When healthy eating is mentioned, many people immediately think of dry grilled chicken, steamed, bland vegetables or equally boring and flavorless meals. It seems like the only food that is enjoyable is loaded with calories and sugar.

However, that is not the case all the time. There are plenty of healthy restaurants, but more often than not they are far more expensive than fast food places such as McDonalds or Chick-Fil-A.

Of course, that leaves cooking at home. One issue that turns people off from cooking at home is convenience. It is much easier to order pizza or make the quick journey to the nearest drive through than having to compile a grocery list, go to the store, find the items and cook it. And finding a recipe and following it can be intimidating to many.

Fortunately for consumers, Foodnetwork.com have compiled a list of 50 healthy recipes, from breakfasts to desserts. The page is very easy to navigate, and there are many options for breakfast, lunches, dinners and desserts.

I chose to make pan-seared salmon with a kale and apple salad. While that seems complicated, the recipe lists it as an easy recipe, and claims that it takes 40 minutes to make, half of which is prep and half cooking time.

The ingredients are fairly simple. You will need a 5 oz salmon fillet, kale, lemon juice, olive oil, an apple, slivered almonds and salt and pepper.

I already had olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, so the shopping trip was easy. The salmon was $6 for two fillets and the bag of kale was $2.50 and the apple was less than a dollar

Because I only used a third of the kale and one of the fillets, I spent about $5 for the one meal, which is very reasonable. For that price, you could buy a Big Mac meal from McDonalds. However, this meal uses fresh vegetables and fish, so it is much higher quality than fast food.

Once I purchased everything, it was time to cook. As the recipe said, it was very easy. I don’t have too much experience cooking fish, but it was simpler than I thought it would be.

All I had to do for the salmon was season with salt and pepper, and grill it in on the stovetop at high heat. It took less than ten minutes to prep, season, and grill it, which is amazing for anyone with limited time. However, if it is available to you, I would recommend using avocado oil instead of olive, because it has a higher smoking temperature and won’t burn.

The salad was equally quick. As per the instructions, I tossed the kale in olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Then I cut the apple into thin slices and tossed it in with a tablespoon of slivered almonds.

All that was left was to squeeze a little lemon over the salmon, and it was time to eat. The entire cooking process took me less than 30 minutes, 10 minutes faster than the recipe said.

For something that used very simple ingredients and minimal seasoning, there was loads of great flavor. The slight tang of the lemon went well with the salmon and salad. The salmon also didn’t dry out; it was moist and cooked through.

Now for the negatives. Unlike a cookbook, I had to use my phone for the recipe, and that became problematic when my hands got messy and I had to move on in the instructions. That can be overcome by printing it out, but my printer wasn’t working.

Many online recipes have long blog posts about the dish, which can be frustrating when trying to follow along. Foodnetwork.com had none of those issues thankfully. The recipe was at the top of the page and gave all the information concisely and without issue.

Food Network shows that cooking can be convenient, cost effective, healthy and delicious. The dish was 180 calories, so it filled me up without the guilt of fast food. I plan on continuing to try recipes from the list.