I have a couple stacked up.. I got busy last week.

O.k.. this giveaway is for a copy of the Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Eat Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life.

This is what Amazon says :

“The Flexitarian Diet” is the first book to describe what is potentially the next big diet and nutritional movement - ‘flexitarianism’. The concept has grown so popular that “Bon Apetit” selected ‘flexitarian’ as a hot trend for 2010. A flexitarian diet is part-time vegetarianism but, as the name suggests, flexitarianism is also about flexibility! a healthy, guided, customizable, appetizing, and family-friendly flexibility. “The Flexitarian Diet” begins with a quiz examining three nutrition factors: food preferences and aversions; whether the reader’s current diet is likely to cause shortfalls or overloads in particular nutrients; and, which food habits they most want to change. The answers point to best starting point for that reader.

There will be FIVE winners. Yep… I have five copies at my disposal.   Sooo… if you have been thinking of healthier eating..now may be the time!

Rules for enetering:

1. Leave a comment
2. Follow me on twitter - leave a comment telling me you did
3. Blog the contest and link to it and leave a comment
   
4. Sign up for the rss feed and leave a comment
   

Each person can only win one book. Contest will start today and end on Friday July 23 at 12 noon. Good luck!

Disclaimer: This cookbook is being supplied by the publisher. No money changed hands, I am not endorsing this cookbook. This giveaway is provided as a fun service to my readers.

So it is time for the  roundup and I realized that not only have I not reminded anyone BUT I have not done it myself. Been too busy. Have I cooked fast food? Sure! But I haven’t taken pictures.

That’s one thing about food blogging.. You can take a meal that would normally take you 15 minutes and by the time you photograph the steps, try to get the best shot and make notes you have spent an hour on the meal. Anyway… so rather than skip today I am just going to do a roundup of recipes that I have seen that look good and are quick…AND one of mine from years ago that I know you will love.

Who has time to cook in the  summer, anyway? There are parties to attend, pools to swim in, cake to eat….. (that’s one of my granddaughters) Real food…real fast… no reason to use anything else.

Not Your Mom’s Tuna Tetrazzini is one of my go to meals. You can make it ahead to the baking point, freeze it and bake later. You can take 10 minutes and prep it in the morning, stick it in the fridge and bake it for 30 minutes when you get home… OR …It will take about 40 minutes if you are going to make the whole thing in one session.

Ginger Cilantro Rice from Epicurious looks amazing to me. I would add chicken breast I think, to make it more of a meal. This takes 20 minutes or less.

Elle’s New England Kitchen is one of my favorites, and probably one of yours too, right? Well Check out this Pan Seared Tomato and Rosemary Artichoke Sandwich.

Evil Shenanigans is a blog authored by a real live friend of mine.. how cool is that? It always comforts me that I can prove at least a few of my friends are real. Anyway… Check out the chicken queso pasta. YUM! I think it would take less than 45 minutes just depending on how fast you are…and I think you could make it ahead like the tetrazzini, as well.

Garlic Chicken Stirfry from Recipe Girl is quick, easy, and looks delish. Yum!

Somehow I missed Sarah’s Morel Pasta, so I am adding it now.

SO there ya are…. 5 meals in less than 5 hours…If you used two hours on the weekend you could have each of these ready to put on the table in minutes.

Cool, isn’t it?

Well, here is another week of Real Food Real Quick. Sure you are busy, everyone is, but there are meals you can get on your table in less than 20 minutes. Real food. Food that doesn’t come from boxes and cans and envelopes of oddly scented powders. No need for GMOs, MSG, HFCS, or anything else… Feed your family well…real quick.

Baked Tilapia in Parchment from Judy at No Fear Entertaining. Seriously, less than 15 minutes for this dish.

O.k. Honestly, I swiped this Coffee and Chipotle Crusted London Broil from Renee at Flamingo Musings but… check it out? Can you blame me?

Lentil loaf from Jenn at Leftover Queen. This proves that vegetarian can be yummy and quick!

My Ravioli with Proscuitto and Peas was really quick… less than 15 minutes and so good.

