Pre-cooked meal ideas - Help I suck at cooking!

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  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    Thanks everyone! I've got plenty of great ideas now for the weekend!
  • Dawn5202
    Dawn5202 Posts: 25 Member
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    Hello fello metro detroiter - I am in Roseville. I find that keeping all of my veggies washed and ready to go really helps. I also grill chicken breasts and then store in the fridge and toss with salads or other veggies for a quick stir fry. I also make rice (about 6 cups cooked) and then portion and reheat as needed. It keeps in the fridge for 5 - 6 days in a tightly sealed container. You can freeze cooked rice also and put it right into the microwave. We (my husband) makes big pots of vegetable beef soup and we eat it through the week. Good luck!
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    Hello fello metro detroiter - I am in Roseville. I find that keeping all of my veggies washed and ready to go really helps. I also grill chicken breasts and then store in the fridge and toss with salads or other veggies for a quick stir fry. I also make rice (about 6 cups cooked) and then portion and reheat as needed. It keeps in the fridge for 5 - 6 days in a tightly sealed container. You can freeze cooked rice also and put it right into the microwave. We (my husband) makes big pots of vegetable beef soup and we eat it through the week. Good luck!

    Thanks for the ideas! I should have time to try some of this stuff out over the weekend and see how it turns out.
  • becauseitdoes2
    becauseitdoes2 Posts: 1 Member
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    I have posted a recipe for Southwestern Vegetarian Chili..... it involves chopping an onion and opening 4 cans. Super delicious and 113 calories per cup!
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    So this morning I tried out a receipe from Dave Ruel's cookbook, a high protein blueberry oatmeal. Thought it was a little strange calling for 8 egg whites with such a small amount of other stuff. I followed the receipe to the tee, but it was horrible. Maybe I screwed something up, but I think it just had too many egg whites in it. I ate about 1/4 of it and then I just tossed it, it was too nasty.

    So I just made my own version of oatmeal using some oat bran, water, salt, cinnamon, and some blueberries. It was way better haha! Maybe I can try tossing a scoop of protein powder in there tomorrow and see how it tastes then.

    Going to try and make a different version of the protein bars I usually make. Going to add in some granola and other stuff. I have another recipe for some apple cinnamon muffins that's supposed to be low in fat and high in protein, so I might give that a shot too.
  • Krikit34
    Krikit34 Posts: 125 Member
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    Easy meal: Chicken breasts and a jar of salsa. Put in slow cooker for 6 hours. You can have meals for a few days. Either make with rice or noodles or whatever you want! I make it on weekends and have it for lunch or dinner for a few days.

    This^^^ Then
    --Chicken breast with a potato, veggies, salad...whatever

    Shred the rest and then make
    --Chicken tacos - top with traditional lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream; or for a twist top with sour cream, cilantro, tomato and a squeeze of lime; or with come cooked green peppers and onions like fajitas (add some cumin to the chicken when reheating for flavor, can also cook the onions/peppers with the chicken)
    --Chicken enchiladas - wrap in corn tortillas, top with enchilada sauce and cheese and bake til hot
    --Add to salads
    --Add to soups
    --Mix with mayo for chicken salad sandwich
    --Mix in BBQ sauce for a pulled chicken type sandwich
    --Reheat some chicken with a squeeze of lemon and some thyme. Mix some dill into an individual greek yogurt. Spread some yogurt on a pita and top with the chicken, sliced red onion, tomato, and feta cheese. (I also do this by shredding a deli rotisserie chicken.)
  • joepage612
    joepage612 Posts: 179 Member
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    for saving time i use frozen diet dinners . the low-cal brand. someone made them by hand somewhere, so thats hand made right? :)
    for saving time option 2 i use a pressure cooker. something that takes 1 hour to cook can be prepared in 15 minutes in them. the new kind are safe, believe me :)
  • Ideabaker
    Ideabaker Posts: 508 Member
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    I just made my own version of oatmeal using some oat bran, water, salt, cinnamon, and some blueberries. It was way better haha! Maybe I can try tossing a scoop of protein powder in there tomorrow and see how it tastes then.


