Need Super Easy, quick & spicy

Crissthetealcat

Last year at this time I had lost 39 lbs in a year and half. A year later, I've gained 22 of it back. I've identified the 3 biggest obstacles to my success, but it's just one that I want to address in this post. I've never been a very good cook or a person who wants to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but I forced myself to learn a few things and spend a bit more time in the kitchen when I knew I needed to. However, spending that "time in the kitchen" only seems to happen on days when I come home from work feeling at and 8 or better on the energy scale. I can do it if I'm a 6 or better only if I've prepped everything in advance.

My issue is that I was sick with a a recurring cold/sinus infection from about November of 2012 to July of 2013. I also had a more active social life so I was gone a lot on the weekends, and I had new neighbors who kept me from good sleep. Therefore, most days when I came home from work I was at a 2-3 on the energy scale, and I had no time on the weekends to pre-prep. I also can't taste my food when I have these issues so I crave very hot/spicy foods, but don't know how to prepare very many of them.

I have been back on track this week, finally, but I need a plan to get me through the winter so I don't end up at Taco Bell bringing home quesadillas and fire sauce for 9 months.

I need a huge collection of the super easiest quick (think feeling like crap and don't know how to cook) recipes that are also spicy. Anyone able to help me?

S_of_Montreal

When I don't feel like cooking, I eat a salad with chicken. I buy chicken thighs skinless/ boneless and I put a little olive oil with chicken seasoning. Ready in 5 minutes.

Crissthetealcat

2knowme, that's kind of what I ate 3 days a week before I started gaining it back. By the time I started gaining, I was very sick of that meal, and also it tastes icky when my sinuses act up. (Hence, the spicy part.) Thanks anyway. Anyone else?

lenkearney

package of chili-o, can of beans, pound of ground beef/turkey 20 minutes

one egg, three egg whites, scrambled add hot sauce toast w/peanut butter

low fat greek yogurt w/fruit, and 1/3 cup dry uncooked oatmeal

Crissthetealcat

Thanks Len, not sure what Chili-O is but I'm gonna look for it! I always forget about scrambled eggs with hot sauce, but I love them. I'm making a list. Anyone else have ideas?

sarasmiles124

Bump - to catch up on later.

FranceyPants

Burritos/wraps! Chicken with seasoning, lettuce, cheese, tomato and heaps of spicy spicy tabasco/hot sauce

I'm currently making spicy eggplant. Check out this recipe, it's amazing and not too difficult to make! http://www.smokywok.com/2010/12/sichuan-spicy-eggplant-or-fish-fragrant.html

Chenoachem

I make a lot of taco salads or fajita salads. I cook on weekends to help me through the week. Ground/mince beef with taco seasoning or make your own seasoning with cumin, paprika, and chilli powder. I bake chicken in fajita seasoning mixed with bell peppers. Both are great served over a variety of greens. I even top with salsa.

I find crock pots are really helpful too as you can through in a mix of stuff and have a meal when you get home that is ready.

VelveteenArabian

A crockpot is your friend. You can prepare several meals worth of food with maybe 30 minutes of effort. Most of the prep is just simple cutting and tossing stuff into the crockpot.

Since you like Taco Bell...
Take some chicken breasts (they can be frozen!) and dump them in the crockpot for 12 hours on low. Add some water in with them. They will fall apart when you stab them and you can turn them into shredded chicken super quick.

You can buy a quesadilla maker and layer your tortillas and ingredients (including that shredded chicken!) and make quesadillas. Or turn it all into a wrap.

Soups and stews are also great to make. They are super easy in a crockpot.

sarasmiles124

I eat a lot of different things spiced with cajun seasoning - my favorite is cajun salmon. That and there was a peppery beef stir fry that was really good.

mjrkearney

Hot sauce is a food group. Cayenne pepper is a staple, as is Szechuan sauce.

Nothing, as far as I can tell, can't be made spicy. You just need to know how to light it up, and when. My husband doesn't like the fire quite as much as I do, but I can always torch things to my own liking. Basics like turkey tacos, stir fries of any sort, that sort of thing is easy to light.

sarasmiles124

I also have a great recipe I found for baked fish with jalapeno and lime that has a nice bit of bite to it.

Katmary71

You can always use salsa as dressing for salad. I love a veggie scramble with hot sauce for breakfast too.

If possible, I highly recommend getting your sinus problems treated. I'm going through this now as I'm constantly getting sick as my allergies are always out-of-control, so I'm taking allergy medications religiously and doing my best to keep things under control. It's not fun to always feel exhausted, catch colds all the time, and have sinus issues! I think this alone could be a big hurdle in just feeling well, period. I'm at the point where almost every time I go out or am around my young nephews I catch colds (they're in day care and she isn't too picky about kids coming in with colds), and it takes longer to get over them. My doctor's feeling on this is because I'm always battling allergens and had been out of my allergy meds, my body was unable to fight off the colds I was exposed to and it took longer to get over them. I usually went down days after exposure, so it's as if my body barely gave a fight. I really hope you can get some help with them as I know how exhausting it can be.

Because of the above, having some decent meals in the freezer or even canned soup for when you feel lousy is a good idea. Ironically, I love Trader Joe's Black Bean and corn enchiladas and Campbell's Healthy Request Tortilla Soup. Both are a little on the spicy side which is why I thought it was ironic, and you can always add more hot sauce to them if you'd like that kick to them. Good luck!

JADEPH0EN1X

Grilled salmon with spicy couscous or quinoa is quick & easy .
Also for snacking you can get spicey nut & seeds !

