The 10-minute $2 “business” meal
A sound criterion for busy meals is: fast and few steps, few courses, inexpensive (consistently sensible), and few but complete and healthy components. Components are not the same thing as ingredients, mind you, and steps done simultaneously, I count as one. Among them, is this favorite:
Follow the directions for a bag of steam-in-the-microwave frozen mixed vegetables - usually a mixture of zucchini, squash, broccoli, peppers, and long beans, often includes noodles. Typical cost is $1.29-$1.69. - serves two. Meanwhile heat a teaspoon of oil and a moderate amount of precooked frozen chicken or shrimp in a pan. Usual cost is $6.20-$9 for an average of 5 dinners for two. When ready, combine in the pan with seasonings (especially sweet basil - try paprika, coriander, etc) and cook a little longer (until the vegetable broth is absorbed). Two components, two steps, $2/person, and something like a dozen healthy ingredients, and It’s under 10 minutes. Low carb, high protein, and always tastes fantastic. If you have to have a side (I usually don’t), add a few pennies worth of steamed rice (also available in steamable microwave pouches, if you don’t have a rice cooker). Goes nicely with large quantities of cold barley tea.
Vegetarian tip: substitute firm tofu for the chicken. Check out the local Vietnamese or Chinese grocer for the home-made variety. It doesn’t last as long, but it’s better.
It’s not perhaps the cheapest meal, but it’s not expensive, and it ensures that I eat right more often than not. Makes me feel energetic and lean. Of course, this is just one of several I keep up my sleeve. Most times, if you’re working, you need to be smart without letting food dominate your life. I need to knock out meals with hardly any effort, minimal planning, but a significant payoff with consistent health benefits, and conserve funds because, even if I could afford not to, it’s just and wise to do so.
I watch people spend hours in the AM pondering lunch, only to fill it with fast food, or over-priced sit-down fast food disguised as high-end fare (TGI Fridays, the Chinese buffet, Tex Mex) - same as if they’d put NO thought into it. Then either they make a production out of cooking at night, or else eat expensive, unhealthy, prepared garbage, similarly full of brain-killers like MSG and other glutamates - or else it’s back to the yuppy fern bar for the same set of ingredients you find in frozen entrees.
If you’re a gourmet, or just love cooking, or are doing it as a mitvah, perhaps it’s worth it to devote time and money, but it’s almost never worth it to consistently short your health. I can’t rightly do any of these things. Recently got a knock on the noggin from the doc about some bad eating she caught me doing these past couple of years. Now it’s no more cheating. 
Bad eating is bad for the brain, bad for the mood, and bad business.
