One Pot Meals in a Super Small Space

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by Piggy Bank

Has anyone done any seafood one pots with canned? Again the boat galley blog mentioned salmon patties and crab cakes and also making soups with evaporated milk and crab and adding in boxed stock and a few veggies and potatoes. Idea being to have things that can travel with little refrigeration.

Just wondered if any of you have made any of these?

Sounds like they would be good....why don't you try some of their recipes and let us know how they turn out?

You could post your successes here, giving them due credit, of course.

The best one dish, on-the-road meals, for me, use something(s) fresh, along with some canned items like beans, tomato, corn, etc.

Saves that precious frig space.


Maggie

[73shark]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

If red meat and dairy fats are being considered unhealthy, hasn't the relationship between such fats and high blood cholesterol been debunked recently?

Yep. What I read said that food based cholesterol had no effect on serum cholesterol. I'm a believer in moderation.

[janetb]

Originally Posted by Marks71

This one took the internet by storm a while back, it's from Martha Stewart. One Pan Pasta. The only "sauce" is what develops from the little tomatoes and other ingredients. It sounds too simple to be true, but it works. Then after getting the basics down once or twice you can start customizing

http://www.marthastewart.com/978784/one-pan-pasta

Tried this tonight and it's a winner! Soo easy. A little oniony for me though, so next time I'll tamp it down with a brief sauté in a little olive oil before adding the rest.
And a dash of sugar to enhance the tomatoes, along with a splash of red wine while simmering added a little flavor depth. We topped it with some sliced grilled chicken breast, but it still would have been scrumptious without. So many customizing options, including kalmatas, capers, a handful of spinach…
Thank you for this! Great practical thread.

[Len n Jeanne]

Hey, where are you folks camping next? I'm drooling already. Thanks for the good recipes.

For lower fat, vegan or vegetarian one dish meals, I suggest:

Channa Dal (serves 2 with rice or naan bread)

There are many different recipes for this, but a simple one for camping would be:

1 Tblsp vegetable oil

1 Tbls or to taste good curry powder*

1 medium finely diced onion

2 medium chopped fresh tomatoes

optional: 1-2 Tblsp paste made by grinding equal parts of fresh ginger, garlic, and hot fresh peppers

1 can of chick peas, drained. If you can find Indian chana dal, which is slightly different, use that.

optional: chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil. Add the curry powder and onions and gently fry until onions soften. Add the optional ginger-garlic paste and gently fry for a moment.
Stir in the tomatoes and chick peas. Simmer for 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat, and sprinkle with cilantro.

*If you're really into Indian cooking, you can pre-package a more elaborate spice mixture for this dish. Try 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, turmeric, chilli (cayenne) powder, cumin powder, and coriander powder.)

Clean Out the Fridge Curry

This works on the same principle as the above, but you can change the type of legume, if you wish, and add in various cut-up cooked or raw vegetables that you happen to have on hand: red bell pepper, summer squash, green beans, eggplant, cauliflower, potatoes, okra, carrots, or peas. For the curry powder, try the prepared blend called garam masala. Add a little vegetable broth if need be. (I buy it in small tetrapacks.)

Although basmati rice would be traditional, we often settle for Minute Rice as it requires no cooking.

Carnivores could add chunks of chicken, lamb, or beef to either dish.

A good side dish would be a raita made with plain yogurt, diced cucumber, and either minced fresh or crumbled dried mint. A dab of chutney on the side (Major Grey's if you don't make your own) would also be welcome.

[Len n Jeanne]

Originally Posted by Piggy Bank

Has anyone done any seafood one pots with canned? Again the boat galley blog mentioned salmon patties and crab cakes and also making soups with evaporated milk and crab and adding in boxed stock and a few veggies and potatoes. Idea being to have things that can travel with little refrigeration.

Just wondered if any of you have made any of these?

Salmon chowder (sorry-- I don't much cook with exact measurements.)

1 medium onion, cut up and sautéed in a little oil or butter OR about 2 Tblsp dried minced onion added with the other vegetables. OR 1 leek, trimmed of roots and dark green tops, cut up and added with other ingredients. (If you use fresh onion, sautéing it till soft really makes a big improvement in the flavour. You could do this step at home, and then refrigerate or even freeze the sautéed onion to take along.)

1 quart or so of packaged vegetable or seafood broth. There are also some interesting broth concentrates in little plastic cups available now, that reconstitute, and that are more flavourful than the old bouillion cubes.

Cut up a fresh carrot, celery stalk, and peeled potato. These veggies keep well. You could substitute a canned vegetable mixture but it wouldn't taste as good.

Heat up the broth and simmer the vegetables until tender. Add:

1 can of corn (plain or cream-style)

1 can of salmon, flaked

1 can evaporated milk

optional: any other compatible canned , frozen, or leftover fish or seafood. Something like shrimp, clams, or crab would be good. If raw, simmer with the vegetables. If cooked, add near the end to avoid over-cooking.

optional: pepper, or 1 dash of hot sauce to taste (the broth is usually salty enough.)

