Any healthy, easy recipes to share?

[cornflake]

So over the past month, I've been making a huge effort to work out 5-6 times a week and to be very careful about what I eat. However, I have one major problem--I can't cook!!

 

Every time I try to cook something, it fails. I often spend a long time preparing something and just end up throwing it away or forcing it down. This is really discouraging, especially when I am trying to eat better and it's a lot easier to run to a fast food joint for something I know will at least end up being edible.

 

Since I can't cook AND am trying to eat healthier, my diet consists of lots of raw fruits and vegetables, "healthy" frozen dinners, salads, and granola bars. I would really like to widen the variety of foods I eat by cooking for myself more often. I love Asian food, Mexican food, and Indian food. I'm tired of salads!

 

Do you have any advice, or even better--easy recipes you love that you wouldn't mind sharing? Or good sites to go to to get some healthy, easy recipes?

 

Thanks in advance!

[TechResQ]

One of my favorite easy throw together meals is smothered chicken breasts.

 

I use the Tyson Frozen Chicken breasts (skinless/boneless)...you don't have to thaw them.

 

Preheat Oven to 375.

-spray a 13x9 inch pan with Pam cooking spray.

-place chicken breasts in bottom of pan (single layer, usually about 3 breasts)

-Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic salt and onion powder

-mix together 1 can of fat free Cream of Mushroom soup and 1 can of fat free Cream of Chicken soup, with about 1/2 cup of fat free sour cream and a tablespoon of minced onion (can be dried) and a cup of reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese.

-pour the mixture over the frozen chicken breasts in the pan, cover with foil and bake for about an hour or until the juices in the chicken run clear when poked with a fork.

 

I usually serve the chicken with the sauce, over brown rice and have some steamed broccoli with it. It's really really easy and really really good!

[sidehop]

Are you vegetarian? You don't need to learn to cook 15~20 minutes for each meal. Lots of meal plans out there that will take less than five

 

Try to stay away from the so-called healthy frozen dinners, even the better ones like the Kashi's still have a lot of sodium in them.

 

Body-for-Life has good simple plan:

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Breakfast for me has been oatmeal, egg whites (sometimes use one whole) and lean meat.

 

For between breakfast and lunch I'll eat a can of tuna mixed with olive oil, Dijon mustard, some spices and eat with one slice of whole grain bread. Or lean meat sandwich with an apple.

 

Lunch, I grill a lot of fresh chicken, salmon and lean beef steak/burger on the iron skillet the night before. Usually try to make large servings to last few days. Either stir fry of vegetables cooked in olive oil, steam vegies or a salad.

 

Mid-day is somewhat similar, throughout the day more focusing on quality protein and complex carbohydrates and limiting almost all dairy fats. Olive oil is pretty much used for every cooking, even mayonnaise that I love to death is now being made at home with a food processor. It tastes odd as is but with a chicken salad or tuna salad it tastes the same.

 

Night time, eat no later than 6:30PM and is usually the last meal for me until the morning.

 

I think the hardest part is not eating much of white rice which I grew up on, as well as white anything. It's mostly now whole wheat and any food with low glycemic index.

 

If you don't have one, George Foreman grill is another awesome cookware everyone should have. It's so easy to cook chicken/salmon/steak you'll thank yourself Seasoning with onion powder, garlic (fresh or in a bottle), mustard, peppers, red pepper flakes...I go through them a lot in place of sodium.

[cornflake]

Thanks! I'm definitely going to try any suggestions that are here--anything helps!

 

I should have mentioned that I cut out red meat about 7 years ago. Now I stick to chicken and some fish, but am very vegetarian-friendly. I actually prefer cooking (or, trying to cook) vegetarian or vegan dishes.

[smickly]

Smoothies! Healthy, fast and hard to screw up...

 

My favourites are:

 

1) Spinach leaves, frozen blueberries, water, yogurt (or soft tofu)

2) Banana's, peanut butter, milk

3) a_vo_ca_do , coconut water (or milk, but that's more calories)

4) Frozen raspberries, yogurt, milk

 

You have to play around with the amount of liquid-frozen stuff until you get something workable, so it pays to keep a written record of how much of each ingredient you put in, and whether you liked the smoothy, or if it wasn't sweet enough, or if it was too thick. etc.

 

I also like doing some grain salads, but that requires the know-how to cook rice, or quinoa or bulghur... it's easy following the directions, but I know some people that can't cook rice to save their life... rice cooker's were great inventions.

 

You just cook the grain, add raw veggies (cucumber, tomatoes, A_vo_ca_do, carrots, celery), and a simple dressing of lemon juice and tiny bit of olive oil (helps you absorb the nutrients in the veggies).

