The key to preparing meals in 20 minutes or less is to keep things simple. Recipes with relatively few ingredients reduce prep time. They also let the ingredients themselves shine, which usually means they’ll taste better, too.

Speaking of prep, it’s important to get into the habit of preparing and measuring all of your ingredients before you begin to prepare your meal. Chefs call this mise en place, which is a French term meaning “putting in place,” and it’s one of the fundamental steps in cooking. If you’ve ever frantically hunted for the oregano while your sauce is boiling over, then you’ve experienced the horror of not having your mise en place set.

Another important aspect of quick-cook meals is to avoid ingredients that require long cook times. Thicker cuts of meat take longer to cook whole than if they’re cut into smaller pieces. The same goes for vegetables, such as potatoes or carrots. It’s also important to cut ingredients into pieces that are the same size to ensure that they all take the same time to cook.

Preparing a salad and serving with a 5 oz. Hiland Dairy Cottage Cheese cup is a quick and simple way to add vegetables and protein to a meal without adding too much time. Throw some romaine lettuce, thinly sliced radishes and some chopped celery into a bowl, and you have a salad that will complement just about any meal. Add some diced green onions, pitted Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese, and you’ve made a Greek salad. By keeping the dressing on the side, rather than tossing it with the salad, you can store the salad in the fridge for a day or two without it wilting.

You can whip up a deliciously simple Greek-style dressing by adding some freshly chopped dill, lemon juice, strained chopped cucumber, ground pepper and a dash of salt to 8 ounces of Hiland Greek Yogurt.