Tired of the same old thing!

A little expensive but sometimes I like to go to the fresh seafood section of the grocer and buy sea scallops, fresh shrimp, and/or lobster. Then I just sear it in a pan.

Have you ever tried zoodles? I make those quite often and sometimes put pesto over them or make a meat sauce whether I use beef or ground turkey and sometimes I'll even use ground chicken. You can make pork tenderloin, baked yams, roast squash, broccoli or even bake a potato and have a side salad with it. Just a few random ideas. I just started a whole another way of eating so I'm not really eating lean meats, definitely different from what I've ever done before.

Something I am currently doing: a cookbook challenge. If you have a cookbook (with healthy recipes or recipes that you can tweak to fit your caloric needs), try to cook every recipe out of it. Usually, they will differ from each other since the author wants to showcase what they/you can cook. I tend to find a few recipes that share ingredients and cook them in a row so it's easier/cheaper to buy stuff without wasting. And you don't have to cook every meal out of the book, of course, but it's fun to try new stuff. I am currently going through "The Oh She Glows Cookbook" by Angela Liddon and have found quite a few recipes I love and want to cook again, it also helps to find new combinations of ingredients that I can reuse in my own versions of the dish.

It was 90-ish today here, and I was sitting by the pool thinking how I was going to prep dinner tonight - based on boneless chicken breasts - and I had a sudden, "I can't eat another chicken breast this week!" moment appropriate to this message thread. You'd think that all the marinade-flavoring versions I use, this wouldn't be a problem, but it was today.

I'm also cheap, and wasn't going to shop to replace the on-hand chicken with something else.

So rather than doing the BBQ-grilled chicken I tentatively planned (typical, but good), I was inspired to grind the chicken and make grilled chicken patties. The store-bought ones are always tasteless slushy plops. This was my first attempt at grinding my own chicken. I often render cooked chicken in the food processor for chicken salad, but this was a first, being raw.

Mine were likewise a bit slushy until they cooked and got firm, but had good flavor. Here is a basic ingredient list (your times, amounts and etc. will vary):

- 3+ lbs boneless chicken breast, minced (I used my food processor, 10 1-second bursts on each pound, pre-cubed to about 1-1.5" sizes).
- 1/2 large red onion, minced in the food processor
- 2.5 large stalks of celery, minced in the food processor
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs as a binder (should have used more)
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- season to taste:
-- salt
-- black pepper
-- cayenne pepper
-- garlic powder
-- "poultry blend" herbs (I used Litehouse brand)
- mix thoroughly, but don't overdo it and make a mush mess.

This made 12 hefty burgers, taking 6-6-2-2 minutes (I'm a several-flips guy) on my grill to reach proper cooked temp. I have to post the recipe into MFP to get a macros approximation. I ate mine as-is, wife and daughter used BBQ sauce topping. I used my veggie-grilling plate inset for the patties, as they would have dripped between the grill rods. I minced the veggies and chicken separately in the food processor, as I was unsure of the chicken results.

For an improvisation, the result wasn't bad. If this looks similar to a chicken loaf recipe, I'd guess I'd admit they might be cousins, LOL. Fairly fast and easy, too.

There´s a yoytube channel called Mind over Munch

he posts really good healthy yummy recipes... check her out! She has everything

I just made Kung Pao Shrimp based on the recipe from http://chefsavvy.com/kung-pao-shrimp/ (minus one tbsp Kikkoman and plus one tbsp water for the sauce) and a couple other minor tweaks. With one third cup (uncooked) basmati and omitting peanuts, I came in at 486 calories. Really good... not boring... only drawback, lots of sodium but 10/10, will make again. Guten Appetit, Smacznego, and Enjoy

thewindandthework wrote: »

I don't have any recipe suggestions because I'm not really a recipe kind of person, but I can certainly tell you where most of my inspiration comes from.

It's the internet and markets, in conjunction. Here's what I do. ... Then I Google the interesting ingredients to get an idea of how they're used, and what flavors tend to be paired with them. I formulate a plan, gather whatever ingredients I don't have, and cook away.

Exactly! You'll be amazed the number of recipes for seeming strange combos there are out there. Just try searching a couple vegetables with the word 'recipe' and you are off to the races! Example? Google 'sweet potato red cabbage recipe.'

My grocery list is all chicken most of the time just need to try new things with it. There's tons I never get tired of chicken because all you can do with it.

I'll list my meals I've made this week

*Chicken alphabet soup
*Chicken and cheesy rice (with broccoli)
*Chicken Parmesan (a serving of pasta with tomato sauce usually doesn't break my bank and you can always bake your crusted chicken but I always fry in olive oil still)
*Chicken enchiladas(I don't fry my tortillas, I make the filling with chicken cheese sauce onions and roll in a warmed tortilla then put in a pan that has a layer of sauce on the bottom top with more sauce cheese black olives and chopped scallion and baked to melt cheese then top with shredded lettuce and lite sour cream)
*shish kabobs (made a marinade with soy sauce, brown sugar, pineapple orange juice, scallions, fresh ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes and blended the skewer with veggies I do onion, bell peppers, zucchini and mushrooms)
*Thai peanut chicken (its a package of breading I buy in the store and its to die for. It comes with a garlic sauce to coat the chicken then you bread it in this Thai peanut mixture and bake served with brown rice and broccoli)
*chicken panini(good bakery bread, chipotle mayo, avocado, cheese, sun dried tomato and shredded chicken then grilled)
*chicken parm lasagna(I have left over sauce and a box of lasagna noodles so why not)
*in n out burgers(idk who has had in n out on the west coast but I can make their burgers exactly)
*brisket rib tips(these are cheap and delicious and easy to cook)