A standard day in my life will generally start with regretting setting my alarm so early, pressing snooze, lamenting I have nothing breakfast related in my house, followed by I have to get up, run to Starbucks because I’m too lazy to figure out how to replicate their Chai Tea Latte, work a ridiculous amount of hours (who am I kidding I was working on my phone the second I gave up hitting snooze), followed by “wait…lunch happened? where was I?”, and then negotiating dinner like it’s a peace treaty with my usual test subject to determine if I have to stop at the store on the way home…finally the delicious stuff happens, maybe I fit in some TV and it’s bedtime – yay tomorrow will be almost identical. Exciting!
However with an active work schedule and little time at home, this usually means I need to keep things simple. This is achieved with my easy cheat recipes that I can make without too much time and keep all happy in the house without too much time (though I make no promise on less effort because I can make easy seem like a marathon when my brain stops functioning).
If you are still awake at this point, I applaud your perseverance.
Here are a few simple items I usually have the staples on hand to make on any given night or can easily pick up the meat for on the way home (no marinating required):
Oven Roasted Chicken
Originally created when I needed chicken to go in a risotto dish, but didn’t have any space left to make it on the stove. I figured even if I forgot about it, if I threw enough liquid and oil in there with it I couldn’t possibly dry it out (unless I fell asleep or something silly). However, the result was so tender and flavorful it’s kind of the only way I’ll make chicken unless I grill because its so easy!
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1-2 cups chicken stock
- Olive oil
- 1 lemon
- Couple of stalks of whatever fresh herbs you have on hand (rosemary, thyme, sage and basil are all great options)
- Ground black pepper
- Splash of white wine (if you want to get fancy or happen to have an open bottle already)
Preheat the oven to 350 or 375 degrees F (don’t go past 425 degrees F) depending on how fast you need chicken.
In a baking dish, place the chicken breasts so they do not touch. Pour olive oil over the top and then rub in black pepper (just a little – eyeball what looks good to you), and then flip the breast over and repeat. From here, I cut the lemon in half and slice off 2 rings from each half and set aside. Then I squeeze the remaining lemon over the chicken (it’s ok if your aim is off like mine is and it just goes in the dish).
Pour the chicken stock in – you want enough in there to be almost even with the top of the chicken but not covering the chicken (also here it really is better to just pour it around the chicken in the dish otherwise you’ll wash the pepper off). Add the fresh herbs to the stock (I try to evenly distribute them floating around the chicken), then add the splash of white wine to the stock. Finally place those 2 lemon rings on top of the chicken and stick in the oven.
Usually these should be done within 30 minutes or at least that’s the earliest I ever check on them. You can can add in more chicken breast to your pan if you want, but just makes sure they don’t touch so the liquid can float around them uninhibited (yes I just told you to have uninhibited chicken stock).
They will typically slice easily when done, and go great with rice, noodles, steamed veggies, or straight out of the pan as a certain test subject tends to steal chicken from hot pans. Also, if you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, you can use dried – just rub them on the same time you would the pepper. You can also use the leftover broth in the pan to add flavor to a dish (I steal some for the risotto when I make this).
Chicken Noodle Soup with Sake
Sure, I would find a way to insert some kind of alcohol into chicken noodle soup. Actually, I had a craving for chicken noodle, but no cans of soup (yes I eat canned soup still), and kind of just stared at my fridge/pantry/pots/pans until they spoke to me and said “hey! crazy lady quit staring and do something!” This was the end result, and I keep repeating it now – so, ha! Who’s crazy now pots and pans?
- 1 tsp fresh lemon grass
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 T grape seed oil
- 4 cups chicken stock (low sodium preferred)
- 2 T sake
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3 T Miring
- 6 oz Ramen Noodles
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 T miso paste (I do a mix of 3/4 white miso with 1/4 red miso but go with your taste preference)
- 1/2 T sesame oil
- 1/2 T soy sauce
- 1 T grape seed oil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a shallow baking dish, combine the miso paste, 1/2 T sesame oil, 1/2 T soy sauce and 1 T grape seed oil. Next, chop the chicken breast into chunks and place them in the baking dish. Use a spoon (or your hands because you forgot and put the spoon you stirred with into the sink already) to coat the chicken with the miso mixture. Place the baking dish in the oven and let cook for about 20-30 minutes – if the mixture is bubbling and starting to get a very dark brown at the edges of your baking dish it’s time to pull it out. Essentially the meat will be tender and cut easily with a fork.
Meanwhile, in a medium sauce pan, put the grape seed oil, onion, garlic, lemon grass and stir to coat – turn the heat to medium. Let them sit for about 2-3 minutes as the garlic and lemon grass get nice and fragrant, then add the ginger, black pepper, and basil. Stir together, and then turn your attention to the noodles (who need water!).
Using another pot, fill a little over halfway with water and place over high heat to get it up to a nice boil. Once boiling (which will occur some point after you’ve added the chicken stock to your soup), add the noodles. They typically cook in about 3 minutes but go by whatever your package says, drain and lightly rinse. Place in bowls .
Back to the onion/garlic yumminess – add the sake and stir. Let go for a couple of minutes to let some of it burn off, then add the chicken stock. Stir because it just looks fun to see everything swirling around, and let it continue on it’s merry way for 15-20 minutes. If it looks like you’re getting too much evaporation, reduce the heat to low. Taste test the broth and if you are happy with the flavor, add the chicken chunks (I use a slotted spoon to transfer them so as not to put too much of the miso mixture into the soup), stir and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Ladle over the noodles in the bowls and serve!
This makes about 4 good bowls worth of soup. The noodles won’t keep once cooked or I’m just not lucky so if I want leftover, I cut the noodles down to 3 oz, then save the broth, reheat the next day after I make more noodles. If you figure out a better way – please let me know!
Chow Mein Noodles (chicken, turkey, veggie, whatever you want)
So the recipe I use is based off one I found on Pinterest (was having a food craving, the app was just calling my name, multiple pins later, yep definitely need help with that problem…) The original recipe can be found here: Produce on Parade, and I highly recommend doing it exactly as stated at least once!
Keeping with the sauce as instructed, I substitute chicken or veggie stock for the water, Mirin for Vegan Sugar, and replace the sweet chili sauce and crushed red pepper with 1 T Garlic Chili Sauce (for for 2 T if you like spicy). Then I get crazy and use whatever my fridge has to offer as I’ve found this is great way to use up veggies. If adding meat, I’ve found 1 chicken breast sliced up in chunks (cooked) is enough of a ratio as is about 2 cups cut up turkey (awesome use of leftovers), but I have not tried a beef or pork option yet so let me know if you do and how much worked out for you! I’ve used broccoli in place of the cabbage, same thing with cauliflower – the essence is having one main substantial veggie item be it cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and complementing it with other veggie goodness, then tossing in whatever cooked meat (if you desire) just after the noodles are added but prior to pouring the sauce in. Truly it’s that sauce that brings it all together and makes this awesome whatever combo you put together!
I’ll add more recipes to this page of easy items as I recall them, but my brain hit that fog and I need to make dinner! Happy Eating!!!