I am a believer in GOOD food. To me, as I said in the other thread, this means food that has a lot of variety to it but is prepared in a way that you want to eat it. As long as you are using mostly whole foods (vs. prepackaged with additives-- I think canned tomatoes, for example, are fine) I consider it to be healthy.

Now, I am a vegetarian, but since you are open to vegetarian recipes, the book I recommend is Jeanne Lemlin's "Vegetarian Classics." (Sorry, I still don't know how to italicize on this board!) The book is full of EASY and fast recipes . . .you can find just about every ingredient at any grocery store (so many veg. books require a trip to a health food store). The thing is, they taste like you've spent a million hours on them when most can be made in less than an hour. I am not an experienced cook, but the recipes make me seem like I am. My friend, who owned a restaurant (and is a real "foodie") can't believe how good the recipes are (even when I make them!) and got herself a copy of this same book.

Anyway, the secret is, you will eat a wide variety of foods with the recipes, but you will use butter, heavy cream, etc. so that they all taste amazingly delicious.

I have some of her other books and they are all good, but the one I suggested is the one with recipes I use again and again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetarian Classics

I agree with Anele, whole fresh food is much better than processed foods with preservatives and chemicals. I usually buy all organic produce and hormone/antibiotic free meat. My frozen food is usually organic and I always check to make sure it's not preserved with sugar, as sugar and salt seem to be in every prepackaged food now.

That Vegetarian books sounds good, my sister is a vegetarian, I wonder if she has a copy.

Funky, you may also want to check out Suzanne Somer's books. She is in to food combining, & eating healthy, real food, not convenience foods. Her recipes are amazing.

A few tips from Suzanne that will help speed up your weight loss: 1) When trying to lose weight, don't eat too much fruit. 2)When you DO eat fruit,eat it alone. Don't combine it with other foods. Don't put fruit in your salad for example, though it may seem healthy. 3) If you want fruit for desert, wait for 3 hours after dinner before you eat it.

She has too many tips to share here, but she also believes in using real cream, real butter, & totally rejects low-fat condiments or recipes. She has a house in France & is pictured in her books food-shopping there, scooping up fresh produce, & whipping up beautiful meals. She cares about quality, like you!

I have been trying Eat to Live for about a month. Basically eat as many fruits and raw (the more the better) and cooked veggies as you want at your three meals, no sugar or caffeine or added salt, very little oil, eat a cup of beans a day, limit to one cup of starch (brown rice, potato, corn) a day, and eat an oz I think of nuts and seeds each day. To me that is healthy eating, I am not 100% there yet, but working on it.

Quick meals for me:

Breakfast - a smoothie with frozen fruit, some POM juice, baby spinach, some fresh fruit and flax seed. I bought aduki (?) beans this week and I am going to try adding some to it so it is a bit more hardy. I make a double batch an DH has half.

Lunch - I have been grilling veggies on the weekend and roasting chick peas. then I buy a prepackaged salad mix (with dressing - not the best for you, but you are limited to the packet size) and throw in some veggies, chick peas and sometimes some fruit or dried fruit. It is a pretty big lunch. Asian Island Crunch is my favorite. It helps I have a small fridge in my office.

Dinner - depends on the time I have, not the most economical, but steam bags of brown rice and a bag of veggies with some annies vegan worcestershire sauce or, if I get home late, a kashi or Amy's frozen dinner, I go for the lowest sodium ones and without pasta.

My goals are to loose 30 lbs by the end of the year and to get off the heart meds I had to go on when I got Peri-partum cardiomyopathy when my son was born. So far I am down 12 lbs and have 18 to go. The sooner I can get off these meds the better!

Grilled chicken (either outside or on the George Foreman), veggie and a whole grain something or other.

Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and a veggie.

Spinach salad with avocado, a few nuts, whatever other veggies you like, and topped with grilled chicken or salmon, or canned tuna.

Soup - there are lots of low cal - yet filling - soup recipes out there.

Sometimes for dinner, we have a good whole grain cereal and whole grain toast. We usually do this if we feel we've been eating a bit recklessly for a few days or if we need something FAST. It's our way of reining things back in a bit!

For snacks, I like prunes (filling and lots of fiber and vitamins), veggies, half a ww english muffin with a bit of peanut butter, a hard boiled egg, small amount of nuts, cottage cheese.

