#QuaranCooking
I swear, once this quarantine period is over I will be ready to compete on Top Chef. Well, okay, maybe not but the point is that trying out new recipes have really kept me sane. I’ve always liked to stress bake, but I took it to another level this past month! I’m on several email/Instagram chains with friends sharing recipes with each other, and I’ve found some delicious recipes that I’m happy to say are staying in my meal rotations. These are easy to make, can be easily stored/frozen for meal prepping, and most importantly, they do not contain rare items. While I have recently discovered a love for baking bread (and eating bread!) over the past two weeks, everyone else seems to be baking bread as well. Yeast is flying off the shelves, and though I have found some great bread recipes I want to make sure that I’m sharing with you recipes that don’t require grocery shopping and fighting with people to obtain essential ingredients. Don’t worry, I will share these recipes in a future article in a world where simple flour will no longer be considered a rare item.
Below are some links to amazing recipes that you can make at home (and my comments). I hope you have fun trying out these recipes, and maybe discover a new favorite meal :) Happy cooking, future top chefs!
1. Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese: A great “healthier” alternative to a traditional favorite of mine. Comforting, simple to make, cheesy, and also super easy to make in bulk and store! There is also a vegan version that I’ve found where cheese is replaced with nutritional yeast.
2. If you’ve talked to me about Queer Eye before you’ll know that my favorite is Tan France (his popularization of the French Tuck definitely upped my wardrobe--see our earlier blog post ‘Belt Lewks’). He has a Youtube channel where he posts Pakistani/Indian dishes, and they are great. This fashion guru can cook! My favorite is his version of chicken curry. I like to make this in batches, and the spices give so much depth to this dish! Honestly, you don’t even need to have all of the spices that he used to make this delicious. I’ve left out one or two before and was still able to get a great curry. He also has a recipe on lentils that’s also great for meal prepping!
3. Gochujang shredded chicken: I love to make shredded chicken in my Instapot because it’s so versatile and freezes well. To spice things up, I tried using gochujang, which is a Korean chilli paste. It’s slightly spicy, sweet, and savory. Even if you don’t have all the ingredients listed in this recipe, you can simply add the gochujang sauce with the chicken and some onion, and it’ll be great as is.
4. Tuna Patties: Canned tuna is just one of those things that I always have in my pantry for tight situations. It’s cheap and full of protein! I know canned tuna isn’t super appealing on it’s own, so these tuna patties are great to add an extra oomph to that canned fish. You can assemble these patties into burgers or simply eat them on their own. You can also roll them into meatballs too :) These are really easy and super amenable to modifications, so feel free to experiment and add the ingredients/seasonings that you want.
5. Latkes: For some reason, I was always intimidated by making latkes because I thought they’d be a lot of work. Turns out, they’re actually not too hard to make and only requires 4 ingredients (3, if you can’t find bread crumbs)! They make a great base for a variety of toppings and can be eaten for any meal. Who doesn’t love fried potatoes amiright?
6. Egg Frittata: I love eggs, so I was really excited to find a recipe that wasn’t just an alteration of scrambled eggs. This recipe is simple and amenable to the addition of a variety of vegetables, if you want to make it fancy.
7. Chrissy Teigen’s Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps: I’ve been trying to ration my rice because it’s hard to find nowadays! I love these lettuce wraps as a spin to regular chicken lettuce wraps. They’re easy to make and easy to make. Essentially, you can just use any vegetables you have lying around. The sauce will make anything taste good :) I’ve been getting into lettuce wraps lately, and they are so easy to make, I’m not sure why I didn’t start eating these earlier.
8.Avocado Basil Pasta: Okay, I know pasta isn’t something that you normally would pair avocado with, but it 500% should! If you love avocado toast you will love this pasta dish. It’s easy to make, only requiring avocado, basil, and garlic. And your choice of pasta. What a fun twist to a traditional dish!
