Almost-instant meals
November 3, 2014 2:27 PM   Subscribe

For a variety of stupid reasons, I'm currently in need of almost-instant, no-cleanup type "meals". Couscous is perfect for this—add boiling water and make in the bowl!—but I need more ideas for mix-ins and toppings.

I have an extremely well-stocked pantry and am willing to shop for whatever, but I do want to avoid things that require a lot of chopping (so most fresh veggies are out).

Things in the rotation now:

—Butter, dried sage, lots of cracked black pepper and parm
—Butter, lemon, squeezy garlic from a tube
—Spoonful of jarred pesto
—Some cashews, dried apricots, frozen mixed vegetables and chicken base for fake pilaf

Please help with more ideas! And not necessarily just for couscous—I guess I could do the same thing with instant rice, for example, or rice stick noodles. Should be easy, but I'm having a major brain block about all of this. The only requirement is that it be seriously low effort—I want to be able to collect the other ingredients and clean everything up in the time it takes to bring the electric kettle to boil per one-off bowl, I'm not going to caramelize a pan of onions once a week or anything.

(Also I know eating every meal like this is of dubious nutritional value; please assume I'm getting adequate protein and vitamin intake through the rest of the day.)
posted by peachfuzz to Food & Drink (59 answers total) 128 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Cherry tomatoes (no chopping) and feta!
posted by mynameisluka at 2:31 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Add tomato paste to the boiling water and go nuts on the Med ingredients: pine nuts, black olives, feta etc.
posted by kariebookish at 2:36 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Trader Joe's bruschetta topping and parmesan. Maybe throw in some pre-washed arugula or spinach, just tear into pieces.
posted by three_red_balloons at 2:36 PM on November 3, 2014


I see a couple approaches to this -

1. I know you said you didn't want to carmelize onions once a week, but that's how you can make these almost-instant meals. Not necessarily carmelizing onions specifically, but - roast some vegetables, grill up some stir-fry strips of meat, and keep them in the fridge. Then when you get home - grab some meat, grab some veg, put it on top of the food, done.

2. Get either a rotisserie chicken or that pre-chunked roast chicken; get some pre-cut veggies from a salad bar if your supermarket has one. Use that on top of the rice.

And finally, a recipe of sorts - you'll need:

* The rice
* A scant tablespoon of hijiki seaweed (you can get that dry in Japanese or asian markets, and even some regular supermarkets have started carrying it)
* A baby-sized can of salmon (3 ounces)
* A big mug of green tea.

When you're heating up the rice (however you're doing it), soak the seaweed in some hot water for about 5 minutes or so. Then put the rice in the bowl, dump the salmon on top, strain the seaweed and dump that on top too, and then pour about a quarter cup of the green tea onto the whole thing. (And drink the rest of the tea.) That's a Japanese type of comfort-food "I don't know what else to eat" thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:37 PM on November 3, 2014 [7 favorites]


Best answer: Try all the frozen vegetable combos out there, adding a pat of butter or salsa or hot sauce.

Treat couscous like rice and add canned beans, salsa, cheddar or sour cream.

I doctor up those rice noodle packets with broccoli florets, mushrooms, slices of tofu and tamari. I tear the mushrooms and broccoli with my hands. Frozen brocc would work too.

Get a bag of cabbage slaw or broccoli slaw, combine with rice noodles and chicken broth or the seasoning packet that comes with. When the noodles are cooked, crack an egg into it while swirling with a fork.
posted by purple_bird at 2:39 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Get a rice cooker. It requires literally no effort -- you put in equal parts rice and water (a little more for brown rice), press the button, and when it pops it's done. You can easily turn that into a one-pot meal by adding other ingredients -- beans, onions, peppers, seasoning -- to the rice while it cooks. Many rice cookers also have steamer baskets in the top - you can put eggs (in the shell) or veggies in the basket and they'll cook while the rice cooks!

