Recently, I posed a question to the members of an online forum I belong to. "You have ten minutes to get dinner on the table. What do you make?"
Overwhelmingly, the answers were things like hot dogs or macaroni and cheese or canned soup. Things, in other words, that are quick but not necessarily healthy.
Hot dogs or macaroni and cheese or canned soup make a quick and easy dinner every once in awhile, but what if your consistently pressed for time? A friend of mine with two kids in school, sports and other activities, who also commutes an hour each way to her full time job, and who is a single mom, says that she rarely has time to put a lot of effort into making dinner. She says, "My schedule means I don't have the time or the energy to cook a complicated meal, but I also don't want my kids to eat a lot of processed foods that are unhealthy." Her solution was to invest in a copy of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals cookbook, and then further slash the time spent cooking by buying convenient versions of healthy ingredients. Precooked and precubed white meat chicken, for example, or shredded cheese over block cheese or prewashed bagged salad.
Tonight, I fed my family Panko Crusted Chicken with salads, steamed peas and baked potatoes. The meal actually took me about fifteen minutes to cook, because I was also refereeing a disagreement over a toy between my kids. But had I been able to give dinner my undivided attention, it would have been on the table in ten minutes.
Here's how: I used Perdue chicken tenders over chicken breast, because they are smaller and thinner, thus cook faster. I used a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of ranch salad dressing to the chicken, rolled them in panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and then cooked them in olive oil in a skillet. While the chicken cooked, I scrubbed and pierced a couple of potatoes, then microwaved them on high for 8 minutes. Then I made the salads. When the potatoes were done, I used my Pampered Chef microwave steamer to cook the peas for 4 minutes.
By the time the peas were cooked, the chicken was nice and crispy and the potatoes had cooled enough to eat. Dinner was served!
This meal did require some forethought, because I already had my meat thawed and my lettuce and other produce washed and ready to chop. But it required very little of my time to make it and I felt good that I had prepared a healthy and tasty meal.
I also like the Perdue Perfect Portions chicken breasts because they can be baked in ten minutes without thawing them. I also utilize instant brown rice and frozen vegetable mixes to make fast and easy stirfries on busy nights. Here are recipes for several different sauces for stirfry.
Vegetable omelets are a quick option, and the Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella grilled cheese sandwiches I'm making for tomorrow's dinner are also ready in ten minutes. I use whole wheat bread, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese to keep it healthy, and serve the sandwiches with sliced fruit and homemade cinnamon chips.
How about you? Given the Ten Minute Meal challenge, what would you make?
Overwhelmingly, the answers were things like hot dogs or macaroni and cheese or canned soup. Things, in other words, that are quick but not necessarily healthy.
Hot dogs or macaroni and cheese or canned soup make a quick and easy dinner every once in awhile, but what if your consistently pressed for time? A friend of mine with two kids in school, sports and other activities, who also commutes an hour each way to her full time job, and who is a single mom, says that she rarely has time to put a lot of effort into making dinner. She says, "My schedule means I don't have the time or the energy to cook a complicated meal, but I also don't want my kids to eat a lot of processed foods that are unhealthy." Her solution was to invest in a copy of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals cookbook, and then further slash the time spent cooking by buying convenient versions of healthy ingredients. Precooked and precubed white meat chicken, for example, or shredded cheese over block cheese or prewashed bagged salad.
Tonight, I fed my family Panko Crusted Chicken with salads, steamed peas and baked potatoes. The meal actually took me about fifteen minutes to cook, because I was also refereeing a disagreement over a toy between my kids. But had I been able to give dinner my undivided attention, it would have been on the table in ten minutes.
Here's how: I used Perdue chicken tenders over chicken breast, because they are smaller and thinner, thus cook faster. I used a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of ranch salad dressing to the chicken, rolled them in panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and then cooked them in olive oil in a skillet. While the chicken cooked, I scrubbed and pierced a couple of potatoes, then microwaved them on high for 8 minutes. Then I made the salads. When the potatoes were done, I used my Pampered Chef microwave steamer to cook the peas for 4 minutes.
By the time the peas were cooked, the chicken was nice and crispy and the potatoes had cooled enough to eat. Dinner was served!
This meal did require some forethought, because I already had my meat thawed and my lettuce and other produce washed and ready to chop. But it required very little of my time to make it and I felt good that I had prepared a healthy and tasty meal.
I also like the Perdue Perfect Portions chicken breasts because they can be baked in ten minutes without thawing them. I also utilize instant brown rice and frozen vegetable mixes to make fast and easy stirfries on busy nights. Here are recipes for several different sauces for stirfry.
Vegetable omelets are a quick option, and the Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella grilled cheese sandwiches I'm making for tomorrow's dinner are also ready in ten minutes. I use whole wheat bread, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese to keep it healthy, and serve the sandwiches with sliced fruit and homemade cinnamon chips.
How about you? Given the Ten Minute Meal challenge, what would you make?
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3 comments:
quesadillas are one of our favorite quick meals. we also love bread and cheese and fruit for dinner. i always have brie or camemebert so i just get some baguettes and whatever fruit we have in the house. sometimes i add tuna to the mix.
When I don't have a lot of time or just don't feel like doing anything that requires more than minimal effort we have spaghetti because I keep meatballs in the freezer and sauce and whole wheat pasta in the cabinet. Another goto favorite is breakfast for dinner. Sometimes its fun to sit down to scrambled eggs and toast to change things up a bit. Although I admit to also doing the hotdog and mac and cheese thing plenty as well because my boys are picky and will actually eat them.
Wow. I need to get some panko bread crumbs! That sounds delicious!!
I tend to do grilled cheese, or quesadillas, or frozen swedish meatballs from IKEA (totally fattening, but Becca eats them like crazy with lingonberry sauce). I need to get better about keeping easily thawable meat portions on hand!! And I forget you "bake" potatoes in the microwave. I LOVE them and never want to heat up the house with the oven! I might make sonme tonight!
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