Easy one dish meals are great time savers if you need to put dinner on the table in quick time. On those really busy evenings when you want to avoid the hassle of preparing and cooking a main dish plus other side dishes, then these easy one dish recipes are life savers! Besides, you won't have to spend too much time washing up lots of pots and pans and that's certainly an incentive as far as I'm concerned!

A balanced diet, as we all know, is important. So the thing to keep in mind with one dish meals is to have the right blend of protein, carbohydrates and fiber in the dish. It could be as easy as having a salad tossed with potato quarters and shredded chicken or smoked salmon. But, let's face it...... I don't know of too many children that are thrilled by a salad dinner.

Our family favorite easy one dish meal is Shepherd's Pie. This dish is so easy to cook and delicious and best of all, it is a filling and substantial one dish meal. You only need a few basic ingredients to make this hearty one dish meal.

Another one of our favorite easy one dish recipes is Chicken or Corned Beef stew. This is not a thick gravy stew, it's a soupy kind of stew that you can have on its own, or with steamed white rice. The best part about this one dish meal is that you can add different types of veggies in the stew - cabbage, carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, french beans and tomatoes. We also add in champignons or button mushrooms. The wonderful aroma of the stew after it has been infused with the veggies and some spices we add is just the best!

And of course, Mac n' Cheese is another family favorite easy one dish meal. Our kids could have this every night if it were up to them. It's alright to have this dish once in a while but not too often because it is very rich since it has lots of milk and cheese. It can be fattening too if you don't use low fat milk. You can add brocolli to this dish so that there is a balanced amount of fiber. The milk protein is a substitute for meat, or you can choose to add shredded chicken if you want.