Agreed. I think 45 minutes is more accurate. Sometimes an hour. Usually not more than that though.

I've only managed a meal in 30 minutes or less if I can grill everything (like bbq chicken with grilled asparagus), or if most of the components are pre-made, like pasta with jarred sauce or a meal using a protein I've already cooked ahead of time and veggies that don't require a lot of prep (again, something like asparagus or green beans). If there's any sort of prep work involved, like chopping up veggies or making sauces, then it's at least 45, and I've got pretty decent knife skills.

If you're talking just the entree, I can do it, especially if I'm grilling or preparing a meatless dish. My daughter had an event after school last week, and I got home from work and made steak fajitas in 18 minutes! Including pica de gallo! We were all surprised it was finished in time.

Yeah, I can't usually do 30 minutes on "recipes", which is why lately even 30 minute meal recipes are relegated to the weekend. For me, having a little one under foot pretty much guarantees that an actual recipe will take a while, but even if he's being cooperative I find the prep nearly always takes longer than the recipe suggests. If it's something I cook routinely and don't need to consult a recipe, I can manage it. I only have about 60 minutes to cook, eat and clean up before my son's bedtime, so weeknights mean the simplest dinners I can scrounge up, like something grilled with a salad, scrambled eggs, simple tacos, etc.

I find that most "30" minute recipes that I try include ingredients, such as chopped vegetables or sliced meat or this or that. Those recipes don't count for the time it takes to chop, slice or melt or whatever.

Yes, Shish Kebobs!
http://www.tablefull.com/2012/03/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

I agree that a lot of meals which claim to be "30 minutes or less" actually take a bit longer. However, there are a lot of meals I have in my repertoire which are 30 minutes or less. Whether this is because they actually are quick or because I have perfected them over time is really no matter. These are recipes that, no joke, I can do in under 30 minutes if I haven’t washed, prepped, defrosted, or anything else in advance. Granted these are simple offerings (tacos, stir frys, sautéed filets and paillards, frozen veg, crock pot baked potatoes) but I have two young kids so those sort of simple meals are what will be eaten.
The list of 30 minute weekday recipes expands significantly if you can prep in advance, like on a Sunday, but I don’t always get to that.

Yes, KZach :) I think that's true .. they do not always count the time you need to prep the ingredients.

The time doesn't matter to me, I am not running a race when I'm cooking and it takes however long it takes.

@KZach: that's my biggest pet peeve about recipes. The ingredient list includes "peeled and diced" this, "chopped" that. Regardless of timing, I feel like those tasks should be the first few steps of the directions, not part of the ingredient list.

Bugs me so much that I often rewrite recipes to reflect that.

The 30 minute Meal idea works great if you have your staff cut up and measure your mise en place ahead of time.

I don't mind a meal taking an hour or more to cook, even on weeknights (I also don't have children) because most of it is hands off time.

If something pops up in my inbox in the morning and says "I'm 30 minutes! Make me tonight!" you can pretty much bet it requires a trip to the grocery store and several other hidden kerfuffles that take the recipe over the 30 minute mark. But I do have in my repertoire several meals that can easily be done in under 30 minutes; I don't think it's a myth at all. I think it's a matter of (1) knowing the dish well (if you have to refer to a recipe, you're probably going to struggle with time), (2) setting reasonable expectations (if you can't accept eggs as dinner, or baked potatoes, or a simple paillard and veg then you're probably not going to like too many 30-minute offerings), and (3) having a well-stocked pantry and freezer. #3 takes a little finesse, but it's doable.

I posted in the other thread that I've made a few Rachael Ray 30-min. meals and can spend about 2 hours on them. The rare-- hot dog, sloppy joes, grilled steak, baked beans, and/or frozen veggies-- nights still take me about 45 minutes getting everything ready.

Watching Rachael Ray she will chop and prep as she goes and that's not my style. I'm a prep everything, clean as much as I can, then cook person so when I'm ready to start cooking, that's all I need to do.

