Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Recent quick recipes

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in here before, but I'm a full time student in addition to working a job and running a home. Time is VERY stretched out. Recently, my partner and I have grown sick of frozen pre-made meals and I've been shopping around for some fresh dinner ideas that won't take an hour to make. Here are three I've made this week.

Homemade Pizza!
Time to make: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
Premade dough (I used Pepperidge farm pizza dough)
tomato sauce
pizza cheese
optional toppings

Preparation:
-Preheat oven to 400°
-Lightly grease a baking sheet. Place pizza dough on it. If you want crust, smush up the ends. Viola!
-Add sauce evenly, followed by cheese and toppings.
-Place in the oven for about 16 minutes until baked.
-Let it sit for a few minutes before cutting it. Not because it is hot, because it is still trying to properly take form.

This was easy to make and had only a baking sheet for cleanup. Plus there was a whole half pie leftover for lunches!

Lemon Mustard Grilled Chicken
Time to make: 40 minutes, but mostly unattended

Ingredients:
lemon juice
olive oil
1-2 tblspns mustard
2 cloves garlic chopped (or some minced garlic works beautifully)
A pinch of salt & pepper
Chicken breast halves

Preparation:

-You can either spend a lot of time making this on a grill or do what I did, which was cook it on my Foreman grill. If you make it on a real grill, set aside from of your marinate to baste your chicken. If you're using the foreman, it is okay to add it straight from where the chicken marinated as it is being cooked on both sides.

-Combine equal parts lemon juice and olive oil. Add mustard (dijon works best), garlic, salt & pepper.

-Add chicken and let it marinate for at least 20 minutes.

-Lightly oil grill. Place chicken on it. Cook 6-8 minutes (depending on the strength of your Foreman) until juices run clear. Occasionally add some more marinate to keep it moist.


(I cheated and served this with a side of canned green beans, microwaved in some marinade I set aside.)

Simple Macaroni and Cheese
Time to make: 40 minutes, mostly unattended

Note: Normally mac&cheese fresh is a hassle. I've gone through many recipes, all delicious but all time consuming and require many ingredients. Breadcrumbs, sour cream, special cheeses...this one wasn't as delectable as one that would take half an hour to make (not counting the cooking time) but I really surprised myself with it since I just whipped it together sans recipe.


Ingredients:
boiling water
elbow macaroni
1tbspn butter
shredded cheese of your choice
pepper

Preparation:
-Preheat oven to 400°
-Prepare your macaroni. Drain it and throw it back in the pot.
-Add butter and stir until it is melted.
-Put noodles in an oven safe container. Add cheese. The amount you add is really up to you. (I recommend the liberal use of sharp cheddar, though I used mozzarella and it was really tasty!). Stir it up.
-Add some pepper. Stir some more.
-Put a coating of cheese on top.
-Put in oven. Cook until brown (about 30 minutes)

I didn't intend to make a post about these recipes or I would have taken pictures. Expect the next post to have some! Let me know if you try these and share your findings and changes you made!

3 comments:

Unknown said...
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David Franklin said...
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Unknown said...
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