Quick Tips from Great Food Fast

Everyday Food, Martha's magazine, is the force behind her newest cookbook, Great Food Fast. The book is packed with 250 time-saving recipes and easy-to-follow instructions. The magazine's food editor, Sandy Gluck, recently told the Denver Post that the photos in the cookbook and the magazine are the real thing, nothing is faked, so that readers can see what the final results will look like at home.

"Readers tell us, 'I have to get dinner on the table; I want it to be healthy, to appeal to the whole family and not take too long,'" Gluck said by telephone from New York. Here are a few ideas to accomplish that:

• Two for one: If you're roasting a chicken why not roast two — have one that night and then the next night you can transform the extra bird into something else?

• Multitasking: Put the pasta water on before you make the sauce. "If you're doing vegetables, throw them into the pasta water at the last minute — you're saving time, energy and water," Gluck said.

• Use the freezer: Look for recipes that you can double and freeze half.

• Appeal to different tastes: Make a plain base (such as a spaghetti sauce) that kids like and add hot peppers and olives to part of it to jazz it up.

• Plan just a little: Clean lettuce all at once and refrigerate extra for use another time or saute extra onions so you have enough for two dishes.