I Need Simple Fast Recipes Please Help

Here is what I do:

Buy veggies from store and cut up when I get home. With a baby it's not so easy, but try to do it when you can. Then you can have carrots, celery, whatever ready to snack on right away or throw into a dish.

There are lots of pasta types to use. I get various types of whole wheat pasta and toss it with sauce and veggies. Premade ravioli is good.

When I make something like, say, chicken legs I make extra and debone and freeze what we don't use. Then I defrost and throw it in whatever I'm making...casserole, pasta, pizza.

If I still don't have time/energy after spending the day with two active little ones, then I don't feel too bad about ordering a veggie pizza or making one at home with the premade crusts at heb.

Most of all I rely on my crock pot. It's awesome. If you don't have one, I highly recommend that you get one. I got mine from Freecycle. Lots of recipe's here:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Here's tip...go to foodnetwork.com and enter an ingredient that you have plenty of (like ground beef) and do a search for recipes with that ingredient. You can then sort the receipes by level of difficulty. I do it all of the time. I like stock up on stuff that is on sale and then need to find creative ways to cook it. Try searching spaghetti noodles...tons of great chinese recipes! Good luck.

Spaghetti Carbonara

1 lb spaghetti
8 ounces of bacon (I used more and made turkey bacon)
Course salt and ground pepper
3 lg. eggs
¾ cup grated parmesan
½ cup half and half

Boil water for pasta. (salt water generously) Cook bacon according to directions. Cook pasta al dente. In a large bowl whisk eggs, parmesan cheese and ½ and 1/2 . Drain pasta –leaving some water clinging to it. Working quickly, add hot pasta to egg mixture. Add bacon, season with salt & pepper and toss all to combine (heat from pasta cooks eggs). Serve immediately and sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese

Here are some of my favorites:

quesadillas--take wheat tortillas and add chopped frozen broccoli and shredded cheese. put a little butter in the pan and cook on each side until brown (like a grilled cheese) ***also use other ingredients like beans and cheese or chopped lunch meat and cheese**

mix cooked whole wheat noodles w/ tomato sauce in a baking dish. put pre-baked chicken nuggets (i use the vegetarian ones) on the noodles then top w/ shredded jack cheese and bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. (i add frozen chopped spinach to the sauce to sneak in some green veggies)

take whole wheat english muffins and top with top with tomato sauce, a little frozen spinach, and cheese and put in oven to melt cheese. (i buy these round slices of porvolone at HEB that are the exact same size as the muffins so its really easy. they are HEB brand and they are usually near the shredded cheese)

mexican ravioli---take frozen cheese ravioli and add a small can of corn, can of black beans, can of diced tomatoes, and some frozen chopped spinach. also add a tiny can of tomato sauce and top w/ shredded chedddar. bake at 35 for about 35 minutes.

take boneless/skinless chicken breasts and cover them with preseasoned breadcrumbs. cook them on medium in a few tablespoons of oil.

make broccoli rice casserole w/o the canned soup and w/ brown rice to make it healthy....put 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and melt it. add some chopped onion and cook them a little. then add a tablespoon of flour. mix it until its thick and dry and add about 2.5 cups of milk. add some shredded american cheese and stir until the cheese is melted. pour the sauce over cooked brown rice and frozen chopped broccoli. add a little of the shredded cheese to the top if you like and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes...not as easy but makes a lot and babies love it!

email me if you have ____@____.com

Go to allrecipes.com. Everything that I have made from there is awesome!!

I am all about simple with my 3 boys. Here are a couple...

Sloppy Joes:
**Cook hamburger meat w/salt & pepper, onion salt (since you don't like onions), steak seasoning. **Drain the grease **Add ketcup, until all meat is covered. Heat and serve. Toast some bread or hamburger buns, add slice of cheese and lettuce. Believe it or not my kids love it!!

