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What to Cook When You Work a 12 Hour Shift

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If you have a job that keeps you working for 12-hour shifts, it’s a sure bet that by the time you get home you. are. done. Cooking dinner sounds exhausting after being gone all day!

What you’d really like at that point is for someone to set a plate of delicious food in front of you.  Big, big bonus if they’d take care of the dishes too.

I know this is the situation many of you find yourselves in.  (The 12-hour shift, not the personal cook part.)  So how do you get dinner on the table and not exhaust yourself doing it?  Here are a few ideas for you.

12hrshifts

Go long or go short.

There are two strategies you can follow here.

Long cooking time – meaning a slow cooker recipe that can handle being in the crockpot for 12-14 hours, depending on your commute and whether anyone else can start the slow cooker in the morning.

Short cooking time – dinners that can be on the table in 15 minutes or less.

I’ve rounded up recipes that will fit both categories and listed them below.  But before we get to the recipes, here are a few other tips to keep things simple:

  • Use crockpot liners to keep clean up quick and easy.
  • Consider doing a little prep on weekends – brown out meats and freeze, cook chicken (or use rotisserie chicken) and freeze, chop veggies or use pre-cut veggies. You could even prep some freezer friendly meals to make it easier, as well!
  • Have a plan and check it as part of your evening routine so you know whether you need to load the crockpot before leaving for work the next day. Or line up someone else to start the crockpot.
  • Set out any ingredients that don’t require refrigeration, so the crockpot loading goes quickly in the morning.

Long – Slow Cooker Recipes

Not all slow cooker recipes can handle a long cooking time.  Here’s a list of recipes that can take the heat.

22 Slow Cooker Recipes that can cook all day

Short – 15 Minute Meals

I love a good 15-minute meal!  Grab a rotisserie chicken or frozen meatballs (you can prep homemade versions of these and freeze them) and you’re set for a quick dinner.

mexican beans and rice done2

Mexican Beans and Rice

Creamy Chicken Florentine Quesadillas

Creamy Chicken Florentine Quesadillas

15 minute Sausage and Corn Quesadillas with Azteca tortillas

Sausage and Corn Quesadillas

15 Minute Chicken Fiesta Skillet

15 Minute Chicken Fiesta Skillet

Chicken Tortellini with Kale 15 minute meal

15 Minute Chicken, Kale and Tortellini Bowls

Italian Sausage Sloppy Joes

Italian Sausage or Pizza Sloppy Joes

12hrshiftspin

Instant Pot vs. Pressure Cooker

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If you spend any time at all online looking at recipes, I’m sure you’ve seen the buzz about pressure cookers, electric pressure cookers in particular. It took me a little while to jump on the bandwagon, but you could consider me to be fully onboard at this point. Not because everyone else has one, but because they really do help solve some of our common dinner hour dilemmas. The biggest problem is deciding which one to get with so many options on the market. Since I own two of them, I decided it would be helpful to share an honest Instant Pot vs. Pressure Cooker Review for you between some of the most popular models.

And while we’re at it, I’m including a few things to consider in determining if an electric pressure cooker is even a good fit for you and your cooking routines. So grab a sweet tea and join me for a thorough Instant Pot vs. Pressure Cooker review. Yes, I live in Kentucky where all the tea is sweet, and we’re more than slightly proud of that fact.

Before we dive too deeply into the review, let me clarify that when I say pressure cooker, I’m referring to the electric pressure cookers and not the stove-top one that many of our mothers owned. It’s not uncommon during one of my Wednesday morning Facebook Lives for a follower or two to chime in saying that pressure cookers make them nervous. We’ve all heard a horror story or two about stovetop pressure cookers that have left us somewhat leery of the electric pressure cookers as well. I honestly don’t have any experience with the stovetop variety, but I can assure you that the new electric pressure cookers are safe and easy to use. 

The Pressure Cookers I own: 

[Read more…] about Instant Pot vs. Pressure Cooker

Steak on a Charcoal Grill – You can do this!

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Fillet mignon on grill

I love to grill, but I admit that I’ve never really used charcoal to do it.  I’ve watched others grill over charcoal, but it intimidated me a little.

Then Kingsford Charcoal contacted me and asked if I would try their Kingsford Professional Charcoal to grill steak.  Perfect timing!  This is shaping up to be a tasty summer of outdoor grilling.  I’m hooked!

My first step was ordering a new charcoal grill.  I went with the Weber Kettle.

Next up – shop for steaks.  Costco had a pack of fillet mignon that looked wonderful.  Again, I was a little nervous to grill expensive steak.  What if I ruined it?  Shouldn’t I start with hot dogs?

