What's Your Go-To Weeknight Meal?
When you find yourself behind the 8-ball, putting together a weeknight supper can seem like a chore (or go by the wayside in favor of second-rate delivery pizza and Chinese).
My go-to dinner for such nights is quesadillas. I keep these 4 key items on hand, and they always satisfy: tortillas, some Old El Paso refried beans, pre-shredded Mexican cheese, and tons of salsa.
If I’m feeling slightly more energetic, I’ll cook up some chicken breast, sliced thin, with garlic, onion, green pepper — whatever’s around — to sex up that quesadilla a bit.
When takeout doesn’t appeal and you can scrap together the most minimal of motivation, what do you make? (Sandwiches count. Do tell.)
Comments
To post a comment, you must be registered and logged in.
By Alison L. McConnell
Alison L. McConnell is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. A native of New Jersey and upstate New York, she attended Bowdoin College in Maine and the London School of Economics before settling in Washington, where she works as a financial reporter and pursues her zeal for cooking on the side. Some of her favorite things to make are risottos, roast chickens, and cakes. She abides by a long-standing family motto: McConnells always finish their desserts.
About The Humble Gourmand
The Humble Gourmand is a monthly online publication edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
The Humble Gourmand encourages users to comment on any and all of its features, but reserves the right to remove any material deemed inappropriate.
Andrew
April 16 5:49 p.m. 1I try to keep on hand:
From these things, I can make:
Broiled chicken sandwiches with cheese and hot peppers, or tuna melts with hot peppers.
Mashed sweet potatoes (roasted for an hour at 400, then mashed with a little milk, cream, butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup, brown sugar - whatever you have on hand in that flavor profile). This is a great food because you can start it, walk the dogs, catch the end of "NewsRadio" and by then the potatoes are ready to come out of the oven. And if you overshoot the cooking time by 15 minutes, it's no big deal.
Variations on Nicoise salads, with canned tuna, green beans, corn, cooked/leftover pasta, whatever.
Broiled or panfried chicken on salad greens.
You can further beef up a salad by throwing in some cooked white potatoes, sliced apples or pears, leftover walnuts (baking recipes rarely use up all the walnuts in a package), dried fruit, cheese... like, we had salads the other night that consisted of salad greens, broiled chicken, sliced pears, crumbled blue cheese, grape tomatoes and a dressing of white wine vinegar and lemon juice. It was sort of a pantry-cleaning exercise, but it worked out really well.
Andrew
April 16 6:15 p.m. 2But you know what I'd be interested in? Recommendations for one-pan meals. Because, when I'm burnt out, I'm especially burnt out on cleaning up, and the prospect of having to wash up multiple pans and cutting boards is too much. This is why the Nicoise is so popular in our household - everything comes out of cans, and basically gets prepared on the plate. I also like making chicken and rice - you put rice, chicken, canned tomatoes, peppers and whatever else you want in a pan, top off with chicken broth or water, and put it on medium heat for 20 minutes. Everything cooks together, and there's only one pan to wash up.
Alison
April 17 8:55 a.m. 3"Pantry-cleaning exercise" though it may have been, that sounds like a delightful salad. When I'm tired, washing and drying lettuce is one of the things I have to FORCE myself to do, and usually by then all I can muster is some chopped tomato, cucumber, or yellow pepper on top. Just enough to make it more than plain old lettuce.
Big fan of the baked potato (russet or sweet), too. As you say, you toss it in the oven and forget about it for a while. Easy, yet hearty.
Nothing caps off an exhausting day like standing at the sink for 20 minutes, so I think we'll pursue the one-pot meal theme in a future piece. Your chicken and rice combo sounds a lot like the Spanish rice I make sometimes (rice, chicken pieces, tomatoes, some spices, chicken broth, a little shredded cheese). I also keep a bag or two of ready-to-cook shrimp in the freezer, and saute those with frozen peas and corn, lots of S&P, and garlic/white wine/etc., if they're lying around.
When all else fails, it's always Mrs. T's pierogies. They're the last resort before Thai or pizza comes through the door.