The one-pot meal is a weeknight dinner staple in our house.  I try to find dishes that incorporate all the components of a nutritious meal into something that I can serve in one bowl.  This usually means cooking a protein with as many vegetables as I can add and serving it over or with a carbohydrate (rice, pasta, quinoa).  I also double batch, because all of these dishes make great leftovers for lunches and freeze well, too.

Our top five one-pot meals:

1. Spaghetti.  I use onions, garlic, celery, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, canned tomatoes, and sometimes bell peppers or other sweet peppers in the sauce, so it is loaded with vegetables.  Pork sausage and chicken stock are the protein.  Currently we are trying a gluten-free diet, so we are eating it over brown-rice spaghetti noodles.
2. Tofu Fried Rice.
3. Chicken Noodle (or rice) Soup.
4. Sausage, White Bean, Kale Soup.
5. Vegetable Chili from The New Basics Cookbook.  This chili is packed with vegetables and is so dense that I like to serve over quinoa (it lightens it up and adds more protein), and top it with grated cheddar cheese.

I have a few one-pot favorites that I mostly cook in cooler weather since they are really great comfort food dishes.  I think any soup that combines a grain, a veggie, and a protein qualifies as one-pot cooking.  Our family favorite soups are: Beef and Barley; variations on White Bean and Escarole soup, usually with sausage; and any chicken noodle soup packed with veggies.

Our other one-pot favorites are usually braised dishes, either cooked in the oven or slow-cooker after the proteins are browned on the stove.  My mom always made a tri-tip roast with potatoes, green beans, and carrots that is delicious.  I have no idea where she got the recipe, and it includes ingredients that I don’t normally use, like liquid smoke and beef broth, but that I keep on hand for this recipe. The meat comes out nice and tender, and everyone enjoys the smoky flavor.  Since she always cooked this without a recipe, I wrote it down one day while she was cooking it.  So, if you try it, feel free to adjust ingredients to you liking.

• 1 tri-tip (you want 3 ½ to 4 pounds, so if they are small just buy 2)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons liquid smoke (mesquite flavor)
• 1/3 cup Worchester sauce
• 4 cups (1 large box) beef stock, or use homemade
• 1 can Campbell’s Beef Consomé
• Small red bliss potatoes
• 1 bunch carrots, peeled and cut
• Green beans or haricots-verts, fresh or frozen

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2.  Season the tri-tip with salt and pepper.  Heat the olive oil over medium heat, and brown all sides of the tri-tip.
3.  Add liquid smoke, Worchester sauce, beef stock, and beef consomé.  There should be enough liquid so that it is almost ¾ of the way up the tri-tip.
4.  Place in oven and bake for one hour. (Total cooking time in oven will be about 3 to 3 ½ hours.)
5.  After one hour, add whole potatoes and carrots.
6.  After another hour, add green beans and cook until the green beans look crinkled and the meat just begins to pull away with a fork.
7.  After it has cooled, refrigerate meat with liquid overnight so you can remove the fat before reheating to serve.