Healthy Quick Meals

If you are too tired to cook a full meal by the time you get home from work, being able to cook a quick meal is a great skill to have. If you end up ordering in far more often than your budget can stand simply because it takes too long to cook a fresh meal from scratch, there is good news; it does not have to be that way. There are so many time-saving gadgets, tools and accessories that can help you make fresh, delicious meals in minutes. Whether you combine them with the new breed of fresh-packed convenience foods or use them help you make up your own “convenience foods”, cooking and kitchen accessories can make your entire life far easier.

Food Preparation

One of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of cooking great meals is the preparation time, the time spent cutting, slicing, dicing and otherwise getting ingredients ready to cook them. Great tools can put a serious dent in the amount of time it takes to prepare your food for the oven or the grill.

Cutting fruits and vegetables is much easier when you are using tools that were designed specifically for the job. The handiest food prep tools to have in your arsenal include:

- Stainless steel wire cutters to hold things like tomatoes and onions still so you can make uniform slices for burgers, sandwiches and bagels

- 5-in-1 Egg Slicer, which makes it easy to slice, dice, chop and wedge hard-boiled eggs – and other things like strawberries, onions and mushrooms

- Apple Corers, melon slicers and pineapple corers make short work of cutting up fruits in uniform slices or wedges and getting rid of the core. A must if you like serving fruit salad or fresh melon to your family for breakfast or dessert

Cooking Faster – Or Slower

If you thought your only option to cook things fast was the microwave, you haven’t seen some of the handiest cooking gadgets available. There are ovens, slow cookers (yes, for quick meals!), electric skillets and more. Here are just a few of the ways that you can take advantage of cooking accessories to get healthy meals on the table for your family fast.

Take a whole new approach to cooking with a NuWave counter top oven. The NuWave cooks foods up to 50% faster than a traditional oven – and it can cook from frozen for those nights that you forgot to defrost something for dinner. It’s big enough to hold a 10 lb turkey – or a 16 lb turkey if you choose the deluxe model.

Another countertop oven choice is the 9-in-1 Oven. It may look like a toaster oven, but it’s so far beyond that. You can toast, roast, broil and bake inside, and the top is a non-stick griddle/grill! It even comes with a rotisserie so you can roast a chicken or a roast on a spit. The convection setting cooks foods fast!

How does a Slow Cooker speed up your meal times? Take five minutes in the morning to drop a chicken and some spices into your slow cooker, set it on low and get to work. When you get home in the evening, your meal will be cooked to perfection and ready to serve. All you have to do is set the table and dish it up! Choose a Slow Cooker with easy cleanup features like a dishwasher safe removable insert and save even more time.

One last indispensable cooking appliance is a countertop griddle like the Electric 4-in-1 Grill/Griddle. Grilling is so much healthier than frying, but firing up the grill can seem like a whole lot of work for a quick meal. An electric grill can make it so easy to grill steaks, chops and even vegetables. Pick a multi-purpose grill and you can make Panini, stuffed sandwiches, pancakes, eggs and more.

Quicker Cleanup

Most people would agree that getting food to the table in only half the time with the same taste would be a great improvement. Cleaning up after the cooking sometimes takes longer than the meal. Invest in a few handy gadgets to make cleanup time much easier and quicker.

One of the best ways to reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning up spills in your oven is to keep those spills from getting there in the first place. A silicone oven liner will catch the spills and keep them from baking on. Just pull it out, wash it and put it back in. The oven liners can be cut to fit any size oven, and are even available to fit your toaster oven.

Keep your stovetop clean, too. It’s easy to do with a Ceramic Spoon Rest or a lid and spoon rest that holds your cooking utensils and keeps them from dripping on your stove. Add burner bibs made of spun fiberglass that will keep all those boilovers and spills from baking onto your stove surface, and the cleanup is as easy as popping them into the dishwasher.

