You have loads of work to be done. There are your children to manage, a house to clean and a deadline to beat. Now somebody called up to tell you that they will be coming in for a visit. What do you do? How do you find quick and easy recipes that will help you get out of such dilemma? The best thing that you can do at this instance is do not panic.

Laugh at Yourself

You are only human and you are running a household. If you cannot find quick fixes with what you have left on your refrigerator, maybe you can come up with something from what is available. This is an impromptu affair. No one is expecting you to come up with masterpieces and meals suited for the royalties.

While you still got time, you must settle at your PC and try researching about the matter. While you are on it, try to picture the materials that you already have. You can start your research with what you’ve got. The idea here is to come up with something that your guests wouldn’t know you had a hard time doing. You have to do the recipes in easy strides.

Drop the oven and other tools that may take quite a time to prepare. Settle for the recipes that provide you with easy mixes and simple instructions. You must collect as much simple recipes as you can. Print them out so that you can ponder a bit as to what you would like to pursue. Now that you have the recipes, you can collect your materials to help you select which ones are you going to make.

Who are your guests? Adults can munch on some salads with some bread or cookies that you have on your storage. You must make your salad taste good even though you don’t have every ingredient in the book for the best one to be done. Now you can put those experimenting skills to a test. You can include the ingredients that you already have on your salad. You just have to make sure that everything will blend well and will taste great.

If you have kids coming in, you must also work on some easy desserts to be served. You must check your own children’s stored goods to see if you can come up with easy recipes using some of their goods. If you have to prepare meals, you can settle for easy fried chicken that most kids love to eat. This will also be enjoyed by your adult guests.

Now that you have done the best things that you can, given the short period to be able to prepare, you can surprise your guests through the presentation. Make your simple recipes appear elegant by placing them on serving plates with decorations. This way, no one will notice that you hurried the process. They will enjoy what you have for them. This way, you can all enjoy the time you will spend together.

After going through such phase, you must learn from it and stack up quick and easy recipes that you can pull out in emergency situations like that. You don’t need to be a good cook to be able to satisfy your guests with the food that you serve them. All you need is loads of imagination and determination to come up with the right material even at times when there is really not enough time.

Chicken is one of the all time favourite foods. Both kids and adults enjoy having chicken whether in their sandwiches, salads, pasta, as appetizers, and as full meals. On the plus side, it is relatively inexpensive and can be quite easy to prepare. It is a good source protein, zinc and iron and depending on the preparation and cooking is relatively healthier than red meat. You can have a fulfilling meal with just quick and easy chicken dishes. There are several of these recipes which you can easily buy off the shelves of bookstores or even read on the Internet.

Don’t worry too much on the chicken parts you are using. Believe me when I say that you won’t run out of recipes for each chicken part. All you need are the right ingredients and you can have a delicious meal in no time. You can combine these simple recipes with some useful cooking techniques which will make the whole process even easier and the resulting dish much tastier.

For example, when baking or grilling chicken, it would be best to leave the skin on first to make the meat tastier. You can remove the skin afterwards when you serve or eat it. Most of the fat of the chicken is stored in the skin. You can have a low fat chicken dish just by removing the skin. When you do prepare chicken dishes, I would suggest sticking with baking, broiling, and grilling. As much as possible, avoid frying the chicken. There are a lot more delicious and healthier ways to prepare and cook chicken aside from frying so let’s do that.

Let’s see, you can cook a tasty chicken dish with cream of mushroom soup. What you do is place sliced and skinned chicken on a pot and mix a can of cream of mushroom soup. Add another can of mushrooms but make sure the water has been drained. Add water and onion soup mix into it. You can cook this in low fire until the chicken is tender. Add salt to taste. And that’s it. Although, this recipe may take longer since you will have to cook the chicken in low fire to get that taste but the recipe is easy and the preparation is simple.

If you’re craving for pasta, you can add chicken into it to have a fuller meal. What you do is cut boneless and skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and sauté it together with garlic, green pepper, some onions and mushrooms. Make sure the chicken is cooked already when you add the vegetables. In a few minutes the vegetables should be done as well. At this point mix in your tomato or spaghetti sauce. You can cook your pasta while you’re doing this so by the time you’re done with the chicken, the pasta is firm and ready to be served. Sauce your pasta and top with grated cheese or parmesan cheese.

If you like a different approach, mix olive oil to your pasta instead of spaghetti sauce. That sounds interesting. When you combine pasta and chicken it seems that you can’t go wrong. Both dishes are very easy to prepare individually and combining the two is just simply mixing the dishes.

