Yep. I got a some really good ones, that aren’t nearly as much trouble as what you described.
First is my vegetarian chili. This is too easy to even call a recipe. You cut up an onion and saute it in olive oil spray and a dab of actual olive oil. Now, you drain and rinse 3 cans of what ever beans you like. I don’t like the goo on the beans, and I rinse the salt off. You can eat the goo if you like it. Dump them all into the pot along with one 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a package of chili seasoning. Ta da. 15 minutes chile, and it’s surprisingly good. You can do your whole chili seasoning thing if you like, but I’m happy with mild Durkee’s or McCormick’s chili seasoning.
Now this is something I found on the internet. You cook a package of ravioli or tortellini, cheese of course, and drain it. In the meantime, brown 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter or margarine or 1 tablespoone of olive oil PER SERVING, along with some fresh sage. One of those big old leaves is enough. The sage is ready when it starts to get a little crispy looking, sort of like flash fried spinach. Dump it all together. You can add parm at the table, or you can saute some mushrooms and garlic too, but however you make it, it’s a lovely easy surprise meal. Even my son the chef, who hasn’t liked anything I cooked since he was 13, likes this.
Another thing I do with ravs and torts is boil them along with a bag of Normandy Blend frozen vegetables. This bag usually has orange and yellow carrots, mushrooms, onions, squash, cauliflower and broccoli (which I could live without) and I get it at WalMart or Sam’s. A huge bag is about $7 and you get a lot of meals out of it. I just boil them in one pot with the pasta, drain the whole works, add a T of olive oil per serving, some garlic and a little milk or fat free half and half, and parm. I think of it as a pseudo-fredo sauce. A drained and rinsed can of white beans is a nice addition to this.
I stated out making pasta and beans a long time ago when I was really broke and going to Weight Watchers. It was the end of the pay period and I just didn’t have any cash. I had some shell noodles in the cabinet, a can of kidney beans and a package of frozen spinach. I boiled the spinach and a serving of shells (the box said how much that was) together, measured 2 ounces of beans and put the rest away and of course I drained and rinsed. When it was all done, I added a tablespoon of parm which was about 30 calories of the 500 a week you got back then, and a serving of diet margarine. I was home alone, you can tell. It wasn’t quite right so I tossed in a couple ounces of skim milk, and sprinkled in a little garlic powder, and it was close enough to Alfredo sauce that I was happy. Ignorance can be bliss, and I didn’t know Alfredo was something complicated. This became one of the things people asked me to bring to pot lucks and parties. I started playing around with vegetables, and I’ve always like beans, so there you go. I moved on to chopped broccoli after the spinach and although I don’t much like broc, I like it better than spinach. I can’t imagine why I had spinach in the first place.
Finally, you can make some vegetable soup. Just dig out whatever vegetables you find in the refrigerator. I use onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery, carrots and especially zuchinni and yellow squash with really give it nice taste. I usually use a can or two of vegetable broth, the low sodium if I can find it, but vegetable broth is hard to find on it’s own around here, and some water. I don’t like tomatoes in my soup, but you can surely add those or tomato sauce. I’m not a red sauce fan. Cook until the veggies are about done, add some kind of carb like rice or noodles or quick barley, and a good old can of drained and rinsed beans. We’re big soup fans at my house, and I make this probably two or three times each month.
You probably want to use salt and I don’t add it to anything. My only salt indulgence is on french fries and I seldom have those. I do use pepper and this stuff I got at Ben Franklin called Soul Food Seasoning. It has salt and pepper, garlic powder, paprika and some other stuff. One big jar of it was a buck, and it lasts a very long time.
) tomatoes and lay out on plate. Slice soft mozzarella into corresponding chunks and place on tomato slices. Drizzle with 1tbsp olive oil and 1tbsp balsamic vinegar. Add basil and black pepper to taste. I eat this much by myself, so you can just fix as many plates as you need. It takes less than five minutes.
