Happy New Year, y’all!
Recently, I was chatting with a new friend who shared that she doesn't really know much about how to cook, but wanted to learn. I asked if she might be helped by a short list of recipes that Drew and I eat regularly in our home that are simple, delicious, and don't require fancy equipment or fancy ingredients. She said yes please!
So! I made her a list and found a lot of joy in doing so and thought it might be fun to share here. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am a really simple home cook. I can make food that is dependably delicious, but I am not currently in a stage of my life where I go to tons of effort finding or making new recipes or have the patience to spend a lot of time preparing a meal. Welp! I have friends for whom that is their love and gift and I love to watch them in that joy (and partake of it too!) For me and for now, the balance I am always trying to strike is yummy, relatively nutritious, filling, and simple to prepare.
A few notes:
I am not a great recipe follower. I salt and season to taste, add and subtract ingredients depending on what we have. If we don't have an ingredient listed in a recipe and it doesn't seem essential, I often won't add it to the grocery list. I'd rather buy ice cream! If you follow a recipe below, but it doesn’t taste as exciting/satisfying as you hoped, try adding a little salt to see if that helps. Different kinds of salt have different levels of saltiness (Who knew! Many thanks to Samin Nosrat for her work in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat). For a soup, I might also add a little quick dash of white wine vinegar or lemon/lime juice. Acids brighten flavor as well! You are often just a dash of salt or acid away from something that tastes great.
We are omnivores and we do eat a fair amount of meat! Porter Road Butcher is my go-to for all beef, chicken, and the occasional pork cut. We also eat a lot of wild-caught salmon that we buy frozen from Costco and thaw as needed. I love sharing about Porter Road for its flavor and how the meat is raised, but this was not always an accessible option for us in the first few years of our marriage because of our budget. There is no shame in sourcing food however it is available to you.
On the subject of meat-influencers: Drew and I are in a season of watching SNL videos on YouTube pretty much every night and we are, of course, especially enthusiastic about anytime Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant have a sketch together <3
For anyone who cares about these logistics, I meal plan for a week at a time (Sun-Fri), which includes planning for usually a meal eaten out during the week and one or two on the weekends. We typically eat a meal for dinner and have the leftovers the next day for lunch. A slow cooker is something we utilize regularly, but other than that, our Dutch oven, another saucepan, and two sheet pans are all we really use.
Rice: It took me until about 2021 to make consistently well-cooked rice that was neither watery or crunchy. For years, it was my culinary Achilles heel! When I am making rice to serve us for four meals, I usually use 1.5 cups of basmati rice to 3 cups of water or broth. From there, I do the whole bring to a boil, add the lid, and then simmer thing. Typical. But the instructions on the bag to merely simmer for 15 mins has never worked for me. I've found that 20 mins simmering with the lid works, plus an essential 10 mins off heat— don't remove the lid until after those 10 mins!
What We Actually Eat:
White chicken chili (from Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist)
1-1 1/2 lbs. chicken-breasts, tenders, or boneless skinless thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 16 oz. container of salsa, preferably fresh (meaning, in the refrigerated section of the grocery store)
4 cans white beans, drained
4 cups chicken broth
In a Dutch oven or stockpot, cook over medium heat until chicken is almost cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add salsa, beans, and broth.
Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
Simmer for at least 30 minutes, but, really, the longer the better. Serve with cilantro, wedges of lime, sliced avocado, shredded cheese, chips, sour cream, or salsa. I love it punchy, so I usually squeeze a whole lime into it. This is also flexible. I often nix half the beans and add some diced zucchini when we have it around!
Greek-ish crockpot chicken— Don't skip the Dijon! We serve this with rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, Kalamata olives, and some feta, but we got this recipe from my in-laws who often eat it with black beans and sweet potatoes.
