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Quick Fix Meals

with Robin Miller, Food Network Star

Review by Judith Bishop

Daily dinners can really sap my creative culinary strength. When I was young and working in restaurants, and later with my catering business; nothing excited me more than cooking. Then we moved and I became the household cook. Wow! What a rude awakening! For the first time I realized how people could hate cooking. The drudgery of meals, snacks, and picky hungry hoards was enough to bring me to my knees.

Fortunately there is a new cookbook that addresses this daily dilemma. Robin Miller, a new Food Network celebrity, has written her seventh cookbook, Quick Fix Meals to help us gain some sanity in the kitchen.

Miller admits that time needs to be spent in the kitchen but with a little bit of planning we can prep and individually bag the same ingredient to be used in different meals throughout the week. She also stresses streamlining the kitchen into a “Quick Fix Kitchen” with “meal kits,” “10 Pantry Items I am Never Without”, and “Precook like the pros do for fast assembly” to get us in the mindset of meals in minutes.

Although the recipes don’t mention any nutritional information, Miller is a nutritionist, and mother of two children, so these well thought out recipes have passed the test of tasty and healthy at the same time. They also use everyday ingredients that won’t break the budget.

The book has six chapters, The Quick Fix Kitchen: Fabulous Meals Fast where Miller presents her cooking style and ingredients to jump start meals.

In the Bag: Meal Kits for Meals in Moments introduces us to her strategy of prepping ahead. Plan ahead and-“Throw on some comfy clothes, crank up the music, and get out your ingredients for the week.” Now cooking is starting to sound fun! Chop veggies ahead, precook rice or pasta, and cook various meats or chicken all to be labeled and bagged ahead so on Wednesday when there is soccer and piano lessons back to back, we can just pour the bags together and make a tasty and truly home cooked meal in minutes! Think of Miller’s strategy as our own personalized Dream Dinner.  Olive-Spiked Pork Tenderloin, Crab-Stuffed Zucchini Boats and Linguine Carbonara can become part of a weekly repertoire and not delegated to Saturday night. “Think of it this way: The little bit of work you do now will keep meals moving along on autopilot all week long. It’s not a chore, it’s a strategy and this strategy can be a blast!”

One Recipe, Morph It: Many Meals is the second of Miller’s strategies. This section is about taking “yummy scraps from any meal and transform them into entirely new dishes…No one has to know you’re working with leftovers!” In this chapter each set of recipes starts out with a main recipe and is followed by 3 morph recipes using one of the main recipe ingredients. These are tasty recipes and not simply turning Roast Chicken with Smokey Apricot Sauce into chicken soup but into Chicken and Mushroom Quesadillas, Thai Chicken Salad with Peanuts and Lime, and Chicken Curry with Chickpeas and Tomatoes.

By stocking a pantry it’s easy to turn out under 30 minute meals with the chapter; Dinner Express: From Pantry to Table in 30 Minutes or Less. Some of the recipes can be turned into Meal Kits such as Rotelle with Broiled Feta, Snow Peas, and Yellow Bell Pepper. By pre cooking the pasta and pre slicing the veggies this recipe can be made even quicker. Each of these recipes is paired with corresponding suggestions (equally as quick and easy) to round out the meal. Pan-Seared Steaks with Garlic goes beautifully with Creamed Spinach My Way. Pork Chops with Apples and Rosemary becomes an elegant entrée with red mashed potatoes and Balsamic Roasted Asparagus.

Simple Sides: Salads, Veggies, and Grains to complete your meal stock the cooking arsenal with healthy tempting sides to serve a balanced meal. Miller has Ten 5-minute Wonders that will jump start the daily veggie dilemma. Steam cauliflower florets and toss with honey mustard and chopped fresh dill. Snap peas, microwave and toss with fresh lime juice and chopped peanuts. The real recipes are equally enticing. Remember the old carrot and raisin salad? Miller has lightened it with a fresh rosemary dressing and little currants. Tired of mashed potatoes? Turn them green with Broccoli Puree with Parmesan and Soy-Sesame Green Beans with Ginger are a welcome addition to any Asian inspired meal.

No family cookbook is complete without Dessert: There’s always time for Sweets in a hurry. Miller refuses to allow the last calories of the day to be wasted and packs her desserts with fruit “that your palate will savor while your body feasts on powerful vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.” Brown Sugar-Glazed Pineapple with Toasted Coconut elevates humble canned pineapple rings into a dinner treat. Remember chocolate dipped bananas with nuts? Miller reminds us that it is a great do-ahead dessert that can be made in batches, frozen, and given to a kid or adult for a nutritious dessert.

All recipes provide the time invested in the recipe divided into prep time, active cooking time, and “walk-away time” (which is your queue to fill in a few boxes of the daily Sudoko). There are also many good health notes, storage savvy suggestions, prep pointers, and quick fix-it-your-way.

This little book of 200 recipes really packs a lot punch! There is no excuse to use a drive-through when you have your meals prepped and easy to assemble in minutes. You will also know that you are putting good nutritious food into your family!

Read! Eat! Enjoy!

Judith Bishop

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