In the golden days of TV moms who stayed home all day vacuuming the house while wearing pearls, cooking special meals, and doling out wise advice to the kids when dad wasn’t around, meals could take all day and could involve intricate steps. That wasn’t just on TV, it was a reflection of real life. But the 21st century world is one of amazing technology and lives that are much more fast paced. Mothers, and fathers who now take on a large part of the cooking chore, look for easy fast dinner recipes that can get the same TV mom results with a lot less real person effort. The Pilgrims didn’t have a good source for such simplicity in food, but they didn’t have the Internet either. There are a lot of sources on line to provide help to the busy family looking for a quality meal.
One steak can go a long way. Change the sides for different meal experiences. Change the spices for a trip around the world of food. Start with one large flank steak. On Monday serve steak with roasted potatoes and a salad. On Tuesday add some spices and a little salsa for a taste from south of the border ? make it steak Fajitas. Wednesday’s meal combines the steak with some Teriyaki sauce, rice, and steamed vegetables for a delicious Asian inspired meal. Thursday go back to the steak and salad, this time with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side. Friday is the day for some pita bread and Greek spices. That’s right, Gyros. A whole work day week of meals based on one main meat.
Want more ideas for that steak? OK, get the plates and forks ready. Try southwestern steak, corn, and black bean wraps; enjoy steak, sun-dried tomato, and mozzarella couscous salad; give mixed bean salad with flank steak a whirl; how about lentil and orzo salad with flank steak and feta cheese; and finally we have steak salad wraps with horseradish sauce. Now add another meat, and the variety is even more endless. Chicken can be fried, broiled with potatoes, cut into strips and added to salad, or cooked into a soup with noodles or dumplings. Talk about meals.
With a little clever planning all the meals for the week can be cooked on the weekend, then heated and served in minutes. Make out the menu for the whole month, buy bulk foods and make sure to use coupons to add extreme savings to the mix. In fact, these menus and meals can also be a great learning experience for young people. Put them in charge for a week. Let the whole family take turns.
And you thought easy fast dinner recipes were hard.
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