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]
My wife's a nurse and I have to pretend to be busy all day too. Now that the mowing has slowed down and the garden is finished for the year, we're not too busy when we finally get home. However, creative cooking usually has to wait for the weekend. One of my favorite Hamburger Helper equivalents is taco salad. Takes about the same amount of time, and if the wife doesn't catch me loading up my plate with way too much sour cream, I get credit for eating a "salad". [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
Yeah, Carl - sometimes I'll add anchovie paste at the beginning too. Another variation is instead of parmesan cheese on top, fry some seasoned bread crumbs and toss with the pasta.
Hondo - risotto misconception number 1: You don't have to stir it constantly, just frequently. If you want serious arm pump, try making polenta (kind of like grits).
Ah, polenta! The true test of fortitude (and patience). But the results are wonderful. I admit to using the tube stuff on occasion, but there's no comparison to the real thing.
Great recipe for sausage and sauerkraut. If you want to try something different, get some good thick center cut porkchops instead of the sausage. Brown the porkchops well, take out of the pot and brown the onion and garlic. Add a big can of Kraut (Silver Floss is a brand in New England and is good). Peel some potatoes and quarter and add to the Kraut. Put in come caraway and brown sugar and a chopped apple if you have one handy. Cover the top of the potatoes with water, put the browned chops back on top, cover, and simmer until the taters are done.
Sometimes we do the same thing with sausage, or in a pinch hotdogs!
For all of you Kraut lovers out there, try making your own some time. When it is fresh (uncaned) it is really outstanding. It is simple to make. All you need is cabbage and some pickling or kosher salt. No other ingredients. You will never want to eat the commercial stuff again!
I've got a similar recipe that omits the potatoes and adds canned tomatoes. It is relatively quick, but does require some oven time. I've had home made kraut and it is good. I should have made some this year since I had lots of cabbage. I was hoping to make chowchow instead, and then didn't get the other ingredients in time and ended up just eating lots of cabbage in various ways. Whatever cabbage has that's good for you, we certainly got.
One of our fast-food alternatives is spagetti and meatballs. I buy a big package of ground beef when it's on sale. On the weekend, I cook up a big batch of meatballs, lay them out on a big baking sheet and freeze them. That way they are individual meatballs (instead of a big wad of meatballs - [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]) and I put them in a big ziplock bag in the freezer. So when were in a hurry, I grab as many as needed, nuke them to defrost, and drop them in the sauce heating on the stove.