Quick and Easy Dinners

My best quick and easy recipes when you need to get dinner on the table fast. Most are healthy, too!

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad (Vegan and Gluten Free)

June 2, 2016

My, how things change: I used to think sun dried tomatoes were among the world’s grossest foods, and today I’m writing you with a recipe for sun dried tomato pasta salad, which contains everything I love about pasta salad (creamy dressing, plenty of veggies, lots of seasoning) and TONS (okay, half a cup) of tender, oil-packed sun dried tomatoes.

Come to think of it, my relationship with pasta salad has also been tumultuous. By age 13, I might have been the nation’s leading expert on assembling Suddenly Salad; you know, the box mix with the pasta shells and dehydrated vegetables that are perhaps more fit for an astronaut? Basically all that was required was to boil the pasta and mix the seasoning packet with mayo and voila! Instant pasta salad. I won’t lie: I would still eat it if I happened to come across it at a picnic.
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Garlic Quinoa Buffalo Bean Bowls

May 24, 2016

In homemade how-to number 8, I showed you how to cook your own beans for a huge savings over the good canned beans. Today it’s time to put beans–black, white, or otherwise–into some spicy meatless make-ahead buffalo bowls!

What are we making with all those tender, perfect, homemade beans you just cooked from scratch? Garlic quinoa buffalo bean bowls! There are a few lingering meat recipes on NCK, like the buffalo chicken and garlic quinoa bowls, and it’s time to start converting them over to meatless versions. Today’s spicy buffalo bowl is a marriage of the recipe I just mentioned, and the sad, pictureless post about spicy black beans. The recipe for the beans is to die for, but it doesn’t get much love because I still haven’t taken any pictures of it. We’re making all that right today, with a bowl involving quick cook times that also does really well made ahead and is full of unique buffalo flavor that, personally, I crave even more in the summer.

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Berry Basil Lemonade Smoothie (Whole 30)

May 16, 2016

Against my usual food blogging beliefs, I’m slapping the Whole 30 label on this super summery post-workout smoothie. Personally, Whole 30 isn’t an approach that works with my food philosophy, but I recognize its value in reducing your intake of sugar and processed “food”, two goals that I can fully support. More importantly, though? I have to support my people! Some friends at Connect Community have taken on the Whole 30 plan with various goals in mind, so I think it’s only fitting that I give them a few recipe ideas this month!

As I said, I’m not a huge proponent of the diet myself, so hopefully I got things right and this smoothie actually fits into the diet (conclusion: it does).
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Artichoke Stir Fry and Whipped White Beans

May 12, 2016

This is how I enjoy cooking. Not for the internet; for people. So that my husband has a dinner that’s not takeout for the night or two that I’m away this weekend (sinncccceeee I ate all the enchilada pie I was planning to leave for him).

I love cooking. I love helping people cook. That’s why I have a food blog. But sometimes the internet just goes and sucks all the fun out of cooking, and the pressure of how many people are reading or pinning my recipes leave me a grumpy, stressed mess doing late night cooking and photography that reflects my crappy mood. I used to think it was a little weird when people said you can taste when a chef is angry, but now I understand. Things start to unravel quickly when I’m in a bad mood: I forget to season, I undercook vegetables, I even miss ingredients entirely.
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Creamy Veggie Enchilada Pie

May 10, 2016

Things that are always in my refrigerator: chocolate chips, butter, a myriad of strange gluten free flours, tamari, yellow mustard, at least one type of cheese, year-old cornichons, and a handful of vegetables that are on their last legs.

I have trouble accurately estimating the vegetable intake of just two humans. No matter how you slice (or dice) them, we cannot eat a salad of three fennel bulbs in one night, no matter how amazing, unless they’re the world’s tiniest fennel. Clarence is of much assistance, but he prefers carrots and green beans, whereas my shopping includes veggies of much more diverse shapes and sizes: zucchini, beets, poblanos, and as many greens as I can rationalize. Watching our perplexed pug as he gnaws on a leaf of chard that sticks to his tongue and will not break down might be America’s Funniest Home Videos material, but it doesn’t do much to help me get rid of the extra veggies. Until we add a less picky pet to the family, veggie “disposal” will continue to be the job of my smorgasboard lunchtime salads and bowls and, on a much more festive level, veggie enchilada pie.

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Puppy Chow II: Chocolate Peanut Butter

May 9, 2016

Puppy chow round two! Not too long ago, I published a dessert recipe for my personal favorite puppy chow recipe. That’s right, if you grow up in the midwest, there’s a solid chance you have multiple recipes for peanut butter and chocolate puppy chow, aka cereal clusters. Of course, it’s way more fun to call it puppy chow, and when we were in second grade we thought we were being gross by offering our friends a bite of this so-called dog food.

Since this snack has a special place in my heart, like so much of the food I share on Natural Comfort Kitchen, it’s only fair that I reveal my runner-up chocolate puppy chow recipe. [Read more…]

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