8 Easy One Pot Meals

With California restaurants largely closed for dine-in during the COVID-19 pandemic, people have adapted to either supporting their favorite restaurants by ordering take-out, or cooking at home more. Increased cooking at home does have some challenges, such as the need for creativity to avoid falling into a rut of cooking the same things over and over. Plus, after almost a year of cooking most meals at home, who isn’t sick of constantly doing dishes?! With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of easy one pot meals that will bring some excitement to your meal plan while minimizing clean-up time! 

Chili 

No matter if you like your chili with meat or vegetarian, with beans or believe beans do not belong in chili, it’s a classic one pot recipe. Add some oil to a large pan and sauté onion and your meat, if using any. Add tomatoes, beans, spices, and cook until warm! Check out this article for some healthy chili recipes. 

Lasagna Soup

This one pot recipe for lasagna soup by Jen, a Carlsbad resident and chef, is perfect for cooler evenings when you want something warm and delicious. Simply brown your meat, add veggies, broth, sauce, and tomatoes and bring to a boil, then add lasagna noodles until cooked. Top with as much cheese as you can handle, and your one-pot meal is ready to go!

Beefy Stuffed Peppers

San Diegan Stephanie Weaver of migrainereliefrecipes.com has a website full of creative recipes designed to help reduce inflammation and, in her case, provide relief from chronic migraines. This recipe for stuffed peppers uses the same pan to prepare the filling and to steam the peppers, so you can enjoy a healthy, filling meal without having to do a bunch of dishes afterward!

Camarones con Calabacitas

Maggie from Mama Maggie’s Kitchen shares this one-pot recipe for shrimp with Mexican squash on her website — a versatile recipe, it starts with the veggies but the shrimp could be subbed for other types of meat, or add broth to turn the whole thing into a hearty soup!

Skillet Spaghetti

San Diego mom and food blogger Laura creates and shares recipes on her blog, familyspice.com. Her solution for quick and easy meals on busy days? This skillet spaghetti, which comes together quickly and is easy to customize with whatever ingredients you have on hand. 

Farmstand One Pot Wonder

A hearty mix of potatoes, onions, green beans, corn, and ham, this is a hassle-free dish to make when you are short on time but don’t want to sacrifice sitting down to a healthy meal. This recipe can easily be modified if you have different vegetables in your fridge, or want to ditch the ham for a vegetarian one-pot dish. 

Chicken, Kale & Mushroom Pot Pie

The idea of whipping together a chicken pot pie may sound complicated, but this recipe makes it much easier than it sounds! Everything comes together in one pan, until topped with a pre-made puff pastry. You are going to feel fancy when you sit down to eat this one! 

Thai One-Pot

Pork, bell peppers, mushrooms, and rice are cooked together in one pan — see this Food & Wine recipe for details! This one goes from pan to plate in about 30 minutes. 

 

For more recipes on healthy living, visit scrippsamg.com.