One-pan meal: Ground beef with wild rice and zucchini cooked in a large skillet. Photo and recipe by Mary Warner, October 3, 2023.
family recipe

A One-Pan Meal

by Mary

I hate washing a ton of dishes after dinner. When my kids were little, I didn’t have a lot of time to wash dishes, even if I did enjoy it … which I don’t. So, whenever I can find meals that don’t take many pots and pans, I’m all for it.

I have loads of meals I can manage to make with two pans, but very few with one. Meatloaf is one such meal, if I bake potatoes on the oven rack beside the meatloaf pan.

Recently, I created another one-pan meal. It has no name, but it’s super easy to put together.

One-pan meal: Ground beef with wild rice and zucchini cooked in a large skillet. Photo and recipe by Mary Warner, October 3, 2023.
One-pan meal: Ground beef with wild rice and zucchini cooked in a large skillet. Photo and recipe by Mary Warner, October 3, 2023.

Mary’s One-Pan Meal (with Wild Rice) (How’s that for an impromptu name?)

Ingredients:

Minced garlic

Small-to-medium chopped onion

A few tablespoons of oil

1 pound of ground beef (or ground turkey or chicken)

2 cans of wild rice, drained

1 large or 2 small zucchini(s) sliced in quarters

Cavender’s Greek Seasoning or the spices of your choice

***

Directions:

Using a large skillet or frying pan (I use our T-fal non-stick pan), sauté minced garlic and onions in a few tablespoons of oil.

When the garlic and onions are softened, crumble fry the meat until it is cooked through. Stir in the 2 cans of drained wild rice. Canoe brand is the type I find most often. Then stir in the zucchini. Apply Cavender’s Greek Seasoning or other spices to taste and stir.

Cover the pan in order to steam the zucchini and heat up the rice. Stir occasionally. Once the ingredients are thoroughly cooked, it’s ready to eat.

And you’ll only have one pan to wash when you’re done.

There’s no rocket science to this in terms of the exact amount of garlic, onions, or spices. Feel free to substitute onion or garlic powder, if you like.

This is meant to be a quick dish, but if you want to take the time to cook wild rice rather than using it from a can, have at it. Though, you will have increased your pan usage by one. 🙂

I was telling my son-in-law about this dish and he said we Minnesotans are crazy about our wild rice. He’s from Wisconsin originally, and I had no idea that Minnesotans had expressed such fondness for wild rice that it stood out as *a thing* to those from other states. Now I know.

Do you have an one-pan meals that are easy to put together and clean up after?

Large shaker container of Cavender's Greek Seasoning on the right, in line with 2 cans of Canoe brand wild rice on the left. Photo by Mary Warner, October 3, 2023.
Large shaker container of Cavender’s Greek Seasoning on the right, in line with 2 cans of Canoe brand wild rice on the left. Photo by Mary Warner, October 3, 2023.

4 thoughts on “A One-Pan Meal”

    1. It’s totally a deal-breaker, Liz, especially when we’re running short on time, which we seem to be doing a lot lately.

  2. I’m from Colorado and I didn’t even know that canned wild rice existed! But your recipe sounds yummy!

    1. Stacy – We were surprised to find canned wild rice, too, and we can only find it in a few grocery stores. We asked the cashier at a Hy-Vee today and she was incredulous — Wild rice in a can? Already cooked?!?

      It’s marvelous in terms of not waiting for it to cook. The brand we find most often is Canoe. According to the person at the customer service counter at Hy-Vee, they carry it. Woot!

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