On the phone with Jeaniene Frost
Me: I haven’t done anything for a whole week.
J: I hear you. Dragoncon was a lot.
Me: I might take the next week off too.
J: This is so unlike you. I’m starting the new project next week.
Me: But why?
J: List of reasons that make sense.
Me: No, don’t work!
J: I need to start it so I at least have something…
Me: No, be lazy with me!
J: This is highly ironic coming from you.
Clearly I need more time off. My body and mind are not ready. Nope.
Also Satisfactory 1.0 hit, Gordon and I playing Wow – Dragonflight is pretty awesome, so we are starting there, and I have read 2 books last week. If I can gather together enough willpower, I will clean the kitchen. Or I might not. I might just be lazy.
I think I ran out of whatever it is that makes workaholics function. I seem to have misplaced it. Maybe it’s in my craft room, around the yarn stash somewhere. I should really go look there.
Look at this cute doggie!
I still have to make some kind of a dinner. What is your favorite lazy meal? Please share and save me from having to let go of my laziness.
Happy Friday, everyone. I wish you the best weekend.
You deserve to take some time off! Take care of yourself and you’ll come back ready to go!
Favorite lazy, can’t think meal is sloppy joes. Brown hamburger, dump ketchup (about a cup), one or two squirted swirls of plain yellow mustard and brown sugar (about 1/4 cup) on top, cook until it smells good and dump on hamburger rolls. If I’m feeling slightly more ambitious I put a little lettuce or onions on top
Favourite lazy meal is an egg drop soup but made with the dry Lipton’s chicken noodle soup pack!
Salty goodness, swirl in an egg or two (fork scrambled) when the noodles are cooked. Dish it out and drizzle on soy for extra salty goodness. Open a jar or olives or artichokes if you need a veggie.
I love sloppy joe’s! Now I want one LOL
+1
Yum.
lazy meal – grilled cheese sandwiches or quesdillas if I have the tortillas.
I made Mr Mod R quesadillas for breakfast and he demanded grilled cheese for lunch hehe. Clearly, it’s in the air, something cheesy this way comes!
Lazy meals. Sandwiches with cheese and deli meat and fresh bread fron the bakery section.
Spaghetti from a box topped with spaghetti sauce from a jar.
Trader Joe’s frozen orange chicken.
A jar of olives, a sliced cucumber, feta cheese, rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, Greek chicken salad.
refrigerator salad. every vegetable in the refrigerator that can be eaten without heating it up in a big bowl. with half a bottle of my favorite dressing poured over the top.
One of my favs! We call it grazing.
Trader Joe’s frozen orange chicken is amazing. I try to always have a bag stashed in the freezer.
We do nachos when we don’t want to cook. Tortilla chips, preshredded cheddar, frozen taco meat from the freezer, nuke one minute then top with sour cream and salsa. Five minutes total.
I 100% agree, except knowing that TJ’s orange chicken is in the fridge makes me lazy…it’s the only thing that moves out of the freezer within a week of being added…
Must try. There’s a Trader Joe’s down the street I’ve never been in. So now I have a reason to scope it out.
What?! There’s a Trader Joe’s down the street you’ve never been in? My family would have starved to death long ago…Orange chicken is great, beef and broccoli is great, gyoza is great, steak and stout pies are good (excellent pastry, decent filling) but the shepherd’s pie is not. 🙂 Plus wine… Happy shopping!
Are your quesadillas done in the oven or skillet?
Charcuterie, just meat, cheese, and fruit eaten with a good book or in front of the TV. No fancy prep, just small piles of things from the fridge.
yes. I call this the smorgasbord. little piles of random tasty things. I was doing girl dinner for a decade before it got the fancy name 😆
+1
+1
Oh yeah love grilled cheese but I also add a big bowl of Campbells Tomato soup (make with milk for a creamy flavor).
I love grilled cheese with a bit of habanero jelly (or similar) on the inside. So good.
The BDH is here for you! We will be lazy WITH you. No, no. It’s ok. That’s the kind of sacrificial caring we do.
Hahaha! I am so loved! I appreciate your sacrifice!
And now I’m thinking about what one sacrifices to the Deity of Laziness…
You sacrifice your planner, your Google calendar, your to do lists…
Nothing. The act of finding something to sacrifice is too much work. Deities will
appreciate the commitment to laziness the lack of sacrifice shows. Assuming they are not too lazy to notice.
Kick back in your La-Z-Boy chair, and to quote their ad “Long live the lazy!” 😀
Knit if you want, veg out on TV if you want, take a nap, or do nothing but sit in your chair with the feet up.
Yes, yes, it is an unimagined priviledge to throw myself on the sword of laziness for the honor of House Andrews! As soon as I get up off the sofa…
hahahaha
+1
I’m with you 100%! Already in pjs, on the sofa, under a blanket! And it’s only 3:15 pm here! 😄
As a Hordian I want to tell you to stay away from WoW. As a Horde Blood Elf I have to tell you that if you like Dragonflight you’re going to love The War Within and should definitely play it. Even if only for Mr Sunshine, the therapist spider.
Yes! Lazy all week. Lazy lazy lazy. We’ve got this!
Be kind to yourself! I make grilled cheese with tomato and basil soup from a container when I don’t feel like cooking.
My favorite lazy meal is something I put in the microwave. It is a cute picture of Mona’s. Sometimes being lazy lets you recover enough to be very productive when you start back to work. It’s a good plan.
My favorite meal is when someone else does it.
+1,000,000
+100
Word. Lol.
Laziest meal: Chicken soup and rice. Literally make rice in the rice maker with the broth from a can of soup instead of water and then dump the veggies and chicken from the can in, too.
Also lazy: turkey burgers in the toaster oven and microwave a bag of frozen veggies. I’ve been on a cauliflower rice kick because I’m trying to cut carbs. The risotto medley from Green Giant is pretty good.
Ooh!! An adorable picture of Mona IS meaningful content!!
Lazy meal – scrambled eggs on toast with fruit salad and/or carrot and celery sticks.
**whispers so the sprites don’t hear: take another week to recharge; gaming and reading are good for you!!**
+1
My favorite lazy day meal is a tortilla pizza with whatever toppings I have in my fridge.
For my household my go-to for “I don’t wanna cook, nor pick up food or delivery” nights – frozen pizza! I keep at least one each of each person’s fav in the freezer and throw in the oven.
We call those ’emergency pizzas’ in our house! 🙂
We call them comfort pizzas! Comfy food for lazy days.
We call them rainy day pizzas!
We also keep frozen low carb pizzas in the freezer for lazy meals. I add some extra “ treasure” in the form of chopped capsicum( bell pepper), mushroom, salami, grated cheese and anchovies to my husband’s side, sliced tomato to mine. An easy meal for those days when you are too tired to prepare a meal from scratch.
+1 Even the Baylors do it!
Is it strange for you reading other books? What books do you find you can get lost in vs what kind just distract with what the author has had to go through to get to the published version?
We’ve got a cold and rainy weekend coming – doing nothing with the fire on sounds wonderful!
lazy food – Brotzeit, aka bread, cheese, some sausage. Grilled Toast, with tomato, ham, cheese. Or simply take away, Pizza or japanese.
I made this last night. chicken quesodillas, I used frozen grilled chicken strips and already shredded cheese. Dipped in salsa.
Homemade pizza is my fave lazy meal. I buy the pre-made crusts, put a bunch of yummy things on top and it’s all good. No brains required. And some nights there’s barely enough brains left to turn on the oven.
Relax, unwind, recharge. We all gotta do that every now and then.
I am not American and I have absolutely no idea what grilled cheese is! Read it a million times in books (well maybe not million, but feels like it).. and my laziness absolutely forbids me to google it, so I have a mental image.. but no idea really. Certain things are sacrificed on the altar of laziness and I will go forth and prosper without really knowing what grilled cheese is.
Relish the lazy!!
It’s a warm cheese sandwich lol. Tbh I don’t think I had one until I moved to the UK, my mom would make them like open faced sandwiches in the oven, with cheese and a slice of salami. Which would be more a riff on “cheese on toast” I guess.
Which btw- open faced sandwiches still stimy a lot of British people I met. I think Scandinavia and Eastern Europe join hands on that one hehe!
I grew up learning to make grilled cheese two ways:
1. Cheese between two slices of bread, buttered on the outsides, then fry it in a skillet on both sides until golden brown and cheese is melted.
2. Open-faced like ModR mentions. Two pieces of bread on tin foil, sliced cheese on top, no top bread. Broil until melted.
Thanks to advances in tech, there is now a third method. Cheese between two slices of bread, insert into toaster packet, toast a couple of times until melted and browned. Only problem I have with this one is that the bread I prefer to buy is taller than my toaster can hold when it’s in the sleeve, so I have to toast the sandwich then rotate the sandwich in the sleeve and toast the other half.
Where does everyone stand on using mayo instead of butter on the outside of the pan grilled sandwich? I’ve tried it and I’m not sure…
The grilled cheese I grew up on is two slices of white bread spread with Miracle Whip on the inside and several slices of Kraft singles, Butter the outside of the bread, Toast in a frying pan until both sides of the sandwich are nice and brown. If we were lucky Mom would put a couple of slices of ham lunch meat on it too.
what on earth is Miracle Whip?
It’s like mayo but tangy or zesty. It’s made by Kraft I believe and they call it a sandwich spread.
EVIL
+1000000
my favorite from childhood too! Still love them. Add some pickles on the side.
Nope!
Saw a recent well known Chef make a grilled cheese. Buttered the outside of the bread AND sprinkled Parmesan on the outside too. Looked delicious
No. The correct answer to mayo is no.
Fiiiiiiine. If folks want to mayo, I’ll keep my judgey face to myself and remind myself that all the Horde is fluffy and beloved.
I’ve never tried mayo. Might give that a shot.
I have been a bit daring the last couple of years by using 2 or 3 types of cheese and adding a little Horsey Sauce from Arby’s. Gives it a little bit of bite but multiple cheeses do make it really gooey and messy. Really good, but really messy.
It just ends up more eggy tasting, which eggy bread, French toast, pain perdu, whatever you want to call it, it’s definitely a thing! But sometimes I’m in my egg era and other times…bleaurgh. I get the egg ick and just can’t.
I get that ‘eggs yay!’ or ‘eggs? are you trying to make me feel sick’ thing. Nice to know I’m not the only person it happens to!
Definitely butter. I like mayo. But not warm mayo.
No, butter outside, mayo inside, but not too much. It increases the creaminess of the melt cheese.
I’m a firm “no” on the mayo. Maybe I did it wrong but it didn’t brown that well and it was no less greasy than one using butter. I am a firm advocate of using multiple types of cheese though..mix-n-matching cheddar, swiss, jalapeno jack, or even geuyere, gouda or whatever you like. I am firmly against the use of using processed or American cheese of any kind. I’m sure it’s some kind of sacriledge.
I’ve used mayo on the outside instead of butter. It’s good. It browns more evenly and gets crispier.
This is what my sons say, too. 🙂
The purist in me says no to mayo. Bread, butter, cheese. My former husband put mayo on the inside of the sandwich and butter on the outside. Not my thing.
It’s delicious. Think of it as an easy breading without the bread. Mayo is eggs and oil. You’d flour, dip in egg, then dip in bread crumbs and fry it in oil. You’re just losing two of those ingredients.
Full disclosure: I haven’t tried it on grilled cheese yet, only on a turkey reuben/rachel, and it was delicious. I have plans to try it on grilled cheese, though.
Hopefully I included the link correctly…
Best grilled cheese.
My husband and I watched this movie, Chef, and ran out to get the ingredients so we could recreate. 😋
https://youtu.be/gbdUGdxX7ww
NO to mayo. On anything. I don’t like it. You can have all my mayo. I’ll have your butter.
Me too!
Finally, someone else who doesn’t do mayo…thank you!
Agreed. No mayo period.
+1000, no one in my house will eat mayo. Not even on the outside. Butter 4Eva
Side note, I like to put sundried tomatoes in my grilled cheese, especially if I don’t have any tomato soup handy
Amen. Nasty stuff!
I have used both butter and Blue Plate mayo. I like either. The mayo is easier to spread than the butter . You can’t beat grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup for a lazy meal.
Butter ONLY. Butter is one of the basic stuffs of life (and eating, LOL)
Nooo … hmm, maybe. I think I will try that. Thanks for idea.
Mayo/miracle whip only belongs in the tuna fish that I add in if I want to turn my grilled cheese into a tuna melt
I don’t like it. I much prefer butter. It also made my pan hard to clean for some reason
Eeek no mayo only butter 😳😳😳😱😱😱. And in honor of this blog I’m reading today and the amount of family dinner I cooked yesterday I’m doing grilled cheese and tomato or ramen noodles for us tonight…yay lazy meal day
I have a metallic contraption, is like a grilling pan, square, you put the bread with the cheese inside and it has to sides that make pressure, so you cook it in both sides a couple of minutes and you have a sealed cheese sandwich.
https://www.bazargralsarmiento.com.ar/extra/tostador-sellador-sandwich-doble
I think there you can see the image.
It can hold any filling for the sandwich.
New Zealander have these in abundance and may use them to create this variant:
https://gabbypeyton.substack.com/p/spaghetti-and-cheese-toastie
(I haven’t had one since I was a kid but they are all over the show)
This is bringing up an interesting point I have never thought of before. The open faced cheese toast is definitely the more “grilled”- using the definition of term- of the two listed methods, but I would never consider it to be a “grilled cheese.” To southern American me, the pan-fried in butter step is absolutely requisite for the dish. You skip this step and you have made a tasty cousin dish, but NOT a grilled cheese. We should probably call it a fried cheese sandwich instead…
One more method, toast two slices of bread. After toasting place cheese slices between the toast. Microwave 30 seconds or long enough to melt the cheese.
Mayonnaise on the inside with the cheese is optional.
Thank you… haha …. I wasn’t sure about saying when I am tired and want something quick.
I toast the bread and nuke it to melt the cheese.
Not as good as fried in a skillet but very fast and easy.