About the Author:

Sandy Darson is freelance writer who writes about baking and cooking, offering recipes and discussing specific topics such as cooking accessories.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Top Cooking Accessories to Make a Quick Meal

Quick and Easy Recipes for Healthy Meals $12.73 Quick and Easy Recipes for Healthy Meals is a collection of simple, delicious recipes that make it simple to prepare nutritious meals in minutes.

Creating Healthy Meals $11.9 Many of us are striving to eat a healthier diet, and planning is particularly important in achieving that goal. This book is an overview of planning and organizing techniques for everyday cooking, and is also jam-packed with hundreds of healthy meal ideas to jump-start your dinner plans. Translate your dietary choices into reality with systems and resources that allow you to quickly create meals that incorporate your preferences, health concerns, time, and budget. Includes tips, techniques, worksheets, a master list of 200 healthy foods, and quick meal idea reference lists.

Quick Meals for Healthy Kids and Busy Parents $10.4 From three of the country's leading dietitians (who are also busy working mothers), here's the definitive cookbook for parents who don't have the time or energy to cook but want to provide their families with delicious, wholesome meals. This easy-to-use cookbook incorporates the latest nutrition facts and expert advice with a collection of over 140 tasty and healthy recipes for dishes that kids will want again and again.Quick Meals for Healthy Kids and Busy Parents serves up snacks, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts that parents will feel good about -- and kids will never know are good for them. Most recipes take less than 30 minutes to prepare, and all include complete nutrition information.

Quick Fix Meals $12.36 The host of a new series on Food Network, Miller provides recipes, timesaving tips, and strategies for serving up fresh, healthy meals every day with the least possible effort.

Healthy Weeknight Meals In Minutes $12.76 Healthy Weeknight Meals In Minutes

Healthy Meals for Babies & Toddlers $6.43 Healthy Meals for Babies & Toddlers

Delicious Heart-Healthy Meals In No Time $19.95 In today's fast-paced world, it is hard to find time to prepare healthy home-cooked meals. And most low-fat, low-cholesterol recipes are either bland and uninteresting or require hard-to-find ingredients and a lot of preparation time. Written by registered cardiac nurse Charlene Bolstad, this 176-page softcover book offers time-crunched individuals and families practical meal suggestions that are healthy, easy to make, and delicious. It's chock full of food substitution ideas, nutrition and shopping tips, quick meal planning tricks, pantry lists, and suggestions for eating on the go - and all recipes include full nutritional analysis information. You'll learn how to prepare: breakfasts that start your day full of energy,simple yet scrumptious lunches for home or the road,healthy dinner and entertaining menus,guilt-free desserts and snack recipes,.

Everything Healthy Meals In Minutes Cookbook $10.16 Want to lose weight and indulge in easy-to-make, great tasting food at the same time? With The Everything Healthy Meals in Minutes Cookbook, you're on the path to quick cooking and good eating. Packed with recipes that suit any taste, this cookbook offers meal alternatives low in calories, carbs, and/or fat. You'll find tons of recipes that use all of your favorite ingredients without tempting you to deviate from your diet. Delicious appetizers and entrees will satisfy all your cravings without adding the calories you don't want. From salads and seafood to meaty meals and desserts, you have hundreds of options for any time of day, including: Scrumptious appetizers, such as Shrimp Skewers with Pineapple Light salads, such as Arugula Salad with Summer Squash Easy lunches, such as Pan-Seared Veal Chops with Spinach Dishes for one, such as Chicken Apple Sausages with Dijon Glaze Family dinners, such as Thai Inspired Spicy Beef Lettuce Wraps Delicious desserts, such as Chocolate Fudge Mousse with Coffee Whipped Cream Complete with a nutritional breakdown of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, The Everything Healthy Meals in Minutes Cookbook is all you need to satisfy your hunger the smart way-at home or on the go!

Minutemeals Quick & Healthy Menus $9.25 Featuring 80 enticing, complete menus that can be made in 20 minutes or less, Minutemeals Quick & Healthy is packed with fresh ideas for meals that taste great! Every menu follows key health guidelines--from the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the USDA--and comes in at under 800 calories.

