Thanks Grrlscout! I ordered 6 of their brochures. They look like good stuff...one was on snacks and another was on breakfast. 2 challenging areas for me.
I received this in my inbox this morning, from the American Institute for Cancer Research - check out the info on the brochure thing at the bottom.
=========================================== Eating Habits Put Singles at Risk New Brochure Encourages Healthful Cooking for One
WASHINGTON, DC - The catch-as-catch-can eating patterns of people living alone are conducive to weight gain and long-term health problems, experts at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) warned today. Learning to cook for yourself may be the best way to care for yourself, they added.
"Families of one also deserve a delicious and healthy meal," says Melanie Polk, RD. "With a little bit of planning ahead, singles can prepare meals for themselves that are nourishing and satisfying at the same time."
Nearly 26 percent of Americans—73 million people—live alone. Whether single, widowed or divorced, many of these people eat an excessive number of their major meals at commercial eateries or assemble them at home from prepared foods.
According to a U.S. Department of Energy study, more than 42 percent of all singles do not cook even one meal per day at home. Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that singles spend 47 percent of their food dollar on food prepared away from home as opposed to 42 percent for households of two or more and 37 percent for households of five or more.
"The more meals you prepare yourself, the more opportunities you have to introduce healthful basics like vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans. These foods help you manage your weight and offer protection against chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes," Polk says.
The prospect of maintaining a kitchen for one, cooking alone and dining alone seems to drive many singles to eat out, take out, or order out. Unfortunately, commercially prepared meals often have too many calories, too much fat, too much sodium and too few vegetables and fruits for maintenance of a healthy weight and protection against chronic disease.
For this reason, experts at AICR recommend that singles develop strategies that will allow them to take meal preparation into their own hands more often. Preparing a greater percentage of meals from healthful ingredients at home means greater control over long-term health and body weight. Cooking Solo Offers Strategies for Healthy Eating
"In fact it's not hard for most singles to prepare healthy meals regularly for themselves. You need to have a few staples on hand and a few standard recipes for soups, casseroles and easy stir fries. Cook two recipes on Sunday, store individual servings in the refrigerator or freezer, and you’ll have something delicious to warm up all week when you get home from work," Polk says.
To assist singles in meal preparation, AICR has published a new brochure entitled Cooking Solo: Homemade for Health. It explains how to organize shopping, storing and preparing food for the single household. It offers tips for fitting cooking and healthy meals into a busy contemporary life.
Cooking Solo lists the basics: simple kitchen tools, smart grocery shopping tips, safe food storage and healthful cooking methods. It tells how to choose frozen dinners that have the most nutrition and how to supplement them with vegetables and whole grains.
The new brochure also explains what makes a meal healthy. For good health and lower cancer risk, AICR advises filling two-thirds or more of your plate with vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans, and limiting meat and dairy products to one-third or less of your meal.
This kind of predominantly plant-based diet can provide plenty of protective substances, called phytochemicals, that studies link with lower cancer risk. If Americans ate the recommended 5 or more daily servings of vegetables and fruits, researchers estimate that the incidence of cancer would drop by 20 percent.
Cooking Solo contains 13 easy and delicious recipes, including White Bean Soup with Rotini, Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries and Pecans, Artichoke Salad with Baby Greens, Layered Enchilada Casserole, Pineapple Chicken Stir-Fry and Skillet Apple-Cranberry Granola Crisp. Many of these dishes can be frozen in individual portions for later meals.
Cooking Solo has been reviewed by a panel of physicians and registered dietitians. It can be downloaded from the AICR web site, www.aicr.org. Or call toll-free 1-800-843-8114, ext 457, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, to order a single free copy.
=====
I just checked, and they have Cooking Solo available on the web too:
1/2-3/4 c frozen fruit (cherries are my favorite) single-serving container of yogurt that'll go good with the fruit 1/2 c of milk
Put it in the food processor, pulse two or three times, then set it to run and grab a cup.
The reason for the frozen fruit is so you don't have to use ice. It turns out smooth & milkshakey.
I really like frozen cherries and cherry vanilla yogurt; my boyfriend likes frozen strawberries and strawberry-banana yogurt. Peaches & mango yogurt are also good
Speaking of spinach ... a good thing to have on hand is a bag of frozen spinach.
I use a handful here and there to sneak in some nutrition in many dishes. I like to toss some into rice, casseroles, pasta, soups, etc. Frozen broccoli can be used in much the same way.
It's important to get a bag, rather than a block, so you can use only what you need for one person.
