Dinner is usually the last meal of the day, but it is usually the most enjoyable as you can relax and enjoy your meal without rushing anywhere. In addition, at this time the whole family gathers at the same table and shares the news for the day. Of course, a special place is occupied by a festive dinner, to which
need a special approach. In any case, this is an important meal, and contrary to the proverb that it should be given to the enemy, we want our food for dinner to be varied and tasty, while not requiring a lot of preparation time.
The problem of quick dinners
Lucky for those families where there is always someone at home who could meet you from work and hearty feed. Unfortunately, the realities of the modern world suggest that all family members work or study and only come together in the evening and, as a rule, at the table. Cooking is necessary for the keeper of the hearth, and it does not matter how tired she is after work. Therefore, the hostesses of the whole world are thinking about what to cook for dinner quicker and simpler, so that they can feed the family properly, and not fall from impotence. The final meal should be primarily nutritious and nutritious, but not contain excess and harmful fats and fast carbohydrates, because our stomach works all night and should not be overloaded.
The main problem of dinners is the time of their preparation. Most dishes require a long cutting of products, and the cooking process itself should be taken into account. I don’t want to spend my precious free time after work standing on the stove, so you need to look for recipes that will not take too much time, but at the same time allow plenty of food.
Blanks
If you are a well-thought-out person, you probably already know in advance what to cook simple for dinner. A very profitable strategy is to prepare workpieces that can be frozen or just kept in the refrigerator until they come in handy. For example, if you like baked potatoes, you can cut them into slices in advance, when you have time, put them in a baking bag, pour a little olive
oil, fill in your favorite spices and leave in the refrigerator until dinner. When you get back from work, all you have to do is put your pickled potatoes in the oven and go about your business, and after 30 minutes, dinner will be ready. What could be easier? And this can be done in most cases and any recipe should be reduced to 15 minutes. Very good if you cook dinner for a week. Then it’s even easier, spend three hours on the blanks on the weekend, and after work you don’t have to pore over the stove or think up what to cook today.
Product selection
As you know, dinner should not be heavy and fat, otherwise you just can’t fall asleep, and in the morning you will feel discomfort. Therefore, a very important point is the choice of products and the method of their preparation. This does not mean that in the evening you can only eat salads or fish. Not at all, just reduce the amount of oil when frying and replace heavily digestible foods with lighter ones. A great option for dinner is fish or chicken, this is a light white meat that is quickly digested and gives the body all the necessary substances. And there are a lot of useful cooking methods, especially if you have a double boiler or a slow cooker at home. It is imperative to remember that vegetable foods should be eaten for dinner. Be sure to add the salad to your meal, and you will not feel heaviness in the stomach. And another point that you should pay special attention to is the combination of products. If you cook meat, then you don’t need to serve potatoes or pasta for a side dish, such a combination, albeit tasty, not at all useful and not at all suitable for dinner. Do not forget about soups, they can be prepared from both meat and vegetables and mushrooms, and to make them more satisfying, add a little cereal.
Beef for dinner
One of the most common and popular products is cattle meat, namely beef. From it you can cook a huge number of various dishes, both first and second. It all depends on which
part of the carcass you use in a particular case. If this is meat on the bone, then you can prepare a rich soup broth, and if it is ribs, then they are just made for baking, but the best part is sirloin, you can do anything with it. Let's look at a few examples of what to cook for dinner quicker and simpler from this wonderful product.
Beef Stroganoff
Famous dish and beloved by many. For it you will need beef fillet, onion, garlic (2-3 cloves), pepper, salt, a little butter and cream (20%). The set of products is small, but the dish is very tasty and tender. Rinse the meat under running water and cut it into small strips of slices. Heat the sunflower oil in a pan and put the meat in it. Sauté it over low heat until golden brown. Grind onions and garlic and add to the meat, salt and pepper. When the onion softens, pour all the cream and add a tablespoon of butter so that the mixture does not exfoliate. It remains only to wait until you get the meat in a thick creamy sauce. You can always change the recipe a bit and add your favorite spices.
Goulash
Beef for dinner goes well with vegetables, so goulash is an excellent choice, the meat is soft and just melts in your mouth. Cooking will take you a maximum of 35 minutes, and it takes only 5 minutes to prepare the products. Cut a piece of beef into cubes, finely chop the onion and garlic, dip the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes, remove the skin and finely chop, chop the bell pepper into small slices. That's all the preparation, it remains only to fry the meat with all the vegetables, pour boiling water and let it stew for 20-30 minutes. Cooking is desirable in a saucepan or saucepan. Do not forget about salt with pepper and bay leaf. Using the same principle, you can cook stew, then you can also add zucchini, and take less meat, you get a more dietary option.
