::O we cover our dry lasagna noodles with bechamel sauce and let the sauce and the oven do the cooking, works like a charm. wouldnt the noodles start to become icky if you cook them twice?
this convo caused me to look up no-boil mac 'n cheese to see if it's possible. it is! you just mix your dry macaroni with enough milk to cover it, as well as melted butter and shredded cheese, and bake it until it's tender and bubbly. i'll want to experiment a bit, but i am def putting whole milk on the shopping list. standing up for long enough to cook pasta is a problem for me, and sitting on a stool at the stove or counter isn't much better since my knees are up against it and i have to bend forward to work. so any recipe that trades prep time for cook time is my friend.
ye but I do believe that's just because technically our lasagna noodles are specially made to require no pre-cooking bullshit and since they are incredible they just pushed all other lasagna noodles off the market? I do remember seeing recipes from foodbloggers of a different nationality also pre-cooking lasagna noodles and I was confused too. it... doesn't really work with ours by the by you can't cook those effectively?
Once a week I make a big pot of beans to keep in the fridge, as a great quick side dish or zero spoons food. I like it because it's a mostly hands-off, let this cook while I worry about other things sort of dish. I kind of improvise from week to week, but here's an approximate recipe for them! Big ol' pot of beans You'll need: -Dried pinto beans, soaked in water overnight -A medium-sized stockpot -Your choice of vegetable oil -Half a white or yellow onion -A clove or two of garlic -Thyme -A bay leaf -Salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Flake salt, if you're using fine grain table salt or Morton you should use about half of what I do!) -A smoked ham shank (Optional, but makes a much better finished product!) Drain the water from the beans and toss it into the stock pot along with the ham shank, cover with warm water and place on the stove over medium heat. Peel and mince the garlic and add it plus the bay leaf + a handful or so of dried thyme, stir, and cover. Once the mixture reaches a boil reduce to a low heat and allow to cook for several hours uncovered. If you feel up to it you can use this time to dice up the onions and cook them slowly in the vegetable oil to make it all nice and sweet and oniony. If not, that's cool. Just play some video games or read a book or something. Check the beans occasionally to see how tender they are! When they're reached the approximate mushiness you want in the end result it's time to move on to the next step. Pull out the ham shank and set it aside. Whether you cooked the onions during the break or not, add the onions and oil to the pot with a handful or two of salt and stir thoroughly. Remove the bones from the ham shank and toss them back in to the pot, allow to cook uncovered for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile take the boneless meat from the ham shank and cut out any gross chewy fat chunks. You can toss this away or save it to grease for pan for breakfast, whatever. Roughly chop up the remaining meat and add it to the pot at the end of the hour. Remove the pot from the heat, take the bones and bay leaf out of the pot, allow to cool, and toss in the fridge. It'll last up to a week, tastes good cold and better warm.
Breakfast oatmeal biscuits, or how to make being dirt poor not suck. Some oatmeal, cheapest kind is fine Some flour, same concept applies (you can however also make these with only oatmeal) Pinch of baking powder. Some sugar, not too much Water or other liquid (using coffee or tea that´s gone cold is a great way to not waste it) Mix your dry ingredients (including sugar) together, add liquid until it´s a thick gloop that´s a little hard to stir. Gloop your gloop onto a baking sheet in talespoon sized portions, shove in oven on medium heat until a fork or chopstick come out clean, nom. Now, of you´re Not dirt poor and just feel like making oatmeal biscuits, by all means use milk for your liquid, maybe add some chocolate chips or use a fancy cereal, just go nuts.
