The simplest delicious nutritious meals?

  • Thread starter tgt
  • Start date
In summary: Lisa. When I was in college (1970 on, OK I'm an old fart) I cooked for myself every day and made big enough batches to have left-overs. I'd make lentil soup, baked beans, breads, biscuits, spaghetti, New England boiled dinners, etc, etc. When times were lean, lentil soup with celery and onions, pea soup with the same and maybe a bit of ham shoulder or salt pork, would be staples, along with whole-wheat bread and other basics. There were two very pretty young ladies in an apartment across the street from me, and we became friends.
  • #71
I'm an indepedent young adult.

I always refer to the food pyramid for what's good and what's not.

For me, the main priority is not to over eat and convienence. The result is instant soup-bread meals.

The cereal was a bad idea as I just had some for dessert which meant a bit of over eating. What are some healthy cereals? The only one for me might be wheet-bix.
 
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  • #72
Sorry, but your goals of losing weight and remaining lazy are incompatible. I have to agree with turbo, though, that it's seriously sounding like you're just trolling here, refusing to listen to a bit of advice given to you on proper nutritional habits. That, or you're just making excuses for yourself to stay lazy, in which case, why should we bother responding if you don't want to change what you're doing anyway?
 
  • #73
I have to throw in one more comment, since tgt has brought up the Food Pyramid a number of times in support of his bread-and-salt diet.

Here's an article about the mysterious history of the Food Pyramid, and just how ridiculous it actually is, that was published in the journal Science back in 2001. Don't worry, it's an engaging read.

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/taubes.html

Go down to your local gym and ask anyone with any serious interest in health and fitness if they follow the Food Pyramid, and they'll laugh.

- Warren
 
  • #74
tgt said:
That's true although it still takes work and you get a bad smell after cooking.

If you get bad smells, it may be your cooking oil. I've found it goes bad pretty quickly after opening. Canola oil gives off a fishy smell when it's old.

If you're pressed for time (or lazy :wink: ), buy veggies from the salad bar of your grocery store. You can buy just the amount you need and they're already chopped up. Yes, it's a bit more expensive than if you bought them whole and chopped them yourself, but that's the cost of convenience.

Moonbear has a good point about color. It's usually true that the more processed a food is, the whiter it is. Go for color - reds, oranges, yellows, greens. Especially greens.
 
  • #75
chroot said:
Go down to your local gym and

From the article it looks like avoiding salt, fat, high/low/poly/non/whatever the **** is horror of the month is largely irrelevant - what matters is getting off you butt, losing some pounds and getting a bit of exercise.
 
  • #76
I made supper tonight and just finished washing up the dishes. We had chicken breast (no skin) baked in my home-made BBQ sauce (ketchup, mustard, molasses, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, crushed red pepper, and some of my jalapeno chili relish), baked potatoes and steamed Swiss chard from last summer's garden. A bit of butter and pepper for my potatoes, and some vinegar and black pepper on the Swiss chard topped everything off. Total prep time was less than 10 minutes, then about an hour of cook-time in the oven. Five minutes before the hour was up, start steaming the Swiss chard, and dinner is served. Meals like this are drop-dead easy to prepare, healthy, and delicious.
 
  • #77
turbo-1 said:
I made supper tonight and just finished washing up the dishes.

What's wrong with this picture? The deal here is, who does the meal does not do the dishes. You're too good.

menu here was wok fried chicken dice with onions, red peppers, zuchini and mushrooms, served with a soft mustard sauce on a bed of wild rice. Home recepy or "Poule a la Maison"
 
  • #78
Andre said:
What's wrong with this picture? The deal here is, who does the meal does not do the dishes. You're too good.

menu here was wok fried chicken dice with onions, red peppers, zuchini and mushrooms, served with a soft mustard sauce on a bed of wild rice. Home recepy or "Poule a la Maison"
My wife had foot surgery - bunion removal involving breaking/cutting bone and slicing muscle tissue, skin, etc. I'm doing all the cooking/cleaning while she's off her feet. She's lucky that I'm a good cook - 6 weeks is a long time to eat blah crap.
 
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  • #79
Send her my best wishes.
 
  • #80
chroot said:
Go down to your local gym and ask anyone with any serious interest in health and fitness if they follow the Food Pyramid, and they'll laugh.

Well, part of the problem with the food pyramid is it really isn't all that different than what common sense says is a good meal, except people have such skewed sense of portions (and the pyramid does such a lousy job of defining them), that people end up eating far too much and of all the wrong things because they can't make much sense of how to interpret the pyramid. Too many people seem to look at it and think they need to have one steak, 6 loaves of bread, a slab of butter, and 4 green beans to have a balanced diet.

Anyway, I'm still wondering where powdered soup mix is found on the food pyramid. :uhh:
 
  • #81
Sometimes I just eat a can of peas for dinner. I like peas.
 
  • #82
Moonbear said:
Anyway, I'm still wondering where powdered soup mix is found on the food pyramid. :uhh:

It's the mortar.
 
