(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Many kids may be off from school soon, but kidlets are never off from eating. Why not, then, during school breaks make eating not only fun, but sneakily nutritious and parts of easy cooking lessons?
Mug meals fit everything on the aforementioned checklist. A bored kid, while supervised, can prepare a single-serving meal in seconds. Powdered hot chocolate or canned soup? No, the fare is much more advanced than that.
Camila V. Saulsbury packs healthful ingredients into simple preparations in "250 Best Meals in a Mug." Her quinoa chili is a prime example. Quinoa is the high-protein seeds of an ancient grain that is now popular in mainstream supermarkets. It's quick to cook and versatile. Brown rice can be substituted in her chili recipe, which also features canned diced tomatoes with green chilies and seasoned chili beans.
Vegetables can be fun, too, when in tiny doses are added to a mug omelet that kids can see transform from liquid to solid in seconds, like the following one. Vegetarian crumbled sausage also gets stowed away in the fold of the omelet.
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun – and fast. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
VEGGIE OMELET IN A MUG
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon fully cooked vegetarian sausage, crumbled
1 tablespoon finely chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon finely chopped bell pepper
2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese
Yields 1 serving.
Beat egg and milk in a 16-ounce mug until blended. Add crumbled cooked vegetarian sausage, mushrooms and bell pepper.
Microwave on high 30 seconds; pushed cooked egg toward center. Microwave until egg is almost set, about 15 to 45 seconds longer. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the cheese. With a fork, carefully fold omelet in half; slide onto plate. Top with remaining cheese. Serve immediately.
- Adapted from IncredibleEgg.org
QUINOA CHILI MUG MEAL
3 tablespoons quinoa, rinsed (see Note)
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup canned diced tomatoes with green chilies, with juice
1/2 cup canned seasoned chili beans, with juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste
Optional garnishes: Nonfat plain Greek yogurt Fresh cilantro leaves Chopped green onions Chopped radishes Shredded Cheddar cheese Fresh lime juice
Yields 1 serving.
In a 16-ounce mug, combine quinoa and water. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Carefully stir. Microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes (checking at 3), or until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender.
Stir in tomatoes, beans and cumin. Microwave on high for 1 & 1/2 to 2 & 1/2 minutes (checking at 1 & 1/2), or until heated through. Cover mug with a small plate or saucer and let stand for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with any of the optional garnishes. Note: Brown rice can be substituted for quinoa, if desired.
- From “250 Best Meals in a Mug.”
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Meringue cookies or toppings don’t have to just be white. In “The Sweetapolita Bakebook,” Rosie Alyea gives some fun alternatives. A few:
- For cotton candy meringues: Replace sugar with cotton candy sugar.
- For sprinkle meringues: Fold 1/2 cup of your favorite sprinkles into meringue.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
