Quick and Easy Home Cooking

Get Set for Quick and Easy Cookin'

Draft a Game Plan: Set aside a few minutes once a week or every other week to preplan; draft your game plan. Maybe it's Sunday morning after you peruse the paper or Thursday night because you frequently shop on Friday evening. Whatever works for you as long as you do it regularly. Think about the foods you'll need for the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks you'll eat at home.

Take Stock and Stock Up: Link the foods you'll need to your shopping list. First, take stock. Check out what's in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry to help you put your plan into action. Next, add to your list what you'll need to have in stock. While these steps may sound arduous and time consuming, they prevent you from wasting time and energy on daily runs to the supermarket for a couple of items or worse yet, dialing for dinner because the cupboards are bare.

Be Ready to Cook Healthy: A number of foods and ingredients are standards for quick and easy healthy cooking. Keep these in your inventory.

  • Variety of vinegars mustards, and oils.
  • Tomato sauces
  • Canned tomatoes
  • Several types of dry pasta
  • Plenty of herbs and spices
  • Canned tuna, salmon, clams
  • Salsa
  • Grains - couscous, brown rice, barley
  • Canned beans
  • Frozen tortillas - for burritos, wraps, and tostadas

Buy Into Convenience: Some offerings in today's supermarkets make healthy eating a snap. In the produce aisle you find make-your-own salad bar or bags of pre-cut combinations of lettuce and vegetables. If you hate to make salads or cut up lettuce or vegetables, these products help you increase the servings of vegetables you eat, a healthy goal for sure. When it comes to fruit, ready to eat pieces of fruit are often available at the salad bar or in containers in the produce aisle. Take advantage of other healthy convenience foods throughout the aisles, lower-fat meals, pizza, pasta and sauces, frozen fruit and vegetables, and even pre-seasoned meats.

Create Healthy Meals Conveniently: Use convenience foods to help you make no muss, no fuss healthy meals. A few examples:

  • Start with a salad you compile at the salad bar and top the mountain of vegetables with any combination of canned tuna, hard-boiled egg, diced rotisserie chicken, chunks of ham or smoked turkey, or cheese. Add a whole grain dinner roll or crackers.
  • Top a frozen cheese pizza with onions, mushrooms, red pepper and sliced tomato. Eat two to three pieces along with a salad.
  • Boil pasta, steam pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower and toss it with tomato sauce.
  • Top a baked potato with steamed pre-cut vegetables or chili and melted cheese.

Seek Out Quick and Easy Recipes: Gather a bunch of easy to fix healthy recipes that you and your family enjoy. As you draft your shopping list check to make sure you have the ingredients in stock to prepare any three of them at any time. Your arsenal of easy to fix recipes should have these traits:

  • A limit of 5 - 8 ingredients
  • Ingredients are easy to find and keep on hand
  • Short cooking time (under 30 minutes) or longer cooking time that requires little attention (i.e.: an hour in the oven, an occasional stirring)
  • Everyone in the family loves it
  • Good for leftovers and brown bag lunches

Double or Triple It: Find recipes for which you can double or triple the yield to minimize the time you spend cooking. Make enough for two meals during the week or serve it once and stash a couple of meals in the freezer. Here are the types of recipes that lend themselves to quantity cooking and freezing:

  • hearty bean soup
  • chili
  • lasagna
  • enchiladas
  • tomato/meat sauce
  • chicken or veal cacciatore

Don a Chef's Hat on the Weekend: Spend an hour or two on the weekend to prepare foods for the week. Prepare a main course that makes several meals and vary it throughout the week with different side items like your favorite vegetable or a side salad.

Tasty Recipes to Cook Quick and Easy:

  • A recipe for high fibre bran muffins for a healthy breakfast on the run that beats your current high fat fast food choice
  • Calcium-filled custard for a healthy dessert or evening snack.