Monkey’s easy work night dinners !

[DaddysMonkey]

🤠 yeeeeeehaw , I work a lot. Heh. This leaves me with limited time to cook and clean up if I want any type of me time after dinner for my own sanity. Over the years I’ve come up with some pretty cost effective and time efficient dinners ! 
 

I decided to make a thread where I can share my easiest and cheaper meals , as I know that there are plenty of other people out there who also work long hours and may want to start cooking at home more even with limited time. While also being health conscious !

 

Tonight was Monkey’s work night broccoli Alfredo !

Chop onion , garlic , and prep your broccoli. This is the vegan butter I enjoy cooking with. 
 

 

Get your onion and garlic cooking down while you boil your water , make sure to season ! I used salt and pepper to start.

When your water starts to boil , toss in your noodles and add the prepped broccoli to your mixture.

When your pasta is about halfway done , add some cheese , garlic powder and onion powder.

 

Add your easy jarred Alfredo !

Mix your pasta into your sauce very well ! 
 

Plate , add cheese till your heart says stop , and enjoy ! 

[Sloth Fairy]

Violife has pretty good stuff,  I haven't seen their butter so now I'll have to be on the lookout for it. 

[DaddysMonkey]

51 minutes ago, Sloth Fairy said:

Violife has pretty good stuff,  I haven't seen their butter so now I'll have to be on the lookout for it. 

I used to shop at Whole Foods but stopped supporting them once Amazon bought them out , I currently shop at Fred Meyer (Kroger) and farmers markets. Fred meyer actually has a surprising amount of vegan options , even more than Whole Foods did ! 
 

If you can find it , the brand Miyokos has AMAZING vegan butter too ! They also make a lot of ~ fancy ~ cheeses 👌🏻
 

https://miyokos.com/

Edited October 4, 2022 by DaddysMonkey

[Sloth Fairy]

Oh thank you for the link. I've been trying to find good cheeses.

[DaddysMonkey]

I got sucked into doing some things last night , and forgot to post another easy monkey meal ! 
 

Last night was easy peasy breakfast for dinner ! 
 

 

 

Firstly , chop your onion however you like and we’ll as dicing or shredding your potatoes. 
 

Let the potatoes soak for a little bit to pull starches out , this really helps them get crispy rather than kind of mushy textured. 
 

Get your onion going and toss in your potatoes , add whatever seasons you like ! Breakfast should be kept simple in my opinion , so I just used salt , pepper , garlic and onion powder. 
 

This is the vegan egg and sausage we like using. While I have the potatoes about half way cooked , I usually start on the eggs and sausage. 
 

Just add some butter in a pan and throw the sausage in there. The eggs you’ll want to watch a little bit more closely. They’re vegan , so the texture can get weird if you don’t mix it enough while it cooking. 
 

This is the kind of texture you want to keep consistently until they really fluff up and turn egg like. 
 

 

The hash browns will need a little mixing periodically , but how crispy you want them is up to you ! This is about the fluffiness we like our vegan eggs , just add some cheese you like and salt and pepper. 
 

 

And it’s done ! Eat up. 

[Andriel_Isilien]

55 minutes ago, DaddysMonkey said:

Let the potatoes soak for a little bit to pull starches out , this really helps them get crispy rather than kind of mushy textured.

I had no idea 😮 Thanks for that tip! Some cooking things I feel like a pro at and then there's basic stuff right here I am clueless about 😅 That's why I love all this sharing.

 

I never tried the vegan egg substitute "Just Egg". It looks so good how you cooked it up!

[DaddysMonkey]

Dad taught me the trick to soaking potatoes forever ago when we first moved in together😇 old fart has some knowledge ! 
 

Just Egg is the only vegan egg I’ll ever use again 😭 After having that , everything else tastes like toilet water in comparison ! 

[DaddysMonkey]

Easy vegan sushi bake ! 
 

This dinner is easy , makes large portions (good for family or poly dynamics or people who pre make dinners or lunches) , and is super yummy 🤤 

 

Ingredients you’ll need :

• Extra firm tofu
• Sesame seeds 
• Rice vinegar 
• Sesame oil
• Vegan mayo
• Sriracha 
• Furikake 
• Sushi rice (or whatever white rice you have available) 
• Nori sheets 
• *Optional - Vegan sesame dressing 

While you are making the vegan crab , it’s best to get your oven heated (380 Fahrenheit) and start your rice cooking. I made about five cups of rice and this fed myself , @Expired, and Dad with enough for them both to have left overs for lunch the next day.

 

Step one - Grate your firm tofu ! This is the base of your vegan crab. 
 

Step two - Add salt and pepper , vegan mayo , furikake , sriracha , a touch of sesame oil , and mix very gently. 
 

Step three - Mix your cooked rice with some rice vinegar , sesame oil and sesame seeds. Press it into your baking pans (I used these throw away ones tonight to save time and amount of dishes). Sprinkle your furikake on top ! Gently press your vegan crab onto the rice. 
 

Step four - I added sriracha on top and baked for ten minutes. While it was in the oven for ten minutes I threw together a vegan creamy spicy sauce which was just some sriracha and vegan creamy sesame dressing , pepper , and salt. After it was done baking for ten minutes , I added the creamy sauce on top and broiled it on high for about eight minutes. 
 

Step five - If you live in Monkeys house , the men get plated first. Everyone says a prayer sending good things into the universe and thanking it for things it blesses us with , and we dig in ! 
 

