In praise of really great simple meals

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They're basic. They're tasty. They're damn good.

For dinner: a fresh tomato, sliced up into wedges. A small loaf of crusty bread, heated up just a touch and made for dipping into an olive oil/balsamic vinegar blend. A pink lady apple. Some sparkling water. Mmm. I am extremely content.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:05 (nineteen years ago) link

ned, i am now picturing you wearing an apron and holding a magic wand. i am not happy about this.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Bread toasted in sesame oil.

Firm cheese with good/real balsamic vinegar.

Biscuits & honey, molasses, or cane syrup.

Roasted asparagus.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:08 (nineteen years ago) link

potatoes with mushrooms and onions/shallots/garlic sauteed in butter, perhaps a touch of sea salt.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:08 (nineteen years ago) link

bean burritos.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Pasta, preferably angelhair spagetti, tossed thru with breadcrumbs and garlic fried lightly in good olive oil. It sounds mental to put breadcrumbs in pasta but GOD it is good.

In fact just pasta oil and garlic is good too if all ingredients are quality.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, black bean soup. As few as two ingredients if you want.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:10 (nineteen years ago) link

ned, i am now picturing you wearing an apron and holding a magic wand. i am not happy about this.

Right idea, wrong food role model:

http://shtick.org/FakeNews/kaga.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:13 (nineteen years ago) link

raggett WINS

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link

i forgot how zestily he bites that pepper.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link

STARTUUUU COOOKERRUUUU!

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link

http://scanartcentral.net/pthumbs/iron_chef_host.jpg

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm a fool for a toasted BLT, or an omelet with peppers, onions, cheddar and a dash of tobasco.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 5 April 2004 01:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Ooh or sliced bocconcini drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

I just had lunch and yet this thread is making me hungry.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 02:19 (nineteen years ago) link

instant ramen can be dignified with egg, chopped zucchini, broccoli, and green onions.

― scissors (Honda), Monday, 5 April 2004 02:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Trayce where did you get that drawing?!

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 5 April 2004 02:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Matos - its a screencap or promo of some kind for the "30% Iron Chef" episode of Futurama :) I just did a Google search for the ep and found that!

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 02:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Pasta with feta and (roast, boiled, steamed) pumpkin.
Potatoes cubed and roasted with rosemary, thyme, garlic and olive oil.
Bread and cheese.

I'm hungry too now.

― isadora (isadora), Monday, 5 April 2004 02:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Cheerios with whole milk
12 oz Duvel Belgian Ale
Almond M&Ms

― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 5 April 2004 03:37 (nineteen years ago) link

you call those meals simple? jeez y'all must not be, like, stoners n' shit.

here ya go:
http://www.heatermeals.com/images/HMP.CompleteMeal.jpg

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 03:46 (nineteen years ago) link

tuna n cheese grilled sandwich
some yogurt
grape n strawberry juice
ice cream

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 03:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I had tuna and cheese toastie sarnie for lunch! Its one of my favourite combos!

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 03:51 (nineteen years ago) link

instant ramen can be dignified with egg

This sounds like Arabella Weir on Posh Nosh, telling you to "harrass" the noodles and "bother" the mussels or whatever :D

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 03:52 (nineteen years ago) link

oops what the christ is that?

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:09 (nineteen years ago) link

i had one today for lunch too, trayce! I tried provolone for a change but i think i still like havarti better.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Is it anything like this?

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0744/top.gif

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0744/

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:13 (nineteen years ago) link

(PS do not read if you at all value your appetite or bowels)

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Why Mark it's a self-heating meal, with all the fixings!.
I bought a self-heating meal once, to be used while camping, but never got around to trying it before it went bad. (they spoil in about 6 months)

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:14 (nineteen years ago) link

i like how they don't tell you what the entree is, only that it's tasty and that it's 3/4 pounds.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:15 (nineteen years ago) link

at that weight, how could it be anything other than delicious.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:16 (nineteen years ago) link

What is it with americans being obsessed with the poundage of food?

Um... you know what I mean. Dammit.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Camping for about six months sounds kinda good, though. That would be an X-post.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Why Mark it's a self-heating meal, with all the fixings!.

I read this as "self-hating meal."

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Jim truly is one of us now using the x-post lingo. Hurrah!

I read this as "self-hating meal."

