Quick Eats: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

It was a cold, rainy Chicago day.  We wanted an easy meal for this low key afternoon.  We decided the perfect meal would be grilled cheese & tomato soup!

To make it quick eats, we bought Trader Joe's Organic Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup.  This soup is really good for when you don't want to make tomato soup from scratch.  While we were there, we picked up some multigrain bread & pepper jack cheese.

No real recipe here.  We buttered each sides of the bread, and heated them on a pan.  Added the cheese and cooked them till the cheese was nice and melted.  We heated up the soup, cut up some pickles & popped in a movie.  A perfect afternoon with quick eats!

Quick Eats: Ratatouille

 A simply, easy & healthy meal.  You can also add in a meat if you wanted.  In tonight's version, we added in sausage.   We ate our ratatouille on top of couscous, but is also delicious with angel hair pasta, orzo, rice. 

Recipe:

- 2  Japanese eggplants
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 2  zucchini
- 1 398-ml can diced tomatoes
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper
- Cilantro, chopped
- Fresh basil, for garnish
- Grated Asiago cheese, for garnish
 

In a deep, non-stick skillet, sauté eggplant over moderately high heat for 2 minutes until lightly golden. Cook in batches, if necessary. Transfer to a plate.  In same skillet, sauté onion for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add garlic and zucchini and continue cooking until onion is translucent.Add tomatoes with juice, chickpeas, roasted red pepper, cooked eggplant and ground coriander. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Top with basil and cheese to serve.

Verdict:

A quick healthy option for dinner.  We love it. 

Chicken Katsu

I would say this is a quick eats, but it can be a bit consuming with each step and depending on the size of the meat, it can take a bit longer.  But overall, it's pretty easy. 

Recipe:
- chicken or pork cutlets (thin as possible)
- flour
- egg
- panko

Cover the chicken in flour, then in egg & then in the panko.  Fry in a pan.

Verdict:
We had it with a side of rice & miso soup.  We both love it.  Who doesn't love fried chicken?!

Quick Eats: Thai Basil Chicken

Thai Basil Chicken is a favorite in our house.  It's an easy dish to make, cheap and fast.  Plus it's great as left overs.

 Recipe:
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil 
- 4-7  Thai chili pepper, minced 
- 1 tbsp sugar 
- 1-2 packages thai basil or regular basil 
- 1 lb ground chicken  (or pork)
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced 
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce 

Mince garlic and chili pepper together. Clean and pick basil leaves from their stem.

Fry the garlic and chili pepper in oil over high heat. When garlic starts to turn brown, drop the ground chicken/pork in. Stir constantly. Once cooked, add sugar and fish sauce. Next add Thai basil and mix into meat till cooked down.  Serve hot with rice.





Verdict:
 As always a favorite.  We made it with ground pork tonight since the grocery store was out of ground chicken.  It was super delicious and ate it with some edamame.