This is how you eat it 😎 I plated us into bowl and we had nori sheets for each of us , you hold your nori and plop your sushi mixture on it then shove it into your face. So easy , so yummy ! 

[Expired]

freaking delicious by the way @DaddysMonkey did a great job 

[Andriel_Isilien]

Woah, I never knew about grating tofu like that! Thanks @DaddysMonkey!! I'm always looking for creative ways to cook with tofu.

[DaddysMonkey]

50 minutes ago, Andriel_Isilien said:

Woah, I never knew about grating tofu like that! Thanks @DaddysMonkey!! I'm always looking for creative ways to cook with tofu.

I 10/10 suggest trying it this way ! It makes good bakes like this , onigiri , vegan poke bowls with vegan tuna (I’ll have to post that eventually too!)

[DaddysMonkey]

Last nights dinner ended up chaotic 😅 

I got finished cooking everything only to find out that the fresh bakery buns I bought had mold on them … such a bummer. Dad came to the rescue and immediately got rice going. 
 

20 minutes later we had dinner ready. It was still easy chaos aside , so you can make this like normal Bahn Mi or as a bowl like we ended up doing. 
 

Prep your onion , garlic , tofu and cilantro. 
 

We also shredded our own carrot and mixed it with pickled daikon that Dad helped prep. 
 

Start cooking down your onion , garlic and tofu working towards crispy. 
 

 

While I’m cooking the tofu mix up I usually get started on a side dish , like these Korean pancakes. These were stuffed with green onion and japchae. 
 

 

You can use whatever sauce you’d like , but these are the two sauces I mixed for glazing the tofu. 
 

 

The orange colored sauce , is vegan mayo , sambal , and honey mixed together. 
 

This fed all three of us with enough for the mens lunches the next day. 

[DaddysMonkey]

When in doubt , make Asian snacks and have a junk food night ! 😂
 

Dumplings , bao , spicy rice cakes , black bean rice cakes , japchae and scallion pancakes , salad and Dad had his separate ramen. 
 

[DaddysMonkey]

Family pizza night ! 
 

One of the easiest dinner ever. 

Cut up whatever you want on your pizza a couple nights ahead of time or the night of if you have the extra time. 

I’ve been having a rough week which I preemptively knew would happen , so I just got pizza dough pre made. 
 

Assemble , bake , eat. 
 

[Guest LilBitz]

Yuuuum! That pizza looks delicious! 🖤 🍕 

[DaddysMonkey]

50 minutes ago, LilBitz said:

Yuuuum! That pizza looks delicious! 🖤 🍕 

It was uber yum 🥰

[DaddysMonkey]

@Expired got his bread 🥰 We had a mishap last time we were supposed to do Bahn Mi , so he was pretty happy he got his bread this time. 
 

Same instructions as the bowls , just with bread instead… how it’s meant to be 😅
 

Edited October 31, 2022 by DaddysMonkey

[DaddysMonkey]

Last nights dinner ! 
Porkless sweet and sour bowls !

Rice is per usual , wash till the water run clear and cook it. 
@Expired cooked the rice this time 🥰

 

While the rice is cooking you can prep your veggies , I kept it simple and cut some bell peppers up and already had garlic prepped from earlier in the week. 

I used vegan porkless bites , browning everything up really well together. 

 

Once everything is browning up pretty well , add your sweet and sour sauce.
 

This meal is meant to be easy and the sauce just come in a packet with the porkless bites ! Once it’s sauced up and glazed , add some toasted sesame seeds , chopped green onions and plate up ! 

[DaddysMonkey]

One of Dad’s favorite things to eat is …. BURGERS ! With summer over and me having a hard week with my health I wanted to just do the fast and easy version of burgers for him which means FROZEN ! 
 

We have a giant skillet that I use for stuff like this , less dishes for cooking ! 
 

I get the oven pre heated first for the French fries and toss those in while I do the rest of the cooking. 
 

I had some onions prepped into slices as well as some really big mushrooms because that’s Dads favorite on burgers. First you get a good size tab of butter in the pan and get your onions going. When your onions have a decent amount of color on them you’ll want to toss your patties in. 

Once your patties are browned on one side you’ll flip them and add your mushroom to cook down. Make sure you add some salt and pepper on your onions and mushrooms ! At this point I normally throw the burger buns in the toaster. 
 

Flip your burgers again as well as your mushrooms and onions , then add your cheese of choice to melt down ! 
 

Once your cheese is melted you’ll be ready to plate ! 

I put grilled onion , lettuce , tomato , mayo and bbq sauce on my burger. 

 

Simple , effective , easy clean up and French fries are always an easy dinner win 😎

[DaddysMonkey]

Another easy meal , quesadillas ! 
 

Chop whatever ingredients you like in your meat (or fake meat) , I used garlic , white onion and Serrano peppers. Cook your veggies down and add your protein ! 
 

Once your meat is cooked you’ll stuff your tortillas with your meat mix and cheese if your choice , I forgot to grab enough shredded cheese so I had to use sliced cheese that I ripped up. Then just fold in half and press ! 
 

Then you’ll just cook each side until, they’re golden brown and crispy ! Cut them up or just eat them as halves ! 
 

While I was cooking , Dad threw together an avocado cream sauce for dipping ! 

[Guest LilBitz]

@DaddysMonkey Man, those burgers look AMAZING!!! 🍔 Waaaannnnt!! 🤤 

I love quesadillas! 💜