 

Good Luck!

[Cheeks18]

Im not a cook whatsoever!!

 

But I buy a bag of mixed veggies...Cut up an onion or anything else(Green Red Orange pepper) Toss it in a pan with Canoli oil, like a mixed veggie medley and put some garlic seasoning and pepper in there...Then I take a piece of Boneless Skinless chicken breast and toss it in there with it....Put a little more seasoning on the chicken...Turns out to be a simple very tasty Healthy meal...I have it with some Rye or whole wheat bread..Might even toss a Red potato in the mix....

 

You can also replace the Chicken with Fish....I do that quite often...I have a huge bag of frozen chicken and a frozen bag of fish.

[sidehop]

Mmmm sounds great, I need get me a blender soon

[sidehop]

We made something similar couple weeks ago they are delicious I get tired of grilled chicken sometimes had to change it up.

[smickly]

I almost forgot my favourite food blog:

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great recipes, good nutritional information

not necessarily easy though.

[cornflake]

That blog is awesome!

[mandyc]

somebody on here posted a site called sparkpeople. It is really cool and has thousands of recipes (my fave I've made so far from there was a vegie pizza on whole wheat crust), you can also track what you eat and your workouts and weightloss goals. link removed

[g84]

I like this idea for a thread!

This is one fairly easy and healthy recipe that i can think of for salmon (or also for trout)

 

Take the salmon, place it in a large piece of foil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, pepper, a bit of chopped garlic (or garlic powder), maybe a bit of chopped onion, some parsley (fresh or dry), and a tablespoon or two of olive oil drizzled on top. Wrap it up, cook in the oven for about 15-20 minutes (i'm not totally sure how long, as i usually just keep checking on it until i can easily cut into it). Eventually unwrap and you can cook it for a little while longer if you'd like for the outside to get a bit darker. Serve with some rice or pasta and/or with any of your favorite vegetables on the side.

[sidehop]

I like this idea for a thread!

This is one fairly easy and healthy recipe that i can think of for salmon (or also for trout)

 

Take the salmon, place it in a large piece of foil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, pepper, a bit of chopped garlic (or garlic powder), maybe a bit of chopped onion, some parsley (fresh or dry), and a tablespoon or two of olive oil drizzled on top. Wrap it up, cook in the oven for about 15-20 minutes (i'm not totally sure how long, as i usually just keep checking on it until i can easily cut into it). Eventually unwrap and you can cook it for a little while longer if you'd like for the outside to get a bit darker. Serve with some rice or pasta and/or with any of your favorite vegetables on the side.

 

Years ago when I was little I remember this dish, I never really liked fish much then but it was amazing. I remember it had a slice of lemon in it also. It was amazing.

[luminousone]

You can also use ground turkey in almost anything that you would have used gr. beef. I use it in spaghetti sauce (one jar Trader Joe's or Paul Newman's mushroom spaghetti sauce), one can of Italian Style canned diced tomatoes (look for the kind that already has the Italian seasoning in it, like garlic etc.), gr. turkey. Brown the ground turkey and then add the sauce and diced tomatoes, simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over whole grain spaghetti.

 

Also: lentil soup is easy to make and you can make it vegetarian or with (again) gr. turkey or chicken...

[sidehop]

Or buffalo They're pricey but healthier and meatloaf will never taste the same without it They are so easy to make too!

[anya85]

Like pizza?

 

I make these tortilla pizzas. Go buy some of the Mission brand flavored Wraps from Target/Super Target - they are flavored tortillas, I like the Jalapeno Cheddar. Put some pizza sauce on it, some low fat cheese, a few pepperonis, whatever other toppings you want(I'd recommend against more meat if you're trying to be healthy and add some veggies) and in 5 minutes you have a good sized little ultra thin crust pizza.

 

I like the heat the tortilla for a few minutes in the oven first to make it crisp up a little bit. You can also fold these in half and they make nice little pizza sandwiches. Maybe 350-400 cals, but that's still way less than if you had real pizza or even frozen pizza and taste great!

[MakestheBest]

I haven't tried this site yet, but my friend swears by it, and the recipes are invariably healthy

 

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Im one of those cooks that kind of tosses the kitchen sink in. So no real recipe. But if you are learning to cook ( even tho i CAN cook I NEVER DO) the thing you need to do is plan and take time, don't be in a rush...making food on a regular basis is SERIOUSLY a lifestyle change...so best of luck!

 

Oh! This site has pretty simple recipe's, just go thru and try to find the more healthy..the site is funny too. link removed