[Anne2008]

This stress anyone else? It totally puts me off doing meals with several dishes/saucepans of foods. So I was thinking I could make "one-pot" type meals instead, as it can contain the protein, veggies, even the carb/starch all in one dish. Then if I want to, I can do one additional thing along side it, like either another veggie or carb/starch food -occasionally even both!

The point is, this way even if I don't end up cooking things to go along side the main meal dish, it won't matter because we will still be getting all the food groups in that one dish anyway.

Good idea or bad idea? Anyone else do this? I have a short list already, but any one-pot type meals you can think of would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cristeen]

One pot meals are great, particularly if you're crunched for time. However, if getting all your ducks in a row is your main concern, I'd work on coming up with dishes that can be held in the oven to relieve some of that pressure. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, baked pasta dishes, just about any fully cooked meat can stand to be kept in a 200F oven for 10-20 minutes while you get the rest of dinner in order.

Personally I don't worry so much about serving everything piping hot unless we have guests. As long as it's all warm, it's all good IMO.

One-pot meals around here would be enchiladas, moussaka, curry, stir-fry, mac & cheese (with meat and veg stirred in), or most pasta dishes. For pasta I'll usually toss the meat and veg into a large pan as the base for the sauce, build the (non-dairy) sauce up then toss in the dry pasta, give it a stir. Add a cup or two of water, put a cover on it, turn the heat down and walk away for 10 minutes. If it's dry add more water, give it a stir, put the lid back on and walk away again. All told with this method pasta will take about 20 minutes to cook, you just want to make sure there's enough liquid in the pan so it doesn't burn. After 20 minutes, I take the lid off, add any fresh herbs or cheese, and it's ready to serve. This is great for those days when I'm really feeling lazy or stressed. This method doesn't work for dairy based sauces though, since milk will burn.

HTH

 

[EnviroBecca]

We do lots of one-pot meals for exactly this reason, and also to have fewer cooking pots to wash!

Here are some favorites:
Improved Pasta Salad
Honey Baked Lentils (can cook veggies right in them, bake squash at the same time, or make a salad)
Zucchini Tofu (also cook rice at the same time)
many of the recipes in The Earthling's Cookbook

 

[twin_mama]

Maybe when my kids are grown I'll start doing different courses, but for now, we are definitely a one pot meal family. When I make a meal that is.