Make my dinner!

[Individual]

In the past few days, I seemed to have developed a hyper-sensitivity to salt. All the processed food in my refrigerator tastes like it's had a bottle of salt dumped on it. It tastes bad and I'm worried it will kill me.

Plus, I like to be surprised by food.

So, here is what we will do: Every day, I will make whatever the people on here tell me to prepare. Will it be the first person who responds or will I simply pick one I like? I don't know yet!

Only three rules:
1. The food and quantity and quality has to be filling and nutritious. (As much as I'd like to live on raw fruits and vegetables, when I do that I feel constantly tired and hungry)
2. The ingredients must be readily found in an American grocery store. However, I live in a multicultural community, with a couple of "international" grocery stores, so I still might be able to find stuff like plum sauce, kimchi, seaweed, and eels.
3. The dish cannot take more than 30 minutes to prepare or require any difficult preparation process.

There are no specific rules on taste or contents, although I probably won't be eating any slugs or rats off of the ground, sorry.

When I'm done, I'll take photos and tell you how it was.

This is all being done 24 hours in advance. So, any responses today is what I will be eating for dinner tomorrow.

[Fede]

Looks like a great day for fasting......

[Ben]

We started a healthy recipe thread in this subforum many moons ago.
Once you've finished Fede's fast, you'll find some good ideas in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3562

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Individual,

Rather than prescribe a specific recipe, I'll give you some broad parameters and you can work with them! Often you never know quite what you will and will not find at the local Asian grocery, so you'll need to be prepared to be a bit flexible.

If you're interested in visiting your local Chinese grocery, you can get a whole bag of dried ramen noodles for cheap. Excellent value in fact. You can use these for noodles based dishes, or for soups... so they work on both counts.

If you're going down the soup avenue, you can usually get Asian-style stock-cubes at the Asian Grocery too. Dried mushrooms are usually readily available, and when boiled in a soup they come to life and give the soup a nice flavour. Some kind of sprouts or greenery (see what they've got) could add to the healthiness/fillingness of the soup. If you want to see what such a soup might end up looking like, take a look through my Facebook photo album called the Wonderful World of Miscellania... it's the vodka pho.

Try to find a bag of dumplings in the freezer... alternatively, some 'balls' from the fridge or freezer, or even tinned 'mock meat' if you can find it. Not only are dumplings fun to have (steamed) with noodles, but you can also use them in soups. If you're leaning towards the noodles option, try to find some kind of bottle sauce thing that takes your fancy - feel free to try something a little unusual.

(Pre)Fried shallots work well too, in both soup and noodle dishes. Chili is fun too, if you like it...

As far as health/diet goes, I think the above suggestions are quite healthy, and the mode of cooking involves no oils etc. so that's good too.

Metta,
Retro.

[m0rl0ck]

In the past few days, I seemed to have developed a hyper-sensitivity to salt. All the processed food in my refrigerator tastes like it's had a bottle of salt dumped on it. It tastes bad and I'm worried it will kill me.

Plus, I like to be surprised by food.

So, here is what we will do: Every day, I will make whatever the people on here tell me to prepare. Will it be the first person who responds or will I simply pick one I like? I don't know yet!

Only three rules:
1. The food and quantity and quality has to be filling and nutritious. (As much as I'd like to live on raw fruits and vegetables, when I do that I feel constantly tired and hungry)
2. The ingredients must be readily found in an American grocery store. However, I live in a multicultural community, with a couple of "international" grocery stores, so I still might be able to find stuff like plum sauce, kimchi, seaweed, and eels.
3. The dish cannot take more than 30 minutes to prepare or require any difficult preparation process.

There are no specific rules on taste or contents, although I probably won't be eating any slugs or rats off of the ground, sorry.

When I'm done, I'll take photos and tell you how it was.

This is all being done 24 hours in advance. So, any responses today is what I will be eating for dinner tomorrow.

I'll just tell you what im having

A big bowl of jasmine rice, portabella mushrooms and frozen stir fry veggies.

