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Congrats to you Christine! It's nice to see a teen being proactive about her health.

Do you do the grocery shopping too? If you start off with a pre cooked deli chicken there are so many fast and easy ideas.

PIck the meat off the chicken and use it on top of a green salad , stir fry it with fresh veggies and serve over  Ramen ( with or with out the season packet),shred the meat into salsa serve on rice and top with cheese.

There are tons of ideas in the "Easy Week night Dinner " section. 

Good Luck

My sister and I learned to cook because our dad made the same dishes all the time. One of our favorites was tuna cassarole.

Cook two cups elbow macaroni or a half bag egg noodles according to directions. Mix with:

1 can drained light or albacore tuna

1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup

1 can drained mushrooms stems and pieces (optional)

1 box or half bag of frozen peas (optional)

Top with buttered bread crumbs, if desired.

Either nuke for a few minutes or cook at 350 for a half hour. If  you make it with whole grain elbows and low fat cream of mushroom soup it's not unhealthy.

Another option is topping sliced baquette bread with sliced tomato, mozarella cheese, a little olive oil and fresh basil.

You can also mix a can of rinsed and drained kidney beans with some scrambled hamburg, canned or fresh tomatoes,  1/2 teas. chili powder, garlic powder and pepper for a quick chili. Serve over corn chips and top with low fat cheddar cheese.

Hope this helps

Hi Christine,

You can do alot with  1 lb. ground beef. Brown the ground beef , drain fat off, stir in some salsa or Mexican seasoning  taste, now you can:

1. Use it as a base for a tostada salad. Ground beef at the bottom of the plate or large bowl, Cover with mixed greens that have been dressed with some light salad dressing, top with chopped tomatoes, sprinkle with shredded cheese if you have some on hand, crunch up some tortilla chips for fun, top with a little more salsa and a spoonful of sour cream. ( Our family likes refried beans added to the ground beef after it has been browned but some people do not like refried beans ) Keep in mind you can buy lettuce washed and ready in a bag, cheese already shredded and salsa made and in a jar.

2. Use the browned beef on a flour tortilla. I add a spoonful of refried bean in the center add some ground beef, roll it up, put it dry in a HOT fry pan. The tortilla browns beautilfully, just keep turning, crispy, hot, serve with side of salsa and a touch of sour cream. Big green salad on the side and maybe some easy to cook rice.

3. Trim zucchini ends, cut zucchini the long way, put in 8x8 or 9x9 pan , cover and cook in microwave for 6 min covered with clear wrap. Drain off water. Cover zucchini with ground beef  ( with or without the beans) and some cheese. Cover with foil, bake in oven 20 min. at 350. Take foil off last few min to let cheese melt. Serve with salad and rice and maybe some cut up fresh fruit.

You can do any of the above with left over chicken or ground turkey.

Good luck, Enjoy.

Welcome!

Here are a few of my favirite quick recipes:

PORK TENDERLOIN DIANE Printed from COOKS.COM
2 pounds pork tenderloin
2 tsp. lemon pepper
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Dijon style mustard
1 Tbsp.minced chives
Slice the tenderloin into medallions. (recipe says to cut then to 1” thick but I usually cut them closer to ½” so they cook even faster.)
Sprinkle surfaces of medallions with lemon pepper.
Heat butter in heavy skillet, cook tenderloin medallions 3 to 4 minutes (about 2 if you cut them thinner as I do) on each side.
Remove medallions to serving platter, keep warm.
Add lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and mustard to skillet.
Cook, stirring with pan juices, until heated through.
Pour sauce over medallions, sprinkle with chives and serve.

