I love pasta. Love. It. Seriously. I'm a carb addict. "The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet" says so. I don't do that diet anymore. It makes me cranky. I've decided that with a husband who works the equivelent of 2 full time jobs and 2 pre-schoolers who spend the entire day with me, its better to be fat and happy than a skinny..... uh.... grouch.
What was I talking about? Oh, how I love pasta. Love. It. I do, however, try to add some vegetables into to the deliciousness and was reminded by my mother
(who is not lazy by the way, but does have some amazing tips for the kitchen, which she tried very hard to teach my ADD self while I was growing up but I was, instead, out kicking people around.... I mean playing soccer... or the stuff I was around for I promptly forgot)
that I was making myself extra work to steam the vegetables separately.
What?
Making myself extra work?
Uh, hello.
That obviously needs to stop 5 minutes ago.
The trick is to add the vegetable to the pasta 3 minutes before the pasta is done, then check the pasta and maybe add 2 minutes to the final time since the frozen vegetables cool off the water.
The other trick is to set the timer for when you want to put the vegetables in, and not try to remember when the timer says 3:00 to put them in. That never works. Ever. The third trick is to set the timer a second time so you don't have carbohydrate mush instead of spaghetti. I still love the carb mush, but I prefer it to be al dente.
Having the vegetables and pasta together saves at least one pot to clean. If you only cook the vegetables for 3 minutes the impact is more like steaming them then boiling them to death.
One less pot to clean = wonderful
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Menu- 5 minutes, 5 ingredients
OK, I did a series of my menu at the beginning that I've changed since writing it and it doesn't really focus just on the "5 minutes 5 ingredients" meals, which is really where I am the laziest. I'm not a big fan of cooking for real every night, so I like having a few things that I can make in just a few minutes (some take 20 minutes, but only 5 minutes of prep, then you leave it alone for the next 15 until its done. I only count the minutes I'm actually having to pay attention to something) Hey, its my blog, I make the rules. They might not make sense to you but that's ok. I often don't make sense to myself. Anyway, my thought is, unless you're super lazy and make all of them all of the time like me (don't feel bad if you don't-- laziness takes time and practice to perfect ;) if you keep the items of a few recipes stocked, you'll never have to panic at 5:30 about what's for dinner because dinner can still be ready by 5:50. To each of the recipes you can always add frozen, pre-cooked meat or a rotisserie chicken for an equally convenient, but carnivorous, dinner.
This post is also for those of you who need to try a little harder to be lazy. Sometimes you just need some ideas to get you going in the right direction. I, my friends, am here to inspire :)
Anyway, here is my "5 minutes 5 ingredients" menu.
9 dinners to make over a week's worth of lazy meals ;)
Click on the title to be linked to the actual recipe.
Stir Fry: rice and frozen vegetables with extra eggs and nuts (maybe pre-cooked shrimp) mixed with stir fry sauce
Meatball subs: frozen meatballs, tomato sauce, rolls, mozzarella cheese + fruit
Soup: beans + rice + vegetables + broth + seasonings = yum
Lentils: lentils, rice, carrots, broth, seasonings
Mexican Mix: re-fried beans, shredded cheese and salsa, served with chips
Breakfast: Mug omelet + fruit + toast
Salmon Noodle Casserole: Salmon (or pre-cooked chicken for you non-fish-eaters), noodles, cream of mushroom soup, peas
Fake Chow Mein: Chinese noodles (like ramen only not fried), frozen cooked & peeled shrimp, frozen vegetables, oyster sauce and soy sauce.
Yellow Rice: Yellow Rice (saffron rice), peas, black beans
This post is also for those of you who need to try a little harder to be lazy. Sometimes you just need some ideas to get you going in the right direction. I, my friends, am here to inspire :)
Anyway, here is my "5 minutes 5 ingredients" menu.
9 dinners to make over a week's worth of lazy meals ;)
Click on the title to be linked to the actual recipe.
