The modern pace of life does not allow us to devote much time to cooking. Women now work equally with men, and in addition to work, they also have cooking responsibilities. Therefore, the question often arises of what to cook for dinner quickly and tasty. Fortunately, dinner can be prepared from simple but quite tasty ingredients, and it will take from 30 to 60 minutes.
For all easy-to-prepare dishes, we tried to select recipes with photos so that you have an idea of what the finished dish looks like.
Potato dishes
A cheap but satisfying dinner is made from potatoes. This product contains a lot of useful substances, vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and acids.
Boiled potatoes
The potatoes are peeled and boiled until tender. The preparation time for this product is 20-25 minutes. You can serve boiled potatoes with grated lemon zest or pieces of mint. You can top these potatoes with either vegetable oil or cow butter. This is how a dinner from simple products turns into a gourmet dinner, thanks to mint and lemon zest. You can serve the potatoes with sausage, frankfurters, steak or canned fish. This combination will be perfect.
Potatoes fried with mushrooms
Potatoes are cut into cubes and fried in vegetable oil in a well-heated frying pan. You need to add salt to the oil before throwing the potatoes in, so it won’t splatter. There is no need to cover the pan with a lid. There is also no need to stir the dish often; the tubers may fall apart and turn into puree. Otherwise, the potatoes will turn out without a crust, and they will taste like steamed ones. You need to salt the potatoes at the very end, when the dish is almost ready.
Onions and mushrooms should be fried separately. This is due to the fact that mushrooms provide a lot of moisture, and the potatoes will stew if you cook these products in one container.
Potatoes cooked in egg whites
Potatoes turn out delicious if you bake them in the oven in egg whites. This dish will take the hostess no more than 30 minutes. Tubers of the same size are cut into cubes no thicker than one cm and rolled in well-beaten egg white. The protein will need to be salted, peppered and your favorite spices added to taste.
The dish is prepared based on eight potatoes and two whites. Potatoes should be placed on a baking sheet next to each other. The bars should not fall on each other. Cook these potatoes until tender. Its taste is unusual, and you need to take into account the fact that oil is not used in its preparation.
A rustic way to cook potatoes
The potatoes are peeled and cut into four or six pieces. Oil is poured into a deep pan and heated. When the oil is well heated, put the potatoes into it. The oil should cover the potatoes completely. The idea is that the outside of the potatoes will be golden and crispy, but the inside will remain soft. This dish will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
You can make potato pancakes.
Potatoes stewed with onions and carrots
Potatoes are cut into any shape and poured into pre-cooked broth, brought to a boil and simmered for 10 minutes. The onion is finely chopped and added to the potatoes, after about five minutes you can add the grated carrots. Potato stewing time ranges from 25 to 40 minutes. Everything will depend on the volume of the dish. Salt, pepper and add spices to taste.
Mashed potatoes
You can make a quick dinner in a hurry if you prepare mashed potatoes and serve vegetables, meat or fish with it. Mashed potatoes are a tasty and nutritious dish, and while the potatoes are boiling, you can cook fish or meat or prepare a salad.
Chicken wings in the oven
Yes, here is another recipe for preparing a delicious dinner without spending a lot of time and money. All you need to do is prepare the marinade sauce correctly.
Ingredients for marinade.
- 1.5 tablespoons of prepared mustard.
- 2 tablespoons honey.
- Seasoning for roasting chicken.
- A tablespoon of crushed walnuts.
- Vegetable oil 2 tablespoons.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- 1 tray of chicken wings.
Cooking process.
First you need to prepare the marinade. Pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and mustard into a small bowl, stir until smooth. Add honey, seasoning, crushed nuts, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well again until smooth.
Rub the resulting marinade onto the wings and leave for 30-40 minutes.
Take a baking tray and grease it with butter or baking paper. Lay out the wings and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees.
You can serve mashed potatoes or boiled pasta as a side dish. Bon appetit.
Meat and potato dish
Pork or veal steak also cooks quite quickly. And if you marinate the meat in the morning, before leaving for work, it will turn out delicious.
