Fast Healthy Meals

Your ticket to quick meals is a well-stocked kitchen with items accumulated over time. When you're in a hurry or just don't feel like cooking much, have emergency items on hand that go together in a flash.

Start with a protein and starch combo:

Scramble an egg (with or without sautéed veggies of diced onion, green pepper, mushroom, etc.) and serve on whole wheat toast. Add a veggie salad, a glass of milk, and some fruit for dessert.

Combine any kind of rinsed and drained canned beans (black beans, red beans, kidney beans, etc.) with seasoned tomato sauce (one or more of parsley, chili powder, basil, oregano, cumin, hot sauce or whatever) or a lower sodium canned vegetable or tomato soup. Complete meal with a vegetable, fruit, milk food group and brown rice or whole wheat bread.

Add a frozen vegetable blend to quick-cooked pasta. Throw in leftover or frozen cooked ground beef or turkey, diced chicken, or water packed canned tuna or salmon. Season with a low-fat or non-fat salad dressing. Add whole wheat bread and a dessert of ice milk, low-fat frozen or flavored yogurt.

Microwave pricked baking potatoes. Defrost, crumble and microwave previously frozen ground beef patties. Combine with lower sodium canned mushroom soup. Heat and stir using medium microwave setting. Serve meat sauce on opened baked potato. Meanwhile fix raw vegetable relishes, stir up an instant pudding with lower fat milk, and pull baked, lower sodium whole wheat crackers out of the cupboard.

Again, microwave one or more baking potatoes. Top with lower fat cottage cheese or ricotta cheese, salsa sauce and sprinkle with grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese. Reheat carefully. Open a can of mixed fruit and serve on a bed of torn leafy lettuce or fresh spinach. (Cook leftover high-carotene spinach for a veggie later). Toast quarters of whole grain pita bread or rolls.

Have a whole wheat baking mix on hand and make pancakes or waffles. Use leftover canned fruit, cottage cheese and lettuce to make a big salad. Or top pancakes with lower fat yogurt and berries (fresh or frozen), applesauce, or cut-up fresh or cooked/softened dried fruit. Add a glass of lowfat milk or heat a cup of cocoa made with canned skim milk. When all else fails: Spread peanut butter on whole wheat bread, wash a carrot and a piece of fruit and cut-off a chunk of cheese or drink a glass of milk. Lower fat, nutritious cookies also taste good.

Mary Clarke, Ph.D.
Extension Specialist, Nutrition Education

11/94 File: CONSUMER FOOD MANAGEMENT/Meal/Snack Planning

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.