Quick & Easy Meals for Beginners $8.4 Quick & Easy Meals for Beginners

Diabetes & Heart Healthy Meals for Two: $12.88 Diabetes & Heart Healthy Meals for Two

Everything Healthy Meals In Minutes Cookbook $10.16 Everything Healthy Meals In Minutes Cookbook

Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals and Snacks $11.49 Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals and Snacks

Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals and Snacks $25.92 Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals and Snacks

Pretend & Play Healthy Meals Lunch $25.5 Pretend & Play Healthy Meals Lunch

Pretend & Play Healthy Meals - Breakfast $25.5 Pretend & Play Healthy Meals - Breakfast

Healthy Meals for Healthy Kids $9.91 Childhood obesity has hit record levels and parents remain confused over what foods deliver the vital nutrients growing bodies require. Healthy Meals for Healthy Kids explains how to ensure kids get a balanced diet that will help boost their concentration, increase their energy, and improve their performance in school. Of course, even the healthiest meals do no good if the child won''t eat them, and that''s why these 80 illustrated recipes are not only nutritious, but delicious and visually appealing. The scrumptious offerings include Turkey Meatballs and Rice, Cheese & Tomato Squares, and yummy Sticky Chocolate Bananas. What kid could resist? Additionally, there are tips for easily incorporating fresh and organic foods into children''s diets, plus a list of superfoods that pack a serious nutritional punch.

Brand-Name Diabetic Meals in Minutes: Quick and Healthy Recipes to Make Your Meals Tastier and Your Life Easier $9.15 With more than 200 recipes, this cookbook ends the need to worry about unhealthy indulgences with recipes that include good-for-you ingredients from famous name brands, such as Healthy Choice, Weight Watchers, Kraft, Equal and Dannon. Complete nutrient analysis and exchanges for each recipe are included, plus tips for cooking with low-fat ingredients and sugar substitutes. National ads/media.

One Year of Healthy Hearty and Quick One Dish Meals: 365 Low-Fat, Delicious and Time Saving Recipes $13.8 The original one-dish meals best-seller is now revised and updated. When You don''t Have the Time or energy to prepare elaborate dishes but want healthy, home-cooked meals, this book has exactly what you need--every day of the year. Already a best-seller, this convenient collection is now revised and updated with more than a month of new and improved recipes, complete with food exchanges and expanded nutrition information. One Year of Healthy, Hearty & Simple One-Dish Meals shows you how to create 365 irresistible meals, many of which are low-fat and fat-free, and low in calories, cholesterol, and salt. Delicious dishes include: * Tomato Asparagus Salad * Pleasing Vegetable and Bean Soup * Grilled Lemon and Lime Chicken * Vermicelli with Peppers * Delicious Easy Oven Stew * Baked Fillet of Sole * Grilled Lamb Steaks * Turkey Vegetable Skillet This book is specially bound to lie flat while using.

The Weeknight Survival Cookbook: How to Make Healthy Meals in 10 Minutes $10.4 Most quick and healthy cookbooks define quick as 30 minutes. In this step-by-step cookbook, registered Dean Irwin takes the term to Olympic speeds, offering 12 weeks of recipes for healthy dishes, each of which can be prepared in just ten minutes!

Food Network Quick Fix Meals Vol. 1 $29.95 Robin has twelve years of experience as food writer and nutritionist. She is Contributing Editor for Health and Cooking Light magazines and has regular features in many national magazines. She also provides recipes and nutrition information to the American Heart Association, The American Institute for Cancer Research, Weight Watchers and Reynolds. Busy people everywhere face the same dilemma: how to get healthy weeknight dinners on the table when you've only got minutes to spare. Cookbook author, nutritionist, and food journalist Robin Miller guides us through the landmines of preparing dinner nightly with her stress-free meal planning and prep-ahead strategies. Her easy, day-by-day plans help even the novice cook master these quick and tasty dishes. Recipes include Baked Ziti with Sweet Turkey Sausage, Asian Beef Salad with Cilantro, Scallions and Sesame Seeds, Crispy Skillet Potatoes, Grilled Tuna Steaks with Black Sesame Seeds, and many more. Closed captioned. Disc 1: Weeknight Solutions Ready, Prepped, Go Short Order Cook Chicken Crossing Disc 2: Make Ahead Meals In The Bag Freeze! Beef It Up Disc 3: Quick and Delicious Bring On The Flavor Fast And Flavorful Quick Fix BBQ Includes bonus footage: Quick Fix Helpful Hints! Robin shows you some tricks to save you time in the kitchen! Running Time: 210 minutes.

