Food inspiration, or what's for supper?
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And I’m glad you’ve come back to join us Laurie!2
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lauriekallis wrote: »PAV, your two microwave meal cooking just filled me with such joy I burst into peals of laughter. Not making fun of you at all
Yeah, yeah: that's what they all tell me all the time: "PAV we're not laughing AT you, we're laughing WITH you", but I have this inkling this MAY not always be true, you know!
Added a Tom yum creamy noodle soup (~290 Cal) to the remaining half of the bunnies. Bunny mix today was the higher calories pea, corn, edamame, carrot and green bean mix in a 750g bag. Edamame actually added quite a bit to it.
My world is in trouble! https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-nestle-canada-to-wind-down-frozen-meals-and-pizza-business-over-next/
Actually there's only a few of the lean cuisine's I really like and I have slowed down/stopped my buying because of price increases. The stouffer's individual size lasagna were quite good I though. And yeah, I used to buy them when reasonably priced. I too find it at least a little bit interesting that they're focusing on water and pet food.1 -
I like the idea that this might open space in our grocer's freezers for new products 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
I'm on a mission to reduce the food in my house... I'm still working on the veggies in the fridge but next week it'll be the veggies in the freezer 🙂 and then some of the weird seeds and legumes in the pantry.
It's exciting to be on this little mission. So far the calories have been down for 4 days... I hope it can stay that way... I had a bit of a peanut butter mishap today 😂 but I think those calories are absorbable and I got rid of the remnants of the peanut butter and the jar.
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And there's lots of prepare food in the second little freezer... I can eat for a long time really without going to the grocery store. But I'll get some special stuff just to keep it interesting.2
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Supper tonight is roasted cauliflower and broccoli with shavings of garlic on top and a little bit of olive oil. And a couple of scrambled eggs with a sprinkling of feta and many dashes of sriracha.2
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I made a lighter shepherd's pie last night. Flavor was wonderful, but I added too much beef broth so it was more of a stew thickness. Which is whatever. As long as it tastes good who really cares. I also did NOT have enough mashed potatoes, but that is my fault because I was lazy and used refrigerated mashed potatoes. Again, tasted good and that is all that matters. I would make it again for sure, but with less broth.4
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I love shepherd's pie. Usually use lentils (tried the fake ground beef a few times but prefer the little green/brown lentils). It is satisfying, nourishing for the body and soul, and you can make almost a week's worth and it just keeps tasting better.
Seems you have inspired me, Athijade!2 -
Hmmm.... I have some Amazon fake meat to try! Does it really need the oil it says it does? Hmmmm?🤔0
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Nah....especially not in Shepherd's pie!1
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Let's have a Shepherd's pie fiesta 2
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You kids are horrible and causing trouble! I even ixnayed the free vine leaf wrapped dolma that were being offered to me!
I've no idea about calories yet because I have not been listening to my own inhibitory advice of logging before eating!
And even though the herder-like-analogue is not really a shepherd's pie... it's actually hitting too many light bulbs and is in danger of over *definitely not under* consumption!
I couldn't find in the freezer the mixed pack of carrots, peas, green beans and edamame I know is there, so I ended up instead with the yellow and green string beans and carrot pack. 8 minutes covered nuking of 581g to get it somewhat soft. Then.... edward scissorhands attack to chop the suckers into smaller pieces right in their glasslock container!
260g of the Amazon delivered kappa foods soy mix replaces 2lbs of ground beef says the bag. It claims it needs fill to line with 540ml water and fill to line with 90ml oil. It got 661ml water to the line, and 21g avocado oil from the scale instead.
Yielded 942g finished product of which I used 400g in the herder-like with the rest camping in the fridge!
