Healthy, family friendly, fast recipes?

[FishrCutB8]

I have a handful of favorites, my go-to recipes on those days when I get home late (I'm the cook in the family), but lately I just feel I am stuck in a rut. I'd like to be able to prepare and cook them in less than 45 minutes. I do a lot of cooking on the range top, but know my way around the kitchen really well.

Any favorites that fit the bill?

Prepare aheads that I can give Mrs. Fish simple directions to toss in the oven ahead of time?

Crock-pot recipes?

[LisaS]

take serving sizes of meat + seasonings + veggies and wrap them up ahead of time in foil or parchment paper packets and leave them in the 'fridge. Take them out while the oven pre-heats so that they are not icy and then toss in the oven. Make a salad to go with.

For Example Seasoned chicken, onions, zucchini & peppers - seasonings could be Indian, Mexican/Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Italian -
Similar with fish like halibut or salmon.
You can do the same with medallions of pork

the grill is also your friend - endless variations there, with sides of cooked or raw veggies & salad as staples.

Chicken breast, baked to half-done in the oven, topped with marinara and shredded mozzarella - brown the cheese the last 5 mins.

[Lost Dog]

You guys like soup?

This looks complicated, but when you come down to it, Tortilla Soup is Mexico's version of leftovers, made better. You can use any stock, leftover chicken, breasts, dark meat, pork, etc.

You can just crock pot most of it and have the garnishes on the table for each person to customize. Plus, each person makes it their own (I skip the tortillas, ironically).

Here's the "front scratch" idea.

Tortilla Soup

1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled (broken is OK)
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp New Mexico chili, ground (or paprika or ground chili pepper)
28 oz can stewed whole tomatos, drained
7 cups chicken stock
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise & sliced
2 carrots, quartered lengthwise & sliced
2 ears of corn
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon sugar
salt

Garnishes (use some or all, it's up to you):
limes wedges
shredded cabbage
grilled chicken, cut into bite size pieces (or use leftover chicken, shredded or cut up)
diced avacado
cilantro, chopped
salsa and/or hot sauce
shredded jack or cheddar cheese
crumbled cotija cheese
thick tortilla chips or homemade fried tortilla strips (about 6 tortillas worth of fried strips)

Saute onion and garlic over medium heat until soft. Add paprika and chili. Cook until fragrant (1-3 minutes). Add tomatos and 1-2 cups stock. Use a stick blender (or pour into a standard blender) to puree ingredients.
Add tomato mixture and stock to a soup pot and bring to a simmer. Add bay leaves, carrots, and zucchini and simmer for about 30-60 minutes, until vegetables are the cooked but carrots are not mushy. While soup is simmering, prepare chicken, if using and prepare your chosen garnishes.
Cut corn from the ears and add to the soup during the last five minutes of cooking.

To serve, add tortilla chips or strips to the bottom of the soup bowls and ladle soup on top. Top with desired garnishes.

Eat.

[Lost Dog]

Split Pea is the easiest soup to make. It's a no brainer. If they can print a good recipe on the bag of peas, how hard can it be?

Split Pea with Ham

1 1/2 lbs. peas, rinsed
10 cups water
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. ham, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
3 bay leaves
1 tsp. salt
pepper

Combine everything in soup pot and simmer until done. 45 minutes or a day in the crockpot on low outta do it.

Puree soup, if desired.

Add diced ham to soup. Heat through.

My kids like ham, but on the side, not in the soup. They also don't like the carrots cooked, so I leave them out.

[RobLL]

I usually don't respond to generalized requests for recipes, not because I am not interested but because people's taste preferences (and I particularly include my own) are pretty specific.

Were you to post an entry on what you and your family like, and what they don't like, favorite food, especially favorite foods that you don't have easy ways to do, we could probably really give you interesting stuff.

One of my cooking hobbies is to simplify complex recipes to every day cooking. This is not to put down complicated difficult presentations, but for every day eating you normally can get eighty percent of the results with about twenty percent of the effort.

[smoddelm]

Originally Posted by FishrCutB8

I have a handful of favorites, my go-to recipes on those days when I get home late

Could you share a few of those with us? Thanks.

[mom2w]

Have you looked at any of the once a month cooking sites/programs? (ie www.30daygourmet.com )Most are pretty starch heavy, but they do have good ideas for sauces, meatballs, and the like. Otherwise, just make extra and freeze when you do cook (again things like meatballs, taco meat, etc). Soups usually freeze well too.