  • #83
Andre said:
Send her my best wishes.
Thanks, Andre! She says "thanks". She's bored, and it's hard to keep her off her feet, and she's walking more than her doctor had recommended, but she has pitched out the pain medication and seems to be mending well. Maybe soon, she'll be allowed to spend more time on her feet. Her next follow-up is Tuesday.

I don't mind doing all the cooking, but maybe I can get her doing dishes when she can stand for longer periods.:rolleyes: All her sisters tell me "If I had to eat my husband's cooking, I'd starve!"
 
  • #84
turbo-1 said:
Thanks, Andre! She says "thanks". She's bored, and it's hard to keep her off her feet, and she's walking more than her doctor had recommended, but she has pitched out the pain medication and seems to be mending well. Maybe soon, she'll be allowed to spend more time on her feet. Her next follow-up is Tuesday.

I don't mind doing all the cooking, but maybe I can get her doing dishes when she can stand for longer periods.:rolleyes: All her sisters tell me "If I had to eat my husband's cooking, I'd starve!"

Maybe a tall stool will let her sit up next to the counter at a comfortable height to reach it and be of some help so she isn't so bored (funny how quickly the idea of sitting around doing nothing and being waited upon loses its appeal when you don't have any choice in the matter). Sit her in front of the computer and she can develop a PF addiction like the rest of us...that will at least keep her entertained until her foot is better.

Send her my wishes for a speedy recovery as well.
 
  • #85
Thanks, Moonie! She loves to read, and has dozens and dozens of mystery novels piled around her chair, but now that she's to sit with her foot up, reading is not as big of a treat as it used to be.

One little wrinkle - I have invented some new dishes to keep the menu varied, and she has proclaimed some of them her "favorite" which suggests that I might be taking over a lot more of the cooking than before her surgery. I like cooking and coming up with new stuff, but when a dish becomes a "favorite" I feel like I'm locked into making it the same way every time, and that takes a lot of the fun out of cooking. My "out" is that I don't use written recipes, so if I improvise and the dish changes or evolves over time, I have an excuse.
 
  • #86
Here's one of the new "favorites". My wife says that she doesn't care if I ever make another batch of chili con carne, if I will make this thick spicy soup. It's really easy to make. I just started to throw together stuff that we had on-hand and this came out. I think I'd like to participate in a cooking competition where you don't know what ingredients you'll have available until they start taping the show. That's my favorite kind of cooking.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1637796&postcount=224
 
  • #87
Moonbear said:
Anyway, I'm still wondering where powdered soup mix is found on the food pyramid. :uhh:

For the upteen's time the soup is for taste only, otherwise it's plain wholemeal bread.

I just a Earth shattering idea. The complaint for instant soup apart from the fact that it's not nutrious which I don't mind as it is there for taste, is that it's too salty. But there are always salt reduced soups avaliable. Plus I always put twice the amount of water in it then the recommanded amount on the label which dilates it a lot.
 
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  • #88
So you are recommending a diet of bread and water? I always thought of that as a punishment.
 
  • #89
tgt said:
For the upteen's time the soup is for taste only, otherwise it's plain wholemeal bread.

Since when has six slices of bread been a reasonable meal? You've got to be trolling.

- Warren
 
  • #90
chroot said:
Since when has six slices of bread been a reasonable meal? You've got to be trolling.

- Warren

six slices of bread gets the job done in that it leaves me feeling not too full and I feel good afterwards.

What is trolling?
 
  • #91
tribdog said:
So you are recommending a diet of bread and water? I always thought of that as a punishment.

I don't recommend it to anyone. It works for me. You're quiet right that it's like punishment. Anything tastier and I might overeat.
 
  • #92
So, tgt, this thread has gone on for seven pages now, and you're still insisting that:

1) Six slices of bread is a perfectly nutritious meal.
2) Your weight problem is caused by your food being 'too delicious.'

I give up.

- Warren
 
  • #93
I read a book back in the 90's about blood types and how they digest foods in different ways. I had never taken it very serious at the time because I was young and felt healthy.

Jump forward about 10 years I had put on some weight... and had little to no energy at all. I came across the book again and found out that the Dr. who wrote it had built a website based on the principles of blood type diets.

Me being O neg decided to give it a whirl, after all... it was telling me that I needed to eat more meat! (Me loves meat!)

I went to the local market and picked up about 20 pounds of steaks and a couple bags of charcoal for the grill.

At the time I was running my own business and staying at home during the day taking care of my kid. So every day around noon I would take my kid to school. Come home, light up the BBQ and grill me a nice fat steak. I'll admit, it had been awhile since I had really eaten meat on a daily basis, and it took quite some time for my body to readjust to this new diet.

After about a week went by and my routine was very consistent I noticed that I was sleeping better, waking up without a problem and had energy throughout the entire day. I started adding some vegetables to my diet for snacks and stuff throughout the day.