Have a quick recipe? Send me a link by next Tuesday night to be part of next week’s round up. Looking for more? Real Food Real Quick 1.

Do you think you have to use convenience foods laden with icky ingredients in order to have food on the table quickly? No way. Here are some great ideas for Real Food Real Quick! Each of these meals takes less than 40 minutes, and each is made with real food. No need for cream of whatever soup in a can… or an envelope of this or that.

Check it out!

My entry is a spicy citrus chicken. I paired it with couscous pilaf and a fresh tomato salad and still came in at 40 minutes…even with taking pictures!

Sarah from What Smells So Good? makes not only a great pie filling that you can freeze ahead but grilled vegetable sandwiches to go with it. Yum!  I can tell you this pie filling works… mine is very similar. The trick is the type of thickener you use.

Renee from Flaming0 Musings uses a great freezer technique for a quick, easy meal that has minimal clean up. Gotta love Elegant Freezer Chicken.

Paula from Dragon’s Kitchen makes a fantastic looking dish, Spaghettini with Brown Butter, Olives, and Feta.

That’s it for this week..but some great ideas, don’t you think? This will be a weekly roundup so check back next week for more real food real quick.

This is my own entry for Real Food… Real Quick (or real fast..I keep changing it..sorry!)

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I did a complete meal, including two sides and bread, in 40 minutes. I think it would have taken less time but I was taking pictures as well. One of the most important things about real food..real fast is that you have to have a plan. You can’t take precious time deciding what you feel like cooking..you have to know.

Chicken breast cooks fast. One thing I like to do is to cut it in half horizontally to make thinner pieces. It is easy, makes the chicken go farther, and helps it to cook quicker.

This chicken has sort of an Indian flavor but sort of a Caribbean flavor, too. It is fresh and tangy with a spicy touch that takes it out of the ordinary. One way you are going to save time is to begin cooking the chicken before you sauce it. So step one is to prepare your chicken, salt and pepper it, drizzle a bit of olive oil on it, and put it in a casserole dish and pop it in a 375F oven. For this recipe I used 6 thick, boneless chicken breasts and sliced them to make 12.

Now…The sauce. Add a little olive oil to a pan.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-2 serrano peppers, seeded and chopped, more if you want more heat or use spicier peppers
• 1 large bell pepper or 3 or 4 small sweet peppers, chopped
• 1/2 bunch of fresh mint, chopped
• 1 cup of organic chicken broth
• juice of 1 lemon, plus grated zest
• Juice of 1 lime, plus grated zest
• Juice of 1 clementine plus grated zest
• 2-3 Tbs honey
• 2 -3 Tbs prepared Masala paste (organic preferred.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs organic cornstarch (non-GMO)

1. Saute the onion and peppers until the onion begins to be transparent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Pour in the chicken broth, the citrus, citrus zest, mint, honey, and Masala
4. Simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Pour over chicken and continue baking until done, about 15 more minutes.
6. Remove chicken from oven, keep warm.
7. Pour off the sauce into a pan.
8. Whisk in the cornstarch and simmer until thickened.
9. Pour over chicken and serve.

Serves 12

Cous cous is a good side when you are in a hurry. It takes less than 5 minutes to make and you can easily do it while the chicken and sauce are baking.

Couscous is simply small grains of semolina flour, like pasta. It is a great substitute for rice and can be totally ready in less than 10 minutes.

For my pilaf I used equal parts of organic chicken broth and couscous. I added 1 cup of frozen organic peas, and chopped red pepper. A few tablespoons of butter finished the dish.

Just bring your chicken broth to a boil, add the rest of your ingredients, cover, and set back off the heat until ready to serve. Just before you serve it fluff the couscous lightly with a fork.

When you are using fresh foods, try to get them in season. The cherry tomato salad was a no brainer and took less than 3 minutes to prepare. I mixed two types of cherry tomatoes with marinated artichokes, Greek olives, Feta cheese, dry bread cubes, mint, salt, pepper, and a drizzle each of olive oil and balsamic. There is just no way to get more flavor than this.

I then added olive bread from the bakery for a complete, fresh, delicious meal.

images: marye audet