I also love allrecipes.com - most of my "winners" have come from there.

This is really super simple to do and you can tweak the ingredients to suit your taste -omit salt, use ground turkey or chicken, limit potatoes or corn if you don't want too many carbs.

Burger and Veggie Packs

Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 55 min
Makes: 4 servings

1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic-pepper blend
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (or finely diced onion)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups frozen sugar snap peas, carrots, onions and mushrooms (from 1-pound bag)
32 frozen steak fries (from 28-ounce bag)
4 Green Giant® Nibblers® frozen half-ears corn-on-the-cob
1/2 teaspoon garlic-pepper blend

1. Heat oven to 450º. Cut four 18x12-inch sheets of aluminum foil.
2. Mix beef, Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon garlic-pepper blend, the onion powder and salt. Shape mixture into 4 patties, about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Place 1 patty on each foil sheet about 2 inches from 12-inch side. Top each with 1/2 cup vegetables and 8 steak fries. Place 1 piece of corn next to each patty. Divide remaining 1/2 teaspoon garlic-pepper blend among vegetables. Bring up 2 sides of foil so edges meet. Seal edges, making tight 1/2-inch fold; fold again, allowing space for heat circulation and expansion. Fold other sides to seal.Place packets on large cookie sheet.
4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until meat thermometer inserted in center of patties reads 160°F. Place packets on plates. To serve, cut large X across top of each packet; carefully fold back foil.

I find it really helps to write down every bite that goes into your mouth and the calories with it. It takes some time but that way you know you will lose weight if you stay under a certain amount. I usually aim for a thousand calories a day and end up between 1200-1500. I don't count most vegetables like carrots, broccoli, lettuces, etc.

No Excuse for Skipping Breakfast recipe

1 egg
Dab of SmartBalance butter spread

Break egg and drop into ramekin. Add Smart Balance, stir, microwave for 30 seconds. Remove. Eat directly from ramekin.

graywings,

We also make an egg in a ramekin. We pop it out onto a whole grain english muffin and have our own version of the egg mcmuffin. I usually add a bit of spicy mustard and some cheddar cheese.

Kimberly, your meals & snacks sound great! Can you say more about what cereal, breads & pastas you use? Please share any other details about your cooking/shopping/eating that come to mind. Thanks!

Grilled chicken is a biggie for us too!

I also do the packets with the veggies but use chicken breasts instead of a beef patty. A bit of olive oil and garlic to season.

We are big salad eaters. Be it a veggie salad, grilled chicken salad, even a taco salad. Use very lean ground beef and you can still have a healthy meal.

I love to keep this *relish* on hand. Corn, purple onion, black beans, red pepper, and celery. Chop everything up, rinse the beans well and mix. I love this on top of chopped lettuce. Add tomatoes and a bit of grated chedder. Use with grilled chicken and/or cheese to fill a tortilla.

Pastas are another favorite. This year, with our abundance of tomatoes, I made pasta sauce and froze it. I can add ground beef - or not - and serve over whole wheat pasta.

Breakfast for dinner is another fast and easy choice for us too.

tina

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
- Michael Pollan.

Here is a link that might be useful: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Tina, how long do you have to cook the chicken breast? Do you cut it in strips or use them whole?

Tina.. I don't eat a lot of ground beef but I learned a trick to make even lean meat leaner-- rinse browned ground beef (or turkey) in water to the fat that clings to the outside.

I used to make a bean mixture similar to chili to put on salads when I was in grad school-- onions, garlic, pinto beans, jalapeno, cayenne and a touch of cheese. It was one of my favorite cheap comfort meals.

Great ideas everyone.. keep them coming.

For really lean ground beef, try grass fed ground beef or ground bison, or mix the two together. Bison is lower in fat than beef and is very high in protein.

For something different in pasta, you could try brown rice pasta, or corn and quinoa pasta. Quinoa is a complete protein source, not a carb.

Quinoa most definitely IS a carb- however, it is a carb with a lot of protein (like beans and wheat germ). I am not a big fan of the flavor of quinoa so I havent tried the pasta. There are some really gnarly whole wheat pastas out there-- if you are averse to the taste or texture of whole wheat, two brands I recommend are de cecco and bio naturae. My local grocery recently started carrying both-- before that, I found them at the health food store.

