Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

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SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by SandiSAHM »

HappyDaze wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:16 pm I guess it all depends on how you look at it - I mean a toasted slice of whole grain bread, topped with peanut butter and apple or banana is more or less a complete healthy meal. Just curious about how others cook, I guess. How many do you cook for and how may items for your main meal - usually?
There are 4 of us, three 'normal' people and a starving teenaged boy who will soon outweigh all of us despite being thin; he's tall and lean and apparently has hollow legs :lol: . It depends completely on who is cooking (DD will occasionally make pizza or some weirdly intricate thing she found online - after she shops for the ingredients), DS does the best scrambled eggs of all of us so if we do breakfast for dinner he does those while DD or DH do pancakes. I'm the primary cook and for me it depends on what day it is, what's on hand, and whether or not I've been working all day. I do Indian food and some soups in the crockpot, chili or a soup on the stove on workdays. Usually anything in a casserole dish requires a slow work day or a day off, though I sometimes prep them on Sunday night for Monday. If I have lots of time I'll do something more interesting. The garden is producing so we'll go to lengths to make the most of a salad. Last week I roasted beets, sauteed some asparagus and glazed some pecans and we used greens from the garden and some goat cheese and made dinner salads. Usually salad is way more low key and a side or a starter rather than the whole dinner. DH loves beets and asparagus, so it's something we do around once a week as long as the beets are producing (recently learned roasted beets can be frozen, so he's planted more).

Today I made quinoa tabbouleh (no bulgur wheat for the GF - and it has more protein than traditional tabbouleh), DH will put that ON TOP of salad greens, because he's weird ;) He adds shredded carrots, it's actually not bad all together.

When all else fails, there's soup / salad / sandwich combos. Holiday food is different, there's usually a vegetarian meat substitute and an array of sides - and pie :P Because even diabetics need pie a few times a year.
frugalmom
Posts: 1710
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by frugalmom »

mbrudnic wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 8:05 pm I too keep it simple. Sometimes just a proteins sometimes I add a vegetable. A large salad with some proteins and extras is often good for me. It fills me up and keeps my satisfied. But some days I go into grazing mode.

I started trying to move to more plant-based meals, but then I my blood sugars were found to be high and the dietician said to keep my Carb below 30 per meal. So I need to measure my beans, rice and pastas and add more meat.
Why does the nutritionist think your sugar goes up with a plant based meal more so? Too many starchy vegetables or is it the rice. pasta and bread part? Is it good to be in grazing mode (provided little amounts?) or does that continuously feed/increase the sugar levels? My problem is I love rice and noodles!
frugalmom
Posts: 1710
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by frugalmom »

I cook it seems all the time-get tired of cooking sometimes! Idk how his mom did it with 5 kids and cooked big meals and everything from scratch and never a break. They did not have restaurants where they lived in a village so you had no choice but to cook! Before that she had to help cook for 14 siblings so maybe when she had her own family it was easier!? I personally need a break sometimes even if it is a bowl of granola or cereal!

I try not to eat breakfasts-but that doesn't work all the time. It is hard when I have to cook for everyone esp dh then I eat! Today I made oatmeal and folded in a peach,raspberry,blueberry and blackberry cobbler leftovers. My sil bakes the best stuff-she doesn't cook otherwise really bc they go out to eat mostly-but her desserts are great! I don't make or do desserts bc if I learn to make desserts, I will be in more trouble than I am! So if any dessert at all (rare) it would be ice cream-that is easy lol! Oh one thing for breakfast is that I consistently do is drink tea of some kind like English Breakfast, Lady Earl Gray or Red Label India tea and half and half after boiled tea dark with a pinch of cardamon powder and a cinnamon stick or sprinkle of cinnamon. I boil it all together after. Then I add moringa tea also most days with that tea boiled together-that is the only thing I feel gives me a bit of energy(not my old energizer bunny energy, more like a winded up toy that gets a bit of energy and dies down again!).

Lunch usually is leftovers from the day before or a salad from the garden. It is our main meal of the day. So if I am cooking it usually has a vegetable or two, protein and sometimes rice or noodles or naan(some carb). That reminds me we haven't posted a weekly menu of the week thread lately right!? We should do that again! I like to get ideas bc it seems like same things over awhile for me!

Dinner-I try not to eat dinner or if I do eat something it is light (like a few bites of dh's plate of food-lol) or fruit like cherries or apricots and maybe a tiny cheese cube-more like a snack. Usually it is leftovers from lunch for the rest of the family unless they ate it all then I have to cook again something totally different. I shop and cook from my fridge, garden and pantry based on what is going to go bad if I don't cook it soon!

When it is just my son with us (like dd is in college but she just graduated so she will be home more now so I have to cook) then it is so much easier bc he eats whatever and if he doesn't, he will make it himself or get something or go to his gf or friends! He and dad will now even eat a bowl of cereal instead of going to get something out to eat bc both of them are cheap and don't want to spend any money. My son doesn't even want to spend my money eating out bc he says it is a waste of money. So that is good.

