too freaking tired/feeling bad to cook or go out --easy recipe

[MrsBrady]

This will feed me for a couple of days.
It's also one of my eating-like-a-bachelorette dishes.
Substitute any ingredient for something else, to your taste.

I cook some pasta (I like whole wheat pasta) to al dente.
Drain most of the water out, I leave a little left with the pasta.

Dump one 28 oz can of crushed or whatever tomatoes.
Dump one 12 oz can of cooked chicken, drain it if you feel like it.
Dump in whatever frozen veggies I have in the freezer.

salt, pepper, some olive oil, throw in whatever other seasonings I feel like..

Throw in 3 cloves of garlic.
I don't bother to chop.
I buy it already peeled from the local mom and pop grocery, and keep in in the freezer for
stuff like this.

Let simmer for however long I feel like it. Usually about 20 minutes, but
I might not feel like getting up of the couch. So an hour is ok too.

If I had any cheese, I might garnish it with that. Any kind will do.
I do have lemon flavored basil in the back yard, so I can throw in some of that on top too...

I'd also prefer to have some wine (if I had any), but water will have to do since I took a muscle relaxer.

quick, easy, brainless, one pot dish.

It will also taste better tomorrow.

Enjoy while watching Ed, Keith, Rachel or Lawrence.

[KC]

1. That actually sounds good to me

Do you simmer the mixture with the pasta or by itself then add the pasta later?

[MrsBrady]

2. I simmer it all together.

That's why I cook the pasta al dente.
I don't strain it...I just pour most of the water out.
I just dump the other ingredients in and let it simmer.

I simmer it on low/med. Whatever your stove setting would be
so that it will warm and bubble but not boil.

It will create it's own sauce while it cooks down...
and finish with cooked pasta.

[Lucinda]

3. I have way too many days when I don't have enough energy to make something

This is something I can build on...thanks much!

[MrsBrady]

4. I do like to cook, even just for myself.

When I go to the store, I make sure I get stuff that I can just
throw together without much thought ahead of time.
I don't use things like 'stove top' or 'hamburger helper', though.

I've got some chicken in the fridge that I thawed out to cook for tonight, but
when I came time for dinner...I just couldn't do it.

[Jack Sprat]

5. It makes me tired even reading about all the prep time

for this dish. That's what I don't get about these so-called 'easy recipes'. They are way too much trouble. that's what microwave dinners are for.

[MrsBrady]

6. all I did was open up two cans.

you don't have to watch pasta.

I sat my ass on the couch while it cooked.
:rofl:

[pacalo]

9. That was my favorite part of the recipe...

Let simmer for however long I feel like it. Usually about 20 minutes, but
I might not feel like getting up of the couch. So an hour is ok too.







This does sound wonderful. I've followed the same steps except I baked a chicken with diced onions, garlic, bell pepper, & celery, then used the stock to boil the pasta. :) Yummy, isn't it?

[MrsBrady]

11. one pot/dish dinners are great

less to clean, too.

[emilyg]

7. Like. Add black olives.

[MrsBrady]

13. ohh, that sounds good

I never have any olives around cuz they usually get eaten before they make it into whatever it is
I bought them for.

[rrneck]

8. Bookmarked. Thanks. nt

[TK421]

10. I'm bookmarking this not just because it sounds good, but you don't use onions in it

which I frigging HATE...I like you already! And, I'm all about easy meals, and this one I have all but one of the ingredients for, so I may try it tomorrow or Wednesday. Thanks MrsBrady!

[MrsBrady]

12. I almost put some dried onion flakes, but forgot

hey, it's a free country....for now....

don't use freaking onions if you don't want to :rofl:

[TK421]

14. I never do...ever!@!@#

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. I thought you said EASY.

OR lazy.

Nothing says lazy like cooking pasta, adding 9 separate ingredients and letting it simmer for another 20 minutes.

That recipe sounds like a lot of work to me.

[MrsBrady]

17. I hope you are being sarcastic...

i am lazy....that's the point of the dish...

cuz if it takes you all night
to boil pasta for 5 minutes,
open two cans,
tear open a bag of frozen broccoli,
and use a salt and pepper shaker...
and then turn it to low and go sit on your ass for an hour...
.
.
.
.
.
THEN THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU ;) :rofl:

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. No I'm not being sarcastic....

You're obviously a very hard working person.

My idea of a quick easy meal is crack open a can of Spaghettios and maybe stick a bag of broccoli in the microwave.
Even a normal non-lazy-mood meal is quicker than that. Like put something on the grill and pop a sweet potato in the m-wave. And more of that broccoli in the bag.

In half the time it takes you to make Lazy Stew, I can prepare 3 days worth of stir fried chiken, beef, veggies and rice. Or I can make a pizza. Or hot dogs. Or hamburgers for that matter.

Most of what I make is ready in 10 minutes.

[emilyg]

21. I made it tonight - very easy

practically makes itself - yummy. Passed it on to my daughter - kids will love it.

[Shagbark Hickory]

22. Your idea of lazy is probably....

building a house, knitting a years worth of clothes for a family of 7, and working a 9-5 job all in the course of a day.

[emilyg]

24. LOL - how did u know?

[trof]

16. Sounds kinda like Uncle Bert's Week-Long Stew.

He was a bachelor rice farmer.
Lived alone in the old homestead after his parents died.

Every Monday Bert would grab whatever meat(s) struck his fancy from the freezer. He raised some beef cattle and some hogs, had a chicken yard for eggs and pullets, and hunted deer, turkeys, ducks, and geese.

He got fish and crawfish from nearby bayous.

He'd gather whatever veggies were available in his kitchen garden or, in winter, a few jars of vegetables he'd canned.
Toss it all into a 5 gallon pot and cook it up with whatever herbs and spices sounded good.
(My mom would have called this 'slumgullion'.)

Bert would eat from that for lunch and supper the rest of the week.
Breakfast was ALWAYS fresh eggs, home cured and smoked bacon, and grits.

On Saturdays, he treated himself at the local burger joint.
NOT a McDonald's, a small local beanery run by a lady who went to his church.

I liked Bert.
:-)

[MrsBrady]

18. nuthin better than farm fresh eggs.

we get our eggs from a local mom and pop grocery that gets 'em from a small, local farm.

It's a gem around here, because there it not much of that kind thing in the suburbs.

[trof]

19. Orange yolks?

Miz t.'s mom had a chicken yard.
Those were the best eggs I've ever had.
Store bought are just bland with pale yellow yolks.
:-(

[MrsBrady]

23. well, lots of them are double yolks....

and they have a "richer" flavor...I haven't thought about the color.

The whites are thicker, not watery like the commercial eggs.