Whenever you cook meat, make about double what you need. Meat is really versatile for future meals.
Example: You grilled some chicken breasts last night. For tonight, slice the chicken breast into strips. Cook some angel hair pasta, and toss with a squeeze of lemon juice, fresh grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, minced garlic, fresh basil if you're fancy, dried herbs if you're not, and aforementioned sliced chicken breast.
Really, the trick to cooking good food fast is keeping up your pantry and learning simple cooking techniques. I always have on hand lots of dried and canned beans, a ton of canned tomatoes, olive oil, flour, different kinds of pasta, honey, balsamic vinegar, dried herbs and spiced that were purchased this year (buy from a place that sells bulk and buy a few months supply at a time).
Here's something I made a few weeks back that turned out really well: I seasoned a really cheap cut of steak, I think it was a chuck under blade whatever, with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and oregano. I heated some oil in a pan over medium high heat, and threw that steak in there. While the first side was cooking, I sliced a half pound of mushrooms. Flip the steak after 3 minutes, and cook 3 minutes more the second time around. Set the steak on a plate, and cover with foil.
Stop! Leave those bits in the pan. Add a little more oil, and sautee the mushrooms. When they're slightly brown, add a few pinches of flour to the pan, and whisk the flour vigorously until it's one with the oil. Add the juice that settled out of the steak, and let it thicken up. Voila, cheap steak and mushrooms with a nice sauce.
I can never eat a whole jar of salad dressing before it goes bad. I prefer to just make however much vinaigrette I need. In a steel bowl, I whisk together olive oil and balsamic vinegar at a 2:1 ratio, and add a little dijon mustard and honey until the acidity balance is right. Salt and pepper for good measure. Toss the greens and such in the same bowl, so that there's one less dish to clean.
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Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs. I had some anchovies that I wanted to use since I have never cooked with them before, so they made an appearance in both. Spaghetti sauce was 2 large cans of whole tomatoes, simmered for about an hour with two onions (peeled and cut in half--you'll take them out) and 3/4 tin of anchovies, which was way too much. When the meatballs were done, I took the onions out, and blended the rest until it was smooth.
In the meantime, I mixed together ground sirloin, ground pork, an egg, the other 1/4 tin of anchovies minced up, salt, pepper, and parmesan, and crushed Ritz crackers, because I was out of breadcrumbs. If I had fresh garlic, which I usually do, I would have added a few cloves of that. I did have a small onion, so I minced it up, and in it went. I formed them at about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and put them on a cookie sheet at 375 for about 25 minutes. By the time everything was cooked, all of the dishes were washed.
Extra meatballs? There should be, so that you can make meatball subs.