Given 15 minutes for prep, a slow cooker, some dried beans, garlic, onions and whatever seasoning moves you, you can launch a bean stew or this Quick and Spicy Bean Soup. Take off to bed and wake up with a couple of days of good eating ready to go.
Shrimp/prawns, so often overcooked in boiling water, are beautifully poached in butter—they remain tender, do not become rubbery, and develop an almost unfamiliar sweetness. What better pairing for buttery shrimp than butter-loving grits? One of the great regional American dishes, it is a specialty of low country, South Carolina.
You can vary the amount of water in this recipe in accordance with whether you want a proper soup or a more stewlike consistency.