Recipe Swap: Fast, Healthy Meal Ideas
I don’t do much cookbook-based cooking these days, and I don’t usually have the time or desire to spend more than about twenty minutes prepping dinner. I’m also trying to eat healthier, so grabbing last-minute precooked meals isn’t really an option. I’m hoping that if I share some more of my dinner menus, you’ll do the same, because I can always use recipe inspiration—the caveat is they have to be easy, mostly lowfat, and fast.
Quick, healthy, low-effort stuff I’ve been cooking lately (listed by main ingredient):
Turkey burger
Spicy Rice Slop Olé: Cook your burger with desired amounts of salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (don’t be a wuss, now), cayenne, cumin, etc. Meanwhile, have some rice bubbling away in a rice cooker (you don’t have a rice cooker? You need a rice cooker). Mix the cooked rice and burger, adding some white beans. Melt a little low- or no-fat cheese on top, stir in some salsa and canned corn. I like to eat this mixed up with some salad greens, JB puts the whole mess in a tortilla wrap.
“Yes, It’s From a Jar” Pasta: Cook your burger with salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes, and mix in some jarred marinara sauce (Newman’s Own Sockarooni is pretty good, and not too sweet). Steam some broccoli and season the florets with garlic salt. Spoon everything together over pasta (I like those new pastas with protein and Omega-3, or pre-made ravioli).
Seafood
Fish ‘N Chips N’ Green Stuff: Bake some sweet potatoes or yams at 350 degrees for about 90 minutes (have some foil underneath to catch sugary drips before they sizzle on the bottom of the oven and set off your smoke detector). Prep some fresh white fish fillets by putting them in an aluminum foil ‘tray’ (fold up the edges of a piece of foil to keep juices from spilling out) and seasoning them with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and dried thyme. Grill the fish for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, until the meat is flaky and no longer translucent. Steam up some broccoli and garlic-salt those mothers to death (god, I hate plain broccoli, but I love it seasoned) or melt some low- fat-free cheese with skim milk to make a sauce and pour it on top. Serve fish with potatoes/yams (add salt, pepper, garlic salt etc to split-open potatoes, and maybe some butter and brown sugar if you’re feeling frisky) and broccoli.
Mango Shrimp Salad: Get some of those pre-cooked shrimps, yank their tails off, and mix them up in a big salad bowl with bagged greens, and whatever veggies sound good. Add some white beans if you like. Make a dressing from the juice runoff from a container of pre-made mango salsa (I particularly recommend Whole Foods’ salsa, SO SO GOOD), some oil, a little wine vinegar, and seasonings. Mix everything together with more mango salsa. If you’re not fussy about calories avocado goes great with this, and some lump crabmeat.
Chicken
Simple Grilled Chicken: Grill some breast meat, and serve with Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce (buy it NOW if you don’t have some). Stir-fry some fresh green beans in a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper for a side dish, or heat some Campbell’s Select Golden Butternut Squash soup (really good, and only 90 calories per serving).
Beany Bawk-Bawk Slop: Grill chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces, stir into a mixture of refried beans, salsa, corn, etc, and serve with rice or over a salad or in a wrap.
Stir Fry with Bawk Choy (Ha HA!): Stir fry chicken (pre-cut) with a little sesame oil, minced garlic, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Add bok choy, water chestnuts, pea pods, sliced mushrooms (shitaakes are great here), peppers etc and cook until done, adding whatever seasoning—ginger, that big bottle of spicy red stuff—you like. Allow the contents of the wok or pan to get watery and mix in some cornstarch to make a thicker sauce. Dump everything over rice.
I’m probably forgetting a lot of stuff but this is what we seem to cycle through on a fairly regular basis. Substitute tofu for meat items if you don’t eat things with eyeballs.
Posted: May 31st, 2007 under Cooking/Food, Personally recommended by Linda, Diet/Fitness.
Comments: 25
Comments
Comment from Leslie
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:06 pm
It’s none of my business, but what with the salsa and the packaged spaghetti sauce and the canned soup and the cheese and the garlic salt, you’re eating a *lot* of sodium. They make eleventy-three types of Mrs. Dash, and most of them can make even broccoli taste good. (Also, peel and slice the broccoli stems for a salad ingredient that’s terrifically crisp and slightly oniony. Mmm.)
I picked up a wee 2 oz. bag of Just the Cheese snacks (”LOW CARB” screamed the label), and when I got it home, I realized that although the two-serving bag offered up 30 percent of the RDA of calcium, it also had *26* percent of the sodium. Per serving! That can be a real problem in hot weather.
