Weeknight Meals

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 25 min

Doris Murphy of Pompano Beach, Florida, writes: "When I was raising my children, the dishes I made were definitely home style to suit everyone's tastes; but even without the demands of feeding a family, I still prefer simpler recipes. Nevertheless, I notice that most of my kids are pretty adventurous cooks. Maybe they did get some of that creativity from me; when I recall the potato-meat-and-vegetable meals my mother served, I realize that I did branch out a bit."

Pre-marinated pork tenderloins can be found in the supermarket meat section. To round out the meal, add a romaine salad dressed with Dijon vinaigrette and a basket of warm cranberry-corn muffins; finish with wedges of apple pie and sharp cheddar cheese.

Here, leftover cranberry sauce (or canned cranberry sauce) and boneless pork chops make a very contemporary little supper. Freshen up any leftover mashed white or sweet potatoes by stirring in chopped lemon and orange peel. A salad of bitter greens tossed with a cider vinaigrette, and a simple dessert of grape clusters and spiced bar cookies round things out.

"Whenever I visit my family in the Chicago area, my sister and I make a point of having lunch at Fresh Starts Restaurant in Flossmoor," says Carol De Biase-Ruffe of Arvada, Colorado. "They serve delicious, healthful food — and we're never disappointed. The last time we went there, I ordered a fish entrée topped with tomato salsa." The restaurant uses tilapia for this dish; we substituted the easier-to-find orange roughy.

Here's a hearty and satisfying pasta that makes an easy entrée for a dinner party.

Serve rice with this dish from Le Colonial, a Vietnamese restaurant in West Hollywood.

This hearty and satisfying main course, from Kokkari in San Francisco, was inspired by the flavors of Greece.

It doesn’t look or taste like it, but this pizza is low-fat. Each slice has just 346 calories and 4 1/2 grams of fat.

Note that the heat level of Cajun seasoning blends can vary widely. Serve with: Baby spinach salad, corn bread, and pickled okra.

This light, spicy soup is delicious hot or chilled. The sautéed aromatics turn the broth a rich red-orange, more reminiscent of tomato than watermelon. See if your guests can guess the main ingredient. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 hr (3 hr if serving chilled)

Mark Taylor of West Hartford, Connecticut, writes: "I started cooking out of necessity when I first graduated from college, since I couldn't afford to eat out. Having grown up watching my mother cook for our large family, I used her recipes. She was always trying new dishes whenever we had guests and sharing her adventurous attitude toward eating. These days, even though my wife and I both work, we still cook several times a week. Now I tend to rely on recipes I've picked up from restaurants and friends. I enjoy experimenting with different ingredients and figuring out new ways to improve a recipe, as I've done with the one here."

In Indian cooking, tikka refers to chunks of meat cooked on skewers.