"How DARE I even exist, I, this collection of food bits. Please, don't eat me."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link

"i'm gonna go throw myself up"

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:21 (nineteen years ago) link

"Bowl of noodles the size of a planet and what are you going to do? Eat me. Go on. You know you want to, sicko"

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:37 (nineteen years ago) link

A "lady apple"?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:39 (nineteen years ago) link

a Pink Lady apple, you pervo

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link

"Lady Apple" = perhaps one of the first characters Fred Rogers dreamed up for his Land of Make-Believe? Or maybe what Fiona Apple believes herself to be in the world of her own making?

Anyway, Ned had an apple -- the kind of apple he had was a pink lady one. And the pink lady apples are really, really good, though I'm absolutely wild about the fujis our neighborhood supermarket are stocking these days. Oh man. I could have a half dozen right now.

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:48 (nineteen years ago) link

cup o' blood

― kephm, Monday, 5 April 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link

In fact just pasta oil and garlic is good too if all ingredients are quality.

Yup. Non-nutritious but yummy.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 5 April 2004 04:52 (nineteen years ago) link

2 boiled eggs-slt/ppr/butter
can of red bull

― kephm, Monday, 5 April 2004 04:53 (nineteen years ago) link

It sounds mental to put breadcrumbs in pasta but GOD it is good.

yes! i don't know how i discovered that, but it works so well.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 5 April 2004 05:06 (nineteen years ago) link

it doesnt sound that mental to me.plenty of italian dishes have breaded chicken or veal,and i eat it all up at once.num

― kephm, Monday, 5 April 2004 05:09 (nineteen years ago) link

It is a legitimate Italian dish, spag tossed in fried breadcrumbs. First had it when an ex's Italian mama made it for me, loved it.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 05:41 (nineteen years ago) link

now my belly rumbles

― kephm, Monday, 5 April 2004 05:47 (nineteen years ago) link

rice and kimchee

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Holy crap, look at the nutritional information for that Hungry Man breakfast:

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0744/yucky.gif

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Can anything think of another mass-produced food product with a higher percentage of cholesterol per serving on its label than this?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:07 (nineteen years ago) link

yes. i think someone on ILE posted a pic of pork brains or something that had like 1003%

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:18 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.math.uab.edu/brouwer/pictures/places/brainssmall.jpg

― oops (Oops), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:39 (nineteen years ago) link

*hurl*

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 06:41 (nineteen years ago) link

Spanish ham on toasted garlic cheese bread with dijon mustard,
salad greens with tomatoes, croutons, and Thai sesame-lime dressing,
3/4 bottle Norton Malbec red wine.

All from Trader Joe's except the tomatoes, wine, and the croutons.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 5 April 2004 07:15 (nineteen years ago) link

tonight will be risotto featuring just rice, the stock made from the roast chicken yesterday and some of the tasty flesh saved from the carcass, salt, pepper, butter and some white wine. maybe some rocket on the side

― chris (chris), Monday, 5 April 2004 07:17 (nineteen years ago) link

What the fuck are 'Pork Brains'? I shall praise both beans on toast and also cheese on toast.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Monday, 5 April 2004 07:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Caviar, sour cream, pumpernickel bread, a squeeze of lemon.

(seriously this is what I'm having for lunch today)

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 5 April 2004 07:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, surely pigs' brains are bigger than that. I suspect they are just bits of brains. ("Oooh, you've got an amygdala - swap you!")

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, pass the medulla ::hurls::

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Good grief, I would really love some broccoli right now...

HOLD ON, I work right next door to somewhere which can sell me freshly cooked broccoli!

CASHBAQ!

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:51 (nineteen years ago) link

wow i saw that Iron Chef episode of Futurama just yesterday.

"Cloves, Tom Collins' mix, frozen pie crust...let's go see Mom"

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Sarah, your association of brains and broccoli is making me doubt my undying broccoli love! :-/

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:58 (nineteen years ago) link

"The magic ingredient is ordinary tap water! With a touch of LSD!"

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 5 April 2004 10:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Ah maan! I didn't even read the rest of the thread before posting about broccoli!

And I didn't get any from the happy shop because it looked like it had been sitting there for ages and their other food selections looked rubbish AND they wanted to charge me £4 for the priviliege, f#ck off...

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 5 April 2004 11:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Bake a potato. Scoop out the inside and mash up with Boursin, butter and cream/milk. Stuff back inside skin, cover with cheddar and cook until melted. Eat.

(NB not a low fat option really.)

