What if I told you that you could make your own Spaghetti sauce? Homemade bread?  Single servings of cake, brownies, or chocolate chip cookies from scratch?  Or macaroni and cheese (from scratch, not those processed Easy Mac things)? And each recipe has a hands-on prep times of ten minutes or less?

Welcome to level three.

Let’s get cooking!

Level three recipes are a little more complicated than level two — although these are all still super-simple dishes that take a minimal effort on your part, particularly if you’re doing the investment cooking I talked about during stage two.  

Some of these dishes need extra equipment (a stick blender or a Kitchenaid stand mixer, a food processor, etc.) Some of them require measuring out small quantities of ingredients (and reading a recipe). But once you master these recipes, it’s very unlikely that you will ever experience that boring, cook-once-and-have-to-eat-it-for-a-week meal problem ever again.

Let’s start with what was, for me, a massive lightbulb moment.

Pasta

Did you know you can cook pasta in a microwave?  Sure, I’ve seen those microwave ‘pasta cookers’ on TV just like everybody else.  But I had zero interest in buying some ‘as seen on TV’ product that I was convinced was going to turn that pound of pasta into a couple of pounds of nasty, sticky, glue that would mean I’d have to throw both the paste and the pot away.  No way was I going to waste cash on that — and even if it did work, I would probably still end up having to eat my way through a pound of pasta in order to make sure that the ‘pasta cooker’ worked properly.  Thanks, but no.

And then I started experimenting with mug cooking.  One of the recipes that I saw everywhere was macaroni and cheese.  While many of those recipes are far from perfect, the one thing that did work was cooking the elbow macaroni in the microwave.  So I set about perfecting the recipe.  Then I started making myself simple penne with meat sauce…

I’ve since deleted the Noodles and Company app from my phone.

Here’s my macaroni and cheese recipe.  It’s from scratch, takes ten minutes and serves one person nicely.  Oh, and it’s awesome.

• 2 ounces (1/4 cup) elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup milk of your choice (I use whole, but you could use anything from skim to unsweetened almond to plain greek yogurt)
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese or other semi-soft cheese of your choosing (I just buy bags when they’re on sale and keep them in the freezer)
• 1 tablespoon corn starch (which is also called corn flour in some countries, apparently…)
• Salt to taste (more on that in a sec)

1. I don’t care what most of the internet cooks say.  This is a lousy mug recipe.  If you don’t use a giant wide-mouthed mug this will boil over on you.  And if you have to waste time cleaning up a starchy, super-hot mess after the noodles are done, why bother?  Get a quality cereal bowl (one of those big guys that can hold 2 cups of cereal + milk).
2. Pour the macaroni into the bowl
3. Cover the macaroni with at least an inch of water.  Ideally the bowl will probably be about half full.  Add a generous amount of salt.  As good Italian chefs always say, your pasta cooking water should taste “like the ocean…”
4. Microwave on HIGH power for 6-8 minutes (my microwave usually gets the job done in about 7 minutes, but your time is almost guaranteed to vary).
5. Drain off any excess water.
6. Add the corn starch to the pasta.  Stir.
7. Add the milk.  Stir again.
8. Add the cheese.  Stir one last time.
9. Back in the microwave for 2-4 minutes on HIGH (usually 3 minutes for me).
10. Stir up the awesomeness and enjoy!

12 minute(ish) variation:  Get a jar of cooked ground beef out of the freezer.  Take off all of the metal and microwave for 2 minutes on high.  Drain off any fat/broth, dump the meat into the bowl after you add the cheese and give it a stir before you put the bowl back in the microwave.

A single serving of pasta (2 oz, or roughly 1/4 cup) will take roughly 6-9 minutes in the microwave, depending on the size of the pasta you’re talking about.  Elbows will take a little less time, big penne noodles might take a little more…I’m sure you guys get the picture.  And unless you buy that fancy pasta cooker gadget, you’ll probably have to break up your long, thin noodles (angel hair, spaghetti, etc.) before trying this in your microwave.  But I promise you, if you’re bored with those grains you’ve been stocking up on, try this.  It opened up a whole new world of cooking options for me.

NOTE:  This does not scale well. Tried cooking a pound of farfalle (bow ties) in the microwave.  Took 25 minutes and had that pasty edge you’d think that pasta cooked in the microwave would have. Stick to single servings and you’ll be fine.

Potatoes

It amazes me how many potato recipes start with boiling some huge pot of water, boil your potatoes, drain that giant pot of water and then put your potatoes back into that ridiculously hot pot in order to get the rest of the water to evaporate.

Thanks, but no.

If you’ve ever heard of ‘baking’ potatoes in a microwave, let me explain something:  potatoes don’t ‘bake’ in a microwave.  A microwave’s whole cooking technique is based on boiling the water in whatever food you’re cooking…which means your potato steams in the microwave.

In a lot less time and with a lot less effort than that whole boiling nonsense.

Rinse any excess dirt off your potatoes and poke a bunch of holes in them with a fork to let all that steam escape.  Cook the potatoes for 5 minutes on HIGH, flip or toss around your potatoes and microwave for at least 3 minutes more (bigger potatoes will take longer).  If you want mashed potatoes, cut up the cooked potatoes and add chicken broth, milk, and/or butter until you get the potatoes to the consistency that you like.  You might need to put the bowl back into the microwave for 1-2 minutes if the liquids cool down your taters too much.

Crispy?  Sorry, that’s not the microwave’s m.o.  But creamy, on the other hand…creamy is very doable.

Other Resources:

Sometimes the most efficient use of your time is to not re-invent the wheel.  There are some amazing recipes out there that are far more beginner-friendly than you’d think.  Here’s a few of my go-to favorites:

• Spaghetti Sauce:  I know, spaghetti sauce sounds like one of those crazy, all-day cooking projects. But the Barefoot Contessa’s marinara sauce is super simple (use pre-chopped bags of frozen onions and jars of minced garlic from the store) and a great investment cooking project, since it freezes beautifully.
• Bread:  I always thought bread was this horrible fussy thing that took a ton of time and effort.  Then I read Zoe Francois’ Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  While the master recipe in their first book (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day) is much simpler than the healthier variation, the base techniques are the same — and they’ll completely change your mind as to what’s possible when it comes to making homemade bread.
• Mug Cooking:  I’m amazed at the number of things that you can cook in a mug.  And while certain things work better than others, my first stop for mug cooking inspiration is Bigger Bolder Baking.  Yep, she of the genius two-ingredient ice cream. Search her website for ‘mug meals’.  There’s a wealth of great recipes on this website.

From this point forward, if I post a recipe I’ll tag it as a Level One (supremely basic, requires almost nothing but a heating element), Level Two (investment cooking, might need one or two kitchen toys) or Level Three (a bit more complicated, cooking toys required).

Happy cooking!  I would love to hear how it’s going.  Post any comments or questions below!