Dear Chef Kathleen,

I work at a hospital, and they have a great cafeteria with many "heart smart" and low-fat options. I can get soups, salads and all sorts of great choices throughout the week. I also use part of my lunch hour to walk either inside or outside the building with a group of fellow workers. We stay in on rainy days and work the stairwells; otherwise we hit the pavement outside.

My problem comes on the weekends. As soon as I get home, I seem to lose all of my motivation to move, let alone go out walking, and I have a terrible time finding healthy meals for myself. I live alone, so there is no one to blame and no one to help. Please help me come up with some fast and simple meal ideas I can cook at home.

Roger


Dear Roger,

First of all, kudos to you for all of your hard work during the week! Since you live alone in your house, I'm going to assume you do all the gardening, all the laundry and all of the housework yourself. All of these things add up over time. More importantly, house and yard work actually do count as exercise as long as you are putting your all into it. Even washing your car can be beneficial to your overall fitness.

Since you seem to do well with a support system, consider joining a team or group activity of some kind:

• Does the hospital have a company softball team? Look into starting one if they don't. This is a great way to exercise while building team spirit with your coworkers.
  
  
• Take a brisk walk around your own neighborhood and get to know your neighbors again.
  
  
• Go off on some fun fitness-orientated outings. Go rock climbing, join a club bike ride, or take a karate or kickboxing class at your local gym.
  
  
• You could also sign up for one or more of the many charity walks that we have in our area. This way you can get healthy while helping out some very worthy causes.

As far as keeping off weekend pounds, make sure your kitchen is stocked to ensure success, not failure. If your pantry is free of "voice foods"—high-calorie foods that call your name until you've polished them off in their entirety—you can't get into any trouble. Go through your pantry, fridge and freezer and eliminate empty-calorie foods too tempting to have around.

Keep supper simple
Getting dinner on the table doesn't have to be Thanksgiving hard. Here's my I'm-too-tired-to-cook speedy supper formula: no sauce, no slicing, no stuffing, no shopping, no mess. Either microwave, grill, pan sear or broil a portion of lean protein, microwave a veggie and add a tossed salad to complete the meal.

If you microwave a piece of fish, you can be eating within 10 minutes of walking in the door. Will you create an award-winning, knockout meal? Nope. But if you plan ahead and shop well, you won't spend more than hour total on a week's worth of meals.

Keep individually wrapped, preportioned pieces of protein in the freezer: fish filets, chicken burgers, hamburgers, steaks, pounded pork tenderloin and chicken breasts. Before you leave for work in the morning, grab whatever it is you're in the mood for and place on a plate to defrost in the fridge.

When you come home from work, cook the veggies first so you have something healthy to snack on while you're preparing the entree and tossing the salad. To prepare microwave veggies, place a portion of veggies in a microwave-safe dish with a tablespoon of water. Cover loosely with plastic and press the vegetable button or cook at 1-minute intervals on high, checking after each minute, until cooked to your liking. Serve immediately.

Salads can be as easy as bagged lettuce and low-calorie bottled dressing. Or branch out and up the nutrition ladder by adding no-prep elements such as grated carrots, prewashed baby spinach, broccoli slaw, sprouts, precut veggies from a salad bar, drained and rinsed canned beans or chickpeas, toasted nuts, grated cheese or dried cherries, cranberries or raisins. Every Monday, I toss together a salad mix of whatever greens happen to look good in the market and store them in a zipper bag so all I have to do when I get home is top, dress, toss and eat. A can of tuna can turn a salad into a substantial entree, and you don't even have to take out a single pan.

To microwave fish, place on a dinner plate covered loosely with plastic and cook on high one minute, check for doneness and continue cooking at 30 second intervals on high until cooked to your liking.

Cook once, eat twice
When you're in the mood to spend time in the kitchen, cook once but eat twice. Make every minute count toward at least one other meal.

Since you are single, you may well be able to stretch this out to cook once and eat three or four times. For example, if you roast an entire chicken and some vegetables for dinner one night, the next day you can make a big pot of chicken soup by heating the leftover chicken and vegetables in enough low-sodium chicken broth to cover

Another good way to use up leftover chicken is to make a Roasted Chicken and Apple Salad. In fact, sometimes I'll roast two small chickens when I have a Saturday to spend in the kitchen just so I have enough leftover meat to create a pot of soup and this delicious salad.

Roasted Chicken and Apple Salad
To make, first remove the skin from the roasted chicken leftovers and discard. For one person, a full breast and thigh should be enough meat.

Remove the meat from the bones; discard all fat and bones. Pull and shred or dice the meat into pieces. Place in a bowl. Peel and dice one small tart apple such as a Granny Smith or Fuji. Cut 1/2 stalk of celery into 1/4 -inch slices. Rinse and drain 2 teaspoons of capers. Add apple, celery and capers to chicken and toss.

To prepare the dressing, in a small mixing bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of low- or nonfat mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of low-fat plain yogurt and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Add coarse-grained salt and cracked pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

This chicken salad can be served inside your favorite artisan bread, over garden lettuces or with any combination of fruits or vegetables that appeal to you. It works equally well with chunks of tomato, blanched green beans, roasted beets, blanched carrots or chunks of mango, papaya or avocado.

kd@chefkathleen.com