For various reasons, spending much time in my kitchen isn’t something I want to do right now. Plus, my brain is operating at about 1/10th normal speed so following complex recipes is way beyond me. But the way I’m eating (the way I’m not eating would be more accurate) is making me feel awful.
So, meal suggestions or recipes that are very low in kitchen prep while, hopefully, being a little healthier than what I’m managing to eat now would be super.
Pretty healthy, fast, and yummy - my fall-back recipe for this is a twist on typical pasta-and-red-sauce, let’s call it a “Southwestern Pasta”? Boil up some pasta - Barilla Plus is great for this - high protein and a very good flavor. I prefer elbow pasta, shells, penne, moreso than the long noodle styles. If you use one of the 14ish oz. boxes, cook half the box if you don’t mind leftovers.
Open up a can of black beans and rinse them over the sink in a strainer. Put the beans in a bowl, to the side for now. When cooked, strain the pasta, and put the black beans into the pot you cooked the pasta in, on low heat. Add some salsa - make sure it’s yummy enough that you don’t mind eating a fair amount, and also not too hot for you to consume in a fair quantity. You’ll probably be using at least a half cup for the amount of pasta I mentioned earlier, maybe a cup. Heat through until the desired warmness, mix in the pasta until well-coated. Add a little more salsa as desired. Scoop into a bowl and eat!
Lots of protein and fiber there. If you want more vegetable content, add things like frozen vegetables to the pot when you dump in the beans and salsa, and cook until warm. (Or microwave the frozen vegetables during the pasta cooking time, to cut down prep time further.)
I recommend a book called The Dinner Doctor…it’s a cookbook with quick recipes, a lot of which use some convenience foods, but use them in a way that’s tasty & relatively healthy.
One of my favorites from it is called “Mock Cassoulet.” The basic recipe goes like this:
Chop an onion and mince a garlic clove, and saute them in a dutch oven. Slice a pound of polish sausage into 1-inch pieces, throw them in the pot until they brown a little bit. Add 2 cans great northern beans and 1 can diced tomatoes (I think I use the kind with onions & green peppers in it), stir it up, simmer for 20-30 minutes, then eat. She gussies it up a little, I think, with additional herbs and a crumb topping, and sometimes I throw in some cooked chicken if I have it left over, but even without any of that it’s still really good, and the leftovers are even better.
She has a lot of good ideas that are even easier, like ways to dress up a can of tuna and stuff like that. It’s a really handy book.
Well, I don’t know what you are currently eating or if you’d think this was healthy, but last night it was my turn to cook and I wasn’t very motivated. I get chicken leg quarters at the store. They’re cheap and easy to freeze. Put a couple in a pan and simmer with a little water. Chop and onion and toss it in. Maybe some garlic. I get the minced garlic that comes in big jars. Sue me. Let simmer for awhile then toss in a can of cream of mushroom soup. Or not. You could just toss in some milk, some herbs and spices you’ve got sitting in the cupboard, and maybe some frozen veggies. Do you have a rice cooker? That’s a work-saver. Put some rice on when you start the chicken.
It’s pretty simple but tastes pretty good. Chicken & rice a la whatever mystery sauce you created. Toss in some turmeric for color if you want.
Do you have a food processor? Two recipes if you do:
Delicious Pimiento Cheese (not especially healthy, but if you have it on whole-wheat bread with veggies, not too bad):
-Process a couple cloves of garlic (or crush it in).
-Cube sharp cheddar.
-Add a couple forkfuls of pimientos.
-Add a couple forkfuls of mayo.
-Add a chunk of cream cheese.
-If you want, add cayenne, cumin, black pepper, etc.–whatever sounds good.
-Process.
That’s it. Takes less than five minutes, and you get a whole bunch of deliciousness.
Delicious Hummus
-Process a couple cloves garlic (optional: also add a scallion or two, and a handful of parsley).
-Drain a couple cans of chickpeas and process.
-Add half a lemon’s juice, a squirt of tamari, a couple big spoonfuls of tahini. Optional: cayenne, cumin.
This one’s a lot more healthful, and is really good on toast, with veggies, on pita, etc.
