More 30-Minute Meal Ideas

Most important is to keep all meals nutritionally superior by using whole and wholesome ingredients like good fats, complex carbohydrates and grass-fed meats. It is also important to watch portion sizes. Preferred meals still are big steaks, large baked potatoes with lots of butter and small salads. Best is to limit the size of protein so that it fits into the palm of your hand, the baked potato without butter and the salad big on varieties and quantity.

Instead of piling on grains, use less. It is healthier to exchange these for starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, beets, potatoes, rutabaga, peas and Jerusalem artichokes. Choose whatever is in season. Green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and other low starch vegetables should fill the larger part of the plate.

When it comes to fat used in cooking, coconut oil , ghee (clarified butter) or butter are recommended since their smoke point is high. A high smoke point enables some oils to withstand high heat without becoming denatured. Olive oil can be used, but only on medium heat since its smoke point is low.

Stir-frying is a low-fat way of quickly cooking nutritious meals. Only a little oil is needed in the bottom of the pan then topped with vegetables that require longer cooking time and those needing less on top of these. After a short time of cooking everything is stirred around until done but still crunchy. Nutrients are retained by this method of cooking.

These are two of my salmon quick dinners from the two previous nights.

After a tiring day, I always want pasta. I excuse it by thinking everybody does.

I prepared salmon rubbed with dill and lemon zest quickly fried in a teaspoon of butter, rice linguini and salad. It was a large salad in a bowl not indicated by the few leaves decorating linguini and salmon. Everything hit the plate in 30 minutes.

Since salmon comes packed as a two piece package, I was left with the second piece the next evening. To eat fish twice in a row is difficult for me. I don’t like fish and only eat salmon for its nutritional values. To my surprise, a recipe evolved in my mind for left-over salmon and kale but seemed far-fetched. Of all things jazzing up the salmon were raisins and habanero pepper!

What started out as intimidating left-overs ended on my plate as a delightful marriage of sweet, hot, green, from left-over kale, and pink. Salmon with raisins, you must be kidding. I am not kidding, it tastes as if salmon was born to be seasoned with something sweet.