PASTA & CHICKEN IN PUMPKIN CREAM SAUCE (a Land o Lakes recipe -

Fresh sage and toasted pecans accent this delicious cream sauce.
Preparation 10 min. | Cooking 11 min. | 6 servings
Ingredients:
  8 ounces (3 cups) uncooked dried farfalle (bow tie) or penne pasta
  2 tablespoons Butter
  1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into        1/2-inch strips
  1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh garlic
  1 cup cooked canned pumpkin (or squash)
  1/2 cup chicken broth
  3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream (I have used ½ and ½ or light cream just cooking it down a little longer)
  1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; keep warm.
Meanwhile, melt butter in 12-inch skillet until sizzling; add chicken and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink in center (8 to 10 minutes). Add cooked pasta.
Combine pumpkin, chicken broth, whipping cream, sage and salt in medium bowl. Pour over pasta mixture; gently toss to coat. Cook over medium heat until heated through (3 to 5 minutes). Sprinkle with pecans.
TIP: To keep pasta dishes hot longer, heat the serving dish or bowl. Ovenproof serving pieces can be kept warm in a 150°F to 200°F oven. Spoon hot pasta mixture directly into hot serving dish immediately before serving.


Yield: 6 servings Nutrition Facts (1 serving) , Calories: 520, Fat: 27 g, Cholesterol: 135 mg, Sodium: 380 mg, Carbohydrates: 32 g, Dietary Fiber: 4 g, Protein: 34 g

Penny-wise Chicken Pot Pie
Preparation time: 25 minutes - Baking time: 30 minutes
Filling:
  3 tablespoons reduced-calorie stick margarine
  1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
  1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  2 cups water
  ¾ cup skim milk
   2 cubes reduced-sodium chicken bouillon
  1 can (15 ounces) mixed vegetables, drained
  1 small onion, finely diced
  2 cups (about 10 ounces) shredded, cooked chicken breast
  Cooking spray

Topping:
  2 cups baking mix
  2/3 cup skim milk
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, salt, garlic powder, pepper, parsley, and thyme; a thick paste will form. Whisk in water and 3/4 cup milk; add bouillon cubes. Continue to stir with wire whisk until mixture thickens slightly. Add mixed vegetables, onion, and chicken; stir to combine. Spoon into a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine baking mix and 2/3 cup milk and stir until a soft, sticky dough forms. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls on top of the chicken mixture. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until topping is golden and filling is bubbly.
Yield: 9 cups - Serving Size: 1 cup
Nutrition Facts
Per Serving: Calories: 215  Carbohydrate: 26 g  Protein: 12 g  Fat: 7 g  Saturated fat: 2 g  Sodium: 660 mg 
Fiber: 3 g 
Exchanges per serving: 1 1/2 starch, 1/2 vegetable, 1 very lean meat, 1 fat Carbohydrate choices: 2

Hello Christine!  I am very proud of you wanting to learn to cook.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

Chicken with potatoes and carrotts:

Carrots - 1 or 2 bags of small or tiny

Potatoes - cut up into cubes (size between a quarter and nickle)

Chicken breast skinless and boneless - 2 or 3 breast into cubes

onion soup mix - 1 package - this is the dry mix

oil - 1/4 cup

Mix together and put into a 9x13 pan.  Cook at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes until meat and vegetables are done.  This is great served with a salad and rolls. 

Hoggies in a crock pot

Beef Roast - medium size - with not much fat on it

Onion Soup Mix - 1 package

Basil - 1 teaspoon

Oregano - 1 teaspoon

Red Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon

Water - 1 1/4 cup

You can put dry ingredients into the crockpot the night before.  Then add roast and water to crockpot in the morning and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  Put this on before you go to school.  Serve on hoggie buns and thin sliced hot pepper cheese and tator tots. 

You should be able to chop or mix this up with a wooden spoon after it cooks all day.

Hi Christine...it's great that you seek meals  that are easy, quick and fairly nutritious.  This is a challenge MOST of us face.

Don't forget the old standby spaghetti.  If you have 1/2 pound ground beef, onion, green pepper, spaghetti pasta and jarred pasta sauce, you can cook up a hearty dinner fairly quickly.  Saute the diced onion and green pepper when the meat is almost done.

Consider some grocery products out there:   Start with lean smoked turkey sausage (it looks like a kielbasa).  It's easy to make in a skillet  You just heat 2 inches of water to boiling.  Add the sausage.  Cover and simmer 10-12 minutes.  Jennie-0 makes this product.  Then serve it or slice it up and add it to the Steamfresh item below.