For summer, you also might want to try substituting sliced red grapes, celery, and pecans or walnuts for the refried beans, salsa, and corn in your Bawk-Bawk Slop.
Comment from Linda
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:55 pm
Love the grapes/celery/walnuts suggestion! (I WILL SALT THAT)
Comment from Leslie
Time: May 31, 2007, 10:25 pm
Heh. When I was little, I used to salt a piece of Sunbeam white bread and moosh it up to eat. And I also mix brown Minute Rice, salsa, and canned chicken into the Fastest Meal Ever so I’m more of a work in progress than a paragon of sodium-free virtue.
But think how well the new jeans would fit if you didn’t retain as much waaa-terrr.[/singsong]
Comment from Maria
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:57 am
How about an easy pasta salad?
Pasta, veggies and salad dressing or vinegar, oil and seasoned to taste. You can use canned, fresh or frozen veggies depending on how much time you have. If you use frozen, you can defrost them quickly by submerging them in a bowl of cold water while the pasta is cooking. Based on my mood I have used corn, garbanzo beans, olives, artichokes, broccoli, carrots, red oinion, etc. Anything goes really. You can add chicken or shrimp if you would like. When pasta is ready, run it under cold water. If you are going to eat it immediately because you don’t have time to refridgerate it, add a few ice cubes to the pasta. This tastes good warm, but I prefer it cold.
How about a pasta tuna/shrimp salad?
Salad #1: Put pasta on to boil. Mix a can of tuna/shrimp (or two if you are making a lot of pasta) with mayo, diced oinions (optional) and salt and pepper. Refridgerate tuna while pasta is cooking. When pasta is done, rinse in cold water and drain. Add some mayo and salt and pepper and mix. And tuna and mix. You can serve immediately or refridgerate before serving.
Salad #2: Put pasta on to boil. When pasta is done, rinse in cold water and drain. Add drained canned tuna (or thawed and drained frozen shrimp) some vinegar, oil and salt and pepper and mix. You can serve immediately or refridgerate before serving. I sometimes add diced garlic or onion.
Comment from Maria
Time: June 1, 2007, 3:30 am
Oh and I would appreciate more leads for great sauces and salad dressings.
Comment from Sarah
Time: June 1, 2007, 6:28 am
One of my mainstay quick meals is linguine with clam sauce. Set some water to boil and while you’re waiting, saute a couple of cloves of garlic in a skillet with about a quarter cup of olive oil until it starts smelling wicked good (but before it gets too brown and goes all bitter). Once you hit that stage, throw in the juice from two cans of clams (minced, chopped, whatever) and a couple glugs of white wine if you have it. I keep a container of my Nana’s basil/parsley mixture around and throw in a smattering of that. Let that come to a simmer. Your water should be boiling at that point, throw in the pasta. Once you’ve got about five minutes left on the pasta, add the reserved canned clams. You don’t want to add the clams at the beginning because they’ll get tough if they cook too long. At the very very end, just before you drain the pasta, throw in a pat of butter if you want the sauce to be a little more creamy than oily. Serve with plenty of your favorite pasta cheese.
When I’m just cooking for me, sometimes I’ll spread some refried beans on one big tortillas or a couple little tortillas and top with some grated cheese. That gets thrown under the broiler until the cheese is melted and then topped with salsa and whatever veggies I have on hand.
And one more! I make oven roasted veggies a lot (usually squash, eggplant, asparagus) and then whatever is left over gets combined with the previous night’s leftover protein and some of that enriched pasta. Excellent way to use up leftovers.
Comment from jonna
Time: June 1, 2007, 9:23 am
Sodium, schmodium. I can’t do it. I want to, in theory, except actually I don’t. I gleefully use plenty of canned items, and I salt them happily. Like you, Linda, I figure it’s my last frigging remaining vice. I don’t eat regular cheese anymore. I avoid pizza. I exercise. For God’s sake, let me have salt.
Comment from Anyabeth
Time: June 1, 2007, 11:15 am
We stir fry a lot, sometimes it helps to change up the veggies. I highly reccommend Trader Joe’s flash frozen green beans and also sugar snap peas with grape tomatoes, green/red/yellow/all three (can be bought frozen and precut for no prep). I tend to do beef but this would be good with chicken. I spice it up with various trader joe’s seasonings like the Chinese Five Spice and chili oil.
And I too salt and pepper things to death. Use kosher salt flakes for even more salty goodness.
Comment from Andrea
Time: June 1, 2007, 12:32 pm
I started a cooking blog a while ago, but I’ve been super lazy. Cruise on by for some recipes. Would you mind if I posted some of yours? I’ll test-drive them first, of course. 
