Nut Tilapia with Red Quinoa-Tomato-Avocado Salad

Not only does this meal come together extremely quickly, it features some of my favorite foods (hello avocado and tomato!), packs in a ton of nutrients, and can even make use of leftover ingredients from past meals. If you're like me you frequently end up with handfuls of this or that which was purchased for a specific recipe. Finally, at some point, I always have to dive into my cabinets, pull everything out, and get creative out about how to use it up. This meal helps with just that - using up whatever leftover nuts you have sitting around.

Once again, I'll need to thank Wegman's for this meal since they contributed (most) of the recipe for the red quinoa-tomato-avocado salad. I tore it out of the annual magazine I get from them, excited to try it, and it has quickly become a staple in my house. While here you see it as part of a dinner meal, we'll also mix up a double batch and use it for lunches for the week. My husband loves it paired with some grilled chicken for a healthy meal at work.

Time: 25 min

Green Gazpacho with Fresh Corn Salsa

Not a fan of gazpacho? Don't despair - this is not your typical gazpacho. First, it's green! Second, while it does contain some (green) tomato, it's NOT a tomato soup. You'll also find a plethora of other greens in here - cucumber, honeydew melon, basil, avocado, and celery - plus some non-green interesting additions, like almonds and corn. Personally, I'm a fan of traditional gazpacho as well, but regardless, on a hot summer day like we've been having, what's not to love about a healthy, cold, refreshing soup?

This recipe comes from one over at Cooking Light and is specifically developed around eating more raw food. While the magazine is quite pragmatic (which is one of the reasons I love it) and hardly advocates raw eating as a primary diet, they do recognize that cooking often destroys some of the best nutrients in many foods (though not all - some, like sweet potatoes, have more accessible nutrients after being cooked) and so want to make some raw foods available as part of a regular, healthy diet. I see it as a bonus for another reason - the cooking time is short! All you have to do here is chop and blend, so get going while ingredients are fresh and the weather warm.

Time: 20 min (plus chilling time)

Honey Mustard-Mushroom Salmon, Pan-Fried Potatoes, Tomato Salad

This fast meal epitomizes the new focus of my blog extremely well. It's focused on healthy fish (and salmon to boot with its fantastic omega-3s) and vegetables, comes together in 30 minutes, and uses minimal processed ingredients (hi honey mustard). In fact, if you change the salmon's topping, you could have none at all. This meal reminds you that you can indeed have healthy, delicious dinners for your family after spending a long day at work.

The trick? Make use of the ingredients I used to shun in my pre-children days such as cleaned potatoes that microwave in a bag (don't worry, we make them tastier than that) and pre-sliced mushrooms. The downside is that these ingredients are slightly more expensive so they're not an option for everyone, but hopefully if you balance all of these pieces out it means you can at least have home-cooked meals some days of the week! After all, despite having a cooking blog, I still just pull up eat24 on a regular basis (and that's one of the things I'll miss the most if I move out of the city!)

Keep in mind, for all of these meal times, it assumes that once one thing is cooking you get started on another piece. Don't wait until one part of your meal is completely done before moving forward! But I assume you knew that.... so without further ado, let's dive right in to the fun after the jump.

Time: 30 minutes

Pesto-Caprese Flatbreads

Flatbreads is a term of art these days. You see them everywhere, from chain cafes to upscale farm-to-table restaurants to ethnic eateries. I'm not sure if we're simply embracing the food arcs that permeate so many cultures in similar forms or we just want to eat pizza constantly and need an upscale name to make it more acceptable (and less "Italian" if pizza in the US can truly be called that these days.) Either way, when made well there's no denying that they're delicious. And, excitingly, with a couple tweaks they can also come together shockingly fast on a weeknight without skimping on health!

As you'll quickly learn, I'm a huge fan of Wegmans. If they aren't in your area I'm truly sorry for you - maybe move to the mid-Atlantic? I remember when I was in college and my mother, who spent time living in Syracuse before I was born, excitedly announced that a Wegmans was opening up in our little town in southern New Jersey. She told me she'd take me as soon as I came home for a weekend. I rolled my eyes, not sure why I had to tour a grocery store when I was at home, but then I did, and I realized that Wegmans truly are a destination in and of themselves. Many of the shortcuts and easy swaps I will champion will come straight from Wegmans, so if it's helpful, I'll provide links and if you live elsewhere I hope you can find something equally as convenient and reasonably nutritious!

Time: 25 minutes

Recipe and links below the jump!

Pesto Spaghetti Squash

If you haven't experimented with spaghetti squash before, you are truly missing out. It's not only delicious and healthy, but fun. Seriously! It's squash, but when baked it comes out in spaghetti-like form. You get long strands that can easily be used in the place of the iconic pasta. Or, you can branch out with new recipes like I do below. In this recipe it's tossed with some homemade pesto and fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes for an amazing piece of a meal.

I made the squash with some homemade fries and macadamia tilapia. While the squash takes a while to make, this was still a relatively simple meal to pull together and I got to relax and get some work done while the squash was baking.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 1 hr 15 min
Cost: $19.08

Nutrition and recipe below the jump!

Mushroom, Shrimp,and Snap Pea Rice Bowl

Looking for a healthy, delicious, super-fast meal? Then you've come to the right place. As the life of a grad student has kept me busy and poor I've been experimenting with more inexpensive, super-fast, yet still healthy and innovative dishes. Hopefully you enjoy the rice bowl detailed below as much as I did.

I used mushrooms, snap peas, green onions, onion, and shrimp in this bowl, but the best thing about this type of stir-fry is that anything goes. This is a great way to utilize extra vegetables in your fridge that you're afraid will go bad. You can also toss in some leftover protein rather than creating a new meal. This can be a great recipe as is or a base for creativity depending on your own preferences and ingredients on hand. Let us know the best combinations that you discover in the comments below.

Difficulty: medium-easy
Time: 25 min