30-Minute Meals

One of my favorite meals from a sandwich is an excellent meatball sub. I am a happy camper, a simple combination of another favorite meal (spaghetti and meatballs) between some version of bread.

I usually use pre-made meatballs (store-bought or homemade) saved over from a pasta meal. My usual sauce of choice is marinara, but pesto tastes excellent too. Ciabatta rolls or any other hearty bread is the best vehicle of choice. Do not forget to dig out some of the bread from one half of the roll to make space for the real deal.

After the avocado toast, mushroom on toast is one of my other anytime meals. It is quick and easy to make without too many ingredients. I have it with a soft-boiled egg for breakfast or top it with grilled chicken and a salad for lunch or dinner. The ingredients in this dish are few and very flexible. Some onions, mustard, chili flakes, and garlic - that’s it. The best part is you can use any mushrooms available readily. 

Good hearty bread is very critical to this dish. I love sourdough bread, but any firm baguette or french bread should work as well. 

When I threw the chicken into the air fryer, I thought this would last me a couple of days. After the first meal, I planned to shred the meat and store it in a box for a sandwich later in the week. Much to my dismay, we finished all of it in one sitting for a meal.

My experiment for the past few weeks has been to use spice mixes to season chicken and use the air fryer. The advantage of using pre-blended mixed spices helps me to finish my prep in a few minutes instead of trying to mix the right combination of ingredients.

I cannot understand why breakfast burritos are a menu item but not breakfast quesadillas. How can a crispy and warm version of the same ingredients not be as popular as the rolled version? The best part about this breakfast egg quesadilla is that I can use the leftovers from Taco Tuesday (or Taco Thursday) to make this quick and easy breakfast and serve it with the remaining salsa and guac from the day before. I like a mix of blue and yellow corn tortillas. Any tortillas will do, even the crispy ones.

This dish is quintessential Mexican comfort food. What I really like about quesadillas is that they are easy to prepare. And if you fill yours with high quality ingredients such as chicken, corn, and beans, quesadillas are surprisingly nutritious. However, I don’t like packing mine with veggies —- particularly peppers or zucchini.  I feel that their relative blandness takes away from the flavors of an authentic quesadilla. But if this sounds like something you would do -- go nuts!

Another one-pot meal that comes together in under thirty minutes. I have used ground turkey, but ground chicken or any mix of ground beef or pork works just as well. Add some onions, tomato paste, and chili sessions and you get yourself a nutritious pot of turkey chili. There are many versions of pre-mixed chili seasonings as there are chili recipes. I use whatever is on hand and readily available. This is not a traditional chili recipe, but it has the flavor, seasonings, and most of the ingredients common with chili.

Coming back from school, carrots and hummus was a snack I would have often because it requires zero preparation, tastes good, and is still very healthy (and carrots are also supposed to improve your eyesight). This recipe is a spin-off version of this popular snack and consists of a sourdough toast with hummus and carrot shavings on top. This recipe is super convenient because it still has the healthy ingredients yet also includes some healthy carbs to make the snack more hearty. I also recommend adding some seasonings for more flavor, a personal favorite of mine is red chili peppers.

Chicken tikka is an easy recipe to try cooking Indian food for the first time. Instead of mixing a marinade with a large number of spices, use a pre-mixed tandoori powder or barbeque powder, or mild curry powder. I try not to raid the family spice cabinet and use pre-mixed blends as much as possible. Authentic chicken tikka is chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and grilled in a tandoor.

This breakfast sandwich has two of my favorite ingredients - avocado and egg. You can add any additional toppings (bacon, hummus, pico). Change up the bread (sourdough, english muffin, croissants) or change the preparation of the egg. I have a soft boiled egg in this one, but scrambled or hard boiled works as well or even an omelete. Personally, I like the runny yolk of a soft boiled egg that adds some moisture the mix. Add some leafy sprouts and you have a nutritious breakfast sandwich that can be had on the go. 

This one pot recipe is quick and easy and has a bit of everything. Pasta, some vegetables, chicken and cheese - Can't go wrong with this meal in under 30 minutes with minimal effort and very little clean up. You can use leftover cooked chicken that can be added half way through the pasta cooking time. Vary your vegetables (my favorites are spinach and peas) and pasta sauce (I like marinara or arrabbiata) for a different taste and this will never get old.