Mini quiche (crust less).
Black bean soup
Stir fries w tofu - I often do with soba noodles for a slower-curbing carb
Greek salad w hard boiled eggs and avocado
Sautéed white beans and kale
Sweet potato stew w tomato, spinach, and chickpeas
Chili with impossible "meat" and a fried egg on top?
Or arroz con frijoles with a fried egg.
Grocery store udon with an extra carrot and egg either hardboiled or fried?
Falafel from a mix with pita and yogurt?
I'll plug the Mealime app as well. Plenty of recipes that fit this bill. Recipes are generally good for weeknight cooking. And they're well-written; you can just follow the steps in order, rather than having to read through the whole thing first and think about how to organize your cooking. And most are legitimately good, by which I mean noticeably better than I'd achieve trying to cook the equivalent meal with no recipe.
5: Huh, I hadn't heard of that. Thanks for the tip!
Why don't you just cook for Hawaii, Mobes, and I'll handle the other three?
Cheese ravioli is so easy, until it isn't.
Life is like a box of pasta, you should boil it until its isn't so hard.
3-4 are also full of good ideas - thanks LW and Sarabeth.
I've been getting into lentils this year. Starting in January I decided that I'd keep a container of lentils in the fridge and make a new batch when it was finished.
I cook the lentils with a fair amount of spices -- using a couple different blends which end up having a bunch of cumin, garlic, mild chili (Ancho), and smaller amounts of ginger, cinnamon, and hot chili (habanero).
My simplest meal has been toast with a little cheese, lentils, and some nice olive oil drizzled on top. Really simple and tasty.
Have you tried putting avocado on toast? It's really good.
I know you already make meals like this already, but this looks like a good recipe that scales up well: https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/02/taco-torte/
These aren't exactly *recipies*, but I fed them to my kid all the years he was growing up, and now when he comes home from college he demands them again:
Cheese on toast, grilled under the broiler
Grits and eggs (cook the grits, and then when they're done, stir in an egg or two. Keep stirring until the egg has cooked.)
Ramen with eggs (as above)
Split pea soup with popovers (this one *is* cooking, but it's mostly just putting the soup together and letting it simmer)
bean burritos (with or without cheese)
Oh, I forgot:
cheese pizzas on English muffins made under the broiler
Martha Rose Shulman in her former long-running NYT space made a lot of recipes off the basic frittata template - cook some vegetables, pour in eggs, bake together.
This book of hers also frames recipes as "templates" so lots of mixing and matching is possible.
2: THE PROTEIN IS THE FRIENDS YOU MEET ALONG THE WAY.
Split pea soup is really easy.
Probably half my meals now are some sort of bean in a crock pot with various veggies. TVP substitutes for meat a lot of the time when I don't need fat.
I make this about once a month: https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/quick-pasta-and-chickpeas-pasta-e-ceci/
Also, this pizza dough recipe is very easy: https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/10/lazy-pizza-dough-favorite-margarita-pizza/
For toppings, I guess mushrooms are an ok source of protein. Was it here that I learned that if you put your button mushrooms out in the sun for a few hours they generate a lot of vitamin D? Anyway, I did that earlier this week, but then work got really busy and I forgot about them, and by the time I checked them they had dried into leathery little chips. Still tasted ok.
This is good. I used tempeh instead of shrimp. Or just skip that part. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeYgc7Rh/
If all these links are rick rolls, I'm going to be super annoyed.
A Thai omelette over rice is quick and tasty, particularly if you have leftover rice or just use a rice cooker. You might want to pair it with a kid friendly veggie, like microwaved broccoli.
Lentils oh yes. Red lentils, chorizo, berbere, some onion and collards are a very low-work winner.
Also French-style lentil salad-- good little green lentils, celery, fennel, onion, generous thyme, bay leaves, and however else you fill out your bouquet garni, some walnut. Adding either feta or some mustard . Good French lentils are much harder to find than red ones IME. Technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHIh8_uPv0
The lentil salad that I've liked is
lentils
lightly cooked carrots (chopped up and thrown into the lentil pot near the end of cooking)
olive oil & vinegar
pepper & salt
chopped pickles (the brand I like is particularly crisp so it still has some crunch when chopped up).
Simple, and the pickles and carrots give enough texture and variety to keep it from getting boring.