Pork for dinner
The next popular product is pork. It is believed to be very oily
meat. However, if you take the
loin, the so-called corners, then there you will not see a single streak with fat. The best way to cook this product is to bake it or stew, then the meat is soft and tender. Do not forget that all recipes can be modified taking into account the fact that you can make part of the preparations in advance in order to save time. The following describes how to prepare quick meals for dinner.
French meat
This is a very simple recipe, and almost everyone will like it. You will need pork fillet, it can be cut into slices and beat, or you can immediately cut it into small pieces. Prepare a baking sheet and grease it with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees. So, put the prepared meat in one layer on a baking sheet, salt and pepper. Next is the turn of onions and mushrooms, fry them in a small amount of vegetable oil until half-cooked and pour sour cream, simmer for 5 minutes (no more). Then pour the mushroom mixture on the pork and generously sprinkle with grated cheese, you can sprinkle with parsley or dill if desired. Put in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. You can cook everything in advance, put it in a baking dish and freeze it. When the time comes for dinner, just put the mold in the oven for 25-30 minutes too.
Pork in the sleeve
Are you still wondering what to cook for dinner quicker and easier? Bags and sleeves for baking will help you, it’s very easy, quick and tasty to cook in them. Make preparations for a week in advance and freeze, what could be easier? Cut the pork into slices and marinate in your favorite spices and, optionally, in oil, kefir or in orange juice. It remains only to pierce the package so that there is an exit to hot air, and put in the oven for 30 minutes at a temperature of 180-200 degrees. You can cook the main dish and side dish in one package. Just stack all the vegetables you want with the meat. It can be bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli or cauliflower.
Chicken and turkey for dinner
It was already mentioned above that eating dinner should be foods that do not cause heaviness in the stomach and do not interfere with healthy sleep, so chicken or turkey is ideal. Another advantage of the bird is that it is combined with almost all products, so you do not have to rack your brains over the choice of side dish for a long time. As for time, almost any dish with this ingredient is quickly cooked.
Chicken skewers with pineapple
To cook this exotic enough dish you will need chicken
breast, namely fillet, at the rate of one fillet per person. In addition, pineapple will be needed, you can use both fresh and canned. Cut the fillet into cubes, put in a bowl and pour in soy sauce, add black pepper, grated garlic and, if you like the aroma of Indian curry, then half a teaspoon of this wonderful spice. Leave to marinate for 10-15 minutes, not more. Pineapple should also be diced. Soak the skewers in water so that they do not burn in the oven. String chicken and pineapple one at a time, put the prepared barbecue on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place the pan there for 20 minutes. Garnish is served with rice or mashed potatoes. This dish can be prepared without skewers, but just bake everything in foil. Also, this recipe is useful to you if you do not know what to cook for a festive dinner. Small barbecue with exotic taste will surely please your guests.
Garlic Chicken Drumsticks
Take chicken drumsticks and marinate them in kefir with spices for 30 minutes, put on a baking sheet or in a baking dish and cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. This dish is very simple and does not require special skills. In kefir marinade, you can add 2-3 cloves of garlic, onions and bay leaf for a smell, as well as any spices to choose from.
Mexican style turkey with vegetables
Now, in many supermarkets, they have started selling the already cut turkey, for cooking this dish you will need a breast steak. It will need to be cut into small pieces. You will also need bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomato paste, canned corn and spices. Heat the oil in a frying pan, chop the onion and garlic into large pieces and simmer in butter until soft. Then put the turkey in the pan, fry until the meat turns white. Peel the bell peppers from the seeds and cut into large slices. Set the fire to maximum, fry meat and pepper until they are browned. Peel the tomato from the peel, scalding it with boiling water, and grate it. In this mass, dilute a tablespoon of tomato paste and the liquid in which the corn was pickled. Pour what happened in the pan, add water, if necessary, so that it covers all the meat. Put corn and spices to taste, if you like more sharply, be sure to add a pinch of red cayenne pepper. Stew for 10 minutes until tender, then sprinkle with chopped greens, and you can remove from heat. It will turn out a lot of fragrant and tasty sauce, in which it is so nice to dip bread slices. Be sure to try this recipe.
Fish for dinner
What could be better than a tasty, tender and light fish for dinner? Especially if it is a sea fish, because it has so many useful trace elements. Of course, this is not a very familiar product for middle-class residents, but in the frozen form you can find almost any fish, from trout to pollock.
Salmon steak
The semi-finished product that you will need to purchase is directly called that. It is very easy and quick to cook, and the set of spices is minimal. You can cook it in a pan or bake in foil, in both cases you will get an excellent dish. To bake, you must first slightly pickle the steak, pour it with a small amount of lemon or lime juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then wrap in foil and bake for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 185 degrees. Garlic cream sauce is perfect for such a dish, for it you will need to add chopped garlic in olive oil, and then pour in the cream and wait until they evaporate, and add spices to taste.
