Quick Easy Meals

Most of us in today’s world lead hectic lifestyles, which leaves us with hardly any time to prepare healthy and nutritious meals. Hence, fast food, instant food and takeaway dinners have become a regular feature of almost everyone’s lives. Even those who do make it a point to cook at home, for health and economy factors tend to choose quick and easy meals, for the sake of convenience. Fortunately, there are several recipes for easy meals that make use of healthy ingredients; these quick easy meals can be consumed on a daily basis, mainly due to the fact they are high in nutritional value, yet take no more than a few minutes to put together. These easy healthy meals are not only excellent for weight loss purpose, but they can also help ensure that a person receives all the important nutrients required by the body, for it to function properly.

Easy Meals for Two

    
Most people who are cooking for two people tend to choose recipes that neither require a lot of preparation time, nor a lot of cooking time. However, it is also important for the food to be tasty, or else, people will lose their motivation to prepare quick and easy meals for dinner and will resort to fast food or takeaway dinners. Given below is a recipe, of one of the light and easy meals for dinner:

Scrambled Eggs with Shrimp:

Ingredients:

• 5 Ounces of shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 Large eggs
• 3 Tablespoons of milk
• 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 Potatoes, unpeeled and diced
• 1 Clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1 Leek, sliced
• 1 dash of hot pepper sauce
• Salt to taste

Method:

• In a skillet, heat the olive oil and add the potatoes to it. Cook the potatoes for about 7 to 10 minutes, till they start to turn tender. Add the garlic as well as the leeks, cooking them, till the white part of the leek turns translucent, which should take 5 more minutes.
• Break the eggs in a bowl and beat them, with the milk and salt, till they are combined properly.
• Add the raw shrimps to the skillet of the potatoes, cooking them for a few minutes,
• Once the shrimps have been cooked, add the beaten eggs to the skillet
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook gently, stirring all the ingredients frequently, till the eggs are cooked and the shrimp turn opaque and pink. This should take about 3 or four minutes
• Sprinkle some hot pepper sauce on the eggs and serve them, while they are hot.

People could add some more vegetables to this recipe, to increase the nutritional value. The veggies that would probably help enhance the flavor further include mushrooms and peppers. Herbs could also be added to these easy meals to make, so that their flavor is enhanced.

Easy Meals for Kids

    
It is a well-known fact that most children are picky eaters, which is why it is not very easy to cook for them. Moreover, most of the children also prefer junk food, to homemade, healthy food. This is probably why many working mothers find it a challenge to cook easy meals for their kids. However, given below is a recipe for one of the easy meals with ground beef, turkey or any other meat that suits the child’s tastes:

Shepard’s Pie for Children:

Ingredients:

• 2 Pounds of ground turkey or hamburger
• 8 Ounces of shredded cheese
• 1 can of corn
• 1 can of cheddar cheese soup
• 2 Boiled potatoes, mashed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• In a skillet, cook the meat, until it turns brown. All the water needs to dry up from the meat
• Mix in the can of cheddar cheese soup
• Layer the bottom of a casserole dish with half the mashed potatoes.
• Spread the corn and then the meat over it. Top the dish with the left over potatoes and then sprinkle all the cheese over it.
• Bake the dish in a preheated oven for around 15 minutes or so, or until the cheese on top melts.

Parents can choose to add more vegetables, like mushrooms, pepper, onions and garlic, while cooking the meat, to enhance the flavor and nutritional value of this dish.

Camping is a very popular activity, for adults as well as children. However, many people prefer to carry along food that is easy to cook or heat in front of a camp fire, a grill or a Dutch oven. Given below is the recipe of a very easy camping meal and is one of the favorite camping foods of most children:

Grilled chicken burgers

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken breast fillets, skinless
• Steak seasoning or lemon pepper
• Mayonnaise
• Lettuce slices
• 4 Jumbo hamburger buns

Method:

• Pound out the chicken breasts till they are flat and place them in a Ziploc bag. This needs to be done before packing it up for the campsite.
• At the campground, the chicken fillets should be laid out on the grill, where the seasoning is added.
• Turning the chicken frequently, cook it till it is tender.
• Just before the chicken is cooked completely, the buns need to be grilled and the mayonnaise can be applied to it
• The cooked chicken breast should be placed on the burger bun, and topped with lettuce

The sauce used for seasoning the chicken can change according to a person’s taste and preference. Some people use teriyaki or salsa to season the chicken.

It has been seen that most college students prefer preparing cheap easy meals on a budget, due to their financial situation. Moreover, since obesity is quite high in younger people too, many students show a preference for low fat easy meals, which can help them reach their weight goals sooner.

Chicken and vegetable stir fry:

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breast, diced
• 2 Carrots, cut into slices
• 1 Clove of garlic, sliced
• ½ Green pepper, sliced
• ½ Red pepper, sliced
• ½ Yellow pepper, sliced
• ½ Onion, sliced
• 200 Grams Bean sprouts
• 1 Cup cooked egg noodles
• 3 Tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce
• Oil for cooking
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic to it. Pour the sliced chicken into the wok and cook it
• Add the remaining vegetables, once the chicken is brown and cooked
• After a few minutes, add the cooked noodles
• Sprinkle the salt, soy sauce and the oyster sauce for taste.
• Serve the dish while it is hot

There are also several recipes of easy meals to freeze, such as lasagna, chili, baked dish, stew, spaghetti sauce and so on that are easily available through online resources.