Lightfocus: Recipes
It's easy to overlook the classics when trying to figure out "What's for dinner, tonight!" These tried and true recipes are no-fail answers.
Please note that these recipes are written with US units of measurement.
I remembered this one from when I was a Girl Scout and we cooked them over an open fire. The oven is less of a hassle, nowadays.
Make as many hamburger patties as you want to serve, and place each one on its own square of aluminum foil. Salt and pepper, if you are inclined to do so. Put a few rings of raw onion on each patty and quite a few slices of raw potato.
Fold up the aluminum foil like you were wrapping a present so it won't leak, put it in a 350 degree oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until done. No pans to wash!
The thing I like about this meal is there are so few dishes to wash afterwards. I serve the meatloaf in it's pan, and store what is left over in the refrigerator in the same pan with a covering over it. That means I get to put off washing the pan until tomorrow! Do I procrastinate or what —
The meatloaf:
Mush it all together and put it in a loaf pan. Put a nice wide stripe of ketchup across the top.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.
Bake some potatoes with it. Same temp. Same amount of time.
The kids will love it!
This is really quick and easy... especially if you use quick cooking rice. (Or you might remember to cook some regular rice ahead of eating time. Brown rice is especially good with this - takes about 40 minutes to cook.
Slice up a nice size pile of a variety of vegetables... at least three different kinds, but the more the merrier. Better make that pile of veggies a little larger than you would imagine since they tend to cook down a bit and besides, this stuff is good! Some options might be:
If you want to have meat in this dish (chicken, pork, beef, seafood) slice it up thinly if it is raw and put it in the pan first. If your meat is already cooked, add it last when the veggies are about done.
OK! In a large skillet, heat up some oil, drop in a couple smashed cloves of garlic and a few slices of fresh ginger if you have any, and start it to sizzling. Add the raw meat, if any. Stir around. Add the denser vegetables first. Keep stirring all the time... thus the name- "Stir Fry". Add the less dense vegetables... keep stirring! If you are adding any cooked meat, now is the time. When the veggies are tender (not mushy) pour everything over a bed of rice and pass the soy sauce if you wish. Really good stuff.
You need to plan ahead for this one, but once it is going, you can be off doing other things elsewhere in the house...
Place a Chuck Roast in your crockpot, along with 2 cups water, 2 bouillon cubes (or a teaspoon of beef base, if you can find it), 1 or 2 cloves of garlic- peeled and chunked, one onion - chunked.
Put the lid on, turn the crockpot on to simmer, and go do something fun.
After it has simmered away for about 4 hours or so, very happily cooking dinner for you, add some peeled or well scrubbed potatoes that you have cut in half or quarters, some carrots (peeled and cut in chunks) and put the lid on it again. In about 45 minutes or an hour, when the veggies are tender... serve to your admiring family.
Now, I rarely ever seriously consider making gravy, so I just pour the juice left from cooking the roast, which has become flavorful and tasty by now, into a bowl and let folks spoon that over the meat and veggies if they wish.
Mix a can of cream of mushroom or cream of something soup (not diluted) with half a cup of regular rice (not the instant kind). Spread it in the bottom of a casserole dish. Put pieces of chicken over the top of it. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and a half or so until done.
The juices from the chicken drips down on the rice and makes a yummy rice dish to serve with the chicken. Amaze your family! Impress your friends!