I lived like this for about 3 years and never felt better, I dropped a lot of weight and felt healthier than ever. Granted... I have no idea what this meat is doing to the inside of my body, but I'd rather live 20 years with this much energy than 40 years without it.

Since I've moved back to Alaska, I no longer have the privilege of going to the store and buying fresh, healthy meat on a weekly basis... it's been almost 2 years and my body and mind have reverted back to it's old state. Just recently I have started ordering meat from Washington and having it shipped up to me by friends and family... I can already start to feel the energy coming back.

Anyways.. back to the original comment I was going to make before I started rambling...

it's worth checking out the website, no gimmicks, no investments... just a simple list of things your blood type breaks down easier and more efficiently.

here's the link if anyone is interested:
http://www.dadamo.com/
 
  • #94
P4PPY, have you ever been tested for iron-deficient anemia? If you're feeling fatigued or lacking energy, and it goes away when you eat more meat, maybe you're iron-deficient. If you have trouble getting a reliable supply of meat where you are, try an iron supplement, and also check that the vegetables you're eating are providing a complete protein.
 
  • #95
When that blood type book came out, I didn't give it a second thought. I thought, yeah, more junk science. But then I learned that my niece, who is a PhD ornithologist, swears by it...and she'd no dummy.

I still haven't read it, and in fact I had forgot all about it, so thanks for posting the link. I'll check it out.

Anyone on PF know anything about it?
 
  • #96
tgt said:
For the upteen's time the soup is for taste only, otherwise it's plain wholemeal bread.

That's it? You're eating bread and only bread and think it's a nutritious meal? Have you NEVER had an biology or nutrition or even a home ec class somewhere in your life to realize how pathetically deficient of a diet that is? Sure, you'll lose weight, but that's about the unhealthiest possible way to lose weight short of complete starvation.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c11GB.html

Just take a look at all the vitamins and minerals bread DOES NOT provide.
 
  • #97
lisab said:
When that blood type book came out, I didn't give it a second thought. I thought, yeah, more junk science. But then I learned that my niece, who is a PhD ornithologist, swears by it...and she'd no dummy.

Why would being an expert on birds make one qualified to judge a book on nutrition? Sounds like yet another gimmick diet book to make the author rich.
 
  • #98
Moonbear said:
Why would being an expert on birds make one qualified to judge a book on nutrition? Sounds like yet another gimmick diet book to make the author rich.

She's had a whole lot more biology than me, that's all :rofl: ! I was too busy taking physics and chemistry courses...I took biochem once and almost went nuts from all the memorization.

I just did a quick look on the author; he's widely discredited by nutritionists.

But I also learned that in Japan, there's a widely held believe that blood type influences personality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_blood_type_theory_of_personality

I'll file that in my "Well, I'll be darned!" file.
 
  • #99
10 serving's for under $20

1.Can of refried bean
1-green bell pepper
1-red bell peper
1-green onion's
1-onion
torte shell's
Cheese of your pick
___________________________________________________
chop bell peppers ,green onoins ,and onion mix with bean's, add cheese if wanted. then place in pan, add 1-tea spoon oil of your choice, place lid over, and cook till golden brown on both side's.
For a side dish have a salad with cumber's carrots tomoto's, and celo. Then for after dinner snack have a red apple, and two glasses of water.
This should give you what your body need's
finsih with vita suppliments, then sleep :D tastes good and is cheap
 
  • #100
eh oops not 10 servings for under $20 ignor that statement
 
  • #101
if you want to lose wait every day and stay healthy just be a vegan :D i havnt seen a single person that is a vegan, and there weight is over 200 pounds.
 
  • #102
Noone said:
if you want to lose wait every day and stay healthy just be a vegan :D i havnt seen a single person that is a vegan, and there weight is over 200 pounds.

You forgot that tgt has specified the diet has to allow him to stay lazy too. You can't be lazy about your eating habits if you want to stick to a vegan diet...it's very difficult to ensure a balanced diet with no animal products.
 
  • #103
I didnt read his comment of how i would like to stay in normal habbits. And yes it would be hard for someone to stay with there normal habbits and be a vegan. Moderation would be the key factor in controling the amount of a single food group. Thanks for the update, i will try to read more post's before i make a comment
 
  • #104
Then again, bread and water IS a vegan diet. But, yeah, still very nutritionally incomplete.
 
  • #105
Moonbear said:
You forgot that tgt has specified the diet has to allow him to stay lazy too. You can't be lazy about your eating habits if you want to stick to a vegan diet...it's very difficult to ensure a balanced diet with no animal products.

A few months ago, my 15 year-old daughter became vegan. I told her I'm not going to fix a special meal for just her. So, since then she's had to learn how to cook. It takes special effort - she has to learn to cook dishes from scratch, and read ingredient labels. It's a pain that she's vegan, but it's also a great way for her to learn how to cook.

I do insist that she takes vitamins daily to get B-12, and of course I've taught her to combine legumes, rice, and corn to get a complete protein. Are there any other nutrients that are especially hard to get on a vegan diet?
 

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