Learn how keeping 10 Core Ingredients on hand can help you find success at dinnertime. Lose your kitchen clutter, and find success by organizing dinner.
If you like to cook, but don't have time to go to the store for special ingredients for each night's dinner, put these 10 "Core Ingredients" on your weekly grocery list, and discover how they can help you find success at dinnertime.
If you have kids, a job, or an otherwise busy lifestyle, you are like a majority of households who battle the fresh home-cooked dinner routine. If you can learn a few shortcuts, what feels like convenience cooking becomes healthy, fresh and delicious home-cooked meals every night.
Just like in other areas of your life, physical clutter equals emotional clutter. Kitchen clutter formulates in many ways, including an excess of random ingredients, and a plethora of unattainable dinner recipes. Just like a great travel wardrobe consists of a few basic pieces from which to make multiple outfits, this list of Core Ingredients can help you simplify and thus organize your dinner routine.
The Core Ingredients List:
- Canned diced tomatoes
- Black beans
- Chicken
- Pasta
- Flour
- Butter
- Parmesan cheese
- Chicken bullion or broth
- Onion
- Fresh, canned or frozen mixed vegetables
I bet you got some dinner ideas just by looking at this list. Soup, fettucine, southwest-style pasta.... there are so many dinner recipes that can be made with the Core Ingredients. And if it seems incredibly easy to maintain, that's because it is. You can buy canned diced tomatoes, black beans, frozen chicken breasts, flour, onions and pasta in bulk, and that leaves you with just Parmesan cheese, butter, milk and vegetables on your weekly grocery list.
Here are some great dinner recipes you can make using just the Core Ingredients:
Italian Style Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 T butter
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 8 oz. spaghetti noodles
- 4 T Parmesan cheese
Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile sauté onions in oil for 2 minutes until lightly browned. Add chicken and cook over medium high heat in frying pan until cooked through, about 5 minutes each side. Add diced tomatoes to the pan. Cook until fully heated and some liquid evaporates. Serve over pasta, and top each serving with 1 T Parmesan cheese.
Black Bean Soup
Ingredients
- 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed.
- 1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes with juices
- 1 T butter
Saute onion in butter until cooked through. Add to stock pot with chicken broth, black beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes until thickened. Stir frequently.
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts
- 2 T, and 1/3 cup butter
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 1/3 cup flour
- 14 oz. chicken broth
- 2 cups mixed vegetables, thawed
- 2 cups flour
To make crust, cut the 1/3 cup butter into flour until crumbly dough forms. Add ice water 1 T at a time until dough reaches desired consistency.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook chicken in butter on stove until cooked through. Set one pie crust in bottom of pie dish. In large saucepan melt 2 T butter over medium heat. Add onion. Cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended (have liquids on hand during this step). Gradually stir in broth and milk stirring until bubbly and thickened. Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat and add mixture to pie pan. Top with second crust and seal edge. Cut slits in top of pie crust. Bake for 50 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes prior to serving.
