Quick and EASY Dinner Recipes

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Jill

Aspiring Cowgirl
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I cannot cook anything unless it's easy. Harvey's better than me when it comes to cooking but realize it's a LOW bar
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Can you share your quick and easy dinner recipes? For us, quick / easy right now is the name of the game, but I'm limited. It's kind of like pasta, frozen pizza, frozen entrées, beans and rice, tuna helper, sandwiches... you get the point!

DO you had any quick and easy dinner recipes you could pass along? I'm figuring (hoping?) I'm not the only one challenged when it comes to time + talent in the kitchen!
 
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Chop up fresh veggies, whatever is in season or what you like, add onions, fresh garlic, mushrooms. Saute in olive oil. Cook your favorite pasta, when its almost done, toss into the veggies and let it warm together for a few minutes. Add cheese if you like. I like. Lots. Add bread if you like too.

You can also brown chicken tenders and add to it.

You can also not use oil and use a small pasta, add your favorite salad dressing and make a pasta salad. This can be made ahead and left in the fridge, its as good cold as hot.

Bake a good size potato for each person, once done, cup open the middle and add tomatoes, cheese, bacon, onions, whatever you like, top with Ranch dressing, baked potato and salad combo.
 
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Here's an easy one that everyone that comes here just LOVES! It's not a whole dinner, but the "meat" portion of it. It may not be a good selection for those that want reduced salt intake, but it is easy and DELICIOUS!!

Ingredients:

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of muhroom soup

spices (I use a sprinkle each of garlic powder, dill weed, parsley flakes, onion powder, celery salt, celery seed, but you can use whatever turns your crank
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In a large covered skillet, quickly brown chicken breasts in about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. In a bowl, combine your soups and spices and mix all together, then pour over the chicken. Turn way down and simmer very slowly, cooking for about 45-60 minutes. Chicken will be tender, juicy and delicious, and the soups make a ready made gravy to serve over mashed potatoes.

You can just add more chicken breasts and additional cans of soup as needed for larger numbers of people. (Do not add water to the soup!)
 
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I think there is an official name for this dish, something like spaghetti carbonara, but we call it Jimmy Dean Spaghetti:

While boiling a small package of spaghetti, crumble and brown a 'chub' of your favorite breakfast sausage with some chopped onions. Drain if excessively greasy. Break 4 eggs into a bowl and mix with a fork. Grab your parmesan cheese. When the spaghetti is done, drain it then immediately return it to the pot and add the hot sausage and the raw eggs, stirring until the eggs have cooked from the heat of the pasta/sausage. Add at least 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, and pepper to taste. The cheese and sausage add a lot of salt so you probably won't need to add any.

Another thing is that I just discovered is that there are some really good frozen ravioli in the freezer section of my grocery store. We like the ricota cheese ones and they boil up pretty quickly and are good with canned/jarred marinara sauce. Pair this with a salad or good veggies and some garlic bread or rolls and you have a very easy go-to dinner.
 
I am a vegetarian, but something my mom makes if she has no time is to throw boneless chicken breasts in the crock pot with water and some Lipton's Onion Soup mix and let it cook all day. No prep, no cooking really. Just throw it in and set the dial.

If you are vegetarian, my personal favorite "under 10 minute meal" is soyrizo burritos. We heat up some Soyrizo (it is a soy based chorizo, very spicy, and pretty much pre-cooked so you just throw it in a pan on medium heat for a couple minutes) and mix in some beans (heat in microwave for a minute or two) and some cheese in a tortilla. Mmmm.

Andrea
 
Jill, you NEED a crockpot. I do the majority of my cooking in one. Nearly ANYTHING can be made in a crockpot. You can set it in the morning, and dinner is ready when you get home from work. Plus the house smells GREAT.

My hubbys favorite is roast with gravy

in a crock pot put

Beef roast, whatever size you want

1 can coca cola

1 can cream of mushroom soup

a packet onion soup mix

Turn crock pot on low for 8 hrs or high for 4hrs.