Beef and cabbage stir fry— This is a no-recipe recipe. You need 1 lb of ground beef plus a 16 oz bag of coleslaw mix (carrots and cabbage). Brown your beef. Add the coleslaw mix to the same pan once the beef is brown and add 1/4 cup or so of some kind of bottled teriyaki sauce. Add red pepper flakes if you like it a little spicy. Taste and add more sauce if you want more. Serve with rice!
Curried chicken salad— Another no-recipe recipe. Get some chicken breasts and cook them how you choose (I usually roast them at 400 for 20-25 mins, depending on their size, until no longer pink). Dice the cooked chicken breast up and then add half (or more) of a diced apple, a finely diced stalk of celery, a handful of raisins, and a good glob of mayo to your bowl and mix it all up. Add more mayo as needed. We add a good pinch of salt and also curry powder, which has a wonderful warm flavor. But you can leave it plain or add dried tarragon.
Coconut Chickpea Sweet Potato Curry (basically, this recipe, but we nix the red onion in our house)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
sea salt & ground black pepper, to taste
1 can chickpeas, drained
2 sweet potatoes, washed, peeled and diced
3 garlic cloves
1 ½ tablespoons garam masala
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 can full-fat coconut milk
Lime
Note: We probably do more like 1.5-2 times the spices listed, to taste. Go with God on that one. The amounts listed are from the original recipe. Also, be sure to salt to taste. It'll be kind of bland if you don't add enough salt, and as we learn from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, it'll zing! if it is salted just right.
Prepare rice in the way that you prepare rice!
While the rice cooks, in a medium sized pot over medium high heat, add the oil. Add in the tomatoes. Sprinkle sea salt and ground black pepper over and stir together. Lower heat to medium and allow to cook down until juices of the tomatoes are naturally released, a few mins. Add in the chickpeas, diced sweet potato, garlic, garam masala, curry powder and cumin. Stir to combine.
Add in the coconut milk and stir again. Bring the curry to a boil, and then reduce to medium so that the mixture continues to simmer for 20 mins or so, until the flavors come together and the sweet potatoes are tender. Taste the curry and season with salt and pepper if you desire. Squeeze in the juice of one lime. Serve with rice and naan.
Moroccan chickpea bowls with couscous— Similar, but different!
Sweet potato tacos— Dice up some sweet potatoes, mix with a few good shakes of chili powder, cumin, salt, and oregano and bake at 425 for 25 mins, until soft. Heat up some black beans (a fun tip from Bread & Wine: you can add a spoonful of BBQ sauce to your black beans while heating for a nice flavor!) and add the sweet p and black beans to a warm tortilla and top with your fave taco fixings. For us, that's salsa, plain Greek yogurt, cilantro, and a not insignificant side of tortilla chips.
Annette's Enchiladas (from Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist)— Warm, slightly spicy, perfect comfort food. Definitely get mild chilies if you don’t like spice.
Many-Veggie Vegetable soup— This is a great recipe to work with what you have. Drew will make this soup for us this weekend and he’ll nix the halved cherry tomatoes and the kale because we just don’t have them on hand. He'll use chicken broth instead of veggie because we already have some of that. We serve this with toast or cornbread!
Beef stew— A recipe sent to me by Jordan and a new favorite we've already made multiple times. I personally ignore the flour part and the cornstarch part and the coloring (?!) part at the bottom of the ingredient list. I do choose to brown the beef and veg before adding it to the slow cooker but you don’t have to if you’re short on time! Do not skip the red wine or Worcestershire sauce!
What are you actually eating these days? What is sustaining you in more ways than one? Hoping a new weekend greets you kindly.
Thank you for being here and please feel free to send me a note if you have any thoughts to share, or just to say howdy. I’ll try to write again soon.
Peace & love,
Kelsey
Thank you for these ideas! We regularly do a chicken curry with pan-cooked chicken and a jar of red curry sauce from Kroger, paired with brown rice and naan! Delicious and easy, and pretty fast! When we have an evening with a little more time, we will try your curry recipe!
I love knowing all of these recipes. I believe food is a wonderful love language ❤️