Enjoying the art and (for many of us, necessity) of cooking doesn't have to mean spending lots of cash and making trips to several different markets to find perfect, exotic ingredients, only to come home and spend hours in the kitchen, chopping, sautéing, broiling and grilling.

Contrary to what the Food Channel would have you believe, you don't have to be a self-designated ‘foodie,' buying expensive cookware promo'd by your favorite TV chef, and hanging on the guru's every word in order to produce great meals.

Assembled below are some tried and true ideas that may be so simple, they are often overlooked. Each of them yields maximum ‘impress factor' and health benefits with low cost and time commitment-and best of all-are so easy, anyone can look like a gourmet.

Tin Foil Oven Baking

I get a lot of mileage out of this one.

Instead of using pots and pans that need to be cleaned, consider using tin foil to bake entrees in your oven.

Nothing could be quicker-and more versatile-than using tin foil for baking. After you are finished, just throw your make-shift baking ‘dish' or wrap (whatever the occasion calls for) away. Voila. NO dirty dishes-or at least fewer dirty dishes.

Lean meats, fish, poultry and vegetables (either frozen or fresh) can be arranged inside a sheet of heavy tin foil (or double up the sheets, if the foil is thin), drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with your choice of spices, salt and pepper and baked at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes to produce wonderful main dishes.

The thing I love most about this is that the results-no matter what you add to the mix-look (and taste!) like you spent hours preparing it, and nothing could be further from the truth!

Some favorite combinations:

Baked Salmon Filets with California Vegetables and Rice

2-4 salmon filets (I usually use frozen filets, but fresh would be even better)

California mix vegetables-as much as you want (frozen and placed around the filets)

Rice-left over or freshly steamed

Arrange the contents with the fish in the middle of the tinfoil, and the vegetables and rice on the outside edges. (*Tip: You might want to ad the rice after the fish and vegetables have cooked a while, if you like rice that is more tender and moist.) Drizzle or generously brush everything with olive oil. Add spices of your choice. I usually include a mix, like Mrs. Dash's table spice, garlic salt or sea salt and onion flakes for flavor.

Chicken Breasts Parmesan with Mushrooms and Artichokes

2-3 frozen chicken breasts or filets (frozen actually works better for chicken)

1 can of button mushrooms, drained (or fresh sliced mushrooms, sautéed first)

1 jar of marinated or plain salt water artichoke hearts, drained

Parmesan cheese

1 can of mushroom soup (optional)

Arrange the contents in the tin foil "dish" similarly to the salmon filets. Surround with mushroom and the artichoke hearts. Drizzle everything with olive oil and add spices, salt and pepper to taste. I usually use an Italian spice combination for this quasi-recipe. The mushroom soup is next-but it is optional-depending on if you want a sauce-like entrée. Then, cover with a thin layer of Parmesan cheese when everything is about half-finished cooking. Continue baking until cheese and outside of poultry is golden brown or thoroughly done.

Real ‘Fancy' Salads

Salad. One of the healthiest food inventions every created. But salads really need not be the boring, dressing-on-the-Iceberg-lettuce variety.

One of the biggest tricks to learn in creating a gourmet salad is using different kinds of greens to dress it up a little. Romaine lettuce is a good starting point, and offers much better nutritional value than does Iceberg. It's just as crunchy, and because it is leafier and greener, it really adds to a meal's visual appeal. Spinach or baby spinach is also good, is packed with nutrients, and added to Romaine, makes a nice variety. There are really many different kinds of greens you can experiment with. Bibb lettuce is a garden favorite, and is very tasty. Then there are even more ‘advanced' greens, like escarole and arugula. Don't worry if they aren't really your thing, however, you can get a lot of mileage out of just a few types of greens.

Of course, lettuce comes in those pre-packaged bags-but why not pull a salad together yourself? Remove the outer leaves of a head of Romaine, and then, instead of cutting up the leaves, rip them into small pieces with your hands. This is so the lettuce remains fresh and doesn't rust-which it has a tendency to do if you chop it up with a knife.

The next key in creating a gourmet-ish salad is garnishment. This can be things you never really thought about putting in a salad before, such as apples, raisins and nuts. This depends a lot on your taste. A sweet-leaning salad made with fruit can be great, especially during warm weather. Real bacon bits in a spinach salad with a wine or vinaigrette dressing makes for a hardier, savory salad.

Salads can be as creative as you want to make them. Experiment to find out what you like best-you rarely come up with something nobody will eat.