There's canned chicken (the size and shape of the can is similar to tuna)  Drain it and flake it and add to products listed below.  Someone else mentioned rotisserie chicken.  That's a great thing to have on hand:  you could get a dinner, a salad, and a sandwich out of 1 chicken.  Eat it or freeze it within 3 days.

Success Boil-in-Bag makes a brown rice (which is healthier than white rice).  A pouch makes up about 2 cups.  There's directions for either microwave or stovetop.  Either method takes about 10 mins.  Serve as a side or add sauteed vegetables.

I also use Birds Eye Steamfresh (frozen vegetables with rice):  It's kinda bland so you might want to add things such as paprika, Worcestershire sauce, or even salsa to taste, depending on the type of this product you have.

Good luck --- maybe your discoveries of good dishes will get the whole family interested in cooking!

Hi Christine,

For a quick easy meal, I use fish as the cook time is much shorter than meat.

Using Tilapia or Swai fillets, dip in lemon juice

Coat in a combination of parmesan cheese (grated) and red pepper flakes (I use one single serve packet from my local pizza place).

Cook in a skillet over medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side.

In my house, we usually serve this with steamed veggies, or just a can of veg-all.

Good luck to you!

That is awesome that you are taking such an interest in dinner making at such an early age.  I don't know how healthy this is for you but my kiddos love it & make it all the time. 

Garlic Bread Pizza

Frozen Garlic Bread, pizza sauce, mozz., pepperoni & any other toppings you would like.  Just open the garlic bread & put on your toppings & bake as directed on pkg.  Serve with toss salad.

Chicken Parm.

Frozen breaded chicken patties, jar of spag. sauce, wide egg noodles & mozz. cheese.  Boil noodles as directed, drain, mix in with 2Tbsp. butter, put chicken patties in 9x13 pour spag. sauce over top & bake.  Take out & lay chicken on top of hot noodles & top with mozz. 

French Dip Sandwiches

1 3-4lb. beef roast, 1 can of french onion soup, 1 pkg. dry onion soup mix.  Put beef in crock pot, pour soup & dry soup mix over top & add 1/2 can of water.  Cook on low 8-10 hrs.  Once cooked shred meat & butter hoagie rolls, put in oven to slighty heat put roast beef on roll & top with mozz.  Use sauce from crock for dipping!

Meatball subs

1 pkg. of frozen meatballs, 1 jar of spag. sauce.  Put meatballs in crock with sauce.  Cook on low 4hrs. Serve on hoagie rolls topped with mozz.

Chicken Quesadillas

1 Pkg. of grilled chicken breast strips, shredded colby jack cheese & soft tortillas.  Place tortilla on George Foreman or other grilling machine top with lots of cheese, chicken, salsa.  Place other tortilla on top & close lid.  Let heat for about 4 mins. till brown & slightly crunchy.  Top with sour cream & more salsa!!

These are just a few things my kids like to make when having friends over or feel like messing around in the kitchen.  Hope you get some good ideas!!!  What a great KID:)

I make sausage with bow ties and peppers for my 16 year old son; he loves it! It's really simple and has only 4 ingredients:

Turkey Italian Sausage i package (If you use the links, just squeeze the sausage out of the links)

Bow Tie Pasta around 6 ounces

Vegetable broth about 1/2 can

1 and 1/2 bell peppers (I use red and either yellow or orange), cored and cut into 2 inch strips

Brown Sausage in skillet; when browned, add bell peppers. Cook until peppers are al-dente

Add vegetable broth

Cook bow-ties in salted boiling water. Add 1/2 cup or so of pasta water to sausage/pepper mixture

Drain pasta, add to sausage/pepper mixture.

Enjoy! Garnish with parmesan if desired

Hi Christine-This is my go to recipe, especially when I forgot to get something out of the freezer-

Enough frozen chicken (boneless, skinless) pieces to squeeze into a single layer in a 9x13 in pan.