Hamburger/Cheese casserols:
**Cook up 1 lb. of hamburger meat w/salt & pepper (drain the grease) **Add 1 can cream of chicken soup **Add cooked rice (I use the bag of instant rice ** Mix hamburger & cooked rice together, put in casserole dish **Cover top w/shredded chedder cheese **Cook on 350 for 35 minutes. Serve hot. (I usually serve "squeaky" green beans on the side)

Happy Easy Cooking! (I am glad your little one is doing better)

I buy deli prepared pesto sauce ( at central Market or Whole foods), pasta, asparagus, frozen corn, cherry tomatoes, parmasean, and feta crumbles. I cook the pasta in a pot and lightly saute the veggies in olive oil. I then combine it all and presto! yummy and healthy!

Hi S.! I'll soon be your new best friend! :) Check out recipezaar.com it has thousands of recipes and you can tailor the results to your needs. Good luck.

bow tie pasta, green pepper (red and orange if your like), link sausage or turkey sausage. Cut up everything throw it in the pot. Boil pasta separately. Once everything is cooked put together and put some tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce on top. Easy, quick and good.

I've done the Power Cooking Pampered Chef show that Mora is talking about. The recipes are fabulous, easy and you can prepare them ahead of time and simply thaw the night before. Prep is quick and simple too. Then you whip up a veggie or some sort of side dish while the entree cooks and you're done. It's great.

I would highly recommend you to check out Rachael Ray's 30 minutes meals. They are easy and fast and use real ingredients that you have in your kitchen or can easily get at the supermarket. You can make the recipes to your own tastes too. What I would suggest is instead of using fresh onions and garlic you can use a little onion powder and or garlic powder to taste.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/30-minute-meals/index.html

I have one that I call Ranch Chicken.

Boneless Skinless chicken breast
Paprika
Ranch Dressing
Olive Oil Or butter

I do not handle raw chicken so I cook the breasts whole, then cut them into pieces.

Cook the chicken with the paprika. Use as much or as little as you like. Once the chicken is fully cooked, turn off the burner. Wait for about 5 minutes, then pour on the Ranch to taste.

Serve with Brown or White Rice.

My kids love it and I usually make it about once a week. I've only had one person tell me they don't like it, and that's because they don't like Ranch dressing.

Hope this helps.

PORK: coat pork chops or ribs with italian dressing, bake @ 300 for about an hour per lb.
VEGGIE: microwave frozen spinach and drizzle w/Gerber baby food #2 carrots.
DESSERT: drizzle Gerber baby food #2 Pear and Blueberries over a slice of angel food cake...and slather with whipped cream.

I also just bought "1001 Short and Easy Recipes" from Borders ($6 on sale) and all the recipes are similar to above - not alot of ingredients but plenty of flavor. Happy eating!

Besides spaghetti, there are endless easy ground beef dinners like ... beef and noodles. You can add cheese (I like Velveeta) or just tomato sauce and spices. Or beef and potatoes. Or beef and corn with spices and tomato sauce. There's sloppy joes (easy - beef and canned sloppy joe sauce). Or spaghetti noodles or rice with shrimp (precooked frozen most cost effective and easy) and butter or olive oil and spices. And my hubby's fave (super easy) ... cut steak into strips and pan fry. Add Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. Done!

My fav website is www.allrecipes.com they have a whole section on easy recipes. Good luck!

Have you ever thought of having a power cooking show? Your friends all come over and you make the ingredients for 3 recipes: one to eat at the show and 2 to freeze for later. There are also tools at the show to make it easier that you can buy (Pampered Chef). Email or call if you are interested!
____@____.com
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Hello S.! I have a great one that the kids actually love! Now keep in mind 1 of the ingredients you can ony find at middle eastern shops but there are tons around town, if you are in the NW Houston area, the old Antones (which is now) Anthonies on Stuebner Airline and 1960, sells it. It is called Labne (kefer cheese) it is like a thick sour cream. Basically you cook spagetti noodles, once done, drain, add a couple big spoons of Labne and some dried mint (just smash it in your hand to become fine and add to the pasta and labne, then mix until well blended. Thats it, is it so good and light. :)

There's lots of easy, simple to cook recipe books at the book store. There may even be some at the local library.

