30-Minute Meals

Need a fast idea for tonight's dinner? Choose any of the hearty, delicious recipes below for a meal that skimps on prep time, not flavor.

-- Ravioli Skillet Lasagna
-- Shrimp and Ramen Noodle Stir-Fry
-- Rosemary Chicken with Vegetables
-- Meatball and Vegetable Soup with Pasta
-- Thai Pork Roll-Ups
-- Maple-Pork Wilted Salad

Enjoy the flavor of lasagna with the ease of a skillet dinner; just top cooked ravioli with spinach and cheese for this one-pan meal. The next slide shows how to drain spinach for this recipe.

To remove as much excess liquid as possible from the thawed spinach, place the spinach in a sieve and press with a wooden spoon.

Stir-fried shrimp, pea pods, and sweet pepper in a spicy sesame-seed sauce are spooned on top of hot ramen noodles in this Asian-inspired main dish. The next slide tells you more about bok choy, a main ingredient in this recipe.

The slightly sweet flavor you taste in so many Chinese stir-fries is a cabbage called bok choy. The stalks have the crunch of celery without the strings; the dark green leaves taste mild and are packed with vitamins A and C and calcium.

You'll only need one skillet to put this fresh meal together. First, cook boneless chicken breasts, then add vegetables to the same skillet. Serve the meal over warm couscous. The next slide gives you the basics on what couscous is and how to use it.

For something with such an intimidating name, couscous couldn't be more basic. It's granular semolina (ground durum wheat), the flour used in many types of pasta. Couscous is a great substitute for rice, potatoes, and pasta. Look for it near the rice in your local supermarket.

Frozen meatballs speed the prep time for this hearty soup. Serve with crusty bread for a cozy winter supper or a hearty lunch. The next slide shows you how to rinse the canned beans necessary for this recipe.

Canned beans save time, but they add salt to your recipes. You can eliminate the salty liquid by rinsing the beans in a colander under cold running water and draining well.

Quick-cooking pork tenderloin and prechopped broccoli slaw mix form the filling for these wraps flavored with spicy ginger and nutty peanut sauce. The next two slides give a few tips for working with fresh ginger.

To prepare fresh ginger, rinse thoroughly under cool tap water. Cut off one end of the root and use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to remove the thin brown peel, cutting away from your hand. Step 2 shows how to grate fresh ginger.

To grate the freshly peeled ginger, rub a piece of ginger across a fine grating surface. You can use a grater as shown or a special ginger grater. To save on cleanup, grate onto a piece of waxed paper.

A light salad combined with thin slices of pork and a sweet maple syrup is hearty enough for dinner and fancy enough for guests. The next three slides walk you through the key prep points of this recipe.

To get thin slices of pork you may need to partially freeze the pork until it's firm (but not completely frozen). Step 2 shows how to make the dressing.

After cooking the pork, simmer dressing until slightly thickened. Check the thickness with a wooden spoon used for stirring. The next step shows how to combine the ingredients.

Once the dressing is made, pour it over the salad in the bowl, using a wooden spoon to scrape out the skillet and to toss ingredients.

Anyone Can Cook is an innovative cookbook that encourages those new to the kitchen to make simple yet tasty meals, while providing the tools to move on to more complex recipes.