The steak is cut into portions no thicker than 4 cm; it would be ideal if the meat is cut 2.5 cm thick. After which the meat can be marinated in sour cream, mayonnaise or butter with spices and salt. These marinades will be the simplest. In addition, the meat can be left in pineapple, cranberry or tomato juice. Acid perfectly softens the protein and speeds up the cooking process. Honey, garlic, soy sauce, wine - this is also a list of marinade products for meat.
Grill the steak for 15 to 20 minutes. This can be done while the potatoes are boiling.
Desserts for a light dinner
A delicious and quick to prepare beetroot dessert. You will need:
mineral water – 1 l;
beets – 200 g;
pineapple – 100 g;
lemon juice – 70 ml;
honey - 2 tbsp. spoons;
beaten egg white – 1 pc.
To give the dessert a richer taste, you can take 40 ml of cognac. Cut the beets into cubes and cook in mineral water. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and blend in a blender. Transfer to molds and place in the freezer. During the freezing process, it is necessary to stir the mixture periodically.
Cottage cheese mousse is also useful. For it, you should prepare cottage cheese, honey, 15 g of gelatin, egg white and lemon juice in advance. Quickly mix the cottage cheese and beat with the cottage cheese. Dissolve gelatin in warm water with the addition of lemon juice. When the gelatin swells, put it on low heat until completely dissolved, let it cool slightly.
Combine the curd mass with gelatinous water. Slowly add the beaten whites to the remaining ingredients. All that remains is to pour the mousse into silicone molds and cool. For decoration you can use mint leaves, berries or dried fruits.
Recipes for quick meat in sour cream
Chicken is the fastest to cook, pork and beef are also suitable for cooking. The meat is chopped into cubes, as for beef stroganoff, and fried in a frying pan for 7 minutes. Next, the meat is poured with sour cream mixed with herbs, garlic and spices. You will need to simmer the meat until done. This will take another 5 or 10 minutes. All this will depend on the type of meat and its quantity.
Dinner prepared, for example, from porridge and chicken is a great end to the day.
You can also cook chicken hearts in sour cream.
Chicken breast with vegetables
To do everything quickly and not have to stand at the stove for a long time, you can cook chicken breast with vegetables. There may be several cooking options.
Option #1
The chicken breast is cut into portions and beaten with a hammer. Fry it in well-heated oil on both sides for about four minutes. At this time, you need to cut onions, tomatoes and bell peppers into rings. All this is laid out on top of pieces of chicken breast, covered with a lid and fried. About five minutes before the end of preparing such a dish, you need to grate the cheese and sprinkle it on the chicken breast with vegetables. The meat will be juicy, tender, nutritious and incredibly tasty.
You can serve this dish with potatoes, salad, or simply eat it with pieces of bread.
Option No. 2
Chicken breast is cut into small pieces or cubes and fried in a frying pan with the addition of meat. When the meat is half cooked, add diced onions, grated carrots, slices of tomato and bell pepper to the frying pan with the chicken. If there are no vegetables in season, then you don’t have to put them in. If you want to get the stewed taste of the dish, then you should add water to the meat during cooking. The cooking time is about half an hour.
Recipes and diets
Every woman should have a couple of “emergency” diets for weight loss. Vegetables that help you lose extra pounds should be first on the list in her notebook.
Vegetable week
The principle of its operation is simple: it is 7 days, each of which is a vegetable mono-diet. So, on Monday you should start by cleansing the body - drink water all day and eat boiled beets. Then dedicate every day to one vegetable. Ideally, with this diet and accompanying workouts, you can lose up to 10 kg.
With this diet and accompanying workouts, you can lose up to 10 kg
Classic smoothie recipes
The density of the smoothie can be controlled using the skin of the vegetable - without it, the smoothie turns out to be tender and liquid.
- Toning cucumber
Blend 2 cucumbers, a stalk of celery, a little spinach, lettuce and parsley, and 50-100 ml of kefir in a blender. (Some people also add a few blueberries.) Lightly salt. Can be served with mint and/or ice.
