KDKA.com Consumer Web Extras
Oct 30, 2009 6:29 pm US/Eastern
Easy, Inexpensive Family Dinner Tips
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
There aren't enough hours in the day for many families to make a home-cooked meal.
But there are some easy shortcuts to make it faster and still nutritious, so you can all sit down together without feeling like you put in a whole day's work on dinner.
Linda Cahill, of Mount Lebanon, loves to play with her kitchen toys, everything from her mandolin to her apple chopper to the garlic press.
But she really loves to share the recipes she's learned; ones that can be made in 30 minutes or less with a cost under $2 a person.
Using a crockpot bowl that can fit in the microwave, Cahill prepared three dishes - a soup, a main course and a dessert.
"It is crockpot cooking in microwave minutes," she says. "People need to be able to come home from work and feed their families healthy, nutritious, inexpensively and this will allow you to do that in under 30 minutes."
For the soup, Cahill makes Loaded Baked Potato Chowder.
"This is comfort food," says Cahill.
She cooked the potatoes in the microwave, mashed them, added a mixture of milk, cream cheese and butter and then topped it off with cheese and green onions.
All the ingredients together cost under $8, or $1.31 a person with potatoes and milk leftover.
For the main course, Cahill prepares Chicken Penne al Fresco.
The meal is a frequent request from her husband, who usually does the cooking for the family.
First, you cook the chicken any way you like, but Cahill microwaved it for one less dirty dish.
Then, microwave the pasta, chicken broth and tomatoes. Top it off with basil and parmesan cheese and that's a one-dish meal in less than 30 minutes.
The price came to $2 a person.
For the dessert, Cahill made an Autumn Apple-Cherry Crisp; which is a one-dish dessert for 67 cents a serving.
"It's about bringing your families back to the table and hearing about each other's day and learning from one another and having a sense of family - whether PB& J or something like this, quick and easy in your microwave," adds Cahill.
Click here for a link to the recipes and the special pot Cahill used.
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