We use the crockpot a lot --mainly for roasts. I just add a can of beef broth, onions and s&p or any other spices you like. Leftovers are great -- we do regular roast, hot beef sandwiches, shredded beef taco/burritos, etc.

Now that's it's getting warm out, we do a lot of grilling. Even with a charcoal grill (what we use) your wife could get sides ready (salad, veggies, etc) and start the grill before you get home so the coals are ready for you. (depending on if she's good at grilling or not -- took some time for me to get the hang of it and I still leave the good meats to him!). Lots of easy to make marinades or 10min premade ones are available.

I'll make a huge salad every few days so that's always ready to hit the table. We keep a variety of dressings in the fridge.

Spaghetti and meatballs works really well for a goto meal -- I rarely eat pasta, DS doesn't like sauce, DD doesn't like meat (we're working on her!), dh varies what he eats based on cut/bulk point of the year. Most things like this are easily customized at the table by the eater.

Frozen veggies are pretty much standard here --unless it's summer and fresh is available. Adding a bit of cheese or Mrs Dash after they're cooked is a good change up. Lots of veggie mixes are available frozen now as well. Supertarget has this southwest blend -- black beans, wheat kernels, corn, green beans & pineapple (from those famous SW pineapple fields?). Lately we've even found full spears of asparagus frozen. You can either nuke them or steam on the stovetop.

My kids are elementary school aged so we're still dealing with strong likes/dislikes but we try to put out stuff that they'll eat in one form or another (see spag & meatballs!)

Hope this helps some!

[emartin10]

I love the Beef and Barley stew in Johnka's cookbook. I just buy a huge London broil when it's on sale, saute it up a bit, then add it to the crock pot with veggie broth, veggies, barley, garlic, and mushrooms, and about 2 glasses of red wine () and let it cook for about 5 - 6 hours. So good.

E

[ODBSGIRL]

crock pot- wonderful invention- I try to buy chicken when it is on sale, boil it and keep some in the fridge to add into recipes. Cold weather favorites in the pot-white bean and chicken chili. I like to add lots of green chiles to it for extra kick. Any kind of chili really, I've tried turkey chili thickened with quinoa (see E's barley luv above) adds fiber and protein without fat and very tasty. We love a good pork roast in the pot with McCormicks pulled pork seasoning.
Summer time = pasta salad with favorite meats tossed in, always easy to make ahead, keep in the fridge and serve cold on the deck!
Lately I've been trying to find a way around my family's Chinese Buffet addiction. I've been buying frozen orange chicken, shrimp stir fry etc ( I have a load of coupons!) then supplementing with brown rice instead of the rice included and an extra bag of stir fry veggies. It extends the meal, the brown rice adds fiber and there is usually plenty of flavor from the sauce packet but we reduce the fat and sodium by spreading it out. I make homemade egg drop soup and we have a fast simple go to meal.
Lately I've had problems "remembering" to eat breakfast which leads to disaster so Monday night I made a BIG pan of Ole Brunch Eggs (think crustless quiche/frittata) with cottage cheese, pepper jack and extra jalepenos. It has a nice kick and I put it into several containers for grab n go.

[cuteamy]

has anyone tried this?
i call it quick tuna and pasta

you boil your pasta a you like, leave to drain for a couple of mins then you pour in a bowl, add a can of tuna and some sweet corn. u can also add some red peppers (cut in small cubes) and some carrots.
add abit of spieces as you like and some pepper..
serve warm or cold

[stingo]

I posted this recipe for turkey chili for the crockpot. Make it on the weekends and freeze it for something quick and healthy during the week.

[RedWifey]

Berardi has a GREAT recipe for chicken fajitas and rice:
cook 1 cup brown rice; add 1/2 c salsa, 1t paprika, 1/8t ground cumin

buy one roasted chicken from the grocer
cut 1lb of the breast into strips and warm with 1 small onion sliced, 1 red/green bell pepper cored, seeded, and sliced (or we buy frozen pepper and onion mixture and use that).

divide the rice between two plates (or in your case Fish: three plates); top with chicken/pepper mixture and drizzle each with 1T lime juice.

We LOVE this and it's suuuuupppppper fast!