Ok, so everyone who reads this blog is tagged. I need your help. So does Julia. She leaves for school next week and could use your ideas. We'd love it if you would share your favorite food ideas/recipes for cheap, easy and nutritious eating.
Think back. What are some quick and easy things that you ate when you were back in school and on your own? She wants to eat right and avoid the dreaded Freshman 15. And she will be on a budget. And time will be an issue. She's not picky and will eat just about anything at least once. So, dig down and share your ideas. We'll look forward to hearing from you through the week. We'll hope for some quick ideas of things she can just grab on the spot as well as recipes for preparing other yummy, nutritious dishes.
Thanks in advance to anyone who participates.
11 comments:
Thanks for your comment on my blog, Earlene! I love keeping in touch- we really need to get back to Farmington soon.
So, I'll think about college recipes more, but the first thing I thought of was baked potatoes. A few minutes in the microwave and PRESTO! I love eating a baked potato with steamed broccoli, corn, tomatoes, and some taco meat. Also some fat free Italian dressing. Mmmm.... Hopefully I'll get back on with more ideas soon!
I sure love you guys-
Love
Liz
we'll have some ready to share when you come. we're glad you're going to get to come before you go off to Idaho.
-P.
What kind of set up does she have? Kitchen, no kitchen? hot plate? etc?
She will have a full kitchen. Shared with 5 other girls.
Here's what I've used for years now: Jenny-O ground turkey (love the spicy Italian sausage too). Brown it and add it to all sorts of things! But it does keep for a few days and tacos with ground turkey are uber-healthy and fast and easy and scrumptious. Mmm!! And, just my own personal preference: I love BURRITO seasoning in it rather than plain old Taco seasoning... not quite as... acidic? Hmmm...
What else? Granola and yogurt- always good. Whole wheat pasta with chopped tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, a splash of olive oil and sea salt- one of my staples (I eat it at lunch though because Justin starts getting annoyed when I make it for dinner 4 times a week...). Egg white omlettes- eat them 3-4 times a week. Add a few diced veggies and a little cheese- YUMMY!
Okay, thanks a lot. Now I'm hungry... :)
Good luck Julia! I'll keep up with you on Facebook. Have a FANTASTIC time.
Love you!
R.
I second the Yogurt breakfast idea... I liked eating Quesadillas when I was at school.
As far as healthy things, get a microwave rice cooker, and you can make rice real quick and easy.
I ate a lot of quick rice stir fry. I would just cook the chicken and then add frozen veggies and use soy sauce for the seasoning.
fruit for snacks, Laura mentioned that lettuce wraps are a good idea that's low on carbs and can be very tasty and quick. She likes to put in deli meat, cheese and mustard, or go a more salad-type route with peppers, avacados, cranberries, salad dressing and deli meat.
A good idea is to clean and cut up some veggies after you buy them, so you have that as a very quick snack option when on the run...
My roomate my first semester lived off of nothing but fruit loops, and frozen pizzas (literally- I am not kidding). I don't recommend that, and I also don't recommend to live off of mostly frozen burritos as another of my roomates did... Not only is that a bad idea nutritionally, but it just stinks to be around :)
Love ya
We often make quick wraps with whole wheat tortillas, nonfat refried beans, salsa, and whatever else we have around--can put any leftovers, veggies, cheese, etc. in. I second getting the veggies prepped when you bring them home (or even nuke them to parboiled stage--then when you reheat them, they cook in half the time--and you can always eat them cold out of the bag with or without salad dressing). Is there a Trader Joes at BYU-I? They have bags of boneless chicken breasts already frozen. YOu can just whip one out and cook it in no time.
And I love a pot of beans, or split pea soup, or weightwatchers zero pt soup with some beans added. You can make up the pot of soup on the weekend and then bag and freeze it in in individual serving sizes. If you do this two or three weekends in a row, you end up with a variety of soups in the freezer ready to grab and heat (but not in the plastic bag--thaw it enough in running water to dump into the bowl first). Also, I keep a supply of fresh spinach in the frig. I fill the microwave container as full as I can with spinach and then dump soup, stew, leftovers, canned chili, those pouch Indian dinners, whatever over the top and microwave the whole thing. Anything you would put over pasta you can put over spinach. The spinach cooks down, and you don't have the carbs to deal with.
Enjoy, Julia! Love, Sandra
I liked to eat a lot of pasta, specifically angel hair because it cooked so quickly. I would boil it up, then pour a little bit of prego spaghetti sauce over it, and let the hot noodles warm the sauce. The sauce I didn't use I just put back in the fridge for another day. There's lots of stuff you can put on pasta though, butter and parmesan cheese, grated cheese, sauces, etc. With a little salt it was very good. I still do that sometimes actually... :)
I also ate a lot of cereal. Yogurt was great. Mostly I found a good grocery store that had good sales, and then I shopped what was on sale; if tuna was on sale, I had tuna, etc. It also determined what kind of fruit I ate, which was nice then I got a variety. The frozen boneless/skinless chicken thighs are great, because then I just grabbed one out, and did what I wanted with it. You can cook it in ranch dressing (or whatever kind you want) just in a skillet, with a litle rice or pasta, or salad. Or its good baked. Or spicy, rolled in a little hot sauce mixed with butter or margarine, then baked until its done, that's pretty good. One or two legs doesn't take very long to cook, and its filling.
I guess my biggest advice would be get basic sauces and ingredients, then you can change the main piece (like the meat or pasta) but you've also got the basics. Sauces keep a long time too and most can be stored in the refrigerator if you don't use the whole thing. I liked having balsamic vinegar, spaghetti sauce, Johnny's salt, cream of chicken soup, ranch, olive oil, and some Yoshi's (is that the right name? the guy that makes the terriyaki, and the regular sauce, you get it at costco....its something like yoshi's anyway) soy sauce, etc. I just had those around and kind of experimented with mixing a little this and a little that. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much. I had a roommate that liked eating healthy and she had that yoshi's on her pasta, cold or warm, I never got that into it, but she liked it. Sorry, its not great advice, but it was what worked the best for me.
The best thing we found in college to save time and money was doing a big meal on Sunday, so you have quick left overs on Monday and Tuesday. Plus, it was nice to start out the week with a leasure meal.
A big pot of vegetable beef stew lasts for a couple days and is really easy to reheat. In mid October get a turkey breast and roast it. Then do turkey sandwhiches all week. It's like a blast of homey meals right when you are in need of something homey.
Get aload of this - I just wrote like an entire cookbook full of suggestions and Gabe pushed a button, disconnected me from the internet and I lost it all.
I'll work on it again. Darn it!
I sent you an email with my list of ideas
Post a Comment