Cooking Light, Fresh Fast Food Weeknight Meals

591 Pages·5.517 MB·English

by  Editors of Cooking Light Magazi

Cooking Light
fresh food fast
weeknight meals
welcome
Busy weekdays call for low-key weeknights and a chance to relax and enjoy a
home-cooked dinner with family and friends. That’s why we’ve created Cooking
Light Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals, a collection of over 280 5-ingredient,
15-minute recipes guaranteed to transform a few fresh ingredients into a
tantalizing meal—fast! With this cookbook in hand, you’ll be armed with strategic
ways to cook smarter, make the most of your precious time, and—best of all—
ensure that your efforts deliver incredibly delightful dishes night after night.
Each healthy recipe meets at least one of these two criteria: It requires five
ingredients or less (excluding water, cooking spray, salt, pepper, and optional
ingredients) or it can be prepared in 15 minutes or less. And many fit the bill for
both!
Within these pages, we’ll give you the inside track about what quick-cooking
ingredients to purchase and which flavor-enhancing techniques to use so that
you’ll never have to sacrifice taste and nutrition to save time.
Jam-packed with 140 complete menus and 25 desserts—with a
mouthwatering photo of each—we hope this cookbook will bring exciting new
recipes to your weeknight repertoire and that you will discover how easy it can
be to make healthy taste great!
The Cooking Light Editors
Contents
Welcome
Soups
Always satisfying, these soups taste like they’ve simmered all day and are the
perfect quick-fix comfort-food solution.
Sandwiches
Simplify dinner with hearty burgers, pitas, sandwiches, and wraps. Try Turkey
Cobb Salad Roll-Ups, featuring rich avocado, or a pressed sandwich slathered
with homemade pesto.
Salads
With fresh seasonal produce, the possibilities are endless for a crisp and
refreshing main-dish salad. Turn to these recipes for an appetizing dinner or
lunch-to-go.
Meatless Main
Grains, pastas, soy products, beans, eggs, and vegetables are the filling and
versatile stars of these tempting, protein-packed dishes.
Fish & Shellfish
The ultimate “fast foods”—with short cook times and flavors that are hard to beat
—these dishes offer a healthy option for weeknight fare.
Meats
Topped with robust sauces, flavorful toppings, and vibrant seasonings, you won’t
go wrong with this selection of beef, pork, and lamb.
Poultry
Whether you start with a cooked rotisserie chicken or a quick-cooking chicken
breast, these dishes come together in a flash.
Desserts
Satisfy your sweet tooth’s cravings with decadent cakes, puddings, pies, tarts,
parfaits, frosty treats, and fruit desserts.
Suppertime Shortcuts
Nutritional Analysis
Metric Equivalents
Soups
Smoky Black Bean Soup with Avocado-Lime Salsa
Zesty Spinach Soup
French Onion Soup
Mole Chili
Ham and Butternut Squash Soup
Greens, Beans, and Bacon Soup
Jamaican Red Beans and Rice Soup
Sweet Pea Soup with Bacon
Sweet Potato Soup with Pancetta-Rosemary Croutons
Southern Camp Stew
Chicken-Vegetable-Barley Soup
Ginger Chicken Soup
Chicken Egg Drop Soup
Chicken Florentine Soup
Spicy Chipotle-Turkey Chili
Provençal Fish Stew
Coconut Shrimp Soup

Smoky Black Bean Soup with Avocado-Lime Salsa
The rich avocado topping is the secret ingredient in this
recipe. It soothes the slow burn from the smoky chipotle
heat and adds a burst of fresh flavor.
Prep: 3 minutes • Cook: 15 minutes
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup water
1 (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1⁄ cup chipotle salsa
2
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Avocado-Lime Salsa
Reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
1. Place beans in a medium saucepan. Mash beans slightly with a potato masher.
Stir in water and next 3 ingredients. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat;
reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes. Uncover, and cook 2 minutes or until soup is
slightly thickened. Ladle soup evenly into each of 4 bowls; top evenly with
Avocado-Lime Salsa, and, if desired, sour cream. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1
cup soup and 1⁄ cup salsa).
4
CALORIES 172; FAT 5.7g (sat 0.9g, mono 3.4g, poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 7.4g; CARB
29.7g; FIBER 11g; CHOL 0mg; IRON 3.1mg; SODIUM 572mg; CALC 60mg
Avocado-Lime Salsa
Prep: 5 minutes
1 cup diced peeled avocado
1 lime
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1⁄ teaspoon salt
8
1. Place avocado in a small bowl. Grate rind from lime and squeeze juice to
measure 1⁄ teaspoon and 1 tablespoon, respectively; add to avocado. Add
2
cilantro and salt. Toss gently. Yield: 1 cup (serving size: 1⁄ cup).
4
CALORIES 55; FAT 5.2g (sat 0.8g, mono 3.2g, poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 0.7g; CARB
2.9g; FIBER 1.7g; CHOL 0mg; IRON 0.4mg; SODIUM 76mg; CALC 5mg