Menu Planning - help!
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Polydor
Posts: 43
Hey ladies ( i think we are all ladies here ??)
So as I have said a couple times now, nutrition is not a strong point for me. I have always been an eat whatever and never really gain anything type of person. I would say i don't eat insanely un healthy and do try to do everything in moderation. I have never dieted.
I do tend to not eat a very balanced meals. I think mainly eating /cooking for only my self. Example: I make pasta but never get around to making a small salad or anything to go with the pasta.
So looking to try and start planning a menu that i can follow for the week which is quick , easy to do. I eat pretty much anything as long as its not spicy. Do enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. But find that you have to buy somewhat random ingredients for one recipe and then not use all of it so it goes bad. But still eating that food 3 days later ( most of the time don't mind that).
Also going to do a big food shop on the weekend in the big city ( 15000 people instead on local town of 1000).
So any tips , recipes? Foods to stay away from , what do you love for snacks?
Talk soon!
P.
So as I have said a couple times now, nutrition is not a strong point for me. I have always been an eat whatever and never really gain anything type of person. I would say i don't eat insanely un healthy and do try to do everything in moderation. I have never dieted.
I do tend to not eat a very balanced meals. I think mainly eating /cooking for only my self. Example: I make pasta but never get around to making a small salad or anything to go with the pasta.
So looking to try and start planning a menu that i can follow for the week which is quick , easy to do. I eat pretty much anything as long as its not spicy. Do enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. But find that you have to buy somewhat random ingredients for one recipe and then not use all of it so it goes bad. But still eating that food 3 days later ( most of the time don't mind that).
Also going to do a big food shop on the weekend in the big city ( 15000 people instead on local town of 1000).
So any tips , recipes? Foods to stay away from , what do you love for snacks?
Talk soon!
P.
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Replies
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Example: I make pasta but never get around to making a small salad or anything to go with the pasta.
If I made small salads I don't think I'd get around to it often either. Generally I make up a big bowl of salad "base" with the greens and cut up veggies, and then pull handfuls out of it for a couple of days and add meat and other things to it right before I eat it.
One of my favorite snacks is apple slices with cinnamon sprinkled on top, and then a layer of greek yogurt. The honey flavor greek yogurt is really good on apples.0 -
I like to make pasta salad, and by salad I mean what ever vegetable I have in the fridge goes in to the bowl.
I also like to make ratatouille which is the same thing but you stick it in the oven (no pasta) and serve with rice/or pasta.
Ratatouille is great in the winter months. saute an eggplant, with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a clove of garlic.
while that is getting soft I chop up, zucchini, summer squash, green pepper, mushrooms, and tomato.
In a dish/casserole type I take 1 tbspoon of olive oil and coat the bottom, place the now soft eggplant/garlic mix in the dish layer all the other ingredients seasoning with parm cheese/salt/cumin/black pepper/red pepper flakes/what ever you like. keep layering till everything is in the dish top with parm cheese.
Bake for 40 mins at 350*
serve over rice/pasta/or by its self.0 -
I like to make pasta salad, and by salad I mean what ever vegetable I have in the fridge goes in to the bowl.
I also like to make ratatouille which is the same thing but you stick it in the oven (no pasta) and serve with rice/or pasta.
Ratatouille is great in the winter months. saute an eggplant, with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a clove of garlic.
while that is getting soft I chop up, zucchini, summer squash, green pepper, mushrooms, and tomato.
In a dish/casserole type I take 1 tbspoon of olive oil and coat the bottom, place the now soft eggplant/garlic mix in the dish layer all the other ingredients seasoning with parm cheese/salt/cumin/black pepper/red pepper flakes/what ever you like. keep layering till everything is in the dish top with parm cheese.
Bake for 40 mins at 350*
serve over rice/pasta/or by its self.
That sounds REALLY good. A few years ago, I wouldn't have thought that, but I've broadened my tastes to include, uhm, almost all of those items!
I'm not super good at meal planning, but I generally try to have a protein, a SMALL amount of rice/pasta, and lots of veggies. I steam, saute, and roast my veggies. Start experimenting! I don't usually follow recipes (though I want to try to do that more), it's more of a mishmash of whatever's in the fridge/freezer/pantry. There are staples I try to have in my cupboards at all times (rice - even the microwave minute rices for when I'm at work, whole-wheat pasta, couscous, quinoa), and my "regular" veggies: zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, mushrooms, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, blah blah blah.
