Whether you are short on time, snowed in and stuck at home, recovering from a natural disaster, social distancing due to a cold, flu, or underlying illness, staying at home doesn’t have to mean self-isolation or the inability to eat healthy by spending hours in the kitchen.

I am sharing a few like eight of my favorite go-to healthy food recipes that are easy to make in less than 30 minutes for less than $10 per recipe.

Most of the ingredients required like all-purpose flour, sugar, butter are already in your pantry or easy to obtain from a grocery store, or delivered straight to your door by shopping online.

Instead of pasting the instructions and making this post longer than needed, I am providing links to each recipe are in the first paragraph.

1. Pineapple and Coconut Bars

This pineapple and coconut bars recipe is my favorite breakfast go-to when I don’t have the time to cook a proper breakfast.

I came across the easy recipe while watching the Canadian show, Cityline. The food segment features chefs showing how to make easy meals for those short on time, but want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

While the recipe is mentioned as a dessert, pineapple and coconut can be enjoyed at any time of day.

After making this recipe a couple of times, play around with the ingredients.

For example, the pineapple filling asks for 1/2 a cup of sugar while the crust asks for 1/2 a cup of brown sugar.

The canned pineapple is already sweet. Since I make homemade brown sugar by adding molasses to white cane sugar, substituting white sugar with brown sugar tames the sweetness.

Maple sugar is also another great substitute along with a swirl of pomegranate molasses.

2. Cilantro-Lime Rice

If you’re a Chipotle burrito bowl fan like I am, the cilantro-lime rice is one of the best items that brings all the flavors together.

Now you can make the copycat cilantro-lime rice at home. The recipe asks for fresh cilantro. The first time I made the recipe, I didn’t have fresh cilantro on hand and used dried cilantro. That was a bad idea.

Yes, some recipes that ask for fresh ingredients can be substituted with dried ingredients, but for this recipe, using fresh cilantro is the way to go.

The recipe asks for fresh lime juice, but I use a bottle of key lime juice from Peru used to make key lime pies as a substitute for lime as I like to make sparkling water beverages using my soda stream.

3. Carolina Plantation Rice

When it comes to making the rice, I make one tweak to the recipe. There is heirloom rice called Carolina Gold Rice. You can find my Carolina Plantation rice recipe here.

The history of rice in the low country of South Carolina goes something like this taken from the Carolina Plantation Rice website I buy my Carolina Gold Rice from:

“During the Colonial Period, coastal South Carolina was the largest producer of rice in America.

The crop arrived in the area around 1685. A brigantine ship, captained by John Thurber and sailing from the island of Madagascar, encountered a raging storm, perhaps a small hurricane, and put into Charleston Harbor for repairs.

With the ship in dry dock, Captain Thurber met Henry Woodward, the town’s best-known resident, who had the distinction of being the first English settler in the area.

Thurber gave Woodward a bag of rice. Some say a peck, others say a bushel.

Woodward experimented with the rice, which gave him a good crop. Rice was soon on its way to becoming the area’s main cash crop.

Rice remained a dominant commodity on the coastal rivers of South Carolina until the end of the Civil War when production started a long decline due to a loss of labor and working capital and aided by several severe storms.

In the early 1900s, rice farming disappeared from the state altogether”.

Thanks to local chefs, the rice is quickly making a comeback. Don’t believe me? Watch Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown South Carolina episode.

Your curiosity will quickly get the better of you to give the heirloom rice a try.

What I like about Carolina Gold rice is the aromatic appeal and taste.

I use a rice maker followed by baking the rice in the oven for 10 minutes with a couple of cubes of butter and pepper.

This is the only way I enjoy my rice. The cilantro-lime mixture takes the white rice disk to a whole new level.

4. Tomato Paste

Are you still buying pizza sauce and pasta sauce separately? Save yourself a couple of dollars by making your own.

Homemade tomato paste serves as a multi-use base for pizza sauce and pasta dishes.

A six-ounce can of tomato paste costs less than $.50. The rest of the ingredients of oregano, white vinegar, olive oil, thyme, salt, and garlic powder can be found in your pantry.

The tomato paste can be made in large batches, frozen in the freezer in cubes and used whenever you get that urge for homemade pizza or pasta.

Check out this two-minute homemade fresh pasta video by Jamie Oliver using only two ingredients, flour, and water.

5. Collard Greens with Bacon

What can I say about collard greens with bacon? It’s easy to mess up if you don’t cook collard greens right.

If you grow your own at home, make sure to wash those collard greens. No one wants to eat dirty greens!

All joke aside, if you don’t have space for a backyard garden, one bushel of collard greens can be found for less than $3 in the grocery stores and $1-2 at your local farmer’s market.

I like visiting my local farmer’s market because the leaves and bushes tend to be larger.

The recipe can easily last a week.

6. Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Speaking of Anthony Bourdain, I have never really been a fan of scrambled eggs. Why you may ask?

Well because I didn’t make them right and had no respect for the “egg”.

After watching Tony make scrambled eggs in minutes, I knew I had to give his take on scrambled eggs a try.

I’m completely in love with scrambled eggs and always make them the way Tony taught me.

7. Copycat Starbucks Tea Lemonade

With summer approaching, drinks like tea and lemonade are on my list of favorites to make. Instead of enjoying them separately, why not enjoy the beloved tea lemonade in three different ways?

Tea lemonade is the perfect complement to your homemade meals or sitting on the porch while taking in some fresh air.

8. Frothy Dalgona Coffee

Three ingredients of equal parts of sugar, instant coffee, and water results in a deliciously thick layer of coffee foam called dalgona coffee.

I wished I would have known about this easy coffee recipe during my travels.

Dalgona coffee is not only fun to make but looks pretty enough to take a picture and post it on Instagram.

For those few minutes you’re whisking the delicious toffee looking into an edible, frothy creation reminiscent of homemade whipped cream, don’t be afraid to brag and pat yourself on the back about becoming a self-taught barista aficionado.

The amount of hotel coffee and failed instant coffee creations had me almost give up my favorite morning beverage while on the road. Not anymore.

You can put your travel whisk or a milk frother and cup to good use and have yummy coffee anytime and anywhere on the road or in your hotel room.

Give some or all these easy meals a try. Happy cooking!

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