So I need to change ALL my food choices...

6 oz of Chicken Breast prepared with any seasoning you want

2 servings or veggies
and a quarter cup of rice.

that's what I eat all the time.

baked potato! a monkey could cook it.

find a potato, rub it with a little salt and oil then wack it straight into the oven for an hour!

then choose a healthy topping I like tuna mixed with light mayo and spring onions, or cottage cheese with pineapple, or low fat coleslaw, or baked beans and a light sprinkling of cheese, or leftover chilli/ spag bol/ curry ANYTHING!

Places to find recipes:

www.SkinnyTaste.com
www.yummly.com
http://allrecipes.com/
http://www.snack-girl.com/
http://www.foodiefiasco.com/

My weekly grocery list looks something like this:
bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, 1/2 green cabbage, green beans, broccoli, carrots, (lettuce & cucumber if I feel like salads), chicken, eggs, skim milk, greek yogurt, apples, strawberries (in season, frozen if not), pineapple (in season, canned w/ no added sugar).

My monthly (every 6 weeks) grocery list adds the following:
Ground Beef, steak or potroast, turkey lunchmeat (low sodium), potatoes, protein powder, coconut milk (unsweetened), brown rice, black bean burgers.

I buy other stuff too... but it's mostly for the kids, or for myself but less frequently.

What do I make with all these goodies?
First off, I cook several chicken breasts at a time (in the oven at 350, until done). I eat what I want for my meal, then dice up the rest and put in individual snack sized zipper bags. I specifically portion these out at 80g, 90g, & 100g quantities.

Ground Beef. I brown the whole package (usually buy at cost-co). Then I portion out 1/2 pound and 1 pound "recipe quantites" to have available for cooking with later on. I package some of the ground beef in 60g & 70g packages for individual meals too.

Both the pre-cooked meats are invaluable for making quick dinners for just me. (I have a family of 4, but I don't always subject them to my healthy eating habits :laugh:) After packaging them in the small ziploc packages, I put them in larger gallon freezer bags, and toss in the freezer for later.

Eggs. I love making omlette's. If you don't know how to do that, then do egg scrambles with diced veggies.

Brown rice takes forever to cook. So, cook a batch, and portion it out into servings, and freeze in those snack size zipper bags too!

Veggies: I use these most often in basic soups, stirfrys, & omlettes.. or just steamed or raw with my meal.

Basic stir-fry: heat up 1/2 tsp oil and some minced garlic in a pan. Add diced veggies (2-3 c total) and saute (cook stirring often) until the veggies are tender, sometimes I need to add a little chicken broth (a splash) to get the veggies to soften faster. Add a serving of chicken or ground beef and cook until the meat is hot. Maybe a few hot-red pepper flakes, and a little soy sauce (to taste). Put a frozen portion of rice onto a plate, and warm it up in the microwave. Once your dinner is done cooking, add it to the rice, and you are done!

Another favorite, that you don't actually need a recipe for is veggie soup. Again, take a bunch of veggies... all that you like, and dice. Cook them in the soup pot with a little oil & garlic until softened (watch the onion to go translucent). Add 2-3 cups of chicken broth and and equal amount of water. Bring to boil, then simmer for at least 30-45 minutes. Portion the soup into the "disposable gladware type containers," for single servings. Then when you are ready to eat, add what type of protein you would like along with the bowl of soup and you have a basic meal. Adding rice, or cooked pasta, or even cheese is yummy too.

Good Luck!

I saw your last post, don't listen to the A-holes! look at nutrition labels, and if you don't have much experience cooking i'm guessing you don't have good cooking tools, invest in some of these and life will be easier. Use your day off to make your own frozen meals (cooked whole wheat penne noodles and vegetarian pasta sauce, chopped garlic onion and parsley and shred some of your own good quality romano cheese is easy and microwaves amazingly for a five minute fix). Also find some recipes for pretend bad food to make the transition easier, for example: frozen banana puree, with .5tbs peanut butter=peanut butter ice cream at around 200 cal and 0 guilt. Its something you can pig out on, and still feel okay because hey its fruit!. Invest in spices and go for some in season vegetables, roma tomatoes with a tiny bit of mayo on toast is an excellent breakfast, beets or sweet potato sautéed in 1tsp olive oil with salt and pepper is also easy as crap, let it crisp a little and don't cover the sweet potatoes. Again, invest in spices! I would recommend buying dried for the beginner, because using raw garlic onions and herbs can be intimidating.

by far the best advice i can give you is that its hard to change your diet in one day or one week, don't feel bad if you need to fix a craving, do it! just think it through beforehand without beating yourself up about it. I used to have horrible evil cravings for cheese balls and onion rings, which continued until I started eating better and eventually disappeared. Don't buy anything you don't want to eat for groceries. I personally love ice cream cones, but if I want one I will have to walk two miles back to the grocery store before I can have it.

good luck!

Anyone can learn to cook basic meals of meat or fish and vegetables along with some starch (like bread, pasta, rice)....either all separated or mixed together is a stew or stir fry.

It's great to make a big pot of vegetable soup with beans , or a skillet full of tomatoes, peppers, onions, pasta and ground beef or turkey. Eat some now and put the rest in the fridge for the next day.

You could watch some cooking shows to get familiar with cooking terms, techniques, and utensils.