    Way to go! Good cooking is all about preparing food to your own tastes... maybe you don't "suck" at cooking as much as you thought :). Keep experimenting with recipes and making them work for yourself. Soon you will have a personal repertoire of foods to batch cook!
  • ljnftw
    ljnftw Posts: 81 Member
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    Great idea IdeaBaker, I too do that all the time. But a peeler does a good job if your knife skills suffer and it is much cheaper (and safer then a mandolin.) I add mine to boiling water for 2-3 minutes MAX to cook through.

    I also make a very good low fat zucchini slaw that will have you not missing the cabbage.
  • ljnftw
    ljnftw Posts: 81 Member
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    cd,
    I have been told by many people that I am a very good cook and a very good teacher as well, but Detroit you are not quite in my evening driving distance.

    I have seen many good ideas out there but one thing I do is to cook up a large batch of whole grains, legumes, etc at a time. I then allow then to lay out on a sheet pan in the fridge to dry. Once they are dry to the point they do not stick I throw the sheet pan into the freezer to individually freeze (small clumps are OK.) I have a rice steamer and a rice setting on my microwave that allow me to doe this pretty painlessly.

    I cook up a few things in advance (like chicken or pork) but would never cook fish in advance.

    I do something called cutlet cooking.

    If you slice almost any meat thin enough and coat it in flour or breading (like panko,) add a sauce and it is delicious and easy and QUICK.

    Example is Pork Picatta. Thinly slice pork loin, bread with Italian seasoned flour, quickly sautee in olive oil a few pieces at a time, then make a sauce in the pan with lemon juice, white wine, capers, and garlic. Cooking time is under 10 minutes, why cook ahead.

    Similarly using chicken for Chicken Parm, fish with lemon butter, etc.

    Drop me a message if you want some ideas.
  • Caharleygirl
    Caharleygirl Posts: 109 Member
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    I really like the recipes and advice from www.organizeyourselfskinny.com

    She does a lot of freezer cooking and prepping for the week. Most of her recipes are tasty and easy to prepare. Some of the freezer stuff was too much work for me (I can't spend my whole day off cooking several different meals) but some worked out great...like:

    When cooking, always cook double or triple batches and freeze leftovers for another day. Cook a batch of chicken breasts and/or ground turkey for salads, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc...the list is endless. I always have some in the freezer. Also when making something like stuffed peppers, make up extra filling and freeze without the peppers, then you can assemble & cook real quick. Make up crockpot ready freezer bags so you can just dump in the crockpot real fast before leaving for work. You gotta get a crockpot!!!

    I do spend about an hour or so prepping my veggies after grocery shopping...I cut up a yellow onion, red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, celery, etc. I store them in small mason jars in a basket in the fridge...then I can just grab the basket out and sprinkle whatever I want on my salad or put in my recipe to cook up real fast and not have to spend any time chopping. They keep pretty well for the week except for the celery...it goes brown fast.

    Anyway, hope this helps you in some way...check out her website...and feel free to friend me if you like. :smile:
  • KHolladay36
    KHolladay36 Posts: 10
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    Crockpots are a good way to cook when you are short on time:
    My receipe for a good roast with very little sodium. Buy a roast (any will do), ask the butcher for a length of roast rope - free to tie the roast. Take it home and make slits in the roast about 1 in apart. Fill the openings with dried basil on both sides of the opening (about 2 tbsp per slit or more if desired), use the rope to retie the roast making sure that it is tight. Put in crock pot filled with water. Cook while you are at work. Once home, cut up potatoes, carrots and onions. By this time the roast will have shrunk, leaving room for the extras. Cook until soft. Dinner is served. Easy and little to do, leaving you time for other things. Even the most novice of cooks can do this one. My boyfriend absolutely loves it. (Of course, he is happy with anything that has meat in it), and for me, it is healthy since herbs do no contribute to sodium intake and makes food flavorful.
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    Thanks everyone for the ideas. I'll be referring to this thread a lot in the future!
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    Just tried a different version of my protein bars. Letting them cool and harden up a little in the fridge right, going to try one in a little bit. Here's what I used:

