Mills Kevin - Faster! Im starving!: 100 dishes in 25 minutes or less

I know how to cook, but Im even better at ordering out. I can bake, I can fry, I can saut, but Im unbelievable at ripping off the tops of boxes and sticking frozen dinners in the microwave. And I could teach a class on how to sit in line at a drive-thru.

I prefer a home-cooked meal, but there are so many easy ways out in todays world. Its a dilemma that my wife and I deal with seemingly every evening. We live within ten minutes of about 700 restaurants, fast-food chains and frozen food aisles. They beckon, they tempt, they mock, and we try to resist.

Does our predicament sound familiar? Do you wish you had the time, talent and inclination to create magnificent feasts that would make Emeril break down and weep in envy, but instead often settle for boiling water and pouring it into a styrofoam cup filled with dried noodles and flavor crystals? Thankfully, my mom showed me that there is a middle road.

Mom never seems to have this dilemma at dinnertime. She cooks every night, and has since I was in a high chair. I grew up watching her create three-course meals effortlessly, keeping three or four pots going at different heats, cracking eggs with the left hand while stirring with the right. I didnt always appreciate the variety and quality of what she cookedI wanted to have spaghetti every night.

My mom seems to live in fear, and has since I was born, that Im not eating properly. And as much as I hate to admit it, without her help shed probably be right. Over the last decade shes made a cook out of me, even if I was reluctant at every step. But now Im so busy that I hardly have time to cook. Upon hearing this news, mom climbed on her magic whisk and flew through my window to continue a process she began almost a decade ago.

It all started when I finished college and moved in with my girlfriend. For the first few years it was like we were playing house. We put together a kitchen from hand-me-down pots and pans and stolen dining-hall silverware. When wed cook, it was more like we were lab partners in a chemistry class than real chefs. We still mostly ate out and ordered in, so when we cooked it was a very special occasion. Sometimes the food even tasted good.

That was when we were in our early twenties. My mom took it upon herself to send us recipes that would be difficult to ruin. By then Id (mostly) gotten over my adolescent rejection of all motherly advice, and I accepted her help in learning how to cook a few starvation-preventers like roast chicken and lasagna. At that point mom and I decided to write our first cookbook, which became Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen. It documented that early period when she first convinced me that I couldnt keep eating like I was at summer camp.

Then my girlfriend became my wife, we passed twenty-five and now were both adults even in our own minds. At this point in life, eating is no longer just something you do while watching The Simpsons in bed. Adults, for some reason, like to eat in groups. And so we had to start cooking for other married couples, which required a new level of variety and polish in our cooking. Id already written a cookbook, but I still felt like a novice in the kitchen. So my mom continued her teaching process, and Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room was born. Once again my cooking progress was tied to both my expanding taste in food and the expectations placed on me by my increasing years.

Our next collaboration involved a side trip into self-indulgence. Both mom and I are lunatic chocolate eaters, and we fully explored this passion in Chocolate on the Brain. My progress in the kitchen had reached the point that I was able to follow more complicated recipes, but I would only do so if, when I was done, I could swim the backstroke in pools of chocolate excess.

But then, in my late twenties, a few things happened. First, I needed to get an exercise bike to work off the effects of eating too many chocolate desserts for breakfast. And second, my wife and I had a baby. It began the most recent phase of our lives wherein time was a much more precious resource. Of course I love everything about fatherhoodespecially tantrums and middle-of-the-night diaper changesbut I do miss having a few minutes of peace and quiet. And Joeys birth, followed a few years later by Andys and then Sammys, has inspired the need for the latest evolution in my cooking experience. Faster! Im Starving! comes from this place in our lives, where my wife and I need to cook in as little time as possible. Our youthful laziness has given way to grown-up busyness, and if we can cook a complete meal in 25 minutes or less, we will resist the temptation to take the easy way out.

My wife and I found ourselves eating spaghetti five nights a week. What Id thought would be the perfect diet as a child actually turned out to be extremely boring. And some nights, especially when my wife worked late, even spaghetti was too much work. Our options were reduced to calling for pizza at 10 p.m. or just sitting on the kitchen floor and stuffing fistfuls of American cheese in our mouths. We needed more quick, easy foods. Once again, mom was ready with recipes and advice.

My moms solutions involve recipes with limited preparation required, techniques to fast-forward through chopping and cleaning, and ways to intensify and quicken the cooking process. And were not talking about hotdogs and cheeseburgers here. Instead, we have Pasta and Bean Soup, Chinese-Style Pork Medallions and Roasted Portobello Mushroom Burgers. These are one-dish meals that we couldnt get at a fast-food chain if we wanted to.

So now, with the latest recipes and techniques my mom has given us, we can cook a healthy, interesting dinner within the length of a sitcom. These dinners taste good enough to keep us from surrendering to the temptations just down the street. And theyre easy enough to make with a baby in one arm and two little boys holding onto each leg, which is a must for us.

Ive been cooking for ten years now, but Im still learning. Maybe by the time Im in a nursing home Ill be completely comfortable in the kitchen. Hopefully by then my mom and I will have written a book about how to cook food that you can eat without teeth. But until then, my tastes and abilities, like yours probably, will continue to evolve. I hope this book helps you eat well while you go about living your lives.