I used to work in a sandwich/deli shop. The owner had a great imagination, one favorite was her version of a monte cristo:
Using a panini maker
Put two slices of apple bread buttered on the outside
Inside mango chutney, thin sliced turkey breast, swiss cheese, close up and let the panini work its magic. To die for, yummy!
That does sound yummy!
NO to mayo. I have to admit, I was raised with Miracle Whip and prefer it. Or butter on a sandwich, truth be told.
My favorite grilled cheese sandwiches require special bread and cheese. My local supermarket has a pretty good bakery, and they generally make a few artisan breads. Among those are a loaf with rosemary, and one with Asiago cheese (I live in a part of New England with a large Italian-American population.) Both make excellent grilled cheese.
Then I use a good sharp domestic cheddar on it, NOT “American” cheese (shudder). Doesn’t have to be expensive cheddar, but…cheddar. Vermont or Wisconsin cheddar, usually. Butter the outside, toss it in the pan….yum.
Yum, my favorite is actually rye bread with a good sharp cheddar. So delicious.
That sounds good, too!
Wow!! Open-faced sandwiches are our go-to, both growing up & now for my kids! No one else seems to have heard of them…. But I’m Canadian so I guess it makes more sense that it’s a thing in Britain 🤗
Her Grandma taught my daughter how to make a grilled cheese when she was 7. I asked her how and she told me she made toast and peeled 2 American cheese singles, put them between the bread and then microwaved it until it melted. Real grilled cheese sandwiches are much tastier but Grandmas’ method was safer for a kid to make. We had already taught her how to operate a microwave oven.
Tuna Casserole- Kraft Mac and cheese . Can of tuna, can of green peas
I’ve never had warm tuna, or the tuna cheese (or any fish and cheese) combination. And I pride myself on my food adventurousness, but somehow that’s the combo I’m scared of! 😀
Mod R – tuna noodle w/cheese casserole is A Thing here is the US. Many variations pending on what part of the US you live in. My go-to recipe is canned tuna, Velveeta cheese – cubed, can of cream of mushroom soup, noodles (store bought) and crushed potato chips on top. Bake til bubbly. Yum!
One of Mom’s favorite dishes was tuna casserole with pearl onions and green peas in a cream sauce. It was the most disgusting creation on earth. I have always hated green peas and pearl onions and the tuna casserole made that hatred even worse. I love a nice tuna steak but put it in a casserole and I’m going to gag.
Totally agree with both that exact tuna noodle casserole (what were our mothers thinking? Yuck) and a tuna steak.
Our favorite lazy meal is peanut butter, butter, and raspberry preserves on homemade bread with a big side salad. You put thin slices of butter on one slice of bread and then add the preserves on top. It takes PB&J to the next level.
Homemade is my favorite kind of tuna casserole. Honest, Mod R, it is quite good. Dry sherry is the key, IMO.
Don’t be scared! Lol. I found a recipe about 10 years ago and thought, “no”. I made it anyway. I, obviously, like it as I continue to make it.
I find it to be a truly upsetting combination. I know a lot of people love it, but I just can’t.
+1
I’m
Not personally a fan of tuna noodle casserole but tuna melts are amazing!
I mix diced dill pickle, a bit of onion, mayo and a can of tuna. Spread over a couple slices of bread. Add shredded cheese and bake until the cheese is golden and melted. So yummy.
Tinned tuna (especially flavoured, like lemon-pepper or tomato-and-basil) is one of my pantry staples. Can be eaten cold, but as a student when seasonings were expensive and cooking skills were minimal, you could cook rice or pasta, then do a basic white sauce and tip in the flavoured tuna and whatever veggies might come to hand, which allowed for a more varied menu while still only using one basic recipe. Grated cheese, being expensive, could be added for special occasions, or to convert the dish into a pasta bake.
If you ever want to try a tuna-and-cheese combination, my personal go-to is lemon-pepper tuna with a mild cheese like Edam – in warm foods, in toasted sandwiches, or just directly on bread. I am not a food adventurer though (cough cough understatement), so I admit I probably wouldn’t have tuna in my pantry if it hadn’t been a childhood food!
That tuna, veg and white sauce combo was a classic of my student years too, and I still make it from time to time. I make the white sauce by sprinkling the flour on to softened onions so the flour can’t clump so you actually get an onion sauce for a bit more veg. Lovely and made in the time it takes the pasta to cook.
The Kraft Mac & cheese with tuna ( with or without peas) is an inexpensive way to up the nutritional value of the Mac & cheese &/or make more servings. I’ve had it & it’s not my thing. I like Kraft Macaroni & cheese without these additions.
When I was growing up, canned tuna was still packed in oil. I became stuck on the ‘it looks like cat food, it smells like cat food, therefore it misses cat food’ bandwagon & I never really left it, even when they started packing it in water.
For most ‘tuna’ recipes you an replace the tuna with canned chicken.
my dad used to love tuna and hard boiled egg sandwiches. drained tuna, hard boiled eggs cut up, mix together with mustard and mayo, salt and pepper, and put on toasted bread.
I haven’t had one since he passed over 40 years ago but recalled they were really good.
Maybe I will make one right now. sounds good
That’s too close to something my mom used to make called turkey tetrazini (sp?). I hated that growing up. So I won’t put tuna in my mac ‘n cheese, but I do often cook polish kielbasa along with it.
Got through my senior year of college having this to eat in the dorm — but no peas, please.
I had that at a friend’s house as a kid. I wasn’t a fan. But my mom didn’t make casseroles really. I wonder if it’s kind of an aquired taste. 😊
Fridge rummage usually results in partial full tins of baked beans (tomato or molasses sauce ); roasted potatoes or rice (reheated in microwave); kimchi; cut up veggies and opening tin of wild salmon or spicy tuna (brand Dong Won) from Korea.
Your brain and body want you to rest a bit more 🙌
Order pizza and forget about cleaning or cooking!
You deserve a break!
The BDH will just have to chill! 🙂
Any Kevin’s meal over brown rice. Add some frozen mixed vegetables into the skillet and it’s a balanced meal. https://www.kevinsnaturalfoods.com/products/korean-bbq-style-chicken
What is a Kevin’s meal?
Search for Kevin’s Natural Foods, clean eats available at Costco and local grocery stores. Yummy stuff for the BDH & HA.
Thank you!
This sounds amazing! I’ll look for these!
With the start of school (we start late in oregon) I’ve been doing lots of lazy meals too lol. At least twice a week we’re having sandwiches right now, turkey or chicken with cheese and veggies and the pre-cooked chopped bacon from the store so it’s extra tasty with no effort from me 🙂 slightly higher effort recent lazy night fave is prepping the baked chicken meatballs from pinch of yum, and on lazy nights I throw those in after baking with a premade Indian sauce instead of making something from scratch, patak’s brand isn’t as good as homemade by any means but it’s perfectly edible! Throw some rice in the rice maker and heat naan and call it good.
Or salsa chicken in the instapot or slow cooker, shred that over rice or in tacos with whatever easy toppings I feel like. All of those have made an appearance in the last two weeks! Hope you both enjoy some well earned lazy days, the work can wait a while longer for you <3
I was going to mention salsa chicken because it’s a relatively healthy, but zero effort, meal. Boneless chicken breasts or thighs in a crockpot, add a jar of any type of salsa – red, green, hot, mild whatever – and a bit of garlic powder. Cook on high 2 hours or low 4 hours. Shred. Serve over rice or with tortillas.
my favorite lazy meal is grilling. Just put it all on the grill. if weather is bad, I pop out one of the soups I froze and heat up some bread. there is always salad. sometimes it just hits the spot.
I make pasta fagioli if I want something easy. Only takes 20 min and it’s still real food. Although since it’s Friday, I highly recommend just getting pizza and relaxing. You deserve it.
You deserve to take time off, you’ve more than earned it! As for lazy meals…I like marinated chicken with potatoes. I put the marinade of choice in a bag, slap the chicken in there and let it go for a half hour to a few hours. Then unceremoniously dump it with some potatoes of choice on a sheet tray, give it a toss and throw it in a 400 ish degree oven til done.
Take out
costco sells a two pack of cheese tortellini, refrigerated but I freeze it.
Boil water, add a little salt, dump in the frozen tortellini, when they start to float (2-3 minutes) I dump in frozen peas, cook for one minute and drain. drizzle with a little olive oil or cream after I serve it.
Open a can of pears. can have all it together or separate.
carb/protein, vegetable, and fruit in less than ten minutes.
And you have one pot to rinse out after.
Buitoni pasta isn’t bad, either. I usually cook the pasta then toss it with pesto sauce and sun-dried tomatoes, maybe add a bit of cream or the pasta water to the sauce. I cook enough for leftovers and it’s good cold or reheated in the microwave.
Take the time off and relax your body will make you if you don’t!
My super lazy meal a one pot meal.
Rosemary Lemon Chicken
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Using chicken thigh with skin on pat dry and season with a lemon butter (I use Kinder) or citrus seasoning of some sort.
2. Heat an oven safe pot( I use a Dutch oven) with olive oil in the bottom just enough to coat bottom. Put chicken skin down into hot oil and let cook for 4 minutes.
3. While chicken is in oil cut golden potatoes into quarters or smaller depending on what you like.
4.Pull chicken out and throw potatoes in to brown each side. Put more of the season you used on chicken onto potatoes as they cook.
5.When brown put in 1/2 cup of chicken broth ( I use Knorr Pollo it comes in seasoning form and you mix with water).
6.Then lay chicken skin side up on top of potatoes add more seasoning already used and then put 2 rosemary sprigs or put some dried rosemary in.
7.Put lid on pot and put in oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes take the lid off and turn on broil. Broil until skin is crispy.
8. In a small bowl melt half a stick of butter in the microwave, grate lemon skin into the butter and squeeze as much lemon as you like into the butter. Drizzle over the chicken and potatoes and enjoy!
Ps. I have also added in onion, garlic and kale which was very good but my kids like it the original way better.
Favorite fast/lazy dinner is broccoli pasta. Tasty and easy. Enjoy some time off.
This is an easy one, cheese on toast or beans on toast, because I’m a basic British b*tch! No effort, all the comfort.
I am the kind of person who can’t clean in their own home, but I go to a friend’s and can’t help doing things. Even in my work is easier to do those things.At home I can’t avoid procrastination. Also cleaning at work is procrastination, so…
Not the point!
You are awesome, and you deserve to have lazy days, or weeks.
We will w*it, p*tiently, and know, that for us to enjoy your work is necessarily that you are well.
Wishing you all the happiness from the other side of the world.
My current favorite lazy meal is chopped summer sausage I sear in my cast iron pan & put into the cacio e pepe Goodles noodles. Boxed dinner ez mode but not totally garbage.
It’s still too hot in Texas, but a pot of chili is my go-to weekend/football season meal.
I’m glad you are taking a break. Your body and mind are telling you to rest.
Toasted Rye bread (scandinavian staple) with butter and soft boiled egg or pasta carbonara, if no eggs or bacon then pasta bianco -only cream and parmesan
Being part time workaholic/protestant work ethics i am pondering a sentence i heard the other day.
The less i do the more i can recieve… 🤔
Please recover some more
Sometimes you just need bacon.
This
Fav lazy meal – DoorDash😆😆
😊❤️ got that right! Friday nights!
YES!
Mona IS adorable. Sometimes we just hit a stage in our working life where we just need a break. So take a break! Soon you will be bored with not working and your brain will be ready to go back to work! My favorite lazy meal is pizza delivery. Second favorite lazy meal is meatloaf with a baked potato. Fifteen minutes of front end prep and an hour in the oven. Easy peasy.
Tacos made with whatever leftovers I have in the fridge.
Nachos used to be it for me until I became lactose intolerant. Now it’s fresh baked sourdough from Wild Grain (baked yourself from frozen) and Progresso tomato basil soup.
Happy, well rested authors write pleasing narratives! Rest! Relax! Rejuvenate as nature intended- seasons weren’t a mistake, though you may miss the point in the hellscape of hot where you chose to live, but a guide for all life. Follow the guide. Order pizza. Lubricate your brains with the grease of ease until they are ready to spin again.
Lazy meal: tater-tot casserole. 1 bag of frozen tater-tots, 2 cans of cream of “something” Campbell’s soup, and whatever is found in the fridge or pantry.
Favorite – tator-tots, cream of broccoli soup, broccoli (if already in fridge) mix together and cook according to tater-tot bag instructions; top with cheese and put back in the oven until the cheese melts. Top with sour cream and serve.
my mom made this but added cooked ground beef to the casserole before putting in the oven.
Enjoy being lazy – just another word for recharging! I just tried a kit for making pad thai. All the components were in this package. You cook pre-marinated chicken for five minutes, then add vegetables for two, then add sauce and noodles and cook for another two minutes. It was pretty good, but needed some extra spice.
Mona is a cutie!
I watch America’s Test Kitchen on PBS a lot. They had a super simple recipe for tater tot hot dish. Found the video on YouTube. Making it on Sunday – I will be too busy watching football to make anything that takes a lot of brainpower.
Vegetarian, from what I remember. Although I am not a vegetarian I like that aspect.
Super simplified: groceries ordered on line and being delivered later.
The guy will do clean up. 😊
Ha! Just saw “Jess”post above. Tater tot weekend!
Fav lazy meal: Mac n cheese with tuna and peas. Just a kid at heart
my favourite lazy meal is grilled cheese and ham sandwiches with salad or crisps (chips to you Americans 😊)
Now, see, calling them crisps instead of chips I get. Chips are crispy, so crisps makes sense.
I don’t get how chips is your term for fries. Fries, I think, originated from the term fried potatoes and since we’re lazy and prefer using the fewest words possible, that got knocked down to fries. So can someone explain why it’s fish ‘n chips instead of fish ‘n fries? I mean, alliteration! Who doesn’t like a good alliterative dish?
It’s chipped potatoes 😀 . They’re not as evenly cut and stick-like as French fries, you just take a knife to the tuber and chip away at it, like hacking at wood lol. Thicker and wedgeyer, I guess.