Paneer is here for you! We make "paneer thing" a couple of times a week - just cut it into cubes and simmer it up with onions, tomato sauce, potato (or cauliflower for less starch), whatever other vegetables and spices you like (if there's a Desi market in town you can pick up garam masala along with the paneer), serve over rice. I like to stir in blazing hot vindaloo paste but adapt to taste.
You could probably add some chopped hard-boiled egg to that salad as well. It was originally adapted from a potato salad.
I'm not even sure what paneer is, but we probably have a nearby place to buy it.
It's cottage cheese, but South Asian? I'm not so sure about that. My taste in cheese runs toward the more aged stuff.
One of those cheese balls with crackers would be a good dinner.
Also, we bought an Instant Pot so we should probably buy some dried beans or something.
30: wait, is paneer available at a regular grocery store? or are you actually making paneer?
I remember an Unfogged argument between Moby and the more urbane commenters over whether paneer counted as cheese.
38:. You were trying to explain why Mexican food is more popular in the US than Indian food. Your explanation was cheese.
If Mexican food in the U.S. used queso fresco, it probably would fail to gain broader acceptance too.
šž. Patel brothers IS a regular grocerz store, they have cheese in the chiller case. It's Safeway that is a bizarre outlier, where tomatoes are not to be found with the canned vegetables and there is nobody to ask whether they can order something new or restock competently.
Just as simple latin American dishes made with queso blanco are good with fresh cheese and bad with whatever huge packages of glop Wisconsin sent to be stored for a few years before making it to Safeway's indifferent staff, so with paneer.
Way back the first time Sally was a vegetarian, I figured out you could make quinoa into surprisingly chicken-nuggety patties. Cook quinoa, you can do this ahead of time. Mix enough egg into it that it's a thick batter, and fry patties until it looks done. I usually added a bunch of grated parmesan, salt and pepper, you could add onions and garlic or really anything else you liked.
It's not anything fancy, but it's a fairly high protein vegetarian food thing.
You're in AWB's dinner group on FB? If not, you should be. She does a whole lot of salad with a commercial fake chik'n thing sitting on it -- I think fake chicken must be pretty good these days, although I don't ever buy it myself.
41. Oh please. Taqueria Los Comales is huge, has a bunch of Chicago locations, has been in business for decades. No orange glop.
For a good and easy rice and lentil thing that my vegetarian kid loves, I make mejadra pretty often. The Ottolenghi version (see link) is delicious but annoyingly time consuming if you fry the onions yourself. But if you just buy a bag of fried onions instead, it's quick and easy and tastes 90% as good at 30% of the work.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/mejadra-from-jerusalem.html
44: The FB app somehow became unusable for me on my ipad. Basically no matter what I'd try to do, I'm constantly clicking on "See all the people who reacted to this!" and then the lag time to get it to go away is stupidly long. So my tenuous FB use has now shrunk to almost zilch.
This thread is going to make my children lose their mind with unhappy deviations from routines. SORRY SUCKERS!
50. A friend's kid (15) apparently subsists pretty exclusively on microwaved dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.
Now I want a quesadilla made with shredded cheddar and jack.
I made paneer a few days ago, it was tasty. It's basically the same process as making ricotta but then you press all the whey out until you've got a solid block. Mine didn't have quite the density of the store bought stuff but it was still good.
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-paneer-cheese-in-30-minutes-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-57008
I had to hunt, but this is the quick Thai omelette images from Wendy Xu that make them so easy -- https://twitter.com/AngrygirLcomics/status/1298714480285638665
Rice and beans (with optional toppings of cheese; diced tomato; grated carrot; salsa; guac; sour cream; etc.)
Stir-fried tofu and veg with hoisin sauce (or some other sweet-and-sour sauce that appeals to kids)
Lentil soup, with perhaps (as an inducement to eat the legumes) some kind of dairy- and carb-heavy accompaniment (garlic bread; grilled cheese sandwiches)
Pasta with greens and beans (my favourite version is penne with chickpeas [canned chickpeas are fine], spinach [frozen spinach is fine], and parmesan)
It's been forever since I've had homemade garlic bread.
I'm positive you can find paneer in [metro area nearest heebie], but I don't know how regularly she likes to drive there.
