To ask for healthy meal ideas? Feel shit, need to eat properly

[OffredsNose]

As per previous thread, I feel shite, I have no energy at all. My hair is falling out …

my diet is also crap. I’m doing a grocery online order right now - hence why I’m posting here for traffic.

Any healthy recipes/meal ideas you can recommend would be highly appreciated. Preferably packed with vitamins!

Great ideas here, I've saved this thread!
After 2 weeks of cheese & sausage rolls all this stuff sounds amazing,

Try the Mealime app. Loads of fresh, healthy recipes and can plan a weeks meals and get a shopping list. It's American, so have to 'translate' some of the ingredients, like eggplant etc. But they are really tatsty recipes.

Am trying to simplify everything and going with protein and veg, every meal. Drop the carbs and try to eat the following the 30 plants a week rule for gut health…

www.theguthealthdoctor.com/how-to-get-your-gut-loving-30-plant-points-a-week/

Jamie Oliver does a really easy (and tasty) soup: kale, chorizo, potato and chickpea soup. I can’t remember the actual title of it, but it’s delicious and pretty inexpensive to make. Also, not very faffy.

I know you don’t like salads, but I’m loving what other PPs have said about adding veg/fruit to what you already make. Soups, dhals, tray bakes and casseroles are also great. I’ll use up knackered veg in soups and curries.

Last night (in my quest to use stuff up), I threw some veggie sausages and knackered veg in the air fryer, and served them up in wraps with a squirt of sweet chilli sauce and the remaining half a bag of baby spinach leaves. My fussy 9yr old polished it off without issue.

Shakshouka, kedgeree, risottos are all good too :) Maybe just start with easy changes, and then build up by trying a new recipe each week?

After all the Christmas excess,I am actually really looking forward to light healthy salads,veg,stir fry etc etc.I was in danger of turning into a sausage roll or pig in blanket if the indulgence hadn't stopped 😂

Traybakes are a really easy way to cook veggies. For 2 people, chop up 2 medium potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, carrots, Parsnips, onion into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, season as you prefer.

Spread it out on a tray and put in oven for 20 minutes at 180c. Then put sausages on top and put back in for 30 minutes to cook sausages. Serve with mash

Or, use peppers, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms in a traybake with chicken beasts

I'm planning to make my favourite lentil soup today

One batch makes loads, equally nice without bacon/pancetta
For freezing and/or taking to work, I cut down on the liquid and make a condensed version that's like a thick dhal. then dilute when I heat it.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-bacon-soup

Super cheat way - use a packet of soffrito mix instead of preparing veg.

This is my favourite lazy but not unhealthy meal:

• chop/crush a couple of cloves of garlic
• wash curly kale, remove thickest part of stem, pat dry and slice
• heat pan, add + warm oil, add the garlic and kale together, sautee until the kale softens
• add 1 pack of precooked brown basmati rice and some Tofoo brand smoked tofu, diced
• keep stirring and heat through
• finally add a large dash of dark soy sauce to taste, stir through and serve

Steak and veg would be a good quick option if you're worried about anaemia. Buy a bag of frozen peas, bunch of asparagus and serve with mash.

I'm on a health kick this year and just ordered a couple of one pot cooking recipe books for inspiration. I'm hoping to get organised enough to sit down and write up a week's meal plans with a corresponding weekly shopping list. Will probably do about half a dozen different weekly meals plans/shopping lists, then just rotate them.

I'm at a stage in life where I cba deciding to what to eat each day, or spend lots of time faffing with fancy recipes, so I'm hoping a bit of pre-planning will make life easier.

There's a recipe section here @OffredsNose You've had some good suggestions and could try searching for them here. They're easy to make and have a guide about prep and cook time.

Ok I’ve just made the mango smoothie someone mentioned earlier in the thread. Used almond milk though instead of apple juice … omg game changer!
handful of spinach
handful of kale
handful of frozen mango
Half a glass of almond milk

I added a spatone sachet for extra iron and used the smoothie to wash down a multivitamin, a vitamin c tablet and an iron tablet 😂 I should be bouncing off the walls within the hour! My body is probably in shock!

traybake for dinner

thanks so much everyone for the contributions on this thread.

I know this sounds simple, but it works- make a traffic light on your plate each day!

Something red, yellow/orange, and green.

These should all be veg

eg
tomatoes
red , yellow or orange pepper, sweet potato
spinach/ kale/broccoli/avocado

Go to healthy and easy dinner for me:

salmon coated in olive oil dressed with a copious amount of salt

brussel sprouts chopped in half, dressed in salt and olive oil, and roasted at high temperature until crispy brown.

So very easy but delicious.

Yay! Just came back and seen this update! Your smoothie sounds yummy! That combined with any kind of vegetable/salad/stir fry later in the day and you’re absolutely smashing the healthy eating. Great stuff 🥳🥳

If you have a slow cooker - soups and stews are very cost effective and healthy.

I do a slow cooked (6 hours on low) chicken & veg soup, using lots of left over veg. You can add lentils too.
I usually use carrots, potatoes, shredded cabbage, broccoli, onion, parsnip, celery & turnip/leeks, add chicken stock, a blob of mustard & mixed herbs. I use boneless chicken thighs, then once the chicken is cooked through, I take it out, shred it, put back in with soup and cook on low for another hour or so.

It is very filling, because of all the veg and you can freeze it too.
My dh takes it to work with him the next day.

I’m not sure that adding oil and a copious amount of salt to an already oily fish counts as healthy!

@emmathedilemma Looks as if you don't know your good fats from the not so good.

Olive oil is a fantastic 'food'. It's high in polyphenols (AKA anti oxidants) and the unfiltered virgin sort is amazingly healthy.

Olive oil is a monosaturated fat (it has a neutral effect on the blood) but the polyphenols in it make it a super-food as they help gut health and the immune system.

Everyone should use more and drizzle it over veggies etc. But only the best sort- virgin and ideally unfiltered.

I agree with you on the salt 😀

If your hair is falling out this could be due to a deficiency in omega 3/6 (known as essential fatty acids for a reason!) and most of the suggested meals posted here, although they are certainly healthy and provide lots of vitamins etc, don’t address this. You need to up your consumption of things like oily fish, raw nuts/nut butter and seeds, avocado and start taking an omega3/6 supplement asap

And I just x posted with Ohmondieu making a similar point 😊

I would have to add meat to that. Steak would go so well

That smoothie sounds lovely OP! You won't need to add Iron every day if you are not deficient (and your doctor could tell you that) so you could stick to either the tablet OR the spatone, and then some days leave it altogether. No point wasting it and you can have too much of a good thing.
There is plenty of iron in fruit and veg (for most people) if you eat a good variety.

Poke bowls are healthy

Rice, salmon, veg, sauce rhymes with "okay"

I’m very anaemic unfortunately, long term chronic ferritin deficiency anaemia

Anyone know the best way to peel a squash? It’s too big and hard (oo err) and I can’t face the drama of trying to get a knife through it 😂