Stir Fry: rice and frozen vegetables with extra eggs and nuts (maybe pre-cooked shrimp) mixed with stir fry sauce
Meatball subs: frozen meatballs, tomato sauce, rolls, mozzarella cheese + fruit
Soup: beans + rice + vegetables + broth + seasonings = yum
Lentils: lentils, rice, carrots, broth, seasonings
Mexican Mix: re-fried beans, shredded cheese and salsa, served with chips
Breakfast: Mug omelet + fruit + toast
Salmon Noodle Casserole: Salmon (or pre-cooked chicken for you non-fish-eaters), noodles, cream of mushroom soup, peas
Fake Chow Mein: Chinese noodles (like ramen only not fried), frozen cooked & peeled shrimp, frozen vegetables, oyster sauce and soy sauce.
Yellow Rice: Yellow Rice (saffron rice), peas, black beans
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Mug Omelet
Breakfast: low fat, low cal, high protein, no clean-up. Excellent.
The Hungry-Girl makes a great breakfast, which I now make all the time.....
an omelet in a mug.
(link here)
~Spray a mug with Pam, add 1/2 cup Egg Beaters
~Microwave for 1 minute
~Top with salsa
No "cooking", no pan to clean. Awesome. I know it doesn't sound that appetizing, but after you mix it up with the salsa, it really isn't that different from regular scrambled eggs. Really.
My main problem is the TinyTwo LOVE it, and try to make me share my breakfast. Its hard to teach them to share when I keep saying,
"No, this is mine. MINE MINE MINE."
This is the cost analysis I emailed to my mom:
my cost analysis:
Eggs-12=$2.19
$.18/egg
Egg Beaters-15 servings=$4.39
$.29/serving/egg
I generally do 2 eggs of the egg beaters (1/2 c). This equals out, per day, to:
eggs: $.37/per day
Egg Beaters: $.59/day
.59-.37=$.22/day So that's $.22 more a day to use the Egg Beaters.
$.22 x 7 days = $1.54
So, I'm paying $1.54 more a week for me to have a very low cal, high protein and (here's, obviously, the kicker) low work breakfast, since in a mug there's nothing to clean up and no raw egg to deal with.
Seems like a good investment to me ;)
Also, with 15 servings, that obviously works out to be about a week's supply, so that's $4.39/week.
And this is the email I sent to my mom about the egg omlete, regarding their cruise/RV trip to Alaska this summer:
ooo! oooo!
So, I was just thinking about how much I HATE raw eggs, and then thought if you picked up a few containers of egg beaters and a little jar of salsa you could have your breakfast and dad's breakfasts-- and if you do it in a mug (spray it first or it doesn't like to come off) and you'd have NO CLEAN UP :) (except for the 2 mugs to rinse out and throw in the washer) No dirty pan to clean, no cooking smells, and no raw eggshells to have in the RV. I'm brilliant. I know. I get it from my Mom ;) Maybe buy pre-cooked sausage and you'd be "breakfast cooking free"
And last, but not least, here is the email about the nutritional info regarding the egg omelet:
the egg beaters are 30 calories and no fat 6 g protein and 1 carb, and as i said, i usually have 2 servings to make 1/2c.
salsa for 2 Tbs is 10 calories no fat 2 carbs and 1 protein.
2 "eggs" + 2 T salsa = 70 cal, 13g protein, no fat, and 4 carbs
If you've read this far... wow.
And yes, I know I email too much.
And yes, I know I must have too much time on my hands ;)
The Hungry-Girl makes a great breakfast, which I now make all the time.....
an omelet in a mug.
(link here)
~Spray a mug with Pam, add 1/2 cup Egg Beaters
~Microwave for 1 minute
~Top with salsa
No "cooking", no pan to clean. Awesome. I know it doesn't sound that appetizing, but after you mix it up with the salsa, it really isn't that different from regular scrambled eggs. Really.
My main problem is the TinyTwo LOVE it, and try to make me share my breakfast. Its hard to teach them to share when I keep saying,
"No, this is mine. MINE MINE MINE."
This is the cost analysis I emailed to my mom:
my cost analysis:
Eggs-12=$2.19
$.18/egg
Egg Beaters-15 servings=$4.39
$.29/serving/egg
I generally do 2 eggs of the egg beaters (1/2 c). This equals out, per day, to:
eggs: $.37/per day
Egg Beaters: $.59/day
.59-.37=$.22/day So that's $.22 more a day to use the Egg Beaters.
