Quickly Made Foods to Prevent Eating Out? Suggestions?

Meal prep! I just make everything on Sunday, enough to last my fiance and I the rest of the week. We just pull meals out of the fridge and microwave.

Here are some of my faves:
- Teriyaki chicken with fried rice and steamed broccoli
- Butter chicken with spiced basmati rice and roasted butternut squash
- Chili
- Beef stew
- Soup (lots of different kinds)
- Spinach, ham and cheese quiche
- Mason jar salads
- Greek yogurt bowl with berries, honey and granola

I don't skimp on flavour and I choose good recipes, so all the dishes I make are freaking delicious (not to toot my own horn) so I don't miss eating out much. We might eat fast food/restaurant food once or twice a month.

Cook up some chicken, beans, quinoa, hard boiled eggs and roast some veggies on the weekend. Turn into a burrito wrap with cheese and salsa or eat minus the wrap with your favorite low calorie sauce (BBQ, salsa, soy, teryaki etc). Or turn into a Tex Mex style salad with lettuce as your base.

My other favorite is Greek yogurt over frozen berries with raisin bran or similar on top. No reason why you can't eat this for dinner!

I second a lot of other people on here, meal prep is a life saver. For breakfast I’ll pre-make Greek yogurt with fruit and cinnamon and put my dry toppings in little containers so they’re ready to go. For lunch I’ll do tuna a lot of the time with hummus mixed in and eat that with some vegetables. And for dinner I’ll cook a batch of tilapia or chicken and eat that through the week with baked frozen vegetables since I get out of work late and don’t feel like cooking (and I don’t want to be tempted to pick up fast food). And I weigh out all my snacks for the week and put them in little baggies, like trail mix and nuts, then have a fruit to go with that. Feel free to add me, you might get some ideas.

You know, I used to order out a lot because, like you described, "The issue: when I’m really hungry/in a rush/don’t have energy to cook up a storm, I turn to take out veggie burgers or frozen foods." ... and then I woke up.

The reality is that it took longer to order out and either go pick it up or wait to have it delivered than it did to cook something quickly at home, or to pull something out of the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer and zap what needed cooking in the microwave. Or chop up some vegetables and lightly cook them in a skillet and plop in a couple of eggs to make a meal.

Yes, sometimes I had to drink a glass of water or milk to hold me over that 10 to 20 minutes it took to cook ... or to chomp on a celery stalk or carrot.

PS ... most of my meals are cooked in under 30 minutes. When I have the inclination and the time I cook up something that takes a couple of hours or longer and divide it up into servings to store in the fridge or freezer to reheat as needed. ...

Would it help to stock your fridge with hard-boiled eggs? Or your freezer with frozen veggies that you can then quickly cook? I think that eating healthy starts at the grocery store - and there are definitely healthier options that are still fast. Banana and peanut butter comes to mind. Or my personal weird favorite: a microwave-baked potato with salsa and a sprinkling of cheese (no butter, no sour cream, and no need for salt). When I had more energy I used to make my own veggie burgers. I controlled what went into them, so I knew how healthy they were, and since they didn't usually hold together well anyhow I had no problem eating them over rice, dark green veggies, or couscous.

Machka9 wrote: »

"Lizardybits wrote: »

Or my personal weird favorite: a microwave-baked potato with salsa and a sprinkling of cheese (no butter, no sour cream, and no need for salt).

Not weird at all. Here in Australia, there's a "fast food" chain that sells baked potatoes with toppings of your choice on them.
https://spudbar.com.au/#menu

Prior to my first visit to Australia, I was under the mistaken impression that baked potatoes only came with butter, sour cream (which I detest), and salt.

I went to one of these potato bars, and it was a whole new world for me! Now my husband and I have baked potatoes with a bit of cheese and garlic, topped with a flavoured tuna or chicken, and salad or diced tomato or something. That's among my favourite meals.


And hard boiled eggs on wholegrain toast is good too, especially with a side salad or sliced tomatoes or something.

Love baked potatoes! A few of my favorite combos

chopped roasted broccoli and turkey chili
wilted spinach with roasted tomato and garlic, cottage cheese
fire roasted peppers, jalapeño, grilled onion, chicken, cheddar

Also echoing others to say boiled eggs! (Soft boiled is my favorite -- 4 minutes). I boil 7 at a time and I eat them throughout the week (they usually only last me 4 days!).

