I have to admit that my wife and I have foodie tendencies. We shop at the farmers’ market every Sunday. We (well, my wife) made all our kids’ baby food from fresh produce instead of buying it in jars. We went to The French Laundry for my fortieth birthday, for cryin’ out loud.
But just because we’re foodie-ish doesn’t mean that we’re total food snobs. It’s true that we really love to eat delicious, high-quality food, and it makes us feel all warm and self-righteous inside if that food happens to be organic and locally grown; but we also enjoy cheap-and-dirty taquerias and Vietnamese sandwich shops, and the occasional (*gasp*) chain restaurant.
And at home, we like a balance of haute cuisine and convenience. Oh, and nutrition I guess. Before the twins were born, my wife used to cook three or four fairly elaborate dinners per week, and I would fill in the gaps with simpler fare. During the Year of Constant Breastfeeding, it fell upon me to do most of the cooking, and I used the opportunity to explore a wide range of cooking styles, with varying degrees of success.
Nowadays, with the kids (20 months old) eating variations of grownup food, some days we tend to scarf down their leftovers after they’re in bed and call it good. Occasionally we’ll make a real dinner or pick up some takeout. We have learned to be flexible.
Part of that flexibility comes from years of developing some easy dishes that find a sweet spot between foodie correctness and guilty pleasure. These are the dishes that you can make without having to do much planning, if you keep some basic staples in your pantry and your eyes peeled for good stuff at the market.
Of course, what you keep in your cache of staples depends on your tastes, so I’m not going to suggest specifically what you should run out and purchase at Costco by the pallet. But the key to these low-effort meals is to have the basic platform (pre-made stuff like pastas, sauces, canned soups, frozen entrees, etc.) in stock at all times, so you can grab whatever fresh stuff looks good in the produce section and tart up the dish like a two-bit floozy. Real foodies would blanch at the very thought of doing something like this.
Screw them.
One example of this kind of meal that has evolved over the years in our home is what we call the “Manwich-io.”
Keep a case of it in your cupboard.
That’s right. We dig on Manwich, the sloppy-Joe in a can. But check it out: you’ve probably been to one of those hip restaurants that do updated variations on classic American comfort food, right? The lobster and truffle mac & cheese, fried tarragon and lavender free-range chicken, artisan grilled cheese sandwich–that kind of thing? The Manwich-io is in the same vein. (In case you were wondering, the name, pronounced Man-weech-ee-o, was stolen from my sister-in-law, who started calling all sandwiches “sandwich-ios” many years ago to make them sound fancier.)
A regular old Manwich requires you to dump the can of sauce into a pan of browned ground beef, stir it, and then shovel the resulting slurry onto a hamburger bun, preferably spattering the kitchen wall with red grease.
To vastly improve upon the classic, we’ll make a number of modifications depending on what’s in season or on sale at the grocery store or farmers’ market, including any combination of the following:
- Bread–It’s amazing to me that people don’t think much about the bread that they use for sandwiches. Sometimes regular old white hamburger buns are fine, especially if you’re feeling nostalgic for school cafeteria food. But we almost always upgrade to at least a whole-grain or potato flour bun, and often to a brioche or ciabatta.
- Meat–Again, you can get away with any old ground beef, but we usually try to get something at a little better: at least Kosher, and grass-fed if it’s not too expensive. It tastes a bit better, and is a lot less gross to think about than the standard stuff, which, if you ever read Fast Food Nation, you have probably had nightmares about.
- Sauce–We do a lot of different tweaks with the sauce, mostly depending on what we have on hand in the kitchen. In the late summer and early fall, we usually have more heirloom tomatoes from the garden than we know what to do with. Chop them up and throw them in to simmer with the sauce, and you have instant gourmet cred. Other things we sometimes add include bell peppers, onion, garlic, mushrooms and greens. I would add anything to the sauce that I would to a pasta sauce. This is also a great way to use up produce that’s about ready for the compost bin–stuff that tastes fine cooked, but looks too disheveled for a salad.
The Manwich-io has been a mainstay of our menu for years now, and we never tire of it. That’s the beauty of these low-rent, low-impact, dare-I-say “gourmet” dishes. You start with a beloved yet pedestrian foundation, and tinker around with it according to how much time you have, how much money you want to spend on groceries, and what’s lurking in the fridge a couple days before or past the expiration date.
