This post is for my friend
Kate who challenged her blog readers to blog some simple easy recipes that are easy to make last minute. If you would like to check out the recipes she received head over to
Beautiful Mess and read her always interesting and usually fun blog, if you would like to add your recipe here is the link to the
post. These are some easy last minute ideas that I have come up with or adapted from other recipes I have seen. A little tip that has helped me is: I have started to keep a little notebook where I write down my last minute experiment meals so that I don't have to spend so much time trying to come up with what to cook, and Michael has started to ask me if I could write the ones he likes down because I tend to make something and then forget what I did so then I don't think to make it again. Sorry this post took so long Kate, I have been meaning to do it all week!
This first recipe I had actually thought I might blog because it turned out so well so I even happen to have a photo of the finished product. Recipe is kind of a loose term though as it was inspired by a soup recipe that I ate at the family place, but I don't actually have a recipe for it so I am going to be giving you the instructions for what I did, as well as alternative ingredient ideas, I used what I had in the house.
Farmer's Sausage Chowder:
I always tend to make way more soup than I meant to, but it makes great leftovers or can be frozen.
1) Slice farmer's sausage into small bite size pieces and place in the bottom of the soup pot with a chopped onion or two depending on how much soup you plan to make. (you may need to add some oil)
2) Add diced peppers (I used green, red, and yellow)
3) allow to sweat for awhile until the peppers are softened and the onions have turned slightly translucent
4) remove from heat and add diced potato and sweet potato (It is really great with carrots too, I just didn't have any)
5) put enough water in the pot to cover the potatoes and eyeball what you think would be a reasonable amount of broth (I like a fairly hearty soup so I don't put too much more than just covering the potatoes)
**if you want even more flavour you could use a chicken or veggie broth, I just don't ever have any in the house and this is a meal that I usually decide to make last minute, I find that it has enough flavour without it.
6) I added two 3-4 cup bags of frozen corn (This was a very large pot of soup, you could add canned or creamed corn probably too)
7) Bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes and other veggies are soft
8) add milk and heat through, this is super approximate but I would guess that I used about a 1 cup of milk for every 4 cups of water. If you were to use cream you could probably add a little less
***I don't add salt while I cook it because I find the farmer's sausage can be quite salty so it depends on your meat, and I leave out pepper because my kids prefer it without, but both can be added to taste.
Rice, Beef, Salsa, and Veggies?
I don't know if this is considered a recipe but I had intended to make meatloaf the other night and the beef was still frozen so I had to pan fry it instead, while it was cooking I was trying to come up with a way to make it more interesting, so this is what I did:
***have a pot of rice cooking at the same time
1) Brown ground beef (drain fat)
2) Add a finely chopped onion and season beef to taste (either salt and pepper or a beef spice epicure has a low sodium one)
3) once cooked add frozen peas and allow to cook, stir regularly
4) Add grated zucchini (you could probably add grated carrots too, or spinach)
5) Pour the cooked rice into the pan and stir until mixed
6) Add salsa until it tastes as spicy as you'd like
****For leftovers we didn't have enough for our whole family, so for lunch the next day I cut up some farmer's sausage and fried it, added a bag of frozen corn and then dumped the left overs into the frying pan with the corn and farmers sausage, covered it with a lid, and cooked it until it was hot all the way through, make sure you stir it regularly and if you want to keep the rice from getting crispy you can add a bit of water to the pan. This was so easy I did it while feeding Mason, so it's a great leftover meal when your kids are grumpy! My kids loved both meals so much that they asked if I could make it everyday, lol.
Spinach, Egg, Farmer's Sausage (or ham or bacon) Pasta
This meal takes no time to cook and is really good, I promise I don't always cook with farmer's sausage but it is the easiest to thaw last minute if I have forgotten to take out meat, hahaha
1)Cook meat in frying pan with onion and garlic (fresh is best, use a grater or garlic press)
2)At the same time have a pot of pasta cooking, about half way through the cooking time add a couple handfuls of spinach and allow it to cook in the pasta water
3) Make sure that you reserve approximately a half to a cup of the pasta cooking water depending on how much you are making
4) when your meat is cooked deglaze the bottom of the frying pan so you keep the flavours of the onion and garlic that have fried on to it, when your pasta is done, drain it and add it to the frying pan, if your frying pan is too small than you can add it to the drained pasta, (if you are doing it this way then the deglazing is more important)
5) Turn off heat or keep on extremely low and add approximately 4-6 beaten eggs, about a half to a cup of Parmesan cheese, and the reserved pasta cooking water (for a family of 4 use 4 eggs) it is important to stir until mixed, The hot pasta will cook the eggs.
***This is a family favourite and reheats really nicely!
