Very poor cook, but get by

country9363
country9363 Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Been on here 2 months. Any help on very easy to prepare low calorie meals. Oatmeal, tuna & salads getting a little old.

Replies

  • kam26001
    kam26001 Posts: 2,799 Member
    You can make a bean salad with canned veggies and canned beans (look for low sodium versions). Add some salsa to it.
    Frozen mixed veggies would taste better if you have a few extra minutes.
  • darshemail
    darshemail Posts: 18 Member
    Can of your favorite beans and your favorite frozen veggies. Add water and Mexican seasoning and bring to boil. Many ways to serve this. Enjoy with a tortilla OR on top of quinoa OR rice OR top it with lettuce, salsa and cheese. Switch up the beans and veggies for variety. Next time use Italian herbs for the seasoning. U can simply use salt and pepper as well.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,589 Member
    Day 2. Sorry spell checker, I think. That's a jar of commercial SALSA (tomato based).
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,308 Member
    Have cell phone? LoL


    If you want to learn to cook.. watch few cooking video/shows.. some food are not really hard to make..
  • anhy
    anhy Posts: 3 Member
    Ground turkey + broccoli + onions = stir fry
    leftover stir fry + brown rice + scramble an egg = fried rice (add scallions for extra flavor)
    leftover stir fry + light cheese + tortilla + salsa = burrito (can use greek yogurt as fake sour cream)

    Those are some go-tos when my husband and I are feeling lazy. I also saw on a bodybuilding forum that people will sometimes do english muffin topped with tuna, tomato sauce, light mozzarella cheese for a pizza. Hope that's helpful!

  • mochapygmy
    mochapygmy Posts: 2,123 Member
    Search for your favorite meals on YouTube and follow along.

    Good eats/Alton Brown videos are helpful and fun.
    America's Test Kitchen videos are good.
    Basics with Babish also helpful and fun.

    Learning to cook has a steep learning curve. It won't be great but you will learn fast.

    Ask someone to come over to help/ show you. You could tell them you will make them whatever they want if they tell you what ingredients to buy and walk you thru it. Or set some limits.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,589 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    Buy a ready made rotisserie chicken occasionally.

    Day 1. Roast chicken dinner. Jacket potato in the microwave. Poke holes in the skin with a fork in a couple of places so that steam can escape so it doesn't explode. About 8 or 9 minutes depending on size of potato. Give the potato a squeeeze every minute starting 7 minutes to test for doneness. Microwave some green beans or sugar snaps in the packet (poke holes with a fork to allow steam to escape). Start testing for doneness by tasting one every minute after 1 or 2 minutes.

    Day 2. Easy chicken salad. Chopped leftover chicken, a chopped avocado, a jar of commercial salad, a handful of chopped fresh coriander. Have that in a soft tortilla wrap or a pita.

    Day 3. Avgolemono soup. Boil some chicken stock (store bought or made from a bouillon block is fine) with a handful of rice. Squeeze in the juice of a few lemon wedges to taste and season with salt and pepper. When rice is tender, beat an egg in a small bowl, pour in a ladleful of the hot soup, beat again. Turn down heat to low and stir the egg mixture to thicken the soup being careful not to overheat and scramble the egg. Stir in some chopped leftover chicken. This soup is still tasty if you mess up and the egg curdles. Serve with a green salad.

    If you are a little bit ambitious about making this a sustainable routine for meals, make chicken stock for Day 3 of the next round. Save all the bones from your rotisserie chicken in a takeaway box in the freezer. On a day you will be puttering around the house for a few hours after you saved all the bones from the whole carcass make stock. Put the bones in a large pot of cold water. Add a halved onion, skin and all (it will give a golden colour to the stock). If you have any lame looking vegetables lurking at the bottom of the fridge throw those in too. I usually add a chicken stock cube. Simmer several hours on low heat with the lid off so that the liquid reduces. Strain into a tupperware box, cool and freeze until the next time you need stock.
  • breanamock
    breanamock Posts: 28 Member
    I reduce calories in a lot of my regular dishes by sautéing in broth instead of oil. Works great in a nonstick pan, although I doubt it would work as well in an iron skillet. I also use fat free Greek yogurt in place of sour cream or heavy cream. I’ve had success looking on Pinterest for “skinny” versions of recipes. Found an excellent skinny chicken Marsala and chicken Alfredo.
  • country9363
    country9363 Posts: 6 Member
    Guess I don’t use the internet like I’m supposed to haven’t had a smart phone long. I’ll try Pinterest and see if I can make heads or tails out of it, thanks
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Scrambled eggs with a teaspoon or two of real butter. Med heat, butter first, stir eggs gently with plastic fork or spoon...if you don't want to do the dishes just use paper plates. ;) Put some shaved parmesan cheese into your eggs or not.

