Wednesday Night Cookery

[jay-ell]

So, we have talked a lot about recipes that are epicurean and recipes that are grelicious, but we haven't talked much about regular weekday "I gotta feed this family something" kinds of meals. Stuff that's cheap, takes less than an hour, makes use of convenience foods, and tastes good. Also, relatively healthy (as compared to hot dogs and hamburger helper). Not "diet food," but good nutritious meals like Mom used to make, but perhaps with less cream of mushroom soup.

I read somewhere that most family cooks repeat the same 10 - 15 meals over and over, and I'm wondering what recipes y'all keep going back to in your kitchens. I thought I'd start a thread about it and get you guys to share.

I've made a list of my favorite 14 standbys and stuck an ingredients list (broken down by recipe, omitting stock items like milk, butter, and eggs) in the back of my planner so that when I'm at the grocery store at 11 PM trying to figure out what we're going to eat this week I always have something to fall back on. Here's one of my favorites, super-cheap and super-fast.

Chicken and Apricot Couscous

1 ½ c. chicken broth
1 c. whole wheat couscous
¼ c. green onion, sliced
4 – 6 dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1 large (12 – 16 oz) can cooked chicken breast
¼ c. cashews, chopped
½ tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Nutmeg

1. In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth to a boil.
2. Stir in couscous, green onion, apricots, and chicken breast. Cover and remove from heat.
3. Let stand 5 minutes until broth is absorbed. Add cashews and spices; stir to combine.
4. Serve in bowls.

To make it vegetarian-friendly, omit the chicken and substitute vegetable broth or water for the chicken broth. (If you use water, you may want to add a little dried thyme to the boiling water just before adding the couscous.)

This is also great paired with a fresh green salad. It can also be served cold and makes a nice potluck dish.

If you have leftovers, you can make a great soup by heating 1 cup of chicken broth for every 1/2 cup of leftover couscous and stirring them together when the broth is hot. Don't add the couscous before you heat the broth; otherwise the pasta will absorb all the liquid and it will get sort of sludgy.

The best part of this recipe is that, except for the green onions (which are nice but not essential), all the ingredients are nonperishable. So you can stock up when things go on sale and whip this up in a flash when you get home at 5:30 and realize that you forgot to defrost the chicken.

Your turn. Gimmie, gimmie.

[Choop]

Fried rice. Make your rice ahead and it goes together in 30 minutes including prep.

I like to use mushrooms, onions, carrots, baby bok choi, and chicken (leftovers are great, raw works well too; dice it). It's a simple stir-fry, just cook the hardest stuff (carrots) longest and take the veg out to cook the chicken and use soy sauce instead of salt. If anybody wants a real recipe I'm happy to share but I'm having a hooky day so I don't want to be at the computer too long right now.

[littlefallsmets]

I want my baby bok, baby bok, baby bok-

I want my baby bok, baby bok, baby bok-

I want my baby bok, baby bok, baby bok... choi.

[jay-ell]

Oh, yes. I had almost forgotten, I used to make this based loosely on a recipe I found in the cookbook my Mom got me when I was in college. It was called, "Help, My Apartment Has a Kitchen."

[CortJstr]

Oh, yes. I had almost forgotten, I used to make this based loosely on a recipe I found in the cookbook my Mom got me when I was in college. It was called, "Help, My Apartment Has a Kitchen."

I own this book. I hate bean dip but the recipe for it from this book always results in an empty bowl at parties.

[wombat]

When we can't think of anything else we make spaghetti carbonara. Beat a couple of eggs, grate a whole lot of parmesan into it, toss with hot spaghetti the instant you drain it, grate on black pepper and more cheese.

Because we fell in with a crowd of vegetarians in our youth, we made this for years with sauteed onions and peppers added to it, before discovering that it is actually supposed to have PORK.  Like a little pancetta or something, just enough to flavor it. Which is a really good idea. But pancetta is not something we tend to have in the house without going to the store, so it is convenient that I am used to doing without it in this dish.

[Asherdan]

Oh man, do I have some simple staples.

Last night was NY strip on the BBQ, steamed broccoli and a bag of that asparagus risotto from Trader Joe's.

Mild Italian sausage, pan boiled, whole wheat rotini, a simple tomato basil sauce and frozen asparagus.

Meat loaf however you like it in the slow cooker with some diced tomato to keep it company. Brussels sprouts and a bag of the Trader Joe's birds nest fettuccine alfredo.

BBQ pork chop, fried corn mush and greens.

Lots of time dinner is a big chicken salad of half romaine and half spring mix with kidney beans, beets, shredded carrots, hearts of palm and some artichoke hearts.

Yukon gold and red potatoes diced up with a pound of stew meat, carrots, celery, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce and Uncle Mike's Meat Special flavour temptations (I made that up) dropped in the slow cooker with a cup of chicken broth.