Also, with all this great summer produce, I've been freezing fruit. So far, I've put several sandwich sized ziploc bags into the freezer, containing peaches, bananas, blueberries, and raspberries. I just noticed that strawberries are coming in. They'll be next!
This morning I used some of the frozen peaches and berries to make a smoothie. This means that I didn't need to use ice, and the fruit was much sweeter than what you find in most pre-packaged frozen fruit.
__________________________ DUM SPIRO, SPERO
Posts: 1433 | Location: Phoenix, AZ | Registered: March 11, 2004
Made this last night and it was REALLY good. You could easily serve the chicken warm over some wilted spinach or garlicky greens, this is just how I ended up making it I made for two, but next time, I'm making for four so that there are MORE leftovers.
Took a bowl and mixed equal parts mustard, honey, olive oil, then added 2 parts white wine vinegar (and a splash of pecan vinegar). Mixed those up, then put two cubed chicken breasts in and stirred it up.
Minced a garlic clove, heated some olive oil in a skillet. Added the garlic clove, stirred for about a minute, then added the chicken & marinade. Let that cook while I piled some greens & blue cheese on the plates and mixed up the same ingredients (minus the chicken) as the marinade for the dressing (only in a smaller quantity).
Let the chicken cook until it started to form a nice crust of mustard grains on it. Added a couple of handfuls of pecans, broke them up as I added them, and let them take up most of the rest of the marinade as a glaze. Once most of the marinade was cooked out or attached to the pecans and chicken, pulled the pan off the heat to let it cool a bit. Added it to the greens, topped it off with the dressing, served.
This is what I made last night for dinner. It is a great resizable dinner and can also be refashioned for what ever you have on hand. Great for the summer and fresh veggies that are in abundance!
Original Recipe (can't remember where this one came from...been using it forever)
Serves 4
2 cups assorted colors of cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup lightly packed fresh basil 6 oz goat cheese salt & pepper 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 oz pasta (I used ww)
In a bowl, halve the tomatoes..use as many different colored ones you can find. chiffinade the basil and cube into small cubes the cheese. Add the Salt & Pepper and the olive oil. cook the pasta and drain. Toss in bowl with other ingrediants.
How I changed it
I didn't have goat cheese so I used about 2-3 oz of fresh low fat mazzarella, cubed and 2 tbs ff cream cheese (to get creamy effect). I skipped the olive oil. Added about 3/4 cup fresh fava beans (to complete the protien) and added a little bit of the pasta water too loosen up the "sauce".
I have made this with steamed broccioli or asparagus and flavored ff cream cheses. Sometimes I add cannilini beans or black beans. If I want a kick, I ad some red pepper. Any of the summer veggies or all of them together would be good. This is a good "clean out the fridge of leftover half sliced veggies" dish. I adjust it for the amount of servings i want...mostly by adjusting the amount of pasta and beans I use...the veggies I never measure...just throw in by handfuls or what ever is left in the crisper drawer that needs using.
Once I even made it with leftover roasted veggies I had made for roasted veggie rollups...I had roasted eggplant, yellow squash, zuccinni, onions, red, yellow, orange, green peppers, and tomatoes. I just chopped them and tossed them with the pasta..
Only your imagination will stop you. This is a great base dish for single servings - modify by what ever you have on hand. If you use ww pasta and throw in some beans you have a pretty good protien count too.
Here's dinner from last night. I made 2 servings so I could bring another serving for lunch today but easily could've done 1.
For each serving: 1 Turkey Italian Sausage 1/2 c. chopped vegetables (I did red bell pepper, zucchini and onion) 1/4 c. chopped tomatoes 1/4-1/2 c. spaghetti sauce evoo
In dry skillet, brown the sausage until cooked through. Set aside. Add some evoo to the pan and saute the chopped vegetables until getting tender. In the meantime, slice up the sausage into coins. Add the tomotoes and sausage into the pan and saute for a couple more minutes until some of the liquid cooks down. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Add the spaghetti sauce and heat through. Serve over the pasta of your choice. It was delicious!
Here's what I made last night that worked pretty well. I took a can of soup (happened to be Campbells blended vegetable soup but any veggie rich soup you like would probably work well) and added a 1/2 c. of frozen brown rice (leftover, cooked rice would be fine too) and 1/2 c. of kidney beans. Microwaved it until it was warm through.
