Your favorte quick/easy dinners for busy testing times?

[mrs.b]

If you're adventurous and looking for quick, healthy alternatives, get a couple bags of vegetarian meat crumbles and use them in anything you would use browned and crumbled ground beef. It saves all the time of thawing and browning ground beef because they should be tossed into the recipe frozen, taste just like ground beef, and have very high protein and fiber contents without all the fat. For spaghetti, we prepare the sauce, then toss a bag of meat crumbles in about five minutes before ready to eat because they're done and just need to be heated. We're not vegetarian but they are a very fast substitute when needing something quick.

One of our weekend meals - only because the homemade salsa takes a little longer to make - is tacos. Put taco seasoning in a pan (or make your own if really kitchen savvy and wanting to save sodium), add water and meat crumbles, and let simmer. Blend the following in a food processor, noting that measurements are very rough and should be added a bit at a time by taste. When using fresh veggies in any recipe, measurements should be rough because flavor will vary depending on ripeness, season, and so on.
- about 3 to 5 large tomatoes (buy cheap...cheap breeds tend to taste better in the finished salsa)
- about one medium onion (cheap yellow, not sweet)
- about 3+ tbsp cilantro (dried or fresh but use more if fresh, I prefer dried due to price and coloring in the end)
- about 2-5 jalapeno OR 1-3 jalapeno and 1 habenero
- about 1 tbsp minced garlic
- about 1 squeezed lime (most recipes use lemon and you can...I prefer lime)
- about 2-4 tbsp salt
Mix a bit at a time, season along the way; if using dried cilantro, add, mix, and let sit for a few minutes for seasoning to hydrate and flavor. If onions are very flavorful and potent, use more tomatoes, lime, and salt. If tomatoes are strong, use more onion, cilantro, garlic. If jalapeno is overly strong, add more of everything to balance, but if too weak, add lime and garlic (carefully).

I've been paid $20 a jar for the stuff by coworkers, it comes out so tasty when mixed right, and it's something like 10-15 calories for a whole cup which is at least two servings of veggies and a ton of fiber and vitamins, with no fat or preservatives (stores about one week refrigerated, I don't like it frozen or canned but others I've made it for have frozen and canned and said it's okay). Some ground beef, black beans, tortilla, lettuce, maybe a little shredded cheese, then a ton of salsa is very filling. If you make the salsa over the weekend, you can have QUICK weeknight meals of tacos or tostadas (for tostada, heat oven to 375, put corn tortilla on baking pan and bake for ~10 minutes until crispy, then layer on refried beans and cheese, nuke for ~1-2 minutes until cheese melts, top with veggies and salsa for a very quick, tasty, filling meal).