Heat gently for 5-10 minutes to let the flavours mingle. Serve with oyster crackers or crusty bread, and a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, if you like.

[gghayes]

These are some great ideas. I just got a pressure cooker that has more functions besides pressure cooking. It is a slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, yogurt maker.
Gloria

[Lily&Me]

1 quart or so of packaged vegetable or seafood broth. There are also some interesting broth concentrates in little plastic cups available now, that reconstitute, and that are more flavourful than the old bouillion cubes.

There are concentrate packets available, too, that are quick and easy to use....also take up little space and create less waste.


Maggie

[InterBlog]

Bear with me as I preface with some context before I offer three one-pot suggestions below.

My meal prep approaches in our stick house vs. our Interstate could not be more different. My husband and I don’t enjoy doing anything half way, and that includes food management. Six years ago we selected a patch of dirt and commissioned a one-of-a-kind house that, among other things, is geared toward gardening. After the house was delivered, we spent several years further customizing it inside and out. We developed small-space urban / suburban hyper-productive gardening techniques that, at one point, became the top-ranked Google content for that topic (while remaining non-commercial). In conjunction with the gardening, we installed a 22-cubic-foot upright freezer, a special cooktop (Fagor, a Spanish company whose imported appliances are not widely sold in the south but we managed to get it shipped to us from New Jersey), and a 150-piece Pyrex set (I’m not counting lids as separate pieces). I’m accustomed to growing and harvesting large quantities of organic fruits and vegetables and then cooking dishes in massive batches for freezing, thus creating meal stockpiles that supply us for months at a time post-harvest. My main two pieces of stick-house cookware are a 7-quart flat-bottomed wok and a 14-quart stock pot that I got from a restaurant supply store. I often use them side by side (which the Fagor makes possible).

It is for those reasons that I am partial to taking frozen meals with us in the Interstate, to the point where I am hell-bent on developing a secure hitch container for our Yeti cooler so that we can eventually take larger quantities of home-made frozen food on dry ice for longer trips – many weeks’ worth. It is substantially more efficient to cook massively in a large space designed for exactly that function, and then port it on the road.

-- BUT --

All that being said, in the meantime, IF I had to create one-pot meals from scratch in the Interstate, my strategy would be to default to an approach that leverages high-quality pre-made base sauces, for the sake of simplicity in such a small space. Here are three of my favorites, all of which are highly tolerant to both diversity of available ingredients and ingredient ratios:

COOKWELL AND COMPANY GREEN CHILE STEW – Cookwell's most basic prep suggestion is to simply fry cubed chicken pieces until browned, and then add the stew mix and simmer, then eat with bread, rice, or whatever additions you prefer. Myself, I usually brown the chicken in olive oil with chopped fresh green onions, add the stew mix, and then add chunks of cauliflower and potatoes, continuing to simmer until the latter two are cooked through and soft. That way it’s more balanced as a full meal and you don’t necessarily need to prepare a separate starch component. Pretty much any vegetable you have on hand can be thrown in there (my husband freaks out if I add peas... he hates peas). Cookwell presents a boat-load of additional recipes for this sauce on their website. That’s the beauty of a good base sauce – you could make a dozen different meals with the one product and they don’t all taste the same, so you don’t feel like you are eating the same dish over and over again even though you’ve drastically simplified your meal prep.

COOKWELL AND COMPANY TEXAS TWO-STEP CHILI MIX – This is a traditional chili mix and so the taste is very different from their green version. Once again, the entry-level suggestion is to simply brown some crumbled ground beef and add the chili mix, voila – a meal (preferably served with a slice of bread or tortilla chips or rice or whatever). Myself, I bolster it more than that – I start with a diced onion, garlic, Anaheim and green pepper base saute’d in olive oil, then add ground beef and brown it, then add the chili mix and simmer it, then add Bush’s canned chili beans (several varieties including the original medium hot, kidney and black chili bean) and extra chipotle chili powder. But again, if you are on the road and only have access to some ingredients, it doesn’t matter – the final product will still be tasty.

WHOLE FOODS ORGANIC PASTA SAUCE TOMATO BASIL – I have tried every organic pasta sauce on the market and this is my favorite. Again, as a good base sauce, you could eat it straight up on pasta if you had to. But typically I start in the usual way with onions, peppers, garlic, olive oil, crumbled fried ground beef, and extra fresh basil plus oregano if I can get it. And I also typically add chipotle red pepper (not chili pepper) but that’s to personal taste.

I have other dishes, but this is lengthy, so I’ll start with those three for now.