I only get bent out of shape about time if I expect something to be quick and it ends up taking forever, if I'm not feeling well this usually means I'll be feeling to sick to eat by the time the food is ready. When recipes grossly underestimate cooking times, that ain't cool. Fortunately I've been cooking long enough now to know how long most recipes will actually take.

If it takes 30 minutes to shop/prep/store the ingredients, and 30 minutes to cook, and another 30 minutes to clean up - it's a 90 minute meal.

If you have the foresight to throw something in a marinade in the morning or the night before, all you have to do is prepare a side dish while the meat/veggie grills. (In our house, marinade is usually olive oil, balsamic, garlic, salt and pepper.) That's our fail-safe for 30 minutes or less.

Last night I made chicken lettuce wraps and did it easily in 30 minutes. I don't think it's unreasonable. A hot stove cooked onions and chicken in short order, put the sauce together while the onions and chicken are cooking, throw in the sauce, let it bubble a couple of minutes, shut off the heat, throw in the (bagged, preshredded) veggies and throw on the lid. By the time I got the lettuce washed and spun and the table set it was ready. Of course I'm only cooking for two so that probably helps, eh?

Years ago I found a cookbook called Desperation Dinners. It has lots of meals that are delicious, health, and can be prepared in 20 minutes or less. I use it all the time. I even bought my daughter a copy when she got her post-college apartment.

i think 30 min is realistic, it reminds me of artisan bread in 5 min a day approach - sure you spend more that 5 minutes making the dough but if you do prep work in bulk and then divide it out over the days it will serve you, i do think its very possible to make a meal in 30 min active prep time per day.

I spend about 15 minutes a week meal planning and making a rough menu, i can then go shopping and when i get home i know what im making and how to prep it. Doing a lot of prep work at once saves a lot of time. Ill divide up my proteins since i often buy meat in bulk, cut/trim them appropriately, even get tonight and/or tomorrows dinner marinating if need be. I can also plan for leftovers and how to tie the meals together.

A good example of this is roast a chicken one night, throw the carcass in the crock pot with extra stuff overnight, and i have a delicious fresh stock to make a simple soup with the next night. Chicken and rice soup from scratch is then, no joke, 15 min away if you have some frozen rice in your freezer (i always do) and some meat from the night before.

That being said, often i find myself more in the 45 min - 1 hour bracket because i like to try new things and enjoy making a variety of things for meals, but on busy weeks i can totally make it happen in 30 min or less if i need it too.

One thing you never see Rachael do is wash produce. So if you bring home your produce and "Pre-prep" it, that can help.

I think it's a matter of experience and preference. If you like to putter in the kitchen and/or you have distractions like children, you probably won't be doing a three-course meal of separate dishes in 30 minutes.

But if you want to develop the skill of making a meal in 30 minutes, you can do so by practicing, seeing what works for you, sequencing your tasks and multi-tasking.

Chow!

Haha, only if grilled cheese sandwiches & tomato soup from a can counts.

@KZach, I agree. Chefs on TV can prep their veggies in about one quarter to one half the time that I can. It's just not fair. In my next life I will be able to chop while looking directly into a camera :)

Haha, only if it's grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup from a can.

Rachel Ray states in her 30 minute cookbooks that in order to actually cook the meals start to finish in 30 minutes you need to prep your food when you bring it home from the grocery store. So her recipies assume that a lot of the chopping was done before you begin the recipie. Pre-preparing food in bulk when you bring it home does save a lot of time later in the week, but you need an hour or so at the start of the week for that much food prep.

I make 30 minute meals 5 nights out of 7, and that includes prep and cooking time. Not new recipes, mind you, and there's sometime prepared food (perogies), and at least one of these days involves leftovers, but generally a hot meal, with all 4 food groups. I prefer to eat this way during the week, it takes the pressure off and then I can cook for longer on the weekend if I want to.

When you watch Rachael Ray do a 30 minute meal, most of her equipment is already out and pans on the stove, and she's rushing around like mad. If you don't know the recipe in and out by heart and have somebody to prep for you, I don't think most of them really take 30 minutes. But there's always the basic cold sandwich... :)

My husband always asks me how long dinner will take, and when I say "30 minutes," he says, "okay, so an hour?"

