What do you cook when you are lazy?

[MuseedesBeauxArts]

Or crunched for time? Or are just tired of the leftovers you have? Aside from frozen pizza or PBJ, what are the meals that you tend to throw together? Or do you freeze ahead? Or none of the above?

I am trying to get better at this, so I'd welcome ideas. I often do an omelette, a miso soup base with additions, French toast. I used to do a lot of pasta with pesto or tomato sauce--pre-made tortellini adds meat or cheese easily--but I got spoilt and can't find fresh pasta I like that isn't very expensive.

A little more involved (assuming that you chop quickly) is a simple curry with whatever veggies or meat you like. It requires a rice cooker or multitasking, though. Also a simple blended vegetable soup with onions, cream, vegetable of your choice (cauliflower, zucchini, and broccoli are my usual choices), though this also takes some time. It freezes well, though.

[Madrigal]

I've recently discovered the awesomeness of sliced eggplant and sliced potatoes with chopped green peppers, all in a dish, and cream cheese on top (or gruyere). Seasoned with salt and pepper.

If you're willing to wait for it to cook in the oven. That's my problem, I'm so often absorbed in something that by the time I realize I'm hungry, I'm REALLY hungry, and can't wait 45 minutes. Sort of like those annoying people who hold their pee and then they want to kick you out of the bathroom. (I don't do that btw, that's just plain wrong.)

[jigglypuff]

eggs, noodles... or starve. depends on what groceries i have, cuz if i'm lazy i'm not going out to get them.

[sandwitch]

I used to always have sweet potatoes on hand, and I'd cook one and slather peanut butter and maple syrup on top. It's... okay. At least I wasn't hungry anymore.

Dressed up instant ramen composed about 1/4 my grad school dinners.

[MuseedesBeauxArts]

I used to make quesadillas a lot. And I went on a hand roll kick a few months ago (I'm actually going to experiment with making and freezing sushi rice so that I can do this again).

I used to always have sweet potatoes on hand, and I'd cook one and slather peanut butter and maple syrup on top. It's... okay. At least I wasn't hungry anymore.

Dressed up instant ramen composed about 1/4 my grad school dinners.

I like goat cheese on sweet potatoes so they don't get too sweet. Maple syrup sounds like overload, unless it's in pie perhaps?

I'm always hungrier after I eat instant Ramen, regardless of what goes with it.

[Hephaestus]

Noodles are good and easy to make if you have a decent mixer. At it's most basic, flour, water, mix into a dough ball, then roll out said dough, cut into strips, boil for a couple minutes and serve.

There's nuance of course, like using cornstarch if they're sticking together too much (just remember to rinse after cooking), or the composition and types of flour. I've found that about half a cup of semolina to 2 cups of all purpose gives a better tooth to the noodle without running the cost of making them through the roof. A little salt improves the flavor too--alternately a tiny bit of bicarbonate of soda. Too much makes them taste pretzel-like--which isn't always terrible, especially if you fry them in oil.

Adding curry powder to the flour before mixing up the dough ball gives tasty results as well, especially if you stir-fry them with veggies.

Addition of rice flour makes for a sweeter noodle, but I don't recommend going more than half and half with APF--rice flour makes for a crumbly dough ball and fragile noodles that are difficult to work with. The dough has a texture like a graham cracker crust.

Add cinnamon to your rice floury noodles and frying in oil makes a dangerously tasty dessert. It's like tiny cinnamon churros. Add some cream cheese sauce or drizzle on some fruit compote and top with whipped cream. Delicious.

If you want the best noodles, you have to let the dough ball rest for 20 minutes, as with bread, to allow the gluten to do it's thing.

You can make dough balls ahead of time, but not that much ahead of time. You can make the noodle more ahead of time if you dry them--but at that point, it's simpler to go with pre-packaged.


A can of stewed tomatoes, a little butter, and dash of Worcestershire mixed in a saucepan and heated on medium produces a tasty tomato soup or sauce depending on your aim and how much water you boil out. Crush the tomatoes against the side of the pan as it cooks for best results.

Canned beans, if you're particular about them, are great heated in a frying pan with pepper. I like to add a little cheese at the end, or mix in some rice.


One of my favorite rice dishes is super easy. It's a mirepoix based dish, but I build up the mirepoix rather than mixing it all at the start. I do this because I don't want them all cooked the same amount of time.

For those unfamiliar, mirepoix is a mix of celery, onions and carrots and it's a basic trio of flavors that can be made to complement all sorts of dishes.

I start by sauteing onions on low heat. I want to take them at the low end of sauteing so that I'm practically sweating them--except I want them to caramelize and go translucent, I just don't want it to happen too fast. Once the onions have started going translucent, I add hot water, and either fish sauce or Worcestershire, sometimes both. They're very similar.

Then, I turn up the heat a bit, and start chopping celery while the pan comes to a boil. I add the celery when the water starts boiling, stir, and move on to chopping the carrots. Then I add the carrots and reduce reduce reduce, continuously mixing.

Sometimes I speed things up by adding a little cornstarch dissolved in cold water, but not often. It's better to let it reduce almost completely.

Then I use the result as a topping over fresh rice and cap it off with a spiral of sriracha. It's delicious.

