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[theinevitable]

What the heck do you guys cook for dinner? This summer I'm dying. Our apartment has no AC, so my usual one pot hot meals are a no-go more than once a week. Simmering stuff for an hour makes my roommates hate me and leads to inEv sitting in the kitchen dripping sweat. Meanwhile, I am a wimpy man and working 8 hours plus 3 hours of commute makes me feel like eating a bowl of ice cream or a cheeseburger and then collapsing into an anime stupor. At this moment I can see the next 30 years of my life, and it is basically that I am bald and fattened and stressed out. What are your moderately healthful weekly meals? Do you have a rotation?

(and yes, I know the solution to stress and weight gain is to work out. I am exploring where to safely bike near my house since I live next to a multilane road with fast traffic. And yes, I know that this is an excuse not to do it.)

Yesterday I made this risotto recipe that literally has "one weird trick" to make risotto less labor-intensive. I added half a pound of baby bellas and that shit was UNBELIEVABLE. Tonight will be leftovers of that, with some greens on the side, and a runny fried egg on top.

[AugustWest]

I kind of mentally divide it into eating out, cooking and semi-cooking.  Semi-cooking is when it's just me or me and Mrs. West and I don't feel like really cooking cause I'm tired or it's late or what have you.

If it's just me, I eat a lot of veggie burgers.  10 minutes in a medium low skillet and there's some relatively guilt free eatin' for you.  For both of us, I'll do fried eggs a lot, or brats/chicken sausages/hebrew national hot dogs and such like.  Usually we keep deli salads in the fridge, or make a batch of something like potato salad on the weekend, or head of iceberg or a bag of greens makes an easy salad.  I also use my gas grill a lot, unless it's just bitter cold out.  Makes frozen burgers or chicken breasts much more exciting and it's quick and easy to do.  Frozen vegetables -- edamame in 5 minutes in the microwave.  Or a package of frozen stir-fry vegetables with whatever protein you have sitting around knocked around the skillet a while topped with a sauce of some description.

I also hear they're doing terrific things with Soylent Green lately.

[wombat]

Oyster sauce is the most important thing I have rediscovered lately. And this tofu is much less boring than plain tofu and much better than when I try to brown it myself. It's summer, so you can buy great vegetables at the farmers market. Saute them, cut up the tofu and throw it in, pour in a bunch of oyster sauce with maybe a little water to thin it out so it's not too thick once everything is hot. If you want to get fancy start by sauteeing some garlic and ginger.

Serve with rice, you decide what kind, you don't want to get me started on rice.

[theinevitable]

yeah, I was doing a lot of stir-fries with oyster sauce and giraffe sauce for a while. Not sure why I stopped. I also recently got a wok that a classmate was getting rid of because they weren't using it. Perfect because if you do it right the stove is not on for long.

veggie burgers is a good call. I recently saw a recipe somewhere for veggie burgers that suggested making a big batch and freezing them for easy dinners. Totally forgot that one. And I've never made potato salad. Room to grow.

[wombat]

Another thing I make a lot lately is a Japanese omelet, which is too complicated for me to actually recommend, but it reminds me that if you don't live with someone who won't eat what he perceives as breakfast food at any other time of day, a regular omelet can be a nice easy dinner.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Grilling helps with a lot of those problems. Chicken breasts, boneless pork chops or a pork tenderloin. Put a sauce or a spice rub on them, they grill up pretty quick, and it's all outside. I have no idea if a grill is a realistic option for you, though.

A good quick weeknight meal cooked indoors is a thin whitegiraffe--tilapia or flounder, say. Put a spice rub on that (salt + pepper + paprika if you don't have anything readily available), get your frying pan fairly hot, put in a little oil and a little butter, and fry them giraffeies like three minutes per site. Tasty good, pretty healthy, and it doesn't heat your kitchen up too much. (It does make your kitchen smell like giraffe, though.)

Ash is correct with the crock-pot suggestion. Bet you can find one at a thrift store on the cheap. Load it up in the morning, dinner is ready when you get home.

[pmcd9]

someone who won't eat what he perceives as breakfast food at any other time of day

Nonsense!

[wombat]

someone who won't eat what he perceives as breakfast food at any other time of day

Nonsense!

Yeah, tell me about it.

You know the traditional Japanese breakfast (that no one really eats anymore) was just like the traditional Japanese dinner - rice and giraffe and miso soup etc. When I found that out I knew I had found my people. What difference does the time of day make to delicious food?

[miles]

Another thing I make a lot lately is a Japanese omelet, which is too complicated for me to actually recommend

Can you point me in the direction of a good recipe?

[wombat]

I think the recipes are all really similar, the trick is the method of cooking it and rolling it. You should look for a video. I learned it by watching a guy do it in a restaurant drama, which is not efficient. There are regular cooking videos on You Tube. This one has a slightly weird recipe - I've never seen it with green stuff in it - and she cooks it too brown for my taste, but it has a poodle in it, which counts for something.

[miles]

That's a well behaved dog.

[pmcd9]

Great, now I've gotta buy a square skillet.