I also love steaming a big pot of vegetables at the beginning of the week. You can eat them next to a can of tuna, sardines, beans/rice. No special steamers or anything -- I use a pot of boiling water and a steel colander that fits in the pot w/lid.

And nuts! I've often eaten 400-500 calories of nuts for dinner. No regrets. Delicious, nutritious, and no stomach issues afterwards. Almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios... the choices are endless!

And I support you fully in your quest to choose healthy foods. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be diligent in your choice of foods. You know your limits. I, like you, prefer to focus on healthier foods rather than simply fitting it into a calorie goal. Many processed foods are addictive, and I've been victim to the addictive qualities! My lifestyle fares much better without them.

I also second another commenter above who said that a glass of water/cucumber/a few almonds can tide you over when hunger is high in those last minute preparation periods while you whip up a last minute healthy meal.
Godspeed!

Maybe look for better frozen options to have on hand if that's something easy for you.

Think about cooking enough for leftovers whenever you cook, so there's always something quick to heat up.

Fast idea -- stir fry with sauteed veg and tofu -- the only slow part is the rice and maybe you can have leftover rice on hand if cooking rice seems too slow.

I often make rice and beans in advance and then can just add vegetables of choice.

Salads are fast -- add tofu or chickpeas or other beans for protein, and add some sauted veg for variety. Fast dressing would be soy sauce, pepper sauce, lime juice for an Asian style salad, or of course vinegar and oil.

Look at different frozen foods and try to think of them differently! We don't plan long drawn out meals for weeknight dinner because we will stop by Wendys and eat Baconaters (not bad inherently but definitely not fitting in my personal day calorie wise).

I generally start with the protein, and backfill from there. We buy a lot of salads, steamer veggies (usually with seasoning already because I'm lazy and tired in the evenings and veg is veg), skillet meals that we bulk out with extra protein/veg, and things like that. We try to do a seafood meal (usually lox or just basic seasoned shrimp or salmon that takes <15 to prepare) a week and one crock pot meal a week (usually protein, some kind of sauce, hit the switch). Here's are meal plan this week, all meals are like...less than 20 minutes, usually less than 10.

Sun - Store bought rotisserie chicken, Hawaiian roll, side salad (omg amazing chicken, no work)

Mon - smoked salmon/lox on bagel thin with capers and cream cheese, side salad (high protein, low cal, tasty)

Tues - crock pot chicken split pea soup (literally dumped everything in the crock pot this AM, less than 5 min), Hawaiian roll (a whole day of fiber and 1/3rd of my protein in one sitting)

Wed - Lamb cutlets we got at Aldi (from the freezer into the oven), frozen veggie side (probably cinnamon sweet potatoes or cheesy cauliflower) - I suppose this might trigger your need to eat fries but it works for us.

Thursday - Chicken Stir Fry - pack of boneless skinless chicken thighs/legs from Costco, two bags of frozen stir fry veggies from the store to bulk it out, prepared general tsoa's sauce, little sesame oil to get it going (<10 min in the wok and done, massive veggie content, massive protein content). Sometimes I add a disc of ramen noodles sans seasoning because I love them.

Friday - leftovers or get your own. Usually if there's no leftovers Ill eat greek yogurt, a bit of cereal, raisins, almonds, and frozen fruit. Or Halo Top haha

Sat - Breakfast for dinner. This takes a little longer because I like Bacon cooked in the oven. Generally its breakfast burritos or maybe waffles with eggs and bacons, depends on how much I feel like spending calorie and time wise.

My go-tos if I don't have anything prepped are:

• Eggs - omelet, egg salad, or shakshuka. The omelet or egg salad I'll usually eat in a wrap.
• Tuna salad - either in a wrap, with cucumber slices, or with tomato slices
• Sweet potato in the microwave for 7 minutes with either goat cheese or labaneh + a soft boiled egg
• English muffin or tortilla pizzas - English muffin cut into two halves or a tortilla + pizza sauce + goat cheese or feta + spinach and garlic in the oven

I always keep frozen vegetables on hand which I can cook quickly and make a side for any of the above if there's enough calories left