If you want, you can throw veggies in with it, bu hubby prefers mashed potatoes on the side.

I often make "Italian chicken" too

Its chicken (whatever king you like boneless or not)

spaghetti sauce

Cook on low for 8 hrs or high for 4hrs.

After its done, I serve it over spiral noodles, and have a vegetable on the side
 
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I like using the crockpot too:

a bag of boneless raw frozen chicken tenders

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cheddar cheese soup

pepper to taste

cook on low min 6 hours, I do longer usually like 10...the chicken gets so tender it just falls apart like it's shredded...we serve with Bob Evans microwaveable mashed potatoes and microwavable green beans in a pouch and dinner rolls.
 
I'm a fan of the crockpot too! Here's an easy take on grilled cheese that I like to serve with homemade soup:

Preheat your oven at 375.

Mix 3oz cream cheese with 1/2-3/4 cup mayo (to your tastes), 8oz of shredded cheese (we prefer colby jack) and 1 tsp garlic powder.

Cut a fresh loaf of French or Italian bread lengthwise, spread open, and slather both sides with the cheese mix.

I also layer on sliced tomatoes and either salami and ham or turkey and roast beef, but I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that would taste good on these.

Close the sandwich, place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 12 minutes.

The loaves get nice and crusty, but be careful when cutting because the cheese mix is super gooey. I like to cut them into small pieces for dunking with soup, but when we have them with chips or veggies I just cut the loaf in half. These ARE rich, so I can never finish my half, but the hubby will happily eat what I won't.
 
You all are awesome!!! Thanks for sharing these recipes and keep them coming if you and others can!!!

We do have a few crock pots in different sizes and really about the only time I myself make anything that turns out "good" (again -- low bar!), it usually involves a crock pot. I love them.

Making up a grocery list now with your recommendations in mind.
 
1 Whole roasted chicken

1 Bag of frozen broccoli flowettes(I use microwaveable)

2 jars alfredo sauce

1 small pkg, creme cheese

1/2 teaspoon garlic

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

favorite pasta

De-bone chicken. Put alfredo sauce in pan,add pkg creme cheese(cubed), add chicken. Microwave broccoli till done then add to sauce. Simmer sauce on low and stir. Cook pasta. Serve sauce over pasta. I usually serve garlic bread with this. For vegetarians-omit the chciken. Enjoy!
 
Heat some olive oil in a skillet (only a tablespoon or so), take boneless skinless chicken breasts, put them between two pieces of plastic wrap and beat the crap out of them until thin. Great after a bad day at work. You can use a skillet, or meat mallet. Season as you like, I love using the McCormick grilling seasonings, and cook in the hot oil. They are awesome!

For burgers, mix lipton onion soup mix with the burger,let it sit a while to get flavor (mix in the morning and refrigerate for the evening), make your patties and cook on the grill.

Dunkel Burgers (named for neighbors I grew up with, the Dunkels) take two burger patties, put a slice of onion and choice of cheese (Mom loved bleu, not me!) put the patties together and wrap the burgers in bacon so that the entire burger is covered in bacon. Use toothpicks to hold the bacon on, my dad used a different number for each person's burger so he would know which had which filling. Cook on the grill.

Let me tell you, these are the BEST tasting burgers I have ever had.
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You can't eat them in the bun, can't get your mouth around them. Since my weight loss surgery, one Dunkel burger lasts me for 4 meals now!
 
we do similar to the burgers above...we call them juicy lucys....in between 2 raw patties we put cheese, cooked bacon (micro kind), and jalepenos...just pinch the burgers together and grill...yummy!
 
Yeah, I am for sure hitting the grocery store tomorrow to get the ingredients for some of these recipes. Tonight's dinner was 1/2 a grilled cheese on raisin bread and left over chinese. I think it tasted good but it's probably more eclectic than a lot of people would care to stomach
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Thanks a lot for sharing them!!!
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Take a large non-stick skillet and spray with PAM or sprinkle with olive oil.

