Quick, Easy, Healthy Meals from Scratch - Intro and Tips

Necessity is the mother of invention. Migraines, sickness, emergencies, evening events, a lack of desire to cook anything or one of a dozen other things, are enough for me to have some quick, healthy meals up my sleeve. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the perspective, I have a bunch of them up my sleeve. I plan to share several of them with you this week.

I confess, I might avoid the need for quick meals if I would consistently menu plan and make intentional double or triple batch recipes for the freezer. Menu planning and I are fair weather friends. I'll go for weeks and weeks where I do make menus, but then I'll also go for weeks where I cook out of the pantry only buying staples like milk, eggs and vegetables. These quick meals are born when I'm feeling a bit like walking on the wild side, living by the hem of my skirt... So learn from my mistakes and make less of your own!

Creating a Quick Menu

When considering a quick meal, you need a menu and know how to cook. This would not be the time to try to learn. {grin} I posted my "Need to Know" list of cooking skills a few days ago. Check it out for starters - but not tonight if you need something f-a-s-t.

To come up with a menu, I always think: 1 protein, 1 starch/carbohydrate, lots of veggies. This combination provides a loose balance that Rich and I think is healthy for a diet. Then I head to the pantry & scrounge in the fridge to see what I have out and about. I always try to use what I have thawed and fresh first. I might have a fresh or thawed roast waiting, but if I have boneless chicken breast that's frozen, I use the chicken because it will cook faster - you just have to cook it over very low heat and start it cooking first.

What's a Protein? What's a Starch?

My protein list: beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, veal, wild caught salmon and various white fish, tofu and vegetarian alternatives. We try to eat biblically clean foods, because of the modern scientific evidence to back up why God established them as uneatable in the Old Testament.

My starch/carbohydrate list: rice, potatoes in any form, dried or canned beans (not wax or green), breads and things of that nature.

For balance in meal planning, I consider potatoes a starch, NOT a vegetable. They are very starchy and carbohydrate-y. We get potato starch for gluten free baking from them. It's acts as a binding agent to bind the flours together and make it more like normal wheat bread (if that's possible for gluten free baking...) So if we have potatoes with a meal, I count them as my starch and we still have 3 other vegetables.

Here at our house, we're not into low carb, low fat or vegetarian, we're into healthy and balanced. Sometimes that means a vegetarian meal, meat and potatoes or pasta and salad. For example, if for some reason we've had a lot of carbs in a day, like a big pancake breakfast and baked potatoes for lunch, I'll skip the carb for dinner and just have meat and veggies. Likewise, if we've had a lot of protein, we might just have pasta and salad for supper. Think briefly about what everyone's already eaten that day. If you don't know, stick to the 1 protein, 1 starch, lots of veggies formula.

Vegetables: The Main Ingredient

Vegetables are my main ingredient for a quick meal. They are easy to prepare. I strive for 3 servings at each lunch and dinner/supper. Nothing says "quick" to me like a salad. It provides all three of those vegetables I strive to have. So often, I just make a salad if I'm in a hurry. I can have one whipped together in less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It just takes practice.

My basic garden salad recipe is very basic and easy. For our six, I use one medium sized head of a leaf lettuce variety, 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, 1 carrot and a handful of alfalfa sprouts. I peel the carrots and cucumber, chop the tomato. I have a cool julienne peeler I picked up at the grocery store to make quick work of the carrots. To clean the lettuce, I chop of the "stump," run it under cool water washing off the dirt and put it in my salad spinner to dry it. Then I chop it finely (inch strips and then cross cut) with my large chef's knife. When I have more time, I'll add all kinds of other veggies from shredded purple cabbage to yellow summer squash.

I always keep extra bags of frozen vegetable blends (without the nasty sauce that has all kinds of icky stuff in it) and singles, like peas and corn. I also keep canned yellow beans and beets in the pantry. Winter squash can be cooked in the microwave just like baked potatoes. Although I prefer to do both potatoes and squash in the oven because I feel baking is healthier than microwaving. But when quick is needed, "Hello Mr. Microwave." (FYI: Trader Joe's has several frozen organic vegetable blends that are the same price as the non-organic local grocery store variety. I make a trip about every 2 months and stock up. Check to see if there is one in your area. They also have reasonably priced organic pasta, wild caught fish and other healthy things.)

Getting It On the Table

The key to cooking a quick meal is the order you start preparing it. It's not rocket science, but it took me watching Rachel Ray cooking a ton of cool things in 30 minutes to understand the concept. You always start by preparing the thing that will take the longest to cook, first. I felt really silly for a long time when I finally realized that fact. But alas, it's wisdom I can't deny. As I said above, learn from my folly!

After you've scrounged in the fridge, it only requires a few moments to figure out what will take the longest to cook and start that first. Write yourself a quick note if you don't think you'll remember the order. (Great intellects are often absent minded. That fact comforts me greatly.) Here's a couple timing tips:

• Be realistic about how long you have to prep a meal. Some quick meals do take 45 minutes and others you can get on the table in a literal 15 minutes. Learn how long it takes you to do a certain cooking process and plan accordingly.
• Unless I have a thicker cut of meat that needs to be on first, I usually start by washing and chopping vegetables that are to be cooked.
• Five medium sized bake potatoes take 15 minutes to cook in my microwave. I know that if I have 30 minutes to mealtime, they need to be started near the beginning of my prepping process.
• Because I know it takes me about 10 minutes to prepare a salad, by my halfway point, I need to be washing greens and have the other things already simmering.
• If your quick menu contains pasta, always start your water first. And instead of bringing pasta water to a boil from cold water, use hot water from the tap. Cook's Illustrated said they found NO difference in taste when they tested it and using hot water will save a heap of time.

In the next couple days, I'll share with you some of my recent quick meals. Until then, Happy Quick Cooking!

Articles in this Series:

Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Menu 4