Not many people have time for the type of food Julia Child used to show off on her PBS cooking show.

It's a different world. Now instead of the fancy French cooking of Julia's day, food TV features easy dinner recipes. Easy doesn't have to be bland. In fact it can be quite exciting to eat these easy to prepare foods.

Dinner cooking ideas can be found in other places too. The Internet has a lot of meal ideas. Sure cooking shows have web sites but there's more than those. Simple meals, healthy meals, even meals cooked on car engines are featured. Even the most remote food subject has hundreds of web sites dedicated to it. It would take a life time to read it all.

Easy isn't bland. Simple meals aren't bad tasting. Hot dogs are easy, but maybe a little boring. Then try some corn dogs. They're simple and delicious. The batter is just corn meal, flour, sugar and salt with some milk as the liquid. Then fry until golden. Add a popsicle stick to make the experience more like a corn dog at a state fair.

But corn dogs aren't very healthy. Simple foods don't have to be unhealthy foods. Broiled chicken is nice in a salad. Yet another easy meal. It's also good for you. Add a chicken soup appetizer. In fact a lot of soups are very healthy, and salads can be made from almost any ingredients. Some diced ham, hard boiled eggs and lettuce makes a great dinner salad.

Don't run away, but here's a history lesson. Back in colonial times supper and dinner were two meals. Physical work required a late afternoon meal, called dinner. Supper was the heavier meal at the end of the long, hard day. Over time dinner and supper became the same meal. Physical laborers commonly maintained the tradition of separate supper and dinner into the 1970's, and some people still do it today.

It's not a must to have separate dinners and suppers. But try a lighter dinner type meal at supper time, or maybe we can call it dupper Who cares? Easy dinner recipes can make it fantastic.