Five Super Quick Dinners

Here are five dinners you can make in a flash! Before you gather everyone up to go out for dinner, before you pick up the phone to call for pizza or Chinese food delivery, stop, take a deep breath and take look in your pantry, I bet you have the makings of at least two or three dinners that will take you less time than driving to the restaurant, at a fraction of the cost!

1. Frittata: Sauté peppers, onions and any other colorful vegetables such as spinach, tomatoes, corn, in a 12″ skillet, add six beaten eggs, and let cook for five minutes, top with any grated cheese you have on hand, and broil until top is bubbling and golden brown.  Cut into wedges, serves 4-6.  You can add cut up ham or chicken.  Serve with potatoes or toast and salad. Frittatas are one of my very favorites last minute dinners. There are an infinite number of possibilities for add-ins, go crazy!!
   

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2. Pasta with Tuna and Peas: Cook one pound of pasta (any shape will do) drain two cans of tuna in a colander, crumble with your fingers, and leave it in the colander.  Add 1 cup of peas to pasta water in the last two minutes. Drain pasta and peas over tuna. Turn the pasta mixture into a large bowl, and toss with olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.  Other add-ins: capers, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes cut in half or canellini beans. This is our default dinner, we probably have some variation of it once a week.
   

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3. Fried Rice: Leftover rice is the best thing to use for this, but you can cook two cups of rice in four cups of salted water. While rice is cooking chop one onion or a bunch of scallions, coarsely grate two carrots, cut up any leftover meat, chicken, ham, and get one cup of frozen peas. In a small bowl beat two eggs.  If you are cooking rice,when the rice is done, rinse with cold water to cool it, then sauté the vegetables in some hot oil, add the rice and stir fry quickly adding in two to three tablespoons of soy sauce, add the egg, and stir quickly to form small pieces, add rice and meat, cook, stirring quickly and constantly until everything is hot.
   

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4. Cheesy Corn Pancakes: Use either homemade pancake batter (omit sugar), or pancake mix made according to box directions, mix in one cup of frozen corn ( if making pancakes for four) and 1 cup grated cheddar cheese.  Make pancakes, and serve with sour cream and salsa.  Add chopped ham or leftover sausage to batter.  This also has tons of variations, add grated zuccini, peppers, grated carrot… (sorry no photo right now)
5. Chicken Pot Pie Soup: Use leftover chicken, skin and bones removed, Cut up chicken, cut up one onion, and use half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, or peas and carrots, put chicken and vegetables into a pot with four cups of chicken stock, bring to a low boil over medium heat, in a separate pan, over low heat, melt four tablespoons of butter, when butter is melted stir in four tablespoons of flour and mix well, cook for five minutes, and ladle in two ladles full of the soup broth, adding them slowly, and one at a time, stirring to keep lumps from forming.  When you’ve made a thick sauce, stir that into soup mixture. If you feel ambitious make some biscuits to put under the soup in the bowls YUM!

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