Your best "Throw Together" meal.

[AniellasMommy]

What do you make for dinner in a pinch on crazy days? What meals can you throw together in a few minutes, and always have the stuff laying around for?

Mine is chili.
2-3 Cans of beans (whichever kind looks/sounds good)
1-2 Can Tomato sauce
(can add 1 lb. browned ground turkey beef or chicken, or not)
Onion (dried if I'm feeling lazy, or in a REALLY big pinch)
Garlic (again, sometimes dried)
Cumin.
Chili powder.

[Elecampane]

Spaghetti and meatballs (homemade frozen) and jarred sauce
Breakfast for dinner: eggs and toast and hashbrowns, bacon if I've got it
Mac and cheese (I keep shredded cheese in the freezer)
Fried rice with leftover meat, veggies, rice
Baked or fried tofu with veggies and a grain tossed into the rice cooker (like quinoa)

I'm terrible at last minute dinners--we end up with takeout far too often.

[russsk]

Macaroni and cheese with a simple veg
Frittata with whatever we have - there's always potatoes and frozen peas
Burritoes with black beans, rice and whatever veg we have (there's always rice nd tortillas in the freezer)
Curry with frozen veg and nuts

[bluebunny]

My Dh is better about throwing together meals than I am.

Here are some of ours:

spaghetti and meatballs (homemade, frozen) and either homemade or jarred sauce

breakfast for dinner -- eggs, bacon, biscuits or pancakes and sausage

shrimp, peas and pasta -- frozen shrimp and frozen peas tossed with pasta -- olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese

chicken salad sandwiches -- canned chicken, celery, chopped apple, dried cranberries and a little mayo

fish sticks (or fillets) and a frozen veggie side like peas, corn, broccoli

cereal

tacos (browned ground beef in the freezer)

[KatWrangler]

Pita bread or tortilla pizzas. I usually always have some sort of meat an veggie around.

Spaghetti and meat sauce

[buckeye_bebe]

Yesterday I smeared a thin layer of peanut butter between spinach leaves. Daughter ate two helpings of spinach that way. I'm going to call it early and say that was my best throw together meal for the sheer simplicity and nutrition.

[LemonPie]

spaghetti and meatballs
breakfast (pancakes/french toast and scrambled eggs)
grilled ham-n-cheese and canned soup
tacos (provided I have lettuce or cabbage on hand)

[busymama77]

Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs
Breakfast for dinner - eggs, bacon, toast or waffles, hashbrowns
Taquitos w/ salsa and chips and cheese
Grilled cheese w/ pineapple and cottage cheese

[mommajb]

eggs
corn muffins and beans
pasta and jarred sauce or simple tomato topping
curry (coconut milk, peas and onions, curry powder) and rice
pb balls (peanut butter and dried milk) and fruit
almost anything wrapped in a tortilla

I can't do pb and j if they had that for lunch or oatmeal if they had that for breakfast

[ollyoxenfree]

Pasta primavera

In olive oil, saute chopped onion and minced garlic, add dried herbs (basil, thyme, oregano) and lemon zest and/or red chili flakes. Add chopped vegetables (broccoli, red and orange peppers, zucchini, asparagus, peas, sliced carrots, mushroom - whatever is in the fridge/freezer). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss with cooked pasta (any shape, but penne is our favourite) and grated parmesan.

Ready in 15 minutes!

[Baby Makes 4]

Pancakes, eggs and homefries. I usually have some bacon around too. THat's our #1 fallback because everyone will eat it.

[lovebug]

baked pasta

boil noodles to almost done. One jar red sauce and a little less jar of white. Mix in some parm cheese add noodles then put I baking dish top with mozzarella cheese and parm and put in the oven until it bubbles…

i love this one because it only take like 10mins to prep!

[noobmom]

This sounds crazy, but I swear this is an authentic chinese dish.

Scramble some eggs with garlic in oil (peanut or a neutral oil like canola).
Take them out of the pan and set aside.
Put a couple of chopped tomatoes (or a can of chopped tomatoes) to the pan and cook until they have broken down a bit.
Add the eggs back to the tomatoes, season with soy sauce, black pepper, maybe a bit of sesame oil if you have it.

It'll take 10 minutes max to cook, so make sure your rice is already done before you start cooking.

