Anyone know how I can make quick healthy meals for my family using less than 3-5 ingredients. I would love to cook like Rachel Ray on a shoestring budget and under 30 minutes would be totally awesome!

Katrina-

Isn't Rachel Ray awesome?  I love watching the Food Network!  Have you tried any of her recipes, her meals really can be made in 30 minutes!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/ 

www.allrecipes.com has a lot of good recipes too, it's my favorite cooking site!  You can plug in ingredients you have and even print out the recipes in differnet sizes for your cookbook!  It will even adjust the recipes for you if you want to make less or more!  LOVE IT!

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Angie

Mom to little monkey Brady (4/04)

All recipes will also let you print out a shopping list for all the ingredients that you need for all the recipes that you pick...it is a very cool site!!

I hear that Rachel Ray is coming out with her own magazine too...never watched her show(no cable) but everything I hear about her has been great!!

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~Katie
SAHM to the best anniversary present ever!
Ask me about my Double Ring Onbu!!

I love Rachel Ray. We always make her Coke Ham for Christmas. You just take a real ham and pore a can of Coke over it to cook. It is so good, tender, and sweet!

Tonight we are doing Herb Chicken breasts, Garlic rice, and carrots. My kids love it, but we have it 2 times a week. I need some more suggestions.
Beth

I really have to recommend checking out Eating Well magazine http://www.eatingwell.com/ because it not only has a lot of great recipes, it has really good articles on nutrition. A lot of their recipes are really simple, some are more complex but all can be done by the average home cook, unlike other food magazines where you need all sorts of specialized kitchen equiptment. I like how they take a menu and transform it from unhealthy to healthy so that you can see how easy making small changes can be. One of their suggestions was to use whole wheat English muffins in leiu oh hamburger buns when you want burgers for dinner. This is healthier for 2 reasons; one, the english muffin is considerably smaller than the standard burger bun and that lets you get by with makign smaller portion sizes of patties and two, whole wheat is better for you than a bun made with white flour.

Kelly 

I wish I knew how to do stuff in 5 steps or less....almost everything I cook seems to take *forever* and involve 12 trips to the store and 15 different ingredients. I have a few awesome vegetarian cookbooks, but the meals are so daggone labor intensive (though results are amazing!).

I think the simplest thing I cook right now is a chuck roast that is cooked with 2 cans of tomato soup and a packet of onion soup mix. And it's also the only thing I cook that everyone in my house will actually sit down and eat together. Even Madelyn loves it, and she hates almost everything. LOL.

So...if you figure out how to do healthy and quick in 5 easy steps or less, let me know! :D

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Amy
Mom to Holland (9), Madelyn (4) and Braeden (17m)

I need new recipies too, we always eat the same things every week.

Chicken and Rice
Spagetti
Baked pork chops and Rice
Steak and potoes.
Tacos

I need varity!

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JoLynda

Mama to Jayna 7.10.05

My world is revolving around whatever Satori will eat...

Spaghetti
Toast
Potatoes/fries
Pizza
Pancakes

My eating habits have gone down the drain this year. It's no wonder Satori and I get frequent colds now, and a year ago I would never get sick.

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Angela
Mama to Satori (11/04)

Here'a a quickie recipe that we often eat at our house, this takes about 30 minutes total:

• Whole Wheat tortillas/wraps
• Brown rice
• 1 can drained black beans
• 1 bag of frozen corn
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 package mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can drained black olives
• 1 can of tomatoes, diced
• 1 bell pepper, sliced or chopped
• bit of cumin
• bit of black pepper
• bit of cilantro
• jack cheese, shredded
• avacado, sliced
• salsa
• (grilled chicken or beef can be included)

make the brown rice and set aside. while brown rice is cooking, sautee beans, onions, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, bell pepper and spices until cooked. Take wrap and fill with rice, bean & veggie mix, avacado slices, salsa and cheese. Wrap it up and have a good healthy dinner

Kelly

I too could use some new ideas for healthy things.

DH is a picky eater, but for the sake of our children he is working on it.  We have talkedd about how he needs to be better about eating things so the kids don't pick up his bad habits.

His favorite dinner is Fish Sticks with Mac and Cheese   not exacly healthy.  If I could at least figure out a veggie to add to it other than salad Id feel better about it.

