In my last post I mentioned that a couple of my girlfriends and I had started working out and eating dinner together in an attempt to keep each other accountable. We are all in school together and so when we can we would try to get together and make a healthy dinner. It was super fun, before everyone got busy again with school, or boyfriends (husbands :D) or commuting. The things I took away from doing those meals were awesome for people who only cook dinner for one or two people and so I'm going to share the tips with you because I dont know about you, but like I have said before, cooking a whole casserole and having to eat it all alone gets SO boring after the 4th lunch/dinner, and you can only freeze so much. So onward to the tips!
1. Buy It Frozen- yes you read that right. I try to buy as much fresh fruit and veggies as I can, but sometimes its hard to eat it all and to me, there is nothing worse than leftover vegetables unless its something that I'm going to eat the very next day with dinner. I have found that buying a bag of frozen broccoli and just pulling out what I need with dinner makes my life so much easier and its always fresh!
2. Buy it Frozen times 2?: Okay so same with frozen meats. I know I just said this about the veggies, but you can buy a couple of pounds of fish (I love salmon) that come individually packaged, pull it out in the morning to defrost (in the fridge) and cook it when you get home and its wonderful. You can do this with frozen chicken too. There are hundreds of dishes you can cook chicken with, but you dont have to buy a whole pound and cook it all at once.
3. Spice it Up: One of my favorite things is to play with spices that you havent tried before. Having people in my kitchen cooking who knows what makes me happy but nervous because I never know what it will taste like, but some of my favorite new dishes have come from the girls cooking with something I wouldnt have ever tried. So find a seasoning that looks good and start playing with it, if you dont like it, at least you tried. Cavenders is GREAT and goes well on everything.
4. Play With Your Food: I was telling my mom today that the meals that satisfy me the most are the ones that are pretty. Whether that is with different color veggies on your plate, or with how you present it, even if its just you. You look at it and feel like you made something thats worth eating and you feel happier and making the choice to put different veggies on your plate, like summer squash, broccoli, asparagus (those are my three stand bys for right now) bell peppers, zucchini or anything else makes you feel good about what you are eating. Plus, if you have more veggies on your plate than meat or carbs especially with Weight Watchers you are eating a whole lot of good for not many Points Plus.
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| Ground Turkey!! |
5. Ground Turkey and Greek Yogurt: Two of my (brand new, for the greek yogurt) favorite things! I have found recently that its hard for me to make a big dish out of the ground turkey and still want to eat it. Just like the casserole thing. So I saw one of the fitness people I follow on Instagram (follow me I'm ladylizza) and on Facebook makes patties out of her ground turkey and then puts the on whatever she wants. You could freeze them and reheat as needed if you dont think you can eat all of them in a week! Talk about being able to mix up your meats if its just that easy. I do this with my turkey and I LOVE everything I put it in!
Greek yogurt goes well in just about anything that you can use mayo for. I have substituted it for deviled eggs, salmon croquettes, and tuna salad. Imagine the possibilities. Especially if you get the non fat or fat free greek yogurt. It has a gob of protein in it and has a nice tangy flavor, not much sugar and lasts for a long time in the fridge!
With those tips you should be cooking for yourself (and your plus one! or even your family) in no time!
Switching topics! I do want to say one of the things I'm most excited about is my potted plant garden that I started! I have two tomatoes that are growing on two of my 4 plants, and I have a pepper plant that has three little baby peppers on it! I named one of my tomatoes Alfred. He is the big one. I'll feel almost bad when I eat him. I also have two watermelon vines and a basil plant, plus some hanging ferns and two little potted flower plants. They all make me happy when I take the dog out for a walk!
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| This is my first Tomato |
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| All plants lined in a row |
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| Alfred!! |
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| See how big he is!? |
Hey, how do you cook your squash? The yellow crooked neck summer squash.
ReplyDeleteI chop it all up, put a little olive oil in the pan, heat it, add some onions. For one squash I use about a quarter of a large onion, I let those cook (Med High heat) for less than a minute, add the squash and some cavenders and I cover it and let it cook until its fork tender. Some of it will be sorta mushy, but the rest of it will be pretty solid! Thats all I do. I sometimes add the frozen broccoli to this but it takes more seasoning and longer to cook because its frozen and I just toss that in at the same time I do the raw squash.
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