A meal I used to make almost every day when I was poorer / busier -- put rice in the rice cooker. Put two eggs in the steamer tray. Hit start. Halfway through, put some broccoli in the steamer tray (because it takes less time to cook than the eggs.) Once it pops, shell eggs and combine with rice. Put soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha on top. Very little effort, done in 15 minutes, nutritious cheap and delicious.
posted by tweebiscuit at 2:40 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: Frozen edamame, chilli flakes, soy sauce.
posted by girlgenius at 2:51 PM on November 3, 2014


Response by poster: Hi guys. As always, I really appreciate the time MeFites take to answer questions. I guess maybe I need to clarify and say that I know how to cook. I know how to prep bulk/flexible components and combine them. I own a rice cooker and use it frequently in normal life. I'm not eating like this because I don't know how to do those things, I'm eating like this because I cannot do those things right now. I need ideas that can be assembled in ~2 minutes or less in the same bowl you'll eat it out of, not even in one other pot.

Thanks very much for the ideas so far. I am especially liking the suggestions of other jarred condiments and frozen veggies to use—this is the stuff that is less familiar to me, so it's super helpful. I never would have thought of packaged bruschetta topping or frozen edamame, genius!
posted by peachfuzz at 2:51 PM on November 3, 2014 [5 favorites]


Best answer: There are Thai, Chinese and Indian "stir fry" style sauces that you can use cold if you just mix them with hot noodles, couscous, rice, millet, quinoa, etc. I eat like this all the time (though I do bother with the chopped veggies, really doesn't take that long). If you want veggies that hardly need cooking or chopping, spinach leafs could work... Soy sauce, pasta sauce and hot sauce are always good basic flavorings to have around too.
posted by mdn at 2:52 PM on November 3, 2014


Sometimes when I am really hungry and don't want to work or make a mess, I normally go with finger foods and cold things such as:

A mini baguette with brie, or rotisserie chicken and butter.
A handful of pre-washed baby salad greens with dressing and maybe a hard boiled egg if you can swing that.
Have a bunch of pickles and cheese and crackers or those little cocktail breads around and just put what you want onto a plate.
Apples and gorgonzola are really great together.
Sometimes I just get a tub o' dolmas and those stuffed cherry peppers at an olive bar and eat that for dinner because my life is dope and I do dope shit.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:55 PM on November 3, 2014 [7 favorites]


Best answer: Oh, and another one: tinned chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley all mixed up with the couscous, and dress with a mixture of lemon juice and mango chutney (sounds odd, gives a mellow spicy flavour to everything).
posted by girlgenius at 2:56 PM on November 3, 2014 [5 favorites]


Things on toast fill this hole for me.

Toast (or wrap) +

avocado (you can slice in half with a butter knife, no cutting board needed) + S&P + hot pepper flakes + lemon juice (if you're feeling ambitious)

hummus or other bean dips + baby carrots or cherry tomatoes on the side for additional dipping

jalapeno hummus + sauerkraut + baby spinach is a surprisingly good combination (I tried it out of desperation once and now eat it regularly)

ajvar or tapenade (would also work mixed into your couscous) either alone or in combination with hummus or each other.

pb&j or pb&banana (or grapes!) is also great and super easy
posted by snaw at 3:02 PM on November 3, 2014


I havent tried it yet but I think it would be good: couscous, chickpeas, canned tuna, cut up a strip or two of red pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of garlic, and then a drizzle of italian salad dressing. Should be doable in two mins.
posted by thegoldfish at 3:09 PM on November 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


Best answer: When I have no time for even the quarter-assed cooking I typically can force myself to do, I will usually just get lots of those steam-in-the-bag fresh vegetable thingies and throw them over couscous with some balsamic vinaigrette or whatever other salad dressing is around.

