Quick, Easy, and good!

[WARD O]

I've been watching this cooking/recipe area and lately it's not been particularly inspiring for cooking during limited spare time this stinky long winter! My wife works harder than I do these days (and she makes more $$ too) so I usually get the job of putting on the evening meal. Lately my work has been taking too much time and effort too so...... how about posting something that you like that is quick, easy and good for some of the rest of us to try....

Here's something my Mom used to make while I was growing up in the 50's & 60's while she was a full time elementary teacher.

Lima Beans and Sausage (I like this enough that it was even served at my wedding reception way back when)

2 cans of lima beans - drained
1# Sausage (your favorite - polish, brats, Italian, venison or ?)
Seasoning to taste - all optional - a little salt, pepper, oregano, marjorum or ?
1 can of diced tomatoes is optional - I like it without just fine.
1/2 Cup or more of chicken broth

Prick the casings on the sausage just a little to let some of the juice out during cooking and throw it all into a covered casserole and into the oven for forty-five minutes to an hour at 350*. I like to make it in the morning and use the time bake on the oven OR use a slow cooker on low for the day. Either way, I can come home to eat when I'm ready with very little effort. When it is served I usually mash the beans in the meat/chick broth a bit and enjoy with a nice piece of bread with jam or jelly.

Works well for me.
ward

[Lloyd Smale]

sounds great. I do beans and bratts a bit differnt. I make and can baked beans and cut up cooked venison brattworst and make beany weany like my kids used to like with hotdogs. Its a 100 times better using bratts instead of hotdogs and homemade beans vs cannned beans. A guy could even make it when he was making the beans and can it with the bratts right in it and then all youd have to do is warm it and eat it. Im going to have to try it your way though. I like lima beans but cant get my wife to eat them so its pretty rare there in the house.

[gbrown]

Here's a favorite of my family. Takes about 30 to 40 minutes to prepare. Put it in the fridge to cook the next day, that evening, or right away.

Firecracker Enchilada Casserole

List of Ingredients

1-1/2 lb ground Beef (I use ground chuck)
1 medium Onion
10 oz Tomatoes, Dice stewed w/Green Chiles (Ro-Tel or mild kind)
Water 8 oz
Tortillas, flour or corn
2 tbs chili powder
Garlic powder/fresh to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Salt (Optional--beans, soup, & cheese have a lot of sodium)
1 1/2 cup Beans, Ranch Style
12 oz Soup, cream of mushroom
8 oz shredded Cheese

Cook the ground meat and then add one medium onion (chopped) and continue to cook until onions are tender. Add tomatoes plus 1/2 can water. Add spices Cook mixture some more and stir until spices are well incorporated. Add 1 can of Ranch Style beans (15 oz) and 1 can of Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken soup. Mix well. Place a small amount on bottom of 13X9X2 casserole dish. Layer tortillas (I cut them in half to allow for more coverage) on this and cover with 1/2 of the remainder of the meat mixture. Add another layer of tortillas and then the last of the meat mixture. Top with shredded cheese. Cook for 1 hour at 350. The recipe I originally used said uncovered, but I covered it and it was delicious.

[bhn22]

If you dig Lima Beans, try draining cooked beans really well, then mix with barbeque sauce and bacon, and cook in a the oven in a casserole dish until the bacon is completely cooked. This was a family staple for generations around here. You can do this with other firm beans too, but Great Northerns and other beans that have a creamy texture when fully cooked don't work so well. Pintos are a possibility too.

[WARD O]

Ok - here's another favorite at our house.

Ham and Potatoes from the Crock Pot

This is another great meal to throw in the crock pot in the morning and come home to enjoy in the evening. It saw a lot of use in my growing up years and then I carried it over to hunting camp. Goes together in a hurry. (vary portions according to the number of people to be served.)

Peel and slice or dice about 6 potatoes
Dice up about a pound of good ham
slice up 1/2# (or use canned) mushrooms
6 oz your favorite cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 to 1 soup can of milk or half&half
good dose of black pepper to taste
NO salt - the ham is likely salty enough to suffice
I usually add some cayenne (or your favorite hot spice)

Mix it all in a crock pot and set it on low for a long day or high for a short day. Add a salad or vegie and some fresh bread for a very satisfying meal.

