Fast Food

[Chuck52]

Maybe the title should be Fast Food Alternatives. What do you fix when it's getting late and you can't face another pizza? We just tried out a recipe from Southern Living (with minor modification) that meets the bill for fast, easy, and not much mess, plus it fits the season.

Smoked sausage, or one of it's relatives, like Polish sausage, with sourkraut, onions and apples. We added the onions...very creative. Sautee the onions and apples in a small amount of oil until the onion is transparent. Add the drained kraut and sausage, and about a cup of apple juice or cider. Cover and simmer until the apples are soft and the flavors have melded. The original recipe calls for adding caraway seeds and some brown sugar, but we used Bavarian style kraut that already has the seeds and is slightly sweet. Serve with mashed potatoes and maybe lima beans. Fast. Cheap. Not too messy. Very tasty. Great on a cold night in front of the fire.

Chuck

[AndyF]

Sauerkraut and sausage is one of my kids favorites. We have it fairly often in the winter, sometimes with potato pancakes instead of mashed potatoes.

A quick favorite for me is pasta with vegetables - braised onions in the fall, fresh vegetables in the spring, with some garlic toast and a tossed salad. Total time to prepare is <30 minutes. Frozen ravioli with tomato sauce is even quicker, <20minutes.

In the summer, you can't beat a fresh tomato sandwich on toast. With good tomatoes this is a meal in itself.

[ScottAR]

Homemade strombolie (sp?)
1 roll of refrigerated french bread dough
2 cups grated cheese (I buy it already grated)
Cold cuts ( ham and turkey work well... experiment here)
Roasted bell peppers OR a jar of pimenteos
Black pepper (optional)

Flatten out the dough to about 12"x12". Spread out the cheese, ham and peppers. Black pepper to taste. Roll the dough in on itself and pinch the side and ends closed. Bake according to the bread directions. While still warm, brush on melted butter and garlic powder. Aside from the baking time, it takes about 10-15minutes.

Serve warm with a little ranch salad dressing or pizza sauce. Yummy... [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[hazmat]

Scott,

I've made a similar stromboli recipe from the Cambell's cookbook. We used pizza dough & of course a can of soup is added to the filling. Good stuff! Very quick & Easy.

Being a Gen X er. Anything that has a recipe isn't fast food. Fast food goes straight from the freezer to the microwave. As I get older, I'll consider including mac & cheese and hamburger helper type things. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[ScottAR]

link

Try quick cooking... good stuff and few annoying ads

[ScottAR]

Forgot to say quick cooking is where I found the strombolie recipe.

[Hondo]

We often used leftovers to make quesadillas. Place a tortilla in a nonstick skillet, spread a little pesto on it, sprinkle a mild cheese over that, place some sliced grilled chicken (shrimp, pork, etc.) add some roasted peppers, maybe some crumbled blue cheese (goat cheese is good, too) and chopped onions, sprinkle the mild cheese over this (the cheese acts like glue) and top it with another tortilla. Heat over medium heat until the cheese melts and the bottom tortilla gets a little crispy. Flip it once, and you're done. Quick, easy and tasty. Of course it helps to have good leftovers available. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

There's always hamburger helper![img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] It's actually pretty good!![img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Chuck52]

Rich,

Yep. Hamburger Helper helped us through many a "What's for supper?" moment over the years. One of the things younger folks might not be aware of is how much the instant food products have improved since they first became available. Dried potato products are a prime example. I remember the first Pringles potato chips I ever tasted. They had the kinda sweet, strange dried potato taste I associated with instant mashed potatoes. Now they taste more-or-less like "real" potato chips. I still prefer making most things from more basic ingredients, but some of the time-saving kits are quite good. We really like the Zataran rice dishes. The spices are about as good as I'd come up with myself.

One common theme of "fast food" at home seems to be having the basics available at all times. We use lots of parmesan and asiago cheeses, pasta, rice, olive oil, tomatoes (canned or fresh depending on the season), and of course onions and garlic. You can go pretty far with those and a few extras.

Chuck

[RichZ]

Chuck, my wife (who happens to be "Earthmother")and I both work full time. When we get home to the farm, we have to take care of the animals and do farm chores. Hamburger helper gets us through many nights when she has no time to cook while I'm up to my nose in various kinds of manure![img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]