2 minutes, no prep or cleanup, just throw away the bag. Always seems a little tastier than frozen vegetables, at least for the broccoli/cauliflower type veggies.
posted by like_a_friend at 3:10 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Do you have a trader Joe's ? They sell these plastic containers in their veggie section called Healthy8-mixed chopped raw veggies. I like to add these to precooked brown rice or quinoa or cous cous and then toss with a sauce-like a vinaigrette-and throw in something more for protein. Nuts, beans, chicken. Delicious and keeps well for days.
posted by purenitrous at 3:22 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: other jarred condiments and frozen veggies

Some suggestions along these lines:

-- Swirl some tahini on top and add feta, lemon, olives (or olive tapenade), and shredded chicken/fish if you want

-- Trader Joe's also has a set of jarred eggplant dips and red pepper dips, which are delicious and great on top of carbs (I think there are a lot of options like this and other tapenades in grocery stores beyond Trader Joe's)

-- On rice, jarred salsa or fresh pico de gallo, tinned beans, cheese

-- Noodles: sesame oil, hunk of pre-marinaded teriaki tofu, edamame, chili

-- Raisins and bagged/chopped up dates would be nice along with the apricots

I used to make one-bowl sesame noodles by adding in peanut butter, chili garlic sauce, and tamari and swirling it around like mad. It's better with scallions and frozen peas, but it's chili garlic sauce, so there's really no downside.

General suggestions that might be useful and which only require a spoon: roasted peppers in a jar, almond/red pepper pesto in a jar if you can find it, harissa in a tube, sundried tomato in a tube, dijon mustard/balsamic might work for some of these, tinned dolmades, mango chutney, ginger paste (frozen cubes or from a jar), Indian curry sauces, frozen spinach, artichoke hearts (canned or jarred)

If you need inspiration and if you have the time, the Italian and Kosher/Mediterranean sections of grocery stores usually have the best walls of jarred and tinned sauces and vegetables (pickled or not.)
posted by jetlagaddict at 3:25 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: You mentioned frozen veg - in the UK (and, so, I imagine in the US too) you can get packs of mixed frozen veg that are already divided into little single portion plastic steamer bags for the microwave - just chuck the bag in for a couple of minutes and it's done, and you get a mix of veg instead of just peas, or whatever.

(On preview, what the others said, but also...) In fact, looking at the Birdseye range of these (click the 'Steamfresh' dropdown), it also includes some with pasta/rice etc included.

Also - if you can run to maybe 3 or 4 mins, a long, thin sweet potato put in the microwave for that long in its skin and & served like a regular jacket, maybe chuck on some tinned sweetcorn = quick dinner.
posted by penguin pie at 3:25 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: I show up in every single thread like this, and say the same thing: tinned chickpeas, frozen spinach, lemon, and olive oil. Just pour the boiling water over the frozen spinach and couscous at the same time, and you're done. You can add artichoke hearts or some crumbled feta, if you want to be fancy.

This works with most small frozen veggies, actually--peas, corn, french-cut green beans, etc. It's easy to change it up--tinned tuna, frozen green beans, and olives, plus vinaigrette; frozen corn, black beans, taco seasoning, lime juice, olive oil; cherry tomatoes, pesto, pre-shredded or ciliegine mozzarella; frozen edamame, cubes of tofu (or seitan, or whatever), pre-shredded carrots, some chopped cucumber, and soy-sesame dressing. The most time consuming part of any of those is rinsing the beans or chopping an inch of cucumber into bite-sized pieces. If your veg are frozen in a clump, nuke them for thirty seconds or so while the water comes to a boil.

I ate some variation on this every single day for lunch for about three years, and don't feel, all up, that it was terribly unhealthy--it's still my default "ugh, there's nothing to eat" meal.
posted by MeghanC at 3:26 PM on November 3, 2014 [13 favorites]


Baked potatoes. If you have a microwave, you don't even need a cooking dish! Just wash the potato, dock with a fork, and nuke in the microwave until done. (Assuming you can go do something else while it's cooking, of course.) Add butter, sour cream, salt, pepper, Sriracha, chopped green onions, sundried tomatoes, garlic, pesto, or anything else.

Bonus: If you add some butter or sour cream, you have a pretty complete meal.
posted by pie ninja at 3:27 PM on November 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


Best answer: For variety you could substitute ramen for cous cous.
posted by alms at 3:29 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: Ramen, frozen veggies, peanut butter, and sriracha.
posted by advicepig at 4:01 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Are you opposed to sandwiches? They are the most awesome low-effort meals out there. Bread, sliced turkey, cheese, bread. Ridiculously simple. Fast Couscous recipe: 1) get ingredients 2) combine ingredients 3) heat 4) eat. Fast sandwich recipe: 1) get ingredients 2) combine ingredients 3) eat. For some odd reason people feel like a sandwich isn't a complete meal, but what are you getting out of couscous that you aren't also getting in a sandwich? Both are great.