- Vitamin mix
Blend half a carrot, 1 bell pepper, 1 fresh beet, 100 g zucchini, half a celery stalk and onions (to taste) in a blender until smooth. Season with ground black pepper. It is better to drink this mix both in the evening and instead of snacks.
Classic of the genre - vegetable salad
There are practically no restrictions on the choice of vegetables for a classic diet salad. It is important to use the main ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, broccoli, lettuce, greens. How to dress this vegetable salad for weight loss? Lemon juice is best, but adding a little olive oil is also acceptable.
There are many vegetables that help you lose weight, and there are hundreds of times more recipes for delicious dishes that speed up your metabolism. It is important to know what goes best with what, in what condition this or that product will bring more benefits, and what is better not to use when losing weight at all.
Pork in cheese and sour cream sauce
About half a kilogram of pork is cut into small pieces and marinated in cheese and sour cream sauce. You will need 4 tablespoons of sour cream, and about three or four tablespoons of cheese sauce. The pieces of meat will need to be salted and left in the marinade of sauce and sour cream for about an hour, maybe half an hour. After this, the meat will be fried in a frying pan for 7-10 minutes. The meat will be tender, with a creamy cheese taste. Spices can highlight the taste of meat, so you should choose them according to your taste, availability and desire. Meat prepared according to this recipe will be an excellent addition to any side dish, and if you decorate the dish with herbs and cheese, you will even get a festive or romantic dinner. An appetizing piece of pork will please any man. It will take little time to prepare, and such a dish will remain in the memory for a long time.
Can a light dinner be festive?
If you have guests coming over, please them with unusual dishes. For example, the unusual Avocado Gazpacho soup. It will require an avocado, 3 cucumbers, a pinch of arugula, a small spoon of olive oil, a clove of garlic, 1-2 tomatoes, a tablespoon of lemon juice, “Tabacasco”.
Peel the avocado and cucumbers, blend in a blender with olive oil, arugula, garlic and salt. Add 150 ml. water. Beat the tomatoes without skins separately with the same amount of water. Season with a few drops of Tabasco. Pour the two mixtures into the plate on both sides at the same time. Garnish with arugula.
For a light festive dinner, you can serve baked trout. This dish has a pleasant aroma. Any steamed vegetables are suitable as a side dish. To prepare fish you will need:
- 4 fish fillets;
- 15 g each of thyme and chopped onion;
- 3 tbsp. l. honey;
- salt and red pepper.
The fillet needs to be thawed, washed and dried. Brush with a sauce made from honey, thyme, onion and salt. Place the trout in the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Should be served hot. Any vegetable salad would be a good addition to fish.
Vegetable dinner
Dinner will be easy if you make it from stewed cabbage. Cabbage can be supplemented with sausages, sausages, cutlets, which can be purchased in the form of semi-finished products. Cabbage is low in cost, good for the body, and can be purchased at any time of the year.
If you stew cabbage with the addition of spices, it will turn out even healthier and its cooking time can be reduced. Turmeric is such a unique spice. It will color the cabbage golden, which will simulate its complete readiness if there is absolutely no time to cook. And al dente cabbage will retain more vitamins and will be crispier.
You can also cook baked vegetables with cheese.
Frozen Vegetable Dinner
These vegetables can be bought at any supermarket. A bag of such vegetables comes in handy at any time of the year and any time of day. Vegetables are fried in a frying pan with the addition of oil, and they turn out tasty, healthy and nutritious. And if there are boiled potatoes or a cooked piece of meat in the house, then dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes.
Salads for a light dinner for weight loss
A good dinner wouldn't be complete without a salad. It will allow the gastrointestinal tract to function properly and fill the body with vitamins.
For a light salad that can save you from excess weight, you will need:
- shrimps;
- lemon;
- cabbage;
- unsweetened yogurt.
Shrimp for salad are dipped into boiling water.
