Weeknight Meals

[WeezyBengal]

I am struggling to come up with some week night meals that the wife and I can enjoy. I feel like its always the same stuff:

Grill out either steak or chicken
Some kind of pasta
Some kind of stir fry
Some kind of rissoto


Anyone have any good easy weeknight recipes?

[fredtoast]

By "weeknight" I guess you mean quick and easy with no rice or long baking times. In that case I would recommend breakfast for an evening meal once and a while.

I also suggest that you use a slow cooker. It takes just a little prep time in the morning, but you can come home to beans, soup, or a tender stewed roast.

I don't use mine much because I am usually just cooking for one. But when I had a family I would use it on a regular basis. I was raised on country cooking where a meal might consist of just pinto beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes. My parents always had a freezer full of beef, but they still liked old fashioned meals that did not include meat. especially in the summer when they had fresh garden vegetables. They were not doing it to be vegetarians. That was just the food they were raised on. My mom made a crock pot full of pintos probably once a week.

[XenoMorph]

(01-27-2016, 10:53 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I am struggling to come up with some week night meals that the wife and I can enjoy. I feel like its always the same stuff:

Grill out either steak or chicken
Some kind of pasta
Some kind of stir fry
Some kind of rissoto


Anyone have any good easy weeknight recipes?

Hamburgers and Mac & Cheese with a green side.

We are starting to do more grilled chicken and salads.


We have been doing the frozen bag meals for 2... which take all of 15 minutes on the skillet.

[Belsnickel]

(01-27-2016, 02:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: By "weeknight" I guess you mean quick and easy with no rice or long baking times. In that case I would recommend breakfast for an evening meal once and a while.

I also suggest that you use a slow cooker. It takes just a little prep time in the morning, but you can come home to beans, soup, or a tender stewed roast.

I don't use mine much because I am usually just cooking for one. But when I had a family I would use it on a regular basis. I was raised on country cooking where a meal might consist of just pinto beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes. My parents always had a freezer full of beef, but they still liked old fashioned meals that did not include meat. especially in the summer when they had fresh garden vegetables. They were not doing it to be vegetarians. That was just the food they were raised on. My mom made a crock pot full of pintos probably once a week.

As to the slow cooker, not even just in the morning for prep, but the night before for most recipes. Our slow cooker gets a workout because I will throw something together, put the crock in the fridge overnight. In the morning, before showering and all, I get it out so it has some time to get back to room temp (though it never really does) and then throw it in the shell and start it up. There are sometimes ingredients that you want to leave out until the morning, but most of the time this works well. Doesn't make you feel rushed in the morning and you can do dinner prep after you've satisfied your hunger instead of having to wait to eat.

[fredtoast]

The work and time involved in eating healthy is one of the most overlooked issues in establishing a proper diet. No one want to say they don't have time (or are too lazy) to shop for, prepare, and cook fresh healthy ingredients, but when you have a family it adds a big demand of time to an already busy schedule.

[fredtoast]

(01-27-2016, 02:32 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: As to the slow cooker, not even just in the morning for prep, but the night before for most recipes. Our slow cooker gets a workout because I will throw something together, put the crock in the fridge overnight. In the morning, before showering and all, I get it out so it has some time to get back to room temp (though it never really does) and then throw it in the shell and start it up. There are sometimes ingredients that you want to leave out until the morning, but most of the time this works well. Doesn't make you feel rushed in the morning and you can do dinner prep after you've satisfied your hunger instead of having to wait to eat.

Dried beans actually need hours of soak time before they start cooking.

BTW I once tried to cook dried peas in a crock pot.  I figured they would cook just like beans, but I ended up with a pot full of peas and ham the consistency of mashed potatoes.  It still tasted good, but it wasn't the peas soup I was expecting.

[fredtoast]

I am also a big proponent of cooking a huge meal on Sunday's that you can eat as leftovers at least one night during the week. Not all food keep well in the fridge, but lots of good stuff does.

Roast a big pile of chicken and then you can use those skillet dinners that require that you add meat. It the meat is already prepped and cooked you can fix it much faster on a weeknight when you don't have as much time. Or if you have leftover roast beef, pork, meatloaf, etc you can make it seem like a totally different meal by fixing different side dishes. That way you are eating "leftovers" but not the same meal over and over again.

[Benton]

I crock pot mostly through the week. Italian beef (dressing, beef or pork roast, banana peppers and onions, then toast on a bun with provolone when you get home) is a big one. Enchiladas (cook the meat in the crockpot, then just roll, soak and toss them in the oven when you get home). Chicken and dumplings (do the broth and meat, then just throw in prepared dumplings when you get home and let them heat up and soak up the broth). There's also a spicy Indian chicken dish, but the name escapes me. But the easiest is just a beef roast. Cover it in onions, then potatoes and carrots on top.

[fredtoast]

(01-27-2016, 02:47 PM)Benton Wrote:  Chicken and dumplings (do the broth and meat, then just throw in prepared dumplings when you get home and let them heat up and soak up the broth). 

Wow, there is a dish that I ate a lot growing up, but haven't fixed for myself in ages.

The key to good dumplings is letting the broth cool in the fridge so you can remove all the heavy fat that floats to the top.  I have seen lots of chicken and dumplings at church pot luck dinners that have huge pools of yellowish fat on top of them.  