Can you not eat paneer on a stochastic schedule?
Stochastic Paneer is Moby's hipster album from 2004.
Before the lawsuit, it was Harry Potter and the Stochastic Paneer.
Will your kids eat Dal?
The easiest meal base in the world IMHO is kichari: grains and lentils cooked together. The variety and taste all comes in (a) the permutations of combining different grains and lentils (traditional white rice with yellow mung? Or brown rice with while green mung? Or quinoa with split peas? Or barley with Toor? Or bulgur with French lentils? Or...you get the picture) and (b) the accompanying fixings: vegetable steamed on top, vegetables cooked separately, side salad, canned vegetables stirred in, pickled vegetables/crunchy things on top, from croutons to fried mung to pappadums to potato chips to vegetable chips to slices of fried or baked temoeh, fried shallots/hot sauces and chutneys and salsas and ketchups/dollops of cashew cream, greek yogurt, sour cream, spicy mayo/drizzles like ghee, pumpkin seed oil, toasted sesame oil/sprinkles like TJ's mushroom powder, dulce flakes, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds. You control the carbs by adjusting the grain lentil ratio and going more or less whole grain, and up the protein with the crunchy things and dollops. So the same dinner can be very plain and bland for someone with a bad case of nausea and an absolute riot of flavors and textures for the person sitting next to them; higher protein for the work out buff and lower protein for the kidney patient; higher fat for the person trying to do an always hungry style diet and lower fat for the gallstone patient; higher carb for the starving athlete and lower carb for the diabetic parent.
I use a Favor pressure cooker but apparently Instapots are all the rage.
Air fryers apparently do wonders on tofu and tempeh. I am kind of lusting after getting one.
Paneer IS available in regular grocery stores PLUS there are probably Desi grocery stores nearer than you realize PLUS the homemade non hydraulic press version JL seems to have made is closer to Bengali Channa and thus obviously far superior.
One weird trick: heat a lot of milk in your pasta pot. When it starts to simmer add enough lemon juice to curdle. Then cook your pasta and vegetables in the pot. It's delicious. Works with buckwheat pasta for gluten free people. I used half a gallon with 12 ounces of pasta the other night. Goes well with zucchini/red bell pepper/ green beans. I am sureushrooms and onions would also be delicious.
Check out Vite Ramen. Atrociously expensive until you realize how filling it is. They use a mix of flours to balance out the amino acids. They sometimes have a "naked" version that's good for cooking for the family. Yesterday I rehydrated and simmered dried mushrooms , and then added the whole mess o a pot in which I had sauteed half an onion, one stalk celery, a quarter bell pepper, then cooked two Vegan Miso flavor vite Ramen packets in the soup. Too much dinner for two people.
Check out Brami. Atrocious.plastic sacks but the lupini are sooooo good to snack on.and they can mail.you the lupini hummus which is very satisfying.
I have also been exploring weird beans and highly recommend ordering a big ass box from Purcell Mountain Farms if you can front the cash.
52: That's probably what I'm making for dinner tonight. A masterpiece of microwave cookery!
It has what you order in it. Shipping is effectively cheaper the more you order.
Paneer IS available in regular grocery stores PLUS there are probably Desi grocery stores nearer than you realize
It's not turning up on the search bar on the HEB website, at least! And I really don't think there's a Desi grocery store, short of driving to Austin or San Antonio, unfortunately.
Purcell Mountain Farms
Dang, they make Rancho Gordo look cheap.
Maybe there's some synergy with non-Desi Asian grocery stores?
Out here we do get paneer at regular grocery stores - they even have it at Costco - but that might be regional. I've never tried to make it at home but this hydraulic press thing is interesting.
69: I think their prices have gone up. Darn. They had a major advantage over RG in not being completely sold out at some point last year. Some of the dense beans ( Scarlet Emperor, Soldier) really go a long way.
68: if you do make a trip to somewhere you can buy it, you could stock up and freeze it. If you make it at home, drain it, roll it in falafel size balls, and then fry them, those freeze really well. Apparently they air fry really well too. I have heard that people have had luck doing the same thing to ricotta and/or whole milk large curd cottage cheese/queso/ goat cheese , but have never tried. You could also look for Halloumi as a substitute. It has the paneer quality of not melting
Speaking of falafel it's possible to make it so it's less parsley flavored, if that's an off putter.