You see, by having some quick and easy chicken dishes in mind, you can save your family and yourself a lot of time in preparing your meals. Start reading and looking for those quick recipes.

When I wake up the first thing I do is smile that I am still alive. Life can have it’s ups and downs but in general it’s great to be alive. The next thing I think about is my stomach. What’s on the menu for breakfast.

I jump out of bed, put the coffee on, hit the bathroom to do my business and clean up a bit and then it’s back to the kitchen to make my breakfast. Without breakfast I would not have the required energy to get my day started right.

My wife Jenny makes the best breakfast granola. It’s so good that I have it, along with a sliced banana, about every second day. Way better than most store bought cereals.

I remember back not too many years ago it was up out of bed and off to a fast food joint on the way to work. No wonder I put on 60 pounds but not any more, not I get up a little earlier and eat healthier right at home.

So let’s start with a few simple and easy dishes for that first meal of the day, Breakfast.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

I have already mentioned that I eat healthy, most of the time. It took me about a year to drop the sixty pounds I had gain and I maintain my weight now, but I don’t mind having a heavy breakfast on Saturday morning, especially if I am going to be working in the yard or going fishing for the day.

On the weekends I like to have leftover mashed potatoes from the night before but I like to have them pan fried with onions and bread pieces. It goes back to when I was a kid, we had that most weekends. It’s just so good.

Of course my breakfast doesn’t end with potatoes, they are just one part of my weekend breakfast recipe.

I don’t eat a lot of eggs any more, not since having a major heart attack that almost ended breakfasts all together for me. But we do eat eggs once or twice a week and Saturday is usually one of those days.

I like my eggs sunny side up, while my wife and son prefer their’s to be scrambled.

So we have the potatoes, the eggs and a plate, not quite finished yet.

Another things I almost stopped eating was bacon. After the heart attack Jenny switched me over to turkey bacon, which I must admit sucked royally, but I ate it anyways. It was eatable with lots of catsup.

And to finish it off we have to have tomatoes. We grow our own tomatoes and potatoes and that time of year is pretty special. Nothing like garden fresh and vine ripe tomatoes.

Now just so you don’t think I am nuts for eating that with a heart condition like I have. I have checked with my doctor, frequently and have blood tests, frequently and all is well with my stats. We only eat like this once a week and Saturday’s are usually very busy and active so we work it off.

Then there’s lunch, but that’s for another post. Enjoy your Saturday morning breakfast.

Camping now and then is good for you. The fresh air, the sky, the stars, and the trees are great breaks from the urban jungle that we live in. However, even though camping is a great activity it does pull you away with the technology that makes life a little convenient. The heater, the air-conditioning, the stove, etc. cannot be carried in a backpack. And as a result, you will have to contend with what you have with regards various activities like sleeping and cooking. However, camping does not mean you have to be tied with bland dishes. You can have a scrumptious meal with a few quick, painless camping recipes.

Some of the basic meals you can prepare during a camping trip include hard boiled eggs and bacons for breakfast. Fish or chicken partnered with some boiled potatoes for lunch or dinner would be a nice treat as well.

The key for camping recipes is simplification. You can get your favorite meal then get the core ingredients, think of how you can transport the ingredients in the smallest available storage space and you’re ready to go. Camp meals are all about how much you can carry comfortably in your backpack.. You’re not going to cook inside the convenience of your kitchen. But rather, you will be working outside, on the grass and using firewood or charcoal. With this in mind it would be best to keep your recipes simple. Make something that you will just have to place on a skillet or frying pan all the necessary ingredients and let it cook.

For example, you can add some flavor and zing to your bacon if you add some onions, salt and pepper and add milk and eggs. That may sound a bit weird but it tastes pretty good. Add potatoes or mushrooms (or both) for a fuller meal and you’ll have a hearty breakfast that will keep you pumped up until lunch.

When you plan to cook fish over an open camp fire, you might want to remember packing aluminum foil with you. The foil will help protect the fish from being burned. Camp fires, when you’re not used to it are not as easy to control as a burner stove where high, medium, and low heat can be set with a dial of a knob. Before you wrap your fish in foil, you can add some onions, pepper, and even garlic inside it to add flavor. If you have some lemon with you squeeze some on the fish. Remember to pack the aluminum foil and other non-biodegradable trash for that matter back with you if you don’t see any trash cans at your camp site.