Mix together-  1/2 cup light soy sauce
                          1/2 cup brown sugar
                           1/6 cup water

Pour over frozen chicken.  Bake 350 for 20 min.  Turn chicken over and bake another 20 min.  Then turn oven up to 400 and bake a final 5-10 min.  (don't cover chicken). 

Great with rice, salad.....

Hi Christine! Glad to see you're looking to cook some good food. It's not only better for you (as I'm sure you already know) but it's cheaper than fast food any day.

If you like, breakfast for supper is always good. Eggs, sausage, toast or potatoes...always good. If you like sandwiches, I like to make buffalo chicken salad.

Buffalo chicken salad

2 cans chicken, 2 Tbs mayo, 2 Tbs franks red hot, 1 stalk celery chopped finely. Just mix all together and it's done. You could have this with lettuce on a roll and serve with veggies and ranch dressing on the side.

Another thing I like to make is Beef Vegetable soup. Very simple to make the night before in the crock pot and put it  on before you go to school and when you get home, it's all ready to go with some rolls or whatever.

1 lb Ground beef or Ground Turkey

1-46 ounce can of Tomato Juice (if you like I use spicy V8)

1-16 ounce package mixed vegetables

2 cups frozen cubed hash browns ( I use Potatoes O'brian)

1 envelop onion soup mix

In a large skillet, cook ground beef until done, drain. Transfer to a 5 qt. crock pot, stir in the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook on low 8-9 hours

I hope you're having a good time with all the new recipes.

[quote user="junebloom8"]

Hi My name is Christine and i am 15. My parents don't really cook that much and im tired of eating fast food all the time. Is there anything thats good healthy and easy to make? Also i have a lot of school work and my sports so i don't really have a lot of time, is there something that is fast?

Hi Christine,

You could make a beef roast.  Use one envelope brown gravy, one envelope italian dressing, and one envelope ranch dressing with one cup water.  Put the roast in the slow cooker mix separately the envelopes with water and pour over the roast.  Cover.  Cook 8 or 9 hours on low.  Its real easy and you dont have to worry about anything.  You can use the juices on your potatoes and the meat.

Hope this works for you, enjoy.

Diane

Hey Christine. I'm 15 too and love to cook. Here are some quick ideas.

 1 box of velveeta macaroni

 1 lb. sausage

  frozen peas

Cook macaroni according to package. Fry sausage until browned. Mix cooked macaroni, sausage, and peas. Warm in the oven.

1-2-3 Peanut Butter Cookies.

1 cup peanut butter

1cup sugar

1 egg.

 Mix together. Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Make crisscrosses with fork. Bake at 350 until done.

Add a Salad and you have yourself a quick and easy meal.  

Yes.  Get the recipe for the Ham and Cheese Crescent Roll Ups.  This recipe is quick and simple but good!  I think that you will like it.  Please let me know when you try it.

Well done Christine! An old favorite in my family was something I came up with on a very busy weeknight. Take a box of your favorite Betty Crocker potato mixes and prepare according to the directions. Before baking add 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices of Kilbassa. The flavors really compliment each other and it's VERY easy. I usually served green beans or peas as a side.

Hi Christine! I'm a mom of three and they all like this one to cook and eat. Fast, easy, cheap and can be made with a variety of different fillings. The basic recipe is called Impossible Pie. It's from the back of the Bisquick box.

1 egg

3/4 Cup Bisquick (or other biscuit mix)

1 1/2 Cups milk

mix well and pour into greased 9" glass pie pan or 8"x8"x2" square glass pan. You can use a pan that isn't glass, but it works the best. Bake 30 minutes at 350 F.

Now for the fun part...you can make it like quiche with bacon, veggies, cheese; you can use cooked meat of any kind like hamburger and cheddar cheese for Cheeseburger pie; taco meat, cheese and salsa for taco pie; chicken, broccoli and cheddar; corned beef and swiss, etc. You can use all veggies, just cheese, OR you can add a little sugar to the basic recipe and add fruit (except fresh pineapple or kiwi) throw in some cinnamon or other spices to add a little more flavor.

My son wowed all his college friends by making this for them, and my daughter learned how to make it when she was 8!