One of the things I like about fried rice is you can cram a LOT of vegetables in there and a non-vegetable eater, like my roommate, wouldn't notice. You could have the proportions be 5 to 1 vegetables to meat, and he'd still eat it. Great price, great nutrition, great taste.
Ten Simple Meals in Ten Minutes or Less
Photo: I Love Butter
It’s all well and good to save money on meal prep, but for those working outside the home or juggling various other projects, saving time can be just as critical. Here are ten simple meal ideas you can prepare in ten minutes or less.
Tacos.
For healthy, fun eating that brings together multiple food groups, tacos are tough to beat. They’re also incredibly flexible, with versions available in chicken, beef, fish and TVP. Definitely a dinner for tortilla lovers. Bonus? Kids dig ‘em!
Fried rice.
This one requires packages of pre-cooked rice from a prior assembly cooking session, but is otherwise super quick and one of the most inexpensive meals you can make. An extra perk? This is another one of those meals which allows tremendous flexibility when choosing ingredients. Whether you’re using left-over pork ribs, sale ham, or even Spam as Paul suggested recently, fried rice is a great way to use up leftovers of all types.
Soup on the fly.
While many soups require longer prep times and slow simmering, there are a few ways to get a decent soup on the table in minutes. A restaurant knock-off version of pasta fagioli soup comes to mind. Onions and celery cook quickly, carrots can be grated to greatly speed up the process, canned beans are already cooked, and most dried pastas cook in six to eight minutes. Fresh pastas finish in even less time. Slice some leftover artisan bread for bruschetta, add some fun soup garnishes and you’ve got an elegant dinner on the table in no time.
Gourmet sandwiches.
Horseradish-infused tuna melt, oven toasted ham and Swiss with fun condiments and bargain banana peppers purchased in bulk, a fresh basil caprese . . . loads sandwich ideas exist for fun dinner food on the run. Add some homemade potato chips or mozzarella sticks and you’ve got a decently replicated café experience right at home.
Dinner salads.
Chicken Ceasar, sliced steak, spinach and strawberry with feta and sunflower kernels, lots of creative opportunities are out there for the salad option as well.
Stir fry.
Thinly sliced beef, shrimp, small chunks of chicken and tofu cubes all cook quickly. Add to that the rapid cooking time of diagonally sliced vegetables, and stir fry bumps nearly to the top of the list as far as time saving dinners go. Punch the button on your rice cooker, and you’ll be cooking with gas. Figuratively, that is.
Don’t forget the power of your crock pot.
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Obviously, the cooking time for meals in the slow cooker drastically exceeds the ten minute time line. The benefit here is in the extremely reduced preparation time and flexibility. Not to mention having fewer dishes to clean afterward. It takes no time at all to toss in a pot roast along with some carrots, potatoes and seasonings. Having a hearty dinner ready as soon as you walk through the door is decadent indeed. Many other simple, time efficient recipes are out there for slow cooker meal prep. If you have a yummy fast one, please share below.
Go with a rip and dunk menu.
These are simple, flexible and depending on your choice of ingredients, extremely affordable. Hummus and motobal with a selection of flat bread and vegetables is one way to go. Bread bowl dinners and fondue are a couple of others. As you can see, this type of dinner option can be as rustic or as elegant as you like.
Breakfast for dinner.
This is yet another area where you have a great deal of flexibility. Using homemade baking mix for on the go pancakes and waffles, or serving a hearty egg scramble with sausage and peppers are both quick options with a reasonable amount of yum. We like to do this occasionally because while these types of breakfasts are quick to make by evening meal standards, they take a little more time than we have some mornings, even working from home. However, we LOVE breakfast foods. This is an affordable, fast and flexible way to have the best of both worlds.
Affordable conveniences.
