Here I’ll give you quick descriptions of how to make these three go-to easy meals that we use on a regular basis. And honestly, a quick description is probably all you’ll need. These meals are so easy and natural to us that we often do not measure or use a recipe. We hope perhaps you can enjoy these go-to easy meals as well, or make a spin off of your own, and enjoy some recipe freedom!
Tacos
We love a Taco Tuesday, and have been known to do Taco Tursdays, or really tacos anyday, too! This seems to be a perfect, easy meal to make with whatever you can pull from the fridge plus some specific ingredients if you can swing by the store or add them to your shopping list.
How to make Tacos
Ingredients
- Meat: usually we use ground beef, seasoned with spices like cumin, salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, or even Tajin, but leftover meat can work well too
- Tortillas: fried in butter, please
- Toppings: salsa (fresh or fermented), sauerkraut, sour cream, cheese, avocado, cabbage, lime juice, tomato, onions, hot sauce, cilantro
Brown and season meat. Assemble or prep toppings of choice. Briefly fry tortillas to heat and crisp them. Make your tacos, and enjoy!
Sausage and Potatoes
This is the meal we go to the most if we don’t know what to make and it’s, say 4:00, or maybe even 6:00, already. If you have potatoes in the pantry, sausage in the fridge/freezer, and condiments on hand, you’re ready.
How to make Sausage and Potatoes
Ingredients
- Sausage: Bratwursts are our favorites, but you can use virtually any type of sausage you have. You may want to choose toppings to suit whichever sausage you use.
- Potatoes: it’s pretty simple.
- Toppings: sauerkraut, dijon mustard, sour cream.
Place potatoes (whole or chunked)into a pot with a big pinch of salt. Cover the potatoes with water and bring to a boil for approximately 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Brown sausages in a frying pan until desired deliciousness. Drain potatoes and serve with butter, salt, and pepper. Serve sausage and potatoes with toppings of choice.
Pot Roast
You do have to start this meal ahead of time, but it is very straightforward and you can choose a cooking method (slow cooker, oven, stove top, pressure cooker) to suit however much time you have before you have to get dinner on the table.
How to make Pot Roast
Ingredients
- Roast: beef or pork, many different cuts work.
- Vegetables: potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, parsnips, whatever you got that seems good for this 😊
- Seasonings: Herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, probably look up a recipe a few times to get a feel for combinations and amounts.
- Broth: pot roast needs some cooking liquid, either a little to provide moisture, or a lot to make a soupy one (great for GAPS).
Basic method
Pat the roast dry. Season the roast with whatever seasonings you want to use, or at minimum salt and pepper. Preheat some fat (bacon grease, butter, olive oil, tallow, lard) in a dutch oven or skillet for the roast. Sear the roast on all sides for approximately 2 minutes to create a delicious brown crust, then remove from pan. Deglaze pan with broth, wine, or other cooking liquid. Add roast, vegetables (prepped to whatever size you like), and any remaining cooking liquid and seasonings to the pot (or slow cooker/pressure cooker). Cover and cook until vegetables are cooked and roast is tender and shreddable.
If you want to get fancy with anything you can try two additional steps, but they are not necessary to make this a go-to easy meal. First, you can add your vegetables in after your roast has been cooking for a while to maintain more of their structure because they need less time than the meat to be fully cooked. Second, you can make any drippings and cooking liquid into a gravy for added amazingness. The quick way is to add a thickener – we use arrowroot powder, but you can also look up and use a brown gravy recipe.
Variations
Like we said you can cook this meal many different ways, each take a different amount of time. Allow the approximate timing for these various methods, and again, probably look up a couple recipes at first to get an idea:
- Slow cooker: 8 hours on low
- Oven: 3 hours at 350º F
- Stovetop: simmer for 2 hours
- Pressure Cooker: 60 minutes high pressure
If you want a specific recipe for pot roast, one of our favorites is from Jill Winger’s The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, but we also often look up recipes online to try new seasoning combinations and cooking methods.
What are your favorite go-to easy meals? Or, which one of these will you try first?