Three minutes is enough to prepare them. To prepare the salad, shrimp should be boiled in salted water and peeled. Cabbage can be chopped using a food processor or knife. Add salt and mash the cabbage to make it more juicy and tasty.
All that remains is to mix the cabbage with shrimp and sprinkle with lemon juice. Top with yogurt before serving.
Many vitamins are contained in the Winter salad. To do this you will need one baked apple, boiled green beans, and cinnamon. Mix all ingredients except beans in a blender. Season the green beans with the resulting mixture. You can use fresh herbs as an addition.
Vegetable stew
For the stew, you can use seasonal vegetables. Stew can be made from:
- potatoes;
- cabbage;
- eggplant;
- tomatoes;
- bell pepper;
- Luke;
- carrots;
- zucchini.
If the stew will be stewed with the addition of potatoes, then you should start cooking it first. Next, it is best to add onions, carrots, eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers. The dish will be juicy, rich in vitamins and will perfectly complement pre-cooked meat or meat cooked while cooking vegetables.
This dinner is inexpensive and can be prepared at any time of the year.
What to cook for dinner quickly and easily using zucchini
Zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be cooked with a variety of foods. Zucchini is combined with meat, other vegetables, cottage cheese, and various marinades. Zucchini is quick to prepare and costs almost nothing. Zucchini is stewed, boiled, fried and baked. The recipe should be chosen based on taste preferences and the time allotted for it.
Zucchini soup
A light summer soup with zucchini will be a great end to the evening. The soup can be cooked in meat or vegetable broth, or you can simply season it with vegetable or butter. The soup must include potatoes; you can add cereal if desired. You should also add onions, carrots to the soup, you can add bell peppers and tomatoes. Herbs and spices will make the soup taste more rich.
You can diversify this soup with melted cheese added at the end of cooking. It dissolves well in hot water and makes the soup taste richer.
Zucchini fried with tomatoes
Zucchini is cut into slices and fried in a frying pan in vegetable oil.
Zucchini can be served with mayonnaise, which is mixed with garlic, passed through a press, finely chopped herbs and spices. The zucchini is coated with mayonnaise and topped with tomatoes cut into slices. You can also put fried nuts on the pieces of zucchini, they will only complement the taste of the dish.
Casserole of zucchini and minced meat with a cheese crust
- 3 zucchini need to be grated.
- 2 onions are fried in a frying pan until golden brown.
Add 400 grams of minced meat to the onion in the pan. The minced meat is fried until half cooked. The zucchini is laid out in layers in a deep heat-resistant form. The layers consist of zucchini, from which it is advisable to squeeze out excess water, sliced tomatoes and minced meat with onions.
The layers are filled with sour cream filling, which is prepared from 150 grams of sour cream and 1 egg. All layers must be salted during laying. The dish is baked in the oven for 40 minutes. About ten minutes before the end of cooking, add the grated cheese. It is he who will provide a tasty and golden crust.
See how to quickly and deliciously cook zucchini in a frying pan.
Summer light dinner
You can also serve zucchini baskets with chicken and cheese on the holiday table. No flour is required to prepare them. You should take: 500 g of zucchini, 200 g of chicken fillet, one egg, olive oil, spices, cheese.
Peel the zucchini and grate on a coarse grater. Drain off excess liquid. Add egg and salt. Mix the resulting base well. Cut the chicken fillet into small cubes. Add salt and fry in olive oil for 5 minutes. Cover the sides and bottom of the molds with the zucchini mixture. Place the fillet in the center and sprinkle cheese on top. The baskets should be baked at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.
It is better to use silicone molds, but to decorate the finished dish, you can transfer the baskets to disposable paper forms. Green leaves and cherry tomatoes are used for decoration.
Porridge
Porridge is an indispensable food for the body. Porridge saturates our body with nutrients, minerals and vitamins. They are a source of energy and vigor. Porridge can be prepared with meat, vegetables and various sauces and gravies. Such dishes do not take much time and are complete meals that can be consumed either on their own or can be supplemented with other ingredients.
