15 minute meal

15-Minute Thai Salad

February 16, 2022 by Tiffany King Leave a Comment

This Thai Salad Recipe is on the table in 15 minutes. To make it that quick, you’ll need to use cooked chicken that you’ve already made and frozen (one of my favorite tricks) or rotisserie chicken.

It is packed with Thai flavors and is absolutely incredible!

It’s great as a main dish, but could also be served as an appetizer or side salad.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Ingredients

For the salad:

2 heads romaine lettuce
2 red peppers diced
3-4 carrots diced
1½ cups edamame
1 cup cilantro chopped
1 cup cashews
¾ lb. grilled chicken breast sliced, optional

For the dressing:

¼ cup creamy peanut butter
3 Tbs. rice vinegar
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. lime juice
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 Tbs. honey
dash chili flakes

Instructions

For the salad:

Toss together the salad ingredients.
Add chicken, if you're using it.
Top with dressing to taste.

For the dressing:

Whisk all dressing ingredients together.

April Meal Plans are Here!

March 30, 2018 by Tiffany King 1 Comment

April meal plans are ready!

Spring really is coming, even if winter seemed to hang on this year. And spring means eating lighter foods, fewer soups and stews and more salads. Eat at Home Meal Plan members can login to download their grocery lists and recipes. Members have access to four different meal plans – Traditional, Wholesome Traditional, Slow Cooker and No Flour/No Sugar.

If you’re looking to save a ton of time and a lot of money, our meal plans are for you!

Think more main dish salads and raw veggies

Like this favorite of mine, Summertime Tuna Salad, packed with fresh veggies, some good protein & loads of flavor!

And flavorful veggies piled on top of fresh veggies, like in this Sweet Potato Peanut Salad!

With a few time-saving hacks thrown in for good measure

It can be as simple as starting with a gluten-free crust to whip up this BLT Pizza in under 15 minutes. That’s less time than delivery & you get complete control over how much you add of each ingredient!

This Grilled Ham and Apple Sandwich with cheese and a bit of chutney makes for a quick and light spring dinner.

And the ever-popular Freezer Week

The week every month when you can freeze 6 dinners in one hour. It’s perfect for those spring sports, recital practice nights when you get home later than usual, and you’re just too exhausted to cook. I would love for you to join me on Facebook Live this month when I bag up all six of these meals in one hour and answer whatever questions might pop into your head in the process!

And Oh My! The Spring Desserts!

Nothing says spring like fresh fruits!

These Balsamic Strawberries may sound a little odd, but they’re amazing! And when you add whipped cream, oh my!

You just can’t go wrong with this tried and true Blueberry Cobbler!

Or how about Zucchini Carrot Cake, with its sweet take on fresh veggies?!

Just in case those aren’t enough, we’ve included a variety of cookies, brownies & bars that are perfect for impromptu picnics.

If you’re a Weekly Meal Plan Member then you’ll find all four plans and your color-coded shopping lists on the Member Login Page. And if you’re not a member yet, but you’re a bit curious, you can watch a quick video and check out all the details on our Weekly Meal Plans Page. For any questions that somehow we’ve not answered, then feel free to email us at help@eatathomecooks.com.

Whatever your weather outside, I know I’m looking forward to some springy dinners and desserts and saying a big hearty hello to April! What are you looking forward to this month?

Eat at Home Habit #4 – Learn to make dinner in 15 minutes

May 23, 2017 by Tiffany King Leave a Comment

We are in the middle of a series of 7 Habits of Eating at Home.

If you missed the first three weeks then you’ll definitely want to check those out too. Week 1 was on meal planning around your calendar. Week 2 was focused on quick and simple grocery shopping tips. And last week we talked about stocking your freezer to bring less chaos and more enjoyment to dinner time.

This week our topic is all about how to make a healthy and tasty dinner in just 15 minutes. At my house, this qualifies the chef for Superhero status and all of us can use a day like that every once in awhile! I’ll be on Facebook Live talking more about strategies for quick food prep and cooking and I’ll be making a 15-minute meal live so you can see how easy this is!

Habit #4 – 15 Minute Meals

Keeping several good recipes in your repertoire that can be made in just 15 minutes is one of the smartest things you can do. Find a couple that your family loves and keep those ingredients handy so that you have something to fall back on. Even on the busiest, craziest nights, we can carve out 15 minutes to pull dinner together if we have a standby recipe or two to turn to and a pantry with basic meal builders ready for us!

If you are already a member, you know that Eat at Home Meal Plan members get a 15-minute meal each week in both the Traditional and Whole Foods plans to give healthy, quick options for that one night you don’t have any time to prepare in advance. There are really so many delicious, quick and easy meals to choose from that only take 15 minutes and I love having that choice on the menu every week!

Tools for the quickest cooking

In addition to those delicious 15-minute recipes, it’s a good idea to keep some tools on hand to make your prep and cooking time as easy and fast as possible. Stock your kitchen with these hard working tools to make cooking fast.

