What was the last meal you cooked?

Roasted Turkey legs. Then a side of Quinoa salad with Kale and roasted butternut squash with toasted pine nuts.

Marinated chicken, vermicelli and roasted cauliflower & cabbage.

Italian wedding soup

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

Tonight (Thursday 5th): this Stroganoff-ish Slowcooker Creamy Chicken with egg noodles, garnished with broccoli.

... "Health Valley Organic Cream of Chicken" soup ...

lost in the initial posting: the Health Valley soup is "ready-to-eat," not condensed.

Pan sautéed Brussel Sprouts, garlic, vegan bacon lardons with a splash of white wine, honey & a large dollop of Dijon.

Served with a grain that was new to me - pearled spelt.

Saturday dinner appetizer: Slowcooker Split Pea Soup (to go with last of leftover Stroganoff-like slowcooker Creamy Chicken from the other evening). Pretty good. Macros: 213 cal, 16g protein, 29g carb, 4g fat, but a bit of a hit, prob from the ham, of 501mg sodium per serving. Overloaded vs. the recipe with carrots and celery per our preference. Rather than buzzing it with an immersion blender for a thicker result, I left it "natural" this time.

Photos:
1. prepared and commencing cook cycle.
2. served.

Proof that it is the simple things in life that matter.

Probably not obvious to folks reviewing my postings since midsummer is that fact that nothing was baked. Outdoor grill and stovetop only (including pressure cooking and slow cooker), as our ancient (30+ yrs) oven gave up the ghost. We got along without it, due to summer, activities and travel, but with the cold season onset, we just got a new oven delivered Friday.

Sunday evening, first full meal with it to commission the new unit: simple baked chicken with baked sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts and side salad. Really hit the spot.

MFP computes this plate as 696cal, 63g protein, 20g fat, 63g carb (17g fiber).

Photos:
1. the whole spread just out of the new oven.
2. served.

I don't normally cook during the work week because I have the corporate job and hubby is a freelancer. However, I accidentally defrosted chicken thighs on Sunday when we were actually planning to use up leftovers. Dinner was pimped up leftover Thai pomelo salad, slightly disappointing air fryer salt and pepper chicken, rice.

This is pretty common of how we eat. Made a Copycat recipe of the Carrabba's Sausage and Lentil Soup. If you've ever been to Carrabba's, you know which one I mean.

Made it with two lbs of Chicken Sweet Italian Sausage (from Sprouts) -- browned and set aside and chopped up when cooled.

4 TBS EVOO
Two Large White Sweet Onions
Six stalks Celery
Four large carrots
Four cans of diced tomatoes
Red Pepper -- chopped
1 lb Portobellos
One Lb Frozen Spinach
Two boxes Organic Chicken Broth (ended up adding a bit of Vegetable Broth too).
One bunch of fresh garlic
1 lb of Green Lentils
Red Pepper flakes
Oregano
Basil
Black Pepper
Thyme
Salt to taste

Pretty simple to make. Just brown the sausage in EVOO, leave the drippings. Add in the onions, celery and carrots and cook for around five minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt (lentils don't cook well with salt). Cook around 30 minutes on simmer. Add back in your sausage. You can also add frozen spinach right at the end to cool the soup down. Salt to taste when done. Add Parm or Pecorino to garnish.

This would also be so easy in a Instant Pot but this is a double recipe and wouldn't likely fit. If you use an Instant Pot, half the ingredients.

just_Tomek: How many meals do you cook a day? LOL

Vegetarian Sriracha Pasta with sauted veggies

(Thursday evening dinner): roasted split chicken breast, roasted asparagus, rice medley, side salad. MFP says about 686cal, 71g protein, 20g fat, 57g carb (10g fiber). Approximate: I didn't weigh the leftover chicken bones to net out the actual chicken meat, just estimated from the total package weight on two split halves (I think there's about 7oz meat on this plate).

I didn't cook tonight but am planning to tomorrow. We get our first delivery of Xmas season goose parts tomorrow. This is the only time of year you can actually buy goose in the UK. Will finish a confit goose leg to serve with roast celeriac and some pureed roast squash I've got in the freezer. Will do a starter of grilled romaine salad. Will probably make some goose breast prosciutto tomorrow as well. It's a great thing to have in the fridge to feed halal/kosher eating guests recipes that normally call for bacon or other charcuterie.

epangili wrote: »

mjbnj0001 wrote: »

Not really a meal, but a couple of components ...

I miss real carbs...

Oh, I hear ya.

When I started going to a nutritionist, he asked what foods i would find hard to part with. I said bread and cheese. So, if I'm going to include them, I budget them, and make sure I am getting a better food quality of them. I try to bake most of my own bread-type products.

1. these two loaves are for a dinner party.
2. my homemade bread starts with a real food base of only four ingredients: flour, water, yeast and a bit of salt. no commercial-bread dough conditioners, preservatives, sweeteners, and what-have -you.
3. these loaves are more "satisfying" per slice than commercial breads, so we actually eat less of it per day than other bread, and we incorporate it into our lower-cal, moderate-glycemic, lower-salt lifestyle. i don't have the other computer with me with the GI/GL spreadsheet I worked up for glycemic computations, but these loaves are a bit lower glycemic index and lower glycemic load than my comparative benchmark commercial breads.
4. MFP recipe builder on the rye loaf approximates, per slice: 72cal, 1g fat, 13g carb, 2g protein. For the white: 77cal, 16g carb, 3g protein. "Approximate" since these are manually sliced. Based on an average of 3 loaves portion yield.
5. the "white" bread, by the way, uses unbleached white bread flour. i use one of the "no knead" methods discussed at length on the internet/youtube. about 3hrs from start to out-of-the-oven with no mechanical tools/etc. and about 10 min of real, but easy, effort during that time.

i have tinkered around the recipe to get lower carb/higher protein bread using more varied ingredients (whey powder, for instance, as well as whole wheat and other grains' flours). i typically keep to my daily budget on carbs, and especially avoid simple processed carbs.

good luck on your path.