If you’re a father, you might like providing for your family. You relish making money for them because it makes you feel like a protector. You probably enjoy putting a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.
Dads often enjoy cooking for their families as well. If your spouse or partner had a hard day at work, it should make them happy to come home to see you taking some tasty out of the oven and filling the house with delicious smells. If one of your kids endures a messy breakup, you can be there with some comfort food to help them pick up the pieces and move on.
Let’s go over two of the most comforting meals that you can make for your family. Both of these are pretty easy, so you don’t need to be an expert chef to throw them together.
Thanksgiving Anytime
Father’s Day is coming up, and nothing says that you can’t give the gift of good food and cheer, even as you accept the various offerings your family has for you. Among the Father’s Day safety tips that we would mention is that you should always use potholders when taking hot dishes out of the oven or off the stove. Make sure not to start your cooking project unless you have a working fire extinguisher handy, and always cook your food all the way through to prevent anyone from getting sick.
Now, on to one of the easiest and most comforting meals you can make for your family: Thanksgiving anytime. It does not have to be November for you to find a whole turkey, or even just a turkey breast, at the store.
A turkey breast is very easy to prepare. Essentially, all you have to do is put it in a roasting pan and stick it in the oven. It’s pretty foolproof, provided that you cook it the appropriate length of time.
You can make Shake-and-Bake-style stuffing right out of the box just by sticking it in the microwave, or you can put it in the bird before you pop it in the oven. You can boil potatoes in a pot on the stove for mashed potatoes. All you need to do is add milk, butter or margarine, salt, and pepper to the boiled potatoes and mash them up.
Your family will love this hearty meal at any time of the year, but it will go over better when it’s chilly. Nothing’s better than coming in out of the cold, stamping the snow off your boots, and smelling the turkey aroma wafting through the house.
Chili
Chili is another hearty meal that any dad can make with very little time or effort. You might also use turkey instead of beef to lower the total and saturated fat content.
You need a big pot, or you can also use a crockpot or instant pot. The basic ingredients are lean ground turkey, mild chicken sausage, tomato puree, tomato paste, three different kinds of beans, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and a little water. You likely have at least some of that at home already, but the ingredients are a single grocery trip away.
You can cook the ground turkey on the stove and nuke the chicken sausage in the microwave before chopping it up. You’ll probably want cannellini beans, kidney beans, and light red beans, but you can use other ones as well.
You add all the ingredients to a pot and set it to simmer at low heat. You should stir it every fifteen minutes or so to make sure that nothing sticks to the bottom and burns.
This is another great family recipe because you can add more ingredients if your kids have friends over. There’s very little difficult cooking required. All you’re doing is tossing the ingredients in the pot and letting the flavors blend.
You can also substitute or add ingredients as you desire to correspond to everyone’s tastes. You can make a vegetarian version by purchasing veggie sausages and veggie “beef” crumbles in your grocery store’s frozen food section.
You can also make a mild version but then have some hot sauce on the table for those who want it. This is another satisfying meal that your family will probably come to love. As a dad, you’ll likely enjoy nothing more than making everyone happy with your cooking and using it as a reason to come together every evening.
