Ideas for People Who Don't Cook or Barely Do

I roast vegetables on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil. You could use a nonstick baking sheet if you don't want to need oil to keep them from sticking. I even make things that are supposed to be done on the stove, like cauliflower fried rice, in the oven. It's easier to clean up.

If money isn't an issue, most grocery stores should have ready made meals. The HEB I go to has something called Perfect Fit my sister seems to like.

Frozen meals are also an option like stated earlier. Aside from some water retention, and outside of certain medical conditions, sodium shouldn't be an issue.

If you want to try your hand at cooking, slowcooker, pressure cooker, and oven recipes are the way to go.

Ecrivaine32 wrote: »

My biggest weight loss issue has to do with the fact that I usually dine out and barely know much that I can cook. Any healthy ideas that you've learned or would care to share?

Put some chicken in a slow cooker. Cook 8 hours on low. Shred the cooked chicken. Use in multiple dishes like pasta, soup, casseroles, sandwiches, salads.
Mix cooked meat with barbeque sauce, buffalo sauce, salad dressing, or salsa and put on bread or a tortilla for a sandwich or wrap.
Add canned black beans (drained), cooked chicken or tuna, salsa, baby spinach, cheese, avocado and put in a tortilla.
Quick thin crust pizza- use a tortilla, pita, or naan and spread with sauce, top with cheese and other toppings. Bake 350 F for 10 minutes.
Hard boil some eggs. Add to salads. Make egg salad sandwich. Eat plain. Make deviled eggs.
Baked potato topped with things like chilli , cheese, broccoli.
Grilled sandwiches.

Ecrivaine32 wrote: »

My biggest weight loss issue has to do with the fact that I usually dine out and barely know much that I can cook. Any healthy ideas that you've learned or would care to share?

Learn all you can about nutrition....calories etc for the places you eat in.Even if you don't cook,you can still track your food.

I do not cook a lot so I use and Love the app Yummly. I filter and pick out recipes that have few ingredients and it gives you nutritional info.
Supermarkets now have great to go snacks in produce and it's nothing to roll a wrap with any meat, cheese & tortilla or bfst burrito. Great to eat in the go!

Okay okay I got chu fam. Like this is/was my biggest challenge also. So lemme tell you what I do to cope with it.

I bought a rice cooker the Aroma 8-cup to be exact, BAM you get a rice cooker, you got Lentils and Rice every day. What are they? Some of the best foods you can eat with like zero effort and price. 40g Protein, 80g Carbohydrates 44g fiber, a 640 calorie meal i eat every day.

GREEK YOGURT. bam you got an amazing desser/snack, add a serving of peanut butter BAM you got a 300 calorie meal.

Frozen foods. I started out eating frozen burritos, now I eat hot pockets. I put it on top of some spring mix and bam you got some crazy 320 calorie salad. Just make sure to count your calories.

Just remember that no food is inherently "unhealthy" or "healthy". If it fits your macros, it fits your diet.

Also invest in a food scale. I use it ALL the time even though all I do is weigh rice, yogurt, and peanut butter. LOL.

There's a burrito sauce?

In the burrito dinner kits.

My latest trick is the Tyson Grilled and Ready chicken breast pieces in the freezer section. I think they have strips too. 100 cal for 84g and that's a decent amount of chix to make quick chicken salad or roll up in a tortilla with veggies and have a quick wrap. I add it to canned soups and stir fry - add at the end of cooking since it only has to thaw out and warm up. I am loving having the chicken cooked and cut up already since my schedule is hectic right now. Sometimes I use 2 weighed servings of it for a bigger meal. The chicken seems pricey until you realize how many meals you can get out of it. Weighed portions have meant 5 or 6 meals so far and I have a little left still.

