No-cooking idiot needing help...

So, my husband is the chef.  Not only does he love to cook, but he's great at it.

But now school's starting back, and he's both working full-time and going to school full-time.  Since I'm only in school right now, (and home almost every night), that leaves me in charge of meals.

Which is to say, this here is a couple in desperate need.

Look, I can barely make a sandwich.  Does anyone on here know of any *really* easy recipes?  Low-cal if you got 'em?

Any response at all would be greatly appreciated.

here is a yummy broccoli soup recipe.

Give us an idea of some of your favorite dishes and I expect we can find some easy recipes for them. 

One hint I got as a new bride was "learn to make your own white sauce."

It is easy.  The standard recipe is

Add two tablespoons cooking oil to a small saucepan and warm it gently.

Add two tablespoons flour gradually and stir until there are no lumps and the mix is bubbling nicely

Very gradually add 1 cup milk stirring briskly as you do so.  Keep stirring until the mix thickens to the consistency of an undiluted can of cream soup

Turn the heat down to minimum and let cook for 15-20 minutes.

If you want a thicker sauce double the oil and flour to 4 tablespoons each; for a thinner sauce cut the oil and flour to 1 tablespoon each.

Now as is, this is a tasteless goo.  The beauty of learning this is that there are a zillion flavorful variations you can make as a sauce for anything under the sun.

Some ideas:

Add chopped veggies to the oil before adding the flour e.g. onion, green pepper, sliced carrots, etc.

Stir seasonings into the flour before adding it to the oil: salt, pepper, dried herbs, your favorite spices

Stir in grated cheese as the sauce is simmering to make a cheese sauce

Vary the liquid.  It does not always need to be milk.  Try water or tomato juice or chicken broth.

Vary the fat.  To make perfect gravy use the fat from the roast and broth.  Add your favorite seasonings to taste.

Vary the thickener.  The flour can be replaced by cornstarch or arrowroot powder.  These are good to use for dessert sauces (see below)  But you only need to use half as much of them as flour.

Go sweet.  You can make dessert sauces this way too.   Mix a sweetener and chocolate powder to the flour for a chocolate sauce.  Or add vanilla, cinnamon or nutmeg to the finished sauce. Or use orange or cranberry juice as the liquid.   Use the thicker sauce recipe as pudding. 

So, there you are--thousands of recipes from one basic recipe guaranteed to dress up any meal and limited only by your imagination. 

A no brainer is pasta salad.... add a bunch of veggies, some cheese and an 8 oz bottle of low cal, fat free italian dressing. Maybe some icbinb atop of wheat bread too along side.

"Baked Potatoes", plastic wrap some scrubbed potatoes, microwave 5-10 minutes (play around with it), serve with a salad.

I'll give you a topping for that baked potato... open a can of low fat vegetarian chili, heat it up... top the potato (even better if you use a sweet potato)

veggie side dish: garlic green beans - use a heavy cast iron pan, add 2 teaspoons of garlic flavored olive oil (directions for that below), dump an entire bag of frozen green beans in and cover the pan... cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring about 3-4 times... and that's it!  seasoned green beans with no fuss... (you can also do this with fresh beans)

Garlic flavored olive oil:  take one whole head of garlic, cut off a little from the top... place on double thickness of foil, drizzle olive oil on top and then wrap tightly in foil.  Bake at 350 for one hour, let cool and then squeeze the soft garlic from the head into a storage dish or jar... cover with more olive oil and store in the refrigerator.  Now you've got a clove of garlic ready to be added to many things.  The oil is flavored and you can measure it and add a teaspoon to your salads or use in above recipie, etc. 

Another hint: lemon juice takes the garlic smell from your hands or use rubber gloves when handling the garlic

Thanks for the recipes, guys, I'm excited about trying them out.

To give you an idea of our cooking style, we love seafood and tilapia is often a staple of our diet.  Caesar salad is a big love, too, but we also like a lot of less healthy stuff, especially Mexican food, pizza, and take-out Chinese.  And for whatever weird reason, my hubby hates pasta.

My husband also has a huge sweet tooth.  I'd love to be able to surprise him after work some time with some healthy snacks.  Any ideas for stuff that's hard to screw up?  (Because I can ruin just about any dish.)

Hey Courtbarb here is an easy fool proof recipe for you.

Brown Sugar Salmon and Roasted Rosemary Potatoes.

Take two salmon filets and place skin side down (if you have skin on it) in a roasting pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Little sprinkle the top with olive oil and then a little brown sugar on top of that. 

Now prepare your potatoes.  To speed up cooking buy the small potatoes and cut each in half.  Toss your potatoes with a 1/4 cup, or less depending on amount of potatoes, of non-fat italian dressing.  Microwave this mixture for 6 minutes.  This is to save cooking time.  While the  potatoes are in the microwave chop up some fresh rosemary leaves that you have pulled off the stem.  Take the potatoes out of the microwave and place in an oven safe dish, sprinkle the rosemary on top of the potatoes. 

Put both dishes in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Half way through give the potatoes a good stir.

You can serve this with a side salad.  Great low cal tasty meal.

A great, easy to make recipe for tilapia.

Heat skillet to med-high heat. Add 2 tbsp olive oil. Then season tilapia with cajun seasoning on each side. Place tilapia in oil and brown - 3 minutes on each side. Fix this with some brown or basmati rice and it's a super quick, very tasty dinner!

Good luck... I self-taught myself to cook 10 years ago - now my friends and family consider me an excellent cook! It just takes time and patience :)