Making "Fast Food"

[bagwell1987]

I love to cook, and cook good yet simple stuff. It doesn't have to be exotic or full of ingredients I have to go looking for to be satisfying. 

I like to cook a bunch of stuff at one time. I make 'fast food', like the tv dinners of old. The stuff in the freezer section called tv dinners nowadays is just plastic, rubbery ick. 

 

Yesterday I made 12 pepperoni/sausage/black olive/onion individual pizzas, using garlic Naan bread as my crust. Left on the counter for 30 minutes is sufficiently thawed to cook. They're placed in a frying pan, yep, no oven to heat up here, on very low. In 10 minutes you have a super crispy crusted melty pizza. Each one costs about 75 cents. And each one is the perfect individual size. Or split it and have a side salad.

 

I also do soft taco packets, roast beef/rice/veggie packets, chicken with rice and peas and carrots packets, black bean/cheddar cheese skirt burgers and french fry packets and giant black bean/rice and cheese burritos (these take longer to thaw) to name a few. Each can be thawed in 30 minutes and cooked in a frying pan in less than 20 minutes.

Works so well for meeting night when MH has to make his own dinner, ya like I'm happy with letting him loose in the kitchen to make something on his own.  

 

Oh I even did something new to me. I got 20 pounds of in-the-shell oysters a while ago, BBQ'd them then breaded them in egg and cracker meal and froze them on a tray. I thawed a few for 20 minutes and fried them in a bit of lard. Oh my goodness, they were the BOMB! So now I have 6 baggies of oysters for 2 to combine with shrimp and fish for a seafood meal night. Oh my...I might have to go get some out for tonight...

 

Do any of you cook like this? Make fast ready-to-cook meals? 

[Friends just call me Ross]

Yummy for the tummy!!!

[Qapla]

I'm not sure if I would call what I make "fast food", you know, like having some servings ready to "heat-and-eat" as much as "left overs".

 

Though I do make meals that can take all day to cook - like sow cooking/smoking BBQ or even letting something simmer/cook "all day" to get tenderness and/or flavor.

 

That said, having watched many, many episodes of "30 Minute Meals" - I could refer to quite a bit of my cooking as "fast food". I can make all sorts of meals in 30 minutes - start to finish.

6 hours ago, bagwell1987 said:

Left on the counter for 30 minutes is sufficiently thawed to cook. They're placed in a frying pan, yep, no oven to heat up here, on very low. In 10 minutes you have a super crispy crusted melty pizza.

 

That comes to 40 minutes to "re-heat" and however long it took to make in the first place. I can make a "fast rise/single rise" dough in about 5 minutes, make an uncooked sauce and dress the pizza in under ten minutes, it only takes 15-20 minutes to cook. So, my fast food - never frozen - pizza is ready in 35 minutes.

 

However, I do agree with your fast food idea. That is an excellent idea you have there and they look like they would be quite tasty once heated up.

[bagwell1987]

Sounds like you're quite the chef there John. Good for you. When's the next BBQ? I can bring the beer, Hoppy Red Ale