Comment from Jennifer
Time: June 1, 2007, 1:31 pm
Ohhhh, thank you thank you for this post. I will try them ALL, as well as the recipes of the commenters. And I do have a recipe to contribute, I will return when I have some more time and write it down for you.
I managed to omit most salt from my diet a few years ago by keeping a shaker of lemon juice on the table. I lemonize everything now, and I still use pepper, and I don’t miss the salt anymore. BUT I still need copious sea salt on popcorn. Salt only - no buttery.
Comment from Deanna
Time: June 1, 2007, 3:04 pm
I’ve been making alot of meat salads (chicken salad, salmon salad, tuna salad etc). Being preggers (being induced Tues!) I am only allowed 1 can of tuna a week so I make it count! A guy friend turned me on to making tuna salad with salmon- I’ve tried various canned (and have been burned by more than one brand that required me to pick out bones etc - damn you tall cans of salmon!) so I prefer to make it with salmon fillets (bought at Sam’s in bulk- I love the blackened!) or the little cans that are by the tuna. Usually I just toss a couple of extra filets into the oven with dinner and then use them the next night to make the salad. Likewise, when hubby bakes a chicken, he debones it and I make chicken salad with the leftovers the next evening.
I really bulk it up. I add celery, cottage cheese (drained, couple of big spoonfulls- normally I don’t like the mouth feel of this but mixed in for extra protein, I don’t even notice it), bacon (we low carb, not lo cal), if we have leftover broccoli, I mince it and throw it in, a little mayo for consistency, loads of pepper, maybe a spice mix to change it up a bit, salt to taste.
I like mine with bread or toast or a side of chips (not low carbing cuz of the baby — uh-huh, yep, that’s why, wink wink). Hubby likes his on a bed of baby spinach.
Fast, easy when you use canned or leftovers, the chopping can be done with various interuptions or throughout the day when ya got a few minutes to spare.
Comment from serror
Time: June 1, 2007, 4:39 pm
One of my favs for warm weather is pasta salad too, like Maria. I prefer to do a kinda greek version with cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, sweet or green onions, feta crumbled, and usually some chicken. Then throw it all over a pasta with some whole wheat to up the fiber content ( I love the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Rotini for this) and a tocuh of italian dressing ( I like Newman’s Lighten Up Italian or Red Wine Vinegarette) Also, I like to have tons of veggies in this so that they pretty much equal the pasta.
Also, for above shrimp recipes, both Costco and Trader Joe’s have big bags of frozen pre-cooked shrimp without tails! I just throw some in a collander in the sink and run some cold water over ‘em to defrost when I need them. I like to do a asian themed salad with shrimp, lettuce, cabbage, water chestnuts, cucmber, carrots, onion, maybe some cilantro, and Newman’s lighten up Sesame Soy or Seasoned rice wine vinegar and some toasted seseame oil for flavor. Top with a few toasted almond slices. Also good with chicken, or marinated tofu.
Also for lunch I do tuna with lemon, dill, salt, pepper maybe onion and celery if I am feeling ambitious and just a touch of reduced fat mayo. On whole grain rye crackers with some tomatoes on top and fruit on the side makes healthy low fat filling lunch.
And I always use either english cucumbers or persian cucumbers, they tast waaay better and require no peeling or seeding, just regular old chopping. Costco has both the little sweet guys in a bag (usually by tomatos for some reason) and english for cheap. TJs usually has the little Persian ones…
Comment from jen
Time: June 1, 2007, 7:43 pm
Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine!!! You will love it. Quick, easy and healthy. Lots of free recipes on their website too.
Comment from Leah
Time: June 2, 2007, 1:34 pm
One of our staples is garlic shrimp pasta. Defrost some (tailless!) shrimp and throw them in a skillet with olive oil and garlic, and then stir it together with spaghetti or angelhair pasta. Salt, pepper, lemon juice, parmesan, DONE!
Comment from Jem
Time: June 3, 2007, 10:58 pm
I cook almost every day - its one of my vices, I find it relaxing and it encourages me not to eat fast food so much. I’m vegetarian however, so all my recipes are meatless, but I’ll post some of the ones that fit your criteria anyway. (These are going to take me a while to type up but I’m waiting for some other pages to load at the moment anyway, while I am awesomely on dial up speed, so I have nothing to lose.)
Um also, I don’t know about US measurements so hopefully this is all stuff you use in the States.
Pasta and Bean Soup - 5-6 large servings
Chop 1 large clove of garlic and 1 medium-large onion. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pot, add the garlic and onion and cook without browning until the onion is soft and clear. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon minced red chili, 2 bay leaves and 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme and cook for a minute longer.