I mean, that's the kind of thing we do. Low prep time, you can start one thing going then get the others running all at the same time and finish up in half an hour and eat. I like the crock pot for those really difficult to schedule middle-of-the-week days. Lotsa times Spouse and I will have a Sunday Prep Party and set meals up for later in the week. I put green sauce chicken enchiladas together last Sunday while Spouse cooked that night's meal (chicken and dumplings) and made a platter of chicken and cheese pasta for later in the week. For a slow cooker meal, we'll usually be heating something made earlier while doing the prep for the next days slow cooker meal.

One of my jobs is to have three meals on the kitchen whiteboard by Saturday morning each week. Spouse and the oldest Boy come up with the rest. That way the weekend shopping can be planned out and everyone gets some input on meals.

[jay-ell]

I use my slow cooker just about every Saturday. I fix it up while Friday's meal is in the oven or whatever.

Pulled pork is so easy. Toss a pork roast (I like tenderloin when I can get it on sale) in the crock pot, cook the shit out of it for 5 hours, shred it, douse it with a whole bottle of your favorite sauce (sweet baby ray's for the win) and cook it an hour more, serve on buns. Maybe toss in some diced onions if you got some handy; otherwise get yourself a bag of slaw mix and some mayo and turn down tha heat.

We're doing this on Saturday.

Meat loaf in the slow cooker? Never tried that. Do you have to make it extra-moist or anything? Or does it make its own gravy?

Pan-fried or grilled steak is so easy it barely even counts. In the spring I like ham steaks, too, with a little pineapple glaze.

[AugustWest]

Pulled pork is so easy. Toss a pork roast (I like tenderloin when I can get it on sale) in the crock pot, cook the shit out of it for 5 hours, shred it, douse it with a whole bottle of your favorite sauce (sweet baby ray's for the win) and cook it an hour more, serve on buns. Maybe toss in some diced onions if you got some handy; otherwise get yourself a bag of slaw mix and some mayo and turn down tha heat.

The cheaper pork roasts actually work better for this, in my experience.  Boston Butt has lots of marbling that cooks down into luscious gelatin.  Loins are too easy to cook the moisture out of -- they're a high heat meat.

We probably have dinner together these days once or twice a week, almost always on the weekend so I have time to cook if I need it.

[jay-ell]

The cheaper pork roasts actually work better for this, in my experience.  Boston Butt has lots of marbling that cooks down into luscious gelatin.  Loins are too easy to cook the moisture out of -- they're a high heat meat.

We probably have dinner together these days once or twice a week, almost always on the weekend so I have time to cook if I need it.

Do you think? I've only used a pork roast once, and I found it pretty dry at the end of the day. It wasn't Boston Butt, though.

[AugustWest]

Boston Butt for as long as you can stand to cook it.  10 - 12 hours if you want.  I promise.

[Choop]

One of my jobs is to have three meals on the kitchen whiteboard by Saturday morning each week. Spouse and the oldest Boy come up with the rest. That way the weekend shopping can be planned out and everyone gets some input on meals.

GENIUS. i will be implementing this come the weekend.

[CortJstr]

Tangentially related but I don't want to start a new thread. Does anybody happen to have Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian?

[greenkoolayd]

dont forget to have breakfast for evening meal every now and again.  easy and rad.

[Asherdan]

Meat loaf in the slow cooker? Never tried that. Do you have to make it extra-moist or anything? Or does it make its own gravy?

It works great with 85% lean ground round. We like Flavour so seasoned diced tomatoes get laid on top, but grease the pot a little bit for no stickage and a quarter cup of water (or broth) to keep things steamy in the early goings and by the end a 2 lb. loaf will have juices an inch deep. The tomatoes on top keep everything exposed moisty-tasty. I find that I can actually make a crock pot loaf drier than an oven loaf, if you make it too moist it loosens up even more in the pot and can get a little spongy. That isn't my favourite way but it's still OK.

I did the last one with:

2 lb. 85% lean ground
Old toast bread crumbs hella smashed a big handful
Worcestershire sauce to flavour
Garlic & onion powder to flavour
I 15 oz. can diced tomatoes for the top

But it would work with your favourite meatloaf recipe I bet. You mentioned Sweet Baby Ray's? I like that stuff when I see it on sale. I have mixed some in with the meatloaf and then layered that on top for a BBQ style meatloaf that works out fine.

ALSO: I agree with AW about the pork butt and pulled pork deal. I've though loin was too meaty meat as well. But it's good stuff for a meal.

ESP to GKA: Man, you are from too far North, buddy. That pork chop, fried corn mush and greens meal got ate for breakfast by about a million Southerners this morning, I betcha. But you're right, pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs with onion and tomato and hella hash browns can make a great dinner. But it ain't quick, pancakes extend a meal out to an hour for me.