One of my all-time favorite snacks is a small avocado lightly sprinkled with salt. I LOVE guacamole but always end up eating too much of it, so this is a good compromise for me
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Don't do what I did last night...I promised family I'd make the dish on the cover of Southern Living-all the bad stuff mac and cheese casserole. I put in extra veggies and used low fat cheese but it still had cream soup and sour cream in it. I just guestimated the calories...won't be having that again for a long time...0
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Ive been trying to use the menus off jointhereboot which is heavy veggie based... and maybe add in some grilled meat of some kind or another or scrambled egg in the am.. but I realized I would be better off just making a huge pot of veggie soup and living off that for a few days. Im finding its hard to get a lot of variation in menus...and cooking for one is a PITA! I also did a detox through my yoga teacher a while back and she had us make a pot of white bean/kale/zucchini soup that went on for a couple days..its a good way to add the veggies and fiber.0
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Ive been trying to use the menus off jointhereboot which is heavy veggie based... and maybe add in some grilled meat of some kind or another or scrambled egg in the am.. but I realized I would be better off just making a huge pot of veggie soup and living off that for a few days. Im finding its hard to get a lot of variation in menus...and cooking for one is a PITA! I also did a detox through my yoga teacher a while back and she had us make a pot of white bean/kale/zucchini soup that went on for a couple days..its a good way to add the veggies and fiber.
My mother has a cookbook called, "Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You) that she loves.
I'm no help on the balanced eating problem. My kids love salads, but I get my veggies almost exclusively from V80 -
As I said in another post, the website "Eating Well" has been a good source of menus and recipes for me. My newest favorite snack is dry roasted edamame... the wasabi flavor will clear out your sinuses!!!0
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I was raised by hippies, so I make a lot of things out of Moosewood and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. A lot of the recipes are on Mollie Katzen's website these days: http://www.molliekatzen.com/archives.php0
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yummm! great recipes!! Carrot-Cashew Curry...hmm, wild rice pancakes with mushrooms and goat cheese... yummm.. ok, Im hungry now!!!0
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Great website! Thanks for sharing!!0
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You're welcome!
I'm sort of a cookbook hoarder, but the ones I have by Mollie Katzen are some of my most heavily used. I have some leftover beef stew and vegetable soup still, so I'll finish those before cooking anything new, but I also have the ingredients on hand for the Cream of Fresh Green Pea soup and "Inspiration Soup", which is made with spinach and artichokes. So those will be for lunch and dinner later this week.0 -
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I made the Cream of Fresh Green Pea Soup tonight and it is sooo good. Since I don't generally have fresh herbs around the hosue this time of year, I added some of Penzey's Green Goddess spice mix when I was sauteeing the onions, and I'm very pleased with the result.0
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And wonder of wonders, my DH, Mr. Picky himself, was also willing to eat the pea soup. Though he did declare it "not a meal", and is currently heating up a frozen pizza for himself, lol0
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I made the Cream of Fresh Green Pea Soup tonight and it is sooo good. Since I don't generally have fresh herbs around the hosue this time of year, I added some of Penzey's Green Goddess spice mix when I was sauteeing the onions, and I'm very pleased with the result.
ohhhh, when you said Penzeys , I thought, shes from Wisconsin!! I love Penzeys spices!! Miss home.. not now in this weather of course,.. but madison is such a foodie town !0 -
Yes, I'm in Evansville, so only about 20 minutes from Madison! You're right it is a great foodie town, which is both good and bad. Good because there are a lot of options and it's easy to find all sorts of weird ingredients, bad becuse I want to eat ALL OF IT, mua-ha-ha.
And you can get Penzey's mail order these days if you miss them. I routinely have spice gift boxes sent to people as gifts.0 -
Yes, I'm in Evansville, so only about 20 minutes from Madison! You're right it is a great foodie town, which is both good and bad. Good because there are a lot of options and it's easy to find all sorts of weird ingredients, bad becuse I want to eat ALL OF IT, mua-ha-ha.
And you can get Penzey's mail order these days if you miss them. I routinely have spice gift boxes sent to people as gifts.
Hmm, like ostrich from the farmers market...yummmmmm or that fab restaurant near the capitol square that has braised wild boar.0 -
Yes, it's amazing how many different things there are to choose from around here. I'd probably try even more of them if DH wasn't such a picky eater, but it's kind of aggravating to go to the effort to get and prepare something special just to have him wrinkle his nose and whine about it :P0
