Challenge: One Dish Shabbos Meals

I'm looking for your input, again.

I'm going to be totally honest here. Preparing for Shabbos wipes me out. I still have not mastered the art.

I know that many women prepare a little bit each night. That won't fly in my home for various reasons. 

I have simplified my shabbos menus, but now I'm looking to simplify even further.

I am trying to think of one dish shabbos meals that my family will enjoy. (We usually don't have guests on Friday night so I don't have to worry about impressing guests  and I'm betting my family will gladly trade a well-rested mother for several fancy dishes.)

By "one dish meal" I mean that everything has to cook together -- the chicken (I'm not a big red meat fan and my husband won't go for vegetarian meals on shabbos), vegetables and a grain/starch. I'd love be able to prepare ONE dish instead of three! Then I just have to make (or buy) challah, dips, fish and dessert.

Here are our family's food quirks that make this quest seem like mission impossible:

1) No one in the family, except me, likes cooked or canned tomatoes, which eliminates many options.

2) My kids prefer food on the bland side. They seem to be spice-phobic, so no excessively exotic flavors like curry. (BUMMER!)

3) My kids seem to like their food seperated, so nothing that ends up being a "stew" (My hubby doesn't like that either)

4) We have a TON of whole, frozen chickens and I'm looking to save money (but not drive myself crazy with extra prep work) so I'm looking for recipes that use whole or cut-up chickens.

 

Our usual "one dish meal" is Roasted Chicken with potatoes and vegetables for Friday night -- but that gets boring after a while.(And I end up using several pans!)

I'd be open to using a crockpot for Friday night dinner. I have an extra one.  I could just put everything in on Thursday night and put in the fridge. Then I'd just put it in the crockpot on Friday morning. However, because we so often make "Hot Pot Chicken" for shabbos lunch, it would have be something really distinct for Friday Night...but how do you make something distinct from hot-pot chicken, (that is -- a whole meal with veg and starch)  without making some form of chicken stew?

I had an idea tonight -- maybe chicken-pot-pie for Friday night. I used to make an easy  seitan-pot-pie that my kids LOVED, but that was a long time ago. Perhaps I will try it again with chicken one night for dinner. If they like it that can be moved into the shabbos rotation.

If I could just find 4 one-dish-meals to rotate on Friday nights, I'd be happy camper!

I am also considering trying to adapt a recipe or two from Glorious One Pot Meals (GOPM) to my family's tastes for a one pot-shabbos meal.  For those of you who don't know GOPM is a patented cooking technique which allows you to cook  a FULL meal (starch/grain, animal or vegetarian protein & lots of veggies) in one pot. Is that it DOES NOT come out like a traditional casserole or crockpot meal - where the ingredients break down an become mushy  and soupy and the flavors blend together. You can get more information about this great technique at my full review here.

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions and recipes, if you've got any.

If you have an idea for a "one dish shabbos meal"  Please let me know by leaving comment, or better yet, a recipe.

If you have ideas that don't agree with my family's picky preferences, please post them as well. You just might help some other frazzled mother!

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Sarah,

Those are a lot of requirements on top of the regular Shabbat ones! Here's an idea for you: adapt the Rosemary Chicken Comfort recipe from the Glorious One-Pot Meals cookbook to create many different variations with vegetables that will hold up to sitting around in the oven before dinner.

The original recipe calls for chicken, onions, acorn squash, mushrooms, green beans, and rosemary sprigs. Since the green beans probably will become soggy, switch out for broccoli, zucchini or green peppers.

If your kids don't like the flavor of rosemary, switch it for several garlic cloves and a few lemon slices.

Or drizzle a few tablespoons of a vinaigrette salad dressing on the chicken in a flavor that you know they like for a totally different meal -- and without running into the sauce on the plate problem the next day.

Check out my e-book on Glorious One-Pot KIDS Meals for some more ideas that may work for you.

Thanks for sharing your great ideas on this blog!

[abandoning eden]

I don't know if this counts as a stew or not, but this is what I'm eating for dinner lately:

Tons of veggies cut up into large chunks, including yellow bell peppers, red onions, babybell mushrooms, asparagus, summer squash, pinapple chunks (from a can in their own juice- save the juice), red potatoes (which need to be pre cooked in the microwave for a bit- i put 4 red potatoes in a bowl full of water and microwave them for 13 minutes), whatever other veggies you like. Also a package of soy tempeh cut into chunks (can substitute cut up chicken pieces!)

Marinade: zest of two limes, juice of two limes, pineapple juice from the pinapple chunks in juice, some more lime juice (premade, cause I have no patience for juicing 1000 limes), about a tbsp of dried oregano, a few drops of green tabasco sauce (I guess you can leave this out) 1 bunch of fresh cilantro chopped up, and some olive oil (as needed, I just pour a few tbsp on)

cut everything up and marinade overnight. Then cook it. Different ways you can cook it include in a huge wok pan at medium heat for around 40 minutes, or baked for an hour (covered in tin foil) at around 375, uncovering for the last 20 minutes, making sure the potatoes are cooked through. Or you can wrap it in tin foil and throw it on a grill. You can also serve it over brown rice, although I find that it's quite filling without.

If your kids like your food separated, what I've done in the past is when chunked up the veggies, I placed it directly into the pan I would bake it in, but didn't mix it up, and then poured the marinade on top of it.

Also if you don't like cilantro lime marinade (although I just invented this marinade last week and it is awesome if I say so myself), I've also used soy vey teriyaki sauce, which I believe is kosher.

When I make this it usually lasts me for 4 meals, so i guess it could feed 4 people. But if you add more veggies it can feed more people :)

[toby]

I don't know if you're interested, but we recently started having only chicken soup for Friday night dinner. I make a double batch, so that everyone can have as many helpings as they like, and we serve it with a choice of plain rice or noodles. Also, I leave the chicken and vegetables uncut, so that we can easily fish out only what each customer wants, without having everything break apart and get messy.
If you need a good recipe for chicken soup, I will happily share!
All the best,
Toby