I haven’t spent more than a half hour in the kitchen (at any stretch) for months. Pregnancy exhaustion and now a baby makes it difficult. The little bit of a freezer stash I had is long gone. My secret weapon (mom) will be on the road a lot in April and May, as will be my husband. I need a plan and I need it quick because I am reaching that ravenous stage in the pregnancy-postpartum cycle of eating anything at all and lots of it.
Below is my top five list for the food desperate. Note that the list contains no frozen pizzas. I suppose we all have our own limits when it comes to “desperate.”
(1) Shrimp cocktail.
Use frozen cooked shrimp. Thaw it. (1 minute plus thaw time)
Make a cocktail sauce with ketchup and wasabi to save some cash. (2 minutes)
(2) Bone broth.
Season with an herb seasoning. Salt.
Eat with a couple of eggs for breakfast. Eat for lunch.
Put soup bones in a crock pot. Simmer overnight. Strain. (2 minutes to strain, another 3 minutes to clean up all of the fat from the strainer and countertop if you spill).
Resimmer the bones another couple of times. (See mom’s instructions on making broth.)
Egg drop soup.
Use your broth and instead of eating the eggs on the side, add scrambled eggs to the broth. (Crack eggs, scramble, then add to hot broth and stir.)
Season with an herb seasoning. Salt to taste.
Add rice noodles for a great treat.
(3) Green salads.
These can be quick if you’re organized. Keep protein toppings on hand. My favorites are boiled eggs, salmon, crab, and shrimp. I always add some sort of nut for crunch as well, usually pine nuts.
Rinse lettuce, tear, spin if you have a spinner. (2-3 mintutes).
Cut tomatoes, avocado, and other produce. (up to 5 minutes)
Use the salad dressing recipes and mix your own oil and vinegar. (1 minute)
Put together salad.
(4) Scrambles.
Morning, noon, or night, it doesn’t get easier than a scrambled egg dish. Scramble them in leftover vegetables and you’re in and out in ten minutes.
(5) Fish eggs on rice.
When money is more available than time, this may be my favorite: salmon roe (or any sort of roe) over rice. Prepare sushi rice, which is soaked in advance of cooking, and add some soy sauce and wasabi for a great treat.
That’s it. I expect my mother would be appalled about my lack of depth, but she too has been spotted lately eating shrimp cocktail. Of course that may be because she loves it.
The hens should begin to lay soon and I plan to fill the freezer with quiche and frittata to add to the egg theme in my top five list.
@ Amazon.
Juiced up bone broth, filled with nutrients
A couple of years ago my mother put together two nutrient-packed foods into one exceptional package. She mixed bone broth from a leftover leg of lamb with vegetable juice from vegetables that were wilting too much for other uses….