The trick is to to a good sandwich (other than tips that take extra time) is to skip the prepackaged meat-in-plastic-containers and swing by the deli counter. Try a few different things and figure out what you like and buy enough of it. I buy 1 lb of turkey and 0.5 lb cheese per week. I like hickory smoked turkey and muenster cheese, but maybe you're a honey smoked turkey kind of person.

Once you have a bread that you like, a meat that you like, and a cheese that you like, you have a no-brainer 2-minute meal ready at all times. The key, as I said, is to find what you like, and once you have that you have a satisfying meal. You can start to dress it up with lettuce, pickles, slices of tomatoes, mayo, mustard, etc, but in the name of speed I thought I'd point out that bread-cheese-meat is sufficient.

And if you're really busy and on the move, sandwiches travel well.
posted by Tehhund at 4:10 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Can of black beans, can of corn (drained), salsa. Microwave and eat with tortilla chips or wrap in a tortilla. Shredded cheese is good in there too.
posted by advicepig at 4:23 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Kimchi!
posted by stray at 4:39 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: As long as you do it while your bowl of grains are really nice and hot, you can crack an egg on top and mix it in quickly -- it will cook the white more or less and leave the yolk as fatty, runny goodness to coat your rice/couscous/whatever.
posted by telegraph at 5:17 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


For a bit of zing, splash on some Tabasco Smoked Chipotle. I only recently discovered this, and it's the bomb, especially with beef.

Buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Days of super-quick and easy meals.

Sliced sandwich meats of your choice from your grocery store deli, plus cheese and decent bread.

Canned lump crab + half an avocado + lemon juice and mayo. (See Tabasco Chipotle sauce above)

Baked pita chips + hummus. (Delicious and surprisingly satisfying.)

For comfort food, frozen tamale nuked with canned chili, with some grated cheddar cheese and diced onion on top.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:24 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: You may find this article from Serious eats on DIY instant noodles (http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/diy-instant-noodle-cups-food-lab.html) useful; even though you can't prepare a ton of fiddly ingredients right now, it may give you ideas. For example, I thought the part about using beef jerky in instant noodle soup is genius.

Precooked meats are going to be handy for you too; grilled chicken in a bag, precooked frozen shrimp, fake crabmeat, etc.

Rolled oats will cook with the boiling water + sitting method, and then you can either use them in any savory application that you'd use rice for, or do them up sweet (yogurt + preserves, butter and brown sugar).

Instant potatoes will also cook with the boiling water and sitting method, and then you can dump your protein from a can and some cheese on them and call it a day.
posted by joycehealy at 5:44 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I came in to say instant potatoes as well. Heat up water or milk in the microwave, stir into potatoes and top with whatever you'd put in a baked potato: butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits. Or go Mexican with salsa & corn. I happen to like spaghetti sauce on potatoes but I'm told I'm weird.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:51 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: My go-to halfassed vaguely food-like item for a long time was instant ramen with faux peanut sauce. Which in its quickest form meant a little bit of hot water from cooking the ramen, a nice-sized gob of creamy peanut butter, a drizzle of soy sauce, a squirt of sriracha or some other hot sauce, and maybe a bit of sesame oil or fish sauce if I had them in the fridge. You can mix it all up in the bowl you're going to eat out of, so the pot you cooked the ramen in just needs a quick rinse and only one dish gets really gunked up. It's not gonna impress anyone, but it's quick and tasty and way more filling than ramen alone.

