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My collection of main dish recipes is a motley one. Most "main dishes" I cook do not require a recipe, as in cooking a steak and baked potato, hamburgers, fish, etc. Spaghetti is a stand by, as is stir fry, but these don't require a recipe. Therefore, the recipes that have made their way into this collection are only those that are a bit tough to memorize, those that are a bit more difficult to put together.
I usually cook on the weekends and freeze, to be thawed and cooked during the week. You *must* go down the section on Easy on the Weekday Maindishes section (EWMD), because I think many of my methods for doing this are unique. Any casserole recipes which I include below can be frozen and then thawed in the oven during the day and baked on timed-bake, unless I have noted otherwise. This works for the crepes, too.
Lately I have had need for meals that are ready to eat not at a certain time, but ready whenever various family members arrive home, and ready to eat without any last minute prep from the cook (me). The answer? That old stand-by of the seventies, the crock pot. Crock pots are still available in the stores, really cheap, and they really are wonderful. I haven't seen many recipes for crock pots on the Web, so I am including some good ones here.
Calzones
Chicken
Casserole
Mexican
Pizza
Southwestern
Grilled Chicken
Mexican
Rice Seasoning Mix
Moo
Shoo Turkey
Beef
Jardiniere Crepes
Crockpot:
No Peek Beef Casserole
Beef
Roast (EWMD)
Baked
Chicken (EWMD)
Baked
Spareribs (EWMD)
Combine the dough ingredients in your bread machine and set the cycle to "dough". Feel free to substitute some of the above flour with semolina, whole wheat flour, and/or gluten flour. When the dough cycle is complete, remove from the breadmachine and divide into 8 equal portions. On a lightly floured board, roll each portion into an 6" circle.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place 1/2 C (total) of any combination of the filling ingredients on the bottom half of each circle. Divide the cheese and the tomato-sauce-seasoning mixture between the 8 circles. Fold the top half of each circle down to make a half-circle shape. Use a fork to press the edges together. Transfer the calzones to Pan-sprayed baking sheets. Brush the calzones with beaten egg. Place the baking sheets in the oven, and immediately turn the oven down to 400 degrees. Bake 20 minutes, until golden brown. Serve with the heated "sauce for top". These freeze well if you don't eat them all or want to make extras for a future meal.
Experiment with these if you wish. The basic recipe works well with a variety of fillings. Try ham and cheese, or vegetarian, or chicken.
Right, that's the name on my recipe card! I don't know when I clipped this recipe and tried it, must have been 18 years ago. But this recipe has survived through us as a couple living without kids to having kids, and it is still a family favorite! Something about the combination of ingredients just makes it very good.
In a 3 qt. casserole, layer rice, then chicken, then mushrooms. Pour soup/milk mixture over top. Add olives, then cheese, than almonds. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
This is not a casserole you can freeze ahead, because the rice doesn't survive the freezing with a good texture. Feel free, though, to assemble it a day ahead and pop it in the oven when you walk in the door, or phone ahead and ask someone to put it in the oven for you.
Great! This is an unusual but good recipe that I don't think you will find anywhere else.
In bread machine, place 3/4 cup water, 1 t sugar, 1 minced clove garlic, 1/4 cup finely chopped onion, 1 t salt, 1 t paprika, dash cayenne, 1 T oil, 1 2/3 cup flour, and 1/2 cup masa. Add 1 T yeast and mix on dough cycle. Watch dough carefully during the first five minutes, and add more flour or more water if necessary to make a good ball of dough in the breadmaker.
When the dough is done, take it out of the breadmaker and roll into a 16 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly oil a pizza pan or a cookie sheet and place the dough on it. Top with: (pick and choose the following ingredients to your own taste)
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1/2 t oregano
- red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 2 green onions
- chopped onion
- canned hot peppers
- chopped green pepper
- olives
- 12 oz. Jack cheese
- 4 oz. mozzarello cheese
- cooked chorizo or cooked hamburger
Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
I clipped this recipe from an unusual recipe source: the Colorado Daily, the campus newspaper at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Usually campus newspapers target the 18-24 year old crowd, not seasoned cooks! This is a great, SIMPLE, low-fat, tasty recipe.
Before leaving for work, combine yogurt, onions, chilies, cumin, and salt. Remove 2/3 C of this mixture and set aside. Pierce chicken liberally on both sides, then marinate in the yogurt mixture in the refrigerator. When you get home, broil the chicken 10 minutes 4-5" from the broiler (or if you prefer, fire up the grill and BBQ them). When done, slice the chicken into 1/2" thick pieces. Stir the mayonnaise into the reserved yogurt mixture and serve with the cooked chicken. You can serve the chicken with broiled (or BBQ'd) red, green, and yellow bell peppers. Definitely offer one of the good, chunky salsas to spoon over the chicken at serving time.
This dish is particularly good with rice. I don't like instant rice, so I usually either cook the rice before work and microwave at serving time, or ask someone else to start it, since good rice usually takes about 45 minutes to cook. I use a steamer-rice cooker for best results. The following is a good Spanish-rice style recipe.