It would be wonderful to have the luxury of cooking from scratch every night, and using nothing but produce from your local farm co-op. Supposedly some people actually do that. That’s what I’ve heard anyway. I don’t see how it’s possible. The only times I have to prepare dinner are during the kids’ afternoon nap or after they’ve gone to bed, at which point it’s extremely difficult to muster any enthusiasm for more household labor. So these days, we either eat the same thing as the kids (healthy but a little bland), get it together and prepare something in advance, or throw together one of these hybrid prepared/homemade dinners that are part guilty pleasure, part legitimate cuisine.
I’m always on the lookout for quick and easy recipes that include cool hacks or cheats and require a maximum of one pan to cook. What have you got in your bag of culinary tricks?
About BetaDad
The standard in our house when I’m feeling lazy is chicken fajitas. On a day when I feel more energetic, I’ll cook a box or package of boneless skinless chicken, slice them up in fajita strips, and freeze them in meal-size portions. To make the fajitas, I toss the chicken, sliced bell pepper and onions into a pan, and cook on medium until everything is hot. Then I add salsa, simmer for another minute or two, and voila! Spoon onto tortilla shells and you’re good to go!
That’s brilliant! I haven’t been able to get it together to prepare food in quantity and freeze it. It’s such a great idea. When my MIL comes to visit, she leaves us a freezer full of Vietnamese food–egg rolls, meatball-ish stuff, grilled pork, etc. All we need to do is add rice or noodles and greens.
Whole wheat pasta, evoo, basil leaves, parmesan cheese, throw in some boneless, skinless chicken boobies and you’ve got yourself a meal! I’m sure there are lots more things you could add to up the color, texture and nutrional value, but I’m a SUPER picky eater.
Twitter Name: LoLately
I had to look up eevo (extra virgin olive oil). That actually sounds like something we make for the kids a lot (and end up eating their scraps). But we usually put in a lot of garlic too.
Another one we started doing is pasta with lobster and/or scallop cream sauce. Sounds fancy, right? Wait until you see the seafood on sale. Two $5.00 lobster tails go a long way in sauce. Steam the lobster, saute the scallops, set aside. For the sauce, saute scallions and garlic in eevo (I like that!), add a hunk of butter, white wine, the seafood, heavy cream, salt & pepper, chili flakes, parsley. Sooo good.
I think I will try this tonight with some spinach mixed in and maybe top it with some cheese. My kids love just the regular sloppy joes so that should be a treat.
Awesome. We haven’t tried it with cheese yet, but that reminds me of my boyhood friends’ dad’s recipe for sloppy joes: brown the beef, stir in ketchup and American cheesefoodproduct, ladle onto untoasted white buns. It was actually pretty good.
I have it on the stove right now with the spinach it and my husband actually walked by and said, “yum.” I think we may have a winner.
hey, we were in the same boat as u were… when the girls were small we’d drop them off at the inlaws and head for santa barbra and hit Downey’s..omg…when they got older and the third came we took them all to s.b. left them in a hotel w/pizza and paid a lot of money for chi-chi food… i had to google French Laundry.. yep, its been awhile since I have been to an upscale restaurant… btw which one did u hit? the one in Bev. Hills or up north?
dude u r special, that website for FL is over the top…
u have to admit it feels good to pamper yourself to a good meal…
and yes, we’ve done the manwich thing…
Twitter Name: c. peterson
I haven’t been to Downey’s, but I just looked at their website. Oh man–I just ate a pretty big lunch, but I’m now salivating. I’ve got to try that place next time I go to Santa Barbara. Love that town.
The French Laundry was far and away the most extravagant eating experience of my life. It was totally worth it though. It was so delicious, and we kind of figured out how much each of the dozens of intricate little morsels you get costs, and it wasn’t that outrageous. There’s a lot of labor involved in that kind of food. It’s not like places that charge you sixty bucks for a steak that took five minutes to cook. Anyway, I will totally go to French Laundry again. Probably when I turn fifty.
This is our routine as well…
But since I’m a uptight picky pescatarian our ‘Manwich’ is fresh veggies sauteed in sesame oil and then dumped in bowls of ramen. Sriracha optional!
My wife makes that all the time! She calls it “poodleys,” as in “noodley-poodleys.” She would be mortified if she knew I revealed that. Also, I’m on the Sriracha facebook fan page.
Manwich-io is a fave in our house too. Only I usually serve it over a “baked” potato (read microwaved). Makes it look uber fancy or something.