my tuna mayo recipe, which folks seem to like: 1 can white albacore tuna, well drained (like squish the can lid down on it until no more water comes out) 1 or 2 stalks celery, with the leaves half a small onion a shake of mustard powder italian dressing (the clear kind, not the white kind) miracle whip if you can get it if you use mayo instead, add a shake of paprika and a shake of garlic salt ~1 tsp salt lots of black pepper mince up the onion and celery, including some of the celery leaves if they're nice. you want 1/4 inch pieces or thereabouts. mix in the tuna and mash it with a fork until it's in little shreds. add a generous glop of the italian dressing -- 2 tbsp or so? about as much as you'd use for a dinner salad. mix that in so the tuna is all slightly coated. i think that's my 'secret ingredient' -- it keeps you from getting those occasional dry tuna bits like you do in most tuna salad recipes, and makes the tuna chunks more flavorful. glop on a great big blob of miracle whip or mayo. i've never actually measured it, i just eyeball it, but i'd say you end up using about 1/4 cup. it depends on stuff like how much dressing you use, how juicy the onion is, etc. -- basically you want enough to coat everything, but not so much that there's plain white anywhere. before you mix it in, sprinkle your spices on top -- mustard powder, salt, pepper, and the paprika and garlic salt if you're using mayo instead of miracle whip (miracle whip is basically just spiced mayo) -- and muddle them around in the goop a bit so they'll go where it goes. then mix it all together, adding more mayo/whip if needed, until everything is coated. for a sandwich filling, use as-is. for a salad, either put a generous scoop on top of a bed of lettuce and tomato, or mix in 2-3 cups cooked, drained, cold-rinsed pasta. i like the little rings best myself, but shells are a church-picnic classic. you can also add any non-wet veggies you like -- snow peas and daikon radish are great, but cucumber will turn it all into a watery mess. ask me how i know. makes about 4 sandwiches worth. how many salad servings really depends on how much other stuff you put in it.
@jacktrash i might be drooling, because this sounds delicious. Gingersnap Snickerdoodles original recipevariation was by mercurialmalcontent, but I made a few changes. Also sized it down, so it can be sized up more easily. Ingredients: 1 egg 3/2 cups flour 3/4 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup softened butter 1 sachet of baking powder grated ginger (i usually eyeball the amount, but don't go under a tablespoon) salt sugar & cinnamon mixture; allspice, nutmeg, and whatever else you want in there Mix butter, sugar, and egg(s), then add flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and ginger. Mix well, and add additional flour unil the dough stops being sticky as fuck. Roll in sugar/cinnamon/spice mix, and bake at 400F / 200C for about 10 minutes. With additional flour and using only baking powder instead of baking soda/cream of tartar mixtures, the cookies don't spread so much, and keep more of their original shape. I get about 32 ridiculously delicious cookies from this amount of dough.
@whimisicalobservant 3/2c flour? Meant to be 1 + 1/2c or mistyped 3/4? I really want to make these and call them gingersnapperdoodles.
Basic potato salad Because simple is best sometimes. Cut a bag of little red potatoes into halves or quarters so they're about the same size (or leave them whole if they're little enough: you want bite size chunks) and chuck em skin and all into a pot to boil. You want them squishy but not falling apart. Drain. Hardboil some eggs. Chop eggs and like a whole jar of kosher dill pickles. Mix in with potatoes and probably half a cup of mayo and maybe a quarter cup mustard, as well as a good splash of the pickle juice. The potato skins will come off in mixing, but we dont care because they're tasty and add texture. Thats the whole recipe. Dont add onions, or olives, or fancy vinegars, or seasonings. Idk why, it ruins it if you do too much. Kiss, i guess.
Also, One Pot Tomato Cheese Pasta Thing The recipe's not mine, originally, but darned if I can remember where I got it It's got a lot of ingredients, but the making of is pretty easy Ingredients 1 box fettucine/pasta of choice Salt - hearty pinch White Pepper - hearty pinch 1-2 TBSP butter Basil pesto - about 1/2 cup 2 cups (about 2/3 jar) pasta sauce (I use vodka sauce) 1/3 cup enchilada sauce 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1 cup crumbled feta cheese 2 oz softened cream cheese 1/2 cup heavy cream If you're so inclined: sun dried tomatoes, liquid drained, about 1/2 cup More mozzarella cheese for topping Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Prepare box of fettucine in salted water. Drain and return to hot pasta pot. Chuck everything else in pot. Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir. You want every thing to kind of start combining into goop. Stir for a good 2-3 minutes. Pour into a baking dish - like a 9 x 13 or deep casserole dish. Top with remaining mozzarella Bake for 15 minutes If you're into that, turn on the broiler for 1-2 minutes to make the cheese bubbly and brown Serve hot
Lentil Quinoa Burgers cook 1 cup lentils according to package instructions. cook 1 cup quinoa according to package instructions. mix. add breadcrumbs (? I am not sure how much I added.) Add spices unless you like them being bland; you will probably need more spice than you thought to make them not-bland because both lentil and quinoa get bigger upon cooking and now you have a very large amount of food. Form into patties, coat in breadcrumbs, fry in olive oil. I used panko but other breadcrumbs would probably work just as well.