Grilling is a good way to cook over a camp fire and a good way to interact with your family as well. It is a social activity during a camping trip that both the kids and adults seem to enjoy. You can grill hotdogs or roast marshmallows over the camp fire. But what you can also do is pack some sausages with you and grill them for dinner. Pack some buns and ketchup and mustard as well. Go with pre-cooked sausages. You will spend less time cooking them on the grill, since you’re basically just heating them.

A quick, painless camping recipe involves being prepared beforehand. When you bring your food with you during a camping trip, it is best, of course, to prepare them before hand for faster cooking. For example, if you are bringing vegetables make sure they have been cleaned and cut to the desired sizes.

This way you will have more time enjoying the food rather than preparing and cooking them.

My wife, Jenny, has always bought pie crust for our needs but I think it’s time I gave making a pie crust that we can store in the freezer. I have done it in the past but have totally forgot how I did it, so I am going to follow the recipe below.

We only ever seem to have one pie crust at a time. Jenny does plan our meals so some times when I want to create something there is no way to do it unless I go and buy another pie crust, so I think having them home made will be great.

I also want to be able to just create a pie crust from scratch.

What You Need:

2 C sifted all purpose flour

1 t salt

3/4 C shortening

4 to 5 T ice water

Wax paper

Freezer wrap

How to Make It:

Place the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until mixture become crumbly.

Add 1 T of the ice water at a time.

After each addition, toss with a fork.

Push moistened ingredients to the side.

Only add ice water to dry ingredients.

Continue adding the ice water 1 T at a time until all the dry ingredients are moistened.

Dough should be moist enough to hold together but not sticky.

Divide dough in half.

Roll each half into a ball.

Wrap each ball with wax paper.

Wrap tightly in the freezer wrap and freeze for up to 2 months.

When ready to use bring to room temperature and roll out as desired.

It’s unfortunate but true that we tend to look for the quick way to do just about anything. Always looking for the shortcuts.

We lead busy lives, I guess that’s what causes us to want to be on the fast track for most things in our lives. And it seems that even our cooking and meals are being drawn under this philosophy.

We often prefer quick and easy recipes that we disregard the health values of the food we eat. Quick and easy recipes need not be unhealthy. Everything can be healthy with the right combination of ingredients and a proper way of preparing them.

I lived like that for the first 40 years of life until I had added on 60 pounds and had a heart attack. Now I grow a vegetable garden and do things for my health so I can stay with my family and friends a little longer.

One of the downside of quick and easy ways of cooking is that we often substitute fresh products with processed ones. This is so we can prepare our meals faster. We go to bottled and canned ingredients just to keep up with the time element of preparing and cooking the meals. Although, some products would claim that no preservatives have been added to their products. Prioritize these product lines when doing your weekly groceries.

So the best thing really is to rely on only fresh ingredients. What you can do is shop and prepare the ingredients beforehand. This will cut a load off your cooking time. You can now cook meals faster and have more time enjoying your meal.

Another way is convert an existing recipe into something healthier. Learn to substitute unhealthy ingredients with healthier ones. If the recipe is going to cook noodles, go with wheat noodles. Replace meat with high grade varieties that have less fat in them. The substitution can even be a little drastic. You can go with the vegetables you like instead of sticking with that the recipe tells you.

Also, learn to minimize or reduce the amount of the unhealthy parts of the meal you are preparing. Salt, for example, can be bad if you use too much. Just keep the salt to a minimum, don’t go adding excessive amounts to what you’re cooking. The same goes with butter, cheese, cream, and sugar. The taste will be affected, naturally, but in the long run you can have a healthier meal plus you will appreciate more the natural tastes of the ingredients during a meal. The vegetables are crisper and the tastes are fuller. .

Look for better ways to prepare your meal. If the recipe tells you to fry your chicken, why not broil it or grill it instead. There will always be some healthy options that you can use to prepare your meals. The kitchen and the recipe book should not tie you down with convention. Sure there are standards, but learn to think and experiment with your cooking. Now if your objective would be preparing a fast and easy meal, experimentation may not be the good way to go. Nevertheless, using different ways to cook your meals can get quite satisfying and at times surprising results.

Quick and easy recipes can be quite healthy if you just put your mind and put some extra effort into your cooking. Sure, the easy and quick ways are very tempting but not having the right nutrients is just not worth sacrificing over speed and convenience. But why sacrifice the other when you can have both.

A healthy way of cooking meals faster and simpler than before should be your new approach in cooking your meals.