My dietitian gave me the advice to try to eat less processed and more colorful foods. Turmeric is a healthful colorful spice to add to things, and many spices have healthful properties and extend how long food will keep. Don’t be afraid to use some fat and salt when cooking if it makes things taste better to you; it is still likely to be more healthful than what you have been eating. Microwaved baked potato with some microwaved steamed fresh vegetables and if you like, a bit of cheese and or butter is not a bad meal for market day.
And remember that coffee does have good soluble fiber, so a cup a day is not a bad idea.
The microwave directions i gave for pasta is correct for any of the pasta that is like elbow macaroni, spiral, Fiori or the like. Just microwave a few minutes more if needed. If your microwave cooks slightly faster you can take off a couple minutes, but 20 minutes will be your likely target.
Microwaves are great for a lot of things that people never try to cook in them. I’m not getting into that.
Oh, I grew up with the queen of microwave cooking. My mom makes microwave meatloaf to die for. The problem is, her recipes are all intended for about 8 servings, and there’s only so much you can scale down. Not that I can’t divide, but sometimes, they just don’t make small enough packages of whatever I need. Meat’s especially bad for this.
Tea’s really helped me a lot, but I’ve never much liked coffee. And, fortunately, I don’t have salt issues. I mean, I put a ton of salt on movie theater popcorn, but I have that maybe three or four times a year. My blood pressure’s okay.
Do I have to pretty much stop with the bread? Or are there recipes for small loaves? That actually work, I mean.
I can’t imagine you want to get into baking your own bread in your limited kitchen.
Health wise, bread is OK as long as it is 100% whole grain. Not everything labeled whole wheat is really whole grain, so read labels carefully. When you get the serious whole grain bread, you will probably eat less of it because it is more filling. With only one person eating a loaf, odds are good it will get moldy before you’re done. Still, bread is pretty cheap and it might still be worth buying. Some people like to keep bread in the fridge. It does keep longer that way, but I don’t like how the taste/texture is affected. Try it for yourself and see if you mind refrigerated whole grain bread.
If you go to the meat counter at a grocery store, or a butcher shop, you can buy meat in the quantity you want. My local butcher shop will even subdivide for you - for instance, if you want a pound of beef divided into 4 oz portions they’ll do that for you and wrap each portion separately.
I’m of the mind that bread should either be room temperature or frozen - never refrigerated. Obviously, others disagree but it seems to me that refrigerator doesn’t really do much for bread. The problem is, AotL probably doesn’t have room in her dinky freezer for a loaf.
As for spices, you could maybe get one of those spice racks with 16 or so sample bottles they sell at Wal-Mart, etc? There’s one in the house I live in now (I live in a shared house where some kitchen stuff is held in common) and it encourages me to try more things as I don’t have to consider whether to splash out on expensive spices before I try a new recipe. I know, I know, the spices are not good quality, but it’s good enough for me. When I’m making soup or something, I sometimes just spin the rack and reach for spices at random. I smell them, and if they smell right, I toss some in.
(The one mistake I made was when I was looking for the paprika for the top of a shepherds pie, and I grabbed the cinnamon instead. It didn’t turn out as badly as it sounds.)