Cut up boneless skinless chicken breasts into chunks and lightly brown over medium heat. One breast per adult.

While chicken is browning, sprinkle some garlic powder and Parmesan cheese over it.

Once meat is lightly browned, ADD:

1 jar of prepared spaghetti mushroom sauce

1 can diced Italian style tomatoes

1/4 to 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Stir the above and allow to simmer on low heat while preparing the pasta of your choice.

Before the pasta is ready to be served, ADD 1/2 cup heavy cream to the chicken and sauce and stir. Allow to simmer a few minutes and blend. Stir a few times.

Once pasta is done, drain and serve the "Creamy Chicken Alfredo Mushroom Sauce" over it.

Shazaam!

Larry loves it....It's easy and takes way less than an hour to cook and serve. Plus, if you make it for others they think you've "slaved" to prepare a yummy Italian meal.
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(BTW, I'm puting together a bunch of easy "ethnic" recipes like this one in a booklet.... Think they would sell?)
 
just tried this one last week and it's a real keeper

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen is fine

1 stick butter

1 pouch Italian salad dressing mix

1 (10.5 ounce) can of cream of chicken soup

egg noodles - cooked

In a crock pot, add frozen chicken, butter and Italian salad dressing pouch. Cook on low until chicken is done (took maybe 3 hours). Remove chicken and shred. Place back in crock pot, add can of soup and stir. Let heat 30-45 minutes.

Serve over cooked egg noodles.

I thought it was wonderful but needed some color. Next time I'll add maybe some frozen peas near to the end of the cooking time or some diced carrots, maybe even some chinese pea pods. Just something for a little color.
 
Here's an easy dessert.

Banana Cream bread

Mix the following ingredients in order given.

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 c. flour

2 ripe bananas

8 oz. cream cheese

2 tblsps. oil

3/4 c. nuts

1 tsp. baking soda

Grease/spray a loaf pan and cook @ 350* for about an hour.

Serve warm with butter or let cool and have with a glass of milk. YUM!!!
 
I try to keep my pantry well stocked with various types of salad dressing, canned veggies, lots of "cream of" soups, pastas of all kinds, rice, beans, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, rotel tomatoes, jalapeno slices, black olives, canned chicken and canned turkey. I cook a lot of "Eat it and Name it." In other words I don't rely on a recipe a lot. My husband says it is all good but then he is not so good in the kitchen. My cooking style goes back to my days of raising boys while the child support checks were few and far between. In other words when the potato chips are down to the crumbs just save the crumbs in a ziplock bag to be a topping for the next casserole!

Here is one I can remember and it is often requested of me for get togethers:

TRI-COLOR ROTINI SALAD

Cook a package of tri-colored rotini according to directions. Pour a small bottle of zesty Italian dressing over the pasta. Add any or all of the following or even other veggies you might like: chopped red onion, broccoli florets (sp?), sliced black olives, chopped bell pepper both green and red, chopped roma tomatoes. Put lid on bowl and give it a few turns to mix the ingedients well. Leave in refrigerator overnight for the flavors to mix well. When served sprinkle with shaved parmesan. Delicioso!
 
Drain and rinse:

1 can corn (not creamed corn, regular corn)

2 cans black beans

1/4 cup chunky salsa

1/4 cup diced pineapples

chopped cilantro

dash of hot sauce

Mix together and set aside.

Broil or BBQ either salmon or chicken. Serve this bean/corn salsa mix on top - it's AWESOME!!!
 
YUMMY YUMMY!!!!

I'm going to be trying a lot of new recipes!!!

Today, based on some of the things I read here, I'm trying a chicken recipe. Partly inspired from this thread, and partly from talking to my mom (who is an amazing "chef"). A chicken teriyake pasta thing (trying to replicate this Healthy Choice dinner I used to love). We'll see. It's ridiculous that I woke up at 4am wanting to fix and eat it then!!!
 

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