When I was a teenager I had lots of Italian friends/girlfriends. Each one of them claimed that their mother’s sauce was the best in the world. I have yet to taste one that I liked as much as my favorite sauce out of a jar. So rock on sister!
i’ll never get shitting on people for attempting a beginners version of something that could lead to a lifelong passion.
before I perfected my homemade red sauce that gets spooned over a hand-breaded chicken parm so dynamite it’ll impress your grandma, I started with dry spaghetti and jarred sauce
You made it! You put it together! You boiled the noodles! You got plates, forks, and all the Fixin’s, that is making dinner today. Good job! Never ever take shame in a quick dinner as long as people are eating it together.
We had a real treat today. My daughter got her tax refund, so she ordered Chinese takeout for dinner. Just so you understand why we don't do it more often, feeding eight people cost us $187. We live on less than $65,000 a year. This is a rare occurrence. We enjoyed the hell out of it.
We enjoyed the heck out of ourselves. We all got to eat as much as we wanted. There are even leftovers in the fridge for when I need a midnight snack after I eat my edible later. We relish these treats. We know we may not be able to afford them next year.
You could add a frozen garlic bread. Or what I did when in a bind - toast w butter and a little garlic powder (kids liked it). Keep can of pitted ripe olives around to fancy up that salad!
Hey, now. I had to brown the ground beef before adding in the sauce c from the jar, as well as boil the water for the noodles. For me, the rate bachelor of 3 score years, that's significant cooking 😉
Add Alfredo in the jar to the spaghetti sauce in the jar. It’s like fancy pink sauce. My kid requests it weekly and he never likes anything besides Mac and cheese and nuggets.
On vacation in Ireland two years ago, I bought pre-made garlic bread at a shop to heat up in our AirBnB rather than going out. My son is still raving about it. Apparently the Irish do garlic bread really well!
Throw some good provolone or asiago or a mixture on it a couple of minutes before it's done, then some good garden tomatoes and vinaigrette after it comes out and make an awesome sammy out of it!
Hot angel hair pasta ( cooks in a few minutes), throw in olive oil, lemon juice, baby toms, artichoke hearts and black olives, season and you have a hot delicious vegetarian meal in honestly ten minutes. That people will think you are a chef for 🤣
This is a favorite of mine too! Another quick dinner is a bag of stir fry from the produce department (by the bagged salads) and some pre-cooked chicken. Cooks fast and is tasty!
About 15 minutes ago, I bought the pizza from the fridge section, not frozen, then go for the bagged salad to complete the "from fresh ingredients" pairing.
Sometimes I make my own sauce, sometimes I use jarred. Sometimes I make my own sauce made from my homegrown tomatoes and garlic. Now that is satisfying.
I love to cook. I have cookbooks by great chefs. When I started I would do everything from scratch. I have now started taking shortcuts when save so much time and energy.
I would have to hunt around to find it. Her secret was adding Bisquick to the mixture so it browns up nice and crispy. She also used lump crab, not shredded.
People do what they have to do. It’s better to buy groceries and add them to a plate than to have to drag out the whole family, and still cheaper than takeout.
yes you can spend six hours stirring the sauce, but when i need to impress the hell out of people with almost no time, rao’s + stick of butter + splash of pasta water + really good dried oregano and basil + sausage cooked and drained of 80% fat but not 100% works every single damn time
I’m making pork chops for a second night in a row. A dinner I can put together in less than 15 mins. Yes cheating with frozen veggies in a steam bag. Tonight I’m actually adding sea salt and olive oil to the frozen and doing in the toaster oven.
We have a local hole in the wall Italian place that serves hamburger bun garlic bread. It's a 90 year old joint billed as "authentic Italian" but based on the sauce-to-pasta ratio it's more authentic American Italian so the buns work.
A bag of red beans & rice, slice up a Hillshire sausage, 20 minutes in the microwave.
Even better: 5 minutes of your time: 1/4 stick butter, ranch seasoning bag, au jus bag, some pepperoncini, a chuck roast into the crock pot. Set cook time as you need.
