Thursday, August 12, 2010

Super Fast and Easy Dinner Ideas

I am NOT a good cook. I am not exaggerating my lack of ability. I don't like to cook either. This can be a bit of a family bummer on so many levels. I LOVE food - just not making it. I am always in awe of people that can know what ingredients go well together, whip it up, time it perfectly and serve it without ever breaking a sweat.

I have always wanted to find (or write) a cookbook that is truly easy, has a short ingredient list and has been tested by ME, a truly lame cook. I am tired of buying cookbooks that say a meal will only take 30 min. or less. What they really mean is that they take 30 min. if you have assistants that have pre-chopped and prepared everything for you. My little assistants are short, slow, are prone to cutting themselves and have short attention spans.

Real Simple Magazine's most recent issue had a 3 ingredient meal idea list that I've been wanting to try out. I had some serious doubts. Can anything be that great when it's only 3 ingredients? I decided to try three of the recipes last night... They involved grilling, so Jesse got involved.

The ingredients were few and in season (or growing in your backyard) making the meal pretty affordable... Jesse enjoyed his time at the grill with a beer in hand... I enjoyed the ease of three, 3-ingredient meals... My kids RAVED about my cooking (they might have been in shock) and asked for more "chicken." They ate all of their food. Liam complained that the watermelon was weird after his 5th bite. :)

Here are the recipes. Thanks Real Simple!

Brown Sugar-Glazed Pork




Buttery Grilled Corn







Minted Watermelon Salad
(Ignore the Steak Kabobs. Haven't tried those yet.)













Enjoy!

4 comments:

Chasing Pure Simplicity said...

Lova, Lova, Lova Real Simple... unfortunately a subscription does not fit in the budget right now.:(

Thanks for sharing these recipes. Yumo!

Chris Routly said...

Mark Bittman has a book called How to Cook Everything that I'd highly recommend (actually, I'dr recommend getting the iPod App version!).

It definitely gets into some more complicated things than Real Simple does (after all, it's how to cook EVERYTHING), but what I love is that he likes to just give you the basics for a dish and then give suggestions on how to make it your own or experiment based on what you have available. It feels like far less pressure to "follow the recipe" that way.

This Mama said...

Mmmm...those look yummy! I hear ya on the 30-minute "Easy" recipes. An hour and a half and a huge mess later it's finally done.

Laura said...

Hi! Just thought I'd share our fav easy 4 ingredient meal:) (I found your blog through another adoptive family's blog:) We have adopted twice & are adopting 2 more kiddos from Rwanda! Anyway...4 b/s chickn breasts, 1C catalina salad dressing, 1 packet Lipton Dry Onion Soup & 1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce..mix all and bake 350 for 1hr, serve over rice...super super easy and totally yum! Have a great night!