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!

Just be brave with the squash :-) but you need a big enough knife. Unless you have a vegetable peeler? I always use a large knife to slice the squash into rounds then set the rounds down flat on the cutting board and work round them slicing the skin off downwards. Just look on youtube or tiktok, I'm sure someone's done a video.

I know you weren't asking for budget recipes, but I've been in a bit of a cooking slump lately and enjoyed the easy chickpea curry on BBC's budget cooking recipe collection: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/budget

Iron from plants like lentils is not easily absorbed in the body even with addition of vit C. Have chicken liver and medium rare steaks a few times a week and that will help your body.

Lol. No. And wait till you try to saw through it! By the time I've wrestled and mauled it into submission I reckon I've burned more calories than it provides. So that's something!

And once you've got that (butternut-type) squash peeled:

shred a couple of handfuls of it on a grater.
Heat some butter or olive oil in a pan, throw in the squash and stir it occasionally for about 5 minutes.
Then set the squash aside and use the pan to make polenta. ASDA will have fine cornmeal/polenta. Look at the package for cooking time and how much water to add.
Throw the squash in with the cornmeal so it all cooks together.

You'll get another vegetable in your meal and not really notice it ... you might not need that kind of cheat ;-) but it worked on my 10 year old the other day!

Alternatively: you could roast the squash whole, then scrape out the soft, cooked flesh when it is done.

Or you could just buy ready-peeled squash chunks!

Badly 😂
I just don't bother haha. Although it is much nicer peeled it's a blooming pain isn't it.

I was going to suggest the frozen ready cut chunks - most supermarkets have them. I make soup by frying onion and garlic with a bit of chopped chorizo then adding Kalo stock and butternut squash with some chilli powder and simmer for about 20 minutes .

I find soups, salads (with plenty protein), stir fries and veg curries really good for getting 5 a day.

When I am trying to be healthy I often have:

saluted coarsely chopped onion, pepper and any other veg (muhrooms) and a tin of tomatoes, simmered with chilli and paprika until it makes a coarse spicy sauce and then add an egg, bung the lid on until cooked

Thai and vietnamese salads. So beanthread noodles (from amazon), any crunchy veg (cabbage, carrots, peppers, celery etc), shredded chicken or prawns, some herbs (coriander, thai basil or mint) and some dressing (eg lime, fish sauce, sugar and sesame oil, or a peanut butter / sesame oil based dressing- see asian slaw on smitten kitchen)

Curry with a bought sauce and then just shove a load of veg in like aubergines, cauliflower etc

Asian broth soups. So for example hot and sour (chilli bean paste, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar) and noodles and shredded meat or a hard boiled egg and a load of shredded veg and pak choi. Or a ramen type one like wagamamas.

Also stir fried rice is easy, any shredded veg you like, any protein you like (leftover mer, fried egg) and then add in a bought sauce or for an Indonesian one, garlic chilli curry power tumeric soy sauce honey and lemon. Put loads more veg than you think and just add a bit of brown rice at the end

Also minestrone soup covers all food groups and is a complete meal by itself x

Squash- put it in the microwave for 1 minute and then it’s really easy

Get a slow cooker. You can make healthy curries, stews, chillis, bolognese, casseroles with plenty of veg in. Minimal preparation as you just fling everything in and leave it. Look up the taming twins website for easy recipes.

If you eat cereal or porridge in the morning put some chopped fresh fruit on top or dried fruit.

Drink more water, even if you need a little squash in it.

Take vitamins every day.

Spag bol. Cook with 5% mince, add onion, pepper, mushroom, courgette, grated carrot, celery. Make the sauce out of passata, garlic, stock cube, tablespoon of pesto and balsamic vinegar. Serve with brown pasta and mature cheddar. Yum!

same again for chilli but lose the pesto, switch the passata for tinned tomatoes. BBC good foods has a good spice mix recipe, don’t forget butter beans (my fave).

Veggie Thai green curry with chickpeas, sugar snaps, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, tomato, whatever you fancy really and lovely fluffy rice.

jacket potatoes topped with tuna, onion, pepper, peas, sweet corn, cucumber and cheese (no Mayo required). Can also do with pasta instead.

vegetable fajitas

You could make your own Kiev too. Bash a chicken breast so it’s flatter, add In garlic Philadelphia or Boursin, wrap it round it and oven bake. Serve with sweet potato wedges and whatever veggies you like on the side.

sweet potato, chickpea and coconut curry is nice.