My favorite stir-fry right now is whatever veggies I want, usually bell pepper chunks, something green like asparagus, Brussel sprouts, green beans, etc and anything else veggie low calorie like cauliflower chunks - whatever you like, to make it a big bowl of food. Sometimes I add 1/2 serving of frozen pineapple chunks too. I like spice so a pinch of red pepper flakes then I use 1 or 2 servings of the Target brand (market pantry I think?) General Tso sauce - it's the lowest calorie one I've found - way lower than others. I cook the veggies until tender then add the chicken when i add the sauce and warm through - but don't cook for too long. The meal turns out so delicious and low calorie and I definitely don't miss take out when I have this. I also sometimes use a little bottled peanut sauce instead.

Easy Taco Salad: Bag salad, crushed corn chip, a little cheddar cheese, salsa and the healthiest low sodium can of chili you can find. Just assemble the salad. Warm the chili and top your salad.

Sheet Pan Suppers: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qp8Tc4ncJgI the fajitas are good and you can buy pre-cut veggies if you like.

This is easy. The hard part is minced garlic and ginger but sometimes you can buy that in a jar or tube. soupspiceeverythingnice.blogspot.com/2013/12/inside-out-egg-roll-re-post.html

Just made this last night it was simple too and delicious!. frugalnutrition.com/orange-ground-chicken-rice-bowls/ Again garlic and ginger hopefully you can buy in a tube. Or buy a microplane and you can grate it right into the pan. I cooked the rice and broccoli in the microwave. 1 cup long grain white rice, 2 cups water in 1-1/2 qt casserole covered with paper towel and lid on high 5 minutes and medium for 15. Cut broccoli into florets or buy pre-cut, wash place in another casserole with a splash of water(1/4 cup) covered and microwave on high 5 minutes.

I hate cooking so I agree with everyone who recommended a crock pot. I can put chicken and salsa in the pot and it is done when I get home from work. You can make burritos, tacos, put over microwave instant rice etc... I also use my toaster oven a lot to make pizza on pita bread. I only use the oven to bake corn tortillas for tostadas. Otherwise I make pasta (lentil or bean for the protein), or I do eggs for dinner. If it contains a ton of ingredients or takes a long time I'm not making it LOL. Find what works for you by experimenting. You can throw chicken breast, sauce of your choice and canned beans etc... In the crock pot, find what you like

Google "4 ingredient recipes" and you'll find some stuff with minimal ingredients, mostly not hard to make.

Or you can assemble simple stuff into a good meal:
- roast chicken from the supermarket, salad in a bag, add some cheese and hot sauce and tortillas and you have tacos.
- wholegrain sandwich with chicken or ham and sliced tomatoes, baby spinach leaves and something for flavour (hot sauce, mustard, fruit chutney etc)
- my favourite lunch (just finished it five minutes ago): brown rice (rice cookers are magic, or buy it already cooked. Use white rice if you prefer), supermarket coleslaw (no dressing, jut the veggies), half a can of Sirena tuna with chilli. I don't add any dressing because the tuna is already spicy and delicious.
- use ready made soup as a sauce for ravioli or tortellini from the supermarket. Boil the pasta in water, add some veggies for the last 2-3 mins (broccoli, red capsicum strips, for example). Drain the pasta, get rid of the water, put the pasta, veg and soup back in the pan and heat it up until the soup is hot. Adding the veg gives you more volume and nutrition than the pasta alone.
- Do you have a barbeque? Learn to cook steak or pork fillets on the barbie and serve it with some ready made salad.

Once you start using these recipes everyone has suggested akways make a doubke or triple batch then freeze. You can always make your pasta, rice, couscous or quinoa fresh or freeze that in separate portions so you can mix and match. Get a few friends together and have some bevvies, laughs and cook away.

When you have a little time go ahead and bake several chicken breasts or whole chicken to use later in the week. There are several online sites of what to do with precooked chicken. Example: Chicken Taco's, Chicken Salad, Soup, Pizza etc. The more prep done ahead of time the easier meal time will be.

Stir-fry can be simple, easy, and quick. Make a few messes learning how to do it and you'll be fine.