I always wondered! Thanks
Ditto. I’ve always heard the term fish ‘n chips but I’ve never seen a picture and I’ve never been to England to see them in person.
Is the phrase used throughout Europe or is that mostly a British term?
British mostly. I mean, you’ll find “fish and chips” as pub food elsewhere, but then it is obviously based on the British dish. Every other country has one or more words for fries, but I think “chips” for the snack is pretty common elsewhere, “crisps” for the snack is afaik just what the Brits call it…
“Fish and chips” is also the iconic phrase used to illustrate the difference between Australian and NZ accents, probably because it’s a very standard takeaway (take-out) food in both countries. “Feesh and cheeps” = Aussie, “Fush and chups” = Kiwi.
Is this food combination a Commonwealth export, then? I always thought it was something everyone ate, although I suppose in pre-refrigerated-transport times fish might not have been as available in inland areas.
“Chips”, btw, covers more or less every possible cut-up-fried-potato product in NZ, barring wedges and hash browns. Menus usually list “fries”, but if you hand someone a bit of fried potato they will almost certainly call it a chip. Perhaps the original use of ‘chip’ rather than ‘fry’ avoided confusion with existing meat dishes such as lamb’s fry?
I’ve seen chipped potatoes in really thick rounds served with fried cod fish (fish ‘n chips). No malt vinegar for me. Just lemon for the fish and salt for the chips. Yum!
I’ll be lazy with you!
Maybe it is not laziness? Maybe you just need longer to recover the pep in your step? Y’all have been going thru a lot this year. Let yourself rest 😊 (My friends have said this to me, almost verbatim. Possibly multiple times lol)
Your family has had an intense 2 months ( just on the blog). I started to list out what I remember from posts and was too overwhelmed.
((((HUGS))))
When I am in zombie state, I force myself up and make the biggest pot of rice I can. Then, after I zone for a couple of hours, I stare at the pantry and see what I can open to pour over a bowl of rice. I then look in the frig for a sauce to pour over it. Done. Lasts for at least a day.
More (((HUGS)))
I always make huge batches of burritos and Chili when I make them, so that i can freeze them in individual serving sizes for later. Because when I’m lazy, anything more than the microwave is too much work.
My lazy meal is grilling whatever meat is in the fridge. It’s usually chicken. Microwaving a steamer bag of veggies in the microwave. When I’m lucky I planned a head for lazy days and have frozen soup in my freezer.
First really cool day in weeks. It has been 105-115 for several weeks now. To hot to cook.
Lazy day meals whenever it is too hot, really cold tuna salad sandwich, grilled ham and cheese, any frozen snacks in the air fryer (egg rolls, mozz sticks, taquitos
Also like to cook breakfast for dinner waffles and sausage, omelets
I want a little dog to cuddle however we have two boxers, a mini aussie and a GR Pyrnees make. They will all sit in your lap if you let them but they are too hot
If you’re not going to work, may I suggest WuKong the new game based on the epic Chinese story, A Journey to the West. The graphics is soooo pretty, and the game play is also on point.
I didn’t play, but just watching my husband play was awesome, so pretty.
All I want today is to be back in bed with my cats. I know that’s where THEY are right now. 😀 back to school for my daughter + sports routine and working has been off the charts busy.
Lazy meals have included popcorn, slices of cheese and rice bowls.
Go team entropy 🫥
Go you and your creative subconscious recharging!
Hmmmm, lazy meals to make:
(1) throw things to cook in the crock pot – olive oil, garlic cubes, paprika / cumin / turmeric / celery salt / cinnamon, and whatever is available for meat, tomato sauce, and veggies.
(2) Soup (tomato & red bell pepper is good) and grilled cheese (or open faced cheese on bread, broiled).
(3) Throw in non-stick pan and heat: water, frozen party meatballs, frozen broccoli, and frozen garlic noodles or some sort of frozen grain.
(4) Mac & cheese, with party meatballs, frozen peas / asparagus tips, and shaved Gruyere.
Stay in your jammies!
Mona is adorable.
My go to lazy meal is cornflake, weetabix or coco pops. Girl dinner!
Bake 2 boursin cheeses in the oven with some olive oil until melty & edges brown, add cooked pasta and 1/2 cup of the pasta water and stir into a cheesy delight. Can also stir in whatever protein or vegetables are handy. Last night we added elk burger & used the carmelized onion boursin and it was excellent. I use a casserole dish with a lid, so the leftovers just go straight in the fridge keeping a lazy level of dishes after too.
It’s really good also if you dump a container of grape tomatoes in with the Boursin while you’re roasting, then spinach at the end.
A toasted sandwich with Italian meats, provolone, olives, tomato, and banana peppers with raw baby carrots and cantaloupe on the side. That was lunch today.
Sliced Polish sausage grilled with bbq sauce over Pilaf rice.
Grilled cheese with light cream cheese spread with creamy tomato soup.
Breakfast sandwiches with cheese, eggs, sausage with a grape spread.
Rolled cheese tortillas heated on the stove.
Favorite lazy meal: baked lemon pepper chicken. Takes 5 minutes (except baking time). Tastes great! Shake Badilla lemon pepper seasoning on chicken pieces. Bake. Enjoy!
Squirrels!
I don’t have ducks. Or a row.
I have squirrels and they’re all at a rave.
Open faced toast on a baking sheet covered with American, cheddar or other cheese and a couple pieces of slightly undercooked bacon, prosciutto or other cooked protein. Pop under the broiler til the cheese melts.
My go to lazy meals are charcuterie, oatmeal with poppyseeds, brown sugar and nuts, or quesadillas and guac.
One of my fave lazy meals is sausage, potatoes and veggie sheet tray bake. Mix with a little oil and your favorite seasonings and just plop in the oven (add the veggies later if they are a fast cooking type).
My ENTIRE week has been this song 🤣 I’m right there with you. Lazy dinners, in our Indian household, is a pack of Maggi noodles 😁💃 Super unhealthy but oh so quick and satisfying…
Zhuzhed up ramen (Momofuku for choice) with scallions, a nut butter or nuts, egg/Just Egg, sesame oil, and/or whatever else floats your boat. Yum!
Roast chicken is my lazy dinner. Cover it with salt and spices, shove an onion in the cavity and put in a pyrex dish at 425. Check it every 30 min to baste it, or not. Of course one can also go to Costco and get their rotisserie chicken
from someone that rarely cooks:
CEREAL………
grill cheese made from bread that was toasted in toaster and cheese melted in microwave
a wrap with cheese melted in the microwave
and lastly, ICE Cream which is my favorite goto dinner
Spinach Lasagne
Box no cook lasagne noodles, 1# bag frozen chopped spinach, bag shredded mozzarella, pint ricotta, jar marinara, parmesan.
Coat bottom of 9*13 pan with sauce. cover with noodles. Smear with half of ricotta (lay down bloops and swipe). sprinkle with frozen spinach, then mozzarella then add more sauce. Repeat from noodles. Place 3rd layer of noodles, then sauce then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. bake 45-50 minutes at 375 or according to directions on noodles. Serve/eat with bread and bag of salad.
+1
My lazy meal is spaghetti, made from sauce in a jar. Side salad and you are donel
Happy Friday!
Ultimate lazy meal: Order in
Lazy make-at-home 1: Grilled cheese sandwiches
Lazy make-at-home 2: Salad
Lazy make-at-home 3: Fish tacos
Fish taco cheat if you live in Texas: frozen cod filets, thawed. Bake cod according to directions (only a few minutes), serve on corn tortillas with cilantro lime chopped salad in a bag from HEB. I put the included dressing in one small bowl and mayo mixed with sriracha to your preferred heat level in another. Everyone seasons to their own taste. Very fast, healthy (ok, the dressing not so much), and perfect when it’s hot out. Cooked cold shrimp is even better than cod!
It’s Friday the 13th. Go rest.
Hawaiian pork (aka kalua pork), basic recipe:
1 pork butt, 3-5 pounds, 2 tablespoons kosher or rock salt, one tablespoon Liquid Smoke or equivalent. Rub salt on pork, place fat side up in slow cooker, pour the Liquid Smoke. Do *not* put in any liquid! Cook on low for 6-8 hours until it falls off the bone. Shred and serve with sauted cabbage and rice, or use for sandwiches. Enjoy!
Add-ons: you can add a sliced onion in the bottom of the slow cooker or shred cabbage and put around and on top of the pork. Feel free to spice it up to your taste.
This beats the original recipe, which requires digging a 2×3 foot hole in the ground, heating lava rocks, wrapping a whole pig in banana leaves or Hawaiian ti leaves, and cooking it underground for hours.
Thanks for sharing, I think my family would love this.
Easy dinner – fry bacon bits and mushrooms in a bit of butter, cook whatever pasta you want while you fry them. When the pasta is ready,drain and tip into the bacon pan,add a tub of creme fraiche, plenty of grated parmesan and mix well. Literally from zero to plate in 15 mind or less(depending on your pasta type)
Oops, sorry, Season to your taste😁
Dragon flight in Wow is a great release. I was surprised at how much I liked the latest release War Within, too. It’s lovely for the most part as long as you aren’t disturbed by arachnophobia! Play, k it and read and enjoy down time!
Green chile corn chowder: can of potato soup, can of creamed corn, a bit of milk, leftover carrots in small chunks if you have them, and green chile—preferably Hatch. ‘Tis the season. A bowl of soup and some crusty bread (or grilled cheese sandwich) is very comforting.
Of course, after a number of years in New Mexico, anything green chile is comfort food to me.
Favorite lazy mean is getting a pizza delivered 🙂
And some pizza places have some brownies that are pretty good, so you can even be lazy about dessert!
Favorite lazy/can’t think of what to make meal is something I grew up with that we just called macaroni: boil pasta, brown 1lb ground beef, throw it together with a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, let it sit for 5 min, instant comfort food!
If we’re feeling adventurous, we brown the ground beef with soy sauce or onions.
I’ve seasoned this with plain old salt and pepper, every Mexican spice I can think of, Szechuan chili oil, etc, and it always tastes great. Simple meal dressed to your favorite flavor profile!
My grandmother said, “My get up and go got up and went.”
I say, “My bottomless bucket of willpower just ran dry.”
Lazy food:
Rice in ricemaker or pasta on stove. Toss chickpeas in olive oil salt and pepper and roast in oven for 15 minutes on sheet pan. Add chopped spinach (also lightly oiled) to sheet pan and roast another 15 minutes. Serve oven food over starch with dressing (garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, pepper). Top with feta or sliced red pepper or sunflower seeds or whatever.
doggy pictures are TOTALLY meaningful content!
love the song. there are definitely days where thats whats playing on repeat in my brain.
i strongly advise going to look for your motivation in your craft room, hehehe. i spent way too much time on pinterest and printed out three new patterns yesterday and went to the store and bought new yarn specifically for these patterns. because i’ve been really good and not bought any yarn so far this year! have i started any of the new projects yet? no! but i have pretty yarn to match pretty patterns and that alone makes my brain happy.
i got an air fryer and am learning all the nifty things you can cook in there besides just frozen foods. like hot dogs or brats. you put the hot dogs in there, and the last two minutes you take the hot dogs out, put them in the bun, and put the hot-dog-in-the-bun back in the air fryer. crispy hot dogs with toasted buns. not exactly healthy, but definitely quick and easy. taste like they were grilled without firing up the grill.
I make tomato soup using God quality canned San Marzano tomatos and canned chicken broth (I do can my own broth a few times a year and hope to do my own tomatos if I can grow a garden again with my POTS) and have grilled cheese sandwiches. I use tomato powder to thicken and tomato bullion for flavor. Tomato powder has become my favorite thing because I hate the metallic taste and waste using canned tomato paste.
I’m also playing Wow at the moment because I’m pretty much unable to do anything physically bc of a POTS flareups. I am loving the storyline in The War Within. This is the best expansion in a long time. Dragonflight was really good but I didn’t get into the story as much as TWW.
HEB has these frozen french baguettes that are handy for just about any kind of sandwich like hot ham and cheese(toasties)or meatball with mozzarella.
Summer is back in Texas
French onion soup! Chop some onions, a lovely bouillion, a swiff of your favorite vinaigre, spices. Whack some sourdough in the oven with delicious cheese for crouton and you have a lovely meal. In minutes.
Favorite lazy meal: 2 boneless skinless chicken greats in a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile nuke a package of frozen brown rice followed by a frozen package of some veggie. Total 25 minutes (allowing time for the oven to preheat). If you want to be really fancy, put some teriyaki sauce on the chicken.
Favorite lazy meal – it’s tomato and basil season, so you just buy fresh tomato, mozzarella, basil, and prosciutto and then whatever cracker/ bread you want to eat it on (if any). You can also do mint/ watermelon/ feta salad, just mixed in a bowl (for maximum lazy get the pre cut watermelon). Super refreshing, you don’t need to turn any devices on that make your kitchen hotter, and you can eat both right out of the bowl/ serving platter
That’s my kind of lazy summer to early fall meal!
On the weekend, I stock up on fresh tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, green beans (steam a big batch and refrigerate or microwave frozen in the off-season), apples, zucchini from the farmers market (it’s zucchini overload season); chickpeas, white beans (canned, or if motivated I cook a big pot with garlic, onions, and herbs, and chill it); fresh mozzarella, feta, or goat cheese (the latter also from my farmers market, freezes beautifully); hummus, tzatziki, tabbouleh from my Lebanese market to dip cukes or sliced zucchini (swap for fresh salsa of choice in Texas?); rotisserie chicken or a big batch of chicken thighs, tossed with olive oil and spices and roasted on a sheet pan, then chill; herbs from my balcony. (Not all these every week, obviously!)
Mix & match some produce and protein, with savoury dips or salsa as desired, and/or herbs. Feeds me all week and no junk food!
(No diss to occasional junk food, but it bogs down my elderly metabolism. I prefer to treat my taste buds with savoury bites or a square of dark chocolate.)