I also do a chicken curry, that’s pretty easy. loads of recipes online.

@OffredsNose Sorry for late reply - back to work today. Yes, any ordinary portage oats. Own brand is cheapest; I like jumbo ones best. (USe a pudding basin or much bigger bowl than you think you ll need: the porridge will try t climb out. About 2 or 3 tbsp, and twice as much liquid.) Liver: I like pig best; it s half the price of lamb. If you re not used to cooking it, start with lamb and do not over cook. Shd be soft and pink in the middle. Good luck.

Do I need to stab it first? (Worried it will explode!)

I depends what you are doing with the squash @OffredsNose

If you are roasting it (in slices) you can cut across the narrowest part (so you end up with circles) and cut those into 1/4s. There is no need to remove the skin. It's edible, but it's also easy to remove once it's on your plate.

IF you want to remove the skin, cut it into rounds about 1cm thick (as above) and use sharp knife to slice off the skin.

You can't cook it whole. It would take forever.

Halve it down the long side, score the flesh, (criss-cross cuts) remove the seeds, then put it cut side up on a baking tray and pour on some olive oil. Bake it for about 45 mins.

Anything else?

I don't know if it helps you, but I plan our meals on the basis of

2-3 fish dishes a week (including king prawns for stir fry)
1 chicken dish (or 2, if it's a whole chicken)
1 red meat (usually venison for a casserole- not expensive)
1 pasta based dish
I - 2 vegetarian dishes

I am not a great meat eater but I know it's hard to get enough iron without some meat, so I eat red meat about once a week.

I live nr a Waitrose and buy their venison mince and casserole meat. Padding it out with brown lentils makes it go much further.

@OhMonDieu oh I do know the difference in my fats thanks, I just don’t see the point in pouring oil over otherwise healthy food!

Cut the top off.
cut the base off.
cut big slices off the narrow top end then peel these and dice / slice
cut the bulb end vertically in half, scoop out the seeds and peel then dice / slice
the frozen chunks are good for soups and stews but I don’t rate them for roasting as they’re a bit soggy.

I buy butternut squash ready sliced (fresh) in Sainsbury's.

I like to think of it as better nut squash.

Aim to eat mainly veggie and have lots of variety and then have a really good quality meat or fish a couple of times a week. SO for lunch have a veg soup (BBC food have a really good selection of recipes). If you work from home you could get a soup maker and chuck everything in before you clock on and then just flick the on switch 20 minutes before you want to eat it. Otherwise a salad - look at the minute salad lunch box book - some sample recipes from the book here
www.theguardian.com/food/2021/apr/19/speedy-not-sad-five-minute-office-friendly-lunches-from-alexander-hart

and here

www.oliverbonas.com/blog/inspiration/three-fresh-filling-and-flavoursome-salads-from-the-the-five-minute-salad-lunchbox

As you like curry look at having a curry night once a week and making a couple of different veggie curries, dhal and wholegrain basmati rice. Batch cook the curries dhal and freeze the surplus so you only have to cook the curry once a month. (Or you can have left overs fro lunch) Again the BBC Good Food website has loads of recipes.

Switch up your jar of pasta sauce for a homemade one with lots of veg in - Jamie Oliver has some good recipes for this including a 7 veg one. Again cook a huge batch and freeze the surplus. Pasta sauces can be used for a lot of different things - eg buy a pizza base and top with some of your stash of pasta sauce plus whatever veg you like - eg sliced mushrooms, frozen spinach and feta is nice. Moussaka is a healthier alternative to lasagne. Add a tin of green lentils to some sauce and use to make a moussaka - use aubergines not potatoes to get an extra helping of veg etc etc.

Nothing wrong with lots of salt in your diet—Japanese eat the most salt per capita and generally have lower incidence of lifestyle diseases.

Unless you experience too much bloating then I wouldn’t worry about salt. It’s been unfairly demonised imo.

Oil YMMV I find the fish too dry if not coated in a bit of oil 😆 but it can be adjusted to taste ofc

Pouring olive oil over your food is very healthy. Maybe have a listen/read anything you can by Professor Tim Spector. He recently did a podcast on diary of a CEO where he talks about food, calories, etc.
according to him and many others a diet high in olive oil is one of the simplest and healthiest things you can do.

I like the saying - don't blame salt for what the sugar did!