Weeknight Oven Dinner

As a working professional, I’m always looking for weekday quick fix dinners. There are times you get so wrapped up in work that making a fancy meal at night is just not feasible. Of course, eating out weighs pretty heavy on the wallet, not to mention the scale! I still want to have something exciting on the table to accompany exciting dinner chats. ‘Pop it in the oven’ dinners are great for weeknights as they require little work or time. Here are two recipes that get to the table in no time!

Basic preparation: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Spicy Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients:

10-15 Small red potatoes 

Hot sauce - I used Tapatio

Paprika

2-3 Garlic cloves

Olive Oil

Salt 

• Wash the potatoes and cut them in halves leaving the skin on.
• Drizzle some olive oil, a few dashes of hot sauce (go by your tolerance for heat), sprinkle some paprika and salt for seasoning. Toss it well and transfer to a baking sheet/pan.
• Crush a couple of garlic cloves and add to the potatoes. The garlic smells great after roasting. 
• Pop it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until tender. 

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

Ingredients:

2 Large Portobello  mushrooms

½ Medium onion

1 garlic clove

4-5 Sundried tomato halves

Parmesan Reggiano

Salt & Pepper

Italian herb mix

Olive Oil

Cilantro

• Clean the mushrooms with a wet towel and take out the stems (don’t throw them away!). You can choose to leave the gills on but I usually scrape them off.
• Chop the onion, mushroom stems, garlic and sundried tomatoes.
• Heat a pan over medium to high heat, drizzle some olive oil and roast the mushrooms on each side for a couple of minutes. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same pan, give the veggies a quick stir and season with some Italian herbs and salt & pepper.
• Stuff this filling into the mushroom, top it off with some cheese and pop in the oven in a greased pan.
• Remove from the oven when the cheese melts and gets golden brown on top (about 5-10 minutes).
• Garnish with some chopped cilantro and serve.

This is a great meal as you can work on both the dishes simultaneously and they'll be ready at the same time. Get the veggies cut and ready, get the potatoes in the oven and work on the mushrooms since they require less oven time. One simple tasty dinner!