Musings On Calorie Restriction Cooking
John Liu
4 months ago
last modified: 4 months ago
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Cooking for one
Comments (10)Cooking is easy to do, and easy NOT to do (LOL) - without regard for how many you have to prepare for. I find it's easy to get out of the cooking habit, especially after going on vacation and during Christmas/New Year's holidays. When this happens, I rely once more on my old basic principals that would work just as well for one as they do for two or more. I'm sure if I only had myself to cook for, I would need a plan to keep on track even more. Have a plan... I actually have two plans. The first is WHAT to eat and is based on the old "Basic-4" so I make sure I get a variety of foods each day from all the food groups. I like the old Basic-4 because there aren't as many total calories as the new Food Pyramid, but the Pyramid would be another good choice. I've used the Basic-4 for decades. If I add anything to this basic program it's more fruits and vegetables, and I make sure I add some kind of nuts each day to the meal/snack plan. I also tend to stick to whole foods because they are nature's original "fast" food. Why cook it if you can consume it whole... (Servings per day) Bread/Cereal/Grains - 4-servings Fruits/Vegetables - 4-servings Meat or Meat Alternative - 2-servings Milk/Dairy - 2-servings The next plan is pretty general in nature. I can switch one day for another, or leave one day out completely without messing up the whole schedule. I keep my freezer full of single- and double-servings so I cook once and portion it so I only have to make Chili about once every 2- to 3-months, or I'll make freezer mashed potatoes when they are on sale (buy one 5-pound bag, get one free), so I may only make mashed potatoes a few times a year. The freezer is my friend.... MONDAY - Big meal. Includes a large cut of meat and all the fixings. This will contribute to subsequent meals for the week, meat for the freezer, meat for sandwiches for lunch, and possibly base for soup (i.e. a baked chicken carcass). Plan well and you may only have to cook the large portion of meat once and use it another Monday or two. I have enough roasted turkey and baked ham left from the holidays for a number of Monday meals. TUESDAY - Leftovers (or a casserole). This may, or may not, take on a completely different look from Monday. You choose.... WEDNESDAY - Stir-fry. If you chopped veggies on M/T for those meals, chop enough to use in stir-fry today. Use a mix of frozen and fresh veggies. Nearly any kind of meat will work for stir-fry - both raw and pre-cooked. I'll cook extra meat at this meal, freeze it to use in a wrap, on a dinner salad, or meet me back here on another Wednesday to find it's way into another stir-fry. Add some brown rice to the meal. If you don't like to cook rice separately for one, there are single-serving sizes that microwave in 1-minute. You can also "cook" a single-serving of rice in a Thermos. Thermos "cooking" is an easy way to cook rice, whole wheat berries, oatmeal and beans. Helpful Hint: Take advantage of the Salad Bar at your grocery store. You can get ingredients and toppings and not have to commit to a whole bell pepper or a bunch of green onions, when all you need is a couple tablespoons for a pizza, salad or recipe. THURSDAY: International. (For want of a better title...) Usually means something Italian or Mexican, which means pasta/noodle or tortilla/taco shell, and all the variations. I make-ahead spaghetti sauce and freeze it in single-servings, which can be used any number of ways, as well as "taco" meat (which can be pre-cooked seasoned meat of choice, or a ground beef mix) - also in small portions in the freezer. I like to use chili (stored in single-servings in the freezer) for a Taco Salad (a la Wendy's). FRIDAY: Vegetarian. A good day to incorporate those less-expensive meat substitutes (beans, eggs, cheese...) If you normally don't have a large breakfast, indulge with crepes, pancakes or waffles. SATURDAY: Soup and/or Sandwich Soup is generally found in the freezer. A sandwich can be a wrap, arepas, Sloppy Joes... It's not restricted to two pieces of bread. SUNDAY: Homemade pizza. This is a good day to clean out the refrigerator if you didn't already clean it out yesterday to make soup. Need pizza toppings? Raid the salad bar at the grocery store. Make your pizza on an English Muffin, tortilla, or pre-made from the store. I make a stack of par-baked pizza crusts and keep them in the freezer. The link below may also give you some ideas and recipes. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking Solo...See MoreLOOKING for: Calling our Southern cooks ..help this Yank!
