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]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

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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.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

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Using low salt soy sauce, you can get a really decent combo out of that plus fresh garlic, lots of black pepper, and olive oil.

Also check out all the flavored vinegars out there, including rice vinegars. Rice vinegar is extremely low cal and can be very good. You can also spice up whatever type you get. All it takes is playing around with a 15-25 buck spice rack to make plenty of really ordinary stuff pretty interesting, and make you curious to try out more experiments.