Easy Recipes For All Skill Levels
It can be intimidating when we are faced with a long recipe that includes many ingredients. If some of the ingredients are unfamiliar, it's even more daunting. Complicated recipes can be wonderful and rewarding to prepare, but sometimes we just want to keep it simple. The solution is to find recipes that have fewer than five or six ingredients. For our purposes, simple ingredients, such as water and common seasonings, are included. Some of today's recipes also include precooked ingredients, such as leftover meats, or prepared, canned, jarred or frozen foods.
You can do some planning that will make quick meals easy to prepare. When you have leftover meats, cut it into bite size pieces and store it in labeled plastic bags, ready to add to soups and casseroles. Keep a variety of frozen vegetables on hand because they are nice to add to soups instead of fresh chopped vegetables, to shorten preparation time. Build up a shelf of spices and dried herbs that you and your family really like to add spark and a personal touch to your cooking.
Some packaged foods in the pantry and refrigerator can make cooking simpler. Here's my short list:
- A good brand of low sodium broth
- Jars of a favorite salsa
- Plenty of canned tomatoes in all forms (sauce, diced, pureed, etc.)
- Cans of tuna
Long recipes can be made simpler by judicious use of these ingredients. For instance, instead of chopping many different vegetables, frozen mixed vegetables can be used instead. I especially like frozen chopped onions and peppers. These few items shorten preparation and cooking time. A good example is a fast soup, made by using that canned broth, frozen vegetables, canned beans and some of your leftover meat. Simply dump it all in a pot, season it to taste and heat it up. The last minute addition of some fresh parsley gives it a homemade aroma and flavor.
In addition to quick, easy preparation and cooking, good nutrition and low calorie choices are what we want. Today we're going to keep it simple and cook things that appeal to everyone. We've included main dishes, side dishes and desserts. Calorie Count members contributed these creative, appealing, quick and easy dishes.
- Black Beans & Shrimp - It's good on its own or used as a filling for burritos.
- Chicken Mexicana - With only four ingredients, what could be easier?
- Quick Beef Stew - combined prepared foods with leftovers to create a hearty meal.
Comments
| mrsdreams - Jul 10, 2009 12:22 PM | New Comment |
Here are the other recipes featured in today's newsletter
Quick Stir-FryHere is the quick stir-fry for nights with limited cooking time. It's quick and easy because it uses frozen vegetables, fast cooking chicken breast and rice... continue reading
Quick Vegetarian Gumbo
Easy and much faster than traditional gumbo, without sacrificing that authentic flavor... continue reading
Quick Chicken Vegetable Soup
Make it fast and pack it in your lunch the next day. Different from traditional chicken vegetable soups, it includes frozen stir fry vegetables... continue reading
clairelaine, thank you as always for some great, healthful and delicious-sounding recipes! I will definitely be testing these out soon!
Keep those recipes coming ClaireLaine - simple ingredient listing, easy preparation and ultimately very healthy meals for all! Thanks 
According to the recipe analyzer the Quick Stir Fry has 676 calories and 3785mg of sodium! That's over 150% of your daily intake of sodium. That may be quick, but it's definitely not healthy.
deegirl...I checked the Quick Stir Fry and the portion is huge IMO, something like 1 cups of veggies over 1.25 cups rice. I would probably keep the veggies and cut down a little on the rice...And since the majority of the sodium is from the teriyaki sauce, you can cut that down by using a reduced sodium teriyaki sauce (fairly positive I've seen it before, assuming that they make it).
quick egg burrito! Beat 3 egg whites and one yolk; fry in pan with non stick spray; when done add cooked eggs on top of whole wheat burrito ( I buy big pack at Sam's Club) you may wish to heat the burrito in the microwave or pan
Adorn with leftovers veggies, mushrooms, green onion, peppers, spinach whatever you like!
Also if you wrap them tightyl in wax paper, they are great for toting to work and would probably freeze well too if you wanted to make a batch for the week!
Remember failing to plan is planning to fail, so plan those meals folks!
As for the healthy recipe comments, I was referring to the ones listed within the article...not the others.
Original Post by: lbhdeegirl...I checked the Quick Stir Fry and the portion is huge IMO, something like 1 cups of veggies over 1.25 cups rice. I would probably keep the veggies and cut down a little on the rice...And since the majority of the sodium is from the teriyaki sauce, you can cut that down by using a reduced sodium teriyaki sauce (fairly positive I've seen it before, assuming that they make it).
yes, the portion is too large, but that's easily fixed. The portion on the Gumbo is the same.
I should have noted that when prepared foods are used, the sodium content is usually high. That can be avoided by using lower sodium seasonings and foods frozen without sauces.
It's not hard to make an easy recipe healthier.
I'll make the stir-fry this week - got a new wok and need to find out if it works!
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