Quick & Easy Meals

If your idea of a home-cooked meal is the Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's, you're not alone! Research shows only 52 percent of us use our stoves on a daily basis, compared to nearly 70 percent in 1985. People who do cook are more likely to opt for a frozen dinner (sales of those have increased by 22 percent since 1996) or a one-pot dish than bother making an entire home-cooked meal. Americans currently eat 54 billion meals out a year--that's nearly twice as many as in 1955, when the restaurant-industry share of the food dollar was 25 percent, compared to today's 46 percent. But beyond the extra cash, there's a price to pay for all that restaurant fare. Restaurant and commercially prepared food is often loaded with saturated fat, excess salt, sugar and MSG. And serving sizes are so truck-stop-huge you wind up eating for two. Become a restaurant regular and by next summer you could be ordering a supersize -- bikini!

If you want to eat healthy and lose weight, preparing your own lowfat, low-cal fare at home makes the most sense. To minimize your time in the kitchen and supermarket, try these delicious recipes and meals that revolve around three convenience-food categories found in your local grocery: 1. fresh and fresh-prepackaged foods; 2. frozen foods and entrees; and 3. canned and dry, quick-cook packaged foods.