Cook the jasmine rice, about 15 minutes, you can just cut up the mushrooms in a bowl and nuke them for about 4 minutes, add the rice to the bowl, top with stir fry veggies and nuke again for about 5.5 minutes. Add garlic powder, cayenne and soy sauce or curry powder to taste.

Its easier to make stuff like this if you already have the rice cooked and in the fridge. I always have already cooked beans or lentils and jasmine rice in the fridge ready to go. All you have to do is put the beans or lentils in a bowl with some rice and cut up some fresh veggies while its warming in the microwave and you have dinner

EDIT: Soy sauce does have a lot of sodium, so you might want to use a light hand with it. Oh and add some oil to those mushrooms in the first step and maybe some garlic.

[bodom]

I had two microwavable burritos with nacho cheese sauce...

Times are tough.

[Individual]

We started a healthy recipe thread in this subforum many moons ago.
Once you've finished Fede's fast, you'll find some good ideas in this thread:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3562

I'll look through the thread and make everything on the list, from start to finish.

Looks like a great day for fasting......

Fasting, meaning what?

I'm OK with fasting meaning I can only eat bread and drink water, but I think that abstaining from food completely is unhealthy and it makes you feel horrible: tired, irritable, etc..

If you're interested in visiting your local Chinese grocery, you can get a whole bag of dried ramen noodles for cheap. Excellent value in fact. You can use these for noodles based dishes, or for soups... so they work on both counts.

I like ramen a lot, but there is a problem: It tends to fill me up, but then I feel hungry 30 minutes later.

Chili is fun too, if you like it...

I do like it, but from a poor diet and too much caffeine, my stomach can't handle it. I get uncomfortable stomach gurgling if I eat something like that, or if I eat too much.

Also, I like your other suggestions, but would you know of any specific recipes or websites with recipes? I cannot cook anything without directions.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Individual,

I like ramen a lot, but there is a problem: It tends to fill me up, but then I feel hungry 30 minutes later.

In that case, I'd recommend trying the soup option. I don't know of any specific Asian soup recipes but what I've explained above should be enough to help you muddle through one.

Metta,
Retro.

[Ben]

Knowing Fede as I do, I am sure she was joking about the 'fasting'.

I wish I had the recipe for an amazing soup I do with me at the moment. I made turkish red-lentil soup forinstead of an awful packet minestrone that the kids and teachers on our camps were getting on the first night. The outdoor education staff, who attend all the camps and were getting the same crappy meals, just loved this soup. I subsituted the beef stock with vegetable stock and it was completely vegetarian. And vegan if you didn't have a dollop of the minted yoghurt condiment. Its spicy without being hot. From memory has carrots, onions and cellery as well as red lentils,some chickpeas and a little bit of rice. Very filling and very tasty. The spices are ground fenugreek, cumin, coriander seed and others. While it contains a little bit of chilli, I was serving it to kids who had very sensitive pallets and they raved about it. Its also just a matter of 'assembly', cut and chop your vegetables and put everything into a pot and put onto a low heat and come back 45 minutes later.
I'll be home in a few days and I'll transcribe the recipe for you then.

[octathlon]

Hi Individual,

Are you drinking enough water? I remember one period of time when everything tasted salty to me and it turned out I was dehydrated. Your electrolytes could be out of balance (salt to potassium ratio). Don't know if you can get that checked out, but you could try increasing K-rich foods like bananas, cantaloupe, tomatoes, etc.

[sattva]

Hi Individual


If you aren't allergic to wheat or dairy. Homemade mac and cheese or Italian dishes might be nice to try. There are probably even low-salt sauces in the health food aisle. You can buy unsalted butter. For a healthier butter spread soften the butter and then mix it with olive or canola oil.
If it is getting cooler where you live, go towards warmer foods. Soups, especially bean soups can be very filling. Dried beans cannot be made in a crockpot like canned beans because they need to be cooked at a higher temp to get rid of a toxin in them. Canned beans have already been cooked.

