The other night I was slightly hungry and going out to meet a friend at a bar and needed to leave fairly quickly. I could have made my favorite fast snack-toast-but I'm trying to eat other things besides bread. That got me thinking about things that I always like to have on hand so I don't have an excuse to make toast. Namely: pyrex (microwave steaming), frozen rice that cooks in minutes, meal starters (like noodles+sauce that you can add veggies to), soy vay, sweet chili sauce, canned tomatoes, and canned black beans. And a sharp knife.
The Indian and Asian meal starters are handy because you don't have to have all the spices or sauces that so often are used in those cuisines and only those cuisines (fish sauce, curry powder, rice vinegar, garam masala, etc). I actually happen to have almost all those things on hand, but sometimes I'm hungry and don't want to find all the spices and sauces, or I'm just feeling lazy. Or I want to make dinner with someone else and just bring over a nice little packet rather than several bottles and baggies. I did this the other night actually. I grabbed one of the Asian ones that comes with noodles and a sauce. We added garlic, broccoli, snow peas, and zucchini and made a totally easy, yummy meal.The glass bowl and lid (with the broccoli on it) is my favorite pyrex. It's the perfect size to microwave veggies in! I add the veggies with a few tablespoons of water and microwave in 30-second intervals until they're bright green and still a little crunchy. It really beats steaming stuff in a steamer on the stove. Plus you can even drain the water out and then eat the veggies right out of the pyrex--only one dish to wash! Which is important if you don't have a dishwasher. Someday...someday...
Trader Joe's Frozen Rice is one of the most exciting finds I've come across. I hate making rice. I don't have a rice cooker and don't want one because my kitchen isn't really big enough. I don't like washing the rice and always get it stuck to the bottom of whatever pot I cook it in. And then I have to soak it forever to get the rice out. I don't know what my issue is. However, this frozen rice (brown or jasmine, are your options I think) is awesome and cooks in about 3-4 minutes in the microwave. So easy and it never burns!
Canned tomatoes (diced or not, I really don't care much) and canned beans. I usually have black beans because they go nicely with rice and onions and garlic which we always have on hand. You can make burritos or rice bowls without much effort. Canned tomatoes are always handy. You can use them for salsa, burritos, tomato sauce for pasta, eggs in hell, etc. Nice to keep these around.
Sweet Chili Sauce. My favorite sauce. I'm addicted. I'll even eat it on crackers... You can put it on rice and veggies (or just veggies which is what I ended up having the night that all of these shortcuts came to mind), you can dip spring rolls into it, it would probably be great on crackers with cream cheese. Really, put it on everything. I bet it would be a great dipping sauce for seafood or pork too.
Soy Vay. I grew up with this stuff and thought everyone did too. Apparently this is not the case. Poor kids, they've missed out! This, like chili sauce, is awesome on rice and veggies. It's a fab marinade for any meat, and I always put it in burgers.
Sharp knives are amazing. This one, sadly for me, is my roommates. It's glorious and actually cuts things without any effort! I can't wait to cut meat with it.
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