Lazy dinner is Rosemary/Olive Oil crackers and a really good cheese. I prefer Gambozola right now.
I am lazy many nights 🤭
cereal and fruit or a banana burrito
Oooooh, what is a banana burrito?!
Anyone else’s mind go to a dirty place?
My first lazy food is a blend of cooked cereals (oat, wheat and corn dunno if you have it in the US it’s a mix that cooks in 6min that is filling, tasty and healthy) with carrots, bacon and broccoli. All in all it takes 30min to cooks last 2 meals for 3 and my kids and I love it.
Otherwise it’s a bowl of semolina with “viandox” it takes 3 min to cook/prepare/serve…
My favorite lazy meal is calling to your favorite restaurant and placing an order to go. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, the meal is ready.
Tamale pie! Ground beef/chicken/or turkey-taco seasoning.
1 can tomato soup and half of the can of water.
1 can corn drained
1 can ranch style beans or canneloni beans
Mix it together.
1 box jiffy corn bread made to specs or cornbread mix of choice
Put above mix in a casserole dish and cover it with corn bread.
Bake until corn bread is done.
Yummy!
Being lazy is necessary for recovery after so much busyness. Enjoy it. You deserve to relax and hang with cute puppies and crafts.
Favorite lazy meals, besides takeout obviously:
1) spaghetti with meat sauce – 1lb ground beef, 1lb Italian sausage (mild or spicy), brown the meat together then add 2 jars of your favorite sauce, simmer while pasta finishes cooking and yum
2) Doesn’t have a name, we call it “The Chicken Stuff” – preshredded rotisserie chicken, 2-4 cans cream of chicken soup (depending on how many your feeding), heat the soup, add some milk if you want, season to taste, throw in the chicken, we like less saucey so lots of chicken, serve over store bought mashed potatoes with canned or frozen peas (note: this is really good over noodles and I’ve heard people do it with noodles and mashed potatoes but thats more cooking so microwave mashed potatoes for the win)
Both super easy, fast and tasty, and a hit with my family everytime. Its actually annoying that they compliment these meals more than the super complicated, I used used every pan and spent 2 hours cooking meals, but whatever.
My favorite lazy meals are either my crockpot standbys or lately foil packet meals. I found a foil packet meal on Pintrest that is a take on the southern shrimp boil that I am planning on doing again this weekend. the beauty to the foil packet meals is the cleaning consists of throwing the aluminum foil used for the packets away and putting our plates in the dishwasher plus the meals you can make with this method are limited only by what imagination you have and when my imagination takes a serious nosedive (which happens more often than I like to admit)I head for pintrest and start looking!
My lazy meal.
Order something delivered and a beer or glass of wine.
Or ice cream. Lots of ice cream.
I can always find the energy to open the ice cream carton, no matter how tired or lazy feeling.
Not sure this will help you tonight, but I make monster batches of chili and portion it out for the freezer — then just grab one when I want a fast meal. Also, Butcher Box now has some premade stuff that just needs heating, their chicken nuggets are really good. I pop them in the air fryer for 11 minutes and they come out perfect.
Another moderately lazy go-to: take hot dogs out of the freezer and heat in a small fry pan over very low heat, so they heat through before they burn. Slather with BBQ sauce and you are good to go! If you let them cook briefly after adding the sauce it caramelizes, which is delicious IMO. Serve with whatever veggie is on hand and easy — I often do frozen broccoli.
My lazy meal is Door Dash! Relax, read and enjoy. You both deserve it.
Yes! Check the yarn stash!! Start a new project while you binge whatever you want!!
Cereal 😉
Some of my lazy meals:
Steak of some sort (ribeye or strip) cut into strips, add some provolone cheese on a toasted brioche sub roll with HP sauce (to me it tastes like what Lea and Perrin’s steak sauce use to be) and either chips, fries, or tater tots on the side.
Pasta with or without meat and jar sauce (Rao’s – yum).
Stovetop mac and cheese. No baking required. Just eat it after it’s made and mixed. You can make a cheeseburger one by just adding drained ground beef.
Pulled pork or bbq beef. The prep takes a little time, but the cooking is usually 3 hours at 325 degrees (F) in a Le Cruset 7 quart chef’s pot.
Chocolate pudding, ice cream, brownie, or whatever is on hand when I don’t want to even do the above.
I want to come to your house for a lazy meal.
If thats how you cook for a lazy meal , I wanna be at your house when it’s not a lazy meal!
That’s during the holidays when it gets a lot cooler than 80 degrees. 😁
I really like to cook. Always have. I do get take out when I go out to do errands. 🔪🍽
My favorite lazy meal is ordering in.
my favorite lazy meal is order in pizza or scrambled eggs…depending on budget.
I’m team “order pizza” all the way! Enjoy your lazy time, for however long you can make it last!
Frozen pizza but cauliflower crust so it seems healthier 🙂
My favorite lazy meal is delivered pizza.
That video is perfect!!Stay lazy!
Good on you for taking a breather.
Lazy meal- (for 2 in this instance)
1. take a couple of pre-cooked sausages – I love andouille or hot links for this
2. cut up veggies into bite sized portions- I use either asparagus or broccoli
3. dice a small onion
4. brown the onion in olive oil, then add all of the ingredients above with a spoonful of minced garlic (the jarred stuff is great)
5. pour in about 1-1.5 cups of white wine
6. add about a half cup of milk or cream
7. add shredded cheese- about a cup is great
8. add any additional spices or herbs that appeal.
9. Allow to simmer and when the veggies are cooked reduce the sauce.
10. prepare pasta and once done combine the sausage/veggie stuff with the pasta.
Serve. The veggies and sausage prep can be done in advance and used the next day.
large can of pork and beans, cut up hotdogs and frozen mixed vegetables in the slow cooker or pot heat everything together then bowl it up and eat,
Favorite lazy meal is Costco Salmon with pesto, Costco Mac and cheese, and Costco bag of Mediterranean salad fixings. After a hard day off, with half of it spread going to Costco and then unpacking, dividing, freezing, organizing the Costco haul – too much effort to make anything else.
Rather surprised you didn’t say Costco pizza slice or Costco hot dog.
I hear you, though I prefer the Sam’s club cafe pizza and hot dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Costco, but the taste, texture, and price make Sam’s Club pizza & hotdogs my favorite eat-in-then-shop-time-crunched-food-shop-foray-support-meals. It’s a power move on those insanely busy weekends.
BLT sandwich!
Things to have on hand: frozen sliced bread, frozen cooked bacon, washed lettuce leaves, mayo, and fresh tomatoes (preferably home-grown). Pop the frozen bacon into the oven on aluminum foil to crisp up; toast the frozen bread on defrost mode; slather the toasted bread with mayo; add sliced tomato and lettuce; serve.
Another vote for staying ‘lazy’ until your creativity regenerates. An easy meal possibility would be take out Pho; plus it can feel as good as homemade chicken soup. I’m avoiding the other food debates.
Favorite lazy meal is rice in the rice cooker and chicken thighs dropped in a baking pan, seasoned with whatever spice blend looks good, and stuck in the oven. Microwave bag of vegetables for a green, these are good with a citrus dressing added after the fact.
Or the HEB Meal Simples you put in the oven. I like the steak ones and the salmon ones.
Enjoy your time off! Your brain is telling you to take a break, it’s best to listen.
peanut butter and jelly. Or breakfast for dinner always hits if it’s a simple one.
Mona IS meaningful content! Umm I like mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs as a lazy meal.
Before I read this I had just told my boss I just can’t concentrate this afternoon my mind isn’t on work so I took the afternoon off. it’s a great day for a lazy day.
Goulash you brown hamburger mix in some tomato sauce or if you’re super lazy spaghetti sauce, then throw some kind of pasta and some random canned or fresh vegetables in it let it simmer for a while (you’ll feel it when it’s done.) then eat.
I’ve used ketchup as my tomato sauce for my version of goulash. I used sliced onions, mushrooms, and any short cut pasta. I also used dried oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste.
Pasta boil – stir fry slightly store bought cut veggies + tofu / vegan sausage for protein – add store bought sauce – put store bought garlic bread in air fryer – get soda – get ice cream.
Favorite Lazy Meal :
Quesadillas
Throw some shredded cheese on a soft flat tortilla
Bonus if you have leftover diced/shredded protein to add (beef, chicken, pork…) but just cheese is also yummy
Microwave for a minute until cheese is melty
Throw another tortilla on top and cut into pizza slices
Can make it “fancy” with salsa or sour cream to dip slices into
Cheese and mushrooms (grilled) on toast or jacket potato with cheese and sweetcorn
I freeze leftovers in meal portions, in freezer zip locks. Then all I have to do is thaw (microwave has a thaw setting) and heat.
Grilled cheese & applesauce is my fav comfort food. I’m canning chunky applesauce right now because apples are on sale. I use Honeycrisp apples so I only use minimal sugar.
If neither of those appeal, breakfast for dinner.
I’m also canning honeycrisp applesauce today! But I smooth them a little with my immersion blender, leaving some smaller chunks.
When energy levels are on the floor and comfort is needed, for me it is Heinz tomato soup heated with some butter and served with plentiful fresh ground black pepper.
Carbs in quantity are not my friend, otherwise it would be pasta. When I can’t resist, I make an inspired-by carbonara-version of pasta with penne: for a greedy one – or two not greedy people – a little garlic and chopped cured chorizo cooked in a pan until golden. Separately, couple of lightly beaten egg yolks and excess of freshly grated Parmesan mixed with a little of the hot pasta water (be careful as it can scramble). Garlic/chorizo mixed with the drained hot pasta and then the egg mix gently stirred in to this. Black pepper. More Parmesan. Bliss. My husband prefers the Hazan tomato sauce with pasta (https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-sauce-onion-and-butter). That’s good too, but requires putting a pan on the hob at least an hour ahead of cooking.
Otherwise, because we grow a little salad (just in a livestock water trough that we have raised on bricks in a shady spot), salad nicoise is a ‘don’t have to go to the shops’ favourite, using nice oil-packed tinned tuna, or defrosted frozen tuna seared/grilled
tomato sandwiches on sourdough bread with a huge handful of Arugula
Snap! Flat (wrap, long life) bread is an emergency cupboard supply- baby spinach, quartered (roma/amish paste) tomato, roll it up, lunch served.
If incredibly lazy- salmon out of a tin with greens on wrap. (Basil or parsley or even French tarragon goes well with baby spinach or even lettuce…)
If you’re up to going out, but don’t want take-out, my favorite lazy meal is to raid a good grocery salad bar, where all the veggies and proteins are already cut up for you. Then you can stir-fry or microwave what you want to at home, and throw it over whatever rice or noodles are easiest. Or you can make soup with it. Or you can get whole packaged ready-made meals and microwave them, if your grocery stocks them. Almost like going to a restaurant!
If staying home is the plan, grab whatever protein, veg, and starch look decent from fridge and pantry, and cook them in the easiest, fastest ways available, then mash together. Last night’s example: frozen tilapia filet, microwaved with a little water and butter; blue potatoes diced small and boiled for ten minutes; swiss chard cut up with scissors and microwaved with a bit of water in the bottom; quartered gold cherry tomatoes.
Once cooked, everything including cooking liquids got dumped together into the swiss chard bowl and stirred to combine. A little more butter and some salt, and it was ready to shovel down. Sounds disgusting, tasted heavenly (for a given value of heavenly, i.e. one that excludes cheese and most herbs/spices due to health issues).
Other favorite lazy substitutions are shredded grilled chicken or pulled pork, rice ramen, polenta/grits, or frozen corn kernels, and frozen chopped spinach or broccoli.
If you want company being lazy, the BDH is here for you.
This:
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/instant-pot-creamy-baked-ziti/
Favorite lazy meal: vegetables roasted with chicken. You put a chicken thigh (or whatever meat you have handy) in a dish with some very roughly chopped vegetables. I like broccoli, radish, carrots, avocado (yes I love roasted diced avocado). Keep it to one layer if you can. Dump some olive oil and your favorite spices on top. Add some Parmesan cheese (or skip this if you don’t like Parmesan). Dump some panko breadcrumbs on the chicken.
I put it in the toaster oven, not preheated, and cook it at 400F until the chicken is done, 45 minutes? An hour?. Usually at that point the outside of the veggies are getting a little crispy and the insides are nice and soft.
If you want potatoes, slice them and roast them for a few minutes before you add the chicken and other vegetables on top.
If you want more greens, chop some kale or microgreens on top when the roasted stuff first comes out of the over; the heat will wilt the kale perfectly.
Roasting it takes longer than microwaving something, but my actual active prep time is 5minutes or less. 5 minutes if I’m using all fresh veggies; maybe 45 seconds if I am using frozen broccoli I’m dumping out of a bag.
Eat as is or drizzle sauce on top.
Yes, be lazy! My favourite lazy meal is a cheese sandwich, not grilled. A simple, delicious work of thickish slices of cheese between the bread of your choosing. If I am feeling indulgent, I will add some crisps/chips (I live in Canada, and am from the UK so am bilingual!) that are either plain salted or salt and vinegar. Yum!
Yes! I like mine with a mature/ vintage (ie, stinky) cheddar and spring onion crisps.
Has the added benefit of keeping any follow-up work meetings short 😂
Today is whatever dinner at my house. Whatever is in the cupboard or fridge that you feel like eating. So far, I’m thinking of chili dogs or grilled ham and cheese. Maybe French toast too.
Do lazy. You and Gordon deserve it. A brain not refreshed won’t be as creative, eh?
A lazy meal for me is cheese (sharp cheddar) and crackers with wine. (With strawberry preserves or honey if I feel like an extra step.)
I say take all the time you need until you feel your old self perking up. I am usually hyper energetic but am recuperating from a dislocated shoulder followed by rotator cuff surgery. that what can I cook that’s lazy and good comes up every day. I highly recommend Tony Chachere’s Red bean and rice box mix. I add two links of andouille sausage and there’s dinner, especially with a small salad. Feel better!
