easy, healthy recipe ideas

[hoyasaxa]

hey everyone,

this is my first post in this forum

I am a 20 year old college student living off campus without a meal plan for the first time. So I finally have to feed myself.

This is proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I put on some weight really fast, because all I am eating is ramen noodles.

I was wondering if any of you had recipe suggestions for meals I could make on my own (preferably inexpesively) to help me stay in shape.

thanks everyone

[hoyasaxa]

fwiw i box two days a week and do judo two days a week for exercise

[Thremp]

Grill chicken.

[tshort]

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Grill chicken.

[/ QUOTE ]

Chicken breast + sauce / seasoning / marinade -> Grill

Salmon / other fish + seasoning / sauce (cajun is my standard) -> Grill

Add vegetables as side dish

A little olive oil on the salmon to keep it from sticking to the grill

Salad, carrots, etc

fruit

healthy cereals / oatmeal

sliced deli meat

protein shake

[theblackkeys]

You can look up the proper thawing and cooking guidelines for anything. Buy big bags of frozen meat, like chicken, so you always have some on hand and you don't have to spend a fortune either.

I'd suggest buying dark meat chicken as it is tastier and doesn't dry out as much when you overcook it.

If you don't want fresh veggies, canned and frozen veggies are good. It doesn't really matter that much so definitely go for convenience.

Another easy way to make good food is with a crockpot/slowcooker. You just put meat, veggies and broth in there and it cooks all day. After about 6 hours I think it's ready to eat.

Also, a question for experienced cooks, what is a good book that will teach you how to cook well? I want to know how to create something tasty that I've never created before, and that requires more than just adding a store-bought sauce/seasoning.

[Jeff W]

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Also, a question for experienced cooks, what is a good book that will teach you how to cook well? I want to know how to create something tasty that I've never created before, and that requires more than just adding a store-bought sauce/seasoning.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've only been cooking seriously for a few months, but Joy of Cooking is helpful for learning cooking principles. In an old 2+2 thread on this topic, Mark Bittman's books were recommended highly as well.

[Ph1shPh00d]

easier and prolly cheaper way to learn to cook:

1) watch food network while you workout
2) find recipe online, and try to do what they do
3) ????
4) profit

[tonybormin]

George Foreman Grill + Chicken = 12 quality meals a week.

[TheSalche]

What sorts of sauce do you guys use for chicken, that is still "healthy"? Teriyaki? Soy sauce?

Basically for chicken I'm rotating three "recipes". I'll stick two breasts in the oven and mix with a bag of light Caesar salad mix. I'll do BBQ chicken in the oven, putting the barbecue sauce on about halfway through cooking. Finally I sometimes make chicken stir fry, basically cubing the chicken, cook it, put refrigerated veggies in, cook them, then throw some soy sauce on it and call it a meal.

[Snafu'd]

Incredibly easy buffalo style chicken breasts w/ veggies and/or sweet potato:

Marinate chicken breast in Italian Dressing overnight.
Grill chicken breast.
For the buffalo sauce, take one tablespoon of olive oil and combine with one tablespoon of Frank's Red Hot pepper sauce (or your preferred pepper sauce) and combine in small bowl.
Drizzle buffalo sauce over chicken breast.
Take one tablespoon of ranch or blue cheese dressing and add to bowl that had buffalo sauce in it. Stir to combine with residual buffalo sauce goodness for a spicy ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce.
Get frozen veggies in the microwavable bag. Heat per instructions.
If you are eating a sweet potato, poke it with a fork multiple times, wrap it in plastic wrap, and microwave it until soft (probably 4 to 5 minutes).
Slice up chicken breast, dip in ranch or blue cheese spicy sauce and enjoy!

I typically grill several chicken breasts at a time and refrigerate the leftovers for future meals.

For the calorie/fat conscious, use low fat or no fat Italian Dressing and ranch or blue cheese. Also, adding cinnamon and/or cayenne pepper to the sweet potato is a nice alternative to using butter. Fresh lemon juice is also a nice topping for the veggies, especially broccoli.