What do you do when...

char_char_piper

You're clearly hungry and of course you need to eat but you're so bored with everything you have in the house that you just don't know where to get started, but you still want to eat healthfully?

Suggestions greatly appreciated, please! :happy:

LittleMissDover

Go to the shop :laugh:

char_char_piper

Go to the shop :laugh:

Right. Well..

When that's not an option..

And don't even say 'fast food' because this is most definitely not an option!

Looking for creative ideas/recipes to spice up normal everyday things that I might not normally think of. Perhaps I should have been more clear with my intent.

Nix143

I look at what I have and then go online recipe searching. It's amazing the new ways you can find to prepare things. Plus all the surfing means less time thinking about how hungry you are

LittleMissDover

It depends what you have in to be honest, hard to say without knowing the contents of your kitchen.

Personally I have to make sure I have plenty of variety of stuff in at all times otherwise I will eat anything and everything until I'm satisfied.

katcunock

i keep a good supply of spices in, which means i can add variety to almost any food.

Also keep a lot of good, cheap base ingredients in, e.g. tomato passata, kidney beans, plain chocolate, etc which can be used as bases to create good meals

bbcgoodfood.com is really great for recipe hunting

also, when i am making meals, i make in batches as much as i can, and freeze portions so i can pull something out if i want

added to which, if you buy meat or other freezer goods in large quantities, portion them before you freeze so you don't have to end u, e.g. eating a whole chicken because you couldn't break off just a drum stick.

Here in the UK, stores like iceland offer many low fat ranges very cheaply. They don't say they are low fat, but if you look ath the nutrition per 100g, anything with less than 5g of fat is a low fat product. So i have chicken burgers, kebabs and all sorts in my freezer.

My go to snacks are popcorn - very healthy if you make from scratch - and chocolate baked bananas, which is when you pierce a hole in the banana skin, poke in 4 squares of plain chocolate and bake wrapped in foil for 15 mins. it's about 150-75 cals depending on the choc and size of banana.

Another good thing to have around is eggs, and crackers such as ryvita. Ryvita goes with almost anything - soup, peanut butter, egg mayo, mushed banana, so on. And eggs can be used to make so many things, and are high in protein too.

A lot of what i have suggested are budget options, and can be brought in multi packs and don't really go off. It can be costly if you have to buy in everything at once, but my partner and i survive on a food budget of £15 each per week for bfast, lunch and dinner and still manage to be healthy. Like you i can't just 'pop to the shop' when I have a craving, so I try to keep things around that will help with that.

Hope this helps!

Zylahe

cook something??
make sure next time you go shopping you get some new stuff in the house?

think of new ways to mix together what you have?

walk / cycle to shop to at least burn off what you buy.

go for a walk and pick the blueberries/ apples / nuts off the trees you find.

(why can't you go to the shop?)

JesterMFP

Look in a recipe book, or look up recipes online.Try sites like foodgawker, tastespotting or pinterest to get visual ideas. Without knowing what ingredients you have, it's hard to be more specific.

Rayman79

throw some stuff together and see how it tastes.

... or tell us everything you have in your pantry/fridge and we can make suggestions based on that

PlunderBunneh

I might have a protein shake. Or a bagel nut bar with peanut butter. If I need to make a meal, I might go to allrecipes.com and browse around categories until I find something appealing with the ingredients I have available. Or a small bowl of oatmeal.
Lots of options, some just take more effort.
I know what you mean though. I was running on a really tight budget last month, and I quickly grew very very bored with the fixings I had. Best of luck!

jacksonpt

Discipline and dedication.

Or jump on line and look for new recipes using the ingredients you have in the house.

aaa5810

I eat what I have until I can go to the store, and make note of what NOT to get a second time. That leaves room for new experiments. (see: rice with barbeque sauce and cheese, or banana with sweet potato)

sonny368

Drink tea and find out if you feel hungry because of boredom, in any case you can spent time to cook, look for some healthy recipe to try and give a try, anything from a new meat dish or even pasta if you want to cheat for a meal, anyway if you cheat ...throw yourself in exercising so you won't add up or store any fat...is worth it !!

TheArmadillo

I to make at least 2-3 new dinner recipes per week, occasionally on a busy week they might be old favourites but the lack of constant repetition stops me getting bored with them. Lunch recipes as well I spend a lot of time looking for new ideas and doing different things.

This week out of 5 dinners 4 are new recipes and the other is one we haven't had in about a year.

I use skinnytaste.com, bbcgoodfood.com and uktv.co.uk/goodfood sites as well as cookery books, recipes people link to, ideas based on menus I've seen and other people's meals, discussions with friends and colleagues.

I always have a good storecupboard with plenty of herbs and spices and basic meal ingredients. But it does take research and planning to a certain extent.

SuperstarDJ

Eggs!!! You can make an omelette and throw anything into it.

Shrelana

I keep Quaker Rice Snacks in the pantry. One of my favorite snacks was always potato chips (one serving is like 10 chips for 150 Calories of the ones I liked). The rice chips have the same number per serving, but because they're puffed rice, that number is also more filling, so it takes multiple sittings for me to eat a serving of these rather than one sitting to eat 3 or 4 servings of potato chips.

MelbourneBelle

Breakfast for dinner / dinner for breakfast!
Combine leftovers - mashed potato with pasta sauce, or one of my faves is a wrap filled with left over stiry fry or lentil dahl with lettuce and a little bit of cheese.
Chop things up into small pieces and use chop sticks to eat them.
Use different plates/bowls - salad in a bowl topped with grilled meat, or pasta you'd usually have in a bowl on a plate.

x_JT_x

There's a site called allrecipes.com that lets you key in an ingredients list of things you have or things you want to avoid and will come back with recipes based on those lists. It's a great site where folks can leave reviews for recipes they've tried and how they tweaked them to give you other ideas.

ETA: They also give you the nutrition info for most recipes as well.

jenilla1

...or even pasta if you want to cheat...

:sad: I eat pasta every day (my favorite food) and have never had a problem with losing or maintaining. In fact, I've been on maintenance forever and have basically been using MFP not for weight loss, but to track my macros (and make sure I'm getting the nutrients I need) for a digestive disorder that I have. I don't think pasta is the enemy if you eat reasonable amounts and you aren't insulin resistant. I highly recommend the high-fiber, whole-grain white pastas. They taste just like regular pasta. I had no idea I'd been cheating all these decades. I thought I was such a good girl... :sad:

kr1stadee

I look at what I have and then go online recipe searching. It's amazing the new ways you can find to prepare things. Plus all the surfing means less time thinking about how hungry you are

^^ this!

haroon_awan

Just keep a few cans of soup, beans, lentils or tuna in the cupboard that you save for times like this!