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.

What’s Your Favorite Meal?

Some folks like meat and potatoes. Others like soups or desserts (hey, that can be a meal!) or raw vegetables.

I was recently thinking of my favorite meal. I think it’s salad. No, not the bland American salad with iceberg lettuce, a tomato and maybe a few cucumber slices. No no no. I mean THIS KIND OF SALAD:

Actually, I like my salad to be even more packed than that.

Because it’s been so hot, I’ve been making more salad meals. I’ve discovered that I really, really like these kinds of meals. My perfect, favorite salad would have these ingredients:

Romain lettuce
Bibb lettuce
Radicchio
Pepperoncini
Stuffed grape leaves
Greek olives
Banana pepper rings
Feta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Roma plum tomatoes
Artichokes
Cucumbers

…and those are just the basics.

I used to hate salads as a girl. But then again, all we had was the boring American salad. And I disliked tomatoes and cucumbers then, so all I’d eat is the iceburg lettuce, lol! No wonder I didn’t like salads.

I like to make these for the family, but unfortunately, they can be a little expensive. Some of the nicer ingredients I like may cost as much as one of those cheap netbooks. It’s a nice price for a netbook, but no so nice for one meal.

What’s your favorite meal?

BBQ, Baby!

Well, after procrastinating for MONTHS, I finally mustered the courage to open the BBQ grill. I got it only last year. It’s a VERY nice grill (well, best one I’ve ever had) and it came in very handy when we had no kitchen during the 2010 kitchen renovation.

In April, we had a vicious windstorm that blew the grill right over! I was afraid of looking inside. I had become rather burned out from fixing things, and didn’t want to face a broken grill. So I procrastinated. But then the weather got very hot and then I got a nice patio set. So I reconsidered. I know! It sounds like something out of the bipolar rehab treatment centers or something, I was up and down so much. :-p

But the grill worked and I had a blast cooking!

The only problem with the grill is the ignitor. It’s that little battery-powered device that, when pressed, ignites the gas. The ignitor ALWAYS dies on me after ONE TIME, for every grill I’ve ever had. I put in a new battery, I check the contacts, everything. What is it with ignitors? They never last more than one time.

SO I have to light the grill by hand, which I hate. :-p

Does your grill ignitor work? Got any suggestions for mine?

Yummy Tuna Casserole– No, REALLY!

I have NEVER been fond of tuna casserole. My mom used to make it with some kind of nasty, pasty flour-y white sauce… and then she added PEAS to it!! *shudder* Even thinking about it again makes my spinal column quiver with queasiness. YUKYUKYUK

SO it took a team of horses to drag me into a tuna casserole recipe (this was a few years ago). I skipped the peas and the pasty sauce. Instead, I used cream of celery soup and cheese and lots of tuna… and YUMMMMM it was good.

Since that first brave casserole exploit 20 years ago, I’ve tried to improve the recipe somewhat with quirky additions here and there. I’ve added broccoli, used mozzarella or monterey jack cheese, dill, s video cables, Creole seasoning (OK, just kidding on the cables– who noticed that?)….

But today, my daughter made the most luscious tuna casserole I’ve ever had. HOW did she do it?? She’s so young!

Well, here’s her recipe. This was goooood stuff. It was so good that I never got the chance to snap a photo. And it was such a pretty casserole, too.

Yummy Don’t-Worry-There-Are-No-Peas Tuna Casserole
serves 6-8

4 cans of tuna, with juice
1 box medium shells pasta, cooked and drained
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 cup fresh kale, shredded into small pieces
2 Cream of Celery canned soup
1 1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning
minced white onions (optional)

Throw all the ingredients into a dish and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

It is SO GOOD. I think the kale is what does it for me. YUM.

Now if I can just get the daughter to improve my pot roast recipe….

Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta

Oh have I got a new recipe for you!! This is our new favorite. I’m sorry I don’t have any photos– the food is gone as soon as I cook it! It’s an easy to make, light meal that is very satisfying.

Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta
Serves 6-8 hungry people
1 5-lb bag cooked, frozen shrimp
3-4 chicken breasts, cubed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
3 handfuls of raw kale, de-stemmed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 pounds thin or vermicelli spaghetti
2 Tablespoons pesto sauce

Place the frozen shrimp in the sink and run under cold water, to thaw.

In a large wok, add the olive oil and toss in the chicken cubes. Turn on medium-high and simmer.

Remove the tails from the shrimp and toss them in the wok. Stir the chicken and shrimp until both are cooked/warmed well. Add the kale and garlic and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, until the kale softens. Turn off the heat. Add pesto sauce and stir well. Serve over spaghetti.

Tip: Do not overcook the chicken or it will turn to rubber. Don’t add the garlic until last– you want it a little raw and not burned to a crisp.

This stuff is SO good, more filling than nitrix, I think. I’d eat it every night, if I could. It’s very good for you, too, because the olive oil, garlic and kale are very healthy.

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