I think the only meal I've prepared start to finish in 30 minuets is a stir-fry. And that's only using store-bought stir fry sauce. The chopping takes 10-15, the actual cooking less than 10.

Honestly, all the time. Yeah sometimes it extends to 45 minutes, but most of the time my repertoire takes 30 min or less. Now, sometimes that's just 30 mins in-kitchen time, but most of the time it's just 30 min total.

A lot of it depends on what protein I want to cook. Chicken breast? 20-30 min meal (unless I need to defrost). I'll start the chicken first, then while it's cooking, everything else gets chopped, cooked, and seasoned. Steak? Same idea, although usually I prepare the steak first, chop, start the steak, start the rest. Chicken wings, start the chicken -- walk away for 30 min, or chop and walk away for 30 min etc. My point being that I rarely spend more than 30 min. actually in the kitchen. I know how long my protein takes and I prioritize when the rest of my sides need to start.

If I'm working with a new recipe, or multiple new recipes at once, that's a definite game changer though. But I'm mostly a kitchen improver. If I'm reaching for a cookbook, it's because I intend to go the distance and spend some good quality time with my kitchen.

Very hard to do! Buuut here's one: Broiled lamb shoulder chops with a Moroccan rub (or garlic or ginger), and fresh green salad with sweet red pepper, artichoke hearts (canned), and balsamic dressing. I brush the chops with olive oil mixed with either of the above ingredients, warm up the broiler, and then fix the salad. While I'm finishing up the salad, I pop in the chops for 3 or 4 minutes a side.

I think that's 30, but I'll have to time it next time :)

Because speed often depends on convenience items or, as KZach said, ignoring preparation time, I don't really care how long a recipe says it'll take. I look over the recipe and calculate for myself how long I would take to do things.

I do thirty minute dinners just about every weeknight. I'm in the door at 6:00, and I'm usually feeding my kids by 6:30. I have a good rotation of meals, not always much variety, but they work, and they get eaten. It's easy items, pasta w/ peas and prosciutto, pasta putanesca, baked talapia w/ tomatoes, burritos, baked chicken thighs. I'm familiar with the recipes, and stick with simple sides, like cous-cous, rice, or quinoa (and I love my rice cooker!).

Yes, I really do make 30 minutes meals, and yes, I really care because I have a child that will get spacey and cranky and not finish her homework promptly if she's hungry. BUT the vast majority of recipes that claim to be 30 mins are NOT. I don't cook 30 min meals from recipes. And I do things like set the rice cooker to have me a pot of rice ready when I walk in the door. If something calls for lots of chopping, I may sub frozen veggies, already chopped, and quick to defrost in the micro. And, as always, beware the carmelized onion lie, well-documented here. Carmelizing onions properly takes me about 90 minutes, just the onions. You have to have your own 30-minute game plan to pull this off. I kind of hate it, because it's really under the gun. I enjoy the more liesurely pace on the weekend.

Haha, not unless grilled cheese sandwiches and a can of tomato soup count.

unless its a salad with less than four ingredients plus a cold sandwich, you're looking at a wait time of up to 45 minutes for something hot to eat at my house. i'm not slow. just disorganized mostly. rachel ray's 30 minute meals are helpful guidelines, but i'm not about to stress myself out even more after a long day's work to meet yet another deadline.

Only way Ray makes anything in 30 minutes is that she has a whole staff of people who do the prep behind the scenes. Students of mine complained about her show and how no one could make the same meals she does on tv in 30 minutes....and these students were excellent cooks and knew their way around a kitchen.

I'd say that most nights I make dinner in 20 minutes. Or 10 min prep + an hour roasting time, when I can go do other things. But then again, I don't have kids!

I think ease is much more important than actual shorter cooking times. Who wants to make a dish with 35 ingredients or one that requires cubing five different kinds of vegetables or use six different pots? Not me. I like recipes that are easy, vegetable-rich, and don't make too many dishes. Since I don't have kids (and don't plan to), time isn't as much of an issue as with most people, despite the fact that I get home at 6 pm most days.

