Idk how to cook or eat healthy

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Replies

  • jessalittlemore
    jessalittlemore Posts: 65 Member
    Cooking tip from one former non-cook to another: Season, season, season. Growing up I hated veggies because my parents thought seasoning meant table salt and a little black pepper and that's it. You'd be surprised the difference paprika and garlic can do, for starters.
  • nocgirl72
    nocgirl72 Posts: 139 Member
    I’m not a great cook either. Baked chicken is EASY. All you need is low sodium chicken broth and some seasoning like Italian season, lemon pepper, black pepper.

    Just take a couple boneless skinless chicken breast put them in a baking pan. Pour a little low sodium chicken broth ( like 2 TB) overthem aeason both sides. Put some tin foil over. Bake on around 390 for 30-35 min. Take it out and let it soak for a few minutes. There you go. Put some in fridge and when you warm up in Tupperware put a little chicken broth in it and use wet paper towel as lid warm it up for 1:00-1:10.

    Jennie O makes ground turkey patties. Just cook one in a skillet with a little water and put some worchester sauce on it. Yum

    Any veggies you can cook right in a skillet with a little olive oil.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    I think when my wife and I first started cooking for ourselves and meal prepping, we thought we had to be gourmet chefs and everything had to be a skinny taste recipe with a dozen ingredients and take hours of slow cooking to be a home cooked meal. Now we keep it a lot simpler by cooking a handful of things that don't take much time or ingredients. Here are a few:

    Grilled chicken: My wife makes this. We buy thin sliced (in tenders style) chicken and grill it on a stove top grill in bulk. Usually about 3 pounds at a time and we keep it in the refridgerator for several meals. All she does is add some spices. When we reheat it, sometimes I will add hot sauce or cheese to spice it up.

    Eggs - I like to hard boil them. my wife will scramble them, fry them, or make an omelet with cheese and vegetables.

    Salmon - I cook this in the oven. I just add some lemon juice and spices.

    Tacos - We are big tacos fan. I will pan cook ground beef in salsa, and then we will get either hard or soft taco shells. We will have a combination of stuff with it. Usually some combination of avocado, pre-made pico de gallo, sour cream, colby jack cheese, refried beans (canned). Other times we will have it as a salad with cheese, beans, lettuce, avocado and tomato.

    Burrata - One of our favorites. We get a special cheese called burrata, which is a stuffed mozzarella cheese. But if that is not available, it will work with fresh mozzarella. It is served with sliced tomato, sliced avocado, and fresh basil. I will also cook shrimp to have with this, usually pre-cooked shrimp that I thaw by running water over it in the sink and then I pan cook with siracha sauce.

    None of those are very complicated. They can be done without needing to mix sauces or cook multiple things separately or do any sort of complex cooking. But they are tasty, and we enjoy them while using them as part of our diet.
  • MrsTitus2
    MrsTitus2 Posts: 61 Member
    Start with basics like oatmeal and eggs. Then learn to make tacos. All you have to do is cook ground meat. Corn tortillas can be warmed in the microwave and then just top with cheese, chopped onion and cilantro with a squeeze of lime juice. anh8rp5oucbq.jpg
  • peachymcpeachface
    peachymcpeachface Posts: 3 Member
    Hey @mmeek1995 ! I would highly recommend first getting yourself some of the following seasoning: Garam Masala (goes with everything - indian spice mix but is NOT spicy), chilli powder if you like spice, smoked paprika, sea salt, coriander (if you like it), turmeric (I add a tiny bit to everything as it's amazingly beneficial). I pretty much add most of these to all my cooking. Healthy food does not need to be bland, and a lot of people give up because they cook healthy and do not season therefore do not enjoy what they eat. If you cook chicken or fish simply buy fillets or breasts and follow the instructions on the packet, ensuring once finished that the chicken is cooked through. Season BEFORE you put these in the oven as it makes all the difference in the world. If you are completely new to cooking then get yourself some microwave brown rice, as cooking it may be a bit much at first, and you want to get used to eating healthy first. Add your veg, so broccoli, asparagus, peppers, whatever you fancy. Boiled brocolli isn't too appealing so I usually roast my veg, mix it all up, season and drizzle some olive oil over, put in the oven for around 20 minutes or until the veg looks cooked. DO NOT be afraid of oil, too many people count calories over nutrition and olive oil/avocado oil has so many benefits.

    Basically for a complete newby I recommend this:

    Breakfast ideas:

    - 3 eggs (scrambled/omelette with veg)
    - mashed avocado on rye bread/brown bread (add salt and black pepper to avocado when mashing - chilli flakes are a nice touch)
    - overnight oats (just google this for loads of ideas)
    - Normal porridge with toppings such as: honey/ piece of dark choc/ maple syrup/ nuts/ banana / nut butter

    Lunch/ dinner ideas:

    - Chicken or fish, brown rice, veg
    - If vegetarian iceland do a fantastic meat free range, so one of their options with brown rice and veg
    - stir fry (a load of veg in a wok - add soy sauce, garlic and other seasoning - add meat if wanted)
    - naked chicken / veggie burger - ( i use iceland vegan no beef burger / vegan pulled pork burger) add everything you would with normal burger without the bun, ad sweet potato wedges (home made)
    - large stuffed sweet potato (can get recipes online)
    - egg white pizza (base eggs white, baking soda, coconut flour), top like regular pizza

    Snack ideas:
    -Hand full of nuts (I train a lot and always salt and roast these as you need more salt if you train more - chuck normal nuts in oven cover with drizzle of oil and salt and roast for around 15 minutes, put into a jar to graze as you like)
    - Apple with peanut butter
    - Celery with peanut butter
    - carrots and hummus
    - Dark chocolate
    - I like the proper corn sweet and salted


    I am not an expert, but I love meal prepping and eating well when I can so just trying to help. The key thing is to not completely restrict yourself, slow and steady wins the race, small changes. And you CAN treat yourself if you want, it's not all or nothing. If you want that ice cream on the weekend, or a burger because you have been good HAVE IT.