Food Network Quick Fix Meals Vol. 1 $29.95 Robin has twelve years of experience as food writer and nutritionist. She is Contributing Editor for Health and Cooking Light magazines and has regular features in many national magazines. She also provides recipes and nutrition information to the American Heart Association, The American Institute for Cancer Research, Weight Watchers and Reynolds. Busy people everywhere face the same dilemma: how to get healthy weeknight dinners on the table when you've only got minutes to spare. Cookbook author, nutritionist, and food journalist Robin Miller guides us through the landmines of preparing dinner nightly with her stress-free meal planning and prep-ahead strategies. Her easy, day-by-day plans help even the novice cook master these quick and tasty dishes. Recipes include Baked Ziti with Sweet Turkey Sausage, Asian Beef Salad with Cilantro, Scallions and Sesame Seeds, Crispy Skillet Potatoes, Grilled Tuna Steaks with Black Sesame Seeds, and many more. Closed captioned. Disc 1: Weeknight Solutions Ready, Prepped, Go Short Order Cook Chicken Crossing Disc 2: Make Ahead Meals In The Bag Freeze! Beef It Up Disc 3: Quick and Delicious Bring On The Flavor Fast And Flavorful Quick Fix BBQ Includes bonus footage: Quick Fix Helpful Hints! Robin shows you some tricks to save you time in the kitchen! Running Time: 210 minutes.

Minutemeals Quick And Healthy Menus $9.76 Minutemeals Quick And Healthy Menus

Quick-Fix Healthy Mix $12.92 Quick-Fix Healthy Mix

American Heart Association Healthy Family Meals: $23.09 American Heart Association Healthy Family Meals

Glorious One-Pot Meals: A Revolutionary New Quick and Healthy Approach to Dutch-Oven Cooking $11.71 A totally new patented way to cook quick and easy one-pot meals, while keeping ingredients intact and full of flavor. Elizabeth Yarnell developed her revolutionary infusion-cooking method to avoid often mushy slow-cooker results and to make cooking and cleaning up after dinner a breeze. Now anyone with too many tasks and not enough time can use her technique to get dinner on the table in an hour or less, with no more than twenty minutes of hands-on prep work and just one pot to clean. All it takes is a Dutch oven and a few basic fresh or even frozen ingredients layered--never stirred. Glorious One-Pot Meals provides the most convenient method yet of serving highly nutritious, satisfying suppers every night of the week.

Knack Baby's First Meals $12.14 Today''s parents want to know that only the best is going into their child''s body, and Knack Baby''s First Meals makes doing so easier than ever. With meals so simple, quick, and healthy, they''ll never buy jarred baby food again! The recipes include everything from fruit and vegetable purees to fish, meat, and chicken blends--incorporating new flavors babies are sure to love while using fresh, wholesome ingredients. And it features time-saving preparation tips, instructions for freezing and reheating homemade baby food, as well as tips for feeding babies with allergies.

Healthy Eating for Kids $26 Packed with essential advice on healthy eating, feeding fussy eaters, dealing with an overweight child, and plenty of tips for no-hassle meals, quick snacks and lunch boxes.

More Low-Carb Meals In Minutes $13.26 All-new recipes from the author of the hugely popular Low-Carb Meals in Minutes. Practical approach to The Zone, the Atkins Diet, and Sugarbusters. Includes Super Speed Suppers--assemble healthy dinners in 10 minutes. 170 recipes divided into three phases: Quick Start phase, Which Carb Phase, and Right Carb Phase.