If making a pot of ramen is within your parameters for this, another thing you can do to add protein is soft-boil an egg in with it. Put the egg in the water a few minutes before the ramen, and then cool it under running water and peel it. I find boiling and peeling eggs to be infuriatingly fiddly, so this one ends up being more work from my point of view, but maybe not from yours.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:52 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: Oh! I forgot, stores (around here at least) sell precooked hardboiled eggs. Forget almost instant food, they are instant. :)
posted by joycehealy at 5:56 PM on November 3, 2014


I know you have a rice cooker, but if this is going to go on for some time, I highly recommend shelling out for a crazy fancy japanese or korean cooker. We have a Cuckoo we bought on craigslist for $200 (retails $450 or so) and it'll make rice on a timer (we make brown rice sometimes with some beans or lentils tossed in, usually with a handful of random spice) and then keep it at a safe warm temperature for, well, indefinitely, but we've kept eating it for up to 30hrs, at which point it goes into fried rice.

So when things are crazy, there's a bowl of hot rice seconds away. Toss a can of fish or whatever on that, BAM.
posted by stray at 6:01 PM on November 3, 2014


Also, you're going to be appalled when I suggest this, but if you really just need quick and shelf-stable and filling and you're not worried about too much salt, just about any soup can be made tastier and way denser by floating some pork rinds in it.

I mean, I was raised to think of pork rinds as gross food for gross people, and you might have been too, but it's worth getting over it — they're delicious, super-convenient, high-protein, and no fattier than any other deep fried thing. Maybe think of them as low-carb croutons? That's basically what they end up like in soup: half crunchy and half melt-in-your-mouth-y where they soak up the broth, and seriously delicious.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:05 PM on November 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Is true-blue convenience food off the table? There is a big wide world of soup cups out there that lack even minimal cleanup, being made in a disposable cup. I like the ones in my local grocery store's natural section. Salty but there's considerable variety. I usually have a couple in my drawer at work. There are also boil-in-bag Indian curries that I like to eat with whatever flatbread we have (tortillas usually, heathen that I am.) No rice cooker needed.

Grab a bag of baby carrots for at least a little roughage.
posted by tchemgrrl at 6:11 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I frequently find myself in a similar situation, so I eat a lot of doctored canned beans: chickpeas with olive oil, a little salt, and smoked Spanish paprika (I'm having this right now!); chickpeas with olive oil, dried oregano, and jarred roasted red peppers; black beans with chipotles en adobo (or salsa); white beans with olive oil & lemon juice, or with anchovies (anchovy paste in a tube could work); white beans with tuna, olive oil, black pepper, & balsamic; &c.

I also keep lots of herbs and green onions around. They'll stay alive in a glass, can be quickly rinsed as needed, and "chopped" with scissors directly into the beans/couscous/&c. If that's an option for you, a fistful of parsley can turn couscous into something approximating tabouli; a little rosemary goes well with white beans; a big fistful of dill with some chives (and crumbled feta if you have it) makes a nice salad when tossed with chickpeas & olive oil; &c.

If you can find a non-gritty brand of dried mushroom, try cooking that into the couscous. Dried tomatoes, too. And for rice-stick noodles, maybe try a miso broth with dried seaweed and/or bonito flakes (canned tuna can work with this, too).
posted by Westringia F. at 6:38 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: My preferred couscous recipe is:
- harissa (a dry spice blend version, not a paste--sometimes I see this called "North African spice blend")
- a dash of cayenne if the harissa isn't spicy enough
- a bit of salt
- whole cumin seeds for crunch

Plus olive oil and toasted sesame oil mixed in after it's done soaking.
posted by cortisol at 6:42 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Curried couscous. Boil the water for your couscous - sub 1/3 orange juice for some of the water if you have it. Throw in some curry powder and some raisins or craisins into the boiling water with the raw couscous. Add some cashews after it's done. Delicious.
posted by hydra77 at 7:00 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, you can germinate dried lentils at your desk (or in a hotel room), and then eat them without cooking. Take 1/4C dried brown supermarket lentils, rinse them well, and let them soak overnight in a cup of water. After that, you'll want to drain them and then rinse & drain them 1-2 times a day, getting them as dry as you can after each rinse (still a little moist, but not soaking). They can be eaten without cooking as soon as they start germinating, basically after the first night; if you let them grow you'll have a pint of 2"-long lentil sprouts after 3-4 days. As long as they're growing they don't need to be refrigerated, and you can just munch them raw or add them to your instant dishes. They'll taste a little earthy (like lentils) and a little green (like bean-sprouts), and they'll have a peppery aroma. If they smell cheesy or badly sour, they're off; toss 'em, wash the glass, and start again.

