Hmm... tonight Shane and I got sushi. Last night we made chicken cordon bleu and a vegetable medley. We eat a lot of pasta and fish, too, usually with a side salad.
I avoid "white carbs" so I get my sushi with brown rice, only have whole grain pasta, etc.
Instead of breaded chicken:
- why not just bake it - you can just put it in the slow cooker. Yesterday morning I put the chicken in there, Pico de Gallo seasoning (or whatever you want, even just simple salt and pepper) some rosemary, and went to work. By the time I got home, it was done, and it was so soft, the meat fell of the bone
You can even just dump some spaghetti sauce on it and let it bake.
- try turkey, maybe pork? also if you eat fish, there is huge selection of fish to be baked.
- stuffed chicken
Instead of mashed potatoes / baked potatoes:
- cut up potatoes, salt / pepper, coat wit olive oil in a pan. You can sprinkle some parsley on it
- try yam. Baked, mashed, fried. Better for you and yummy.
Instead of green beans, try other vegetables:
- steamed cabbage, cauliflower (you can also fry it), broccoli, bok choy, leeks, etc., etc.
Try legumes beans, peas, lentils. Lentils boiled with some salt, pepper and honey is awesome! (it's a Hungarian recipe)
So you can do everything you've been doing just with different food items.
Great ideas. I was thinking of cooking the chicken in the slow cooker with some salsa. Serve it with rice. We are in rut with green beans. My DD husbands takes carrots with his lunch, does't like corn. We all love parsnips and brussel sprouts, so guess I need to buy more of those.
Mike, my DD just suggested a salad with leftover meat each night for those trying to cut down on calories.
I am also going to try more dried beans, etc. I have some in the pantry.
I eat chicken cooked with a whole jar of salsa in the slow cooker. I also add lime juice and chili powder. It smells amazing and we eat it either as nachos, nachos, or burritos. I like a side of beans and rice with it too.
If you are trying to cut calories, but a salad doesn't seem that substantial you might try making homemade soups. You can put just about anything in them including tons of beans and vegetables and you can cook them in crock pot. Soup really feels like a meal if you serve it with a salad and some crusty bread (I like the crusty bread because it takes longer to chew and eat so I don't eat quite so much bread with my meal).
Last night we grilled sausages and made french fries (I'm trying to get the knife skills to slice the potatoes properly). Not our most nutritious dinner, but we were both tired and I wasn't in the mood for salad.
You can pre-soak dry beans (relatively) quickly in the microwave: in a 2qt casserole place 1 to 2 cups dry beans and 2 cups water; microwave, covered, on full power for 15 minutes; add 2 cups very hot water and allow to stand for one hour; drain beans, which you may find are already partly cooked, and use.
I used to make Egyptian Stew in the crockpot, back in my grad-student days, though I can't now remember whether I used dried beans or canned. In the last couple of years I've cooked it on the stovetop; here's the basic recipe, though I tend to change it up a lot:
In a heavy-bottomed 1 gallon pot heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil. In the oil saute one large chopped onion till it's either limp or brown. Add half a cup of water and 1.5 cups presoaked dried beans or 2 15 oz canned beans, in that order so the beans don't stick; immediately add 2 cans diced tomatoes, 8 to 10 oz corn kernels (fresh, frozen, or canned), one chopped pasilla pepper or two chopped bell peppers, the equivalent of one largish zucchini, quartered and thickly sliced, up to half a cup of chopped parsley, and salt or Better than Bouillon vegetable base and pepper as desired. Simmer till the beans are done, and serve with bread that can be used to sop up the juices. Lemon juice or balsamic vinegar can be added at the time of serving to brighten the flavor.
When I did this in the crockpot, I skipped the browning step and just loaded everything at once into the pot to cook on low power all day. (The crockpot I now have seems to have a very low low power; that's why I stopped using it.)
I've varied this: one can hold off on adding the peppers and the zucchini if one likes them to have a fresher consistency; one can vary the seasoning (my recent versions have used fresh thyme and fresh oregano, since I seem to have a black thumb as regards parsley, and sometimes I'll also use dried basil, sage, marjoram, and lavender with fennel seeds for an herbes de Provence effect); one can add a pound or so of meat or fresh sausage, in which case it should be lightly browned in the hot oil first before the onions go on; one can include chopped carrot and/or turnip; and so on. If I use sausage or meat, I'll often thicken the result with instant mashed potato.
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OOh fun. Well, as a non-meat eating person, I can give you some different ideas.
How about making spaghetti using spaghetti squash? It's super yummy and we don't even bother using real pasta anymore. You can make it with normal tomato sauce. (we like to also add homemade basil pesto). YUM.
We will be having chicken noodles and veggies tonite... It's something my sis gave me the recipe...it's on the stove top one pan!! YAY!!! I better go get the chicken out!!