The steak turned out to be so easy to grill.  The whole process takes about an hour, but it is easy to do.

The longest part of the process is waiting on the coals to get hot enough to cook over.  I use a chimney to light the charcoal.  You’ll need a few sheets of newspaper to roll up and place under the chimney.  True confession – I had to buy a Sunday paper for this, because we don’t take the newspaper anymore.  Pour the Kingsford Professional Briquets into the chimney, then light the newspaper at the bottom.  The flames will spread up through the chimney, catching all the charcoal on fire.

Kingsford Professional chimney starter

After about 45 minutes, the coals will become gray.  That signals the time to pour the burning coals into the grill.  Use grill gloves for this step so you don’t get burned.

Kingsford Professional

While the charcoal is getting hot, pull your steaks from the fridge and let them rest at room temperature.  You don’t want to put cold steaks on the hot grill.

I kept the seasonings simple so that they flavor of the meat could shine through.  I sprinkled each cut with kosher salt and pepper.  That’s it.

When the coals are ready, place the steaks on the hot grill.  Steak needs to sear and cook over high heat. Kingsford Professional Briquets are designed to achieve very hot temps. Since the fillets were very thick, I cooked them about 5-6 minutes per side, only flipping them once.  An instant read thermometer would be handy at this point, but I don’t own one yet.

Remove the steaks from the grill when they’ve reached the desired doneness.  Keep in mind they will continue to cook even after you’ve taken them off the heat.

fillet mignon finished with butter

Top each steak with a pat of butter and let them rest for several minutes before serving.  This is a good time to call everyone to the table, finish up side dishes, etc.

fillet mignon grilled done

Get out there and grill!

You can find Kingsford on Facebook and Twitter.

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Kingsford. The opinions and text are all mine.

Want to eat more vegetables? Start roasting them!

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Easy changes for health

You might wonder why the cooking method would lead to eating more vegetables, but trust me – it does!

Since I started roasting veggies vs steaming them, we’ve upped both the quantity and variety of vegetables we eat as a family. It’s a small change that brings healthy benefits.

roastedredpepperandbroccolidone.jpg

 

Roasting brings out the flavor of foods in a way that steaming can’t.  I toss the veggies with olive oil and season with kosher salt and black pepper.  Often, I grab a seasoning blend instead of the salt and pepper.  Montreal Steak seasoning is one of our favorites.  Sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary are wonderful too.

When it comes to types of veggies to roast, the variety is as endless as the produce department.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

 

It only takes about 15 minutes for many types of vegetables to roast.  Some potatoes and winter squash will take closer to 30 minutes.  I heat the oven to about 425 degrees, give or take.  It’s not an exact science, so don’t worry about getting it wrong.  If you want them to roast faster, turn the oven a bit hotter and cut the veggies a bit smaller.

I’ve found that vegetables I didn’t think I even liked are now favorites.  Things like green beans and brussels sprouts taste much, much better when roasted.  We also love combining several different types of vegetables on one pan.

Quick roasting (15ish minutes) options include:

  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Broccoli
  • Green Beans
  • Zucchini and yellow squash
  • Tomatoes (grape, cherry or larger varieties that are quartered)
  • Red bell peppers
  • Cabbage
  • Eggplant (although I admit we haven’t tried this one yet)

Roasted Butternut Squash or Sweet Potatoes

 

Best Ever Roasted Squash or Sweet Potatoes

Veggies that need longer roasting (30ish minutes):

  • Onions, quartered
  • Garlic cloves
  • Celery
  • Fennel
  • Potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Butternut squash
  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Parsnips

What are your favorite vegetables to roast?

P.S.  Since we’ve been talking about making small changes for health, I wanted to share with you a new program I found.  Jen from Healthymoving.com is doing a 30 Day Healthy Moving Challenge during the month of September.  Jen is a yoga teacher.  I’ve been a member of her site for a while now (used to be called Stay at Home Yoga).  She has recently rebranded to Healthy Moving and is really promoting that we don’t need to make lots of time for exercise in our lives, we just need to get moving.  

This really speaks to me, because I work at my computer and also do a lot of driving each week.  All of that leads to lots and lots of sitting without much moving.  As part of the 30 Day Healthy Moving Challenge, Jen is going to be teaching us to create a dynamic work station, where we get to move around instead of just sit.  

I’m really excited for the things I’ll learn during the 30 days of September.   It’s so much easier to make small changes for better health, than to try to fit in an hour long workout.  If you’d like to join me, click here!  The challenge starts in September.

 

This post contains affiliate links.  I only share things that I truly like and that I think you will too.