70: I think the more likely synergy is middle east. But I think Heebie is out of luck locally.
71: I was being snarky about how dry paneer is compared to channa. I don't think actually hydraulic presses are used so much as large grinding stones and other weighty things. But who knows, maybe? If you have a hydraulic press set up you re comfy eating out of I guess it's worth a try?
I guess the catchall non-ethnic word for paneer-like substances is "farmer's cheese" - maybe something could be found under that moniker?
You can usually substitute queso fresco for paneer, they're pretty similar. I doubt your kids will care about the difference.
They might worry about cultural appropriation.
Traybake with fake sausage:
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/braised-sausage-all-in-one-with-cherry-tomatoes-cannellini-beans-and-cider
I'm pretty sure it means "outdoor cheese" and that doesn't make sense.
Both of these are more carb-y, but good and not, like, pasta with breadcrumbs on top.
Also, if you just made the patties and skipped the buns, these might fit the bill:
https://smittenkitchen.com/2020/03/carrot-and-white-bean-burgers/
The version of pasta e ceci I've been enjoying all winter is this NYT soup/stew:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020860-pasta-e-ceci-italian-pasta-and-chickpea-stew
We had mashed potatoes like three days a week when I was growing up and I turned out fine. Maybe feed the kids lots of potatoes.
Some days you are just chilling in the park with your peeps and an illicit bottle of tequila and then Springsteen rolls by on a bike and ends up doing a couple shots with you.
83: Charm, or strange?
Here's a recipe I make about once a week using beans: in a Dutch oven, sauté chopped onions in butter or another fat (I use leftover bacon or duck fat sometimes) at low-med heat. When soft, add spices and smashed garlic (cumin, paprika, pimentón, smoky ancho chili powder, Indian spices, anything you have). Bloom the spices and garlic at low heat, then add the umami ingredients: (it's good to have Geo. Watkins Anchovy sauce and Mushroom Ketchup (suitable for vegetarians) on hand - you can send off for them by Amazon and they're well worth it), tomato paste, and wine if you have some leftover). Cook for a few minutes and then add cans of beans, stock or water, and kale/spinach/chard. For variations, you could also use coconut milk and/or add a canned chopped tomatoes. Simmer for about 30 min. You could poach a runny egg and serve that on top. Miam, miam.
I don't have time to back through it but there were some good recipes posted here. Easy to find ones that match your requirements if you scroll through the post titles.
We are having lentils and brown rice for dinner! ...and chicken, because I kind of just winged it and dumped them together in a single pot, and I wanted a back up item.
That sounds good; do you have hot sauce on hand for people who want it? (lentils, rice, hot sauce & cheese is a fairly easy combination).
I don't know if you've tried it before, but white rice can be substituted for brown rice in almost any recipe and it tastes better.
Ok: I heated some oil and garlic, added a cup of lentils and a cup of brown rice, let it fry for a few minutes, and then added a bunch of water and basically just simmered it for an hour, with some salt and lemon juice.
And holy cow. All the kids independently said how much they liked it. This is a miracle.
Don't worry. We're all screaming at each other for non-dinner-related things instead.
48. Mejadara (I've seen at least a dozen anglicised spellings) is essentially rice', lentils, onions arnd whatever you fancy in the way of seasoning and other stuff. Play around till you find a version that everybody likes. Ottolenghi is great, but who has time to follow him precisely? Everybody in 6the situation desctribed in the OP should get a simple "middle eastern- Syrian/Lebanese/Palestinian" cookbook, which will last forever. Irecommend Claudia Roden, an Egyptian Jew who relocated to the UK. An absolute standby.
My sister made a shephard's pie one time. Seasoned ground meat/veggies on the bottom, mashed potatoes on top. Said her family was licking the serving bowl.
When I was a kid we had shepherd's pie every week. We still eat it or cottage pie- same thing,, but minced beef instead of lamb or mutton (what is it with Americans not eating lamb or mutton? They're all mad!) a lot. Pro tip:serve shepherd's pie with Worcester sauce for best results.
In the US, we call cottage pie shepherds pie. Also, I love lamb, and it is more expensive here than in the UK. My Canadian husband loathes it, which saddened me greatly.