Browned the 400g with about 2g of spray. Added the prepared veggies while beating the *kitten* out of everything with multiple wooden spatulas.... added most of a can of franco-american beef gravy which has surprisingly fewer calories than the chicken version... just saying. Betty (Crocker) contributed 112g of garlic mash. I "found" 500g of boiling water and 3g extra garlic powder. Would have been same calories to smash down 400g of sweet potato... maybe that will be for PART DEUX in a day or three?!?!?!?!
into a pyrex went the meatlike, on top of it went the mash-like... does anyone here think that the next step was the oven?
Of course not. The next step was my tummy!
Half to A good 2/3 is now gone... but I've GOT to take a breather!!
So I'm going to go count the damage instead. Well, after I handle a couple of emails....2 -
having trouble moving. oh the sodium in that "meat".... groan tasted good actually though!0
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I'm making mine tomorrow...I'm not sure I can describe the experience as brilliantly as you, but I'll give it a good college try.
Looking forward to your calorie count. Whatever it is - I bet it was a very satiating dinner for the calories. (like can barely walk tonight level of satiating)1 -
I wasn't up to "cooking" - so scrambled eggs with feta and sriracha + roasted cauliflower/broccoli/sweet potato sprinkled with sliced garlic clovers. Pretty yum yum.2
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lauriekallis wrote: »Looking forward to your calorie count. Whatever it is - I bet it was a very satiating dinner for the calories. (like can barely walk tonight level of satiating)
So, the herder-like proved satiating as I ate most of it a full six hours ago and had nothing other than diet pop since then!
I suspect this had a lot to do with the incredibly high sodium count. Between the "dyi ground meat" from "kappa foods" and the Betty Crocker mash, and the can of franco-american beef gravy there was over 5500mg of sodium in the pot!!!! Consequently, I am on can #4 of coke zero/sprite zero.
Total calories are actually quite low for the volume at 1125Cal with 184g carbs, 14.5g fat, and 53g protein. And I still have some for later tonight as it is looking like a long night.
I suspect that if I make another batch, which I am quite likely to, topping it with sweet potatoes and maybe adding some heat will make this even more interesting--and will reduce the sodium by at least 2200... so maybe I'll have to work on a gravy replacement too.... hmmmm!1 -
Well PAV- you could use “real” ingredients. You know a real potato or two, real meat drained, make your own gravy? Gravy is just flour, bit of butter and low sodium stock. Takes a bit longer but you know what’s in there.2
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Today was time for some Giouvetsi (Veal with Orzo), it has been a while since I made some!
A dish of that combined with my standard 2.5lb salad comes at around 1100kcal in total...it's so so worth it though!
Also, it's enough food to keep you full for the day, if needed.4 -
Good work, PAV. I'm sure your scientific self can figure out how to reduce the sodium.
Your salad looks very interesting and DELICIOUS, Dante. I see tomato, red and yellow pepper, zuchinni, cucumber, red onion - but what are the most substantial looking orange "chunks" ???1 -
lauriekallis wrote: »Good work, PAV. I'm sure your scientific self can figure out how to reduce the sodium.
Your salad looks very interesting and DELICIOUS, Dante. I see tomato, red and yellow pepper, zuchinni, cucumber, red onion - but what are the most substantial looking orange "chunks" ???
A couple of large carrots. Very sweet and filling too!1 -
And a nice bit of crunch! I wasn't sure if carrots or sweet potato...and suddenly I feel inspired to add some roasted sweet potato to my salad - and maybe some carrots too. My salads have been pretty basic - so that I don't feel "overwhelmed" by the preparation (that happens too often). But today maybe it will be a work of art - and tonight - a "herder-like" casserole a la PAV.
Thank you for the inspiration.
It abounds here today in our wonderful little group.3 -
My salad today included chopped carrots! Thanks for the boost, Dante. I sometimes added carrots - but for some reason had it in my head to always add grated carrot - and sometimes grating the carrot is what stood between me and a carrot in the salad. The chunks were fine - quite perfect with the softer beans I add. 2
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Another glorious meal by Dante! Simple, uncomplicated and definitely delicious looking. It’s such a beautiful typically European meal. Well - if you don’t count France where they tend to embellish with sauces.2
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Okay...I heading to the kitchen. Herder-type casserole is on the menu and I'm trying my hardest to go make it. Posting here for insurance. I REALLY don't want to cook...
