Easy Recipes

This is a takeoff of a cranberry bake recipe from Southern Living. This is homey, tasty, and not too sweet. Just a little cranberry twang but plenty of sweetness in the apples.

This is, hands down, my favorite new dish in 2024. Yes it’s a pasta dish but you can splurge once in awhile as long as you don’t eat too much of the pasta. The trick with this one is to get a lot of satisfaction out of the zucchini, the lovely tomato sauce and the basil. I only eat 6 or 7 tortellini blobs and I cut them in half as I eat them. That makes them last longer and you feel like you got to eat more of them.

This is a combination of a few recipes I found. Love the fact that these are low carb and tasty!

This dish is super easy and a one pan job if you have a cast iron pan.. Serve with green beans and eat them with your fingers if you dare...

This is a famous chili that probably should not even be called a chili. It was invented by two brothers who emigrated from Europe in the 1920’s. Of course, they lived in Cincinnati. When finished this will look sort of like chili but it’s served on spaghetti. There are no beans and it’s not spicy. It’s flavorful for sure, but not “hot.” Don’t let the list of ingredients throw you off.

In a hurry to make dinner? These tacos are quick and easy. Depending on how much preparation you do in advance, this dish can meet that goal in 15 – 25 minutes!

At first you’d think chimichangas would be high carb. The good news is they have low carb tortillas at the grocery store that taste the same as the traditional. Look for the low carb versions.

This dish tastes very much like Shrimp Scampi that you might order in an Italian restaurant. The addition of cheese takes it over the top in terms of BIG YUM.

Chris’s cousins sent us a HUGE box of fruit as his get well wish. There are only two of us, so in order to use the fruit I have had to get creative! Oh, my, these are yummy!

This dish comes together in a flash. If you are doing beef enchiladas, I recommend red sauce. If you are doing chicken, I recommend you go wild and use a green sauce.

On a hot day, this salad is a winner. It comes together quickly. You don’t even have to turn on the oven (if you have a grill).

This makes a lovely lunch or dinner with a salad on the side. Tastes very French or Italian. Vegetarians who eat dairy will love it. This can also be served as a side dish with grilled meat. It really does stand well on its own though.

Lemon curd is the perfect spring and summer dessert ingredient. You can serve this very simply by dipping cookies in it or use it like icing dividing layers of a cake. I like to make a tart or even mini-tarts. 

I am a huge fan of English shortbread. When I traveled a lot in England on business, the hotel usually left a package or two by the coffee maker. I used to make that my little breakfast while I worked at the desk.

I’ll lay out the instructions with chicken, but it can also be made with ham, tuna (canned or fresh cooked) smoked chicken or even a pulled apart rotisserie chicken.

This whole dinner comes together in about 15 minutes. There are just days when you can’t make everything from scratch. You need something you can get on the dinner table quickly.

This is a SUPERFAST soup to get a meal on the table in record time. This should only take you about 20 minutes.

Ever made your own BBQ sauce? Here's a quick, easy and delicious recipe for a home made option.

Flank steak needs to marinate to give it full flavor and to make it tender. It just needs a little attention to make it shine. I cooked this in my air fryer but if you don’t have one you can just toss it on the grill and follow the same basic instructions.

This is a very versatile dish! it can be made spicy with the addition of cayenne. You can serve it with rice or with a side of vegetables. My trick to use less rice is to make an “island” of rice in the middle of your plate. Just a rim and put the curried shrimp in the middle.

This stuff is addictive and so refreshing. RARELY do I take seconds on a dessert. With this one I did.

This cherry tart is so easy and it’s fancy enough to serve at a dinner party.

Once your weight has solidly stabilized you can handle something like this; just not every day.

Making avocado toast is a very free-form exercise. You can build it the way you want to; that's what makes it so easy - and delicious!

This dish is similar to the fancy French dish called Coquilles St. Jacques but it’s much easier to make. Simple ingredients, a little sautéing and then pop it under the broiler. With a salad and side veggie this is fancy enough to serve to company.

I came up with this recipe at the end of summer. I took what I call an “inspiration” recipe and Zolified it so we can enjoy it. It’s really tasty. 

This peach relish tastes a bit on the Indian-side. I had mine with salmon but you could serve it over chicken or pork, too. Plus it tastes fancy enough for company.

This is semi-spicy. If you want less heat, just back off on the pepper flakes.

I don’t eat potatoes very often but these are worth the splurge a few times a year. The yellow potatoes they are made from in my recipe are lower in carbohydrates than a Russet potato, so that’s a bonus, too.

Easy and delicious roasted red potatoes, with onions and balsamic vinegar! These are great on a buffet served hot or room temp. I use them for cocktail parties too.

Once you get your system cleaned out with ZReduction and you stabilize in ZReboot, you can “go a little wild” once in a while and venture out into the world of a bit of sugar. I took a recipe that called for an entire cup of syrup (yep, you read that right) and totally redesigned so it could be eaten in ZReboot 3.5.

The dish is QUICK. EASY. Brunch for dinner maybe? Or this can be a fun breakfast or lunch, too.

This is a cheesy and bubbly casserole that will keep you warm for dinner during the cold winter weeknights!

This dish is easy to put together. The spouse or the kids can help chop and it comes together fast. You can be doing other things while your dinner bakes in the oven. Makes great leftovers, too.

I was shocked. I have made this casserole so many times in so many variations -- I had no idea I had never typed it up to share with all of you! I am going to give you one version here but I’ll also editorialize a bit and give you other options to experiment. This recipe is so easy it comes together in under 15 minutes and then you just bake to heat it. A novice can handle this one for sure…and a busy parent can get a kid-friendly recipe on the table fast.

This is a rather long recipe because there are three parts but, believe me, this is so EASY. It's a great meal for summer and all year long.

This is a lovely twist on a regular pork loin roast. There is little honey in this and by Z3.5 your liver is operating properly again and will tolerate this bit of natural sugar with no problem.

This offering is going to involve two recipes. One for chicken kabobs and one for Italian sausage kabobs. Both use the same glaze. You can make both flavors or choose one.

This is one of the simplest recipes you can make. I almost hesitate to offer it because it is so simple.

A simple meat sauce to serve with spaghetti. Yep, those of you who know how I feel about too many carbohydrates might be scoffing about now. Spaghetti? Yes, I say. If you serve it in the right portion.

This is a really LOVELY dessert. Serve this to company with no reservations, they will feel spoiled and it makes a fun family dessert, too.