Easiest, no-thought-involved Lean & Green meals?
PippaJo_
Posts: 233 Member
I am just about to put in my first MF order, but I've got to say - the thought of the L&G is kind of scaring me.
How silly, you say.
But what you have to understand is - I don't cook. Not if I can help it. I *loathe* cooking and food prep, in general. It's actually stressful for me.
Right now, not on MF (or even tracking atm, truth be told), I eat based totally on convenience. Two of the most-often-made meals around my house are spaghetti (boil water, insert noodles, drain, dump on jarred sauce, done), and rice-and-beans (microwave instant rice, open a can of chili beans, dump and stir, maybe add shredded cheese on top).
Sometimes even that much food prep is beyond me, so I slap some peanut butter on some bread and throw in a banana, or have toast with peanut butter and applesauce. For most lunches, it's a can of ready-to-eat soup. Seriously, no thought or work involved.
Trouble is....I won't be able to eat a peanut butter sandwich as a last-ditch dinner backup for a L&G. :-(
So my question is - what are your *absolute EASIEST* L&G meals? What do you make when you can barely drag yourself through the door at the end of the day, and would almost rather go straight to bed than eat?
I would prefer something that doesn't require a lot of forethought - for example, if I come home thinking that chicken sounds good, I'm still screwed, because it didn't sound good at 7am, therefore I neglected to take any out of the freezer. :-P
Also - I don't actually know HOW to cook meat...not really. I'm totally unskilled in that area. I grew up vegetarian, and though I've eaten meat for many years, I generally eat it in restaurants, not at home. So by 'easy', please understand that even attempting to cook meat, or make a recipe with lots of ingredients or steps, requires a lot more thought and energy from me than I would imagine it does for many people.
I will probably eventually make the attempt to get 'fancy' with the occasional L&G, but I really, REALLY need a handful of super-simple, idiot-proof meals that I can start with, otherwise I'm afraid that I'll find that it takes more energy than I have, and I won't stick with it.
Any suggestions?
How silly, you say.
But what you have to understand is - I don't cook. Not if I can help it. I *loathe* cooking and food prep, in general. It's actually stressful for me.
Right now, not on MF (or even tracking atm, truth be told), I eat based totally on convenience. Two of the most-often-made meals around my house are spaghetti (boil water, insert noodles, drain, dump on jarred sauce, done), and rice-and-beans (microwave instant rice, open a can of chili beans, dump and stir, maybe add shredded cheese on top).
Sometimes even that much food prep is beyond me, so I slap some peanut butter on some bread and throw in a banana, or have toast with peanut butter and applesauce. For most lunches, it's a can of ready-to-eat soup. Seriously, no thought or work involved.
Trouble is....I won't be able to eat a peanut butter sandwich as a last-ditch dinner backup for a L&G. :-(
So my question is - what are your *absolute EASIEST* L&G meals? What do you make when you can barely drag yourself through the door at the end of the day, and would almost rather go straight to bed than eat?
I would prefer something that doesn't require a lot of forethought - for example, if I come home thinking that chicken sounds good, I'm still screwed, because it didn't sound good at 7am, therefore I neglected to take any out of the freezer. :-P
Also - I don't actually know HOW to cook meat...not really. I'm totally unskilled in that area. I grew up vegetarian, and though I've eaten meat for many years, I generally eat it in restaurants, not at home. So by 'easy', please understand that even attempting to cook meat, or make a recipe with lots of ingredients or steps, requires a lot more thought and energy from me than I would imagine it does for many people.
I will probably eventually make the attempt to get 'fancy' with the occasional L&G, but I really, REALLY need a handful of super-simple, idiot-proof meals that I can start with, otherwise I'm afraid that I'll find that it takes more energy than I have, and I won't stick with it.
Any suggestions?
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Replies
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Is cost an issue?
If not, your local grocery should have pre-packaged salads in several flavors. A medium sized one of those is a perfect L&G.
