[cooking] Easy dinners
I've been struggling to feed myself recently. Not breakfast or lunch, which are pretty simple things, but dinners. Basically, I've gotten lazy and don't want to have to spend that much time actually in the kitchen doing it, be it prep or at the stove, if it's just for myself.
To combat that, I've been trying to do a lot of "one pot meals"--usually stuff I can just toss into the crockpot and then forget about it. A few weeks ago, it was chicken, barley, broth, a can of tomatoes, and I think some kale ribbons that turned out pretty well. A couple weeks ago, I found pork belly on sale at Whole Foods, got rid of the worst of the fat, cut it up into chunks, and threw it in the crock pot with some more kale ribbons, a cut up purple japanese yam, farro, miso broth, ginger, sesame oil, and dehydrated garlic slices for an Asian-inspired "pottage" (as zdashamber called it).
This week, I took a flyer that a bunch of recipes I've read over the years could be riffed on to do something baked in the dutch oven, since I didn't manage to get it into the crockpot earlier in the day: 1 1/2 cups of a brown basmati/wild rice blend, 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth with a tuft of fresh thyme and a bay leaf. 16 oz. of pre-sliced crimini mushrooms over that, liberally salted. A bare sprinkle of dehydrated garlic slices. A couple cups of kale ribbons over that, with a little more salt. Parts of a cut up chicken over that (breasts, thighs, legs, breasts each cut into two parts/servings), liberally salted and peppered. Slapped the lid on it and baked for 1 1/2 hours in a 375 degree oven.
It came out pretty much perfectly, the rice cooked through but not soupy, the chicken done, and all I had to do was scoop some out and lo, dinner. All I had to to prepare was measure out the ingredients, chiffonade the kale, cut the chicken breasts in twain, and season. Took maybe 10 minutes, and cooked unattended.
I need to keep doing more of this.
To combat that, I've been trying to do a lot of "one pot meals"--usually stuff I can just toss into the crockpot and then forget about it. A few weeks ago, it was chicken, barley, broth, a can of tomatoes, and I think some kale ribbons that turned out pretty well. A couple weeks ago, I found pork belly on sale at Whole Foods, got rid of the worst of the fat, cut it up into chunks, and threw it in the crock pot with some more kale ribbons, a cut up purple japanese yam, farro, miso broth, ginger, sesame oil, and dehydrated garlic slices for an Asian-inspired "pottage" (as zdashamber called it).
This week, I took a flyer that a bunch of recipes I've read over the years could be riffed on to do something baked in the dutch oven, since I didn't manage to get it into the crockpot earlier in the day: 1 1/2 cups of a brown basmati/wild rice blend, 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth with a tuft of fresh thyme and a bay leaf. 16 oz. of pre-sliced crimini mushrooms over that, liberally salted. A bare sprinkle of dehydrated garlic slices. A couple cups of kale ribbons over that, with a little more salt. Parts of a cut up chicken over that (breasts, thighs, legs, breasts each cut into two parts/servings), liberally salted and peppered. Slapped the lid on it and baked for 1 1/2 hours in a 375 degree oven.
It came out pretty much perfectly, the rice cooked through but not soupy, the chicken done, and all I had to do was scoop some out and lo, dinner. All I had to to prepare was measure out the ingredients, chiffonade the kale, cut the chicken breasts in twain, and season. Took maybe 10 minutes, and cooked unattended.
I need to keep doing more of this.