There is finally an INCREDIBLE website that helps those of us with no time on our hands to cook dinner quickly and inexpensively.
http://www.relishrelish.com
I signed up and have been trying it out for a little while. Literally EVERY meal that I’ve made and eaten so far has been super easy and absolutely delectable. (I know, I sound like a spokesperson for the company–I swear I’m not.)
Why is it awesome?
1. Upon signing into the site, you pick your week’s worth of recipes from a menu that changes weekly.
2. You can choose the # of portions you want to cook and it will change up the portions for you.
3. It collects an Ingredients List and all the recipes into a printable pdf.
4. 5 dinners is under $85 in groceries. Each dinner takes 30 minutes or less to make.
Seriously, it’s been too good to be true. And since I know that most of us don’t have time to cook during the week, this helps tremendously.
Oh! Coupon code “dinner” lets you try it free for a week. Relish THAT.
Our expert cook and momtrepreneur Judi shares her easy peasy recipe for a quick dinner. You can assemble this anytime (up until the cook-in-oven part) and refrigerate or freeze it until you want to serve.
Preheat oven to 350 while returning a phone call. Then boil some water and throw in 8 ounces of wide egg noodles, or grab leftover noodles from last night’s dinner.
Take an email break to gather together the following:
2 lbs ground beef or turkey :: 1 large onion, chopped :: 2 cloves garlic, pressed :: ¾ tsp salt :: ¼ tsp pepper :: 7 ½ oz. small can sliced olives :: 15 ½ oz can tomato sauce :: 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese :: 1 T Chili Powder (optional) :: 1 small can sliced mushrooms (optional).
Finish up a conference call while you saute an onion until soft. Add garlic, sauté another minute. Add meat, brown and then drain any excess oil. Text a message to your Twitter account. Add salt pepper and chili powder and olives. Mix in tomato sauce. Cook covered about 20 minutes. Then return a few emails.
Take off heat and add 1 ½ cups cheese, stirring until melted. Add those cooked noodles, and then Twitter about how easy this was. Put mixture in 9×13 pyrex, top with remaining ½ cup cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Delicious. And productive.
I swear, you don’t have to be a baker for this one. It’s so simple, you can do this between meetings.
3 cups lukewarm water
1.5 packets granulated yeast
1.5 T salt
6.5 cups all-purpose white flour
Add the yeast and salt to the water in a mixing bowl. Mix in the flour. No need to knead! You are welcome to use a food processor if you are as addicted to kitchen gadgets as I am.
Really, don’t knead. Return three phone calls instead.
Cover the bowl with a lid but don’t make it airtight or you’ll be sorry about the ensuing explosion in the kitchen. Let it rise for 2 hours, up to 5 hours if you have to tend to carpool. You can refrigerate it overnight “for better results” (i.e. for more e-mailing time).
Sprinkle water on top and then shape it into two loose balls in 30-60 seconds on a cookie sheet. Add a little flour if too sticky. Let it sit on the counter for an hour and clean your desk up a bit, will you?
Preheat oven to 450. Dust the tops with flour and bake for about 30 minutes until the crusts are brown.
It’s delish! And it fed my family for two days straight.
Every momtrepreneur needs to have this tool in her toolbox. Just made it myself, and it’s a glorious kidistraction for maximum e-mail time.
3 cups flour * 3 T oil * 3 cups water * 1.5 cups salt * 6 tsp cream of tartar
Dissolve the salt in the water, then pour everything into a large pot. Stir over medium heat until a ball forms and it starts pulling away from the sides. Then knead that dough until the texture matches Play-Doh. I’d recommend splitting up the batch into 4 balls and adding a few drops of food coloring to each.
Time to make it: 10 minutes.
Time it takes your kids to make this: 273 minutes.
P.S. Save it in a Ziploc bag, it can last up to four months.
Where do the Gods of Trader Joe’s reside so that I may thank them?
It’s all so easy. So instant. Need warm, perfectly cooked rice? Just 3 minutes in the microwave. Don’t have time to order Chinese, let alone go out for some? Pop a pile of mandarin chicken in the oven, bake for 20 minutes, and voila! Want moist, tasty brussel sprouts to accompany that protein? A mere 5 minutes in the ‘wave and you’ll kick yourself for having spent years trying to blanch (who has time to blanch?) those suckers and then pop them in the oven and bake just short of the correct amount of time so that you end up eating semi-sour hard nuggets.
In literally 28 minutes, you can have a perfectly cooked meal.
Thank you, Joe.