I found a website with many recipes on them, and with each recipe they offer a calculator to resize how many servings it will make. I thought that this would be interesting to those of us who are always trying to scale down to cook for 1 website jackie
bump to keep this alive...I've been sitting here trying to come up with an idea to add to the string and the only thing I can say is that I heard in my salad class last week that if you incorporate all 6 of these flavors in a meal or a salad, you will feel more sated: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent This is a concept in Indian culture and cuisine. Examples of each: Sweet (madhura): Milk, butter, sweet cream, wheat, ghee (clarified butter), rice, honey, raw sugar, ripe fruits of many kinds Sour (amla): Limes and lemons, citrus fruits, many kinds of immature fruits, yogurt, mango powder, pomegranate seeds, tamarind Salty (lavana): Salt (ayurveda recommends rock salt), salty pretzels or pickles Bitter (katu): Bitter gourd, greens of many kinds, turmeric, fenugreek Pungent (tikta): Chili peppers, ginger, black pepper, clove, mustard, radish, white daikon Astringent (kashaya): Beans, lentils (dhals), turmeric, cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and cabbage, cilantro
A super simple AND quick side dish I threw together this weekend was sesame noodles. I'd bought some udon noodles because I knew some of KD's recipes in the 2nd book included them. On Saturday, I ate out at Macaroni Grill for lunch and, by dinner, I just wanted something light. I noticed that the udon noodles were higher in protein than I would have suspected, so I decided to make sesame noodles and just have that.
While I boiled the udon noodles, I toasted some sesame seeds in a dry skillet until light brown. I also combined a small amount of soy sauce and dark brown sugar in a bowl and heated in the microwave to make a syrup.
Once the udon noodles were cooked and drained, I tossed them with the soy/sugar syrup and then tossed in the toasted sesame seeds. Now, if I had planned ahead, I think I'd have preferred having this cold but, as it was a last-minute decision, I ate it hot.
It was yummy and very quick. Will certainly be having it again in the future!
Posts: 7864 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
Discoveries at the grocery store & McD's this weekend for fast "single in the city" meals.
This weekend I decided that I really needed to un-complicate my cooking and meals...I was throwing out way to much food due to spoilage. One of the problems here for me (at the grocery stores) is that there are not enough "non-packaged) things for me to get enought variety in what I eat...veggies in particular - I end up throwing away things cause I can't eat them fast enough. So I decided to really explore the grocery produce department.
I discovered that in the pre-bagged/washed section they had a bag of mixed veggies...included broccoli, carrots, cauliflower. Enough of each for a single portion serving for supper or for raw veggies as a snack. - 3 veggies servings for the week in one bag for under $2...not bad
I discovered that McD has a $1 side salad that is not a bad size and is totally lettuce and veggies. Purchased 5 of these for lunches and kept them at work...saved time in cleaning/making/ salads and remembering to take them with me to work. (I have found that the bagged/prewashed salad only keeps for about 3 days for me..I end up tossing to much of the salad)..a little heafty in the $$ department, but what I save in time and effort is worth it to me.
On Sunday I cooked/prepared 2 main dishes that i will eat for supper and lunch...I will add different sides to create diversity. Now I don't have to cook every night and the lunch fixings (a vegetarian burrito filling mix) I took to work in one bowl on monday and will prepare the burrito each day. So far this has made life eaiser for me at lunch and has soved the problem of eating too late after I get home from the Y...supper (a very healthy asparagus/bean/pasta artichoke lf pesto salad) is all but ready...just have to plate it up.
I also looked at some of the far east brand grains and rices to fix and mix with steamed veggies and top off with grilled chicken, turkey, or tofu...have the grain cooked and ready to go in the fridge, have a couple of days of meat grilled ready to be reheated as well. Maybe will try that next week.
This is from the current issue of "Real Simple". . .there are plenty of other quick dinner ideas, but this one really stood out to me. This is as it appeared, but I don't think it would suffer a bit with fat-free feta, fat-free or low-fat yogurt, and whole wheat flatbread/pita bread.
Incidentally, Real Simple has a feature in every magazine that shows how to buy a package of something (I think it's catfish fillets this month), and cook several different meals from it. Gives a shopping list, ideas for different days, etc. It's definitely worth a look, since you end up doing one of KD's favorite things, cooking once and eating twice, or even three times.
Greek Melt (makes 2 pitas)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved 2 Tbl olive oil 1 tsp coarse salt 4 oz crumbled feta 2/3 c plain yogurt juice of 1/2 a lemon 2 cloves thinly sliced garlic 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 10 oz bag of baby spinach 2 pitas
-Heat the oven to 400. Toss tomatoes w/ 1 Tbl olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Arrange on sheet, cut side up, and cook about 10 minutes, until just softened.