Many evenings we came back to my friends Montana ranch after a day of chasing elk to enjoy this meal - still makes me think of the mountains.

ward

[DHurtig]

For quick and easy I like to take a ring of sausage ( your choice ), a package of the microwave in the bag vegetables with sauce and a couple of cups of cooked pasta ( I prefer penne ). Throw it all in the skillet and heat it up. Depending on the veggies, I will some times add onion ( stir fry size pieces ) and garlic. It's fast, easy, tasty and minimal clean-up.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Since we're talking quick and easy:

I own a rice cooker. Oh, yeah, i was raised in a Cajun kitchen and learned to cook rice on the stove at an early age, but when rice cookers appeared on the scene years ago, most Cajun households snapped them up. Perfect rice? You betcha. Every time. The only thing missing is that rice cookers NEVER make ‘gratin’, the browned layer of crunchy cooked rice sometimes found at the bottom of rice cooked on the stove. That little bit of crunch was a good thing. It goes missing from rice prepared in a cooker.

Anyway, I have a rice cooker.

Sometimes, I need a dish that’s quick and easy (and cheap! Frugal, I am.) The rice cooker does this quite easily. Here’s the deal:

Ingredients:

Sausage: Six ounces or so. Or ham. Or bacon. Cut up in bite-sized chunks or slices.

Onion: about a cup, roughly chopped. You can add a bit of celery and a bit of green pepper if you want. Or not. Your call.

Olive oil: Tablespoon. You can use the cheap stuff. Or bacon grease.

Rice: One cup. Long or short grain. Do not use ‘parboiled’. Use regular rice.

Beans: Pintos. Black beans. Great northerns. Kidneys. One can.

Salt and pepper

That’s it!

Preparation:

Dump the oil or grease into the rice cooker pot and punch the button on the cooker. Throw the meat in. When it’s sizzling, stir it around a bit. It probably won’t brown, but you do want it to cook through. Ten minutes of sizzling should do it. At this point, throw the veggies in. You need to sizzle them, too. Ten more minutes. You don’t have to stir the whole time, which is a good thing, because while the veggies are sizzling, dump the liquid off the beans and into a measuring cup. Add enough water (or stock) to make a cup and a half.

When the onion is translucent, dump the rice in, add the water/bean juice/stock, salt and pepper to a preliminary level, give it a stir, close the lid, and let the rice cooker do its thing.

When your rice cooker dings or chimes (or plays ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, like mine) your meal is ready. With a side dish, it serves four. As a ‘meal in a bowl’, you have enough for two or three.

If you want to make Michele Obama happy (you know who you are), do away with the meat and use a can of chopped tomatoes. Matter of fact, you can use the juice from chopped tomatoes as part of that cup and a half of liquid, and you get a tomatoey version.

You can use chicken and chicken stock, serving the beans as a side dish. It’s just a recipe, not cold fusion. The key ratio here is a 1:1.5 between rice and liquid. Anything else you add, like meat and vegetables, will already be saturated, so they won’t take water away from the rice cooking, and you’re good to go.

Dale in Louisiana

[Artful]

So Dale do you do cold fusion?

[Dale in Louisiana]

So Dale do you do cold fusion?

Nope! I'm all about clean energy! I got a huge herd of unicorns that fa*t Skittles!

Dale in Louisiana

[MaryB]

Forgot to take something out for supper tonight so:

Single serve slice of spam cut in slivers
Thawed & chopped broccoli
American cheese
2 eggs beaten
bacon fat

Fry span in the bacon fat and set aside, add broccoli to the pan along with a little water and cover. Let steam for 3 minutes then remove lid and let water evaporate. Add eggs once the water is gone and make an omelet, when almost done toss the spam backon top, cover with 3 slices of american cheese and toss under the broiler until melte and bubbly. Fold onto a paper plate(my back and standing at the sink don't mix so...) and eat.

[Shiloh]

From my bookmarked recipes. This is so easy. I have added diced apples for the last 45 minutes. This is great winter food. Ask me how I know.
Great eats after freezing my rear off snow blowing in below zero weather.

2 cans (28 oz.) sauerkraut
1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon brown sugar
2-1/2 pounds ground pork sausage
1-1/2 onion, sliced
1 Tablespoon caraway seeds

In a medium bowl, combine the sauerkraut and brown sugar. then place in slow cooker. Arrange the sausage and onion over the sauerkraut.
Cook on high for two hours, check for dryness, adding some water if necessary, then reduce to low setting, and cook on low for two more hours.

Shiloh