Spo-reflections on the go-to eats at La Casa de Spo.

Note: this post is rawther embarrassing. Please don’t try this at home. Spo

We both work long hours and often come home late at night and too tired to cook really. This makes eating well a challenge. Mercifully there are no convenient nearby places to put on speed dial ‘to go’, We’ve remedied this matter via meal kits which are handy things as food preparation hasn’t much thought to them and they are relatively quick to put together. They some nutrition (I pick them for such) and they provide good portion control. However there are nights it is kits-be-damned and if it isn’t immediately edible at eye level in the fridge or the larder we ain’t doing it. We have some quick go-to stables that are hot, quickly done, and without effort- like my men. Let’s look as a few of them.

Macaroni and cheese. We have a recipe for proper M&C, the type that uses freshly-grated cheeses and such. but this takes time and effort – like my men. With the navy blue box type you put a pot of water on to boil and in the meanwhile find what can go into it. Are there any old vegetables or meaty-bits from the fridge in Tupperware, easily chopped for adding? My favorite version of this I call ‘Tuna Hemingway’ which consists of a box M&C with 1-2 tins of tuna and whatever else it at hand.

Meatballs in sauce. Costco and Albertsons both have bags of frozen meatballs about the size of golf balls. A handful of these go on a sheet pan and when cooked they are combined with whatever sauce is at hand or dipped into dressing. Sometimes I put them into a saucepan along with some Raos, cover, and cook until heated through. Sprinkle some just-like-cheese from a green and yellow cylinder and dinner is served. I haven’t looked at what goes into the meatballs; I don’t think I want to know.

Dumplings. Someone is Dumpling-Master viz. he likes to make them. They are tricky to prepare. When they are pan-fried they often burn and stick to the pan and they don’t cook well in the oven, worse luck. For Christmas I am getting him a bamboo steamer to make proper steamed dumplings. We eat them with relish.

and the worst:

Frozen Pizza: Uncle Albertsons makes a thin-crust pizza, which is frozen, wrapped in plastic, and sits on a cardboard circle. One has to be careful not to cook the cardboard along with the pizza as they taste alike. These are nasty but they cook in twelve minutes. I am all for trying a better frozen pizza (if that is possible) but Someone doesn’t like all that dough. I don’t need all those carbs either – or the pizza for that matter. The cardboard provides some roughage though.

What’s your quick go-to dinner?