Lazy Meal. Beef Nachos: Tostitos, sliced cheddar cheese melted on top, ground beef with taco seasoning, shredded lettuce, salsa, sour cream.
Dice potatoes(smaller then an inch). Toss in oil salt pepper. Spread out on a single layer on a rimmed pan and cook at 400 for about 15 minutes. Take out of oven. Plop sausages on top, whatever kind you want. We like chicken Gouda but Italian is great too. Put back in oven. Cook for another half hour or until done.
Lettuce wraps! I buy ground chicken and then the PF Chang’s lettuce wrap sauce. It takes maybe 10 mins. Brown the chicken add the sauce, then rice the lettuce and cut in half. Very tasty.
Doordash.
My go-to lazy meal is a can of chickpeas plus chopped carrots and cauliflower, roasted on a sheet pan with olive oil and spices, plus a simple Greek yogurt sauce with garlic and lemon juice. It’s cheap, fast, tasty, and you can swap out basically any vegetables.
I hope you have a relaxing and restful week 🙂
Grilled cheese with bacon because everything is better with bacon, veggies and ranch dressing dip.
Cereal… the really bad sugary kind like captain crunch.
Be lazy! It’s fun!
Lazy meal: chicken thighs crusted with crushed fried onions and baked. It’s so simple but it’s always delicious. I just lightly season it with spices and ginger and the fried onions do all the hard work.
We live in a fairly rural area, so pizza and take out aren’t really a thing here. Best easy comfort food is to dice up two small chicken breasts or thighs into 1″ cubes, saute briefly in 2 tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan, add a can of condensed cream of chicken soup, and half a soup can of dry white wine (chablis, chardonay). Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over cooked egg noodles with steamed broccoli or carrots on the side. From start of prep to food on the table is less than half an hour, and really tasty.
Enjoy your lazy days, and thank you for all you do for us.
Lazy Meals:
1. Delivery something
2. Cheese and Bread or Tuna and Bread, if we have bread. Gets pretty lean cuisine on Fridays bc I grocery shop on Saturdays or Sundays.
3. Extremely bad choice: Eggos or frozen Pancakes. These go well with wine.
And re: the Mayo on Grilled Cheese discussion: NO NO NO. This is just as bad as putting pineapple on pizza. Whattheheck is with that anyways?!
mayo on the outside is a well known Chef secret for Crispy outside bread. Not gross and not mayo by the time it’s finished cooking. Basically eggs and oil crust.
Dutch style pancakes. Per 3 (which is generally dinner for 1):
250 ml milk
100 g flour
1 egg
If you like, toppings – bacon, cheese, leftover veggies for savoury; apples, banana, jam or fruit compote for sweet
Mix batter, put (non stick) frying pan on the hob, little bit of butter or oil in the pan, wait till hot, (add optional toppings and) pour in batter, tilt pan to coat it evenly, wait till the top of the batter is dry, flip, wait till both sides are nice and done. Serve with icing sugar, cinnamon sugar, sugar syrup, maple syrup, (hot sauce for savoury versions), whatever you like!
Favorite lazy meal is sliced apple, chedder cheese, spicy salami, a few sliced olives, and wheat thins.
Favorite lazy meal (I do this most nights):
Coat meat of your choice (ribs, chicken thighs, whatever) in sauce of your choice (e.g. Valentina’s black label hot sauce) if desired, set aside
Light the grill (I use charcoal; if you have gas {hah} you can wait for this part)
Chop/slice/cube/etc. a vegetable of your choice (asparagus, beets, eggplant, various squashes, potatoes, whatever) and wrap it in foil with butter and spices (double wrap so steam doesn’t escape and fire doesn’t melt foil)
Put meat and veg over fire
You’ve been working hard! Enjoy your recharging time!
I have too many garden tomatoes and my lazy use for them has been:
Fry a diced onion in some butter or oil.
Add chopped tomatoes and sautéed until they start to break down.
Add eggs (usually 4 so my pan is evenly balanced lol).
Toast some bread.
Flip the eggs.
Put a slice of cheese on top of one toasted bread slice.
Transfer one or two eggs, once done to preferred runniness, with onions and tomatoes on top of cheesy toast.
Top with other slice of toast.
Eat. 😀
Lazy meal. Loaded potato! Russet potato. 6 and a half minutes in microwave. Slather with butter, grated cheese, sour cream and diced red onion. Bacon bits if you have them. Yumm!
Being lazy is good. Restorative. You go girl!
Popcorn, and a glass of wine.
I love it, veggies and fruit! 😂
My favorite lazy meal is “Melt Cheese on Something.”
Any cheese.
Almost any kind of delivery system: bread, crackers, vegetables, cherrios!
Rest & relax, HA. The BDH sends support.
Cereal! With hot milk (if I can be bothered…)
Really lazy meal, fish and chips from the chippy , ( English born and bred , living in Australia 54 years ), with brown bread and butter and a cuppa.The most work you do is buttering the bread , can’t get more lazy than that.
My favorite lazy meal is whatever I have in the refrigerator or freezer that looks good. With coffee or lemonade depending on my mood.
You go ahead and take another week off. You run on fumes too often, and we would rather you be entirely physically and mentally recharged for whatever you write next.
Favourite lazy meal, fish and chips, go pick it up, bring home, eat in the cardboard box it came in, use throw away utensils (usually bamboo nowadays), throw away the box and utensils afterwards. No washing up, minimum effort.
I hope you are managing to get plenty of lazy gaming and tv/film watching in as well. Take that extra week – you deserve it 😀
Favorite lazy meal? French dip sandwiches (rolls, meat, sauce packet that tastes pretty good when mixed with water and a few slices of onion then simmered), salad kit. MAYBE oven fries. MAYBE.
Favorite very, very, very lazy meals? Frozen pizza. Takeout. Carrot sticks dipped directly into the peanut butter jar.
Take another week off! Heck, take two! your body will tell you when you are ready to get back to work.
I beg to differ…Mona IS meaningful content! 🙂
My fav *lazy* meal is microwaving leftovers or throwing a frozen meal into the oven, lol.
Currently my go to is some sort of flat pasta tossed with tinned smoked salmon, chopped scallions, whatever green veg is in the fridge (spinach, asparagus or arugula usually) and if I have it a couple of teaspoons of cream and maybe ground parmasan cheese.
When I want the quick easy meal it is usually an omelette, sometimes with a side salad, sometimes just by itself. I almost always have bits and bobs in the fridge to add-roasted veg, cheese , some kind of greens and I have snack baggies with small portions of ham or chicken sometimes sausage or taco meat. Quick, easy , tasty and low mess. Reasonably nutritious.
Yes! I have been wondering why no one said omlettes or scrambled eggs.
Takeout is my favorite lazy meal!
I make Shepards pie:
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 c onions
Garlic clove
Ground beef
Browned
Then:
Veg beef soup
Frozen small veggies oven safe bowl combined
Instant mashed potatoes (topped) oven on 350 for 15 min
Please forgive me my short cuts, my kids played alot of sports😂
I’ll be trying this first cold snap, sounds quick and yummy!
Lazy meal – delivery.
Chopped imitation crab mixed with mayo and salmon furikake, over a bed of steamed rice. Basically a California roll without the roll part.
The lower fat version is steamed rice mixed with salmon furikake, toasted sesame oil and a bit of rice vinegar to make onigiri. Or eat with korean toasted seaweed layers. yum.
Costco rotisserie chicken, rice in the rice maker, some lightly stir fried veggies, and your choice of seasoning and/or sauces.
Lazy meal- crock pot pulled pork and Hawaiian rolls. Pork buttons sliced onion with Lexington style BBQ sauce, let sit for 8 hours. Just dump everything in together. Eat with Hawaiian rolls. Possible side of already made coleslaw. Voila! Dinner for two nights.
I take 2 weeks off of work every year for DragonCon (for the last few years) and I swear this week back was crazier than usual and I’m thinking maybe next year I should take 3 LOL. Then again maybe it’s hitting my 50s.
Anyway – take a break. I keep some frozen fish sticks and tater tossing the freezer to throw in the oven for those nights I just can’t. Or my one pot pastas, basically brown some meat (add veggies if hubby isn’t around), add 2 Tbs flour, stir in 1 can of evaporated milk, measure 2 cans of stock in that can, bring to simmer. Add 1 pound of penne, rotini ot farfalle, slow simmer 10 min (covered). Add some cubed cream cheese or some shredded cheese if desired and sit 10 min off heat. Stir and enjoy. I’ll season that a ton of ways if I want alfredo, heavy on the garlic. Chili seasoning for a chili Mac. Heavy on the pepper and full 8 Oz of cream cheese for a Philly Cheesesteak pasta. I’ll also change up ground beef or bison or turkey or diced chicken.
My favorite lazy meal is either spaghetti and sauce or
Chicken alfredo from a bag
🙂
As a single person, a bowl of popcorn and the new book is just fine as dinner. If I’m really energetic I make a sandwich and maybe even put lettuce and tomato on it. Or a cheese quesadilla with avocado, assuming I have one!
Enjoy your time off! The holidays will be upon us in nothing flat. And the little video was adorable. I sang that song on my way to work my last couple of years before retirement, hehe.
Laziest meal ever = chips and queso. Yup, I can totally make a meal out of that.
Smoothies are my favorite warm day lazy meal, just drop iceburg lettuce, apple chunks, frozen peaches-strawberries-bananas-pineapple, 1/2 cup almond flour, squeeze of lime juice, top off with spring water, into blender, put mixer on high, unplug blender, grab the pitcher, sink into sofa, drink smoothy from blender pitcher with straw. Sooooo lazy
My favorite cold day lazy meal is oatmeal mixed with honey, cinnamon, and almond flour. For creamier oatmeal start oats in cold water, for firmer oats pour into hot water. For super lazy oatmeal, tear open package of instant and pour into hot coffee….
That smoothie sounds good. Gonna try it. Thanks
Favorite lazy meals:
1. Slow: Homemade vegetable soup. Chop some veggies and toss them in a pot with broth or stock. It simmers while you read on the couch.
2. Quick: Veggie Stir-fry. Sautee the veggies, add some tomato sauce or curry paste, and serve over rice.
The best part of both options is that it doesn’t matter what kind of veggies you use. Wilted greens? Into the pot. Partially dried out half onion? Into the pot. Most will work and your fridge gets cleaned out. Win-win.
I found this recipe. Was easy and delicious. Of course deliciousness helped by the maple syrup in the sauce.
https://www.thekitchn.com/baked-maple-dijon-chicken-thighs-recipe-23674210
I love that you started playing WoW. Somewhere in the game there is a NPC named Ilona iirc. Have fun! Am playing the latest expansion and it looks gorgeous, and the storylines made me cry a couple of times.
Porridge (you might call it oatmeal?)
50g rolled oats (unstabilised organic here), 175g boiled water out of the kettle and decide flavourings of choice once I shove bowl in microwave-
forget about bowl for 15min (ahem oats absorb water)- high for 2min, stir, another 1min on high
add teaspoon (or two?) of soft brown sugar underneath cooked porridge and leave for 30sec for bowl of hot oats with lava of molasses goodness
Also good with Caribbean chilli blend of dried spices (before boiling water added) and large scoop of grated parmesan/pecorino cheese…. mmm
lazy plus Having someone else cook and clean up afterwards…
Lazy meal. Cocoa Krispies with skim milk. All that chocolaty goodness with no hassle. If I’m feeling healthy, a banana chaser with a handful of walnuts.
A deconstructed unfrozen chunky monkey!!!😆
And lazy for me is sipping tea with my feet up on the porch watching clouds, or just sky. Vegging….😁
I feel some of these meals are less lazy than others 😆
Mine are:
1. The laziest – defrosting whatever leftovers available from the freezer or if none, the emergency frozen pizza
2. Hummus and pita. Maybe some veg sticks. Curl on the sofa with a blanket and dip away
3. Pasta aglio, olio and pepperocino. If I can’t be arsed to chop garlic I’ll use a crispy chilli oil instead
4. Khichidi in an instant pot. Rinse the lentils and rice and leave them to cook away
I can’t believe I forgot the British classic Jacket Potato with baked beans and cheese.
So easy. So satisfying
Enjoy another week of recuperation and reflection it’s very well deserved and definitely can’t be classed as laziness!!
ona is meaningful content-also any of your other dogs,cats. Please?
Mind the rest is meaningful too.
Sometimes we just have to stop. Breathing helps!
Me and my children love semolina pudding with apple puree or pancakes with marmelade or in small ribbons in broth . Its easy and fast and comfort food and I am half Austrian and we love our “Mehlspeisen” (sweet food).
My fav lazy meal
Chicken cut into chunks (thighs are great, breast works too)
Add to bake tray with 1 cup rice
Bag of frozen peas and carrots
One onion chopped
One bell pepper chopped
Asparagus chopped
1 1/2 cup water or chicken stock
Season however you want (makes variety easy)
Bake in 350 oven about an hour (45 mins covered, 15-20 uncovered.
Get a crockpot. Throw carrots, potatoes, etc. into the crockpot. Get a pork roast. Dump an armload of Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder on it. Salt and pepper it. Put it on low until you can stick a fork in it and it falls apart. Eat it. Be merry.
Ugh! No mayo or miracle whip on grilled cheese! White stuff is evil!
It’s ok, the workaholic thing grows back no matter how many times you try to remove it.
Lazy food is tacos. All the food groups included, minimal cooking and good leftovers. Or soup and sandwich if I have nice bread.
I am a big fan of laziness. I too have spent most of my adult life working at home on deadline (not a writer, though), and loafing is an integral part of the career path. When you’re not on deadline.
I farm basil in a fairly large way, and once a year I make about five pounds of it into pesto. I freeze it in one-meal batches and thaw one–they thaw very fast–for pesto pasta for dinner. I use the recipe from Giuliano Hazan, The Classic Pasta Cookbook. Don’t save money on the cheese.
Kentucky Fried Chicken Family Boneless Feast (tripple gravy) OR on Fridays Fish and Chips (mushy peas and curry sauce)
no cooking and bin containers after so no washing either
You deserve the down time.