Looks like some of these sites have some good recipes and now i want to try them

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetari ... ecipes.htm

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/easyrecipes.html

http://www.cooking-for-compliments.com/ ... cipes.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/One-Dish-V ... etail.aspx

[Individual]

Are you drinking enough water?

Yes, definitely.

Hi Individual


If you aren't allergic to wheat or dairy. Homemade mac and cheese or Italian dishes might be nice to try. There are probably even low-salt sauces in the health food aisle. You can buy unsalted butter. For a healthier butter spread soften the butter and then mix it with olive or canola oil.
If it is getting cooler where you live, go towards warmer foods. Soups, especially bean soups can be very filling. Dried beans cannot be made in a crockpot like canned beans because they need to be cooked at a higher temp to get rid of a toxin in them. Canned beans have already been cooked.

Looks like some of these sites have some good recipes and now i want to try them

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetari ... ecipes.htm

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/easyrecipes.html

http://www.cooking-for-compliments.com/ ... cipes.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/One-Dish-V ... etail.aspx

That could work.

Also, I should've foreseen that only vegetarians would respond to this thread.

[BubbaBuddhist]

Then just toss some browned ground beef of chopped chicken breast in with the recipes and get your omnivore on my man.

An easy full-meal dish I like is called Jacob's Guile. Lay a bed of rice, cover with lentils, top with chopped salad (lettuce and tomatoes)garnish with olives if you like, onions too if you like, then dress with vinegar and oil dressing. Add grilled chicken if you must eat dead animal tissue. We vegetarians will abstain.

[Individual]

I suppose it was unreasonable to ask for a recipe every day, so I had a better idea.

I am going to compile a large list of recipes (including some of the recipes you've mentioned), print them out, and put them into the "mystery dinner box". Every day, I will draw a recipe out of the box and that will be dinner.

I will post the recipe here, with pictures.

As for today, it will not be a mystery. This will be tonight's dinner:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/thai_ ... sauce.html

[Ytrog]

Well, my dinner just failed. I had a pizza in the oven (combi microwave actually) and it did't stop at the 11 min. I'd set it to. The pizza is charred.

[BubbaBuddhist]

Another heart-healthy favorite of mine is spaghetti squash. Available at any grocery store. Cut it in half and cook it as per the attached instructions. Usually 45 minutes in a conventional oven in an inch of water or ten minutes in a microwave. Scoop it out and like magic, you have something that looks like spaghetti but is almost 100 percent fiber. I add garlic powder, Italian spices (oregano, etc blended together in a shaker bottle, I forget the other spices. Anyway, you buy them all mixed together) and some grated Asiago cheese for flavor. Top with marinara sauce. Has very low calories and high in fiber. Very high in fiber. And delicious.

J

[Individual]

Well, my dinner just failed. I had a pizza in the oven (combi microwave actually) and it did't stop at the 11 min. I'd set it to. The pizza is charred.

Some ovens (mine at least) have a "cool down" period. If I put something in, when the timer goes off, the oven shuts off, but inside it's still hot for several minutes. So to bake stuff precisely you need to take it out when the timer goes off or at least open the oven door to let the hot air out.

[Ben]

Also, I should've foreseen that only vegetarians would respond to this thread.

I'm not a vegetarian.

[Ytrog]

Well, my dinner just failed. I had a pizza in the oven (combi microwave actually) and it did't stop at the 11 min. I'd set it to. The pizza is charred.

Some ovens (mine at least) have a "cool down" period. If I put something in, when the timer goes off, the oven shuts off, but inside it's still hot for several minutes. So to bake stuff precisely you need to take it out when the timer goes off or at least open the oven door to let the hot air out.

Indeed, but I suspect this is also a failure of the oven itself. I set it to 11 minutes, however when I came back it was counting down from 35 minutes. It's no easy to make that mistake as I would have had to push the + button a lot more for 35+ minutes than for 11.

[David N. Snyder]

Also, I should've foreseen that only vegetarians would respond to this thread.

That's why I haven't posted in this thread yet. I didn't want it to look like I'm proselytyzing.

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3562