Fish in batter
If you are interested in what to cook for dinner inexpensively, then pollock or sea bass -
the best choice, they cost less than chicken, and they cook even faster. You can just cut the fish and fry, or you can pre-dip in batter. The latter is made from eggs, flour and water. Mix everything until the consistency of thick sour cream. You can serve rice or salad to the fish.
Side dishes and salads
In addition to meat, vegetables or cereals should be served for dinner. Of vegetables, zucchini, green beans and bell pepper will be an excellent side dish. To save cooking time, you can buy ready-made vegetable mix, which are sold in a large assortment in frozen form. All that is needed is to lightly fry them in a pan with the addition of tomato paste, and you will not have to defrost them.
Rice with vegetables
If you are preparing a quick dinner, then this recipe will come in handy for you. You can choose absolutely any vegetables, except for potatoes, but the most beneficial combination is with a Mexican mixture. It usually includes corn, peas, onions, carrots, green beans and peppers. Fry the mixture in vegetable oil until soft, then add a glass of rice, mix, the rice becomes transparent, then fill everything with a glass of water. Salt, pepper, you can add soy sauce, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until cooked. This is a fairly nutritious side dish, so it should be served with light meat such as chicken or fish.
Baked potato with spices
Potato is a favorite side dish in the whole world; thousands of dishes can be prepared from it. But more often than not, dishes are either difficult to cook or very long, and you want to choose simple and quick recipes for dinner. The best way is to bake potatoes with spices, it will take about 30 minutes to prepare, but it will take hardly 5 minutes to prepare. If you have the opportunity to buy new potatoes, then it will work best. It is necessary to peel and cut vegetables into small slices and put in the dishes in which you are going to bake. Pour all over with a little vegetable oil, sprinkle with spices and salt and mix. Of the spices, it is better to choose basil and rosemary, they are perfect for potatoes. Put the mold in the oven, heated to 200 degrees.
Pasta with cheese
This is not quite a side dish, rather an independent dish. It will appeal to both adults and children. Boil the pasta the way you usually do. The most important thing in this recipe is the sauce. It is prepared on the basis of classic French bechamel sauce. Heat two cups of milk with bay leaf, onion and two cloves of garlic, strain. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan
and add a tablespoon of flour, mix and pour milk. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken, then remove from heat, add salt, pepper, origano and grated cheese. You can take an unlimited amount of cheese, as much as you like. Fold the pasta in a baking dish and pour the mixture, you can optionally sprinkle cheese and herbs on top. Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes, and you're done. This is ideal for those who are looking for something to cook for dinner quicker and easier.
Greek salad
Perhaps the most delicious salad, while simple to impossible. The classic recipe involves the following set of products: bell pepper (ripe and juicy), meaty tomato, a couple of crisp cucumbers, seedless olives and, of course, feta cheese, it is he who makes this salad Greek. If desired, you can add lettuce, such as romano or iceberg, they practically have no taste, but are very juicy. Coarsely chop all vegetables and mix with olives, cut the cheese into cubes and spread on top. Spices are another important point, be sure to add basil and oregano, they will perfectly complement the taste of this Mediterranean dish. Use unrefined olive oil with lemon juice as a dressing.
For dinner, the child
Children, like adults, love a tasty meal, but it is worth considering the difference in diet. Dinner for children is a way to restore the energy spent per day, so it should be satisfying and nutritious. When choosing products, it is better to limit yourself to vegetables, cottage cheese or fruits, you can offer your child dried fruits or nuts. There is also a list of products that are contraindicated for children in the evening, such as smoked meats, mayonnaise, too salty or fatty foods, in addition, beef or pork for dinner is extremely undesirable for the child.
Cheesecakes with berry sauce
This is the most profitable option for a children's dinner, and cooking them quickly and easily. Take a pack of low-fat cottage cheese, add one egg there and rub well. Two tablespoons of flour, sugar and a pinch of salt should be added to the curd mixture and mixed well. For flavoring, you can take a little vanillin, dried fruit or berries. From the resulting mixture should be molded cheesecakes, roll them in flour and fry in a small amount of oil on both sides until golden. Berry sauce can be prepared from any berries, and thanks to the existence of frozen products, you can enjoy this sauce even in winter. All you need to do is to let a small amount of the selected fruit in water with sugar. Pour the prepared cheesecakes with sauce and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Potato patties
Boil two or three potato tubers in their skins until cooked and let it cool slightly. Peel and rub on a coarse grater. In the resulting mass, add a pre-shaken egg, three tablespoons of flour, grated cheese, herbs, salt and a little pepper. Stir the resulting potato mixture well and form small patties. Heat the oil in a pan and fry on both sides until golden brown. Serve with sour cream and herbs.
All examples of dishes listed in the article are quite simple and do not require additional skills or special skills, in addition, cooking will take you no more than 30-40 minutes. Now you know how and what to cook quickly, tasty for dinner.