Real Meals, Real Fast
If you have 15 minutes, you have time to make a healthy, nutritious dinner
By Phillip Rhodes; Food Styling: Roscoe Betsill: Mitch Mandel (Cook Icon)
It's 7:30 pm. You've managed to escape the office alive (and without inflicting serious injury). You've hit the gym. And now, as the minutes tick by, the rumble of your stomach is almost enough to drown out the three-cheese, stuffed-crust pizza come-on that's blaring out of the television. Almost.
So you give in, and who can blame you? Seems that in the modern world, you can have it all—the job, the girl, the house—everything but a decent home-cooked meal. That's what your neighborhood multinational restaurant chain is for. Sure, you'd love to eat a dinner that tastes like it took hours to cook, but you have only a few hours of wakefulness left, and you certainly don't plan on spending one of them wrestling a chicken into the oven and another cleaning up the wreckage.
Same with me. I work hard and often, but I stop short of the drive-thru. Being indolent by nature, I consider fast food a slippery slope I'd best not start down. So I cook, and most of the meals I eat take only 15 minutes to prepare. Now, I admit I enjoy cooking. To me, it's like making a Zen widget—a simple task that I can focus on while blocking out everything else. Besides, knifing an onion is good tension release—and much more effective than kicking down your cubicle wall.
Not convinced you can cook a meal in 15 minutes, too? Well, you can always invite Mom to move in and help feed you.... Didn't think so.
1. KOREAN-STYLE PEPPER STEAK
You'll need:
½ lb sirloin, sliced diagonally into thin strips
1 c bite-size pieces red or green bell pepper (or ½ c of each)
1 c bite-size pieces onion
2 Tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
Plus: 1 tsp sugar; 1½ tsp olive oil; 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1 tsp red-pepper flakes
How to make it:
1. Dump all the ingredients into a large ziplock plastic bag. Go James Bond on it—well shaken, not stirred . No, really throttle it. You want the soy sauce and oil to permeate everything in the bag.
2. Pour the meat, sauce, and vegetables into a medium-hot cast-iron skillet, stirring frequently until the meat is seared and the vegetables begin to lose their water (about 2-3 minutes).
Extra credit:
For a more authentic Korean-style flavor, use toasted sesame oil instead of olive oil and add 1 Tbsp rice-wine vinegar.
Eat with: Brown rice
Makes 2 servings
Per serving, including rice:
623 calories, 37 grams (g) protein, 58 g carbohydrates, 27 g fat (9 g saturated), 4 g fiber, 604 milligrams (mg) sodium
2. TUNA SALAD FOR GROWN-UPS
You’ll need:
2 fresh yellowfin or ahi tuna fillets, 3–4 oz each
4 c chopped romaine lettuce
1¾ c grape tomatoes
1/3 c whole pitted black or kalamata olives
Plus: Salt and pepper; ¼ c chopped roasted red pepper Dressing: 2 Tbsp olive oil; 2 Tbsp lemon juice; 1 Tbsp grainy Dijon mustard; ¼ tsp dried thyme; 1 clove garlic, crushed
How to make it:
1. Sear the tuna in a nonstick skillet on m-edium-high heat (one minute per side), seasoning each side with a pinch of salt and pepper as the other side cooks. Remove the tuna from the skillet and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and roasted red pepper.3. In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, thyme, and garlic until well blended. No whisk? Just use a fork.
4. Cut the tuna into ½-inch-thick slices. (Yes, it should be raw inside.) Divide the salad onto two plates and top with the tuna and dressing.
Eat with: A microwaved potato with 1 Tbsp low-fat sour cream
Makes 2 servings
Per serving, including potato:
647 calories, 46 g protein, 66 g carbohydrates, 20 g fat (4 g saturated), 7 g fiber, 1,383 mg sodium
» Health archive
Men's Health Philippines - October 2005 Issue
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Korean-Style Pepper Steak
Tuna Salad for Grown-ups
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