(You can do this with other dried pulses, too, but IME lentils seem to be the most reliable.)
posted by Westringia F. at 7:02 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: Add some feta cheese. Just sprinkle it on top.
posted by starbreaker at 7:17 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: -Couscous+can of tomato soup (I'm sure tomato sauce would work too)+sundried tomato.

-Couscous+black olives+sundried tomato+you can chop up an onion if you feel like it, but it's tasty even if you don't.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:32 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: Chickpeas from a can go well with couscous.

Olive tapenade.

Can you do prewashed and chopped veggies? Broccoli in a bag at Trader Joes? Spinach salad mix cooks up very fast.

Speaking of spinach, spinach with either pre-made peanut sauce or peanut butter, milk, and soy sauce is probably pretty good.

Also, get those bulk dehydrated instant soups: black bean, e.g.
posted by salvia at 8:18 PM on November 3, 2014


I also cook like this because I'm usually too tired to do real cooking when I get home from work. But i also like to attempt to eat somewhat healthy. I rely heavily on the microwave. A few meals I like:

-bean burritos (canned beans, salsa, pico that I bought from somewhere, cheese, whatever) with whole wheat tortillas - like 3 minutes in the microwave

-scrambled eggs or omelets (spinich doesn't need chopping and things like mushrooms you'd only use a few of so it would only take a second to cut a couple)

-oatmeal with fruit (also microwaved, usually with raspberries) mixed in and a piece of toast

-piece of precooked meat and frozen vegetables. Usually I grill or fry several pieces of boneless chicken breast on Sunday, but I leave them a little pink on the inside. Then I pull one out of the fridge when I get home from work and microwave it so it cooks all the way through. Then I microwave frozen veggies or sometimes even canned ones (I like canned green beans). If I manage to get to Costco on the weekend, I buy fresh soup and then I have soup in place of veggies. I usually pour a bunch of buffalo sauce on top of my chicken breast because I love buffalo sauce.

-whole wheat pasta with some tomato sauce from a jar on top (sometimes pesto from a jar)

- acorn squash can be cut in half and microwaved, super good with butter on top

-sometimes I microwave a bratwurst or polish sausage mixed in with baked beans (learned while living in England)

Basically, frozen veggies are where it's at. There are a ton of options out there and they're just as healthy as fresh.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:34 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: (Instant) rice + tin of sardines + sweet soy sauce + sesame oil. Sesame oil on basically anything.

Sardines mashed up with hot sauce, whole grain mustard, and maybe some herbs, eaten on saltine crackers.
posted by stoneandstar at 9:05 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Instant rice + small can of four-bean mix + small can of corn kernels + a spoonful or two of tomato salsa. Optionally half an avocado, and some tabasco sauce. Yum!
posted by snap, crackle and pop at 9:18 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Chop roast, then chop into medium dice (1/4") some pumpkin or butternut squash. (butternut squash + sage = awesome). You don't have ot cook it until it's mush if you don't want, but eitehr way it'll stir nicely into couscous.

As for spices, curry will work great with either of these things. Anything that would taste good in dal/lentils will taste good in couscous, and there are a kajillion such recipes, at least 1 for every vegetarian in India.

Someone suggested rice cookers above: the late, great Roger Ebert wrote a cookbook (!) of recipes that are prepared in the rice cooker: The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:56 PM on November 3, 2014


Best answer: If you have a Trader Joe's, there are other great easy-to-make, shelf-stable foods. Those packets of indian food, like these are great - over rice, or not. You can buy boil in the bag rice, and boil the rice and boil one of those packets at the same time.

Trader Joe's also has boxes of peanut noodles and kung pao noodles. Release them from the plastic, dump into the box they came in, add sauce, and microwave. Add veggies if you're wanting some veg. I love the peanut noodles. They're delicious.

