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Short Order Cook

Last night I decreed it was eggs for dinner. I was tired. It was Thursday night. If we didn’t live 40 minutes each way from the pizza shop, it would have been pizza night.

My plan was to boil 10 eggs, hand everyone a spoon and some toast and call it dinner. The kids promptly announced they didn’t like boiled eggs this week, and requested omelets with cheese, chives, ham, and tomato. In varying combination’s of course. Country Boy suggested poached eggs, and could I whip up some hollandaise to go with it? Figuring that it was all eggs, I (stupidly) agreed that so long as there were eggs, I would make what they wanted (with the exception of the hollandaise).

By the time I had made three omelets to their specifications and poached an egg, Meg was back for seconds.

Finally I started boiling myself some eggs, when Toby requested another omelet. I whipped another up, and in the process, over boiled my eggs. I finally sat down to eat my over cooked eggs, and Toby (who is a bottomless pit) announced he wanted a boiled egg too. I just gave him my second one.

What was meant to be an easy dinner, suddenly wasn’t. Instead, I spent the better part of 30 minutes running an egg station like I was working at the breakfast buffet in a Fijian resort.

Which brings me to the point of this post. What do you do for an easy dinner? What do you cook when you just don’t want to, but pizza isn’t an option? I’m wanting some super quick, super easy, super yummy ideas.

Go!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sonia LifeLoveandHiccups says

    March 31, 2014 at 9:34 am

    cheese toasties or stir fry for us but I do love a boiled goog xx

    Reply
  2. Bron Maxabella says

    March 31, 2014 at 5:33 am

    Oh Jo, is there ever such a thing as an easy dinner with kids? Spag Bol iMacs the day before is the closest I get! x

    Reply
  3. SDtG says

    March 31, 2014 at 3:08 am

    Porridge or pasta with generous amounts of parmesan, pepper & salt.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    March 30, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    Loaded potatos – ham/bacon, shallots, corn, leftover mince, cheese, sour cream, mushrooms. They all seem to work. I know exactly what you mean, we are an hour (round trip) from takeaway and every now and then I actually contemplate the trip. For 10 seconds 🙂 Emma

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says

    March 29, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    Open toasted sandwiches – toast the bread, in a saucepan add butter, and lots of little cut up capsicum, mushrooms, tomatoes, zuchinni and diced onion. Spread avocado or butter on bread, spread over cooked stuff, top with cheese and melt. Or do the same vegies, add baked beans or any tinned beans into the saucepan, put on top of jacket potatoes and again add cheese and melt. Potato option very filling for a teenage boy.
    Or omelettes with grated zuchinni, choppped mushrooms, ham or chicken, capsicum and cheese. Or stir frys.
    Or I can whip a quiche with either packet shortcrust pastry or homemade really quickly. Just bake blind then add sliced zuc, broc, capsicum, mushrooms, lots of grated cheese and pour over about 6 beaten eggs with a dash of milk. Done in about 25 mins with a salad.
    Or even quicker, egg, bacon and potatoe pie. Peel pots, cook for about 5 mins, cut up into small chunks, put packet puff pastry on bottom of pie dish, add chop pots, about 4 rashers of bacon and about 6 eggs beaten, stick puff pastry on top – bake about 25 mins. Steamed vegies or salad. If don't have bacon, ham works or cold cooked sausages or cold cooked chicken – even tinned salmon or tuna would work too.

    Reply
  6. Katie says

    March 29, 2014 at 10:58 am

    I go to the local noodle shop….but that won't work for you! Also, potatoes with cheese on top or variations on that (potatoes with cheese and white sauce in the wok is pretty good too).

    Reply
  7. Lila Wolff says

    March 28, 2014 at 11:16 am

    French toast or pancakes are our naughty lazy dinners. But I find if I get something in to the slow cooker in the morning I can avoid having to cook when I'm exhausted altogether!

    Reply
    • Jo says

      March 28, 2014 at 12:25 pm

      French toast for dinner. Pure genius!

      Reply
  8. My Yellow Heart says

    March 28, 2014 at 10:46 am

    stir fries for us xx

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says

    March 28, 2014 at 5:52 am

    I only live 5 minutes from a pizza shop, but even so, I make sure I always have homemade pasta sauce on hand in the freezer. I make a big batch of bolognese (using a kilo of mince) and also a big white sauce (using a litre of milk) and some cheese. Mix these together and you can either feed a crowd of 12+ or divide up into at least 4 containers to freeze. It takes not much longer to defrost than it takes to cook up the pasta to go with it. My even quicker option (dinner on the table in under 10 minutes) is to cook a large packet of spinach and ricotta ravioli (from fridge section of supermarket – I keep it in the freezer and cook from frozen) and then add generous dollops of butter and sour cream and serve with parmesan. Salad on the side if I'm feeling good!

    Reply
  10. Fashionista says

    March 28, 2014 at 2:40 am

    Egg station at a breakfast buffet, that made me laugh! Although no doubt you didn't think it particularly funny at the time. What is it with boys and their endless capacity for food? A poached egg is my fall back position when I am just cooking for myself (which is pretty rare!) but for the family, toasted sandwiches filled with whatever is lurking in the fridge/pantry; ham, eggs, baked beans, tomato, leftovers (it is a genius way to use leftovers) all with cheese because cheese makes everything better. I try to do a weekly meal plan and the weeks where that doesn't happen ensures chaos rules. Although if I forget to take the planned meal out of the freezer, chaos rules then too…….

    Reply
    • Jo says

      March 28, 2014 at 10:24 am

      Love a toasted sandwich. It transforms a bit of bread into a meal!

      Reply
  11. Beverley says

    March 28, 2014 at 12:19 am

    Last night I did a quick batch of sausage rolls – frozen pastry, sausage mince with seasonings (onion,oregano etc). Very easy! Another fav is chicken curry and rice; I can have that on the table in 20 mins (as long as chicken is thawed). I use my thermomix also for lots of meals and it is sooo quick and easy!

    Reply
    • Jo says

      March 28, 2014 at 10:24 am

      I have my eye on a thermomix… One day

      Reply
  12. Anonymous says

    March 27, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    My quick easy go to meal is stirfry. I have some beef or chicken already cut into strips in the freezer, I have a bag of frozen stirfry veggies in there too. I either use a packet/jar sauce or make my own with garlic, ginger, oyster sauce or honey and soy. Then I whip that in the pan, and then toss thru some hokkien noddles or have boiled brown rice. Yum!!!! Break out the chop sticks and it feels like takeout!

    Reply
    • Jo says

      March 28, 2014 at 10:26 am

      I think I need to get a bit more organised with having stuff in the freezer ready to go. I kind of dropped the ball over the summer holidays and never picked them back up.

      Reply
    • Anonymous says

      March 29, 2014 at 5:48 am

      That has happened to me more then once. I am trying my hardest to stay on top of it all…and yes organisation is the key.

      Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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