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What do you cook when you don't feel like cooking?

21K views 33 replies 26 participants last post by  voodoochyl 
#1 ·
Some nights I just don't have time, or I simply don't feel like cooking. Tonight I was tired and didn't feel like spending 1h+ in the kitchen. I'm sure some of you probably feel the same sometimes - so maybe we can share our quick-but-delicious recipes?

So tonight, as is often the case when I don't feel like cooking anything fancy, I made spaghetti carbonara:

• Place a big pasta pot full of water on high, and when boiling, add coarse salt and spaghetti.

• Meanwhile, beat a couple of eggs (I use 2 eggs for 2 people) with a good amount of grated 1/2 parmeggiano reggiano and 1/2 pecorino romano, lots of black pepper.

• Place a medium skillet on low with minced bacon or pancetta (I know the authentic recipe uses guanciale, but I've never seen any around here). Lots of black pepper. Cook very slowly.

• When pasta is ready, take a bit of the rendered bacon fat out of the bacon skillet so you have 1 or 2 Tbspn left. Add one laddle of pasta water. Deglaze and take the skillet off the heat and add the drained pasta.

• Add the egg/cheese/pepper mixture and mix.

Serve. Add more cheese if necessary.

It's a fast recipe, and yet it's delicious if you get the sauce right (it should be smooth like melted butter, with none of the egg coagulated).
 
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#2 ·
Yea there are a lot of pasta dishes you can do fairly quick. Really fresh stuff too with diced tomatoes. I like to add in some sundried tomatoes and let them simmer a little then add just a bit of cream and parmesan, ends up kind of like a vodka sauce. Last time I made fresh whole wheat pasta.. let it be known that doesn't fall under the purvey of quick when you are mixing, kneading, resting, rolling, and cutting it on a chitarra.

Tonight I didn't feel like making much of a mess, or really cooking much. So I just grabbed a red onion, nice ripe tomato, and a cucumber. Grilled two chicken breasts, and whipped together a balsamic vinaigrette. Served over mixed greens with feta and a couple boiled eggs.
 
#4 ·
If i'm alone, i eat cereal.
If not, or if i need something more salty, then i make straccetti with rughetta.

Wash the rughetta, put in a flat bowl with salt, pepper, oil and lemon and mix.

Put some garlic in a pan with olive oil and some sage and plenty of black pepper. Let it fry a minute and then add the thinly sliced meat (I'm lucky, they always have it in the supermarket, and i always keep some in the freezer. Stir while it cooks.

Take it hot and dump on top of the rughetta. Add some wine, dry vermouth, dry sherry, or other mild alcohol or if i donlt have that i use water. Deglaze and pour over all.

takes less than 2 minutes.

Pasta is always good, and will sometimes make aglio, olio and tuna. But you have to wait for the water to boil and the pasta to cook. Many times i get home at 8:30 and am too hungry for that.
 
#5 ·
Broiled Chicken
Buy one chicken. Cut it up. Season generously with salt and pepper. Spray the broiler tray with oil. Put the chicken on it, skin-side down. Set under slightly distant broiler about 10 minutes, until very deep gold. Turn chicken and continue cooking until done. Serve with whatever bottled sauces seem appropriate.

If you can cut up a chicken fast, this is really easy. Of course the cooking part does take 20-25 minutes, but it's not like you have to do anything.

Soup
Coarsely chop onion, carrot, and anything else in your fridge that will take long cooking and isn't actually furry. Old mushrooms are terrific, for example, as are bits of leftover meat and poultry. Sweat 5 minutes in olive oil. Add lots of chopped garlic of you like, and for sure a quart or so of frozen stock, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a medium simmer. Ignore for 30 minutes to an hour.

Check seasoning. Add garlic, leafy greens, sausage, or whatever else shouldn't cook too long. Add a couple generous handfuls of small pasta or rice. Return to the boil, stirring, then simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and check seasoning again.

If you've got frozen stock, this is a no-brainer. It's also irritatingly healthy. It does take a while, but again, you don't have to do anything about it. You also clear out your fridge of all kinds of odd things you were on the verge of having to throw away.

Actually, I often do both. If I start at 5:30, I've got a great dinner by 6:30, and most of the time I don't have to do anything at all. I'll usually also have good leftovers to take to work the next day.
 