I LOVE using rachel ray recipies because once I have made it afew times I can put my own twist into it.  We make her chicken soup alot.  I now buy whole wheat noodels for it, and I use diffrent veggies depending on what I can find or what I feel like.  She also has some wild burger ideas.  she puts all kinds of things in them and she will make them with ground chicken or turkey some times. 

I do cheat alot with veggies for soups or in the crock pot.  I almost always buy frozen. When its going to cook that long a fresh veggie  dosn't stand up any better than a frozen one though in my opinion.  And it helps me save time! 

Is anyone else a big user of the crock pot?  have any good healthy ideas?  We do pork chops with saurkraut, pot roast, chicken "taco" meat.  If anyone would like those recipies I can post them.  And Id welcome any easy yet healthy crock pot meals since I think with a new baby they will be easy for me to get done in time for dinner. 

Elisabeth

s ideas are great! I also went by eatingwell.com and signed up for the magazine-- they give you a free trial issue and a free gift! http://www.eatingwell.com/subscriptions/subscribe/subscribe.htm

I was also discussing with Angie how I love watching Sandra Lee semi homemade and I do love her stuff. While is it expensive and Angie does a great impression of her (online impression but I swear I can auctually here sandra lee saying it!-- LOL)  ;) ) I don't think alot of it is good for you (she bakes alot) BUT we do tend to eat like that (there I said it-- it is out in the open!) I am that type of cooker. Also does anyone have that cookbook that has you make meals with like 5 ingredients or less?

Here's another recipe. This one came from Jessi. It's so good! It takes a while in the oven but it's not like you're standing there watching it cook? lol!

no-fry eggplant parmesan

peel and slice eggplant into 1/2 thick slices

dip in beaten egg and a litttle milk

dip in mixture of 1/4 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup bread crumbs (i use italian) and 2 tbsp parmesan cheese (i like to double dip them)

cook the slices on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil smeared with a little oil 350 degrees 10 minutes on each side, put in a casserole dish and cover with sauce and cheese, cook again 350 for about 20-25 minutes covered, then uncover to let the cheese brown

 

I have a cookbook that has menus with 5 ingrdients or less as a chapter. I'll look through it later and maybe post some if they sound good.

I do a lot of the same old stuff, but it has to be better than eating out.

I made "chicken parmesean" the other night...I took frozen chicken tenderloins and covered with a jarred spaghetti sauce. I like the Barilla Al Forno Baking Sauce. I then put shredded Parmesean cheese on top and baked until done. I then cooked noodles and served with bread.

Rachel Ray has a great stuffed baked potatoes. I stuff a baked potato sort of like a twice baked-- with ham and cheese and serve with a salad.

I cooked a really good ham and lentil soup the other day in a crockpot... 2 cans condensed chicken broth (not healthy, I know) 4 cups water, 2 cups lentils, a couple cups pre-cooked smoked ham cut into pieces, 4 things of celery chopped, 4 carrots chopped, medium onion chopped. Cook on low 8 hours

I do a lot of baked chicken and rice. You can pour some Italian Dressing or similar on the chicken and bake. I like to broil it at the end to brown it.

We do tacos a lot. Taco salad.

A great pork loin recipe. Rub a pork loin with soy sauce, sprinkle with salt, pepper and ground ginger. Drizzle honey over and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake until done. I usually do 325 for a couple of hours depending on size. Add extra honey the last 30 minutes. It makes a great sauce. You can serve with rice and use the leftovers for wraps.

I know none of this sounds really healthy, but it's the best I've got! :)

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SAHM mom to 2 beautiful girls

ok if you havent already  ran out of your home and gotten rachel rays newset cookbook with the years worth of 30 min meals  its a must get  ( this comming from a pastry chef )   yes ladies  awsome cook book i love rachel ray and she is a super sweet person too ive gotten to meet her  she ate at one of the places i worked  in denver back when she first started doing the show 30 dollars a day  shes the best but any who  if any of you even need a recipie  let me know i have tons of good ones and yes the food network site is awsome for recipies

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Jade sahm gypsie momma to sophia divina (1 mo) olivia ani (2YRS) philisha nyjan(6 YRS)

OK SO I AM ASKING-- please can we have some good recipes :) ? Please-- we need new stuff for dinner-- BUT please NO complex recipes.