Do you find yourself hitting the drive-thru or heating up a microwave dinner because there’s simply no time to cook? I hear this time and again from my clients as they are explaining (justifying) why they had a bad ‘eating’ week.
Really? No time to cook?
Consider this: a drive-thru usually involves waiting in line to place your order and pay, and then waiting again for your food to come out; this could easily take longer than 15 minutes. Likewise, heating up a frozen dinner in the microwave could take 15 minutes or more. In about the same amount of time, you could easily prepare your own meal. More importantly, cooking at home gives you the opportunity to use fresh healthy ingredients packed with the nutrition needed to support weight loss.
Cooking doesn’t have to be time consuming. In a survey done by Food and Health Communications (foodandhealth.com), over a hundred food and nutrition professionals were asked about their favorite quick meals. Over and over, these were listed as the most popular:
• baked potato stuffed with fat-free sour cream and broccoli, side salad
• pasta and salad
• burrito with beans, rice, lettuce and tomato
• soft vegetarian taco
• low fat veggie omelet made with egg white or egg substitute
• broiled fish with veggies and rice
• broiled or baked chicken with veggies and potato
• chicken or turkey stew (made ahead and re-heated)
• skillet dinner with ground turkey or lean beef
• salad – one of the most popular items on the survey
• stir fry dish with frozen stir fry veggies, rice and lean protein
So, the next time you’re thinking there’s not enough time to cook, think again, and try one these quick and easy meal ideas. You will actually save time – and calories – by eating at home.
To get you started, try this quick and easy recipe. It’s delicious and likely to become a family favorite.
Baked Tostada Salad Serves 4. Ingredients:
Directions: Heat beans in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish. Toast the corn tortillas in the oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Place the toasted tortillas on a plate and top with warmed beans, lettuce, tomatoes, vinegar, salsa and sour cream. Serve immediately. Each serving: 160 calories, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 1 mg cholesterol, 423 mg sodium, 31 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 7.5 g protein. Serving suggestions: serve with a side of brown rice, grilled chicken or fish. Spruce it up with sliced mango and a squeeze of fresh lime. For fun and more flavor, you can add diced mango and fresh lime. For a lower sodium option, use no salt added canned beans. Recipe used with permission from Food and Health Communications. |
Now, I’d love to hear from you.
What quick and easy weight-conscious meals do you make at home?
Please share in the comment section below. Your ideas could be very helpful to other readers.
Meanwhile, if you want to lose weight, improve your energy and feel better, I can help you get started. Take my free Self-Assessment at https://njnutritionist.com/freeassessment.
Image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Here is a great summer soup, if you can get people past the idea of a cold soup. Also all veggie soups and fruit soups are virtually the same; they can be as heavy or as light as you wish. The Hungarians make a great cherry soup from pureed cherries, some white wine and yogurt. Here’s another:
Pineapple-Yogurt Soup Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 Pineapple (peeled and core removed)
1 Banana
1 green apple ( skin on core removed)
2c nonfat yogurt
2 tbsp honey
1 1tbsp fresh grated ginger
1tsp Ground cardamom
Water to adjust consistency
Method:
Dice the fruit into 1 inch pieces; this is just so it fits in the blender and purees nicer, no need for fancy knife cuts.
Add all the ingredients into a blender and puree 2 min. Even if you think it’s done let the blender run the full 2 minutes it will make a difference in how light and smooth the soup comes out. Remove from blender and reserve in an air tight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
Here’s two more for the veggie and mushroom crowd. You can’t get much lower in calories and still be considered gourmet when you look at the mushroom consmme.
Broccoli Bisque
1-2 bunches broccoli
2 tbs. shallots/scallions, diced
5 cups chicken stock
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chop broccoli and place in saucepan with shallots and chicken stock. Cook until mixture is tender and puree. The mixture should be thick. Let cool slightly (15 min) and place in blender to puree. Return to cooking pot, add cream and seasoning. Heat gently and serve. Serves 8.
Note: This recipe can be applied to almost any vegetable. You can use any mix of dairy that you wish (heavy cream, light cream, half & half, milk or 2% milk) to lighten the dish.
Mushroom Consomme
8 servings; 99 calories per serving
1 cup dry Sherry
2 lbs. Mushrooms, sliced
12 cups beef broth
4 green onions, sliced
½ to 1 tsp dried tarragon, crumbled
2 tbs fresh lemon juice or to taste
Salt and Freshly ground pepper
2 lemons, thinly sliced
sliced green onions
Bring Sherry to simmer in medium saucepan. Add mushrooms and simmer until liquid is almost evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add broth, 4 green onions and tarragon. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Top with lemon slices and green onions. Serve hot.
Note: You may substitute a white wine for the dry sherry.
I never go out to eat and have found many meals that can be prepared fast. Just find frozen mixed beans and veggies at your store; the mix with nothing added, just the veggies. Then you can steam in a microwave, add some canned, no salt added tuna or salmon and a little salsa and mix to combine. I like to add a few herbs and spices like cilantro, cumin, cayenne, and garlic powder.
Also, it’s not hard to make several meals when there is time and have them ready to just heat and eat!
Great post Lorrraine! You are “right-on!” Healthy “fast-food” can be made at home—there should be no excuses today! Keeping a healthy pantry well-stocked is always helpful, as well and cooking extra and freezing is also helpful. When cooking whole grain rice, cook more than you need, and freeze in individual portion zip-lock snack bags for a quick defrost. Frozen fruit and vegetables can easily be defrosted on an as needed basis. Fish fillets can thaw in just 5 minutes when placed in water. Keeping healthy sauces available, such as peanut sauce can easily be used on top of fish, chicken, etc., and pan-sauteed in 5 minutes. Fresh spinach can be sauteed with garlic and non-stick spray in 2 minutes. Defrost the rice in 1 minute. Thaw some frozen strawberries while you are having dinner. Now that’s a delicious fast-food meal!
“There’s No Time To Cook. Really? | NJ Nutritionist – Lorraine Matthews-Antosiewicz, MS, RD” was really entertaining and instructive!
In todays world honestly, that is tricky to carry out.
Thank you, Pauline