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Sometimes coming up with meals that the entire family will enjoy can be a chore. Kids are against spicy foods in general and serving up too much of them will force you to make a second meal most of the time. My cure for that these days has been to keep it simple. If my husband wants to douse his meal in hot sauce, then all the power to him. Keeping it simple makes life much easier.

I start every meal with a large, green, salad. The greener the better. I have been decorating my salad with some good stuff. Buying tri-colored peppers and having them chopped and ready to go is a big help. And although my girls don't care for larger tomatoes, they enjoy the cherry tomatoes sliced in half on top of their salad. I add some dried cranberries, goat cheese and a few low fat croutons for crunch. Then there is nothing like a bag of pre-shredded carrots to top it all off! We are all getting into the spray salad dressings these days. They add all of the flavor with none of the added fat and calories.

Picking veggies that everyone will eat can also be a chore. Thank goodness having the salad makes up for that. But asparagus is one that can be flavored simply with a squeeze of a lemon and some olive oil. Saute them quickly, just until they turn bright green.

Finally, this night I used 1 tbls of Olive Oil (the good kind) with 1 tsp of butter and sauteed some garlic (about two cloves) until fragrant. Then I added the juice of a half lemon, and some chicken broth and a splash of white wine. I simmered it for about 3 minutes until it thickened up just slightly. I added chunks of chicken breast and cooked until done, and then some cooked shrimp. I topped it with some parsley. I didn't have any fresh parsley on hand, so I used dried instead just to add some color. Finally, I heated up three cups of Minute Rice Brown Rice which comes already cooked in little cups. This is such a time saver because Brown Rice can take forever! And the rice is very good. The girls like to eat it right out of cup! I mixed it all together and served it up. The lemon adds alot of flavor without the spice, and everyone gets a healthy and nutritious meal in no time at all.

Sure it is hard some days, but with a little creativity and the simplest of ingredients, dinner is ready in no time!