Quick ideas needed for dinner...I'm big on casseroles with vegetables...any ideas?
My go to quick dinner is quiche. It's so easy and everyone loves it. And you probably have everything on hand like eggs, milk, cheese and throw in whatever veggies you have available like broccoli or spinach, etc. If you go to Food.com you can find lots of recipes for quiche to choose from and you don't have to put it in a crust because crustless is just as good and healthier. Good luck.
Crock pot pasta:
1 pkg UNCOOKED pasta
1 jar pasta sauce
1 jar (use the pasta sauce jar) water
Turn on high for 2 hours = pasta
You can throw in cheese, veggies, broth...whatever you want in your pasta.
I usually add some ricotta with the sauce, and mix in some mozzarella at the end. Makes it more like a baked ziti.
Can't get any easier than that!
It is too hot to turn on an oven or stove.
Instead we grill. Chicken, sausage, pork chops, steaks
Microwave some potatoes or a box of stuffing , throw together a salad.
or
Steam some fresh green beans in the microwave then top with a little fresh lemon juice
I've never voluntarily made a casserole, but a quick, easy, and cheap meal that I go to quite often is soft tacos. I buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store, shred that, buy some tortillas, and then take some onions, peppers, and whatever else I have sitting around and saute them, dice up some tomatoes, avocados, etc, put out some sour cream, salsa, and queso fresco, and call it a day. Everyone gets to build their own, I just set out the ingredients buffet-style. We never have leftovers when I do this, and it takes less than 10 minutes to pull together!
I do casseroles in the winter months. With summer and the heat upon us, I try not to use the oven much. We do a lot of grilling outside. When I do cook inside, I use my toaster oven or make something on the stove top.
We like lighter dinners such as antipasta platters with assorted Italian meats, cheeses, olives.
Caprese salad is a favorite. Mixture of red grape and orange tomatoes with cubes of mozzarella cheese, Mix together with a little Balsemic Vinegar dressing, salt/pepper to taste.
Fresh cucumber, vidiala onion and tomato salad... mix all together with a little olive oil, salt pepper to taste and a touch of sugar and then add apple cider vinegar.
I made a great corn and black bean salad last night. It is different from most I have tried..
1 can kernel corn drained
1 can black beans drained
chopped red onion (I used about 1/3 of the medium onion)
fresh chopped cilantro
Dressing... mix about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1/4 (I prefer a tad less) Balsemic Vinegar, maybe 1/2 teaspoon each of chili powder and cumin, about tsp of sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Mix all in a bowl then put the other ingredients in, stir, let it sit for absorb flavors. It was yummy!
Roasted veggies.
I look forward to seeing what others post!
Sautee any veggies you want (onions, peppers, zucchini??)
Wisk up 8 eggs and a 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese (or cube it up, whatever - it will melt). Salt and pepper. You can add sausage or bacon, too!
Grease up a baking dish. Pour it all in and cook for about a 1/2 hour.
YUM!!! Frittata!
When it is hot outside, I do a lot of chef-type salads. My favorite is taco salad. Chips (crunched slightly)
cooked hamburger (diced and placed in a skillet. with taco seasoning)
shredded cheese (melted by the hot hamburger)
lettuce
tomato
diced onions (if desired) sprinkled on top.
Go to allrecipes.com for suggestions.
Good luck to you and yours.
Quick dinner for us is make your own taco too, but I make large batches of different kinds of meat and freeze it. I also always buy the fixings for guacamole weekly, so I have everything, all I need to do is defrost. I even freeze rice and beans.
We don't do casseroles, unless it's enchiladas or stuffed shells, etc. I will occasionally do a chicken florentine recipe.
How about dinner for breakfast? Veggie and egg skillets?
Or a Dahl?
Two of my family's faces are ones that I did in a hurry. Chicken Devine-
Boil chicken breasts for 20 mins (I boil it in bouillon or broth) then cut em up
Boil broccoli for 5 mins
then mix in 1can cream of chicken 1 can cream of broccoli cheese, a cup of milk and 2 cups cheese. I crumble crackers (like ritz) over the top and bake 30 mins at 350
White chicken chili
1 jar great northern beans
1 can of chicken (shrewd with fork into crock)
1 jar salsa
Mix in crock and cook on low for a few hours (sometimes two sometimes six for me)
Then mix in pepper jack cheese and cook another half hour
I realize those are high in sodium-but they're quick, easy, and better than the drive through.
Smoked beef sausage ,(the large link, like Hillshire Farms or
Eckridge, you could even use kiel basa).head of cabbage cut up and cut up some potatoes (or throw them in whole) in a Dutch oven or large pot,bring to a boil, cook until potatoes are done. You can make cornbread to go with it. One pot dish which means less cleanup ! It actually is very good, my granddaughter's fav !
Actually, non-casserole easy shrimp salad recipe:
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2013/06/26/shrimp-avocado-sa...
We're having this on tortillas tonight, just bought salsa to top them with. No cooking, because its hot today.
I love this one from Moosewood. They suggest chopped eggs for garnish, but I prefer it with feta crumbles. The toasted almonds are a must :) It works with just about any veggies, and I have left the saffron out entirely and it is still delicious (just in case you don't stock saffron).
