Welcome to a new week, dear Readers! Well, it’s Monday…and if your household is anything like mine, things are busy on Mondays. We usually like to do something easy for supper, and we try to avoid eating out when we can. Which prompts this blog entry where I ask you all for your participation! Yay…I love audience participation!
I would love to hear simple weeknight supper ideas from my readers! Please chime in with your favorite one or two easy meals (We’ll call them Fast Favorites!) that you fix for your family on nights when you cannot spend forever in the kitchen! If you have a blog, please leave that link, and I will update the entry with everyone’s meal ideas and link back to you as well!
Here is one of my family’s Fast Favorites…Nicolas calls it “The Orange Soup That Mom Makes”. It is more appropriately entitled, “The Orange Soup that Tom Thumb Makes to Help Mom Look Good in the Kitchen on Busy Nights”!
This is our family’s favorite tomato basil bisque…..the version that Tom Thumb sells is SO thick and SO strong-tasting that we prefer it with some additions. It tastes better and stretches further!
Pour two of these (24 oz each, bought in the deli section of TomThumb/Randalls):
into a nice-sized saucepan.
Re-use your empty soup container by filling it to the brim with this:
or whatever % milk you have on hand. I usually use a mixture of regular or fat-free half and half plus 1% milk.
Add the 24oz. of milk mixture to your pan.
Re-use your container again by filling it with 24oz. of this:
Stir into your pan.
Those of you who know me well are aware that I will use any excuse to add wine to what I am cooking. This soup is no exception. If you have a few ounces of a white wine close at hand, toss some in to your soup…you won’t be sorry. Stir the mixture, heating till close to boiling…and you are done!
Serve with this (I usually use Costco’s delicious sourdough loaf):
And some fresh fruit and/or a salad.
And……Voila! You have a meal worthy of La Madeleine!
Bon Appetit!
(But….before you “Bon Appetit”, please chime in with one or two of your own Fast Favorites! I am looking forward to all your great ideas! Thanks!)
I think everyone is holding out like me — hoping to pick up some fresh ideas from somebody else! One of my simple meals that Dad especially loves is “open-face tuna melts.” Mix small can of tuna, drained, with mayo, a little mustard, garlic & onion powders, maybe dill pickle relish. Open and spread 2 English muffins with butter and brown in toaster oven. Divide and spread tuna mixture on 4 halves and heat through in toaster oven. Add slice of cheese to each and top-brown until cheese begins to melt. Good with a salad, applesauce, or whatever veggie is on hand. Of course, you’d need more for your family!
Yes, next time I will have to offer incentives like $20 gift certificates to Boston Market for whoever posts the best new Fast meal idea!
Thanks for chiming in, Mom! We like tuna melts too…I think Jay is the one who originally showed me this recipe. Guess I know now where he got the idea!
Tonight I made a variation on a soup mom makes – navy bean and escarole (which I can never find on a regular basis)
Bring 6c. low-salt veggie broth to a boil. Add one chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, chopped mushrooms, a can of drained great northern or navy beans, 6 oz of any short wheat pasta. Add cumin, paprika, pepper – 1/2t. each. Bring to a boil until pasta is aldente. Add 4c. spinach and cook 5 minutes more. Serve with parmesan grated & season with salt if you like. About $6-7 per pot and it’s done in 15 minutes with only the one soup pot and bowls to wash. YUM!
put chicken breasts in a crockpot in the morning. pour a bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce on the chicken.
Cook 6 to 8 hours on low.
shred with a fork.
put chicken on hamburger buns for barbecue sandwiches.
One of my quickie meals is to saute loose chicken sausage in a skillet. Or I’m sure you could just cut your favorite kind out of its casings and crumble into the pan. Once cooked through, I add fresh spinach, cover, and cook until wilted.
Serve over rice cooked in broth.
Here’s a simple one I do on occasion to spot Tricia in the kitchen:
1) Get in car
2) Drive to Boston Market
3) Buy lots of food
4) Drive home
That’s it!
I don’t know if this is quick enough for you, but it’s less than a half hour prep, so that’s quick to me (and you asked me previously for this recipe).
Toasted Barley Soup with Swedish Meatballs
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 C quick-cooking barley
2 1/4 C beef broth
1 1/2 C diced carrots
1 1/2 C diced zucchini
1/2 lb frozen, cooked Swedish meatballs
1 1/2 Tbsp minced fresh dill or 1 1/2 tsp dried dill
2 1/4 C water
1/4 tsp salt
Ground black pepper, to taste
Over med-low, heat oil. Add barley and stir until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Add everything else except salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over med-low until barley is tender, about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Recipe suggests serving each bowl with a Tbsp of sour cream, but we haven’t tried that.
These are all wonderful suggestions, thanks to everyone who chimed in with Fast Favorites!
(And Jay, thanks for making me smile! I think I love the nights you “cook dinner” the best!)
I will be trying all of these in our family’s supper repertoire over the next few weeks/months, and hope some of you can also enjoy the meal ideas posted here.
Melissa, I am curious which brand/where you purchase your Meatballs?? Thanks!
I have used meatballs from IKEA and Sams (much cheaper, no noticeable difference in the soup). I hope eventually to try making and freezing my own; not sure how they’d hold up in the soup, though.
Told Terry about the shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches and we definitely plan to try that one!