(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Psssst, kids! Want an easy idea for what to give Mom for Mother's Day? Just hand her this printout with an "XOXO" written on it or a kiss mark from you in lipstick. Make these split-second meals during the week (with Dad's or other adult supervision if needed) and you'll be giving Mom a needed break,
or, better yet, try to prepare 10-second meals like this every week. Or, psssst, Mom, if it's you here, you pass these off to your kids for a Mother's Day break! These three-course economic weeknight menus (appetizers, entrees, and healthy desserts) include everything from chicken stuffed with exotic citrus fruits, to salmon rolled up into tidy brown rice balls, to asparagus-filled ravioli. Some of the entrees, like the easy ravioli made from supermarket-bought wonton wrappers, are vegetarian. The main dishes that aren't, like the lime- and tangelo-filled roasted chicken, also feature produce seamlessly blended in to amp up the nutrition quotient. Even decadent desserts are created with your family's health in mind, although they probably will never realize that when they are feasting on custom-made treats, like sugar-free pistachio ice cream topped with a warm honey pistachio nut sauce or a warmed dark chocolate bar painted with raspberry jam and sweetened coconut. Some of these ingredients, like the honey or dark chocolate, are true blue "superfoods," but all the recipients usually know is that they taste super.
Everyone can use a little help planning weeknight meals - and if that only takes seconds, that's even better. Whether they are a gift for Mother's Day from your kids, or just a present of extra time you give to yourself, the three nights of menus that follow offer a lifeline during a busy week and prove that cooking can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. They take just
10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The meals are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family time around the kitchen table that goes along with it! Another benefit: You - or your kids - effortlessly become a better cook, since
there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlets - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" at the family dinner table.
QUICK MENU 1
Appetizer
Tempting Tomato Salad
Scoop out pulp of ripe, tasty tomatoes and place in a mixing bowl, reserving tomato shells as "salad bowls." Combine finely chopped nectarines, pears, French green beans, freshly ground black pepper, olive oil and red wine vinegar with tomato pulp, spoon back into tomato shells and serve topped with a drizzle of grated gruyere or other flavorful cheese and store-bought small whole-grain croutons.
Entree
Wow 'Em With Wonton Ravioli
Supermarket-bought wonton skins make fabulous ravioli wrappers. For a spring treat, fill them with cooked asparagus pieces, ricotta cheese, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, almond slices and lemon zest. Brush edges with water and "glue" a top wonton wrapper to it and boil very shortly until they rise to the surface.
Healthy Dessert
Great Grapefruits
Section grapefruits, place it and the juice from the fruits, in a nonreactive bowl and combine well, slightly mashing grapefruit pieces, with sugar-free sweetener, dark chocolate shavings and finely diced dried cherries. Place in freezer and stir well every 30 minutes, until gravely, which means it's turned into granita, an icy Sicilian treat.
QUICK MENU 2
Appetizer
A Spring Salad that Simply Sings
Shave cooked asparagus and toss with shaved aged gouda cheese, toasted hazelnuts and store-bought or homemade vinaigrette that's had some flavored honey added to it.
Entree
Brown Rice Salmon Balls with Real Bounce
Prepare quick-cook brown rice according to package instructions, add no-trans fat margarine, finely chopped spinach, freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated Parmesan cheese and drained, flaked canned salmon. Roll into balls and carefully lightly fry in olive oil.
Healthy Dessert
Pistachio Pizzazz
Gently melt honey in microwave for a few seconds until runny. Stir in finely chopped pistachio nuts and finely diced golden raisins. Pour the warm mixture over sugar-free pistachio or sugar-free vanilla ice cream.
QUICK MENU 3
Appetizer
One Slick Slaw
For a Brazilian-style nutrition-packed treat, combine grated carrots, grated beets, chopped celery, chopped red onion, chopped fresh cilantro, raisins, olive oil, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly ground black pepper, dried oregano and cumin seeds.
Entree
Citrus Tree Chicken
Before roasting, stuff the cleaned inside of a chicken you've seasoned with lemon-pepper salt substitute and cayenne pepper with the most exotic peeled whole citrus fruits you can find, such as limes, grapefruits, tangerines, tangelos and minneolas, as well as kiwis and nectarines. Carefully remove fruit and discard before serving the chicken over wild rice to which you've added chopped pecans and that you've also enhanced with fresh squeezes of those same citrus fruits.
Healthy Dessert
Dark Chocolate That's in a Jam
Paint the top of a flat dark chocolate bar with raspberry pure fruit spread (available in the jam aisle of supermarkets) and sprinkle with ground cinnamon, cayenne pepper and shredded sweetened coconut. Place in microwave for about 7 seconds, or until jam and coconut warms but chocolate has not yet begun to melt.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: As grilling season heats up - or anytime you cook this family favorite - better burgers can be just an easy step away. Taking
all of the following sumptuous steps with just one burger, for instance, caused "Chopped" TV star and New York City chef Marc Murphy to win at the ultra-competitive South Beach Wine & Food Festival's Burger Bash.
Consider following any one of the tips to receive great ratings from your own judges: Prepare homemade cheddar and black pepper rolls; brush rolls all over with melted butter and toast on both sides on grill or in skillet; before grilling, season your half-inch hamburger patties with salt and black pepper and coat with canola oil; grind black pepper onto cheddar cheese when it's been put on top of rolls and before melting; cover bottom roll with bread-and-butter pickle chips; prepare your own special sauce with a combination of mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, roasted garlic, and ketchup, and - if you want to "spike" it for adults like Murphy did - vodka - but ask your parents first before you do this!
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on Dr.Laura.com.
