It’s hard to get a home-cooked meal on the table during the week. Now that we are on daylight-saving time, at least there’s more light to cook by in the evenings, and a new crop of “quick and easy” cookbooks gives lots of ideas on how to take that lost hour back.
These days, saying “That’s so Martha Stewart” can just as easily mean a simple baked fish dish as a complicated dinner party. In her new book, “Great Food Fast,” Stewart and the editors of her cute little magazine, Everyday Food, offer 250 time-saving recipes and clear how-to instructions for mealtime building blocks.
The magazine’s food editor, Sandy Gluck, says the pictures in the book and the magazine are the real thing – nothing’s faked – so that readers see what they can do at home.
“Readers tell us, `I have to get dinner on the table, I want it to be healthy, to appeal to the whole family and not take too long,'” Gluck said by phone from New York. “It’s a big puzzle, but it’s an interesting puzzle.'”
And she has some ideas on how to fit the pieces together:
Two for one: If you’re roasting a chicken, roast two – eat one and save the other for another night.
Multi-tasking: Put the pasta water on before you make the sauce. “If you’re doing vegetables, throw them into the pasta water at the last minute – you’re saving time, energy and water,” Gluck said.
Use the freezer: Look for recipes you can double and freeze half.
Appeal to different tastes: Make a plain base (like a spaghetti sauce) that kids like, and add hot peppers and olives to part of it to jazz it up.
Plan just a little: Clean lettuce all at once. Get it really dry and put it in a bag with a damp paper towel so it will ready for a fast salad.
Her tips will help you avoid using packaged foods, she said. “It winds up being more expensive and you don’t know what’s in it.”
Robin Miller, mother of two young boys and host of “Quick Fix Meals” and “Robin to the Rescue” on the Food Network, swears by her “meal kits”: prepped ingredients waiting in the fridge for their turn at the stove.
“If you have time on the weekend, use it to get meals ready for the week ahead. Make it your hour. Throw on some comfy clothes, crank up the music and get out your ingredients for the week,” she writes in her new book, “Quick Fix Meals.”
In typical multi-tasking style, Miller spoke by cell phone while shopping in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she lives when she’s not shooting in New York or Los Angeles.
“The whole strategy of `Quick Fix Meals’ is to take 45 minutes on the weekend and you will get three complete meals on the table in 20 minutes or less during the week,” Miller said.
People will often stop Miller to say thanks for getting them off takeout. “They tell me they are spending more quality time with their family, eating better food and stressing about it less,” Miller said.
To assemble the “meal kits,” chop vegetables and store in plastic bags. Precook rice or pasta and store in bags or containers. Cook, roast or bake chicken, turkey, pork, beef, fish and vegetables so that you just reheat, assemble and serve.