Mix the above and store in a small, covered container, preferably glass. To make rice, use 2 t of the mixture, 1/2 C dry non-instant rice, 3/4 C water, 3/4 t chicken bouillon, and a dash of salt. If you wish, replace some of the water with tomato sauce. Cook for 45 minutes in a vegetable-rice steamer. This recipe serves about four, adjust the amount of rice you cook as necessary.
For a heartier Spanish Rice, saute chopped onions, corn, bell peppers, olives, or anything else you like in a non-stick pan coated with Pam. Then, stir in rice cooked as above (or plain rice) and some chopped tomatoes.
Remove the veggies from the pan and set aside. Add the turkey with marinade to the pan and cook until turkey turns white and liquid is slightly reduced. Then,
Heat through. If desired, thicken with 1-2 T cornstarch mixed with 1/4 C water. Spread 4 flour tortillas (briefly microwaved to soften) with 1-2 T hoisin sauce each. Add the turkey mixture and some chopped green onions. Serve immediately. A good accompaniment for these is fried rice (your favorite recipe; I may add one to this collection soon).
Cook the veggies in a small amount of lite margarine for a minute or two, then add the broth and cover and cook 15 minutes. (Cook the leftover beef too if you think it will be tough.) Pour off 1 1/4 C cooking liquid and reserve.
Thicken the veggie mixture with 2 T flour and water or cornstarch; add the beef if you already haven't.
Combine the reserved cooking liquid with:
Cook until thick, perhaps 6-8 minutes.
Crepes:
Place all crepe ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Let stand at least one half hour before making the crepes, then blend briefly again. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium high until a drop of water sizzles when put in the pan. Measure out about 1/4 C crepe batter. Hold the skillet in one hand and quickly pour the batter into the skillet and rotate the skillet so that the batter covers the skillet. Cook only a few seconds, until golder brown on the bottom. Then, flip and cook the other side. Continue until all crepes are cooked. (Made 8-10 crepes.)
Fill crepes with beef-veggie mixture and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Serve with sauce.
Cooked noodles or rice
Combine all ingredients in Crockpot. Stir together well. Cover and cook on low for 8-12 hours (or high for 5-6 hours) in slow cooker. Serve over noodles or rice.
All of the main dish recipes listed in this section are very easy on the weekday cook. They do require planning ahead, and sometimes cooking on the weekend, or a few minutes of throwing meat in a marinade before leaving for work. I think that you will find some good ideas here, some ideas NOT available in print or anywhere on the Net. You need a oven which has a "timed-bake" cycle, ample freezer space, and a microwave oven.
Buy a 3-5 pound roast (rump or round) and freeze it. Before leaving for work, unwrap the meat and place it in the oven in a covered roasting pan, fat side up. Set the oven to bake for two and a quarter hours at 275 degrees, timing the cycle to finish at your usual dinner time. When you get home (smell that roast cooking!), uncover the roast and place a meat thermometer in it, and if it is cooking too slow or too fast, adjust the oven temperature accordingly.
Of course, you probably want mashed potatoes to go with the roast. Since I don't like instant foods, I cook the potatoes and mash them 1-2 days prior to use, store them in the refrigerator, and zap them in the microwave at dinner time. For gravy, I take the roast out of the pan and set the pan and all drippings on a burner. Add a couple tablespoons of flour, and heat and stir like mad until you have a nice roux. Then, slowly add a couple cups of water until you have the thickness of gravy which you prefer. Since today's rump and round roasts are pretty lean, the pan drippings are often meager. I often add a teaspoon of beef bouillon or even some au jus or brown gravy seasoning (just a teaspoon or two) to give the gravy a pleasant brown color.
You will probably have left over roast, unless you have a large family. I don't see this as a problem, as it's great in sandwiches and miscellaneous main dishes. Just freeze any which you do not use in a couple days.
Buy enough chicken pieces for your family, either a whole chicken cut-up or the particular types of pieces which you like or are on sale. When you get home from the market, wash the chicken pieces. Then, coat them as desired (examples below). Place the pieces in a roomy roasting pan, preferably on a rack. Cover the pan with foil and place the pan in the freezer.
Before leaving for work, remove the pan from the freezer and place it in the oven. Set the oven to bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, ending the cycle at dinner time. Place potatoes in the oven to bake along with the chicken. When you get home or about 20 minutes before serving, uncover the chicken, check to make sure it will be done on time, and adjust the oven temperature if necessary (the chicken will thaw at different rates according to the temperature of your kitchen).
Note: for those in your family on low-fat diets, simply remove the skin before eating. From what I have read, removing the skin before cooking doesn't save a significant amount of calories as opposed to removing the skin after cooking. And the difference in flavor IS significant!
Coatings:
Buy enough country-style pork spareribs for your family. When you get home from the market, place them in a baking dish, cover them with BBQ sauce, cover the pan with foil, and place them in the freezer.
Before leaving for work, place the pan in the oven. Set the oven to bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, ending the cycle at dinner time. Place potaotes in the oven to bake along with the spareribs. When you get home or about 20 minutes before serving time, you might want to uncover the ribs and brush on some more BBQ sauce.