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What delicious things can you cook for dinner? This question often becomes a headache for us. But you need not only to decide what to feed your loved ones, but also to quickly fulfill your plans. So we have to remember proven recipes and improvise with the products that are in the refrigerator. Today we will fill up your culinary piggy bank and tell you how to prepare a simple, quick, hearty dinner without bothering yourself too much.
Chicken in rainbow color
Chicken breasts with vegetables are ideal for cooking dinner for every day. This dish is optimally balanced in proteins, fats and carbohydrates. In addition, it is easily absorbed and gives the body all the necessary nutrients for bedtime. You can add a side dish in the form of boiled rice here. And for those who follow the figure, it is better to replace it with brown or wild rice.
Ingredients:
- chicken breast — 4 pcs.
- bulgarian pepper of different colors — 3 pcs.
- onion — 2 large heads
- sour cream-120 g
- dijon mustard — 3 tsp.
- soy sauce — 3 tbsp.
- garlic-2-3 cloves
- red paprika, turmeric-0.5 tsp.
- salt, black pepper — to taste
We wash and dry the chicken breasts, make small incisions, insert pieces of garlic. Rub the meat with salt and spices. Mix sour cream, mustard, soy sauce in a bowl, then lubricate the breasts on all sides and leave to marinate.
At this time, we remove the boxes with seeds and partitions from the peppers, cut the juicy pulp into large slices. We peel the bulbs from the husk, chop them into half rings. We put the breasts in a form with foil, cover them with vegetables, close the edges of the foil, bake everything in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 180 °C. 5 minutes before the end, we open the foil and cook the meat with vegetables under the grill.
Salad in the Asian manner
Salad with meat and fresh crispy vegetables in teriyaki sauce is a suitable recipe for a quick and easy dinner that will enliven the monotonous everyday menu with bright Asian flavors. Just keep in mind, this is a rather spicy dish, so adjust the sharpness at your discretion. If desired, you can add any other vegetables here.
Ingredients:
- beef — 400 g
- fresh cucumber — 3 pcs.
- onion — 1 pc.
- carrot — 1 pc.
- red cabbage-150 g
- teriyaki sauce — 2 tbsp.
- wine vinegar — 1 tsp.
- sugar-0.5 tsp.
- salt, black pepper — to taste
- vegetable oil — 3 tbsp. l.
- sesame — 1 tsp.
We cut the cucumbers into thin long strips, chop the cabbage, and chop the carrots on a grater for Korean carrots. We combine all the vegetables, sprinkle with sugar, season with vinegar. We squeeze the garlic here through the press, mix everything well and leave it to marinate.
We cut the beef into thin long strips, and the onion into half rings. Fry them together in a frying pan with a thick bottom until golden brown. Pour in the teriyaki sauce and stand on the fire for another minute. We combine the meat with pickled vegetables in a salad bowl. Before serving, sprinkle each portion of the salad with sesame seeds.
Sea gifts in the abyss of noodles
What can I eat for dinner if I wanted to take a break from meat? Noodles with seafood will be a great alternative. You can take the usual spaghetti, but with soba noodles it will turn out much more useful. This popular Japanese noodles are rich in slow carbohydrates, which are well saturated and properly digested. Shrimp and mussels are a light full-fledged protein in its pure form. And thanks to the assorted vegetables, you will get a generous portion of vitamins.
Ingredients:
- soba noodles-400 g
- shrimp — 250 g
- mussels — 10-12 pcs.
- onion — 2 pcs.
- large carrot — 1 pc.
- green peas-150 g
- green onions-3-4 feathers
- garlic-2-3 cloves
- ginger root — 1 cm
- soy sauce — 2 tbsp. l.
- salt, sugar – to taste
- sesame oil-2-3 tbsp. l.
First of all, we put the soba to cook. Noodles are prepared quite quickly, no longer than 5-7 minutes. During this time, we will just have time to prepare everything else. Heat a frying pan with oil, fry grated ginger root, crushed garlic and onion cubes for 30-40 seconds. Then pour out the carrots with straws and passeruem until softened. Next, we lay the peeled shrimp, mussels and green peas. Fry them over moderate heat, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes. At the end, add the noodles, season with soy sauce with salt and sugar, stand on the fire for another minute. Juicy spicy notes will give the dish green onions.
Beef in bean placers
If you have a jar of canned beans in stock, the question of how to cook a simple dinner will not arise. Add a little red meat and fresh vegetables — you will get a hearty, protein-rich dish for those who are very hungry. If you want a light diet version, take chicken fillet or turkey.
Ingredients:
- beef — 500 g
- canned white beans-400 g
- fresh large tomatoes — 2 pcs.