-Whisk together feta, yogurt, lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp salt.
-Over medium heat, add 1/2 tsp olive oil. Add garlic & red pepper flakes to hot oil. Cook until garlic turns golden, then add spinach and remaining salt. Cook about 4 minutes, or until spinach is just wilted.
-Brush both sides of pitas with remaining olive oil. Place in oven & heat until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes per side.
-Plate pitas & top with spinach & tomatoes, then drizzle yogurt-feta sauce on top & serve.
A standard "single" dinner of mine, but VERY easy to increase for a crowd. You could (and probably should) make extra because you can cook it all at the same time!
Cold Asian Vegetable salad
The veggies are really your choice. i would choose some combination of the following:
broccoli bell pepper strips mung bean sprouts water chestnuts green beans snap peas carrots (either the bagged strips or, preferably, the kind cut on the bias) eggplant zucchini mushrooms yellow squash asparagus use your imagination!
Cut whatever veggies you are using up into uniform pieces. Get a medium sized pot of water boiling. You must have a strainer that fits into the pot of water. You can use a pasta pot for this, or simply a mesh hand strainer that fits inside the first pot a fair amount.
Now, take your veggies by type (do all the carrots, then all the green beans, etc) and put them in the strainer. Submerge them into the boiling water. Do this for maybe 2-3 mins depending on how you like your vegetables cooked. I like mine a bit crisp so I err on the shorter side.
As soon as you take them out, plunge them into a big bowl of ice water and let them sit. Once you have finished all the veggies, give them a good strain. Toss them with the veggies you didnt cook (bean sprouts, water chestnuts, for example). Add your sauce.
Here is the best asian sauce recipe I have. It is so versatile! It works cold or hot, as a dipping sauce...anything. I keep some in a bottle already made in the fridge. You could use it as a marinade, on lettuce, on virtually any chopped veggie to make an instant salad (cucumber works great). It was given to me by an australian ex-boyfriend of mine. I lost the man, but kept the recipe.
Asian Dressing for one:
1 teaspsoon fish sauce 1-2 tablespoons sweet chile sauce (this is available in some grocery stores and all asian markets. If you absolutely cant find it, substitute 1 tablespoon honey or peach/apricot jam with a shake of red pepper flakes. but it's worth getting.) 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon roasted peanut or sesame oil
Toss this all together. If you want a more substantial meal, add some cooked cold buckwheat soba noodle to the dish. Cook them in the water when youre finished with the veggies! As I said, this works as a hot dish too. Do everything the same, but cook some onions and garlic in a pan, and then throw in your veggies to heat and toss with the sauce. You could add some meat or tofu at this stage too.
PS: If you've got no time, pick up a bag of those stir fry veggies by the bagged lettuce in the supermarket. All you have to do is boil water and mix a sauce!
Hey y'all, I just made a discovery I had to share -- salmon patties. I scored a package of 5 for $2.99 at Trader Joe's over the weekend. They come frozen.
Last night, my gf was making burgers on the George Foreman. So I had her toss of 2 salmon patties for me.
I had one last night on a bun for dinner. Today, I took the other, and cut it into chunks, and put it in a container, along with sliced tomatoes and some crumbled mexican cheese. In another container, I put some chopped napa cabbage, drizzled with ginger dressing plus a lil extra vinegar.
At lunch, I put it all together in a whole wheat tortilla. Not bad for something I just sort of made up with leftovers!
If I did it again, I'd consider adding a load of fresh baby spinach, and maybe some parsley. Though I seasoned the patty with grilling spices when it was being cooked, it was still a touch bland. All I could really taste was the ginger dressing. Or maybe I could add some salsa instead of the cabbage. The possibilities are endless!
__________________________ DUM SPIRO, SPERO
Posts: 1433 | Location: Phoenix, AZ | Registered: March 11, 2004
Here's a 2 serving recipe that would be a piece of cake to shrink down or just eat lots of the relish on one fish filet. You could probaby easily reduce the oil and I would definitely use canola or olive instead of vegetable. Try tossing together the relish in the morning and dinner won't be but a few minutes away when you get home! Haven't tried this yet but picked up some frozen cod at Costco over the weekend so this will definitely be appearing on my plate next week!