You could borrow a basic cookbook from the library(or buy a used one in a thrift store, on Ebay, or Amazon). Betty Crocker comes to mind and a fairly comprehensive and simple one. Spend some time reading the general information as well as the recipes.

It's fine to use some of the boxed ready to fix products too. Read the labels and know what you are eating.


There was a thread on here a couple of days ago about what people keep stocked in their kitchen which might help you with your shopping list.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/809638-things-you-must-have-in-fridge

Other responses have given you some basic directions and recipes. So experiment and have fun. Fixing food is fun, it feels good to feed yourself healhty food.

Good, easy quick snack: An apple and an individually wrapped portion of cheese or 15g of nuts

Tomato sauce- good with chicken or beans: 1 tin plum or chopped tomatoes, 1tsp olive oil, a couple of cloves of garlic or an onion, dried spice or herb of your choice (roughly 1/2tsp), squeeze of lemon juice. Chop the garlic or onion finely, heat oil in pan, sautee onion/garlic until soft, add tomatoes and herbs/spices, simmer for 1.5 hours. Squeeze in some lemon juice. Adaptations: Add vegetables (carrots, celery, peppers~)of your choice, either finely chopped with the onion/garlic or roughly chop them, add at same time as tomatoes and blend til smooth when fully cooked.

Roast a chicken: Heat oven to 200C. Cut an orange, a lemon or a lime into quarters, stuff into the chicken cavity. Turn chicken upside down and place directly onto oven rack. Place a roasting tin with a little water in on the shelf below the shelf the chicken is on. Roast for 20-25 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes. Use white meat for meals, brown meat for sandwiches and carcass to make soup.

Chicken soup- place chicken carcass in cold water with an onion, a carrot and stick of celery (all finely chopped). Bring to boil and simmer for 1 hour. Let cool. Bring to boil again, strain, discard bones and vegetables and simmer again to reduce a little. Add pulses and vegetable of your choice (add a little reserved chicken meat if you like).

This way a chicken does 4-6 meals.

Brown lean ground meat and add the tomato sauce above. Serve with wholewheat pasta. Add chilli and beans for a chilli, serve with rice.

Omelette- good breakfast item or easy lunch/supper. Whisk 2-3 eggs (or your choice of whole egg/egg white combination) season with black pepper. Wipe a pan with a little olive oil or use an olive oil spray. Heat pan. Add eggs. Cook until set. Add your choice of cheese, cooked meats, cooked vegetables. Fold omelette over, slide onto plate and enjoy.

bump i wanted recipes lol

Bump....so many good ideas here!

Experiment. Cooking is great fun.

All of my recipes are here. Most are high protein but some are higher carb for my refeed days. You can see the macros anyway.
http://tinyurl.com/8435c82

This channel has some great easy stuff IMO
http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelKoryFitness/videos?view=0

Something Super easy for Breakfast or Lunch and cheap to make

Crustless Broccoli or Spinach Quiche

4 large eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. diced onion
1 c. light shredded cheese of your choice
2 c. cooked broccoli or spinach
salt and pepper

Wisk together the eggs and the milk, spices. You can use 8x8 pan or even muffin tin to make smaller portions. Spray Pans with spray oil well. Layer bottom with broccoli or the spinach and onion. Spread 1/2 c. of that light shredded cheese evenly. Then pour the milk and egg mixture on top. Then lastly spread the rest of the cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 1 hr. It will be done when the cheese on top is golden and when you take a toothpick and insert it in the middle and it comes out clean.

This recipe is great to freeze. You can make quiche muffins out of it and they taste good in the microwave the next day too. Good protein and very basic

Everyone has time to cook. It's all about priorities. Not having time to cook is just another excuse we make to keep being unhealthy.

Take a few cooking classes. Look for recipes with ingredients you like and alter them to make the recipe healthier. Get a crockpot - you don't need to know how to cook... basically throw a bunch of stuff in the morning and you have dinner for a week.

First of all I doubt you need to change ALL your food choices. And you're insane if you think you can completely change every single thing you eat in one day. :flowerforyou: Start by changing a few things. If you never cook from scratch start by cooking non-processed foods like twice a week. Work your way up in baby steps. Try a few new things and then when you're more comfortable try a few more new things. Looks like you got a few good ideas here to get you started!

Bump

Honestly, I have four recipes that I use to make just about everything I eat. If you need an idea for seasonings, I find that a mix of garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper works good for just about anything from seasoning bread crumbs to sprinkling directly on poultry.

1. Baked chicken
-Put chicken parts on a foil-lined baking sheet
-Season or brush with marinade or bread
-Bake at 350F for an hour

2. Chicken breast
-Cut chicken breast into pieces
-Marinate or bread
-Put on a foil-lined baking sheet
-Bake at 350F for half an hour

3. Red meat of any kind
-Place meat in a foiled line, deep baking pan
-Drizzle with soy sauce and garlic powder
-Broil until desire level of doneness.

4. Breaded, fried anything (chicken breast, turkey breast, veal cutlet, fish)
-Beat an egg in a shallow bowl
-Create bread crumb mixture in a wide plate
-Dip first in egg mixture, then in bread crumb mixture
-Add to fry pan and cook on one side until crumbs are browned
-Flip and cook for a few more minutes
-Note: Fish needs a slightly lower flame than meat