Daniel
My favorites. Forgive the directions - I pretty much copied and pasted them from an email I sent my son - I have to be very concise - he’s very, VERY literal. If I don’t tell him to turn something over, for example, he won’t. He is smart, but not, uh, cooking smart.
Cheese Hot Dogs
Take about a 1/2 T of butter and melt it in a frying pan.
Cut a Ball Park Hot Dog (or hot dog of your choice) in half lengthwise - but not all the way through. Make like a pocket for the cheese to go in.
Take a piece of American Cheese and fold it in like fan folds then stuff it in the lengthwise slit of the hot dog.
Put toothpicks in each end of the hot dog holding it kinda together.
Cover the frying pan and heat for awhile till the cheese is melty. Do this twice and you get TWO cheese hot dogs! And if you do it THREE times, the dog gets one too!
Grilled Ham and Cheese
Take a piece of bread and butter it. Put it butter side down in a frying pan. Put a slice of American Cheese on the bread. Take one slice of ham (lunchmeat ham - like Krakus) and cut it in little squares - about bite sized. Put half of them on top of the cheese. Put a half slice of American cheese on top of the ham. Put the remainder of the chopped up ham on the half slice of cheese. Add another full slice of cheese. Put another piece of buttered bread on top with the butter facing up so when you turn it over it will be butter side down in the frying pan. Put a cover on the pan and cook it till it’s done on one side. Turn it over and cook it till it’s done on the other side. Cutting up the ham makes these really melty cheesy grilled ham and cheeses easier to eat because the ham won’t come out as a big assed piece when you’re eating it thereby burning yourself with the resultant melted cheese spill. Oh - and give the remaining 1/2 slice of cheese to the dog. He’s earned it.
Duffy Pancake
1 stick of butter, melted in an ovenproof, deep skillet. I use my stainless steel one. It’s about ten inches - this pancake fills the entire bottom.
2 eggs
1/4 C milk (let me double check this tonight - if it’s wrong I’ll change it tomorrow).
1/4 C flour
Pinch Nutmeg
Lemon Juice
Confectioner’s Sugar
Preheat the oven to 400. Beat the eggs, milk, flour and nutmeg together till mixed. Pour into the skillet with the melted butter. Put the whole mess in the oven and bake for at least 20 minutes - keep an eye on it. You’ll be able to tell when it’s done because it will be puffed up and set. Sprinkle powdered sugar on it and lemon juice - put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Serve with lemon juice to sprinkle, powdered sugar to sprinkle, or marmalade or jelly or stuff. It’s a Duffy pancake because the person who invented it was a family friend by the last name of Duffy. I know. You care.
Buy a bunch of Glad single-serving storage containers at Costco.
Make healthy soup.
Freeze in containers.
Thaw one a day for dinner, accompanied by toast or croutons.
Baked potatoes topped with chili or broccoli and cheese. They take a while in the kitchen, but you don’t have to be there. And then you can just microwave the topping. If you get a healthy vegetarian chili it can be pretty healthy. The chili over brown rice is even healthier.
“Stovies”
Cook chopped onion and garlic in a big pot.
Add mincemeat and brown. )
Add diced potato (about 1/2 inch) > about equal amounts of each
Add frozen mixed veg. )
Barely cover with water, add salt and let it boil, covered, until the potato is soft around the edge. Add packet gravy. Serve with lots of crusty bread. Or rice.
If that’s still too much effort, you may be able to buy frozen mixed veg with the potato and/or onion already in.
Take Chefguy’s most excellent advice and make a huge batch and keep spare servings in the freezer, it improves with reheating. Later, when you’re ready, you can make it with all fresh seasonal veg and marvel at the difference from hearty and tasty - to nom nom nom!
You can keep shredded cheese and chopped raw veggies - onion, mushroom, bell pepper - in the fridge for quick omelets and salads. Also, you can hard boil eggs once a week and chop them up in the salad for some protein.
Thanks, everyone. For some reason my alerts didn’t work so I thought this one had died a sad little death with no responses.
I don’t have a food processor, but who knows? I might pick one up at Goodwill when I drop off some stuff.
