Best Home-cooked Meals for the Lazy Cook

Two or three years ago Mom declared that she was tired of preparing all the family meals and wanted us to take turns preparing Saturday dinners. And that started off several months of competitive cooking between my parents, me, Dex and my siblings. Once a month we would have 4- to 5-course, meticulously-prepared themed dinners that we would enjoy in the garden. Many of what are now standard family specialty dishes were discovered in those months:  Kuya's baked Cornish hens, Dex's lamb masala, Anton's Vietnamese pho; and my chicken rissotto.

When those gourmet dinners were over and we were back to the staples of sinigang and nilagang baka (or McDonalds and Shakey's pizza) every now and then we would put together quick meals mostly involving ready-to-cook dishes from the grocery. Home-cooked, not-quite-gourmet, but way cheaper than eating out, easy to assemble and great paired with whatever red or white wine you've got chilling in the ref. Below are some of our favorite gourmet-pang-tamad recipes. Sorry, couldn't provide exact measurements here even if I wanted to, but every one of them is a certified hit with the kids (even my son Diego, who's an extremely picky eater):


1. Chicken Cordon Bleu and Pasta

What you'll need:
a box of Magnolia chicken cordon bleu
cooked spaghetti (al dente, please!)
a big white onion, sliced into rings
a few cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
grated parmesan or aged cheddar (optional)

Heat olive oil in a pan and add the onion rings. Give it a few minutes so it starts to caramelize, then put in the garlic. Before the garlic starts to brown, add in the spaghetti and coat with the oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Even just the pasta itself becomes very flavorful. Sprinkle with cheese.

Fry the chicken cordon bleu and serve together with the pasta.

(Accidental) Variation:
One day we ran out of olive oil and onions so I fished out a jar of Granoro Pate di Olive (available at many specialty delis). A few spoonfuls of this plus garlic slices mixed in with the cooked pasta is wonderful. Dex calls this "Pasta di Oliva".  I think this might go well with a Dory fillet, too.

2. Broiled Marinated Chicken with Rice Pilaf

When I was around 9 mom enrolled me in this children's cooking class at the Maya Kitchen. One of the recipes I never forgot was the Cheesy Chicken with Rice Pilaf. To this day my dad still asks me when I'm going to prepare it again (I haven't done so in years). But just the rice pilaf together with your basic turbo-broiled chicken is a level up from the usual fried chicken and rice:

What you'll need:
marinated chicken, cut (available at most groceries; we get ours from Shopwise)
chicken broth (1 cube of chicken bouillion, dissolved in water)
green bell pepper, chopped (about 1 cm cubes)
chopped carrots
corn
uncooked rice

Prepare the rice in the usual way using a rice cooker, but use the chicken broth instead of plain water. Before the rice is fully cooked, stir in the vegetables. Cook the chicken in a turbo-broiler. Serve with the rice pilaf.

The original rice pilaf recipe calls for raisins and cashews, so feel free to add those in if you like.
3. Corn Moussaka

What you'll need:
around 1/3kg ground beef for 4 people (ground round is better)
1 can spaghetti sauce (those big canned Del Monte spaghetti sauces are great for this; not Hunt's and certainly none of those sweet-style ones, please!)
flour
1 can of whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup of cottage cheese, drained
mozzarella cheese
1 egg
cinnamon, salt and pepper

Brown the beef in a pan and drain the fat. Add in just enough spaghetti sauce to coat the beef. Dissolve a tbsp of flour in some of the sauce and then mix it into the beef until the sauce thickens somewhat. Season to taste. Turn off the heat and set aside.

In a microwaveable dish (those cylindrical pyrex dishes work best) layer the ff: corn kernels at the bottom, followed by the beef, then the cottage cheese. Beat the egg and add the mozzarella cheese. Pour this mixture on top of the cottage cheese. Place the entire dish into the microwave for a few minutes (until the mozzarella and egg mixture is cooked). And that's it!

We also like buying those pre-washed salad greens from Dizon Farms or Gourmet. Just dump in some fruits and drizzle with those ready-made dressings. I like the strawberry vinaigrette from Dizon farms with grapes and feta cheese (try the Bulacan-made feta cheese from this stall at the Salcedo Market).