Help!!

minime0424
minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So my husband and I do a lot of fish, lean beef, and chicken when I'm in the mood for it lol. I would like to start doing more flavorful meals, but can't seem to find recipes that I have the time for does anyone have any low calorie, flavorful, healthy and not a ton of time consuming dinner recipes you wouldn't mind sharing?? I really would like to up my veggie intake as well so any recipes that have asparagus, broccoli, carrots, baby tomatoes or my fave water chestnuts please feel free to share!!

Replies

  • AlabamaMama224
    AlabamaMama224 Posts: 137 Member
    Stir fry sounds ideal. I would prep veggies on weekends so this way all you have to do it pop them into the pan. Serve over rice or wrap it in tortillas. I do similar, but without the meat. Garlic and ginger are great as seasonings.
  • minime0424
    minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
    Thank you for the idea!! We do love stir frys so I will probably start doing those more often!! ;)
  • emx5
    emx5 Posts: 5 Member
    Personally I love curries! Then you also have a sauce for rice or noodles. You can stretch a jar of curry sauce really far I've found. Marinades for meats are one of our go-tos as well.
  • minime0424
    minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
    I enjoy curries as well, but my husband is not a fan lol that's another huge issue I have is he is super super picky lol lol but I appreciate the tip ;)
  • dsouldiva
    dsouldiva Posts: 6 Member
    edited August 2016
    We make loads of curries which are great for flavour and packing in the veggies - they only take about 30 minutes . Your basic spices are 1 tbls of Turmeric, Coriander, Cumin, chili powder, mustard seeds and garam masala. fry off an onion, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tbls of chopped ginger in 1 tbls of coconut oil for a couple of minutes then add 10-15 cherry tomatoes. After about 5/10 minutes squish the cherry tomatoes to free the juices from them, Then add your veggies. You can bulk it up with spinach/courgettes/chickpeas/cauliflower/lentils/carrots/broccoli/green beans/peppers/sweet potato etc etc, add about 250ml water to cook. If you want you can add meat (chicken or turkey work well), fish (salmon and cod work well) or prawns - if you're adding meat/fish add it at the start, prawns - chuck them in at the end and cook for about 10 minutes
  • minime0424
    minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
    Thank you for the idea!! ;)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited August 2016
    Hot tip: Don't look for "low calorie" meals, because the flavor often is in the calories, and we have to eat enough of them anyway. Vegetables need fat to go down and for the nutrition in them to be absorbed. The trick is appropriate portions. Appropriate portions of good food is also more enjoyable than large amounts of boring food. Almost any recipe can be tweaked both in time/labor/intricacy and ingredients - the art of cooking is to find flavors that go together, experiment, have fun, make mistakes. A wider variety of foods/ingredients provides better nutrition, as well as more enjoyment at the table, and flexibility when you shop, and makes it easier to stick to the allotted calories.

    All my dinners are simple, but I get in lots of vegetables, taste, nutrition and variety. I have root vegetables in my soups (often blended with immersion blender); I dump things like onions, garlic, peppers, squash, carrots, celery, mushrooms, olives, canned tomatoes, beans into casseroles like spaghetti and chili; I boil asparagus, rutabaga, artichokes; oven roast brussel sprouts and parsnips; peas and green beans just need defrosting and heating in the oven after meat/fish is done. Raw vegetables with the other meals.

    I have a weekly dinner rotation plan: Monday - soup+dessert or casserole, Tuesday: chicken or pork, Wednesday: leftovers from Monday, Thursday: salmon or herring, Friday: anything (new recipes, meals that don't fit other categories, often stir-fry, or takeaway, readymeals), Saturday: cheese on toast (filled with pickles and onion), pancakes or pizza (and a veg on the side), Sunday: beef or lamb. Sides are mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes, rice, barley, grilled ear of corn; vegetables as described above.

    ETA:Maybe you will get even more help if you ask he mods to move this to the "recipes" section.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
    edited August 2016
    You might like the SkinnyTaste blog or cookbooks. Many of her recipes come together quickly, and there are a lot of lightened-up recipes that don't go crazy replacing everything with low or no fat versions of ingredients. Lots of seasonal recipes as well!
  • minime0424
    minime0424 Posts: 101 Member
    Awesome!! Thank you for the tip!! I will check it out :)
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    AlabamaMama224 wrote: »
    Stir fry sounds ideal. I would prep veggies on weekends so this way all you have to do it pop them into the pan. Serve over rice or wrap it in tortillas. I do similar, but without the meat. Garlic and ginger are great as seasonings.

    Stir frys are so easy. I buy the big bag of frozen stir fry veggies at Costco (it has water chestnuts in it, too). Frozen veggies are usually more nutritious than fresh especially if you're going to buy them days before you use them, and they already spent time in shipping and sitting on the shelf at the store.

Categories