Add a 425g can of Italian seasoned tomatoes anda 425g can of red kidney beans, and 4 cups vegetable stock or 4tsp stock powder and 4 cups water. Bring to the boil then add 1 cup of small macaroni or some sort of small pasta. Simmer, stirring occasionaly, until the pasta is tender (10-15 mins) then taste and add salt/pepper. Top each serving with a tsp of basil pesto and greated parmesan cheese.
Obviously you can leave out the extra touches but that soup is SOUPER (hee!) awesome so I left them in. And it makes heaps.
Chunky Corn Chowder - 4 servings, 264 calories per serving (or so I calculated)
Chop 2 large onions and 1 cup of celery (celery optional) into small 5mm cubes. Cook over moderate heat in a medium sized pot in 2 tbsp butter/oil without browning while you prepare the potatoes.
Cut 2 medium scrubbed potatoes into 5mm slices, then 5mm cubes. Add them all at once to the onions, add 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock then cover and simmer over moderate heat for 4-5 minutes until the potato is tender.
Add a 410g can creamed corn, rinse out the can with 1/2 cup water and add it, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sour cream or cream, and stir everything together. Bring to the boil, simmer for a minute, then take off the heat and stir in 1 tbsp basil pesto (optional). Season with 1/2 tsp salt, pepper and tabasco sauce.
Pasta with Summer Sauce - 2-3 servings (this is greeeeeat)
Cook 150-200g large spiral pasta in plenty of boiling, lightly salted water with about 1tbsp of oil or butter added. Drain when cooked.
While pasta is cooking, cut 1 large avacado and 4 ripe red tomatoes into 1cm cubes and put into a bowl. Add 1/4-1/2 a finely chopped red onion, 1 tsp minced garlic (1-2 cloves), 8 large basil leaves roughly chopped, and 2 tsp capers.
Mix these ingredients seperately - 3-4 tsbp extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp lime juice, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2-1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp dried oragnum, crumbled, black pepper to taste and 2-3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese. Mix them thoroughly and toss them through the vegetable mixture.
When its ready to serve, put the hot drained pasta into a shallow bowl, toss half the sauce through it, then spoon the rest over top and serve immediately. You can also add 6-8 black olives, 4 chopped sun dried tomatoes, 50g cubed feta cheese, 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, and chopped parsley. Or reduce the salt and add several finely chopped anchovies.
That’ll do for now - I have heaps more but I am way too lazy to write them out in one go!
Comment from Melanie
Time: June 4, 2007, 8:38 am
We have lots of pasta salad in the summer too. I buy frozen vegetables, because I am lazy and I don’t get home from work until 7 pm but this would certainly work for fresh. I boil the noodles (whole wheat. I am a little bit healthy) and about five minutes before it would be done, I dump a good portion of frozen veggies on top. We buy all kinds of mixed. My favorite is the broccoli, corn, red pepper mix. My husband perfers the stir fry mix with snap peas and mushrooms. I usually add oregano, basil, garlic, sea salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and minced onion. It takes 10 minutes and I make it in the morning. I pop it into the fridge and it is cold when we get home.
Comment from mika
Time: June 5, 2007, 11:54 am
Awesome black beans (can be low in salt if you desire ). Saute one onion and a jalapeno in some olive oil. Chuck in a teaspoon of chili powder and a 1/2 teaspoon of cumin. Add to that two 15 oz cans black beans drained and RINSED (very important). Warm that up a bit more and turn off the heat, then add the juice from one lime. The lime juice adds a lot of flavor which is why you probably won’t need to add extra salt. These are awesome in wraps, maybe with some cheese or avocado. Or you can also saute some cutup chicken breast with chili powder and cumin and add that to the wrap too.
Comment from telegirl
Time: June 6, 2007, 5:54 pm
OK, one of my favorite recipes and it’s pretty easy:
Layered Rice & Beans
In a bowl, put the following:
1) Jasmine Rice
2) Put heated black beans over the rice. Beans from the can are fine, you don’t have to get fancy but Mika’s recipe above would be scrumptious with this. Be sure to include the sauce from the beans!
2) Next put a little shredded Jalapeno Jack cheese over the heated beans.
3) Then some BBQ’d chicken cut up into bite-sized chunks (Lawry’s seasoning & pepper on it).
4) Fresh cut tomatoes.
5) Top with cilantro.
6) Then, to get it nice and spicy, put Cholula hot sauce over it.
Honestly, this is pretty easy and fairly healthy… as long as you don’t go too crazy with the cheese.
