In The Farmhouse Kitchen - Day 4 - Thursday - Thrown Together Meals

Meal planning definitely saves time and money.  But, sometimes you have to just throw something together when cooking.  I guess a form of meal planning would be to have a list of meals that can be "thrown together" from what you have on hand.  At the bottom of this post is a list of possible ones.

Here are a couple of examples from my week.

Underneath all the cheese and Fritos in this bowl are delicious chili beans.  They are thick, FULL of hamburger, and wonderful for dipping with the Fritos.  The recipe is another one from PIONEER WOMAN, called FRITO PIES.  I was intrigued by her method of serving the chili in a Frito bag, but  instead of putting the chili in a bag of Fritos, I put the chili in a bowl and poured the Fritos around the edges.  That bag idea sure would be neat at a picnic or when tailgating though!

T

Chili Cheese beans Fritos

The reason I felt like this meal was thrown together is that even though I tried very hard to make a good meal for my hubby, unfortunately, he had to work very late that day.  The beans had been sitting in the pot on low for hours.  They got thicker and thicker.  They were not nearly has good as they would have been if eaten on time.

O.K, they were still good to eat, but by the time hubby got there I felt like I was just throwing them in a bowl with chips and cheese and saying, "Here you go!".  I wasn't too proud of my efforts at cooking.  I know you've been there before too.  You know how it is when you put your heart and soul into a meal and then it sits there for hours before its eaten.  The meal doesn't look or taste as good and you feel like someone has let the air out of your balloons!

And poor hubby ate leftover chili cheese beans for a couple of days!

Here is a weeknight meal from a couple of days ago.  We had bananas, tomatoes and leftover bacon that really needed to be eaten.  So we had banana sandwiches and tomato and bacon sandwiches.  It sure was good, but definitely a "thrown together" meal!



Banana Sandwich and Bacon and Tomato Sandwich with lots of black pepper

Sometimes a meal that is just thrown together turns out surprisingly great.  My mother used to say that she could always "knock up" something to eat from what she had in her cabinets. 

I decided to brainstorm "thrown together main dishes and sides" that can be made on the spur of the moment.  Here are a few:

Peanut Butter Sandwiches and canned soup, or your own frozen soup.
Pimento cheese on celery
Grilled Cheese sandwiches
Canned vegetables (corn, peas, beans)
Frozen Pizza
Chef's Salad
Breakfast for Supper (Fried or scrambled eggs, toast with jelly)
Vegetable soup using canned vegetables and hamburger
BBQ Chicken using bottled BBQ sauce.
Any meal that you have frozen
Meal Starters from the freezer, like frozen browned ground beef, can produce a variety of meals (tacos, spaghetti, chili, lasagna)
Baked beans
Pasta Salad
Meatless spaghetti using jarred sauce
French Bread or English Muffin pizzas
Baked potato Bar (potato baked in microwave) (toppings:  cheese, sour cream, butter, baked beans,etc.)
Canned clam chowder - Add extra potatoes, clams and milk.  Eat with saltines.  YUM.
Boiled eggs (deviled, in a salad, or alone)
BLTs, or BTs, BLs or LTs (LOL)
Any meal that uses fresh veggies from the garden (cukes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, etc)
Canned biscuits
LEFTOVERS!

I bet you have your favorite "thrown together" meals.  Tell me please.... I need more ideas.