August 28 - September 3: Quick and Easy Supper

No matter what you do during the day, if you're like me, by the end of the day you are often feeling tired, frazzled, and in no mood to deal with dinner.  Well, this week we hope to help.  Our theme is quick and easy suppers, and our focus is getting a healthy, home-cooked dinner on the table in minutes.  Fortunately for us, there are a ton of great resources online for healthy, fast meals. 

Light, Delicious, and Superfast - A few special words about Cooking Light
My personal favorite fast-meal resource is Cooking Light's Superfast collection, and so I want to give it a little special love. They have a huge section of 20-minute recipes, categorized for easy browsing to help you.  Have chicken breasts sitting in the fridge? Check out Superfast Chicken.  Want to fire up the grill a few more times before it gets cold?  Superfast on the Grill is there to help.  Craving some tex-mex flair?  Try Superfast Southwest.  Those are just a few of the categories featured.

I can't say enough about Cooking Light here, folks.  Some of my favorite standby recipes are from the archives of Superfast.  Pasta with Sundried Tomato Pesto is probably my favorite pasta way to cook pasta -- c'mon, sundried tomatoes, basil, and feta cheese? Who wouldn't be in love? (Spoiler alert - this is already on my list to cook this week!)  And it seriously takes more time to boil the water than it does to bring the sauce together.

The Barbecue Sirloin and Blue Cheese Salad is on the table in 15 minutes, tops -- if you buy prebagged lettuce, the beef will cook by the time you are done chopping shallot and slicing peppers. Did I mention it's delicious?  My husband, who eats anything I serve with a brave face but rarely remembers any meal the next day, requests this salad on a regular basis.

And if you're looking for a quick-prep meal that will look like it took hours to make, may I recommend the Fig and Blue Cheese-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin?  Melt-in-your mouth, 5 minutes of prep and 25 in the oven, and easy to clean up (but be sure to line your baking pan with aluminum foil!), and seriously impressive-- this dish is worthy of date night but easy enough to make any night.

 Other Great Resources for Quick & Easy Meals
Cooking Light is an old favorite of mine, but there are lots of other great resources out there for this theme, and I encourage you to check them out, too (go ahead, you won't hurt my feelings). 

• Martha Stewart's Dinner Tonight collection features hundreds of quick recipes that are designed to be easy, fast, and made with things you can find everywhere.  While you're browsing, sign up for the free Dinner Tonight E-mail list, too, and she'll deliver a daily quick recipe to your inbox.
• Of course, no list of quick recipe resources would be complete without Rachel Ray, Food Network's queen of the 30-Minute Meal empire.  She's got some great ideas, and if you can keep up her pace in the kitchen they'll all come together in 30 minutes or less.
• Not to be outdone, kitchen crusader Jamie Oliver also has a collection of 30 Minute Meals.  This site is more a promotion for his book of the same title, but the website includes several recipes from said book.  
• A quick search for "fast healthy meals" turns up some other great collections from Eating Well and WebMD -- I've had success with recipes from both!
• And here's one hot off the presses: a Huffington Post column that appeared yesterday features "Vitamin Packed Seafood Dinners in Just 15 Minutes or Less."  Seafood is great for this theme -- it is fabulous for your heart, and it almost always cooks quickly.  Shrimp, scallops, and fish filets will take just minutes from fridge (or freezer!) to table.

As you can see, this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart!  I hope we can inspire you this week, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with to make.  Happy cooking!