That being said, most recipes that are easy are also not too time-intensive, unless they require the chopping of many vegetables.

Yes, I do have a couple go-to recipes when I absolutely have to have dinner done in 30 minutes. For a lighter meal if I'm going to a concert or something, I like this angel hair with butternut squash and sage with a simple roasted vegetable like broccoli florets or frozen artichokes. If I want something a little more substantial, I make this chicken with cilantro chimichurri along with some couscous or bulgur wheat and the same types of roasted vegetables. Both of these are even quicker than ordering in, so I have no excuses!

Simple meals take less than 30 minutes. If you aren't doing 17 different things at once and have ingredients that don't take too long to cook, you can get it done.

For instance, seared pork chops, couscous, and a side of succotash (using frozen edamame and corn.) shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes from the time you start taking stuff out of your fridge.

Meats and starches take the longest to cook, so that's where you look for timesavers: think cutlets of any meat, tiny pastas that cook fast, warming pre-cooked, frozen rice or barley, fish, polenta, or eggs.

I agree, mhayes. I have several meals in my repertoire that take 20-25 minutes start to finish.
Chicken cutlets, bacon, spanish chorizo or prosciutto are often the only meat involved, as they take no time if any to cook. But I can make a kickass steak meal start to finish if I want to.
The sides for the steak tend to be veggie oriented rather than starch, but you can do a lot of chopping while a steak is grilling or resting.

Totally agree. And the more times I make something, the quicker I get at it.

It's a running joke in our house that however long a recipe says it will take, it will take me at least 15-20min. longer. This is, I believe, due to what's mentioned here: unfamiliarity with a new recipe. Even with old stand-bys, however, I find it often takes me longer. Maybe this is because I'm just slow...?
I've actually started timing how long a recipe takes- from getting the first ingredient out to serving the first portion- and writing the results on the top of my recipes.

I think it depends on what you call a meal. When I worked really long hours (like 16 a day) I would have dinner ready in 5 or 10 minutes. Soups are quick, so is pasta, burritos, tacos and burgers. Obviously I used a lot of premade short cuts like frozen veggie burger patties. Trader Joe's has awesome things like stuffed salmon that's ready in 5.

A lot of Italian pasta dishes plus a quick salad can be done in 30 minutes. But mostly it takes longer to make something good.

yes I have made a meal that quickly. Why does any of this matter? It all depends on how much food you have to make, and if you can live with one pot meals or have to have a variety of sides. I make all kinds of soups in 20 minutes, with 10 minutes left to heat some bread or make a grilled cheese.

Especially if you go ahead and prep some things you can do it. Easy, simple, no fussing.

Shrimp Bok Choy
http://ex-scapes.com/2013/03/18/shrimp-bok-choy/

Easy Simple Vegetable Soup
http://ex-scapes.com/2013/03/02/simple-vegetable-soup-in-20-minutes/

Absolutely possible, and I do them pretty much every night of the week. I get home from work at 6 and need dinner on the table for 6:30 because my son starts bedtime routine at 7. Like the previous poster said, for me it's all about picking quicker-to-cook cuts of meat (fish, shellfish, chicken cut in small pieces, ground meats) with simple side dishes. They can still be super healthy and freshly made and not a big rush - for me, it's always been in the pre-planning. If I don't meal plan, it's a big fiasco. If I do, it's no biggie.

It happens sometimes. Last night I made sweet potato, zucchini, and corn tacos in 20 minutes (including cleanup). The corn was frozen but nothing else was prepped ahead of time. Actually, I didn't even come up with the meal until I was on my way home from work!

LOL!! So true for me too!

@leapkate: I couldn't agree more. Prepping the ingredients should be part of the directions.

@leapkate: I couldn't agree more. Prepping the ingredients should be part of the directions.

I include post-cooking clean-up time in my overall meal prep time....so I basically can never complete a meal in under 30 minutes.