If you don't have or don't want to cook rice, you can put in fingerling potatoes at the point you'd normally be adding celery, then add the celery, then carrots. The order is important because you want the best of what each thing has to offer. Onions are usually best caramelized, celery can withstand cooking fairly well and gives a pleasing lightness to the broth (that is then concentrated by the reducing) and carrots are tricky. I add them last because I want them warm, slightly soft, but not soggy or overcooked.

If using potatoes, they need to get in early enough to finish cooking, and they will help with the reduction because they're little broth sponges, but you still need to get the onions done before the broth begins. You could saute them separately then add them, but I don't like cleaning more than one pan.

I also like doing slow cooked roasts, but that takes some forethought--though once you've started the process it takes care of itself. Especially if you have a slowcooker with it's own timer. I've also done it just throwing the meat, veggies and water in a stew pot, leaving it on Lo for several hours--sometimes most of the day--and had good results. The longer you cook it, the more tender it gets. Provided your pot has a lid and you put the lid on, and you start with the roast mostly underwater, it shouldn't boil dry--or at least, I've never had it boil dry.


If you have miso paste (it's really cheap if you find a store with tubs of it) miso is about as easy as things get. Heat water, add paste. Give water time to warm it up, and your done. What it isn't is filling.

That mirepoix I mentioned also goes well over fried tofu.

[jigglypuff]

At least I wasn't hungry anymore.

life motto...






jk, i want life to be better than that.

question: what do you all cook when you're not lazy? (i only cook small meals, usually for no more than 3 people if it's not just me, so it's all pretty lazy. i don't have people to impress.)

[MuseedesBeauxArts]

A can of stewed tomatoes, a little butter, and dash of Worcestershire mixed in a saucepan and heated on medium produces a tasty tomato soup or sauce depending on your aim and how much water you boil out. Crush the tomatoes against the side of the pan as it cooks for best results.

Absolutely. This is one of my favorites: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/...er-and-onions/

If I have the time, roasting a red pepper (I have a gas stove, so I just do it over the flame) and adding it is lovely. With parmesan or mozzarella or ricotta. But no home-made pasta for me--I'm not so fancy.

[Madrigal]

question: what do you all cook when you're not lazy?

I'm the least lazy when a guy does the cooking.

[Hephaestus]

question: what do you all cook when you're not lazy? (i only cook small meals, usually for no more than 3 people if it's not just me, so it's all pretty lazy. i don't have people to impress.)

I start with a type of sour cream. I prefer one that's a kefir based, but it isn't consistently carried in my area. Sour creams make a great base for all manner of dressings. So much so, the only condiments I buy are things like relish or horseradish. A little mustard powder and turmeric in sour cream and you've got a better version French's but with the same bright yellow glow (once you've played with the proportions). All manner of dressings are just a spice away.

For the dish in this post, the only spice is dill, and not always that.

Peel a cucumber, blend it loose and chunky, then strain out the excess moisture. Mix it into the sour cream and bam: tzatziki.

Chick peas blended with tahini make a nice hummus.

Using my noodle dough as a base, I replace some of the water with Heineken. It will be my leavening agent and a flavoring agent. The result is a flatbread that tastes like sourdough--but without the hassle of a true sourdough. I also add shortening because without it, the flatbread is a bit tough.

Sautee some stew meat, dice some tomatoes, and crumble up some feta.

I add the hummus first, then the meat, then tomatoes, and feta, and then the tzatziki.

There are lots of variations in that basic shape of course. Just swap out flavors for other flavors. Like maybe skip the feta and tzaziki and go with goat cheese, cucumber slices, tomatoes and olives. Etc. Etc.


I'm a fan of various braising techniques. Braising chicken in a mixture of coconut milk, fresh pineapple juice, and water till it's fully cooked and tender is an excellent start. If the bones fall out, it's done. Shred the chicken in a bowl, then put only the shredded meat back in the broth, add the pineapple, and a little molasses or teriyaki sauce. The first time I did it I tried sweet soy sauce, but determined it was the same flavour as molasses, just with way more sodium, so... I've got a bottle of sweet soy sauce I should probably throw out.

Then stir it all up and reduce. Pile that on a sweet onion roll and you've got a nice sandwich. Even better if you butter and toast the roll.

I also make biscuit dough based pizzas with creme fraiche sauce--that takes planning though because again, creme fraiche is difficult to find in my town. Fortunately, it's easy to make.

Pour a pint of heavy whipping in a large shallow dish. You want to have as much surface area as you can or it will take too long finish culturing. Then, you add a tablespoon of buttermilk, and let it sit on the counter overnight. The buttermilk contains cultures of good bacteria--the same that give that lovely tang to yoghurt. The good bacteria will kick the bad bacteria's asses and in the morning, your creme will have firmed up and swollen a bit.

Heavy whipping creme plus berries plus blender equals delicious and fluffy berry mousse type dessert or topping.

A good greens mix with strawberries and balsamic vinegar makes for a salad that will make you hate how boring every other salad is.


edit: @MuseedeesBeauxArts, even if you don't make your own pasta (it's so easy!) try making your own ricotta! Store bought ricotta has all this other crap in it for longer shelf life or some such.


I just realized I have a package of butterfish in the freezer. I should grill some up soon. They live up to their name, tasting buttery without butter added, and even though they're about the size of lake perch you'd throw back, they're incredibly filling.