When I was really depressed a couple years back and could barely feed myself each day, I ate a lot of what I call "dog food for people". It's just canned refried beans, canned cooked chicken, drain the chicken, dump in a bowl with the beans, mix and heat a bit in the microwave, portion it out with rice. Season as you like, its bland but inoffensive on it's own.
Oh, also, I just remembered my favourite appalling-levels-of-calories food from when I was trying to actively bulk up again after I nearly died and was an 80lbs skeleton of a person determined to never have that small a fat reserve ever again! TRIPLE THREAT SANDWICH Honey, peanut butter, and Nutella on white bread. Extremely tasty and filling, but if you're Diabetic like me remember to take enough insulin to counter it!
a salad (slaw?) I have been eating recently: - a couple forkfuls of peanut butter mixed with enough sesame ginger/asian salad dressing to make it nice and creamy and mixable, plus a little lime juice if you want - veggie slaw mix (shredded green cabbage + red cabbage + carrots. can also get extra shredded carrots to add if you want) and any or all of the following: - sliced green onions - cilantro (could also use cilantro paste) - fried garlic - sesame seeds - chopped peanuts - crispy wonton strips delicious, covers several food groups, puts a vegetable in your face, takes less than 10 minutes to make and only dirties a salad bowl and a fork (plus knife and cutting board if you do the green onions or cilantro, but they barely get dirty). strongly recommend
So it turns out you can steam kale in the microwave for sandwich filler. It has so much less volume. More greens in less space, and less wrangling to get them to stay put while eating. :P I poured probably less than a centimeter of water, quarter inch, in a microwave safe plastic container with the lid resting on top but not closed. I used a couple handfuls of kale. This was not science, just an estimate of how much would be a fairly generous amount even after it was steamed. I also cut a slice of red onion and stuck that in there on top of the kale to steam too, for more flavor and because I like onions. I think I zapped it for a minute and a half? No fancy power settings, just regular. It could probably have been perfectly fine for two minutes, but if you’re not sure, you can pull it out, check how it’s looking, and put it back in if it doesn’t seem steamed enough. I drained what water was left, which wasn’t much. You can do whatever you like with the rest of the sandwich. It probably isn’t very exciting by itself unless you really love steamed kale, but I was actually surprised at how little flavor it contributed beyond Kinda Leaf. The dijon mustard may have helped with that. I’ve found that spices and other flavorful things can overwhelm kale real fast, which is probably for the best. It does taste pretty Leaf. Citrus doesn’t seem to overwhelm it exactly, but a bit of lemon juice can make the bitterness more palatable I think. If you don’t have sandwich meat, veggies and cheese still make a perfectly good sandwich. One completely unrelated thing that’s been extremely helpful with being able to cook more often is that we got a new skillet. It’s Blue Diamond and I love it. I’m not sure how much it was, or what other similar options there are. But if it’s doable, a skillet with a really good nonstick coating is so, so helpful. It can’t go in the dishwasher, but it’s so damn easy to clean that I don’t know why I’d do that anyway. It doesn’t loom in my mind as this awful task that I have to do after eating to give the skillet enough time to cool down before pouring water on it. It takes like a minute of barely any effort to rinse it off, soap it, and rinse it again. There’s no stuck food. The food sticks to itself instead of the pan, which is also very nice when you’re trying to stir things together. It doesn’t solve all my problems with cleanup, but it helps a lot.
A recent low spoons and (in my area) ridiculously cheap snack our fam has found is popcorn! Before you say "that's not cheap in a consistent diet" or "I've heard popcorn before, it's boring" let me introduce you to this sucker: https://www.amazon.com/Collapsible-...ocphy=9027193&hvtargid=pla-311348829001&psc=1 It's a collapsible popcorn bowl, it works great, and is stupid easy to clean up and put away. If you can make this 10 dollar investment, you can get the unpopped, unflavored bags of kernels and go to town! You put a bit in, add the oil of your choice (just a teeny bit, just enough to coat the kernels) stick it in the microwave and you've got a snack that can be flavored a jillion different ways with what you've got around the house. My personal faves are: Classic salt and pepper Brown sugar Parmesan Butter Valentino and shredded cheese This one's my fave, just a bit of garlic and red pepper flakes Its good and I love it.
I am once again posting my soup recipe dump in a pot without draining, season to taste, cook until it's the texture you want it to be. I'm eating some right now and it's god damn delicious
It doesn't actually taste that similar to chili - the cumin is the primary flavor, the chipotle is just there for the smokiness and a little bit of a kick if you want one. I usually add like a half teaspoon at most. It's more sweet than anything with the natural sweetness of the squash, tomatoes, and hominy, plus a tiny bit of brown sugar. It's plenty filling on its own, too, I don't think it really needs any meat (though a little goat cheese on top is delicious)! Comes out looking like this: Spoiler: large image
Oh I always add cumin to my chili. Cumin is king. I think the flavor combo missing is garlic+sautéed onions. The squash and hominy are definitely interesting and very good flavors, bit not so out of the ordinary to be shocking or surprising.
true, I add cumin to chili as well. it's right up there with cinnamon in terms of favorite spice. garlic and onion would be pretty out of place in this though :P but you could definitely use it as a jumping off point to make a good chili! I just like the original version too much to have tried it lol
I need to eat less meat, but fake meat tastes horrible. What'd you recommend for vegetable protein sources? I have pulses, tofu, and nuts, am I missing anything useful?
Pumpkin/squash makes passable chips that can be baked or air-fried like potato ones, and provide more fibre.
my friend taught me this and i’ve been obsessed. acquire: -one rotisserie chicken -a container of spinach artichoke dip -a package of hawaiian rolls shred rotisserie chicken with a fork. spread spinach artichoke dip inside the rolls. add chicken. delicious sliders
Did this today (with artichoke Parmesan dip instead because that's what they had) and it was delicious and easy and I think I may owe you a firstborn.
mug cake made from angel food cake mix and any other flavor cake mix recommendation: use slightly less angel food mix, and substitute oil for part of the water. also add a little extra cocoa powder if you're making it with chocolate mix. this has the best texture of any mug cake I've tried :D