Beans’n’greens - Wash and chop up a bunch of the green of your choice. I like chard, broccoli rabe, or kale, but you could use spinach, mustard greens, collards, etc. If the stems are very thick, remove them and either cook them for a few minutes longer than the rest of the greens, or toss them. Chop three cloves of garlic. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan on medium heat, and saute the garlic (and a few dried hot peppers if you like) until the garlic turns golden. Throw in the greens with some salt and pepper and cook until they’re almost done, stirring to make sure the stuff on top gets thoroughly wilted. Add one can of rinsed white beans (I like cannelini, but you could use navy, great northern, or butter beans, even chick peas) and cook, stirring occasionally, until they get heated through. Remove the hot peppers if you used them, and serve. It’s good hot or at room temperature. If you’re not fussy about the initial greens chopping (it takes me two minutes or ten, depending on how particular I’m being about stem removal), you can have the whole thing done in ten minutes, plus it’s cheap and quite healthy.
Italian sausage, cooked and cut into coins
Fresh mushrooms (I always buy the pre-sliced kind because it’s a time-saver)
Fresh tomato, chopped
1 can of artichokes, quartered and cooked in the nuker until tender
Rotini or rigatoni
Put it all together in a bowl, and add a little olive oil and parmesan cheese. Don’t forget a glass of wine. Yum!!
the only draw back to this is that Costco doesnt sell anything but the variety pack of glad containers (well not the ones around here anyway) and the variety pack blows arse.
I love those containers though, just get a couple huge ones, a few of the square ones that hold maybe a quart and a few of the rectangles for single servings, the rest of them I gave away when I realized I was just sacrificing shelf space for crap that was never used.
Italian sausage, skinned, cut up, browned and drained
one skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut up and browned
garlic
canned tomatoes
canned white beans
fresh rosemary
Add a bit of olive oil to the sausage pan, briefly saute the garlic on low heat. Add the tomatoes, beans, chicken, sausage and rosemary. Simmer covered for about an hour. Generous amount of ground pepper on top.
This is very similar to a recipe I posted earlier in the thread. I’m not mentioning this to bust your chops, but rather to express how pleased I am that a Chefguy recommends it as a good recipe! 
Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is now out in a revised printing, and may be on sale at Amazon. Lots of easy good stuff in there that comes down to “Put these things together, then cook it this way.”
Original version: http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:stcLStOjfvsJ:www.recipezaar.com/Wombok-Salad-108929+wombok+salad&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au
My version
Wombok salad
1 wombok cabbage (chinese cabbage that looks like regular cabbage only elongated) or 1 red cabbage sliced thinly
6 spring onions (green onions shallots whatever) sliced.
1 Carrot/tomato/capsicum (whatever salad veggies you like grated sliced etc)
Mix all ingredients. This is the “base” and will store in the fridge for a week.
DRESSING
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Combine all dressing ingrediants in saucepan and mix well until sugar dissloves…
Add 2 teaspoons sesame oil
This can also be stored in the fridge though it will set if you use olive oil.
250g nuts (I use the cheapest unsalted peanuts but you can use any type of nut. I have seen sunflower seeds used) chopped or not.
2 packets crispy noodles
I chuck the “base” into a bowl and add sliced omelet/cooked chicken/prawns whatever you fancy (unless you are a vegetarian like me). Pour some nuts on top and some noodles and drizzle dressing over the top.
Yum yum yum yum.
1/2 an hour preparation gives me 1 weeks worth of main meals
I somehow missed that. Very interesting, as my wife and I came up with this recipe on our own from leftover food we had while on an RV trip and called it faux cassoulet. No onions or peppers in it, however, and we use hot Italian sausage instead of Polish. The rosemary really works well with the dish. We’ve served this at a couple of dinners (with crostini) and people just rave about it. For something so simple, it’s very palate pleasing.
I got home from the gym tonight, knowing that I had some sliced gammon waiting.
So:
1 cup SR flour
1 large egg
some milk
2 cups (or 1 tin) whole kernel corn
chilli flakes and chilli powder
pinch salt
mix to a batter, add chopped gammon. Fry, and serve with Burger relish, sour cream and salad leaves.
took 10 minutes, whoa to go. Yummy
Si