    Oats - 1 cup
    Granola - 1/2 cup
    Protein Powder (choc) - 4 scoops
    Peanut Butter - 4 tbsp
    Honey - 2 tbsp
    Skim Milk - 3/4 cup
    Whole Flax Seed - 1/4 cup
    Cocoa Powder - negligible amount

    Put everything into a big mixing bowl, then got my hands wet with cold water and mixed it all up with my bare hands. Smashed it all up into a big glob, then took small chunks, rolled it into a ball in my hands, then rolled it around on some wax paper I had laid out that I put some ground flaxseed meal on. Rolled the ball on the ground flaxseed meal until it was all coated, then shaped it into little rectangular bars (similar to a Clif Bar). Trust me, rolling it into a hot dog shape is not very appealing (think of pool scene in Caddyshack...doody doody!) Haha!

    Ended up making about 7 bars. Actually I made 6 bars and then 1 cookie. I stuck a few dark chocolate chips on top, using a dab of peanut butter to stick them on.

    I tried to get the figures for everything and it came out to the following for the entire batch:

    1600 calories
    140g protein
    46g fat

    So basically dividing that by 7 for 7 bars/cookies ends up equaling the following per bar:

    230 calories per bar
    20g protein per bar
    7g fat per bar

    I'll see how they taste and next time around I may try using a little less peanut butter and one more scoop of protein powder to up the protein content. That would put it up to around 25g of protein per bar. Pulling out some PB would keep the calories the same.

    Anyway, it's a fun and easy way to make your own protein bars. I've been making varieties like this for a couple years. Taste a lot better than store bought ones and are a lot healthier too (no refined sugars, no artificial sweetners, no preservatives, no sugar alcohols, etc) I always use Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Natural since it has no artificial stuff in it (they use stevia).

    Thought I'd share. Hopefully they'll taste as good as my other ones do!
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
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    Update: Just tried one of those protein bars and they taste awesome! The granola gives it a more crunchy texture and the peanut butter and honey really sweeten it up. Definitely one of the better batches of bars I've made in a while. Give it a shot!
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    I really like the recipes and advice from www.organizeyourselfskinny.com

    She does a lot of freezer cooking and prepping for the week. Most of her recipes are tasty and easy to prepare. Some of the freezer stuff was too much work for me (I can't spend my whole day off cooking several different meals) but some worked out great...like:

    When cooking, always cook double or triple batches and freeze leftovers for another day. Cook a batch of chicken breasts and/or ground turkey for salads, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc...the list is endless. I always have some in the freezer. Also when making something like stuffed peppers, make up extra filling and freeze without the peppers, then you can assemble & cook real quick. Make up crockpot ready freezer bags so you can just dump in the crockpot real fast before leaving for work. You gotta get a crockpot!!!

    I do spend about an hour or so prepping my veggies after grocery shopping...I cut up a yellow onion, red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, celery, etc. I store them in small mason jars in a basket in the fridge...then I can just grab the basket out and sprinkle whatever I want on my salad or put in my recipe to cook up real fast and not have to spend any time chopping. They keep pretty well for the week except for the celery...it goes brown fast.

    Anyway, hope this helps you in some way...check out her website...and feel free to friend me if you like. :smile:
    Store celery in water. When I get a bunch of celery home from the store I immediately cut off the bottom and wash the stalks then trim the tops. I have a long, narrow Tupperware container that I fill 1/2 full of water. The stalks go into the container and the lid goes on top. The stalks will keep for at least a week, often two, and they stay crunchy and green. You could, of course, chop the celery and just put water into the container you're using to store it up to the level of the celery.

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