Sharp knife –This is essential. So many meals require some chopping or cutting. You do not want to be fighting the food while trying to chop with a dull knife. Invest in a good, sharp knife and a knife sharpener. You will not regret this purchase.
Garlic press – Fresh garlic makes a dish taste wonderful. Invest in a quality garlic press to make this step fast. Look for one that doesn’t require the cloves to be peeled. You also want an easy way to clean out the little holes. Pampered Chef makes a nice press, but there are other good brands too.
Electric griddle – The ability to make many pancakes, sandwiches, or quesadillas at once makes this worth the space to store it. Fixing these foods one at a time in a skillet voids the meal of its quick quality. Unless you are only cooking for two people, invest in a large griddle.
Large baking stone or cookie sheet – Useful for nachos, French bread pizzas, broiling sandwiches etc. I prefer baking stones because clean up is a quick scrape under hot water.
Gas grill – Grilling can be quick, depending on the food you’re fixing. It’s an easy way to cook up lots of chicken for the freezer. Grilling also cuts down on cleanup.
Microwave – I use the microwave for quickly thawing cooked meats. One or two minutes is all it takes to have cooked chicken or ground beef ready to add to a recipe.

Naturally quick-cooking foods & Meal Builders for your Pantry

It’s a great idea to keep your pantry stocked with key ingredients so you never have to worry about not having anything to build a meal on. This post talks about classic meal builders I always keep on hand in my pantry and it really helps!

There are also a few foods that are fast by nature.

These are excellent building blocks for quick meals at home, so it’s a good idea to keep some in your pantry for those days when your plan has to change unexpectedly and you don’t have time to run out for ingredients. Combine any of them with vegetables and maybe some meat and you’ve got a speedy meal. Bonus – most of them are inexpensive too.

Beans – Canned beans are high in protein and quick to fix! Alternately, you can cook them in the slow cooker or instant pot in advance and freeze them for easy use later.
Pasta – Angel hair pasta is especially quick, cooking in just 3-4 minutes. Ravioli and tortellini are also speedy and are more filling than plain pasta.
Couscous – 5 minutes and done. Hard to beat that!
Rice – My favorite is Jasmine, which cooks in about 15 minutes. Brown rice is healthier but takes longer to cook. An alternative is instant brown rice.
Eggs – High protein, inexpensive, and versatile.
Tortillas – Nearly anything can be wrapped in a tortilla and made better for the wrapping.

Pre-cooked and frozen meats

So here’s my biggest time-saving tip. Are you ready? My biggest ally in quick cooking is to have a variety of pre-cooked meats and even beans ready to go and stashed in the freezer. Doing this opens the door for a huge variety of meals that can be made in minutes instead of hours because the hardest part–cooking the proteins– is already done in advance!

You can precook meat in the instant pot (See this post for more info on cooking several kinds of meat for the freezer in the instant pot) or in the crockpot. I like to portion mine out before freezing so that I can easily grab a bag and it’s about the right size for a recipe for my family size without trying to break it apart or thawing too much at once.

15 Minute recipes to try

Ready to get in the kitchen and make a few 15-minute meals? Here are just a few of some of my family’s go-to recipes for when we need dinner on the table FAST!

There are 14 easy meals in this post that my family loves. You can get more ideas by browsing the 15-minute meal section of the blog, too!

Try Eat At Home Tonight

Want a simple, printable recipe for a 15-minute meal delivered to your inbox every week? Check out Eat at Home Tonight! It’s FREE to sign up and is a great way to get inspiration for the dinner table. Here’s just one of the delicious recipes that you’ll get to try if you sign up.

15 Minute Creamy Chicken Florentine Quesadillas

May 28, 2015 by Tiffany King 4 Comments

Quesadillas are a quick and easy favorite in our family. I wanted to take the concept and give it a different spin. Something other than Mexican.

We loved these Chicken Florentine Quesadillas!

They’re full of chicken (I used rotisserie chicken I had in the freezer), garlic cream cheese spread, spinach, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and Parmesan.

The great thing about quesadillas is they’re easy to make to order. So if you’ve got someone in your house that turns their nose up at the good stuff, give them a plain chicken and cheese option.

Here’s what you’ll need to make them:

Quick & Easy Skillet Chicken Jambalaya – 15 minute meal

May 13, 2015 by Tiffany King 8 Comments

We love jambalaya, but it takes a while if you bake it in the oven. I’ve tried making it in the slow cooker, but that didn’t turn out very well.

Then I realized that it could be made in a skillet, using a similar method that I use for fried rice. The rice cooks separately, in chicken broth instead of water. Once it’s added to the ingredients in the skillet, it all comes together similar to a traditional jambalaya.

The bonus, of course, is that it’s much faster to make on the stove top. If you use jasmine rice, it will only take 15 minutes for the rice too cook and the whole dish is done in short order. Jasmine is my favorite rice for this reason. With other long grain rices, I’ve found it takes closer to 30 minutes for it to get tender.

Start the rice, then beginning chopping and cooking the other ingredients in the skillet. To keep this in the 15-20 minute range, you’ll also need to use chicken that’s already cooked. I keep rotisserie chicken in the freezer for quick meal prep.

If you want to cook the chicken from raw, you can still have a quick meal by following the instructions on Basic Chicken Skillet. This recipe is a take on that basic recipe.

Here’s what you’ll need for Skillet Chicken Jambalaya: [Read more…] about Quick & Easy Skillet Chicken Jambalaya – 15 minute meal