[Benton]

(01-27-2016, 02:52 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Wow, there is a dish that I ate a lot growing up, but haven't fixed for myself in ages.

The key to good dumplings is letting the broth cool in the fridge so you can remove all the heavy fat that floats to the top.  I have seen lots of chicken and dumplings at church pot luck dinners that have huge pools of yellowish fat on top of them.  

mine aren't grandma good, but they're good enough for my kids. Better than fast food.

I also do crock pot chili, but usually o do it when I'm home to add stuff at different times.

one non crockpot is chicken and waffles. Less than 30 minutes

[XenoMorph]

(01-27-2016, 03:02 PM)Benton Wrote: mine aren't grandma good, but they're good enough for my kids. Better than fast food.

I also do crock pot chili, but usually o do it when I'm home to add stuff at different times.

one non crockpot is chicken and waffles. Less than 30 minutes

Never understood chicken and waffles together.. .both are good on their own is maple syrup that good on chicken?

[*wildcats forever*]

Two things I cook, then freeze for later when time is an issue.

Ham and bean soup, using the bone from a small Honey-baked ham with small chunks of ham still attached, white northern beans, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and sometimes carrots.

Chili using low-fat angus ground beef, Roma tomatoes, white onion, green bell pepper, cumin, white pepper, chili powder, sea salt and about 4 ounces of coca cola.

Both of these defrost well in the Microwave for a quick dinner, and provide great fart fun!

[WeezyBengal]

(01-27-2016, 02:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: By "weeknight" I guess you mean quick and easy with no rice or long baking times.  In that case I would recommend breakfast for an evening meal once and a while.  

I also suggest that you use a slow cooker.  It takes just a little prep time in the morning, but you can come home to beans, soup, or a tender stewed roast.

I don't use mine much because I am usually just cooking for one.  But when I had a family I would use it on a regular basis.  I was raised on country cooking where a meal might consist of just pinto beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes.  My parents always had a freezer full of beef, but they still liked old fashioned meals that did not include meat.  especially in the summer when they had fresh garden vegetables.  They were not doing it to be vegetarians.  That was just the food they were raised on.  My mom made a crock pot full of pintos probably once a week.

She has made a couple of slow cooker meals and they were pretty good. Need to look more into the slow cooker stuff for sure. 

[fredtoast]

(01-27-2016, 03:09 PM)wildcats forever Wrote: Two things I cook, then freeze for later when time is an issue.

Ham and bean soup, using the bone from a small Honey-baked ham with small chunks of ham still attached, white northern beans, onion, celery, salt, pepper, and sometimes carrots.

Chili using low-fat angus ground beef, Roma tomatoes, white onion, green bell pepper, cumin, white pepper, chili powder, sea salt and about 4 ounces of coca cola.

Both of these defrost well in the Microwave for a quick dinner, and provide great fart fun!

When I make chili I make gallons and freeze several smaller containers.  That and spaghetti sauce.  I do so much sauteing, and browning, and simmering that it takes me forever to make chili or spaghetti sauce.  So when I go to the trouble I make huge batches.

And both of those freeze pretty well.

[*wildcats forever*]

(01-27-2016, 03:34 PM)fredtoast Wrote: When I make chili I make gallons and freeze several smaller containers.  That and spaghetti sauce.  I do so much sauteing, and browning, and simmering that it takes me forever to make chili or spaghetti sauce.  So when I go to the trouble I make huge batches.

And both of those freeze pretty well.

Same here, at least for making a gallon or so. But it doesn't seem to take that much time, as I'm chopping up everything while the beef is browning, then everything gets dumped into the pot for slow-cooking. And all of this takes place while I'm watching a game that's not so good anyway, so it's not really time sensitive, much less wasted. When it's dinner time, the longest anything takes is the cornbread or pasta prep, neither of which is not that long. Now I'm hungry ;-)

[Benton]

(01-27-2016, 03:07 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Never understood chicken and waffles together.. .both are good on their own is maple syrup that good on chicken?

Don't use maple syrup. My kids and wife do that. It's beyond reasoning with them.

For me, it's cinnamon roll icing. 2 cups powdered sugar, softened butter, little vanilla and add spoons of hot water until you get it the consistency you want. I make mine a little thin and drizzle it on the waffles and chicken. That way you aren't floating it like with maple syrup and it doesn't get that maple taste, just sweetness to go with the salty/savory chicken.

And I usually bread the chicken in crush up Ritz crackers with a little extra salt and pepper.

[BengalHawk62]

(01-27-2016, 03:07 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Never understood chicken and waffles together.. .both are good on their own is maple syrup that good on chicken?

Me neither!  Must be a southern thing.  Is it breakfast?  Supper?  Late night Waffle House run?  I'm confused here.

[BengalHawk62]

We've been on a pigs in a blanket kick lately.  Probably not the healthiest meal we could have, but damn it, they are good! 

[magikod]

TACO TUESDAYS!!!

[xxlt]

(01-27-2016, 03:07 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Never understood chicken and waffles together.. .both are good on their own is maple syrup that good on chicken?

It is something I was skeptical of until I tried it. It is amazingly good - just a perfect sweet and savory combination.