One pan or pot, zero stress

April 9, 2020 by
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When we first started sheltering in place, I suspected that many of us had grand plans of the cooking and baking we would do now that we didn’t have the distractions of a commute or other events pulling us away from the kitchen. Various food writers (myself included) said that quarantine was the perfect opportunity to tackle that cooking project you have been putting off for lack of time. At first, I tried to live this advice and managed to make two kinds of bread, a couple of cakes, and an elaborate dinner before I hit a wall. I couldn’t throw myself into another project, and just wanted to eat something that didn’t require a lot of effort.

There is no shame in being too tired or stressed by current events to plan extravagant bakes or fussy dinners. Sometimes, easy is best, whether it is throwing together a simple stew or sheet pan dinner/traybake (or even chucking a frozen pizza into the oven). The crew at The Guardian (UK) understand this, and have assembled a collection of traybake meals that let you create a delicious meal without all of the fuss. In addition to the recipes, their Kitchen Aide offers helpful tips on substitutions you can make if your pantry has been depleted.

You can use the “Stews & one-pot meals” filter in the EYB Library (located under Recipe types > Dish types) to find additional ideas. Traybakes are included in this filter. Add the “Quick/easy” filter to find dishes with high flavor and low effort. Member favorites include these great recipes:

Category: Antipasto

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5 Comments

  • MarciK  on  April 10, 2020

    Since I’ve been home, I’ve still been working. I do save driving time, but that is just an extra hour in my day. Besides that, I’m trying my best to use up the random stuff in my home, which includes a bunch of expired things that needed to be tossed and 3 different containers of sweet and sour red cabbage. I do think I can scrape together some things to make some sort of chicken stew or casserole. That may be a project for this weekend.

  • eliza  on  April 10, 2020

    I recently made the vegetable lasagna from smitten kitchen. It’s a good one to make to use up random veggies either fresh or frozen. This time I added a leek, carrot, and frozen kale, peas, and edamame beans to my veg mix and made more than the recipe called for. I omitted the ricotta (didn’t have it) and used a cheese sauce I made. Worked out well.

  • averythingcooks  on  April 11, 2020

    As a high school teacher in the last semester of her 30 year career, the current situation has totally thrown me into a world I never pictured. I am immersed in a world of online learning that I have never been in before & it is stressful…..I also teach students who have no internet access at home. At the same time, my partner owns a small business which has been decreed essential but his world has also completely changed as he has to meet each customer at the door, ask what they want and go get it – not everyone understands this & some are…..not pleasant about it. As I am at home all day, I don’t take on huge cooking projects but I do work very hard to have something good (using what we have) ready when he gets home. We do have a well stocked pantry, fridge & freezer and EYB has been my savior – but after a recent very stressful day (conflicting messages from my admin, the board & the ministry ), he came home and said ……”this kitchen is magic” – I actually cried.

  • eliza  on  April 11, 2020

    So sorry to hear that averythingcooks. I have friends who are also teachers and they’ve also had very little guidance and support. I hope you can find a bit of solace preparing some satisfying meals.

  • averythingcooks  on  April 12, 2020

    Thank you Eliza! Lots of people have worse / harder stories than ours but it just seemed to well up a bit the other night. T and I are sharing this time and it makes me so happy to present something good every night (even if a bit cobbled together) and his appreciation really warms my heart (and I never really say things like that:)

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