The 5:30 Challenge: 5 Ingredients, 30 Minutes, Dinner on the Table
By Jeanne Besser and Susan Puckett
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About this ebook
Long commutes and busy schedules leave us all wondering the same thing, but don't worry, because The 5:30 Challenge is the perfect solution to creating healthy and delicious meals in a snap!
Forget the fast food and frozen packaged meals -- with just five easy-to-find ingredients you can have dinner on the table in thirty minutes or less every night, guaranteed. Based on the popular newspaper column from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, these tasty recipes are sure to appeal to any appetite, from hearty dinner entrees to satisfying seasonal salads, zesty soups, and chilies to tantalizing stir-fries, plus pizzas, pastas, and more. You won't believe how easy it is to make great meals such as:
- Lamb Shanks with Tomato and Mint
- Filet and Portobellos with Blue Cheese
- Cajun Chicken Pasta
- Mid-Week Madness Chili
- Polenta and Meatball Casserole
- Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Spinach
- Fresh Tomato and Ricotta Pizza
- Trout Amandine
- Bacon, Tomato, and Avocado Quesadillas
- Tex-Mex Ribs
Whether you're cooking for a hungry family or whipping up something for just one or two, The 5:30 Challenge is the ideal cookbook for creating a terrific meal without spending a lot of time in the kitchen. From kid-friendly to restaurant-style, each simple, streamlined recipe is designed for maximum flavor in minimum time. Each recipe has detailed nutritional information, as well as suggestions for substituting ingredients and using easy cooking shortcuts. In addition, there are recipes for quick and tasty desserts, plus helpful tips on shopping for quality convenience products and keeping the basics on hand for a quick meal anytime. For busy home cooks, The 5:30 Challenge is the answer to eating a great dinner every night and having plenty of time to enjoy it.
Jeanne Besser
Jeanne Besser has written The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "5:30 Challenge" column for more than three years and is the author of The First Book of Baking and Working Mom's Fast and Easy Family Cookbook. She lives with her husband and two sons in Atlanta, Georgia.
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The 5:30 Challenge - Jeanne Besser
Flashes in the Pan
Sautés, Stir-Fries, and Skillet Dinners
It starts with a sizzle, as oil hits a hot pan. Whether it’s a quick stir-fry or a slow caramelization of vegetables and meat, nothing matches the versatility of cooking in a skillet.
What inspires us most about stovetop cooking is that it stirs our creative juices. Taste as you go along, adding a little of this and adjusting a little of that, until you’ve created a masterpiece. By watching the ingredients, you can visually judge the cooking progress and know when to give a quick stir or add a drop more broth.
These flash-in-the-pan dinners pair complementary tastes with varying textures; note how unusual ingredients often unite with more traditional combinations to add nuance to the finished dish.
Some—like Portuguese Thin Steaks with Onion and Tomato Sauce and Sole with Bananas and Macadamia Nuts—incorporate flavors from around the world. Others, like Corn Chip-Crusted Tilapia are pure red, white, and blue.
Many of the recipes make a whole meal, some simply the meal’s centerpiece. Follow our combinations to a T or feel free to tinker to suit your preferences. That’s what flash cooking is all about.
Crispy Rye and Mustard Pork Chops with Quick-Fried Cabbage
1. 2/3 cup sour cream
2. 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3. 3-4 slices fresh rye bread with caraway seeds (enough to make about 2 cups crumbs)
4. 1 pound boneless breakfast pork chops
5. 1 16-ounce bag coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage
Makes 4 servings
TO MAKE THE MEAL
Baked acorn squash rings
Buttered rye bread
Talk about getting tons of mileage out of a few ingredients!
A simple sour cream and mustard sauce serves as both a coating and a topping for the thinnest pork chops you can find (sometimes labeled breakfast chops
). The shredded cabbage picks up both the pork and caraway flavors. It’s virtually a meal in itself, but if you want to flesh out the menu more, serve with baked acorn squash rings: slice a small unpeeled acorn squash into ½-inch slices. With a biscuit cutter, cut out the seeds from the center of each ring. Dot with butter, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn over, and sprinkle with a little more brown sugar. Bake for 5-10 minutes, or until tender.
In a bowl, combine the sour cream and mustard. Transfer 1/3 cup of the mixture to a smaller bowl and reserve.
In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse bread slices until coarse crumbs form. (Or make crumbs by rubbing bread against large holes of a box grater). Transfer crumbs to a plate.
Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Dip chops, one at a time, into the sour cream and mustard mixture to coat lightly, wiping off excess. Coat with breadcrumbs and transfer to a plate.
Place a large, well-oiled skillet over medium heat. When a breadcrumb sizzles, add half the pork (don’t crowd!) and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, pressing down with a spatula so that crumbs adhere. Transfer to a platter. Repeat with remaining chops; add more oil if