You've ordered pizza, picked up subs 3 times this week, you're low on patience and are totally out of noodles. The kids are melting down because they are hungry, what are your top 3 "Make in a Flash" meal solutions outside of breakfast for dinner? I'm looking to spice up my 'in case of emergency' recipe file.
By mo from Madison, WI
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I keep a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables in the freezer for occasions like this. Cut some pork or chicken into small pieces so they cook up quickly in a little oil. Better yet, save your leftover meat and keep it in a container in the freezer for when you need a quick meal. Then I mix in some chicken broth and soy sauce and throw in the frozen veggies and cook for a few minutes more. Serve over rice, which takes less than 10 minutes to cook. It's quick, easy, healthy and it tastes good, but the best part is there is very little to clean up.
Another one of my favorite "quick" meal ideas is using the crock pot. When you get up in the morning, toss your ingredients in the crock pot, then when you get home in the evening, dinner will be waiting for you. Or if you don't have time in the morning, you could get the crock pot ready the night before, and put the crock part of the crock pot in the fridge.
Any spare lunch meat you have can be a quick way to dress up a pasta or rice dish and make it into a meal. It saves the extra step of cooking up some meat.
Apart from pasta and rice, the most important staples for me are canned tomatoes, new potatoes, and cream of mushroom soup. A can of tomatoes cooked up with some herbs and spices makes an inexpensive sauce that's ready in minutes. Canned new potatoes are versatile and nothing makes a better meal on a cold day than fried potatoes with onions and ham. Cream of mushroom soup can be a quick gravy or pasta sauce, or just plain soup! Along with a selection of frozen vegetables if I have these things on hand I can always whip up a quick meal.
Grilled cheese and soup or french fries.
My quick go-to meal when I am frazzled is Salmon Patties. I use one can of Honey Boy Pink Salmon and two cans of Starkist Chunk Light Tuna (it makes the fish flavor more mild to add tuna). Mixed with 2 farm fresh eggs, a sleeve of saltine crackers (or a cup of oats for a whole grain). Using a large spoon, I make small, oval-shaped patties and fry them off in canola oil in a cast iron skillet.
This recipe makes about 2 dozen - plenty for our family of 5 with some leftover for my lunch the next day (I like them cold too). We eat ours with ketchup (you know it counts as a veggie now). I pop whatever frozen veggie I have on hand in the microwave in a glass covered bowl with a tablespoon of water and butter to steam it. Mac N Cheese goes well with this meal too. Canned goods are not great to eat all the time - too much sodium, but in this case, I like to think the Omega-3s and 6s make up for the sodium!
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