Quick and easy dinner

I've always been a fan of a quick spaghetti dinner.  In the summer I make copious quantities of tomato sauce that I freeze in 4 cup bags.  Whenever I'm tired, I can pull one of these bad boys out and dinner is on the table in 15 minutes.  If I run out of sauce, I can grab a jar from the store and dinner is still super quick.

When I'm making sauce, I add lots of different veggies - eggplant, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, peppers, basically anything I have on hand.  I have also been known to toss in any chunks of parmesan I have in the fridge.  If I decide to add meat, I cook it when I'm making the pasta, not when I'm making the sauce.  Even if dinner is quick, it doesn't have to be unhealthy!

Getting a jar of spaghetti sauce here is actually purchasing a bag of sauce, usually containing an orange sauce that is more like watery ketchup than what we call spaghetti sauce.  There are a lot of people who like it, but I do not.  After making my own sauce for so long, it is hard to eat the jarred stuff.  But the pouch, to me, is just disgusting.  The difference is comparable to restaurant ramen versus cup of noodles.

Since I don't have the option of spaghetti for a quick dinner, I've had to find other options.  Yakiudon  (grilled udon noodles) are a great quick and easy meal.  I'm sure there are recipes out there, but  we just use whatever is the fridge.  We grab a variety of vegetables and meat out of the fridge (meat isn't required, some people use tofu and/or seafood or just veggies).

Last night we found onion, carrot, greens, thinly sliced pork belly (not bacon), and fishcake (chikuwa) in our fridge.  I had 2 packages of noodles and tonkatsu sauce in the fridge as well. 

My son helped to prep some of the vegetables.  He peeled the carrot and onion, as well as chopped the fishcake.  He loves to help in the kitchen, so I have slowly been teaching him various skills over the years.  Once we had prepped everything (I cut the carrot, onion, greens, and pork), he moved his stool in front of the stove and started cooking the onion and carrot. 

Stirring frequently, we added the pork, then fishcake, then greens. 

Once everything was cooked, we tossed in the noodles, with him stirring the whole time.  We squirted in a bit of tonkatsu sauce and gave everything a good toss.

Dinner was ready!

Super quick, full of veggies, and so delicious!  My son took some to school in his bento box today and he received compliments for his delicious looking lunch.  It's a big hit for everyone.