BBQ sandwiches are a fave too… deli roast beef, bottled BBQ sauce, simmer on low/medium until hot. Again, serve over bread, noodles or potatoes. You can add all kinds of veggies to this too.
I’m a huge fan of taking a prepared sauce and adding my own flare.
That’s pure genius! I’m going to try it next time it’s manwich-io night.
BTW, I was at the zoo with my kids this morning, and read these comments on my phone. It was about noon, and while the kids had all kinds of snacks, I had nothing. You guys were killing me with this food talk.
We keep cans of AMY’s Medium Organic Vegetarian Chili in our pantry along with boxes of cornbread mix. Make the cornbread fresh, dump the heated chili on top and then add some shreaded cheddar cheese and some sourcream! Delicious and super lazy and yummy.
Yup. That’s one that we do too. The kids didn’t love it the last time we tried it; but we’ll try again soon. Their tastes are always changing. Thanks for reminding me about this!
I tossed a handful of onions, green pepper, and mushrooms into a jar of Ragu the other night. Sub-two dollar jarred marinara has never tasted so good!
Yeah–you can add just about anything to jarred pasta sauce. Sometimes that stuff’s a bit too sweet for my taste, so I often make it “from scratch”–saute onions and garlic, add one can of crushed and one can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes, season, then throw in whatever is in the produce drawer of the fridge. We also sometimes add fresh lettuce or bell peppers to spaghetti right before serving it. That adds a nice contrast in temperature and texture.
This is my favorite, easiest, most tasty one I have. Save leftover meat…chicken, turkey, whatever…or even use your can of Manwich stuff. Now cook these: 1 bag microwavable vegetables of your choice, 1 bag microwavable rice (brown rice if you want to get all nutritional). Put the nuked stuff and the meat into a big pan, plus add a can of “cream of whatever” soup. Mix well and serve. Ta-da!
Twitter Name: sharonkurheg
Nice!
Speaking of brown rice, we recently started using brown jasmine rice. It has a great mild flavor, and a lot more nutritional value than white rice. Even my Vietnamese mother-in-law approves. We have a rice cooker that’s on more often than not, so we never need microwaveable rice–although it sounds like a great idea.
I feel like half of my recipes fit into this exact category, but none better than what I call Breakfast for Lazy Misers. More civilized people call it “breakfast strata.” You can obviously eat this for dinner if you make it quickly in the morning.
http://frazzledfoodie.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/breakfast-for-misers/
Add mimosas and you’ll find it extra delicious. Cheers.
Twitter Name: NapsHappen
Oh, man. I’m bookmarking that page! Once again, I’m now starving although I just ate.
My go-to in this category is quiche. It sounds fancy, but I can make it with six eggs, some milk, a store-bought pie crust and virtually anything else I can find in my fridge. I have made it with every version of left-over meat and vegetables in the house. I suppose you could do a fritatta, too. Sounds fancy, really just mix and dump!
I love sloppy joes too! I like mine on a squishy potato bun with cheddar cheese and red onions! Yay comfort food.
I did indeed read Fast Food Nation. Shudder.
I love dressing up slutty foods. Canned tuna? Cheap AND easy. I’ll make a tuna salad with hummus or homemade mayo. Sometimes I’ll switch it up in sriracha or a balsamic vinaigrette. Throw in whatever fresh produce you’ve got and why hello there, fancy tuna salad.
And don’t even get me started on canned clams…those harlots.
I’m all about one-pot cooking – something that I can put on during their nap, and simmer on low heat until dinner time.. There are a couple of dishes I do regularly (plus varients) that will do us for a couple of meals.
1st is chicken stew type stuff. Brown some chicken thighs then set aside, fry some onion/leek/spring onions + garlic in butter/oil, and in whatever veges you want – carrot, celery, sweet potato etc. Add a bit of flour, make sure it cooks a bit, add water or stock and bring back to simmer, add the chicken back in, then either simmer on low, or put the lid on and stick it in the oven (depending what pan you have).
It has evolved somewhat, and now I make the liquid a bit more gravy-esque which makes the second use of the dish a bit more tasty (chicken parcels – basically schred the chicken and wrap it in puff pastry)
The second is similar, but uses beef mince instead of the chicken.
Goes well on either pasta or rice.
I used to do more exciting types of one-pot cooking, but then we discovered my daughters various food intolerances, so the above can be a little bland, but as you say, good quality ingredients can really make a dish taste great. Plus we have rediscovered the simple pleasures of butter and salt :) (steak cooked in butter, then topped with anchovie is AWESOME)