For me it’s Take out chinese, delivered, with a double order of crab rangoon.
2nd choice a Buffalo favorite, a beef on Weck & wings.
Enjoy doing nothing
Favourite lazy is charcuterie board. Sliced baguette, fruit, cheese, meats, and other accompaniments that make you happy. Place on board, sit, eat, relax.
Loved seeing darling Mona. All pets are welcome content.
Favorite lazy meal – pasta with tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese.
Cook 2 cups elbow macaroni. While cooking the pasta: open and drain 1 medium can (or about 10 ounces) Italian chopped tomatoes; open/drain 1 small can (about 3 ounces) chopped black olives; and open a container of feta cheese (I like the flavored kind with garlic and herbs). Drain pasta, mix all ingredients to your preferred taste, and serve warm. Adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil adds to the flavor but isn’t needed.
Nothing wrong with a lazy week or two – guilt free zone here.
I’ve got two favorite meals.
Can’t go wrong with grilled cheese.
My other favorite is Salsa Chicken. Cut up some chicken breasts and brown them in olive oil. Dump in a large can of whole tomatoes and a jar of salsa (I use medium heat – but you be you). Let it simmer for about 20 – 30 minutes. Serve with rice.
If not sushi carryout, roast chicken breast with spice and OJ and rice. Gotta love one pot meals. Mona is adorable and real content! Be easy on yourself. Workaholics need to veg to recharge.
We are in the era of after school events leaving little time for dinner prep. The only thing I have to remember ahead of time is to take the meat out of the freezer to defrost. Cook up some ground turkey seasoned to your liking, frozen mixed veg cooked, and rice in a rice maker. Add toppings that fit with your seasoning theme. Combine and enjoy. We usually go the Italian route and add Parmesan cheese. We often forget to add rice and have just meat and veg. Celiac household over here.
Lazy meal: sausage and noodles. Heat up Italian sausage and cut into bite size chunks, cook twisted noodles and heat up fav vegetables (I use peas and corn). Add all together with fav marinade spices with oil and water. It’s a favorite in our house.
I think the ultimate lazy meal is a good frozen pizza with extra herbs on top and a side of sliced fresh vegs like cucumber, red bell pepper, mini carrots. 20 mins later and you have a meal.
Best lazy meal for us is fried egg sandwiches or leftover vegi soft tacos.
The start of fall is a low energy time for me. The end of summer craziness before the start of winter holidays. Happens every year, but I can’t let it last too long or I get grouchy . I just have to accept it, experience it, then it’s easier to get over it.
Favorite lazy meat – Girlfriend Chicken – chicken, campbell’s cream of mushroom (with garlic), Lipton’s dry onion soup, sautéed mushrooms, milk, and rice.
Popcorn! Be lazy, explain nothing -the circle will come around again and you will jump back into the infinite list of work – paid and otherwise. Enjoy and thank you.
Popcorn and carrots dipped in chunky PB is my standard second breakfast (breakfast early, need more calories before lunchtime so as not to bite anyone). Starch, veg, protein. Done.
My favorite lazy meals:
1. Store bought chicken salad (GOOD chicken salad with pecans and grapes, organic if I can find it) seasoned with salt and pepper on low carb Hawaiian rolls (Aunt Millie’s Live Carb Smart is pretty good). Add some marinated olives on the side. (I might have had this a few times this week. 😁)
2. Mix Favorite flavor pouch tuna (my fave is Starkist Thai Chili tuna) with favorite mayo and add marinated olives on the side or even mixed in. I eat it just like that to cut carbs, but you can obviously put it on bread or a low carb wrap for some fiber.
3. This is actual cooking so it requires more effort. Slice a package of brats or polish sausage (or any type links) and brown in a skillet. If I’m feeling a little industrious, I’ll slice some red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (green bell peppers give me acid reflux – only ripe peppers for me!) and half an onion and toss those in with the meat. Salt & pepper to taste. Serve over riced cauliflower (I buy frozen so it’s just a few minutes in the microwave) or rice or pasta. Sometimes I do Mac & cheese. Done. Easy and my husband loves it.
This is my favorite easy go-to:
Sheet pan fajitas
2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 Tbsp olive oil
1½ lb diced chicken
2 sliced bell peppers, any color
1 sliced red onion
Toss ingredients in a bowl
Spread in one layer on baking sheet
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes
Serve over rice with avocados, in tortillas, or to your preference/dietary needs
Liz, I’ll def try this! Looks delish and easy especially since we love chicken.
Once a month I food prep. I buy a huge bag of peeled garlic cloves, put them in a food processor with a bit of olive oil. I use a small ice cream scooper (med marble size) plop them on a baking sheet to freeze them individually. Then bag them. They’ll keep frozen for 6 months and not clump if you don’t let them thaw)
I use a Mueller pro series 10/1 veg dicer/slicer to cut up; different types of onions, peppers, and celery. The trick is to spread them out on baking sheets to freeze over night then bag them. When I need chopped/diced ingredients I go in the freezer and take them out of the bags, no clumping. Easy peasy prepped cooking.
Aussie Fries (Outback)
Bake steak fries or tots. Put a layer on a microwave-safe plate, liberal cover with shredded mild cheddar cheese and bacon bits
Put second layers of fries or tots, again liberally cover with shredded cheddar cheese and bacon bits.
Microwave 1-2 minutes depending on how high your pile is. 🙂
Get fork. Eat.
Homemade macaroni and cheese is my lazy dinner item. That and a vegetable and dinner is done.
Takeout!
I’m in a major city, delivery for what you might want is easy. I also have been known to make batches and freeze. Taking premade meals and reheating is definitely lazy meals that now me thanks past me!
It’s important to allow yourself down time!
Fav lazy meal- raspberries, boiled eggs, sauerkraut – basically small bowls of stuff (sort of a tapas) -anything I have in my fridge/freezer that I like.
Spinach Quiche from my freezer
When I was little, we were terribly poor, and grilled cheese made with government cheese and butter was a staple for us. Now that I am grown, my grilled cheese sandwiches are made with rustic Italian bread ( no Wonder bread, lol) and whatever good cheese I have on hand. I love Fontina cheese because it melts beautifully, but I will use anything except for American processed cheese food these days. Tomato soup is wonderful with grilled cheese! I hope you enjoy your lazy week as much as I’m enjoying this blog post!
I do HS football most Friday night’s with the occasional Thursday night tossed in. I take an hour off from work to leave earlier to catch the 6 pm games.
Lazy dinners? I boil up a box of elbow mac. While that happens, I steam a couple bags of mixed veggies in the microwave.
Drain mac when done, add veggies. Add any sauce you want or just a stick of butter and some spices.
Dinner! And possibly leftovers to microwave later. Basically a one pot meal, so long as the pot is big enough.
The seasons are changing…days getting shorter…it always makes me want to sleep in and be lazy.
Mona is pretty sweet!
Sheet pan dinners are my go to. Cut up chicken, throw fresh veggies…broccoli, green beans, zucchini or whatever I have on hand. Olive oil and seasoning. 425 for 20-25 minutes. You do have to cut everything up…but clean up is a cinch since I only use a bowl and a sheet pan with sides.
My favorite lazy meal? Hmmm…there’s more than just one–pizza (used to be Domino’s, but the last couple of times we’ve ordered, the hand tossed crust we requested was more like thin & crispy) Burger king, taco john’s, Hy Vee or KFC fried chicken, leftovers from what we’ve cooked within the last 3 or 4 days.
Ride the laziness wave. You don’t have it often.
This context is extremely meaningful.
I don’t cook much. I make a lot of chili and soups and freeze them. Come home from work and defrost and put with pasta.
Have a great week. Hi to Gordon and Mod R.
Enjoy your break. You worked hard for it. Pick up roasted chicken and salad sides. Healthy, premade and the chicken gives lunches &/or soup later in the week
This is quick, easy, and tasty.
Chicken (or not) Carbonara pasta
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients
10 ounces diced pancetta – bacon if Aaron is here
16 ounces spaghetti
4 large egg yolks
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups cooked chicken breast – or use rotisserie chicken (I usually skip or half chicken)
1 tablespoon italian parsley
Steps
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Coat a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Cook pancetta in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Boil spaghetti in lightly salted water for 5 minutes. Drain pasta and reserve 2 cups pasta water.
Meanwhile, add egg yolks to a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth.
Gradually pour 1 1/2 cups hot pasta water over egg yolks, whisking vigorously, making sure to whisk constantly so eggs do not scramble.
Whisk in Parmesan cheese, then heavy cream.
Add cooked pasta, pancetta, and chicken to the sauce, toss to combine. Transfer pasta mixture to prepared dish.
Bake until hot and sauce has thickened, 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Remove from heat, stir and let stand for 2 to 3 minutes allowing sauce to continue to thicken. Additional pasta water can be added, as desired, for a saucier pasta.
Garnish with parsley and extra Parmesan cheese.
Rest and recuperation are an essential part of life, laze away! Also pictures of Mona or any of the others are always welcome and don’t seem like lazy content to me as a reader of the blog.
Our easiest meal is probably Clear Soup which can be seasoned to turn it into classic chicken noodle soup or a light and fancy crab soup should you happen to have some frozen crab meat around or anything in between.
For two take three Knorr Stock pots or enough decent stock to make around 1.5 litres (about a third of a gallon) choosing chicken, beef or whatever most suits what you have in the fridge, dilute and set to heat up slowly.
If you want carbs stick a couple of nests of thin dried noodles in a large jug pour boiling water on top.
As the stock heats shred ginger and/or garlic and/or onions and add to the stock.
Give the noodles a stir.
If using frozen veg, defrost by sticking in a sieve and running warm water over them, other wise shred, then add slower cooking bits to the stock pan first, leafy stuff later.
Check how the noodles are doing, they may need draining and a fresh lot of boiling water added depending on how thin they are.
Add any cooked meat you have around to the pot of stock and veg.
Drain noodles in the sieve you used for the frozen veg, pile into a couple of large bowls, split the contents of the stock pan between the bowls and slurp!
You can of course add toppings like eggs fried or poached in the stock or boiled to your liking, sliced chillies, roughly chopped herbs etc.
May make enough for seconds if your bowls are smaller.
That took me a little less time to write out than it would to make, especially if I’d gone for fish stock, crab meat and sweetcorn. It is surprisingly filling, the chicken soup version is very comforting if you have a cold or flu, you can make it quite posh by adding fancy meat, as in the crab version or say roast duck with pak choi and if one of you needs to eat less carbs than the other they can just leave out the noodles.
I forgot, if you use all frozen veg you can make a cold version by defrosting the veg in a sieve, loosening the stock pots with say a third boiling water then adding chilled water to make up the volume. That sounds odd, but is still very good if you add a bit more seasoning.
Enjoy your time, start a new yarny project. They are fun.
My lazy dinner is tuna melts. Toast the bread, top with tuna prepared how you like, top with slice of cheese and broil 2 minutes or until cheese is melted. Yum.
An easy meal I often have when I am alone is a couple of cheese crisps—depending on the size of the tortillas at hand. Turn on the broiler put a little salsa on the tortilla and add cheese. Broil until crispy, about 3-4 minutes.
TBT, I have this for breakfast, too.
My favorite lazy meal is pot roast. Put a chuck roast, several halved potatoes, and 5 or 6 halved carrots in the crock pot in the morning. Sprinkle 2 packages of Lipton beefy onion soup mix on top, and turn on low. Eight hours later I skim excess oil from top, add a little corn starch in water to thicken the gravy, and you’re ready to eat a delicious meal with very little effort.
Oops, forgot the part where I cover with water before turning on the crock pot. 🙂
Any pasta dish was our lazy dish. Particularly ramen with 1/2 or less packet of seasoning, lots of greens or any leftover veggies and egg dropped in with shiracha sauce. One pot cooking and warm, yummy, salty goodness and with veggies!! Alas can no longer do that any more, but the memories still make me smile.
Nachos with canned chili and cheddar cheese for the instant food win.
Lazy meal- Trader Joe’s Mac n cheese (shells and white cheddar) and Trader Joe’s party size meatballs( air fry them)~ combine done in like 15 minutes total
My favourite lazy meal is Garlic Bread Sandwiches. Using any kind of bun or bread that you like, make cheesy garlic toast. Slice and fry in pan: mushrooms, sweet peppers, and onions. (Go ahead and replace mushrooms with meat if you like.) Add some barbeque sauce to frying pan, stir around and scoop on top of cheesy garlic toast. Open or closed sandwich works.
When low on energy, the microwave and precooked food is your best friend. There are several companies that specialize in frozen, precooked meat, which is awesome for anyone with chronic fatigue or who does not want to or cannot handle raw meat. Some of my favorites are some of Tyson’s, including their chicken strips, popcorn chicken, rotisserie chicken wings, or ready pulled chicken breast or John Soules steak fajita strip, all of which can be microwaved. You can grab tortillas and whole wheat bread to make sandwiches, pair it with chips and salsa, or cook a Minute rice cup in the microwave to make rice and veggies. Add any frozen vegetable or soup you want. One of my favorite combinations is to cook the pulled chicken, Minute rice, and Birds Eye Asian Vegetable Medley. It has enough seasoning to make it feel fancy without my IBS taking offense (heads-up there is a small amount or onion and garlic in the flavorings).
My mother used to make something called “desperation dinner” — canned vegetable soup poured over a slice of toast.
I love what she called it! Personally, my lazy dinner is a pimento cheese sandwich and cold instant coffee. I’m moving but I have it even when I’m not. Too lazy to microwave the coffee.
Favorite (almost) no work meal- scrambled eggs with diced green chiles and diced cheese. Grating is too much work. Toast. Maybe a piece of fruit. If I have it. ❤️
Take a pound of mushrooms of your choosing. Fry them up (without salt) in oil/butter till browned. Add garlic to taste, salt, pepper. Then add a cup of broth. Boil up some egg noodles. Add the noodles to the mushies and stir till combined. Serve. Play with it and add whatever floats your boat. Enjoy!