$.22 x 7 days = $1.54
So, I'm paying $1.54 more a week for me to have a very low cal, high protein and (here's, obviously, the kicker) low work breakfast, since in a mug there's nothing to clean up and no raw egg to deal with.
Seems like a good investment to me ;)
Also, with 15 servings, that obviously works out to be about a week's supply, so that's $4.39/week.
And this is the email I sent to my mom about the egg omlete, regarding their cruise/RV trip to Alaska this summer:
ooo! oooo!
So, I was just thinking about how much I HATE raw eggs, and then thought if you picked up a few containers of egg beaters and a little jar of salsa you could have your breakfast and dad's breakfasts-- and if you do it in a mug (spray it first or it doesn't like to come off) and you'd have NO CLEAN UP :) (except for the 2 mugs to rinse out and throw in the washer) No dirty pan to clean, no cooking smells, and no raw eggshells to have in the RV. I'm brilliant. I know. I get it from my Mom ;) Maybe buy pre-cooked sausage and you'd be "breakfast cooking free"
And last, but not least, here is the email about the nutritional info regarding the egg omelet:
the egg beaters are 30 calories and no fat 6 g protein and 1 carb, and as i said, i usually have 2 servings to make 1/2c.
salsa for 2 Tbs is 10 calories no fat 2 carbs and 1 protein.
2 "eggs" + 2 T salsa = 70 cal, 13g protein, no fat, and 4 carbs
If you've read this far... wow.
And yes, I know I email too much.
And yes, I know I must have too much time on my hands ;)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Things I've been meaning to do...
Stacey at "I'm a Lazy Mom" has started a monthly post of things she's been meaning to do. Here's my current list:
~Cookbooks on the china cabinet that have been there for 2 weeks
~5 un-folded loads of laundry
~refinishing the couch and love seat, a project I started 6 months ago
~Random things still out from the trip we got back from a week and a half ago
My list is awfully short right now...usually its a mile long. I'm sure I'm overlooking things at the moment.
I'll try to think harder next month ;)
Now we'll see if I can link it correctly. If I can, I'll add pictures next month.
Click here for her post.
I'm excited I figured out how to add the button. It takes so little for me to be impressed with myself ;)
I'm not only Lazy, I'm also always Late and a Procrastinator. Maybe next month I won't be 3 days late either ;)
~Cookbooks on the china cabinet that have been there for 2 weeks
~5 un-folded loads of laundry
~refinishing the couch and love seat, a project I started 6 months ago
~Random things still out from the trip we got back from a week and a half ago
My list is awfully short right now...usually its a mile long. I'm sure I'm overlooking things at the moment.
I'll try to think harder next month ;)
Now we'll see if I can link it correctly. If I can, I'll add pictures next month.
Click here for her post.
I'm excited I figured out how to add the button. It takes so little for me to be impressed with myself ;)
I'm not only Lazy, I'm also always Late and a Procrastinator. Maybe next month I won't be 3 days late either ;)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Just Get it Gone
My new favorite form of straightening and cleaning the house is to de-clutter it. I figure, I can touch this item one time, right now, put it in the "Donate" box, and never have to clean it/pick it up/organize it again. That, my friends, is the lazy way to clean ;)
My mom said today, "Do you have anything else to de-clutter?" The problem is I keep buying things, or we don't need things anymore, or the more I de-clutter, the less I realize I need.
And then there's the TinyTwo. Clothes, toys, and even dishes have a cycle related to what time in their lives the kids are in. For example, I just emptied out the "Kids Drawer" in the kitchen, which was full of plastic cups and plates and sippees and bowls and tops to sippees and inserts to sippees and on and on.
We've switched them mostly to glass, so today I took the plunge and emptied out some of the last remnants of babyhood. :,(
This very sad occasion did, however, free up a bunch of space, in which I placed the tops to the Pyrex and the tops to the sauce pans.
A drawer just for tops!
So exciting! (sigh. my life.)
This left the other cabinets to be more "spacious", and, so, easier to clean and keep organized.
Easier- is the key word here.
Easier=Lazier
and lazier is always the goal here people.