- tomato paste — 2 tbsp. l.
- onion — 1 pc.
- vegetable oil — 3 tbsp. l.
- garlic-3-4 cloves
- green onion — 2 stalks
- salt, black pepper, paprika — to taste
Heat a frying pan with oil and fry the onion and garlic until transparent. We chop the beef into pieces, spread it to the passer, fry it on all sides for 5-7 minutes. Then add the peeled tomatoes and tomato paste. Bring everything to a boil, reduce the flame to a minimum and simmer under the lid on low heat for half an hour.
At the end, pour out the beans, put salt and spices to taste, mix well. We continue to cook in the same mode for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle the dish with green onions, insist under the lid for 5 minutes — and you can serve it to the table.
Dinner with Italians
How about a summer recipe for an Italian-style dinner? Pasta with vegetables and pesto sauce is exactly what you need. It is noteworthy that the Italians are happy to eat it constantly and do not get better at all. The whole secret is that the pasta is made from durum wheat, so it is more useful than the usual pasta for us. And with an exquisite pesto sauce, it acquires a unique Italian flavor.
Ingredients:
- fettuccine — 600 g
- lemon – ¼ pcs.
- salt, pepper, oregano, basil — to taste
Pesto sauce:
- fresh green basil — 100 g
- parmesan-100 g
- pine nuts-120 g
- olive oil-100 ml
- garlic — 2 cloves
First you need to prepare the sauce so that it has time to brew. We press the garlic with the flat side of the knife. We tear off the basil leaves from the twigs. We put everything in the bowl of a blender, pour out the pine nuts, carefully whisk until a homogeneous consistency. Grate the parmesan on a fine grater, add it to the sauce with olive oil, beat it again.
We cook fettuccine in salted water until al dente and completely drain the water from the pan. Sprinkle the pasta with lemon juice, add pesto sauce, salt and fragrant spices, mix everything well. Serve this pasta immediately, garnished with halves of cherry tomatoes.
White fish, red pearls
Baked white fish with vegetables is created for a light, hearty dinner — doctors and nutritionists say this. There is a lot of easily digestible protein in it, there are few fats, and there are no carbohydrates at all. The active substances contained in such fish accelerate the metabolism and have a calming effect on the nervous system. What else do you need at the end of a busy day?
Ingredients:
- white fish fillet-800 g
- garlic — 2 cloves
- red and yellow cherry tomatoes — 8-10 pcs.
- olive oil — 3 tbsp.
- dried thyme — 4 sprigs
- lemon — 1 pc.
- salt, white pepper — to taste
We defrost the fish fillet, wash it, dry it with paper towels and cut it into portions. Rub them with salt and white pepper, squeeze out the garlic on top, pour olive oil over them. Place the fillet in a greased baking dish, put the thyme sprigs on top. We pierce the cherry tomatoes with a fork, cut the lemon into 4 parts, cover the fish with them.
Loosely cover the mold with foil, put it in a preheated 180 °C oven for about 20-25 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for another 10 minutes. To garnish with white fish, you can serve baked potatoes or a salad of fresh vegetables.
The benefits are piecemeal
Finally, we will prepare a very delicious original dinner-a salad with quinoa and avocado. In terms of protein reserves, quinoa is ahead of all known cereals. At the same time, it is absorbed by the body easily and in full. In terms of the composition of amino acids, this cereal is close to milk, and in terms of phosphorus reserves it can compete with fish. The taste of quinoa is similar to unprocessed rice, plus it goes well with meat and vegetables.
Ingredients:
- chicken breast-600 g
- quinoa — 400 g
- avocado — 2 pcs.
- orange — 1 pc.
- parsley — 4-5 sprigs
- olive oil — 2-3 tbsp. l.
- lemon juice — 2 tsp.
- salt, black pepper, curry, paprika — to taste
We put the quinoa to cook in salted water until it softens. At this time, we cut the chicken fillet into small pieces, sprinkle with salt and spices, fry until golden brown in oil. The peeled avocado pulp is cut into cubes. Remove the peel and white films from the orange, cut into large slices.
Mix the boiled quinoa, chicken pieces, orange and avocado in a salad bowl. Add chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste, season with lemon juice, mix well. Such an appetizing salad is better served warm.
We hope that now it will be easier for you to decide what to cook for dinner. Find even more recipes with photos on this topic on our website. Here we have collected a lot of interesting ideas from our readers on how to feed the whole family tasty, satisfying and quickly. And what do you usually cook for dinner? Do you have any favorite recipes that you resort to most often? Share culinary tricks and proven dishes in the comments.