Halp! What should I make for dinner tomorrow?

[rivenwanderer]

I cook dinner once a week for my housemates--6 people total counting myself. Usually another housemate and I work together, but she'll be out of town and I'm having a hard time coming up with a plan for making dinner on my own. What's a good one or two-dish (ETA: vegetarian!) meal for 6 that doesn't take more than a couple of hours to put together?

Comments

[yvi]

I love Chili con carne. You prepare the vegetables, cook the meat (or not, for vegetarians), throw everything in and let it simmer for a while.

[aedifica]

Stew and salad? In particular, jenett's chickpea-tomato-spinach dish is stewlike and warm and tasty and easy to make. Recipe here. (The recipe includes peanut butter or tahini, and once it's there you wouldn't guess because it doesn't taste like it, it just makes the dish creamy and yummy. I bring it up to mention that if you leave that out, the dish looks very Christmasy with the green spinach and the red tomatoes and the off-white chickpeas. This may be a plus or a minus for you.)

[libitina]

Tell me five ingredients you have on hand.

[zarhooie]

Eggplant parm is super easy to make.

Slice a decent sized eggplant in half and then slice each half into 1 inch thick slices. Put two eggs and a splash of milk into one shallow dish, and a bunch of parmesean flavored bread crumbs into another. Coat each slice in egg, then coat in breadcrumbs and pan fry on each side on medium heat until golden brown. You'll need to keep adding oil as the breadcrumbs absorb it.

Put each piece into a baking dish. Cover in one jar of spaghetti sauce, then a couple handfuls of grated cheese. Cover the pan with tinfoil and bake for an hour at 325. In the last 5-10 minutes, take the tinfoil off, add more cheese and bake uncovered.

[norabombay]

I like this one:

Black beans and rice, pickled onions, cuban toast, grilled peppers.

How to:

Rice: Make rice. I use white, but really, any non-super sticky rice will do.
Beans: Option 1: Buy a can of Goya Black Bean Soup. It's got the red label. Not the blue label black beans, the red label soup. I'm 99% certain this is vegetarian.

Option 2: Other black beans. Add fresh garlic, lime juice, scallions and some olive oil.

Condiments: Wedges of fresh cut limes. pickled onion (chopped onion, a little paprika, a little salt, some vinegar. Mix and let sit for an hour) or just chopped onion. Scallions also wonderful here.

Toast: Take good french bread, cut in half length wise. Spread with butter/oil/margerine. Toast.

Peppers: Grill if possible, sautee or otherwise cook if not, a bunch of sweet red/yellow peppers.
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And!Plantains! How did I forget these. Buy the package of frozen ones, or get fresh, and sautee in butter. Yum.

Technically this is a multi pot meal. However, the whole thing can be done in the time the rice cooks- put rice on, set beans to heat... Has the advantage of being cheap.