Quick & Easy Freezable Meals $6.08 In the mood for home cooking, but short on time? Quick and Easy Freezable Meals, part of the Countertop Inspirations series, offers dozens of recipes that can be prepared ahead, frozen, and on the table in no time.

Healthy Meals for Less $7.9 McCoy, the original Miserly Mom, demonstrates that inexpensive meals can be both nutritious and mouth-watering. Each of her recipes include the price-per-serving and a nutritional analysis.

Quick & Healthy $12.36 Over 750,000 copies of Quick and Healthy Vols. I and II soldPeople spend less time cooking than ever beforebut where dothey turn when they still want to eat healthy? Quick & HealthyVolume II brings you over 180 easy recipes that are low in fat, cholesterol, and caloriesand take almost no time to prepare.

Fit And Fast Meals In Minutes: $15.36 Quick, healthy, great-tasting meals—using the same approach as the author’s enormously popular Dinner in Minutes column that reaches millions of readers each week. When Linda Gassenheimer’s bestselling cookbook Low-Carb Meals in Minutes appeared, famed chef Jacques Pépin cheered: What starts as a diet book becomes the blueprint for a healthy lifestyle based on appealing recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. Reviewers greeted her previous work with similar enthusiasm. Now this award-winning author has applied her Meals in Minutes formula to the latest USDA dietary guidelines—emphasizing portion control and more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains—and the result is a treasury of 150 enticing recipes, organized into a sensational 4-week meal plan. Recipes range from Asian to Mediterranean, from Tex-Mex to Caribbean, from breakfasts like Wild Mushroom Parmesan Omelet to show-stopping dinners like Sicilian Swordfish with Broccoli Linguine. Mouthwatering desserts complete the meals, like the Velvety Chocolate Mousse that takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. Helpful shopping lists make stocking the kitchen as efficient as possible, and smart advice on substitutions allows readers to take advantage of seasonal and discounted ingredients. Enjoying good food that’s good for you has never been simpler, or, as the Rocky Mountain News has raved about the author’s Dinner in Minutes: She does everything except come to your home and cook it for you.

First Meals And More $14.35 Giving parents the tools they need to get their babies and toddlers started on healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime, a bestselling author presents quick, easy, and delicious recipes with advice on how to awaken a child''s interest in a variety of foods.

Quick & Easy Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals $9.06 Quick & Easy Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals

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Quick & Easy Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals $8.59 Quick & Easy Dim Sum Appetizers and Light Meals

Healthy Travel Cooking $11.9 Healthy Travel Cooking: Ideas and Resources for Preparing Healthy Meals Away from Home includes planning techniques, packing tips, and quick and easy preparation ideas for preparing your own healthy meals on car trips, at motels or vacation rentals, and more. Includes tips for grocery shopping on the road, picnics, motel room meals, and business travel, with master lists of equipment, groceries, and meal ideas.

Pillsbury Fast and Healthy Meals for Kids $12.14 healthy meals really can be fun, fast and tasty! Between soccer practice, music lessons, school and work, it''s tough to put healthy meals on the table that kids will actually eat. Help has arrived! Pillsbury Fast & Healthy Meals for Kids gives you more than 100 super-fast recipes that even finicky kids will love. look inside for great recipes like these: Breakfast--Berry-Topped Oatmeal Pancakes Lunch--Chicken Caesar Pitas Dinner--Ultimate Barbecue-Rubbed Chicken Side Dishes--Honey-Mustard Coleslaw with Apples Snacks and Treats--Whole-Grain Snack Mix

Quick and Easy Freezable Meals $9.99 "In the mood for home cooking, but short on time? "Quick and Easy Freezable Meals "offers dozens of recipes that can be prepared ahead, frozen, and on your table in a snap This beautiful, 4-color book offers 144 pages of delicious recipes as well as simple kitchen tips and inspiration from God's Word. It's great for anytime gifts and personal use"