I always thought this was just some random concoction my mom made until I found out my other chinese friends' mothers made it too!

[Elecampane]

Originally Posted by noobmom

This sounds crazy, but I swear this is an authentic chinese dish.

Scramble some eggs with garlic in oil (peanut or a neutral oil like canola).
Take them out of the pan and set aside.
Put a couple of chopped tomatoes (or a can of chopped tomatoes) to the pan and cook until they have broken down a bit.
Add the eggs back to the tomatoes, season with soy sauce, black pepper, maybe a bit of sesame oil if you have it.

It'll take 10 minutes max to cook, so make sure your rice is already done before you start cooking.

I always thought this was just some random concoction my mom made until I found out my other chinese friends' mothers made it too!

I had a Chinese roommate in college who made a dish like this, only she used spaghetti sauce for the tomatoes. At the time I thought it was the grossest thing ever (unenlightened college age taste buds) but now I think it sounds delicious. I think I will give your recipe a try this week.

[lil_earthmomma]

BLT salad. Bacon cut into small peices and cooked. Tomatoes, baby spinach and other greens. And the dressing is done in the blender in 5 min.

1/2 cup mayo (I usually make the mayo from the bacon grease *yum*)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp anchovy paste
1 tsp worchestershire sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of onion
2 lemons worth of juice
black pepper
1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese.
Drizzle cream until pourable consistancy while blending.

This is seriously a 10 min meal.

Also, my nacho chicken which is a 15 min meal, which I posted on my blog!

http://gourmetinterrupted.blogspot.c...o-chicken.html

[Phridae]

Homemade pancakes (no bisquick in my house!) with sausage (always have some in the freezer)
Spaghetti (seems like a lot of people use this as a go-to meal
Mac n cheese with broccoli or cauliflower tossed in, an some hot dogs.

[BetsyS]

Biscuits and gravy
Spaghetti
quesadillas

[Llyra]

My favorite is black bean burritos. Cook on onion in some fat, throw on a can of beans and a can of corn, and then grate some cheese and throw it on there. A bit of cumin, coriander, some cayenne goes on, and maybe some paprika. Roll it up in tortillas, and there you go. If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll add some green peppers and some summer squash-- I freeze my own in cubes in the summer, so it's always there for me to toss a handful in to whatever I'm making. If I have tomatoes, I'll throw those in too, but this time of year I don't usually have tomatoes.

The whole thing takes me ten minutes.

[velochic]

I always have all the ingredients I need for anything I want to make because I have an extensive pantry. That's never the problem. Time is the problem.

My in-a-pinch meal, though is pasta aglio e olio. It's just sauteed shallots and garlic with a pinch of red pepper flakes in some good olive oil. By the time the pasta is cooked, the "sauce" is ready. If it's summertime, I'll grab a fresh tomato and some basil from the garden and toss it in, as well. This is probably one of dd's favorite dishes. The more garlic, the better. Served with a tossed salad, dinner is on the table in 15 minutes.

I'll often make a hash of leftovers and come up with a sauce to serve over grilled chicken (that is cooked and frozen and defrosts in just minutes in some cool water). Likewise, the same chicken makes quick and easy quesadillas or can just be put on a salad for a grilled chicken caesar salad.

Dh likes wraps. He will put anything in one of those flax seed wraps and add hot mustard and think it's great.

[Ola_]

- Stir-fry (with whatever veggies are in the fridge or we tend to have a bag of frozen mixed veg so we use that), with either rice started before the stir-fry or rice noodles soaked in some hot water. Bonus points for tossing some protein into the stir fry!
- Fried rice - similar to above but only if I have leftover rice in the fridge. Scramble an egg, add fresh/frozen veggies (a common choice is some frozen peas, corn, and chopped carrots). Mix in a bit of soya sauce and sesame oil and call it a day.
- Fried shrimp noodles. Boil some 3-minute noodles, drain. Thaw shrimp in collander under running water. In the meantime chop a couple of cloves of garlic, saute in a bit of butter, add a tablespoon of brown sugar, cooked noodles and shrimp - toss till shrimp is cooked/heated and everything is coated in sauce.
- Breakfast for dinner. I usually boil up a chopped potato. Then saute some chopped onions (I keep some pre-chopped in a baggie in the freezer), add potato, and a couple of eggs - scramble the whole thing up.