American Heart Association Quick & Easy Meals: More Than 200 Healthy Recipes Plus Time-Saving Tips for Shopping, Planning, and Eating Well

If you’re like most other busy Americans, you’d love to prepare more healthy meals for your family but find it hard to make the time. The good news is that with a little planning and the clock-conscious recipes in American Heart Association Quick & Easy Meals, you can cook a nutritious dinner for your family faster than you can pick up take-out, buy a packaged meal at the grocery store, or get food delivered. You’ll also conserve money and greatly trim the amount of calories, saturated and trans fat, sodium, and cholesterol in your meals.

 

This collection of more than 200 recipes will help you put a delicious and healthy meal on the table tonight—and every night—in just minutes. Many recipes, including more than 60 entrées, are ready in 25 minutes or less from start to finish, and American Heart Association Quick & Easy Meals also contains a wide variety of flavors and cuisines that appeal to today’s eclectic tastes. In this cookbook, you’ll find 50 new recipes, including:

   • Edamame, Salmon, and Pasta Salad
   • Chicken Biryani
   • Chinese-Style Chicken Soup with Fresh Ginger
   • Oven-Fried Zucchini with Salsa Dip
   • Middle Eastern Spiced Beef
   • Cranberry-Topped Meat Loaf
   • Crustless Mushroom and Spinach Pie
   • Vegetable, Bean, and Barley Stew
   • Chutney Salmon
   • Double Decker Pumpkin Cupcakes


To manage mealtimes and meet your lifestyle needs, you can choose from dozens of entrée recipes that fall into one of the following categories:

   • No Shopping Required
   • Planned-Overs
   • All-in-One
   • Express


      American Heart Association Quick & Easy Meals also provides ideas for organizing your kitchen, shopping strategies to help you with meal planning, heart-smart cooking techniques, and time-saving tips from cooking experts. In addition, you’ll find information on heart health, including the American Heart Association dietary and lifestyle recommendations and nutritional analyses for every recipe.

This classic cookbook will give you the satisfaction of knowing that the foods you prepare are as good for your heart as they are quick to make and tasty to eat. Sample Recipe: Chicken Creole on the Run

Serves 4; 1 cup per serving
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 to 26 minutes
Standing time: 15 minutes (optional)

Enjoy this soup-stew as is or, for a one-dish meal, ladle it over brown rice. Pass the hot-pepper sauce, please!

1 teaspoon olive oil and 2 teaspoons olive oil (extra-virgin preferred), divided use
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all visible fat discarded, cut into bite-size pieces
1 14.5-ounce can no-salt-added stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup frozen cut okra, thawed
2 medium dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (lowest sodium available)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon Louisiana hot-pepper sauce or red hot-pepper sauce
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom. Cook the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes, or until barely pink in the center, stirring frequently. Transfer to a plate.

In the same skillet, stir together the tomatoes with liquid, broth, bell pepper, okra, bay leaves, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and hot-pepper sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, about 2 minutes. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the okra is tender and the mixture has thickened slightly, breaking up any large pieces of tomato near the end of cooking. Remove from the heat. Discard the bay leaves.

Stir in the parsley, salt, remaining 2 teaspoons oil, and chicken with any accumulated juices. If time allows, cover and let stand for about 15 minutes so the flavors blend more thoroughly.

Nutrition Information (Per serving):
calories 176
total fat 4.5 g
saturated fat 1.0 g
trans fat 0.0 g
polyunsaturated fat 0.5 g
monounsaturated fat 2.5 g
cholesterol 49 mg
carbohydrates 11 g
fiber 3 g
sugars 7 g
protein 22 g

Dietary exchanges:
2 vegetable
2 1/2 lean meat

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