What to you is fast food? I think that every person should have several tricks with a cooked chicken and also with mince meat. There are several cookbooks out there dealing with these 2 staples, however I also want to add to the mix some other staples that can quickly result in a healthy dinner. Spaghetti (any pasta really, I just love spaghetti), tinned tuna, eggs, and tinned tomatoes.
Tonight I felt like something of a 'no-brainer' dinner. Tuna pasta automatically sprang to mind. Tinned tuna, tinned tomatoes, pasta. Easy. As we are down-sizing before the move, I was stunned to see that there was NO tuna in the pantry. In 18 years, I have NEVER been without tuna.
Instead, and in a rush, here is the mid-week roast option that warms my kitchen tonight. With due deference to Hoppo Bumpo's Stand Back and Throw meals, here's my version:
Get one decent BBQ chicken. Not always easy. Gone are the days of the charcoal chicken shop of my childhood, however we have sourced a reasonable local chook haunt.
Peel any vegetable that you can find. Potato, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, swede, turnip, celeriac, beetroot, whatever's in the cupboard or fridge. Chop into the size or shape that suits your family. (picture John Cleese talking to brat child in Fawlty Towers: 'What shape does he usually have? Mickey Mouse shape? Poke in the eye shape?') Speed them up in the microwave if you like. Toss them in oil (Olive here, dripping or Hi-Fri as a kid!) and cook until the desired colour is reached. If you microwave them and add hot vege to hot oil they will absorb less oil and cook faster.
Steam any other vegies that think they have got away. Zucchini, broccoli, beans, cauliflower, brussells sprouts, silverbeet, etc. Make a decent cheese sauce if this is your thing for the cauli and broc.
Carve the chook, and serve with roast vegies and lashings of gravy.
When the chook has been carved, and all meat removed for tomorrow's sandwiches, toss the carcass into a pot, cover with water, add a carrot and some celery, a bay leaf and some peppercorns, and simmer for as long as it takes to eat dinner, do the dishes, watch The Amazing Race, eat dessert, remember about the stock, and turn it off. Skim the surface if necessary and freeze in portions as stock or strain and use as a base for a soup or risotto for tomorrow.
3+ meals in one, and all yum. All done in 30-40 minutes. All for less than a grand total of $12.
What are your favourites?
xx
6 comments:
Excellent advice. I NEVER remember to use the left over carcass for stock. I will put a note on my fridge for next time. thanks.
Yum!!! I do the same as you for my quick meals... tin of tuna or salmon with tomato, pasta and cheese. Re my porridge in slow cooker post, the recipe said that if you do it straight in the bowl, the edges burn or dry out.
Oooh those baked veges are making me hungry!
Fast food to me is anything done in 15 mins :).
I got heaps of tips lately in my blog on hardly-any-effort meals. I have to say, I really want to try the pasta, chicken and avocado one!
One that I really like (but the kids don't) is pasta with cherry tomatoes, with garlic/pine nut dressing. Mmmmmmm - I'm getting really really hungry now!
P.S. You free for some crafting tomorrow (Sat) lunch/arvo?
Love it. What a fabulous and easy meal/s. And you're right - sometimes you need a no brainer.
Brilliant - I really must remember to make stock from the carcass - I have a small freezer, though, which generally dissuades me from 'stocking up' (har har, groan).
Super fast meals? Baked Tortellini is a favourite - get a pack of fresh tortellini or ravioli from Aldi (about $5?), then either open a jar of pasta sauce or make a quick sauce with a tin of tomatoes, herbs, garlic, dash of wine, etc, whatever comes to hand.
Cook the pasta, put in a casserole dish. Spread the tomato sauce over the top, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake. Eat!
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