What Thrown Together Meals Is About

Quick Easy Meals That Taste Great!

Thrown Together Meals is more than just the name of this site; it's a philosophy...

Quick easy meals don't have to be limited to things like jarred pasta sauce, hot dogs and hamburgers. You can make quick dinner meals that taste great, nearly as great as that fancy gourmet cooking.

cooking healthy with thrown together meals

I don't just want this site to be a website index of recipes. That's not to say you won't find tons of free recipes here, but I want also to teach you to create your own unique thrown together meals. In many ways, I feel that's what Rachael Ray did for me.

Now, before you go, "Oh yuck... not another weird Rachael Ray groupie!", calm down. I'm not here to sell you on Rachael Ray, though I do happen to think she's a great cook. But I'll be the first to admit she might be overexposed... and maybe just a bit too perky at times.

But what I love...

... about her style of cooking is that it's so "loose." She doesn't really measure things... at least not with measuring cups and measuring spoons. Instead, she says stuff like, "half a palmful" and "twice around the pan." I can relate to that, because that's the way my Grandma Thompson cooked... and she was a great cook too!

olive oil decanter I also like how Rachael uses a wide variety of ingredients to come up with unique and delicious flavors. But, at the same time, she mostly uses things that you could easily find at your local supermarket. And she makes use of some standards over and over too.

So, when I started throwing together my own meals, after 2 years of cooking hundreds of recipes from Rachael's cookbooks (yes, I own 5!), I tried to stick to the same philosophy with each meal... a nice blend of ingredients, lots of flavor, using some standards each time, but in different combinations.

It's a really fun way to cook... and my results speak for themselves... or at least that's what my family tells me.

I also like that Rachael's meals are mostly healthy. As a nurse, eating healthy is important to me. Many chronic health problems would not exist — or would be much less of a problem — if people ate healthier. So part of my mission is to help you learn how to make healthy thrown together meals.

Throwing Together Meals Really Isn't That Hard

I'm here to tell you... it's just not that hard, once you have a foundation, to create your own from scratch meals with stuff you have around the house. And to have those meals taste good AND be good for you.

Rachael Ray did that for me, and she could do it for you too. But, also, I hope to do that for you... teach you about flavors and how to put them together, so that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Sure, you can just follow a cookbook if you want... it's not a bad way to cook... but what happens if you don't have one of the ingredients in a recipe (or don't like one of them)?

Well, if you're confident that you know how to throw together a meal on your own, then you won't let that bother you. You'll just make a substitution or craft an entirely different recipe using what you do have and like. And before you know it, you'll be a thrown together cook just like me!

The Basic Principles of Thrown Together Meals

So, here's what my philosophy of thrown together cooking is based on (and what I hope to teach you):

Quick easy meals that anyone of any skill level can make
Meals are concocted from standard core ingredients in a well-stocked kitchen
Meals are basically healthy and well-balanced
Meals allow for creative input & variations
Easy dinner meals are flavorful and delicious

So, that's an overview of what thrown together meals is all about. To learn more though, you'll want to explore some of these other articles on the site...