Still cheaper than take out or restaurant dining, having a few convenience items on hand for those evenings when your schedule is completely out of whack is a viable alternative, in my humble opinion. Frozen grocery store entrees, rotisserie chicken, even fish sticks and Tater Tots can get the kiddies fed and in bed on time, putting you back in control of a previously out of control day. The time saved can be used to regroup and get things back on track for the next day.
The most exhaustive list of menu-specific dinner options? No. But really, that wasn’t my intent. What I really want is for you all to have some idea categories that provide you with the greatest amount of options based on what you’ve been able to find on sale in your area. So mix and match to your heart’s content, and use the extra time for whatever you like. With these ideas, you’ll have plenty of it to spare.
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Thanks for stopping by. You know you raise a good point about the vegetable content, and one I think parents of finicky child eaters will love too.
its not too cheap but a pound of precooked shrimp should go for 8 dollars(depending on size and where you live), heat up some olive oil, garlic and basil mix in the shrimp and put over your favorite pasta. Its a simple quick meal.
Fried rice is a great idea, but I'm awful at cooking it any tips or recipes for it?
That shrimp idea sounds yummy.
Regarding the fried rice, honestly, I'm pretty much a scramble some eggs and chop them up, add some olive oil and garlic and perhaps some minced onions, toss in the rise along with scallions and perhaps from precooked chopped carrots. Then, it's the leftover meat of choice, either chicken, ham or roast pork.
I don't skimp on the garlic, and liberally add tobasco or soy depending on the type of fried rice I do.
Not the most detailed recipe, but it's flexible, cheap and works for us. Hope that helps.
Pressure cookers are also a good way to go to cook a quick meal. I can make stew in 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.
Cook the meat for 10 minutes and add the potatoes, carrots, canned tomatoes with a few jalapeno peppers thrown in and cook for 5 more minutes.
I like to make cornbread in my small convection oven (to keep the heat in the kitchen down) to with the stew.
I have always loved what my mother calls "pocket bread," and now that I'm married my husband loves it too. Here's how we make it on the cheap and fast:
brown some ground beef (vegetarian options we like include using mushrooms, black beans, and/or the textured "crumbles" that boca and morningstar farms sell)
add to any combination of the above:
2 cans of creamed corn
salt and pepper to taste
when that's all stirred up and hot, put a big flour tortilla on a plate, cover half the tortilla with the filling from the stove, top that with your favorite cheese (we like colby-jack, but cheddar works great too) and fold over in half. You can pop that in the microwave for about twenty seconds to get the cheese all good and melty if you like. Then top the tortilla with about a tablespoon or so of sour cream and you've got yourself a very tasty, filling dinner.
One of the quickest easiest things I make is 5 can stew. You use any kind of meat you get on sale ( you could also make vegan..and use 2 cans of kidney beans or white beans instead of meat but i'm a carnivore)
Chop the meat into pieces. Add to crockpot. Don't drain any of the cans, just Dump striaght in - 1 can corn, 1 can diced potatoes, 1 can carrots, 2 cans crushed tomatoes. Add 1 package onion soup mix. You can also use whatever other veggies you like, in addition to or substituted for the above. You can also used the diced or stewed tomatoes instead of crushed. Whatever you have in the cabinet.
makes 8 generous servings.. great with a loaf of crusty french bread.
I forgot to say above -- cook on low for 4 hrs or until the meat is tender enough to shred and fall apart.
The most important tip for fried rice is not to add any water (including soy sauce) until you're done frying the rice and veggies. It took me a while to learn this, and I always wondered why I made glue. By the way, this is especially important if you're using tofu, which will get mushy and fall apart if cooked with soy sauce. Don't add water in any form until everything is done frying, and you're good.
I too use lots of garlic, and I also use fresh ginger when I have it.
I started making fried rice regularly when I didn't have quite enough left-over rice to re-heat and serve with stir fry. I just did my veggies as usual, threw the rice in the wok with the veggies, fried a little longer, and everyone was happy. This is a great catch-all for leftovers, and the kids love it.