Enjoy!
Comment from telegirl
Time: June 6, 2007, 5:58 pm
Oh! And, I second Jen’s suggestion for Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine. I’m cooking a lot from that magazine and the ingredients aren’t hard to find like some other magazines .
Comment from Sarah
Time: June 7, 2007, 9:44 am
I’m on maternity leave (not for much longer though, bah) and my friends made me a big batch of chicken salad - chicken, grapes, celery, apples, walnuts - some low cal mayo. It was a lifesaver to grab a big bowl of it from the fridge and have a ready meal. I figure it’s fairly ok healthwise too.
Comment from metanoia
Time: June 13, 2007, 5:56 am
I get a bunch of skinless chicken breasts, cook them up on Sunday put them in a ziploc and use them during the week. Chicken tacos are quick: corn (or flour) tortillas, diced chicken, minced onion, chopped cilantro and green salsa. There is this salsa by Salpica: green olive/tomatillo/cilantro that is awe inspiring. Total “cooking” time about 15 mins.
Comment from Gwen
Time: June 21, 2007, 12:15 pm
Vegetarian Taco Salad:
Mix a can of drained pinto beans with a can of refried beans (the Whole Foods brand is cheap and healthy, esp if you get low-sodium) in a big skillet. Add your own seasonings — chili powder, cumin, etc., and heat until warm.
Take a big bowl of lettuce and plop some beans on top (usually the above makes four servings). Top with some shredded cheese (low-fat if you must), salsa, and low-fat plain yogurt or sour cream. Add chopped jalapenos if you like things extra spicy. At this point, I like to mix it all up with my fork before eating — it looks gross, but the cheese gets all melty and every bite has a bit of everything in it. Low-fat cheese in particular tastes much better once it’s melted.
Comment from Barbara
Time: June 25, 2007, 6:50 am
Hey, Linda. I cook A LOT and things that aren’t always quick and easy. However, it annoys me to no end that the thing that I get the most raves over when I serve to other people is NOT anything that involves homemade mayonnaise or anything exciting like that. No, it involves opening 6 freaking cans and slapping some spices in. Here it is: 2 cans of black beans, 2 cans of diced tomatoes (any of the flavors will probably work), 2 cans of corn. Open the cans, dump the stuff into a stockpot, throw in some cilantro and cumin, warm. Voila! Dinner that your friends and family will carry on about for days and ask for the recipe. You can also put cubed, cooked chicken in it if you need some protein. Garnish with shredded cheese, diced avocadoes (if you’re feeling fancy) and some sour cream.
Comment from Kim
Time: June 25, 2007, 1:14 pm
This black bean soup recipe is divine- from Crescent Dragonwagon’s Soup and Bread cookbook (also divine). It’s even better a day or two later. You can also double it and freeze leftovers. Adding cumin gives it more of a New Mexican/southwest flavor, and is yum too.
Pam cooking spray
2 cups dried black beans, washed and picked over
2 1/2 quarts any well-flavored vegetable stock or water
2 bay leaves
1 fresh jalapeño pepper, chopped with seeds (if you want the soup just a little hot, remove the seeds and white pith from the pepper) (I often omit this because I don’t have it on hand -Kim)
1/4 to 3/4 cup (if conscience allows) olive oil
3 large onions, chopped (Kim uses chopped dried onions because she’s lazy and tear-prone)
2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
4 to 6 cloves garlic, peeled and put through a garlic press or finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked white rice, for serving
1 onion, chopped, for serving
1. Spray a large heavy soup pot with the Pam and in it soak the beans in stock or water to cover overnight. (Or use the “quick soak” one hour method on the bag– Kim)
2. The next day add enough of the remaining stock or water to cover the beans by 1 inch. Add the bay leaves and jalapeño, cover the pot, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to very low and let simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
3. Meanwhile, in an 8- or 9-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and green peppers and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a few seconds more.
4. When the beans are tender, add the onion mixture to them and season with salt. Let simmer another 20 minutes. Serve at once, or, even better, the next day. Pass the rice and chopped onion at the table.
Comment from Deanna
Time: November 6, 2007, 4:11 pm
Not exactly healthy but . . .
I’ve been making this alot lately: http://carrisablog.com/lovebites/2006/10/23/chicken-corn-chowder/
I’ve used all kinds of leftover chicken or thrown a couple of breasts in to boil to use. Make a cornbread while the soup is on and yum! I’ve just been using chipotle flavored tobasco sauce insteadof pace. I’ve played with this and it is a pretty good base recipe.
Not sure how I ended up at that recipe but it’s yumm-o!
Deanna
Write a comment