#7 ·
I just gently heat some good olive oil with chopped garlic, a finely chopped chilli, and then throw in some cooked spaghetti with a handful of parsley and a good grind of black pepper and a pinch of sea salt. Sometimes i'll add parm, mostly not as I like the clean flavour.
With a glass of ice cold Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc I find this far better sometimes than a meal i've spent a couple of hours on.
The older I get the simpler my tastes have become, I like to savour (and taste) every ingredient in the dish.
 
#8 ·
Some nights its creamy mushrooms on slices of toast and a Chablis or crepes suzette, or a deconstructed shepherds pie with the potatoes sliced thin not mashed, a soup , some nights its stilton, apple and crusty bread with a glass of Riesling, or just salmon on a bed of greens with Chardonnay .
A good stir fry (whatever is in the fridge)....fast and easy on udon noodles or rice....
 
#9 ·
Linguini, Heavy Cream, Butter, Green Onions, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Salt, Garlic Powder.

Cook noodles
Slowly heat cream, butter, and grated reggiano to a fast simmer
Add salt and garlic powder to the sauce
Add pasta and sauce to large warmed mixing bowl and toss
Plate
More cheese on top
Eat
Nap

I'm off today so that's my lunch plans.
 
#11 ·
roasted potatoes and onions with a little garlic and rosemary, preferably with two over med eggs on top. not a lot of fussing around after a quick chop on a couple of spuds and a onion. place in oven, have drinks till smell draws me back into the kitchen, fry two eggs. easy peasy.
 
#12 ·
pretty much all the above....
last night it was Afgan bread, about 14" round, 1/3" thick..chewy texture. topped with:
local sausage cooked in pan with sliced red onion
calamata olives
mozz and some sharp cheddar
eating the remainder for breakfast now.

sometimes just a glass of milk and hard ginger snaps.....dunk at will.
 
#17 ·
All too fussy except for those who responded "breakfast" in one fashion or another.

Scrambled eggs with cream cheese bits
poached eggs on english muffin
Oatmeal (extra thick oats cooked in water for all of three minutes with cinnamon, raisins and chopped walnuts

I'm not feeling well right now; those are the only ones that came to mind.
 
#18 ·
Another one we'll do once in a while (perfect for winter time) is French crepes: eggs, flour and milk, bit of salt and sugar, mix, let rest for 1/2 hour, make the crepes and eat. The first one (or the first couple if you're hungry): as soon as one side is cooked, flip, break an egg, add shredded ham and grated swiss cheese, salt and pepper, finish cooking and serve. The following ones will get sugar, sugar and butter, sugar and lemon juice, sugar and rum, nutella, creme de marrons, banana, apples, jam, etc.... although my favorite is still sugar & butter or sugar and lemon juice! Keep it simple! OK so banana+nutella is pretty good too. :lol:
 
#23 ·
i do BS curry
on the week ends i make a metric ton of curry paste ( really what ever i like some time i like stuff with shrimp paste or coriander heavy what ever i have lying around) then i open a can of coconut milk or some cream and some vegis and combine ........or i make pasta dam its easy

Putenesca FTW!
 
#24 ·
oof, crepes are a lot of work to me. Anything that requires you to stand there at the stove and do one by one, is not something i do for when i don;t feel like cooking.
Pancakes, at least, can be done four at a time!

A friend of mine says that cereal is most women's favorite meal when the family is not home. It's one of mine. Cheerios and raisins. yes. nice. I wonder if that is true, though, about women.

It's one thing to cook occasionally or even often because you like to and want to, it's another to have to feed a bunch of people every single day with a balanced meal. True, many men do that, so maybe the question is, if you're the chief cook and bottlewasher in the family, do you go for cereal when you;re alone?
 
#25 ·
The only time I'm alone for a meal is lunch time. I eat leftovers or a salad with whatever I have on hand. Sometimes I'll throw together a quick soup or something else. I don't usually eat cereal unless it's for a snack, because I am hungry within an hour or so after eating it as a meal.

For quick family meals, I'll throw together a tuna casserole, sloppy joes, or something else quick and easy. Sometimes m 16 year old daughter will cook if I'm not feeling well.
 
#26 ·
I will usually throw in a pot of pasta; toss it in some olive oil; salt, pep, red pepper flakes, grated parm. If I don't feel like pasta I toss some rice on the stove and once it is done toss it in a hot pan with some olive oil so it gets a nice crusty crunch and then toss it with loads of sriracha. Alternatively if I am super-beat after a particularly grueling shift I will just cook some pasta and toss it with sriracha.
 
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