I don’t have a college dining plan anymore- I’d like all the healthy recipes for easy meals you’ve got!
Tonight you’re having Curried Black Beans & Sweet Potatoes.
It’s tasty, nutritious, filling and CHEAP.
* Exported from MasterCook *
Curried Black Beans & Sweet Potatoes
1 medium sweet potato – peeled and diced
14 oz cab black beans – drained & rinsed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon curry powder*
pinch salt
1 cup cooked couscous or cooked rice
Boil the sweet potatoes until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain them and set them aside.
In a non-stick skillet, heat the oil and saute the onion until translucent.
Add the curry powder and cook for another 30-45 seconds.
Add the black beans and sweet potatoes, and salt.
Add a little water and simmer until beans are heated through.
*NOTE: This recipe works well with the generically named grocery store “curry powder,” as well as “fancier” curry blends like Madras style, Majarajah style, etc.
Forgot to say: serve it over the rice/couscous.
Free bump. Thanks for the recipe- if anyone has even basic ideas, that works.
Seared Ahi with Quinoa and Mango Salad
Ahi is healthy, and tasty, and very easy to cook… crusted with sesame seeds, or coarse pepper, or crack corriandor, or just seasoned with salt and pepper.
Mix some cooked Quinoa with diced mango and roasted red peppers, and maybe some chives or green onions.
My advice is to learn how to make a roux and use it to sauce things. Gravies, cream sauces, cheese sauces, nutritional yeast sauces if you’re me, all sorts of stuff uses a roux or roux-like technique as a base. Then you can make good kitchen sink meals.
Title changed per request of OP.
I dunno if you’re watching your weight, but I found a really good recipe for bbq chicken that’s incredibly easy (and low points)----
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup ketchup
1 12-oz can diet cola
Place the chicken in a nonstick skillet. Pour the ketchup and cola over the top. Bring to a boil; then cover and reduce heat. Cook for about 45 minutes. Remove cover and turn heat back up until the sauce thickens and clings to the chicken.
Sounds weird, but it tasted great! My sister and I had it with salad and a baked yam.
Basic ideas:
Keep on hand:
salad greens
protein in tehe form of cooked chicken breast, or other cooked meat, cooked fish or shrimp, or baked tofu
nuts & dried fruits
rolls or bread
Throw together a very satisfying, very filling, very quick meal of salad greens, some sliced protein, nuts & dried fruit. Top with a bit of salad dressing, and eat with a roll or toast.
Fresh fruit also works great, like sliced apple or sliced peaches or pears or cherries or grapes or… you get the idea.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Okay, so I’m not at all sure this qualifies as healthy, but both are very fun to eat.
GARLIC NOODLES:
-Boil 1/2 lb. spaghetti noodles in salted water. Drain.
-Pour a bunch of olive oil into the pot.
-Saute 8-12 cloves crushed garlic in the oil, until it’s got a good sizzle on (I like mine fried until golden, but people tell me that makes me a freak–everyone else says not to let garlic saute to this deliciously bitter stage).
-Return the noodles to the pot, and toss them.
-Serve with lots of parmesan and pepper. Add fresh tomatoes if you want to fool yourself into believing it’s healthy.
FAKE-O HUEVOS RANCHEROS
Saute half an onion in some olive oil until it’s soft, adding some, I dunno, cumin and cayenne and stuff. (Add the cayenne right before you add the beans, unless you want to experiment with teargas). Don’t forget some salt.
Drain a can or two of black beans and add them to the pan. Crush in a couplethree cloves of garlic. Stir it around.
Squeeze in a bit of lime juice if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s really good.
Smush the beans up some. Presto! The beans are done. You can eat them on chips at this point, or continue for greasy goodness.
In another pan, fry up a couple eggs (I like to crack them in the pan, add maybe a tablespoonful of water, and put a lid on the pan, so they cook on top and on bottom–I dunno what that’s called, but it’s good).
Take the eggs out, and slop in a couple corn tortillas. Heat them until they get those good little black spots on them.
Now make a stack of tasty: A tortilla, followed by a layer of beans, followed by an egg, followed by grated cheddar, followed by repeat the whole thing on top of the first layer. Slop on some sour cream and salsa if you have it. Eat with beer.
Daniel
This is the genesis of a thousand good recipes. You can add raw or cooked vegetables, ham, chicken, mushrooms, different cheeses, nuts, you name it. Heck, leftover pot roast would probably be good in this. If you want it to have an Asian twist, you can put some fresh ginger in with the garlic, then proceed to add your veggies or whatever (I suggest snow peas, shrimp, and sesame seeds) and some soy sauce.
Here’s an easy soup.
- one package fancy chicken sausages from the grocery store; or kielbasa, or linguica, or whatever sort of sausage you like.
- one big can of white beans, drained
- one bunch of kale or chard, chopped and washed.
- several cans of low-sodium chicken stock.
- seasonings to taste; I recommend a bay leaf and one half teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, if you like spicy.
You should have a nice heavy soup pot or Dutch oven. Heat some olive oil in it and saute the sliced sausages and the pepper flakes or other dried seasonings, if you use them. When the sausages are brown, toss in the beans, chopped kale, and enough chicken stock to make it soup; cover simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or so. Don’t add salt til it’s done; I find that the sausages usually salt up the soup enough. Serve with crusty bread or biscuits.
Healthy? Err, probably not, but sounds great to me.
Place chicken thighs (boneless, skinless by preference, definitely skinless though) in a baking pan, one layer deep. Sprinkle with sliced onions, shallots and/or leeks. Microwave together a couple- three tablespoons of olive oil, chopped garlic, oregano, thyme and/or tarragon (fresh or dried) and a bunch of mustard, any kind but a mix of different types works out best. (My favorite is Trader Joe’s garlic aioli mustard mixed with spicy brown mustard.) Spread the mustard mixture over the chicken, bake at 350 degrees about 35-45 minutes or until juice runs clear when you poke the chicken.
Scrape all the onion/mustard crust off the chicken into the pan, move chicken to a plate and place the mustard goo over medium heat on the top of the stove. Get it boiling, then stir in enough flour to absorb all the liquid and make a nice pasty roux. Cook while stirring, scraping all the crusty bits off the pan, brown the flour a bit. Then add either water, broth, beer or cheap white wine–or any combo of the above–in small amounts, stirring the sauce vigourously after each addition and bringing back to a boil until you get to the point where the sauce is thick and smooth, simmer gently while you cut the chicken into small chunks and add back to the sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over brown rice with a salad on the side.
Cheap, very little fat and you can make a truckload of this dish from a tiny amount of chicken–just cut it up into smaller chunks. I’ve fed a potluck group of 20 people on this stuff using one flat of thighs and a pound or two of rice–as long as there’s even a smidgen of sauce on the rice people will keep coming back for it.