    Cottage cheese and fresh fruit is very good when it's so hot outside or plain greek yogurt. Buy some pouches of tuna and salmon, they have lemon, bold buffalo and all kinds of new flavors now. You need green and black olives in your fridge. Buy some claussen dill pickle slices. Ready made salad kits with some good salad dressings. Add a fresh squeezed lime into your salad to stretch out the dressing. Invest in a lemon/lime squeezer and don't waste a drop. There's jerkys for eating on the fly, hard boiled eggs you can buy in the deli cases. Make egg salad ( use a fork to crumble hard boiled eggs) add mayo and mustard, sprinkle red pepper flakes into it or add some dried dill. Go to the spice section and pick up some new herb and spice combos. Those really add flavor to your food.

    Use cheese slices or lettuce leaves to make sandwiches if you're watching how much bread you eat. You know what else is good, a hamburger salad. Ayup. Buy some ground beef and cook over med heat using your fork. Crumble over the top of your greens and add dressing. Add avocado and salsa for a taco salad or sliced parmesan and bleu cheese dressing for a great burger salad.

    Buy some frozen vegetables, they have individual servings. Add your tuna or salmon to those. Add lime/salad dressing if you want, herbs, spices. That's basic but eventually you can graduate to an omelette with vegetables.
  • AZShadowlover
    AZShadowlover Posts: 2 Member
    edited July 2019
    You all, sound like great short order cooks! Very creative! Has anyone thought about the iron chef competitions? I just started this journey two days ago and I find your hints very helpful although I have been cooking for years "old school" taste over proper nutrition any day!
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    skinnytaste.com

    One of my favorite websites.
  • feisty_bucket
    feisty_bucket Posts: 1,047 Member
    mochapygmy wrote: »
    Good eats/Alton Brown videos are helpful and fun.

    Seconding Alton Brown! His stuff is super-helpful and entertaining.

    There are tons of his videos on YouTube. As well as cooking videos for pretty much any kind of food you can think of, by multiple people.

    OP, I'd start with eggs. Learn scrambled, fried, and omelettes (in order of difficulty).

    Then ground beef. Very easy. You can add frozen vegetables from bags to it.

    Then learn about some basic seasonings and sauces and your stuff will taste really good.

    Basic cooking isn't hard at all, no worries.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
    In our area, some of the local stores have quick cooking classes - I think they try to pull people in to look at their appliances and such, but anyway, look for something like this locally. You can learn some techniques, and maybe even a few recipes.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 1,992 Member
    this is really tasty and basically zero carbs. 7wqsv0mt4tpq.jpg consists of Ham/egg/and cheese cooked in a muffin tin. 240 calories for two. Combine that with avocado and you have a protein, healthy fat , low carb meal! You can find this recipe on youtube or pinterest
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,974 Member
    I eat a lot of things that don't require any "cooking."

    For example, my 1st meal today included an orange, 3 hard boiled eggs (boiling water is NOT "cooking" but if that's too challenging, just eat them raw), a,bowl of /2 cup yogurt w/1.5 cups blueberries and 1 tbsp hobey and 3 oz of homemade gravlax (which requires prep but is NOT what I'd call "cooking" either).

    So, there are lots of things that you can eat w/very little or no cooking at all
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Stir fries! Something meaty, something aromatic, something veggie, something starchy.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    For some easy variety if you can afford it, I'd suggest looking at the healthier frozen meals. Brands like Luvo and Amy's make some tasty and low calorie options. While they aren't for every day, they can really add flavor to your diet. It will, of course, depend on your health conditions because only a few are lower sodium.

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