So menu for the next two weeks(for lunch and dinners):
1.BBq chicken,corn elote,salad(greens, potato salad or pasta salad) or roasted broccoli
2.Chicken with &#@! mushrooms in heavy whipping cream sauce, fresh made mashed potatoes(I have a LOT To use up bc someone gave us 3 free bags and I don't use it much normally but I hate it to go to waste so trying to use it up!). Made this yesterday-leftover today still.
3. Chicken salad sandwich with grapes, celery and tomato slices or like a Waldorf salad
4. Hunan chicken (like chicken sliced paper thin with Chinese garlic black bean sauce and celery and carrots sliced thin diagonally and hot sauce. Tofu with ginger grated over it and green onions diced in soy sauce dipping sauce(all into dipping sauce and you dip tofu into this-very cooling and refreshing for summer). Depending how many people eating at home-use 2-4 breasts sliced thin).
5. Greek pastitos with cream )never made this-looked good so will try this out).
6. Thai chicken green curry to use up zucchini, red bell pepper and green bell peppers from the garden (they look like wonky bell peppers not the nice usual ones-oh well, we work with what we get!),mini corn(canned Chinese ones),bamboo shoots. Use two chicken breasts or thighs, since lots of vegetables incorporated in. May throw a few broccoli pieces in (frozen).
7. Pulled chicken sandwich with coleslaw on brioche buns.(slow cooker)
8. Chicken teriyaki or huli huli kebabs with zucchini (from our garden)and onions and pineapples(fresh one that I froze) on skewers.
9. Baked chicken(or cornish hen) with fresh apricots or rice with apricots(can you tell I have to use up my apricots up from my tree?!). If I don't see or get the cornish hen and tired of chicken, then I will make a frozen mixed vegetable curry or turmeric rice with apricot in it. I have fresh to use up but I also have dried if I need it.
10. Using up sour cream that someone gave me three small ones-so stroganoff one meal and 11. chicken fajitas,which also uses up tomatoes and bell peppers.
12, Nam Tok salad (beef slices)
13. Paprika chicken with tzatziki sauce (cucumber yogurt)-new recipe I saw and hope I can find again! Afghani bread or basmati rice possibly or potato wedges. Cucumber and tomato salad.
14. Shredded chicken tacos with lettuce and tomatoes.
15. Japanese Ramen with shredded chicken, cabbage,carrots, zucchini, peas, mushrooms and edamame and soft slightly hard boiled egg and kim chee. If not a soup will make it into a chow mein instead.

Breakfasts:
1. zucchini pineapple bread
2. potato wedges with fried egg and feta cheese
3. apple oatmeal
4. apple cinnamon muffins
5. croissants with tea (two or three days worth of this)
6. strawberries in crepe with whipped cream (Preston's favorite breakfast with Nutella drizzled over this)
7. Afghani bread with green onions and grilled on a cast iron pan with garlic powder, fresh diced green onions,salt and black pepper with egg in a hole in the middle that I cut out. This is Preston's favorite also. The holes I cut out I also grill these to eat with the egg.
8. French toast with apple butter cooked with fresh apples(I had a jar to use up so figure this would be good for this).
9. Pancakes with this as well,
10. slice of bread with peanut butter
11. Vanilla or plain yogurt smoothies or parfaits with fresh fruits cut up or blueberries and folded in with a handful of granola. Smoothies I have fruits I freeze like blueberry or strawberries and bananas. Yogurts were also free and they gave me a lot!

Rest of fill ins are often plain corn flakes, cheerios or cereal and/or granola. I also like grits on occasion if I do eat any breakfast. Oh and of course, any eggs(dh likes eggs and Indian omelets or veg omelets) with toast, Afghani bread or papitas (small diced potatoes fried up). Egg burrito if any flour tortilla not used up with the fajitas.

Try not to eat snacks-but snacks are usually fresh cut fruits (we eat a lot of fruits-esp in season off our tree-like we are bombarded with figs and apricots right now) or cheese and a few crackers if any. Whew! So you get an idea....
mbrudnic
Posts: 4500
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:57 am

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by mbrudnic »

frugalmom wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:57 pm Why does the nutritionist think your sugar goes up with a plant based meal more so? Too many starchy vegetables or is it the rice. pasta and bread part? Is it good to be in grazing mode (provided little amounts?) or does that continuously feed/increase the sugar levels? My problem is I love rice and noodles!
I notice a difference in my blood sugars. Beans, Corn, Rice, pasta. And the yesterday, I had some Broccoli cheddar soup for lunch, but was starving by dinner. Meat keeps me satisfied, otherwise I am more likely to over eat.
Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by Quilter51 »

I agree with Maggie. I prefer to reserve my carbs for breakfast and goodies which means I need meat to fill me. Occasionally I have pb sandwich or soup and a sandwich but mu lunches and dinners almost always include meat protein.
frugalmom
Posts: 1710
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Are Your Meals More Simple or More Complex?

Post by frugalmom »

mbrudnic wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:00 am I notice a difference in my blood sugars. Beans, Corn, Rice, pasta. And the yesterday, I had some Broccoli cheddar soup for lunch, but was starving by dinner. Meat keeps me satisfied, otherwise I am more likely to over eat.
Thank you!
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