How to Eat Well When You're Bored of Cooking

Simple ingredients, simple technique and only one pan.

Yes, Virginia, even people who think and write about food all day and night, sometimes can’t be bothered.

(If you could be bothered to click the “heart” above to help the algorithm love me more, I would appreciate it muchly.)

On the rare nights I’m alone I feel no shame in throwing, I dunno, a bunch of cheddar, green apple slices and a some walnuts on a plate and settling down to binge watch “Blue Lights,” my new favorite police show c/o Britbox. The meal is tasty and makes me feel like I’m getting some food groups into my diet.

But I’ve got a senior in high school, who is constantly working out and could/would/desires to eat a Fred Flintstone amount of meat at each meal, now (yay!) a daughter back from college, and Kindly Husband(tm), and am quite often in charge of dinner.

But there are nights when I stand facing the stove, as Irma Rombauer recommended as a good starting point for a meal in her first edition of The Joy of Cooking, and blahhhh is the only thought that comes to mind.

More often than not, I turn to probably my most simple-minded dish next to apples and cheese: quinoa with greens and garlic. And Parmesan. And or roast chicken. Or fried eggs. Maybe some slivered almonds.

Simple ingredient, simple technique.

Could you make more of a fuss over this dish? Sure, you could sauté the greens and garlic in a separate pan. But that would dirty another pan, and this dish is about getting maximum taste and nutrition with the minimum amount of work.

The dish originated from a woman named Pat who lived down the block (With a shout-out to Susie who first made it for me.). Pat was a mathematician by day and home garden proselytizer at night. She proudly proclaimed how she fed her family (and a family of groundhogs) well-fed on fruits and vegetables grown in her petite suburban backyard. She made it her life’s work to educate the community on the benefits of growing vegetables and fruits in home gardens years before Instagram and Tiktok were even eating solid foods. Pat gathered up the neighborhood’s grass clippings to mulch her garden, bicycled everywhere and taught me how to “sex” zucchinis in an unexpectedly racy email from an otherwise very buttoned-up woman.

(Her husband collected vintage Datsuns, but that’s a story for another day.)

Pat recently passed on to the great organic garden in the sky, but I’m grateful to her every time I make this dish. Which is a lot, because, unlike Pat, I’m basically lazy.

The recipe is as simple as cooking the quinoa, and about 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, layering on some minced garlic and chopped greens, replacing the lid and after the quinoa is done cooking, fluffing it all together with a glug or two of extra virgin olive oil and a generous portion of grated Parmesan or pecorino.

Why Quinoa and Greens?

The goal of the dish is to pack a lot of tasty nutrition into one place.

Quinoa: A one-cup serving is blessed with 8 grams of protein, plus fiber, omega-3s, amino acids and iron.

Learn more: Eating Well offers an alluring run-down of quinoa’s other possible magical properties, from lowering blood sugar to preventing cancer.

Greens: I’ve used kale, spinach, swiss chard, even arugula over the years of making this dish. As we’ve been told since childhood, they are packed with fiber, minerals and fiber. Getting nutrients from whole foods is better than supplements, because we know that often it’s the combination of eating foods together that provides the best aborption, aka bioavailability.

Learn more: Here’s an article from the MD Anderson Cancer Center on the whole foods v supplements.

Chopped Garlic: So, the weird little thing I learned about garlic in my days writing about nutrition and fitness, was chopping garlic and letting it sit for a while helps develop it’s cancer-fighting properties that would be otherwise diminished by cooking. (I also just learned that slicing button mushrooms and laying them in a sunny window for a few hours before cooking them helps increase the amount of Vitamin D. I’m fact-checking this further and will let you know.)

Learn more: Here’s a review of the Penn State study on letting chopped garlic rest before using.

Okay! Enough talk. Let’s eat.

Ways to Spiff Up the Quinoa and Greens:

• For a complete dinner or great breakfast, I’ll often top a big bowl of quinoa with fried eggs.

• The key is to make twice as much as you think you need. Plan for leftovers. As someone who works from home, it’s great cold from the ‘fridge.

• Top with slivered, roasted almonds or crumbled walnuts

• Sprinkle some red pepper flakes when you swirl in the olive oil.

• Add a splash or two of low-sodium soy sauce when you add the garlic and greens.

• Let cool and add things like chopped roasted or fresh peppers, diced red onion, chopped parsley, chopped leftover veg or meat, and of course, cheese.

Next week: How to make salmon without thinking. Because having leftover salmon and this quinoa in your fridge will make you feel so together you’ll shine with light from within, I swear.

Quinoa And Greens

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Quinoa and Greens

Makes 2 cups. Feeds 2 generously. I recommend doubling it so you’re ensured some meals at the ready all week.

What You’ll Need:

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups water

pinch salt

3 cups greens of your choices, roughly chopped

1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Parmesan cheese, to taste

What You’ll Do:

1. Follow the cooking instructions on your container of quinoa, which is basically: Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add the quinoa and a pinch of salt, and stir. Reduce heat to simmer and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes.

2. After 10 minutes, to the quinoa, add the garlic first, then the greens on top. Do not stir. Replace the lid and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. All the water should be absorbed by now and the quinoa should be tender.

3. With a fork, mix and fluff the quinoa, greens and garlic together. Swirl in the olive oil, cheese and anything else you like. Salt and freshly ground pepper is a good idea. Put the lid back on and let the combo rest for 5 minutes or until you’ve finally assembled everyone at the table.

Questions for you: What is your go-to easy meal when you don’t want to cook? And why did Samuel Alito think it was okay to fly an upside-down flag, a symbol of the January 6th insurrectionists from a flagpole at his house, while, you know, the Supreme Court was hearing one of Trump’s ‘rigged election’ cases. (Apparently, the Mrs. is to blame. She hung it, you see, in response to some neighbor’s lawn signs she found offensive. And Justice Alito never saw it hanging in his own yard. )

Bits and pieces from the Crisper Drawer:

• As many of you know, I am also an adjunct journalism prof at Montclair State. I just finished grading all the final exams and handed in grades for the spring semester. My plan is to take some time over the next few weeks to really, truly bring some organization to the chaos that is my house. Tips? Advice? Encouragements? Will there be a group of you that lay bets whether this happens or not?

• Also, sorry I haven’t gotten my act together and edited my Boy George video yet. See above about end of the semester!

And Now the Part Where I Beg Like a Dog:

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Marissa hopes you will pay for a subscription. I just want cheez. And chiken. And spelling lessons. But cheez and chiken first.