The Annie Chun noodle bowls are easy, and pretty good. A bit less process-y than the Cup-O-Soup option. Their taste took me a little to get used to, but they grew on me. I like the teriyaki. Throw chopped frozen veg in, and you're done.
posted by hydra77 at 10:52 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


I asked a question some time ago about easy recipe ideas with minimal cleanup. This answer by FakePalindrome seems applicable to your question: Pesto cheese pasta. I can attest to its deliciousness and ease!
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:48 AM on November 4, 2014


Same bowl meals in 2 mins? Anything you can add water to is an easy start. Giant cous cous, filled pasta with various pestos/sauces/cheeses/carbonara/salads/feta and veggies/etc, noodles of tons of different types, dolmades, soups. Then frozen risotto, pizzas, any readymeal, any salad or bread-based meal. TVP can be prepared in moments which opens up a lot more possibilities. Also, if you can freeze veggies, can you freeze curries, dal, etc?
posted by turkeyphant at 5:27 AM on November 4, 2014


Best answer: Laughing Cow cheese wedges are shelf-stable, are not completely horrible for you, and will melt gorgeously into hot food.

Capers can zing up canned tuna and tomato sauce.

Oil-packed, salt-cured olives add a different kind of zing. Really good with chick peas & in couscous.
posted by Westringia F. at 5:41 AM on November 4, 2014


Response by poster: These are amazing, amazing ideas, thank you so much everyone!!

I'm in a weird life phase where I'm 1) incredibly, absurdly busy; and 2) am taking a new medication that has completely killed any appetite. Between the two it's a huge chore and hassle to make myself eat at all, and any obstacle (like, being boring or taking more than two seconds to wash up) makes it irrationally easy to just skip a meal or three. I eat most days at work, but dinners and weekends were starting to get problematic.

The ideas here are making me look forward to eating again. They are literally going to keep me fed while I get through this—thank you thank you!
posted by peachfuzz at 8:38 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You can get the cheese powder used in mac and cheese and put it on couscous. It tastes like mac and cheese but even simpler (it's a good camping food). I get the powder in the bulk section of my grocery store.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:58 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I always throw big handfuls of kale in when I make instant noodle bowls (the fancy non-ramen style noodles from the asian market are amaaazing). Anyway that should work just as well for coucous - you don't need to chop it or anything, just pull your hands down the stalk and pull the green parts off, then rip into shreds with your fingers, and throw it in at the beginning - should be cooked fine by the time the couscous is ready.

You can do it with other greens too but I strongly prefer kale over any others that I've tried - it just has a more robust taste, plus you feel good about getting so many vitamins, especially if you're not eating many greens otherwise. I actually find it tastes really good too - I can't eat noodles without adding greens anymore, it just tastes too boring without them. I guess YMMV if you really hate greens, but give it a shot first anyway!
posted by randomnity at 9:16 AM on November 4, 2014


Best answer: I would turn to the pre-chopped veggies (and/or fruit) section of the grocery. They are a little more expensive, but if prep time is your goal, they are super convenient. And, definitely those little containers or pre-crumbled goat cheese/feta cheese/blue cheese to add some yummy-ness to your bowl!
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:46 AM on November 4, 2014


This is a bit more time than 2min, but it's just waiting and it can be done in one pot: Cooking fish in cooling water. It's great for salmon -- it comes out PERFECTLY cooked, just pepper it at the end. It's good cold the next day, too. I usw. make 2x what I need and flake the leftovers into salads or pasta.

Also, the Muir Glen fire roasted canned tomatoes are incredibly useful. A can of toms + a glob of pesto + can of white beans + water to thin = soup. Small can of toms (the kind w. chilies are good) + can of chickpeas + curry powder/paste = approximate channa masala. I like to dump a big can of toms into a pot, throw in some capers (& garlic if I'm not lazy), and poach a piece of fish directly in that, though that's more like a 10-min thing before the fish is done. Using the fire-roasted ones is key, though... other canned tomatoes are a bit boring.
posted by Westringia F. at 10:53 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Some grocery stores have a hot food counter. A tub of pre-cooked and sauced spaghetti lasts a few days.