My mom said today, "Do you have anything else to de-clutter?" The problem is I keep buying things, or we don't need things anymore, or the more I de-clutter, the less I realize I need.
And then there's the TinyTwo. Clothes, toys, and even dishes have a cycle related to what time in their lives the kids are in. For example, I just emptied out the "Kids Drawer" in the kitchen, which was full of plastic cups and plates and sippees and bowls and tops to sippees and inserts to sippees and on and on.
We've switched them mostly to glass, so today I took the plunge and emptied out some of the last remnants of babyhood. :,(
This very sad occasion did, however, free up a bunch of space, in which I placed the tops to the Pyrex and the tops to the sauce pans.
A drawer just for tops!
So exciting! (sigh. my life.)
This left the other cabinets to be more "spacious", and, so, easier to clean and keep organized.
Easier- is the key word here.
Easier=Lazier
and lazier is always the goal here people.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Meat!
My parents and in-laws are taking a 2 week vacation together this summer. Yes, on purpose. Yes, they are friends. No, its not wierd. Yes, I'm lucky.
Anyway, for a week of the trip (before their cruise in Southern Alaska, the lucky bums) they are RV'ing up to Fairbanks and back down to Anchorage. That's cool. A great way to save money on food and lodging and a car rental. Not so easy to make dinner, though, with limited space, time, and ingredients. LazyMom to the rescue. Me. Not my mom. In case that was confusing. Anyway, Mom said "I'll have to check your blog for some of your "5 ingredients, 5 minutes". Problem is, none of them are big on not having meat for dinner. Especially the dads. So I came up with another set of ideas and thought I'd share my genius with you. Apparently I've learned to be lazy, not humble ;)
Menu
Rotisserri Chicken
~Chicken noodle casserole
~Yellow rice with chicken and peas
Frozen meatballs
~Meatball subs and fruit: frozen meatballs with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and Italian bread
~Spaghetti with meatballs and green beans
Cooked Frozen shrimp
~Stir-fry: Minute rice, shrimp and frozen mixed vegetables and stir fry sauce
Beans
~Mexican mix: Re-fried beans, salsa and shredded cheese- melted and served with chips or tortillas
~Soup: can beans + can vegetables+can broth +any other leftovers you have to finish out the week
My other thought with this was that everything is non-perishable except for the cheese, bread, and meat, so you could do all your major shopping one day and not have to worry about anything spoiling, but not having to buy much after that first stock up trip. It also doesn't require any seasonings or small amounts of sauces (the stir fry sauce you often use the entire jar, or at least most of it) (the soup, if you buy Italian tomatoes, then there's already seasonings in it).
Anyway, for a week of the trip (before their cruise in Southern Alaska, the lucky bums) they are RV'ing up to Fairbanks and back down to Anchorage. That's cool. A great way to save money on food and lodging and a car rental. Not so easy to make dinner, though, with limited space, time, and ingredients. LazyMom to the rescue. Me. Not my mom. In case that was confusing. Anyway, Mom said "I'll have to check your blog for some of your "5 ingredients, 5 minutes". Problem is, none of them are big on not having meat for dinner. Especially the dads. So I came up with another set of ideas and thought I'd share my genius with you. Apparently I've learned to be lazy, not humble ;)
Menu
Rotisserri Chicken
~Chicken noodle casserole
~Yellow rice with chicken and peas
Frozen meatballs
~Meatball subs and fruit: frozen meatballs with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and Italian bread
~Spaghetti with meatballs and green beans
Cooked Frozen shrimp
~Stir-fry: Minute rice, shrimp and frozen mixed vegetables and stir fry sauce
Beans
~Mexican mix: Re-fried beans, salsa and shredded cheese- melted and served with chips or tortillas
~Soup: can beans + can vegetables+can broth +any other leftovers you have to finish out the week
My other thought with this was that everything is non-perishable except for the cheese, bread, and meat, so you could do all your major shopping one day and not have to worry about anything spoiling, but not having to buy much after that first stock up trip. It also doesn't require any seasonings or small amounts of sauces (the stir fry sauce you often use the entire jar, or at least most of it) (the soup, if you buy Italian tomatoes, then there's already seasonings in it).
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