The Official Professional Bachelor Food Suggestion Thread

[Matt Flynn]

For no effort cooking, pesto is a good standby.

1. Cook 3/4 lb noodles. Then cook 'em a little more. Noodles aren't supposed to be chewy.
2. While doing #1, thaw and warm up 1 large container of Armanino pesto.
3. Add a healthy chunk of cream cheese to the pesto.
4. Toss together. Add parmesian on top.


Bachelor instructions: How to cook noodles: Take a few quarts of water, add one four-finger pinch of salt, add a splash of olive oil. Boil. Add noodles (not egg noodles!), broken in half. Stir every 2-3 minutes. Cook to taste, 8-12 minutes. I don't time it though. Usually I avoid opening my first beer until the water's just starting to boil. When that beer's done, the pasta is ready.

[SL__72]

If you are really in a hurry, just by Digiorno pesto sauce and their angel hair pasta that comes in the sealed bag. It literally takes like 30 seconds for the noodles to cook after you bring the water to a boil and you don't have to heat the pesto at all, just put it on cold and then probably add some more parmesan cheese... delicious and only takes as long as it takes to boil water.

[suzzer99]

Heat a whole wheat pita in a skillet with some olive oil until crispy. Mix 1 can Trader Joes albacore tuna in oil with mayo and capers, and other stuff like relish or celery of you like. Fold the tuna into the pita.

Easy, instant, not too bad for you, and tasty as heck.

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
3. Add a healthy chunk of cream cheese to the pesto.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how popular this is. My mother's pesto recipe calls for cream cheese and it is hands down the best pesto I have ever eaten, by a significant margin. I remember the first time I saw pesto that she hadn't made; I was stunned at how dark the green color was (the cream cheese makes the color a lot lighter).

I've never seen anyone else who makes pesto this way, but I urge all of you to try it.

I think that these cooking threads tend to assume too much cooking skill on the part of the OP (which is okay, since other, more experienced people read the threads -- and it's a good reminder that good cooking isn't all that hard). So while this might not be "basic" enough, I just want to point out that fresh pesto is really easy to make if you have a food processor. A few cups of fresh basil leaves, some olive oil, a block of cream cheese, a handful or two of grated parmesan (not the powdered stuff), and a bunch of garlic is what I use. Takes almost no time at all.

-McGee

[XXXNoahXXX]

Awesome dinner, takes under 15 minutes, great if cooking for a girl also.

Alaskan Salmon, Mashed Potato, Asparagus

Ingredients:

Frozen Wild Alaskan Salmon from Trader Joe's
Frozen bag of Asparagus from Trader Joe's
Box of instant mash (Betty Crocker Creamy Butter)
Potlatch Seasoning(I believe this is from TJ's as well, called "Potlatch Seasoning:Salmon & Seafood Spice Rub. It's just a combo of Kosher Salt, Paprika, Crushed Red Pepper, Chili Pepper, Oregano, Basil, Coriander, and Safflower Oil)

Steps for Mash

1) Follow box directions, takes <10 minutes.

Steps for Asparagus

1) You can do anything with them. Personally, I put an inch of water in a pan over high heat and toss em in.

2) When done I just season them with a little salt/pepper and a little parmesan cheese.

Steps for fish

Make sure to defrost fish for a day

1) Put oven around 350 degrees

2) Rub seasoning generously on each piece of fish

3) Bake for 12-15 minutes.


This is really an impressive dinner to serve for someone considering it takes only 15 minutes and you pretty much can't mess it up. Also great for yourself since you can just do one pack of instant mash, half the back of asparagus , and one of the pieces of fish.