Comments (34)I'm so glad it went well Eileen and you were very nice to take your guests problems into consideration. For any future southern style meals you may wish to have and from my deep south vantage point, I can tell you Cajun and Creole cooking may be in the deep south geographically, but is another totally different catagory from southern cooking. Southern cooking is also not a diffent ethnic catagory as I've seen suggested in other areas. Fried chicken isn't a special dish here although it does seem to be a southern dish, as is fried pork chops, fried corn, corn on the cob, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens and cornbread (usually without sugar). ; ) Also southern are summer squash casserole, fried green tomatoes, string beans cooked for hours in chicken broth with ham hock and onions, crowder peas, and purple hull peas. Okra, either boiled or fried, lima beans, fried or mashed potatoes and potato salad are a few more. In the winter usually pinto beans and large white lima beans show up quiet often. BBQ pork which is pulled, though not even close the same as the pulled pork recipes you see now all over the place. The staple here is cooked extremely low for twelve or more hours over an open pit, usually over hickory wood. It has no ketchupy or sugary sauce on it at all, mainly a little vinegar, water and cayenne pepper....See More"Chinese Food" - What do you cook at home?
Comments (65)Glad you like them, CindyMac. Now I "want" one of those portable IWATANI butane cookers. We have smooth top electric, but it heats up quickly and works well. My _problem_ is that, although we have a robust kitchen-stovetop exhaust fan, cooking certain things like a dozen fresh Thai basil leaves makes a fine splattery mess. It's easy to clean up and wipe down the visable or stovetop oil spatter, but there is a lot that gets "around". I was thinking that perhaps the IWATANI butane 35 whatever might help me fry outdoors. But, we are in New England, often have a 30 mph breeze. A friend thinks that it would not have sufficient heat in those conditions. If I used it on en enclosed, unfinished, un insulated and un heated porch just off the kitchen, it would still be chilly while cooking, but as there is NO exhaust fan, would probably GOP that up in short order. For a while (30 minutes) I had visions of my cooking SE Asian noodles and meals at outside summer markets. But New Engand ain't Saigon or even Mexico. Lots of hoops and regulations and Inspections. Yadda yadda. End of that whimsical notion. Not to mention to restricted diets -- no gluten, no peanuts, no this or that. QUESTION- what do the Chinese and Asians do about gluten and gliadin and peanut allergies? Do they have as many picky eaters as we have in the US? What about other places? In my household, we can eat about everything. I have some degree of (age-related) lactose sensitivity. But I just eat aged cheeses or yogurt and restrict the volume of whey, lactose-laden foods. We also get lactase drops for milk....See MoreSome health musings
Comments (20)Due to dual blood thinner therapy, I can no longer take Advil or extra aspirin or things like Celebrex for my RA, migraines or post stroke centralized pain and CBD is not orally recommended with warfarin and I have to be careful with transdermal treatments as well so I explored other chronic pain treatments and found that many studies show that eating more fiber acts as a prebiotic (which are more helpful long term than taking probiotics) that will lower the antibodies and inflammation that cause most diseases like lupus, diabetes, many cancers and RA. I also found many studies linking stress reduction therapies, ACT ( a form of cbt for chronic pain ) and daily moderate exercise to lower inflammation levels and thus pain reduction. I have since my stroke started a practice of eating 40 grams of fiber per day, walking a minimum of thirty minutes daily and meditating fifteen minutes every morning when I wake at 5:45 and again as I fall asleep at 9:45. I see a therapist weekly for Acceptance and commitment therapy and emdr( eye movement desensitization reprocessing) for PTSD and I no longer notice my pain at alll. Pain is preceived by our brains and we can dampen that part of our brain with training instead of with CBD, pot and opioids ( which work by altering the part of the brain that senses pain). In addition to pain management I also have become serum negative for RA, lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome. My CRP and sed rate have lowered significantly and I wake up awake and I no longer suffer from my severe anxiety disorder and depression. Fiber, exercise and meditation have changed my life and I only regret that it took two strokes for me to start on this path to a better life....See MoreJohn Liu
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