Rinse and eat cucumbers, celery, green peppers. Leafy greens don't keep well if you wash them too early. Also good, packs of alfalfa sprouts, prepared olives, cheese.
posted by ana scoot at 4:55 PM on November 4, 2014


It's not clear to me whether you just need to limit active time or also total time. E.g., can you pour a pound of split peas and some water into a slow cooker and run it overnight, or would that fall into the same category as "not going to caramelize a pan of onions once a week"?
posted by d. z. wang at 9:07 PM on November 4, 2014


Several people mentioned those Trader Joe's (/etc.) Indian curries which come in little packets you can boil or microwave. I do a thing where I crumble tofu (squeeze out as much liquid as you can) into the curry and eat them together like a higher-protein-lower-carb version of curry and rice. You can pour in frozen peas, too, and/or top with sriracha/other hot sauce/mango chutney/etc. I usually cook the tofu a bit in a pan and then pour the curry in, but I could see it working well if you just poured it all in one bowl and microwaved. Or, depending on how much water the tofu released, you could heat the crumbled tofu in a bowl, drain out the water, then add the curry and peas and microwave again. Super easy, and the ingredients last well in the shelf/freezer/fridge for weeks and weeks.

By the way, to bring it back to couscous, mango chutney, like this, would be a delicious add-in, I think. Maybe with the aforementioned peas and a bit of butter, or the hot-mango-y-oil from the jar? Or some canned tuna? I make a tuna salad in which I include mango chutney so I know they work well together.
posted by spelunkingplato at 10:37 PM on November 4, 2014


So, when you get sick of couscous (took me about two years of many many meals), you can switch to dehydrated soup mixes. In the bulk food section, for ... well, it was ungodly cheap, like 50 cents / pound, there were three that I could typically find at grocery stores whatever my travels had taken me: black bean, curried lentil, and... I can't believe I forgot the third one, because I then ate these for another two years. They've probably changed the recipe anyway. They cook faster than couscous. The key spices to have around are then onion powder, garlic powder, curry, cumin, and hot pepper. Any of those can take things in a certain direction. The black bean one goes well with salsa, cheese if you like cheese (but... might involve cutting), and tortillas. The curry lentil one ... I dunno, I ate that one straight. But I bet chick peas would work well. I'll reiterate my support for bagged spinach, which cooks in seconds.

The next step up, as mentioned above, is a can of black beans + can of stewed tomatoes. Cumin or red pepper, vinegar + soy. Spinach or cherry tomatoes could be added. If you're willing to simmer the soup, then any pre-chopped veggie you can find would improve it (like broccoli or kale).
posted by salvia at 12:20 AM on November 5, 2014


There's shelf-stable pre-cooked white rice sold at Asian markets, the brand I know of is CJ. Just microwave it and you have rice that tastes freshly made. A lot of Koreans, including my mother, always keep some in the pantry so you can have rice whenever you want, especially when you only want one serving and don't want to cook a whole pot of rice.

Then you can mix in a raw egg, raw egg + soy sauce, or natto if you're okay with it. Or try Korean bachelor chow of canned tuna and mayo, mix with rice, then eat with toasted seaweed and/or kimchi. Costco sells packets of toasted seaweed, and I occasionally see them carry the CJ cooked rice.

Another thing we do is pick up cooked meat from one of the ethnic groceries - Chinese roasted pork, or lamb barbecue from the Mexican market, etc. This can be reheated with frozen veggies and rice (or couscous) for an instant meal.
posted by needled at 11:54 AM on November 5, 2014


Buy tub of MTS Machine Whey in your preferred flavour.

Add scoop of whey to bowl.

Dribble in cold water while stirring until whey reaches sludgelike consistency.

Add things if desired (whatever, nobody cares).

Enjoy delicious and extremely filling whey pudding sludge goop.

Total prep time: like nine seconds.

Total kitchen impact: bowl, spoon.

Brotip bonus: Double-scoop that shiz for maximal hugeness.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:35 PM on November 6, 2014


« Older Resources for Mandarin learner?   |   Applying for US Biotech jobs as a foreigner Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.