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 5 April 2004 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link

that sounds AWESOME.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 5 April 2004 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Grilled halloumi and red peppers eaten straight out of the pan, shake of salad dressing over them.

Smoked mackrel pate ( HTF do you spell mackarel?) no still looks wrong...damn.

take skin off 'fishes', put in blender with blob of bio yoghutr or crme fraiche and blob of grainy mustard or horse radish, blend, spread on toast.

Raw tuna slices dipped in soy sauce and wasabi ( aka sashimi) with spinach leaves and sesame seeds

Asparagus stalks dipped in lightly boiled egg.

I want my tea.

― badger Kitten (badger Kitten), Monday, 5 April 2004 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

rice and kimchee

-- phil-two (philtw...), April 5th, 2004. (phil-two)

i decided to do this for lunch today; however, i wanted cucumber kimchee and the lady at the store told me it was not a good season for it, and that they tried it last week and it didn't come out good. isn't spring/summer perfect for vegetables? is there some secret mystery cucumber used in kimchee? i got other stuff, but now all i want is some cucumber kimchee! argh!

― tehresa (tehresa), Saturday, 14 May 2005 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link

i ate two meals in a row because i was hungry and now i feel funny. the day before yesterday i ate half a kilo of yoghurt after my dinner and i felt funny

― charltonlido (gareth), Saturday, 14 May 2005 17:24 (eighteen years ago) link

*after* your dinner?!? no wonder you feel funny! :-) i ate a salad with cherry tomatos, fruit salad and a yoghurt (strachiatelli). i felt a bit full and immediately started worrying about the fact there's sugar in the yoghurt. god, eight more months of worrying if i will ruin my baby with eating wrong things. *sigh*

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Saturday, 14 May 2005 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link

isn't spring/summer perfect for vegetables

i thought that it was more of a fall/winter kimchee, but im probably wrong. summer kimchee is like this long white & green cabbage - its not as spicy and kinda refreshing. well, refreshing if you're korean or used to korean food. not so refreshing if you dontlike spicy. but anyways i could be wrong since im a fairly useless korean. i can't even speak the language, so when i go to korean restaurants/markets i have to pretend to be chinese, or i tell them that i was adopted by white people who denied me of my heritage, etc.

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 14 May 2005 18:04 (eighteen years ago) link

sweetbreads with peans and mint

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 14 May 2005 20:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Homemade mashed potatoes are almost laughably simple to me. I made them up tonight along with some broiled pork chops and sauteed green beans and they went over swimmingly. Total time in kitchen, from prep to eating to washing to clean-up -- a little under two hours, which if you know how hot I need that soapy water to be and how much I scrub those dishes is a really short period of time.

But the simplest meal I adore is this: take two of those biscuits you can warm up one at a time, bake them, and when they're right in the middle of baking, begin to scramble some eggs. Butter the biscuits when they come out and top the biscuits with the eggs. I like to eat them with a fork. I could also live off this meal and a few select others.

― Goodbye Indian Summer (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:26 (eighteen years ago) link

baked beans on hot buttered toast

― rainy (rainy), Sunday, 15 May 2005 08:12 (eighteen years ago) link

steamed pile of spinach and sweetcorn, lots of salt and a little curry powder.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Sunday, 15 May 2005 08:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Chicken Rice...

Rice cooked in chicken broth then topped with slices of chicken garnished with cilantro and maybe a tomato.

― kill switch 7, Sunday, 15 May 2005 10:48 (eighteen years ago) link

lately I've been doing this meal-in-a-bowl served w/bread & wine

5 cups baby spinach
handful cilantro leaves chopped
4 scallions sliced into rings
1 avocado sliced
boneless chicken breast grilled or broiled (leftover roast c works 2)

combine & dress w/juice of 1 lime and 2 tbsp olive oil, salt to taste

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 15 May 2005 12:06 (eighteen years ago) link

anything that contains avocada is hard: i can never know when it's ripe. :-(((

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Sunday, 15 May 2005 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link

i mean *tell*

― nathalie's baby (stevie nixed), Sunday, 15 May 2005 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Somehow anything you eat while camping tastes ridiculously good. Yesterday lunch: peanut butter & jelly sandwich and apple. So good! Dinner: pita bread pizzas (sauce, cheese, veggies, pepperoni). Also spectacularly good. Breakfast: bagel with peanut butter. Heavenly.

I've tried eating pb & j indoors and it is just never as satisfying.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 15 May 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

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