If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself short on time to cook yourself a good meal. And if you're also like me, meaning a lazy cook, sometimes the motivation to really make a grand meal is short, too!

So what do you when this happens but you still want to reach your muscle-building goals?

I've got three great "recipes" (and I use the word "recipes" in the loosest sense possible!) to share with you that will help you stay on track towards massing up.

Keep in mind, even though I'm going to inject a little humor into this list, these are examples of actual things you can prepare for yourself to help make your life easier! I just want to show you that decent nutrition doesn't have be dull as dirt or taste like it either.

It's important to note, I'm NOT a nutritionist and I don't claim to be! So PLEASE don't make a gigantic vat of mashed potatoes then complain because you're diabetic and your blood sugar is so high that you're sweating maple syrup. These recipes are for "entertainment purposes only," so if you DO follow them, personal responsibility is the keyword here! :)

These recipes are simple to make, don't take long to cook and are geared to my own personal skill level of cooking, which is boiling, microwaving, toasting (in a toaster, not one of them fancy toaster oven things), some basic frypan work and ripping open packages like a starving raccoon...

With these recipes, I'm not going to include salads. You're on your own with those. Personally, I eat them as often as I can (and you should too!), taking advantage of the convenient prepackaged salad bags from the store, throwing in some grape tomatoes, almonds, broccoli, carrots and whatever else is in the fridge that looks like it might go well in a salad and isn't TOO far past the date. Add some healthy dressing (on a side note, salsa is actually surprisingly good on salad) and voila! You're good to go.

Getting plenty of vegetables is also important - rather than force my personal vegetable preferences onto you (which are broccoli, snap peas, carrots, and chocolate covered almonds) just make the effort to eat vegetables as much as you can every day. Fresher and less processed is better, as is organic, but just do the best you can with that. You would have to REALLY go to town to eat TOO many vegetables so don't be shy with them.

I'm also a big fan of taking vitamin and mineral supplements because no matter how "balanced" your diet appears to be, food is so depleted of nutrients right from the start these days that you're probably not getting nearly as many nutrients as you think you are from your food.

Let me put it this way, I'd rather have "expensive urine" (many doctors seem to think this is all you'll get from taking vitamins) than a debilitating illness caused by simple vitamin and mineral deficiencies that I then have to take expensive drugs to basically just mask the symptoms of.

But I digress...

To make best use of these recipes for those short on time, Tupperware will be your best friend. Make a LOT when you DO make something and save the rest for later. It's great to make things fresh but it's also great to just sling something you made yesterday into the microwave and eat it again (and again after that, if you made a WHOLE LOT!). It'll save you from eating cereal three meals a day (not that I've ever done THAT, of course...).

Serving sizes are totally up to you. I usually eat the majority of what I make then save some for the next day, especially if it's a post-workout meal.

So let's get into those muscle building recipes...

1. Spaghetti with Cajun Meat Sauce

This is a great, protein-rich post-workout meal. Tastes great and serves 1 to 4 people, depending completely on how hungry you are and your willingness to share with others.

Bring the water in that pan to a boil and throw a bunch of Cajun spice in the pan with the meat. Don't be cheap with it! Stir it in and smash the meat up so it's not all clumped together.

When the spaghetti water is boiling, dump the spaghetti in. Let it boil for 9-10 minutes then drain. The meat will be boiling while the spaghetti is boiling - if the meat gets done first, drain it then cover it up. It'll keep its heat as long as it's covered.

Empty the sauce jar into the spaghetti pot and stir it up. If you're not sharing the pasta with someone who doesn't like meat, feel free to throw the meat in the spaghetti pot, too. If you ARE sharing, serve out some spaghetti into a separate big bowl THEN toss the meat in there. It'll just work out better for all concerned that way.

Serve sitting on the couch with an oven mitt under the bowl because it'll be dang hot on the bottom! And it's better NOT to wear a white shirt while you're eating it. 'Nuff said.

2. Scrambled Eggs and Oatmeal With Yogurt And Fruit

This is a great breakfast meal that will keep you from getting hungry for HOURS. The fat in the egg yolks keeps you satisfied while the thick oatmeal will keep your digestive system busy for a long time. Lots of fiber to work on!

First, get the fruit ready. Wash it up and put it in a small bowl. Crack the eggs into a bowl/cup and scramble them. If you're talented, you can crack them with one hand and not slop them down the sides. After cracking about 30,000 eggs in my lifetime, I'm still not talented. I managed to do it once then the next time I ended up with a dripping fistful of egg and shell.

