Weeknight Meals

To prepare this Italian specialty with a fraction of the usual saturated fat and cholesterol, just use egg substitute and low-fat mozzarella cheese. It’s as simple as that.

With its Old World flavors and tempting aroma, this versatile dish is a big hit at potluck suppers. Depending on whether you use the main recipe or one of the variations, you can create an entrée, a one-dish meal, or a side dish from the same basic ingredients

Orange marmalade brings a completely different taste to an already wonderful combination of seafood and citrus juices.

Lemon-tinged cream cheese tempers peppery arugula in this nutrition-packed entrée.

Bok choy is traditionally used in stir-fry dishes, but rules can be broken! This recipe incorporates the crispy white stalks and spinachlike leaves into a creamy sauce that’s accented with cherry tomatoes and served over poached fish. Elegant enough for company and easy enough to enjoy once a week.

A fragrant aroma will fill your kitchen while the chutney bakes over the salmon, ensuring moist and tender fillets every time.

This basic fish dish is so easy to prepare that it’s just about foolproof.

Such a simple meal and such a great taste! The fresh and tangy blend is wonderful by itself or with whatever additions you have on hand. Check your refrigerator for tomatoes, bell peppers, chiles, or corn to add to this versatile salad.

Turn leftover roast beef such as from Tuscan Braised Beef (page 172) into a taste adventure by adding Thai-style dressing.

This versatile Asian-flavored slaw can be as mild or as spicy as you like. Use it as a salad, or add chicken and serve over rice for a main dish (recipe on page 65).

This sweet-hot slaw gets its “attitude” from a combination of several highly flavored ingredients.

For a taste of Italy in minutes, prepare this simple vegetarian soup. Serve with a hearty whole-grain bread.

You can make this robust soup in less time than it takes to have a pizza delivered. The soup is a lot more nutritious—and costs less, too.

Fresh herbs add a lively taste to this refreshing, light soup.

I always keep shrimp in my freezer. I buy it in bulk or when it’s on sale so it’s there when I want it. Shrimp is a great source of lean protein and one of the few proteins you can easily defrost in minutes and without affecting quality. Simply run the frozen shrimp under cold water until it thaws. This recipe technically makes boiled, not steamed, shrimp. The result is similar, but I have found boiling to yield more consistent results.

When making salads at home, make sure your lettuce is well dried. Here, also be sure the salsa or pico de gallo is completely drained of extra moisture by quickly throwing it in a fine sieve and then gently pressing it with a spoon. Eliminating moisture from the ingredients ensures the finished salad isn’t watery. Well-dried ingredients yield a restaurant-quality (or better!) salad. To make this dish even more special, add low-fat cheese or fresh cilantro.

You’ll notice the cooking time of the mushrooms may be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the sliced mushrooms you buy. If your mushrooms are thinner, they’ll take less time. Thicker slices will obviously take a bit longer. However, thick or thin, this recipe will cooperate nicely. Just make sure to pay attention to the cooking time.

If you can’t find 6-ounce potatoes or don’t have them on hand, you can simply use one 12-ounce potato. Add 1 minute to the microwave cook time if the potato isn’t tender after the 5 to 6 minutes, or an additional 10 to 15 minutes in the oven, and use all of the butter and brown sugar for the one large potato. A 12-ounce potato will make two servings, so the recommendation is to eat only half.

I love olives. If they had no calories, I would eat them by the bucket. Again, though, they are another ingredient that when eaten in moderation provides good fats our bodies do need. Here, I’ve used them to make pizza, another of my favorite foods. This throw-together meal will take significantly less time than waiting for takeout. And it’s especially great because you can stock the ingredients in your kitchen for that night when you just don’t have time to cook.

This dish is insanely great for potlucks. Instead of other lasagnes that you can slave over for hours, you can now spend just 10 minutes throwing this together. And the best news is that it can be assembled up to 1 day in advance. After preparing it, simply cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator (be sure to remove the plastic wrap before baking!) so it can be baked just before serving. Make sure you find a brand of ravioli with as little fat as possible. Some are laden with tons of fat and calories, yet they don’t taste any better than those that are lower in fat and calories. Rosetto also makes a whole-wheat ravioli that’s delicious and just as low in fat and calories but packs 6 grams of fiber per serving (I buy it at Whole Foods). Though the bag is slightly smaller (22 ounces instead of 25), so you’ll need a bag plus a few more ravioli to make the recipe as written, it’s worth buying.