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Did it
10 good sized servings too. I pulled a PAV and just put it into freezable containers rather than baking - dividing it would have become far too complicated.
I thought to take a picture - but not until after I started eating tonight - honestly the photo doesn't do it justice (yes, I am eating at my desk)
400 calories 361 mg sodium 66 carbs 8 fat 18 protein 17 fibre
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Hey: it's looking quite good! AND the salad looked good too actually. the veal I can probably taste from here... OK Laurie. You need to share more!1
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hey, Laurie, that's NOT fair! You're supposed to write what you did!!!
BATCH #2 of Herder's Pie is now complete!
It was 2106 Cal for 2597g and 90% of it has been separated into three containers.
The last 10% went to the testing and quality control crew and has been logged into today!
Changes!
Veggies boiled instead of nuked.
D.I.Y. plant based ground went into the same pot near the end.
While some of the pot's water was used for the mash most of it was discarded together with a lot of the sodium and a bit of the oil from the ground.
Mash was 3/4 of a pouch from friend Betty PLUS 400g of sweet potato. With 7g butter.
instead of a can of beef gravy I used a can of condensed mushroom soup
Wish I had tummy room to eat some more right now. But I don't!
So 89% is sitting in the fridge
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Here goes, PAV
First - 400g of french lentils in a pot with enough water to cover the lentils by about 1 inch and 1 veggie bouillion cube - simmer simmer simmer while prepping veggies.
In a separate LARGE fry pan - saute 250g chopped onion + 125g chopped celery in 1 tbsp olive oil
Sliced up 250g of carrot added to celery and onion mixture let that cook for a bit - added a sprinkle of sage, savoury and thyme, then added 150g frozen corn, 160g frozen green peas - sauteed all together for another little bit - added 4g of table salt.
By this time the lentils were almost done in their pot - so I poured them into the veggie fry pan - added enough water to cover and let it all simmer. It tasted pretty boring and I'm out of lots of spices (and I had no gravy!) so I added a 154ml tin of tomato paste - still a bit bland so added 3 tbsp of bbq sauce. Kept checking to see if the lentils were tender - and adding extra water.
While the veggies/lentils were cooking - peeled and boiled 1900g of yellow flesh potatoes (in the lentil pot - saved a bit of pot washing). When they were soft, mashed them with 56g butter and 2 cups of 2% milk. Added a sprinkling of salt (about 2g) and pepper.
By that time the filling was done!
Distributed the filling into 10 containers (one regular bowl for tonight's supper and 9 freezer suitable) - spooned the mashed potatoes over each bowl - and voila - many meals in the freezer
(the recipe didn't go quite as smoothly as this - first round I cooked up just over 1000g of potatoes - but they weren't enough, so I did a second batch of 900g)
Final calorie count is 4220 total - divided into 10 servings...higher than my first post because the potatoes were HUGE and my planned addition of 600g grew to 900.
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And....I am intrigued by the mushroom soup idea! How was that???
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Thanks for that recipe laurie, I'm going to try it out. It looks delicious!
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Pffft.. you kids and your silly fresh thingies.... I had my whole 2100Cal/2.5kg ready in the fridge before Laurie was done boiling her taters.... and I'm not even talking how long it took to cook her lentils!🤪
Weigh and thaw the veg in hot tap water, scissors with both paws to make them small (not needed had I bothered to get real peas and carrots and corn🤷♂️), bring them to a boil, get the fake ground in there, drain some of water for the mash... presto!😘
OK I did drain the water and add the condensed soup and garlic powder and lemon pepper and sriracha 🤣
Dante you're not allowed to abandon your roots. Poor Yooly (for some reason Google wants to change her to Holy?🤣) anyway, poor Yooly will suffer intensely if you abandon your food roots and you'll be adding to her stress! 😘2