Very Quick Coconut & Chicken Soup 1 litre decent-quality chicken stock Sliced cooked chicken, 240g 2.5cm fresh garlic, finely sliced into strips 1 red chilli, sliced, with seeds intact Garlic clove, crushed (or crushed garlic from a tube) Veg of choice (I used baby spinach, sweet pointed peppers, chives; shred everything finely (a grater works well) except baby spinach which goes in whole leaf) Handful chopped coriander Few leaves fresh basil, torn 3 tsp coconut milk powder 2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp each ground coriander seed and ground cumin 1 tsp tamarind paste 2 blocks fine vermicelli rice noodles Cracked black pepper to taste Heat stock in a pan with cooked chicken. Add ginger, garlic, chilli, spices and tamarind paste as the stock begins to simmer. Throw in shredded veg and leaves, stir well. Add fresh herbs and coconut milk powder and keep stirring until coconut is incorporated and the aroma is good. Taste and add further spice if needed; if it's all good, ladle piping hot soup into bowls over the dry rice noodles - the broth will cook them. Add ridiculous amounts of cracked pepper (or to your taste). Wait 2-3 mins before eating otherwise you will burn your tongue. This would probably be excellent with Thai style aromatics like lemongrass/lime added too but I used what I had and it was really tasty anyway.
A nice one for hot weather. Cut a big chunk out of firm tofu--i used slightly less than half a block here since some went into the miso soup. Top with chopped green onions and grated frozen ginger. Theres a dipping sauce not pictured thats equal parts instant dashi, mirin, and soy sauce. The sauce and toppings make the tofu delicious, and the tofu stays refrigerator cold for ages. The sauce is also good for dipping steamed spinach in, which is the other thing on the plate. Miso soup is a mug (here with the lid still on cause im a doofus who forgot to remove it) with half a teaspoon miso paste and a whole teaspoon instant dashi, filled about halfway with hot water from the kettle. A bit of the tofu and green onions also get chucked in, and a few ice cubes to cool it all off, since instant dashi mixes poorly with cold stuff. The rice has salted sour plum furikake on it, which is AMAZING and i highly recommend it to anyone who has an asian grocery around. Its cheap, lasts forever, a little goes a long way, and it makes your rice about 18 million times more delicious.
i doctored up some grocery store udon and it was pretty damn good! wasn't sure whether to put it here or in 'low spoons food', but decided that since i'm more bragging than giving ideas here is better. i grew those peapods and scallions myself! protip: as soon as the block of udon has become a freely moving nest of udon (break it up with chopsticks and swirl it around as it heats up) turn the heat down so the water is not quite boiling, and put the broth powder in then. i know the package says to do it after you take it off the heat, but trust me here. stir that in, then make a sort of central divot in the noodles, shoving them aside. gently break an egg into that little pool of broth. sprinkle on your scallions and peapods, cover the pan, and turn off the heat. leave it until the egg is just set but the yolk is still runny -- 3 to 5 mins depending on how much the water cooled down from the boil due to adding cold pea pods and the time spent messing around and how tight your lid fits and so forth. if you're the type who can't stop checking, don't turn the heat totally off, just way way down. it turns out the time it takes to poach an egg is the same time it takes to make delicate veg like pea pods fragrantly cooked while still crunchy. i feel super triumphant for having discovered this. ^_^
