(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
These three-course economic weeknight menus (appetizers, entrees, and healthy desserts) include everything from falafel and white bean "meatballs" that are missing the meat, to salsa-topped canned salmon burgers, to a store-bought rotisserie chicken that gets a lift from gourmet homemade fruit sauce. Some of the entrees, like the easy "meatballs" lightly fried in healthful olive oil, are vegetarian. The main dishes that aren't, like the raisin, potato and pearl onion-enhanced 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 peanut butter-coconut truffles or sugar-free ice cream hugged by fresh fruit and a warmed spicy honey sauce. Honey, like the grapes it's draping atop the ice cream, is a true blue "superfood," but all the recipients usually know is that it tastes super.
Everyone can use a little help planning weeknight meals - and if that only takes seconds, that's even better. 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 - as these menus of family-friendly sensations prove. 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 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 kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" at the family dinner table.
QUICK MENU 1
Appetizer
Bloody Good Bloody Mary Soup
Processed tomato products are higher in lycopene, the important antioxidant, than fresh tomatoes. Combine a can of condensed tomato soup, a soup can-full of spicy tomato juice and a can of stewed tomatoes in a large pot. Add chopped celery, fresh lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and Bloody Mary mix. Stir well and often until very hot.
Entree
Say Si to Salsa-Topped Salmon Burgers
In a bowl, combine an egg with a can of salmon and shape into burgers, grill or broil until egg is completely cooked and served topped with a salsa made from cooked fresh or frozen corn, diced pear tomatoes, diced mangoes, cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper.
Healthy Dessert
Tortilla Toppers That Can't Be Topped
Top corn tortillas (better than flour ones, since they are whole grain) with a thin layer of trans fat-free margarine, sprinkle with ground cinnamon, sugar substitute and shaved dark chocolate (which is full of antioxidants). Broil until chocolate melts, watching that tortillas don't burn. Slice with a pizza cutter before serving.
QUICK MENU 2
Appetizer
How-To for Gourmet Hummus
Mix fresh lime juice and curry powder into store-bought or homemade red pepper hummus. Top with sprinklings of canned mini shrimp and toasted sesame seeds (sold pre-toasted in jars in the ethnic aisles of most supermarkets and considered ounce-for-ounce one of the healthiest foods on the planet.) Serve with whole-grain crackers.
Entree
One Sweetheart of a Raisin Chicken
Place a mixture of dark and golden raisins and a small amount of water in microwave container and microwave briefly until raisins are moist. Puree in food processor or blender with maple syrup and freshly ground black pepper. Heat in saucepan until a syrup. At end, stir in fresh chopped dill, rosemary and mint and serve over hot store-bought rotisserie chicken pieces and cooked pearl onions and small red potatoes.
Healthy Dessert
Pairing Broiled Pears with Homemade Truffles
Roll small balls of peanut butter in a mixture of dark chocolate shavings and unsweetened coconut flakes. Serve with broiled pear slices that have first been drizzled with fresh lemon juice.
QUICK MENU 3
Appetizer
Quick 'n' Slick Salad
Create a salad of a romaine base topped with whole white beans, sliced green and red bell peppers and pitted black olives. Drizzle with olive oil, white wine vinegar, freshly ground black pepper and fresh lemon juice.
Entree
Meatballs that are Missing the Meat
Prepare falafel mix according to package instructions, as well as incorporating in very small amount of white beans that you've pureed in food processor or blender along with curry powder. Make small "meatballs" out of the falafel/white bean mixture and lightly fry in olive oil (one of the heart healthiest ingredients) until fully cooked and serve over brown rice that's been dusted with freshly chopped cilantro and garlic.
Healthy Dessert
Spiced Warmed Honey Warms the Heart
Top sugar-free vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt or sorbet with halves of dark and green grapes, cinnamon, chopped walnuts and a drizzling honey mixed with cardamom that had been briefly warmed in microwave.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Time can even be lost in the simple act of using a knife, especially when chopping something sticky like dried fruit. Though you may have only tried it before on pots and pans, don't hesitate to lightly coat your knife with nonstick cooking spray. That should make tasks like these smoother and quicker.
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.