I make several cottage / shepherds pies at once and stack them in the freezer so when life is too dang rough I pull one out, take the top of the pyrex dish, soven at 365 and if its already defrosted because I knew it was gonna be a rough day cook for 35-40 minutes, when the potato peaks are just golden brown, if its a real omg emergency, and its still frozen cover the dish with a bit of foil and after 20-30 minutes take off the foil and its gonna be at least 35 more minutes.
basic ingredients browned meat (lamb beef, whatever) or cooked poultry I have a fun thanksgiving edition, I like my onions caramelized so I add them to the meat when cooking some cooked sausage, some veggies – peas, carrots, green beans you can leave these frozen will cook when baked, Gravy of your choice, and enough potatoes to cover the top of the dish , for instance if you are making an 8×8 pan expect to need 1.5 to 2 cups smashed potatoes. I don’t use milk in the potatoes but broth and a bit of butter or avo oil, because it freezes a bit better. the spices change with the meat, but use whatever makes you happy for instance some poultry seasoning if chicken, all of them taste better when you make sure to add sausage, if you dont have sausage be sure to add just a bit of cayenne or smoked paprika or flavor maybe horribly bland. flavor is everything! I usually make 4 of these at once, and try to have at least two flavors in the freezer, you might think having 12 in the freezer is a bit much, but I try to have one a week, and i have a few other freezer meals too, because I’d rather cook a lot on one day a month than try to figure out what I want instead of whats on the so called menu. grumble grumble. weirdo that I am I also can meals. oh well I guess that outs me as closet homesteader
Not sure about lazy, but my favorite comfort meal is my mother’s potato soup:
peel (or not) and dice two or three potatoes (red, russet, yukon gold, whatever you have)
boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender but not mushy
drain water – leave a quarter cup if you want
add skim milk (or whatever you like) to cover potatoes.
Add as much butter as you want
season with salt, pepper, and maybe some dried marjoram (I love this ) or other herb you love.
heat until the butter melts and the soup is warm to medium hot (don’t boil)
curl up in your favorite chair with your favorite blanket and eat.
ps you can do this as individual meals as well, I make indie lasagnas for those times when the milk intolerant in the house want something I dont, usually the stuffed bell peppers which can also be a great freezer meal. Just tossing out some ideas, for the workaholics, this can be great especially when deadlines are involved, better than fast food and usually just one pan to clean up, though you can do foil pans if you must, then even less pans to clean up, foil isn’t really good for you though so I don’t usually recommend it, except as a temporary lid when cooking. Trader joes has a frozen shepherds pie I think? been a while since I’ve been there. anyway that and some cocoa with a good book on a rainy day, happy moments.
Lazy meal – jarred pesto (we like the kind from costco), bite size cut up chicken breast, zucchini halved lengthwise then ½ “ sliced, frozen broccoli florets, pad thai rice noodles
Start water boiling for noodles then saute chicken in a skillet, when it’s almost done add the zucchini, few minutes later add the broccoli, (water boiling? Add noodles) couple minutes later stir in the pesto. Chicken stuff over cooked noodles.
The pesto is messy and hard to clean out of cast iron so you could throw it all in a bowl and mix in the pesto.
We don’t always eat it with noodles. I used to make it with zucchini noodles (spiralizer) but on a tired, hungry day I just cut up the zukes and we ate it without noodles.
Lazy meal fall edition – pesto chicken soup with broccoli and tortellini
Chicken broth – jarred, boxed, from bouillon, not made today! Canned chicken, frozen broccoli florets, tortellini. We used to be able to get frozen tortellini in bags from costco but whatever you have
Get the chicken broth heating while you cut super huge florets to bite size, add tortellini to the broth, when it’s looking almost done add the canned chicken and pesto. Add the frozen broccoli at the end because it will cool the soup a bit and cooks quickly.
I don’t eat this anymore because I tested positive for gluten intolerance and haven’t found gf tortellini. So sad! I would make it with homemade broth and cut up chicken on a higher energy, less busy day.
Also – didn’t you have 🐦⬛ vid earlier in the year? I was low(er) energy and inflamed (achey, brain fog) for about a year after I had it.
Take care! Hope the recipes help!
Yes to rest and laziness! I will join you in spirit.
Love the photo of Mona.
Lazy food:
1. Baked potato (or boiled or nuked) with a scoop of cottage cheese, chopped green onion or herbs, salt & pepper.
2. Salmon filet baked at 400F in ceramic, lidded pot (or in tin foil) with a squeeze of lemon, dabs of butter, and maybe chopped dill, parsley and/or capers, etc, or not depending on personal energy level. Usually done in 20 mins or less, depending on size, & is lovely with rice and salad, boiled potatoes, or some green peas for super quick and no effort.
I love the salmon filet idea (and I saved your instructions) But I up the laziness factor and get it already cooked in the fancy deli section of my local Pavilions grocery store. Then I often add it to a noodle bowl or ramen pack.
Your body is telling you to rest because you had the you know what again. It is a very debilitating illness and you need to rest and recover.
I can live on cheese, crackers, a little prosciutto and some olives, plus a glass of wine. But if I need something that looks more like a meal, in the summer I love this Ina Garten recipe, https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/summer-garden-pasta
Dragonflight was really good – and The War Within is just as good! (If not better in many ways.) Dynamic flying makes the world feel alive. 🍻
Eggs, in one of their many possible forms.
Fried egg sandwich on a piece of homemade focaccia.
Scrambled with leftover chicken or sliced ham.
Some type of omelette, maybe with the aforementioned leftover
Meat and frozen vegetables.
Hard boiled along whatever strikes you. Maybe chopped in a can of soup.
Lazy meal, or exhaustion meal I have 3… bag of chopped salad with cabbage, 1 can canned beef pre cooked (yes it exists and no, its not terrible and makes meal prep SHORT), taco spices, taco shells, cheese and tomato, onion or what ever you like on that taco maybe some jarred pico de gallo? Some avacado? Some jarred salsa? Cook the beef, shred it as it warms/cooks add the spices, construct the taco and add the ingredients you like. Simple, filling tasty and low clean up. If I don’t do that I do a form of Stroganoff with the chunky cooked can beef. I heat the beef add the sauce I make and cook some noodles. Simple, easy low clean up. Quite tasty. My last one is to make pork BBQ – you got it – pre cooked canned pork, Sweet Baby Jesus sauce (or any sauce you like), heat the pork up, add the sauce, bun etc or roll up in a tortilla for instant tasty snack. I can also do Avacado, cheese, pico, onion, cilantro, minus the BBQ sauces and yumm Because the meats are canned they are shelf stable for a looong time, no fridge needed. They are pre-cooked so warming up and adding to the ingredients is really all you need to do. Versitile and handy to have on hand. The canned chicken I add to broth I buy plus, chopped frozen carrot and peas, saute my onion and garlic, add the peas and carrots, then the broth, then the canned chicken. Noodles are optional. 🙂
Take some time to rest body and mind. If I really don’t want to cook I pull out leftovers from my freezer and nuke them. Add salad and bread and your good to go. Less lazy calls for quick cherry tomato spaghetti sauce (which also makes freezer leftovers). It only has a handful of ingredients and takes about fifteen minutes prep plus cook time once you get good at it. You still have to cook the pasta, of course.
Lazy dinners: the occasional frozen pizza (or lunch today) jalapeño popper pizza with blue cheese dressing. Last week: split pea soup. But the ultimate one requires advance planning and a smoker, but is easy food for at least week depending on the size of your smoker and your family—smoked brisket—that’s bare on the plate, chopped or sliced in hot sandwiches with or without that stuff in a bottle, hash, with gravy and mash as roast, cold with lettuce and tomato, made into soup… if the smoker is big enough you can also smoke some chicken and sausages for more easy meals… I smoke the sausages and they go in the freezer, I break off a piece for the spit pea soup, for potato soup, for fried cabbage, for breakfast with eggs, in hoagie buns… the chicken is good as is, in chicken salad, on salad greens… and all the cooked meats freeze really well.
Favorite lazy meal: Buttered toast with cheese. Although sometimes waiting for the toast is too much.
Mona is a cutie! 1 box Zatarain’s Red Beans and rice + 1pound of breakfast sausage ( or whatever meat you want)+ 1can of chopped tomatoes +1 can kidney beans. Comes together in about a half an hour . I get the reduced sodium in all of it otherwise you can spice it up individually with hot sauce.
Favorite lazy meals:
Canned salmon over hot rice. (with fresh cracked pepper it hits the spot)
Home made guacamole with chips.
GF pizza with whatever extra toppings we have.
Rotisserie chicken ramen (I pick the meat off the bones, use canned broth, gf ramen noodles, and soy sauce).
And when I can’t even–we get lettuce wraps from Jimmy Johns.
New favourite lazy meal is microwaved sticky rice with crumbled nori sheets, rice vinegar pickled carrots, kewpie mayo,cucumber, spinach (and any other vegetable you think might go like edamame or lotus root) and quick protein of choice (as a vego I tend toward omelette but it would be really good with tuna or something in the line of imitation crab). Sprinkled with seasame and eaten with pickled giner and wasbai.
It takes about 10 minutes total, has veggies and is close enough to sushi to feel satisfying. If you’re looking to lower the carbs you could halve the sticky rice or split it with other people.
Soup and a sandwich, Heinz tomato soup and a bacon sandwich in a soft white bap (crispy bacon of course!) all essential food groups and comfort food. Mug in one hand bap in the other 😁
Favorite lazy meal. take 4-8 frozen burritos, place in pan. Cover with canned enchilda sauce. Top with mexican cheese blend. Cover with foil. Bake for 20-25 minutes on 350. Remove foil broil for thee minutes to brown cheese. Serve.
I’ve been playing Watcher of the Realms and really enjoying it as a good distraction.
Happy to provide referral codes to anyone wanting to join as we both get in game goodies as you progress 😉
My fav lazy meal is udon noodles! I get a bag of stir fry veggies, a protein like cooked chicken or tofu. Sauté veggies, chuck in noodles & sauce, add protein, warm up and tada! I make a home made sauce that is like 4 ingredients but if you are feeling extra lazy you can buy sauce. I can whip this up in less than 15 mins and it is so tasty.
If you do not feel like doing anything for another week then don’t.
As I get more white hairs I discover that it takes longer for me to bounce back from things. Obviously energy was stored in my formerly black hair like a battery and when it got drained it turned white….
Lazy hot meal, shrimp and pasta.
Lazy cold meal, shrimp on salad.
We like shrimp. 🙂
Favorite lazy meal is cabbage roll soup. All the great yum of cabbage rolls but all the ingredients chopped up so no trying to get perfect cabbage leaves to stuff. Also I often add in more rice & it’s cabbage roll stew instead of soup. So easy! Ready in about 20 minutes
https://www.dinneratthezoo.com/cabbage-roll-soup/
Had a grilled cheese with thin slices of tart apples added to the innards before toasting. My new favorite version.
Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup; preferably tomato. So yummy and nostalgic!
Or breakfast for dinner! Easy peasey and always welcome.
Leftovers! Of course this choice does require you to have cooked on some previous day.
Play WoW! Dragonflight is awesome but The War Within is turning out to be really fun as well.
This year has been hard for many folk. You have has several mental and physical challenges this year, so it is not surprising that you feel you need a break. I have Fibromyalgia with Fatigue, and this year I caught pertussis which manifest Bronchitis and a throat infection. They call pertussis the 100 day cough, and they are correct. I was barely able to function from May until August. I now recommend verifying your DPT vaccine status to everyone I meet.
Thus my Fatigue has ruled my life, if I leave home on errands I am guaranteed to be in bed the whole next day, either sleeping or just out of energy. But prior to May the “I don’t wanna” was daily fight with a dull fatigue backing it up.
There is NOTHING WRONG with SHORT TERM “I don’t wanna”, as long as it’s short term. IF it goes MORE THAN 2 WEEKS it’s NOT SHORT TERM. At that point you need to consider if it’s a symptom of something other than normal burnout. The reason for the two week marker is that if you need outside help it may take a week or two (or more) to get it, while the problem continues. If the burnout lifts before your appointment you can always cancel.
But another cause of IDW is the lack of Fun. As we get older we often quit doing those things which were fun. Doing what you enjoy and fun are two different things. Going out for dinner is enjoyable, the waterslide at the amusement park is Fun. I used to ride my motorcycle for fun, but I physically cannot anymore. So now I fly parasail and paraglide type kites. They are easier to launch than flat ones, but its a fun workout for me. You need to laugh and smile like you’re 11 yrs old again, the serotonin boost will last days. I try to do 1 fun thing every month, so that the everyday things stay in perspective. Yes, you will be wiped out the next day because of age but it will be worth it, and you will find the “grind” tolerable again. Take care of yourself, we all luv you.
I have the same cleaning issue, white glove other people’s places, but can barely keep up with my own dishes. I have never figured out why.
Lazy meals:
1. Cereal, fried egg on toast
2. Grilled cheese, ham & cheese, Turkey & cheese
3. Tomato sandwich- 2 slice white bread, mayo, sliced fresh tomato, salt & pepper
4. Canned pork n beans w toast, beans w sliced hot dogs
5. Boil whatever pasta I grab, top with:
pesto, jarred sauce, melted butter & garlic, butter & Parmesan, Thai peanut sauce, canned chili with meat, canned chicken ala king, pouch of tuna salad, pouch of flavored tunafish, or pouch of pulled pork from Wal Mart
6. PB&J sandwich & fruit
7. Anything made by someone else, and grateful for it.
Dinner tonight – scrambled egg & cheddar on a toasted bagel and microwaved corn on the cob from the farmers market.
But that is because I am too lazy to dig down and find the dinner sized portion of home made chili, somewhere in my freezer.
Mona is wonderful content. Is there a Mona story?
takeout sushi is my favorite lazy meal. especially with spicy edamame to snack on. yumm.
Favorite lazy meal is sleazy rice and cheese (or as a roommate called it, risotto without the risotto.
