Holmes - 4 Ingredients or Less Cookbook: Fast, Practical & Healthy Meal Options

4 Ingredients or Less Cookbook: Fast, Practical & Healthy Meal Options by Maria Holmes All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright 2013
Table of Contents

i A ll information in this book has been carefully researched and checked for factual accuracy. However, the author and publisher make no warranty, express or implied, that the information contained herein is appropriate for every individual, situation or purpose, and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. The reader assumes the risk and full responsibility for all actions, and the author will not be held responsible for any loss or damage, whether consequential, incidental, special or otherwise that may result from the information presented in this publication. T he author has relied on her own experience as well as many different sources for this book, and has done her best to check the facts and to give credit where it is due.

In the event that any material is incorrect or has been used without proper permission, please contact the author so that the oversight can be corrected at:
ii Dear Reader! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read my book and hope that you find these no fuss meal ideas both convenient and healthy! B efore we start exploring these wonderful mouthwatering and tempting dishes, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Maria Holmes and I am indeed the author of the cookbook you are now reading. If you are interested in learning more about me, my mission and my passion, please join my Facebook community at Homes Cooked Meals for interesting activities and enthusiastic discussions. Or you might want to visit my blog at HolmesCookedMeals.com . B ut lets get back to the topic at hand: Quick and easy healthy meals! M ost home cooks want fast, practical meal options that can help them get in and out of the kitchen quickly - and this collection of recipes makes cooking even faster and easier. My tested recipes have short ingredient lists and easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions.

Each recipe requires four ingredients or less ( excluding water, oil, cooking spray, salt, pepper, and optional ingredients ). T hese recipes were also designed with your health in mind, and each recipe includes a nutritional analysis. I hope these easy recipes will bring exciting new possibilities to your dining table, and most importantly, that they help you find more time to enjoy life!
Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, who have always supported and encouraged me in everything I have done in my life. Without their love and support, this book might never have been written. I am also grateful to my dear friends who I often use as test subjects when developing my recipes. Without their help and sacrifice, many of these recipes may have turned out bland and tasteless.

Many of these friends have become members and supporters of my Facebook Page and Holmes Cooked Meals Website . A nd a special thank you goes out to my loving husband and my two amazing children (Ellie an Isaac) who endlessly encourage me to share my love for food and my many recipes with the world. A nd most importantly, thank you, dear reader, for purchasing my 4 Ingredients or Less Cookbook: Fast, Practical & Healthy Meal Options .
Introduction I do not want to deter your attention away from the amazingly simple, practical and healthy recipes that are in this book, but I would like to pass along five easy tips that will save you time in the kitchen. You are likely familiar with most, if not all, of these tips already. But they may be worth revisiting.

Because it is my experience that these simple tips, the ones that are so easy to disregard or forget, are the things that will guarantee that your home cooking adventures are speedy, successful, and stress-free. So are these tips really that big of a deal? Id say so. So take the time to read through the following tips and make them into habits. It will take time I still forget to set timers, and consequently burn things, more than I would care to admit but, like I have said, these tips will also save you time. So lets not waste any more time. Here we go! READ THE RECIPE I know this may seems like a silly tip, but believe me, there is nothing more disappointing than getting halfway through that amazing recipe and realizing that you are missing a critical item or component - be it a special kitchen equipment, skill, supplies, or time.

Before doing anything else, read through the recipe start to finish and keep an eye out for: Unfamiliar techniques Unusual equipment Long resting, roasting or rising times Knowing what to do and what you need to do before you actually start doing it will save you tons of time! PREP FIRST, COOK SECOND Having all the ingredients prepared and all your kitchen tools ready before you start cooking is crucial. This simple technique one that the French call mise en place (translated as everything in its place ) will save you from wobbling unsteadily on a stack of chairs in search of who-knows-what, when, according to the recipe, all you should be doing is adding the ingredients to the pan. Prepping first is especially important for those recipes where time is of the essence. Being ready to go right at the beginning makes the difference between a delicious or disastrous meal. So read through your ingredients list and prepare them accordingly. If the recipe calls for three cups of diced onions, make sure theyre diced and measured before you start cooking.

And if you know you will be adding multiple ingredients to your meal in a single step, you will have all the ingredients measured out and combined into one bowl to save cooking time and make cleaning up easier. PREP LIKE A PRO Nobody knows more about saving time prepping ingredients than a professional chef. So go through your favorite cookbooks for the tips and tricks that the best chefs recommend. Here are a few of my favorite chef-recommended tips for preparing ingredients in record time: To grate ginger quickly and easily, store it in the freezer and grate it from a frozen state: gingers tough fibers make grating and chopping a chore when fresh. But freezing the ginger makes is much easier. In addition, storing ginger in your freezer makes it last longer than when kept in the refrigerator.

While I personally dont worry about ginger skin, if you dont like it, you can simply scrape it off with a spoon before or after freezing. But remember that skinless ginger should be stored in an airtight bag or container to maintain freshness. To peel a clove of garlic, try flattening the clove first with the flat side of a knife: When fresh, garlic cloves are plump and firmly packed into their papery skins (the cloves shrivel as they age, making the skins easier to remove, but the garlic is less tasty). To save yourself from shredding the skin under your fingernails while peeling garlic skins, squash the garlic clove under the flat part of a knife. The skin should come off easily after that. KEEP YOUR KNIVES SHARP In my experience, dull knives not only slow you down, but they also increase the chances of cutting yourself.

When working with a dull blade, you apply more pressure and resort to silly techniques to get the job done. But as long as you exercise common sense when working with sharp blades i.e., dont cut at a speed faster than youre comfortable with, keep your fingers out of the way, wash the blade carefully and, as my mothers been telling me for years, dont lick anything directly off the blade of the knife you will get things done much more efficiently and safely. You can easily keep your knives sharp by using a commercial knife sharpener (if you feel comfortable with this). Otherwise, you can keep your knives in good shape for a long, long time, by getting them professionally sharpened. All you need to do is go through the phone-book, get Googling, or phone your local restaurant, culinary school, food-loving friend, or butchers shop for recommendations on good knife sharpeners. SET A TIMER It does not matter if you are cooking rice, toasting nuts, baking a cake, or simply adding a few extra minutes to a near-done batch of cookies, a timer will make sure that your hard work does not go up in flames.