Ke11er

Put boneless skinless chicken breasts or pork loin chops in your crock pot with some of your favorite salsa. Chunk up a couple of bell peppers and an onion and add those. Let cook on low all day. When you get home shred the meat apart a bit with a fork (really easy, it will be very tender) and toss into a healthy tortilla or wrap, perhaps with a dollop of plain greek yogurt. Really easy fajitas! Prep once and you'll have a big batch that will give you several dinners all ready to go!

Or, put your boneless skinless chicken breasts or pork loin chops in your crock pot with a can of stewed tomatoes and sprinkle in some Italian Seasoning (or some basil, oregano, garlic if that's what you keep on hand). Chunk up your bell peppers and an onion and add those, also could add zucchini, green beans, pea pods etc. according to your tastes. Let cook on low all day. When you get home pour off the yummy juice and use it as the liquid you need to make brown rice. Shred the meat apart a bit with a fork (still really easy, also very tender) and serve over your rice. If you don't like rice you might like it with a little healthy pasta.

Or plop one whole chicken, or a turkey breast, into your crock pot. Spritz with a little mist of olive oil and sprinkle on some poultry seasoning. Cook on low all day. When you get home put a bag of Steamfresh veggies that you like into the microwave. Dinner will be ready in about 6 minutes!

When you bring it home from the grocery store brown a few pounds of ground beef or ground turkey. Season a pound for sloppy joes, and a pound for your favorite spaghetti sauce, and a pound for taco meat. Package them each up in freezer bags. Before you go to work in the morning pop one in the crock pot, frozen is fine Cook on low all day and you'll be very nearly there for any of those three meals by the time you get home. And, your house will smell great when you walk in the door :-)

Put a piece of salmon in a baking dish. Spritz with olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper. When you get home pop it in the oven to bake or onto the grill. Steam or roast a favorite veggie to go along with the fish. Squeeze some lemon juice over the salmon before serving and it might lift the taste so it's fresh enough to appeal to your spicy pallet.

Maybe filp your meals? Cook a hearty breakfast instead when energy is higher in the morning, and then have your oatmeal or Greek yogurt or hard boiled egg with fruit for dinner?

ceemyheartrn

Chicken legs or breasts tossed in franks hot sauce. Bake until done . Serve with celery sticks and lite blue cheese dressing! You will never bother with little wings again!

sunnyside1213

Got a crock pot? Google spicy crock pot recipes.

action_figure

Pico de gallo, my friend. Pico de gallo. Buy it ready made somewhere like Sprouts, Whole Foods Market, local grocery stores, etc. Put it on EVERYTHING. Make yourself an omelet with greek yogurt, arugula (a leafy green that tastes peppery), and pico de gallo. Use pico de gallo for the munchies. Get yourself some baked lays tortilla chips, measure them out, and dip all the pico you want. At 10 calories per ounce it won't kill you. Cook some frozen tilapia fillets, and make some brown rice in a rice cooker (You do have a rice cooker, right? Super easy.) when the tilapia is almost done in the skillet, throw brown rice, chopped onions, and yes, pico de gallo in and have a nice stir fry. That was my carb loading AND my recovery meal yesterday after my triathalon. So. Freaking. Good. I make a kick *kitten* tuna fish salad (or upscale it with fresh salmon) using pico. Can of tuna, pico de gallo, arugula, plain greek yogurt, and a chopped cucumber. More food than you can comfortably eat for around two hundred calories. Have some crispy Ritz Toasted Chips on the side if it fits your macros. But seriously, the biggest thing you have to get straight is your mental thing. You sound a lot like me. I've successfully lost weight so many times in my life, for a while. But if ANYTHING went wrong, got stressed out, was "too tired to cook" or whatever, I gave myself permission to stop "just till things get better". There's ALWAYS going to be something, babe. Always. And at some point you're going to have to come to a determination that you're not going to stop taking care of yourself appropriately for any reason. For me it was two weeks into my lifestyle change. My husband got rushed to ER and emergency surgery. We didn't know if he was going to make it or not for about 48 hours (He's fine, btw. Came through great.) But at the time I was a hot mess. I was dressing the kids to take them to a friend's house and I planned to just go through the McD's drive through and grab a 20 piece McNugget because "i didn't have time to worry about food". Then it hit me. All my life I've done this. I've started with great intentions and success, and then because life threw me a curve, I put it aside. Well, not this time, I told myself. I drove to Subway and got a 6" veggie sub. Now maybe in the long run that sub wasn't that much more healthy than chicken mcnuggets, but for me it was a HUGE mental leap. I could actually find a way to take care of myself while dealing with all the crap, and believe me, eating right IS taking care of yourself. I didn't cheat on my diet at all for the first three months. After that, I would allow myself to have a day off for a really special occasion, or a reward meal, or whatever, but because I had that 90 days of solid good habits to fall back on, BAM! any deviation was quickly followed by going right back to what works, not veering off the rails and totally crashing. Make sense? Best of luck to you.

lindacpa54

Google slow cooker jerk chicken with sweet potato and pineapple. It's a weight watchers recipe that I made it yesterday. It's very spicy and very easy to make.

prosperkat

I really like sriracha sauce, especially the extra garlic variety, to spice up easy food. Try scrambled eggs with some stripes of sriracha squeezed straight from the bottle. Simple side dish is frozen spinach heated up with sriracha and maybe a squeeze of lemon. I add it to extra lean ground beef to make spicy juicy burgers or meatloaf. May not be to everybody's taste but works for me. :-)

Planning and preparation is so important for long and tiring days. Cook on the weekends and freeze portions for those situations. Good luck!