[Lineolated]

Originally Posted by Silverbee

Here is a good one. You do need to broil the wings after they are done to make them crispy, although they can be eaten without this step.
http://damndelicious.net/2014/10/01/...icken-wings/?m

Also on the same website
http://damndelicious.net/2016/01/23/...aco-spaghetti/

In fact she has a category called One Pot
http://damndelicious.net/category/one-pot/

Wow, there are a lot of wonderful recipes on that site! Thanks for sharing.

[Lily&Me]

I like the looks of that Green Chile Stew sauce.....would be very versatile, and a few jars stowed take up no frig space.

I'm going to have to look for that and give it a try.


Maggie

[triciaad]

I bought one of the Instant Pots. We have done a stews and roasts mostly. It's pretty amazing!

[JCWDCW]

Got Stuff in the Fridge. Google your list + recipe ...amazing what recipes are out there. I've never had trouble making a recipe into a one pan meal....Just get creative.
JCW

[CalifBob]

GSI makes a small and compact alloy pressure cooker. It will cook a soup in 10 min or a stew in 15. I use it for jambalaya and it's done in 15 min. You can cook a game hen or chicken parts right on your stove and it fits anywhere for storage.

http://www.amazon.com/GSI-Outdoors-H.../dp/B005N09K8A

[Paddledipper]

This recipe made it's way around the internet via social media a while back. We made it twice and loved it both times. Great leftover too!

Fiesta Chicken Crockpot Recipe

4 chicken breasts (frozen or raw)
1 packet Fiesta Ranch dip (by the salad dressing)
1 can black beans (drained & rinsed)
1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes
1 can corn (not drained)
1 cup mild salsa
1 block cream cheese

Cook everything except the cream cheese on high in crockpot for 4-6 hours on low. Add cream cheese the last 30 minutes. If too much liquid remains remove the top and allow some to evaporate. Shred chicken with forks, stir mixture and serve over rice or with tortillas.

[369goose]

One pot or many pots...I'm a pretty happy camper either way. Nothing beats sharing a great meal other than sharing w someone you love while Airstreaming 😍

Thanks for this post.

[Silverbee]

Originally Posted by Lineolated

Wow, there are a lot of wonderful recipes on that site! Thanks for sharing.

Yes, she is a great cook and is into using fresh ingredients. She is coming out with a cookbook soon. I was blown away with all the variety of recipes that she has on this website.

[Len n Jeanne]

Interblog, as you are into homegrown foods and food prep, do you ever dehydrate your garden produce? We have a small inexpensive electric dehydrator, and dry tomatoes, tomato paste (which turns into a kind of leather,) zucchini, grilled eggplant, blanched green beans, red bell or hot peppers, mushrooms, herbs, and various types of fruit. These are extremely lightweight, store well in lightweight plastic containers, keep for years, and can easily be tossed into dishes where you want them while traveling. Something like dried tomatoes and mushroom slices easily reconstitute in a little hot water, and can be tossed into hot drained pasta with a bit of EVOO, and a topping of grated parmesan or other hard Italian cheese. Dried fruit can be added to breakfast cereal.

[Rhino33]

These are fantastic ideas. We were also big fans of the Zataran's rice mixes, but are trying to watch the sodium, so we're making up some of our own with minute rice and Mrs. Dash, among other spices. We have used both canned chicken and canned shrimp with this when we don't want to use chicken sausage.

We love Salsa chicken in the crock pot - just several chicken breasts and a jar of salsa - Easy and we use the leftovers for chicken tacos or chicken salsa dip (similar to buffalo chicken dip).

We would like to do more with a cast iron dutch oven, so we're watching for those recipes.

Thanks, everyone!

[k9jackie]

It's really hard to be low carb on the road but I like some of the ideas here. Thanks for sharing👍🏻😊

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Len n Jeanne

Interblog, as you are into homegrown foods and food prep, do you ever dehydrate your garden produce? ....

We've never tried dehydration. Mountain House does freeze drying (similar) and is the best of all suppliers that I've found. I've eaten no small amount of their products my time, and I prefer frozen to anything that's had the water removed by any method. I do blanch and freeze raw vegetables for later recipe use. I only grow grape tomatoes because I freeze them whole, sort of like peas.

I think if I were going to branch out from a freezer-based post-harvest regime, I'd try canning, but it's a lot of work when one can simply make up the meals and freeze (its all about efficiency). I've got a teenager who eats when she darned well feels like it (on an irregular schedule due to extracurricular activities in high school) and a husband who works odd shifts as a flight controller for the International Space Station. Both of them can yank Pyrex out of the freezer at any hour of the day and have their whole meal needs instantly met in a healthy way.

I was impressed by your channa recipe. Anyone who knows about ginger-garlic paste likely has a story to tell about where and how they learned that level of process. I cook in the style of what had been Andhra Pradesh (Telangana) although my personal preference is more Tamil style. Unfortunately I was never exposed to the latter methodology but Houston has no shortage of restaurants. I would hesitate to cook Indian food in the Interstate, though, due to the potential for spice permeation in the small space.