However, it's way cheaper to make your own salads. Twice a week to the store to get lettuce + whatever other veggies you like. And if you don't want to cook meat, you can get precooked chicken strips or something.
Also will recommend the Morningstar & Boca patties. They cook up super quick (5 min on skillet) and are quite tasty.0 -
Cost is an issue to a degree - I mean, I can't go grab a restaurant meal every night, ha ha.
The other trouble is that I live in the relative boonies - my local grocery stores are the 'just the basics, ma'am' type...they aren't likely to stock pre-made salads. (And even so, what about the 'lean' part of that?)
Pre-cooked chicken strips? I'm not sure I've seen those....where would I look? Frozen section, or fresh...?
Ah yes, the veggie-meat patties. Thank you! Those may become a staple. Thanks!0 -
Sounds like you need to change some of these habits so that you can focus on health in order to lose the weight and live a healthy lifestyle. All that pre cooked stuff is just not a good idea. Its okay in a pinch here or there like picking up a a rotissirie chicken or using canned chicken, but really, its best to just prep it yourself. This way you are avoiding all the sodium and fat.
Do you have a crockpot?
I go to the store once a week and buy all my turkey and chicken, some shrimp and my salad goodies.
Go to your grocery store and go to the fresh meat section..........pick up a bunch of boneless skinless chicken breasts, a few packages of ground turkey, and one boneless turkey breast, one bag of frozen shrimp.
Then go to the produce and pick up a few bags of salad(not the premade stuff that comes with dressing and croutons). Get some cucumber, tomato, green onion, anything else you like in your salad that is on plan.
Aside from roasting the turkey that will take about 90 mins, you can have most meals on the table in 15 mins by just cooking it up and serving it over a big salad. easy peasy.0 -
Yep, I know I need to change some habits. But I also am realistic, and I know that it's not going to happen instantly, or perfectly right away.
I need a few basic fall-back meals, so that there's less likelihood of me, in a moment of stress and exhaustion, going 'that's too freaking hard tonight, where's the bread and peanut butter?' I intend to make some changes, and I'm going to work on implementing them, but I know it won't be easy for me, so I'd like to not make it harder, especially right off the top.
I do have a crock pot - I'm not well-versed in using it, though I've probably used it more in the past six months than in the previous fifteen years. Which isn't saying much, LOL! If there are some good simple crockpot L&Gs, I would *love* to hear about them.
There's a 'fresh meat section'? Ha ha, I had no idea. Although honestly, I'm not sure my local grocery has one. There are two grocery stores in town, and one is vegetarian, with a natural foods section. The other one is small-town basics.
I don't do shrimp.....ugh, have tried it, and it's about the grossest thing ever. Yuck! I'm also not that worried about sodium and fat. Carbs seem to be the real problem, especially for me, so that's why Medifast is appealing to me - low-carb, higher protein than I'm easily able to manage on my own.0 -
A lot of my clients will spend one afternoon a week prepping food for the week. So they will grill a bunch of chicken, roast a turkey and slice it, so that it is handy dandy for the busy week.
Tonight I put 4 frozen chicken breasts in my crockpot with a can of tomatoes, some garlic, and some Italian seasoning. Will have a large salad with it. May even cut the chicken up and put it in the salad. You can do this and leave out the tomatoes and instead add some Franks hot sauce.
Just be sure to to keep track of your calories, and carbs so that you stay in the fat burning state which the program is designed to do. You don't want to exceed 100 carbs or go over 1000 calories.0 -
Good crock pot idea - how long would I cook something like that for? (I told you I have basically no kitchen skills, LOL.)
Also, tomatoes are on-plan? For some reason, I thought they weren't.....need to go read again, apparently!0 -
I cook on low for 6-8 hours. Yes, tomatoes are on plan, you can refer to your QuickStart guide, they are a higher carb containing approved veggie 1/2 cup equals one veggie serving -YAY!
Tonight, I have a boneless, skinless turkey breast (honeysuckle, purchased frozen from the frozen meat dept) that I will rinse, and roast for about 90 mins with some garlic pepper on it. Simple!0
