featured Content Photo:

Crockpot Macaroni & Cheese
serves 5-6

16oz cooked and drained pasta (elbows, shells, whatever– you can even used leftover pasta if you have enough)
3-4 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 12oz. can of Evaporated Milk
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning or cayenne pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)

Grease the inside of your crockpot with butter or margarine. Mix everything together and pour into Crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Don’t stir, it will firm up as it cooks. In the final few minutes of cooking, you can add bread crumbs or sprinkle some dried parsley on top.

Photo is from Kitchen Wench, who, incidentally, has a spectacular Mac and Cheese recipe at her site, too. Be forewarned: it’s loaded with heavy ingredients. She calls it Mac Heart Attack n’ Cheese!

Wow Chow Chili
serves 10

• 1 large can (28 oz.) petite-diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 green pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 white onion, diced
• 1 can beef broth
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 4-5 pounds beef or pork, cubed into bite-sized pieces (I used both uncooked beef cubes and some leftover grilled pork steaks, cubed)
• 3 cans black beans, drained
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt

Throw everything into the crockpot and stir well. Turn on HIGH for 6-8 hours (or LOW for 10-12).

Serve with rice and a little cheddar cheese sprinkled over the top.

If you want to add some heat to the recipe, you can add tabasco sauce, or something like hot pickled cherry peppers. I always have a can of these on hand for my Chicken Riggies recipe. My kids don’t like spicy foods, so I don’t make them (not too often, heh heh).