Take some plain cooked rice. Put it in a bowl. Top with cheddar cheese, dried basil, onion powder, and garlic powder. Microwave until the cheese melts. Stir it together. Eat.
It’s called recovery not lazy… but lazy is more fun!
Since we are all recovering from a cold I decided to go easy and bake a potato in the microwave, add butter, chilli and cheese. Sometimes it is broccoli instead of chili when I’m being healthier. Easy comfort food.
My laziness is eating a bowl of cereal and reading everyone’s posts. thank you for the enjoyment BDH
Completely lazy thing to eat I indulged in a few times–pint of strawberries, washed and leaves removed, dipped one by one into Cool whip. and eaten with fingers.
Standard quicky lunch: Good bread and cheese. whatever is in the bread box and the fridge. Put the bread slices on a plate, put cheese on the bread, put the plate in the microwave, heat it for 45 to 75 seconds until the cheese is all melty. If being fancy, shake a little savory spice mix, like Ras el Hanout or Berbere, on top. If being very fancy, add a handful of cherry tomatoes after cooking the cheese.
Slightly weird but frequently used option: Take a nonstick skillet suitable for a 2-3 egg omelet. Spray with some olive oil. Crack 2 eggs into the skillet and mix them up with a fork. Add 1 or 2 or maybe 3 slices of bread and get the bread wet on both sides. Cut up some cheese into teaspoon size bits and put it into the egg and bread mixture in the skillet. Turn the stove on, maybe add some salt, turn the egg stuff over when it’s starting to brown, let it brown on the other side. If the bread shreds, you can kind of tear the bread up and pretend it’s on purpose. Dump the egg/bread/cheese mixture on a plate and eat it. (remember to turn the stove off after removing the skillet and its contents.) Cheese may be browned and sometimes tastes even better than fresh.
My mother’s grilled cheese sandwich, which I don’t make since I don’t understand broilers in a gas oven very well, but I have done this at home where we had an electric oven. Put 2 slices of bread per person you are feeding on the broiler pan. turn broiler on and watch to see when it is getting a little brown. Pull the broiler pan out, turn the bread over, put on some slices of sharp cheddar or colby cheese, put the broiler pan back in the oven and watch the cheese melt. It goes faster the second time. Pull the pan out and turn off the stove. Put pieces of bread on a plate and sprinkle with paprika, which doesn’t do much for the flavor but looks pretty. Goes well with tomato soup, but also can be enjoyed with carrots and celery for crunchiness on the side.
Most commonly used option: my husband is a terrific cook and generally makes nice meals. Sausages and frozen vegetables heated up is the mainstay of the menu, though sometimes we get really good stuff from Moghul Microwave or Hazan’s Classic Italian cookbooks.
In Australia, we call Maia’s ‘metallic contraption’ [Sept 13 @ 9.58am] a jaffle iron
Pie irons here in the American Midwest.
Take it easy!
Favorite lazy meal:
Indomie instant noodles with canned sardines, cucumber and an egg. The sardines are optional if you don’t love canned fish.
my favourite quick meal. 1 can cream of mushroom soup. ,slices of hot cooked potato in a baking dish. Fried chopped onion and mushrooms on top. cover in soup mixed with water or milk/cream. Top with cheese. Bake in oven until bubbling and hot throughout. Great on its own or with other veg and or meat!
Favourite lazy meal is cheese and crackers. With odds and ends thrown in. Cold cuts, pickles and nuts.
+1
Also, add castelveltrano olives. And maybe some berries. And chocolate chips.
Single serve tuna packets on bread or crackers.
My favorite is the tuna with buffalo sauce. But I have to share with the cat who won’t let me eat it unless I distract him. So I cut open the packet and tape it to the floor so he can lick off the juice while I quickly eat the tuna before he notices.
He never jumps on the table EXCEPT when I try to eat the tuna.
Apparently he doesn’t care that buffalo sauce is spicy.
Jacket potato, cheese and beans!
My usual go to’s for quick lazy meals:
-tortellini with sautéed onions & bell peppers served coated with pesto
– potstickers made in a frying pan with a side of thin slices red cabbage and soy sauce
-basic ramen package with green onions and a lightly boiled egg
-box of mac and cheese with that little can of roast green chilis and maybe some onions (cracker-barrel box if you go deluxe)
-a bag of spinach paneer over ready made rice (use a rice maker and real rice if less lazy. The paneer is in most US grocery stores in the box meal/Asian section)
” …whatever it is that makes workaholics function” = boredom, incompetence, and the need to see what’s next.
“What is your favorite lazy meal? ” browned meat, tomatoe sauce, diced tomatoes, red beans and McCormick chili spices packet all mixed together and takes less than 15 minutes to fix.
Hope you get your writing bug back again soon. I love your books. 😀
Crock pot or insta pot meals. I consider these dump meals.
Take your protein source, add drained canned or frozen veggies, onion, garlic, maybe tomatoes, seasons to taste and cover cook all day on low or according to insta pot directions.
Pork chops, onion and sour kraut are great for this. So are southwest flavors.
Happy lazy day to you! My favorite lazy meal is breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, faux sausage, toast with butter and jelly. Maybe some berries or cantaloupe. Maybe some cherry tomatoes sautéed with a little soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and maple syrup added. Alternatively, you can get hubs to cook!
Tuna sandwiches. I love macaroni with tomato sauce and tomato juice(but the hubby does not eat it).
Super lazy meal: A bowl. Might have cottage cheese and a bunch of fresh fruit. Might have yogurt and fruit and Ezekial cereal with nut butter.
Might have pasta and tomato juice (a real comfort food from my early childhood).
Favorite lazy meal? Probably frozen spinach-and-feta pie from a local bakery. Just stick it in the oven, and it’s so delicious. ‘Course, that requires already having one in the freezer.
My new favorite lazy meal is Miso salmon. I Marinate it whenever I get around to it. Then I just put rice in my rice cooker and cook it for like 5 mins in the toaster oven. It sounds so fancy and healthy.
My laziest meal is nachos with a little rotisserie chicken in the toaster oven. Salsa. Sour cream.
Loving satisfactory too!
have someone else hunt and gather while you enjoy tea and read.
https://www.wskg.org/arts/2022-06-09/americas-test-kitchen-pasta-with-burst-cherry-tomato-sauce-and-fried-caper-crumbs-ep-2208
This is my favorite all time dinner, and the second best is overnight waffles
https://www.wskg.org/episodes/2021-02-04/1063113
Lazy dinner from last night: Two chicken breasts in the air fryer, boiled noodles, steamed broccoli, avocado ranch dressing. Mix, done.
CHILI MAC
1 pound hamburger
1 can diced tomatoes drained (fire roasted or with green chilli’s are nice) or add small can of green chillis drained
1/2 diced onion
1 can chilli no beans (I hate beans but you can add a can with beans or black beans)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 big handfuls of crushed tortilla chips
1/2/ cup cook rice (I use left over or instant rice)
1/2 bag of any kind of noodles except sphagetti type (I like shells or penne)
cook and drain noodles
In a large frypan cook onions and then hamburger, salt, pepper and any other spice you like and drain. Then add chilli and rice, diced tomatoes and any thing else you throw in ( sometimes corn, left over veggies, etc.)
Then add contents of fry pan to noodles add cheese and tortilla chips.
This can be a clean out your fridge type meal but that’s the jist of it. It’s comfort food which we like when we don’t feel like putting a lot of effort into a meal.
Loosely based on the cookbook “Comfort Food Diet by Readers Digenst
Enjoy TKV
You’ve worked hard! Enjoy the laziness – you need to relax and recoup and be rejuvenated before getting back to writing.
My favorite lazy meal is actually my husband’s creation and it is just delicious. It’s a stir-fry dump meal sort of situation.
Ingredients:
Beef Sausage/Polska Kielbasa/preferred sausage – cut into medallions
1 onion – chopped
1 pepper – chopped
Canned black beans – rinsed
Canned tomatoes – drained
Spices – salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, etc; generally mexican flavors
Toss everything into a skillet and cook together until it becomes tasty mush. Plate and add shredded cheese, and you’re good to go!
Also add canned corn – drained! Forgot that bit.
I highly recommend the book “Laziness does not exist” 🙂
Frozen dumplings or frozen steamed pork buns are 2 very lazy ‘meals’ that just barely count as a complete meal.
Wait, what? Adorable pictures of pets IS meaningful content.
Word.
Lazy meal: Cacio y Pepe pasta made with chickpea pasta (automatic protein)!
I just dump sweet potato fries in the air fryer. Salt and eat. That’s it. And that is a very cute puppy.
Favorite lazy meal – starts with Uber eats! Lol. I think you all should invest in a housecleaning service . I think sometimes , if you have so much work , it’s ok to let someone else do the manual work such as deep cleaning kitchens and bathrooms
Agree. Unless you love to clean, which I cannot imagine anyone actually doing. Working for yourself, You’re paying a rather high hourly rate to clean your own house.
Hmm, my favorite lazy meal. Mostly, a simple charcuterie these days with a cheap but delicious glass of white wine). Also radish and/or cucumber sandwiches. My mandoline is getting a workout it never had before
Grilled cheese and tomato soup certainly seems to be popular 😂
I think I have a different idea of lazy than some of these cooks tho …
I’ve started stocking “emergency food” things like canned chicken, frozen veggies, etc. And my latest almost-no-effort meals are what I call “rice mess” (I have 4 different kinds of rice in the pantry atm 😆)
I’m experimenting with one pot meals in the rice cooker – set it and forget it type things
Basically chop an onion, throw in bottom of pot, added prepared meat(not raw!) then rice, then seasoning, then frozen veggies, water/broth close and cook (I have a basic rice cooker, cooking options are brown or white)
It works best when you make sure to layer the ingredients (onions first, meat, rice, Frz veggies on top)
Successful combos I make a lot:
Chopped linguica, chicken broth/scoop of Better Than Bullion, curry-type spices(mix cumin, ginger,turmeric) dried cranberries, frozen butternut squash
Smoked heat-n-serve pork chops (remove meat from bones and chop, throw the bones on top last and remove after cooking), frozen kale.
I prefer brown rice over white, but it does take over an hour to cook like this.
For Must Have Food Now!
As my roommates called it “cheesy egg noodles”
Fast cooking pasta like angel hair, although actually ramen cooked as if it’s pasta(no spice packet) works best – mixed with shredded cheese (cheddar my fav) and a sunny side up egg cooked slowly so white stays soft. The egg yolk becomes your pasta sauce and the cheese melts into everything as you stir it up.
When in doubt- make pancakes. My favorite recipe is here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/162760/fluffy-pancakes/
We quadruple it, freeze the leftovers, and have easy breakfasts or snacks for a few days. I have never regretted making pancakes.
Pictures of cute pets are always meaningful content!
My favorite lazy meals are what I call “pot mess”. Fry one of (ground beef, chicken thigh / breast, TVP) with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper. Add one of (orzo, quinoa, protein pasta, rice, lentils, beans, barley, potatoes) with enough (broth, water, diced tomatoes) to cook properly. Add a flavor out of (gochujan, Italian seasoning, soy sauce + oyster sauce, sour cream). Add a bag of fresh or frozen veggies. Thicken if you want. The very fastest is TVP + orzo + broth + 2TB sour cream + spinach; I can make it in about 10 mins. There are a lot of options. You can make pot mess in the instant pot by throwing things in all at once. The best thing is that since you didn’t dice anything and you’re cooking everything in one pot, cleanup is super fast.
Korean cold noodles from the freezer section. Boil noodles, smash frozen broth in the bag with a rolling pen or a meat tenderizer. Add vinegar and anything you have in the fridge. Pear, green onion, cabbage, chicken or steak or no meat at all. Cut up noodles with scissors and you are good to go. Whole thing takes about 10 min start to finish
Favorite Lazy meal is Breakfast for dinner. eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and pancakes or waffles.
Any more, can of Campbells chilli mac, dump in a glass bowl, heat in microwave for 3 minutes add crackers to taste. Serves 1. Do as many bowls as people need.
Lazy meal? Well, that’d probably be a frozen dinner/pizza…if you mean something you actually sort-of cook, I’d say make sandwiches, then put them on a pan and bake in the oven. Feels kind of like cooking, does make them better (although makes a bigger mess to clean up)
To be truly lazy, you pick up the phone and order pizza. You’re welcome. Have a great weekend
What Hubs and I call Burrito-ish Wrap Things: Use packaged taco seasoning as you usually would, but throw in defrosted/squeezed out frozen chopped spinach. Add some extra cheese or sour cream to stretch the sauce. Serve in flour tortillas. Use ground turkey and low salt taco mix if you are feeling virtuous!
Question: Are you going to play The War Within as well? Also, my easy lazy go to meal. 5-6 chicken thighs (or whatever chicken parts I have in the fridge), olive oil, onion soup mix, whatever veggies I have left in the fridge. Throw into a baking dish. Cook 375 for 45-50 min. You could probs also throw into a slow cooker. I haven’t tried that…yet.
My Lazy meal is definitely khichdi–cooking rice, and moong dal together with water, turmeric and salt in an instant-pot like thing and then doing a tadka/chanunk of ghee, cumin seeds, tiny mustard seeds and asfatedia (hing in Hindi). Hope you try it sometime!
favorite lazy dinner- Panera soups from Walmart cooked on stove top with French bread heated in oven from Walmart for 3 mins on 450. To be exact it’s my kids favorite dinner- broccoli and cheddar soup and French bread but if it gets them to consume decent amounts of carrots and broccoli ….lol
My best lazy meal is rice cooker white rice, peas, and fried hotdog bits (vegetarian in our case) served with the obligatory hot sauce. It’s an immensely satisfying and completely lazy supper which saw me through the recent lean years of divinity school and chaplain’s training.
When the rice is almost done, chop hotdogs into quarter inch bits and fry until crispy. While they are frying, heat a kettle of water. Pour boiling over your bowl of frozen peas. Once they’re hot through, drain dry. Pile peas and hotdogs bits atop the rice and apply hot sauce to taste.