Peg
Grilled Fish with Tomato Dill Relish Serves 2
1 cups fresh tomatoes, diced 1/4 cup red onion, diced 1/4 cup cucumber, diced 2 tablespoons fresh dill, diced 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon vegetable oil salt and pepper to taste 2 fish fillets, fresh or frozen (about 1/2 pound) -- use a firm-fleshed fish
To make relish, in a bowl mix together all ingredients except fish; refrigerate for at least one hour.
Preheat barbecue grill, George Foreman, or oven broiler.
Grill fish over coals till it flakes easily when tested with a fork, about 3 minutes per side.
Hey guys! I don't want to let this thread die! I need this thread!
In the spirit, here is my weeknight "I don't want spaghetti leftovers in the fridge or i will eat them" dinner:
1 serving of pasta:
I use organic whole wheat pasta from whole foods, but any pasta will do.
For long thin noodles, i use one of those serving measurers. For smaller shapes, i use either a food scale or measuring cups. I can probably eyeball it, but I am a recovering noodle-addict. So I do it every time.
I am also math impaired (especially fractions) but an easy way to split it up when you have a new bag/box is to split the amount in half, split that amount in half, and (finally) halve it once more. You can separate them out in some way and have 1 serving whenever you need it.
3/4 to 1 cup tomato sauce....depending on your tastes. Sometimes it's nice to make a batch of real sauce up on a weekend and freeze it in one cup portions for later. Easy Peasy. I throw in a bit of italian seasoning and a dash of red pepper flakes sometimes.
The obligatory VEGGIES:
Staples for me are: 1 small/medium zucchini or yellow squash, 1/2 small onion, 1 clove garlic, a handful of slices mushrooms. Slice em and dice em anyway you like. Try and get them to be similar sizes so you can cook it quicker.
Nice additions are bell peppers, grated carrots, eggplant, or a few black olives.
Optional Meat: 3-4 oz
Good choice -- Very lean ground beef
Better choice -- Incredibly lean ground chicken/turkey with 1-3g per serving of fat
Best choice -- 1/2 package of the Boca Burger Crumbles
So goes my opinion...
Optional Cheese: 1 tablespoon. Fresh grated > bagged in the cheese aisle grated > the weird stuff in the green bottle, in my opinion.
And you're off....
boil the water. Put the pasta in for 8-10 minutes. meanwhile, cook up all your veggies. once they have softened a bit, add your 1 cup sauce and let it simmer. strain the noodles and throw em in the pan. top with your cheese. eat.
Looks like a lotta calories....isn't.
Ps: it's possible to do this super-lazy-style and used bagged veggies. saute them until they arent so frozen and throw on the sauce. it's basically the same, not quite as tasty.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kara,
Thought I'd throw in my smoothie recipe: 1/3 c juice (I usually use cran raspberry 100% juice), 1/3 c. soy milk (I try to use unsweetened), 1/3 c. plain soy yogurt. I put that in the blender and then add enough frozen berry blend (a mix of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries I get at the warehouse shopping place, Costco) to fill up the liquid area plus sticking up a little in the blender. I would guess it's somewhere around 1-1 1/2 c. berries. Blend it up and you get a super thick and creamy smoothie. Sometimes I add a bit of frozen banana too. Enjoy!
I buy a lot of bagged frozen fruit (the fresh stuff gets eaten too fast) and keep the open bags in a closed freezer bag in the freezer.
A really simple, easy smoothie for me is about 1/2 c of plain yogurt, 1/2 c of fruit, a splash of milk, and a tiny bit of assorted extracts (like almond extract with peaches, orange extract with raspberries, vanilla with cherries, etc). I'll add a bit of honey or Splenda if it needs it, but some fruit combinations don't.
I like keeping all my partially empty bags of frozen vegetables together in one larger freezer bag, and the same with the partially empty bags of fruit. For someone who likes variety, it's fun to pull out a bag and think, "Hmmmm. . .well, we can do a handful of raspberries AND a handful of blackberries!" or "Ooooh, butter beans would be nice. . so would green beans. . .ohhh, but what about sugar snap peas?"
I stop at the freezer section every time I'm at the grocery store to see if there are any vegetables that sound good or any new fruit (my store doesn't seem to have the same frozen fruit each week).
A tip on spices & seasoning mixes. . . .we make our own, and store them in containers. This year, for holiday gifts, we're going to write out recipe cards for some of them, package them nicely with personalized labels ("<our name>'s Texas Spice Rub", "<our name>'s Sweet and Hot Rub", etc), and give them as gifts. So buying the stuff we need for the mixes in large quantities won't be a waste