** On a side note, it IS possible to squeeze an egg with one hand and break it. A friend of mine once told me that you can't put an egg in the palm of your hand, squeeze it and break it. He said it wasn't possible (he was a physics major). So I grabbed an egg and squeezed it REALLY tight. Three seconds later, it exploded so hard the yolk popped out and flew 6 feet across the room and actually landed right in his shirt pocket!

So anyway, THAT being said, measure out a cup of oats, dump it in a good-sized bowl, then add double the amount of oats in water, e.g. 1 cup of oats, add 2 cups of water. You can adjust the water later, depending on if you like your oatmeal a little soupy (like I do) or masonry thick (like my wife does).

Nuke it for about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. While that's going, turn on the stove and get the pan for the eggs heated up. Throw a gob of Smart Balance margarine in the pan (that's a great brand - it's actually a reasonably healthy margarine and tastes good). Olive oil works really well here, too, as does non-stick spray. With the olive oil, it's a good idea to have a spray bottle for it so it doesn't all pool up in the corner that your stove burner leans to (you know what I'm talking about).

Make sure the whole bottom surface of the egg pan gets covered with something slippery or you'll regret it later when you try to keep eggs from getting all crusted up and nasty along the sides.

Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and watch them cook. Stir them around once the bottom starts to get solid. Keep stirring and scraping the sides off to avoid the crust I mentioned above.

Your oatmeal should be done about the same time the eggs are. So put the eggs on a plate and set it aside for now.

Take your bowl of oatmeal out of the microwave then dump the yogurt in, then the fruit. Stir it all up (not the eggs, just the fruit and yogurt) and you're good to go.

This meal will keep you going for hours!

3. Meat and Taters

"Meat and potatoes" might be a cliche but for me, there's not much that works better for supporting muscle growth than a nice piece of meat (or chicken or fish) and a big bucket of potatoes. And if that sounds corny, it should, because sometimes I'll throw some corn in with the potatoes.

Let's talk about potatoes first, then I'll give the inside scoop on how to cook meat (I think I can hear my wife laughing in the background as I write about my cooking skills...).

First, grab 3 or 4 good-sized potatoes. I try to get red potatoes since they can't be stored as long as other potatoes therefore they're fresher when you get them rather than having been sitting in storage for a year.

I prefer to microwave potatoes since it's faster than boiling and they turn out really well. Wash any crud off them then slice off any questionable areas. Stick a fork or knife in them a few times to "aerate" so they don't explode in the microwave (unless you enjoy scraping your dinner off the sides).

For each potato, figure on about 3 to 5 minutes of cooking time, depending on the size of your potato and power of your microwave. You'll know they're done when you can easily stick a fork right through - just don't leave the fork in the microwave or you'll be in for a surprise.

Dump in a big bowl, mix in some margarine (or if you're on a low-fat kick, pour some ketchup in it), add some sea salt and you're set. You can also throw in can of corn (nuke it first - not the can but the corn) to spice things up.

As for the meat, if you're good with a gas or charcoal grill, more power to you. You're a better cook than I am and I don't know why you're even reading this part. If you have one of those George Foreman countertop grills, those work really well for meat (especially the ones that you can pull the grill things off and put them in the dishwasher - the ones that you can't remove are a pain in the butt to clean, so if you're going to get one, get the removeable grill version). Follow the instructions that came with the grill for the meat or chicken or fish you're cooking.

If you've got some chicken breasts that you just want to "fire and forget" rather than tend to on a grill, throw them in pan, pre-heat the oven to about 400 degrees, dump some spices on them (whatever you like), cover with tinfoil to keep the juices in, and cook for about 30 minutes or so (SET THE TIMER!). If you want to get REALLY fancy, slice up a lemon and toss a few slices on top with some black pepper.

There you have it. Meat and potatoes. Perfect for a big post-workout meal that will help you pack the pounds on.

I also like to use potatoes, corn and ground beef (or sirloin) to make "Lazy Cook" Shepherd's Pie. Microwave the potatoes and corn as above. Boil the meat as in recipe #1, then dump it all into a big bowl and stir. You'll be 5 pounds heavier by the end of the meal!

Conclusion:

As you can see, cooking tasy food for building muscle doesn't have to be hard and recipes don't have to be these complex things that take hours to make and require more than very basic cooking skills. With my recipes, if you can do a few simple things without burning yourself, that's about all the skill you need.

And if you're interested in learning some recipes for fat loss, I've got 3 excellent ones that I can share with you as well! Go back up to the top of the article and reread it. It's the same stuff...now just eat less of it...