My grandkids would never buy it. They think my spaghetti is the best they ever tasted. Their mom uses my recipe and they always tell her mine is better...lol
“jarred sauce = bad cook” people are pretentious for no reason.
a homemade marinara is deceptively simple — but you cannot get there without proudly cooking pasta on pasta night every week for years while striving to make it a bit better every time. you have to LOVE italian american food to succeed
I just really prefer making my sauce to any type of jarred. But I’m grown enough to know that’s a personal preference not a judgement of how other people cook
Tonight I combined chicken toquitos, a can of enchilada sauce, and cheese. I used 2 small glass pans & added extra green chilis to one for a little more spice. Everyone likes those enchaladas as much as the ones I roll myself.
Ooooh. My go to is steak frites. It sounds so fancy! But it’s just seared steak with frozen french fries and tap water poured into a dollar store carafe.
I’m not a good cook & Dad volunteered me to make mac n cheese (box) for a potluck. 😩 Looked up ways to make it look like I spent all day in the kitchen…success, meaning NO LEFTOVERS. 😆
Luckily, you can't even buy that crap here in Spain. I have to make "Italian" meatballs (American meatballs that have been labelled "Italian") from ground pork. It's funny what you learn. Ground pork + sage = breakfast sausage. Ground pork + fennel (pepper, oregano) = Italian. I once made ketchup.
I think chopping at least an onion is my mental equivalent of betty crocker's "need to crack and egg" or ikea's "needs at least three parts you assemble".
I’m all about jar sauce, frozen meatballs, pre-made pasta, and salad in a bag. I may not have cooked it, but I thought about it, bought it, and assembled it! 😉
Yes, I was inferring that *we* do spaghetti and bagged salad night on Thursdays. Incredibly boring, but we can at least check off the required box for ‘Kids Fed?’ every Thursday.
Gotcha! Thursday is delivery night here. See, Thursday is scientifically proven* to be the worst day of the week so takeout is the reward for getting through it.
Reading this thread confirmed for me that Americans eat total crap. For a change, start with real tomatoes, throw an anchovy and some crushed garlic in a saute pan with some olive oil to start. I know it's a luxury of time, but fuck all the fuckers who want to rob you of every last minute.
Not all jarred sauces are junk, thankfully. Generally will doctor any sauce up but I love one that can be used in a pinch with zero doctoring. Americans are tired lol
Comments
I could use prepared past and bagged salad once Ina while
[where's my back-patting device?]
😆😅
before I perfected my homemade red sauce that gets spooned over a hand-breaded chicken parm so dynamite it’ll impress your grandma, I started with dry spaghetti and jarred sauce
I do have to uncover the lasagna five minutes out for the cheese to brown. So there is some work involved, ya know.
"That is not cooking, that is applying heat".
Used to dismiss the effort of baking potatoes.
🥗🍝🥗🍝🥗
Sometimes you make dinner possible. 🖤
Just make sure the ingredients have
(1) Italian Tomatoes
(2) Olive Oil
(3) No added sugar.
Works for me!
On vacation in Ireland two years ago, I bought pre-made garlic bread at a shop to heat up in our AirBnB rather than going out. My son is still raving about it. Apparently the Irish do garlic bread really well!
Way to go. Simple and nutritious. I do it all the time
Perfectly fine family or solo dinner for work night, though.
Sometimes you just have to do what you need to maintain your sanity...
Frozen ravioli instead of the spaghetti, bottled sauce, add (frozen) garlic bread.....salad, bottle of wine. 🙄😇
So I just mix it and serve?
Makes complete sense 🙂
Even better: 5 minutes of your time: 1/4 stick butter, ranch seasoning bag, au jus bag, some pepperoncini, a chuck roast into the crock pot. Set cook time as you need.
So-called “girl dinners” are great, too.
I make my own souffles, pork pies, cured sausages, smoked bacon, home made pasta and micro flavor pearls and foams.
But I can not for the life of me heat up a frozen pizza in the oven without burning it.
Mix some butter and garlic powder and spread it on bread, toast in the oven. 👍
I gotta boil the noodles tyvm 😤
a homemade marinara is deceptively simple — but you cannot get there without proudly cooking pasta on pasta night every week for years while striving to make it a bit better every time. you have to LOVE italian american food to succeed
We're trying.
Put it on a plate or in a bowl?
You made dinner. 🍲
* I am the science and I say so.
* the context switch from weekend to weekday takes 3/4 of the family 1.5 days to make with sustained Grump scale ratings in the 99th percentile.
Extra credit if the sauce has a bit of garlic.
Cook ahead in large batches and freeze!