Try these sites:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search?q=quick+and+easy

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=slv8-msgr&...

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&...

Taco Soup
1 lb. ground beef, 1 cn. whole kernal corn, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can ranch style beans, 1 can tomatoes, 1 pkg. ranch dressing mix. You can add a pkg. of taco seasoning if you like. If the consistency is too thick you can add V8 juice.

Pizza sandwiches

oven to 350
1 loaf french bread halved lengthwise
1 pound ground meat
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 can chopped black olives (optional)
cheese slices

Mix meat, seasoning & olives well. Spread a thin layer of the meat mixture on the two halves of the loaf. Bake at 350 until meat is cooked (about 15 minutes) Break cheese slices to make triangles. Arrange the triangles on top the the two sandwiches so they are overlapping slightly. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese wilts onto the meat. Slice into individual portions and enjoy. Freeze any leftovers for a quick zapable treat or meal later.

I use bollos (spelling?) or sourdough rolls to make each one an individual portion.

Lately, we've been getting frozen catfish nuggets from Fiesta that's already breaded & cooked. Takes only a few minutes to heat them up.

Tartar sauce

1 Cup mayonaise
1/8 cup sweet relish
1/8 cup dill relish (squish as much juice out of the relishes as possible)
1 tablespoons VERY FINELY minced onion

Mix well, keep in covered container (I make double batches and use a spaghetti sauce jar )in fridge. Supposed to keep up to a month but it's never lasted that long at my house.

"Cheater" Chicken & Dumplings

Chicken stock (can be doctored right from the can/box!)
leftover chicken shredded
bag of frozen mixed vegies or peas & carrots
can of biscuits

Bring stock to boil. Season at will. Throw in vegies and return to boil. Cut each biscuit into fourths and drop into boiling broth.
When biscuits are done, add shredded chicken, remove from heat and let stand a few minutes to heat meat through without rubberizing it.
You can also use a package of wide egg noodles in place of the biscuits. (They cool off faster for little fingers)

Chicken & rice

oven 350

1 can cream of mushroom soup
milk
rice
leg quarters

Mix the soup with 1 can of milk in a baking dish. Use the same soup can to measure 1 can of rice into soup mix. Arrange leg quarters on top, season to taste and bake until chicken is cooked through.

http://sanantoniomoms.blogspot.com/

Mom, I post easy recipe ideas a long with what is on sale at HEB. I hope this helps.

The problem with "simple and quick recipes" is that the recipes inevitably rely on processed or canned ingredients. (OMG, have you ever read the amount of sodium in Campbell's soup??) Pre-made and canned food has a lot of sodium, A LOT (not even going to mention the fat content, dyes, MSG or preservatives). The canned food industry relies on either a high salt or sugar concentration in order to keep bacteria from spoiling the contents (salt and sugar increases the osmotic pressure of the organism and they can't live in that type of environment).

Just keep this in mind. If you are developing a lifestyle, long term reliance on canned, processed food can be extremely problematic and unhealthy. Especially in regard to heart health and blood pressure, especially in children.

Frozen vegetables are so much more healthy than canned vegetables.
Consider buying small crock pot.
Make home-made dinners on the weekends and freeze portions so you can quickly heat up during the week.

cook a whole chicken bone and set meat aside.
Yellow rice in package from the store. Use the broth from the chicken for the liquid in the rice when boiling add meat pieces and rice cook as per the directions. Very good and easy and filling not expensive.

Potato soup
boxed or caned chicken broth
several potato's pelled and cut into bite size pieces
cook in the broth.
Thicken with instant potato's adding a small amouth until the thickness you want.

Hamburger paties with a piece of bacon wrapped around the side. A piece of pineapple slice pressed into the center. Grill or bake till done good with rice and vegetables.

Stew

1 lb ground beef browned and drained
1-2 can green beans with liquid
1 cans tomato soup
salt and pepper to taste
dot with globs of mashed potato's just before eating will help thicken and also give additional taste to the stew.