In the whole scheme of things, pasta is not the worst thing you can eat-- the key is portion control. I don't know about you all, but pasta is one of the things with which I can easily over indulge. A few healthy tips for pasta:

1. cook it al dente. Overcooking pasta increases its glycemic index-- meaning it is digested faster and spikes your blood sugar which can cause you to overeat.

2. ALWAYS serve a pasta with a protein-- chick peas, chicken, chicken sausage, lean beef, tofu. Protein satisfies your hunger the most effectively and helps you to be satisfied on a modest serving size.

3. Add fiber (and nutrients)-- whole grain pasta, spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus, beans, etc. all add fiber and nutrients to your pasta. The extra bulk helps fill you up faster and also slows digestion so that your blood sugar doesnt spike.

4. Start with a salad or antipasto-- and use an oil and vinegar dressing. This will keep you from filling up on pasta and the extra fiber and the acid slow down digestion.

5. Be mindful of the serving size -- cereal and pasta are two things we can easily overestimate the serving sizes. 1/2 a cup is a typical serving size but check the box. Restaurants often serve enough pasta for 4 servings. Oy! Serving pasta with a salad and protein really helps to keep the serving size in line.

6. Consider replacing the pasta in some of your meals with a veggie. Some people embrace spaghetti squash-- I really like using zucchini. I make a zucchini torte that is basically my old lasagna recipe substituting zucchini ribbons for the pasta. I prefer it to lasagna and everyone who has tried it has raved about it.

Funkyart- I guess I was just thinking of it differently because it's a seed and not a grain.

Lenam, that link is SO interesting. Thanks for posting it. I want to read that book! All branches of my local library have it checked out. I'm putting a hold on it!

Funky, I forgot to add to your post, when I was out of town, last week.

Simplest thing ever. Buy a bag of broccoli slaw, add oriental dressing (or whatever kind you like) and slivered almonds. You can add a lean protien like chicken breast, if you care to. I always add a touch of sesame oil (my new favorite flavor). Et voila!

Thanks for the book recommendation, Anele! I just ordered it from Amazon.com (found it in used/like-new condition for $2.20! Yesssss!). :-)

Parma-- I love that! I regularly get a broccoli, sunflower seed and raisin salad from my local deli. I like it a lot but it is a little sweeter than I want some days and it is great to have another option to mix it up. I love all the ingredients (esp sesame oil) and always like to have new ways to bring almonds (and walnuts) into my diet. They are both offer great health benefits. I can't wait to try it this week.

I'll revisit this thread later tonight. I missed some of the posts and want to be sure to read through the links,etc.

Thanks everyone--

Hi -
We frequently make a simple dish called Kicharee (spelling vary a lot on this.) It is a classic Indian dish and used in Ayurvedic medicine for recuperating from illness and balancing the system. It is a complete meal in itself.
The basic, unspiced recipe is:

1 cup red or yellow lentils
1 cup rice (basmati or brown basmati preferred)
2 cups chopped mixed greens
4 cups water
~1/2 t salt
(1 T ghee or butter, optional)

Put all ingredients in pot and bring to boil; reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Let rest for 30 minutes before eating.

You can double this recipe as much as you like. For greens we use whatever is in season - chard, spinach, kale - lettuce and other salad greens work very well, and it is a good way to use up greens that are past their prime.

You can also use other vegetables such as zucchini, summer squash, celery, carrots, green beans - but do not use cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage.

We like a spicy version. Start by heating your butter or ghee and add 1/2 T turmeric, 1 t mustard seed, 1 t cumin and heat until the mustard seeds start to pop then add the rest of the ingredients. Or you can just use prepared curry powder, but do heat it in the butter until it starts to foam. You can substitute part of the water with coconut milk for a different taste.

Kids like the plain version served hot with extra butter or ghee (me too!)

This is a lovely side dish, or you can put it in low-carb tortilla and make a quick wrap. Add grilled chicken if you like.

Black Bean Salad
INGREDIENTS
 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
 1/2 cup olive oil
 1 clove garlic, minced
 1 teaspoon salt
 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
 1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
 1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced
 1 red bell pepper, chopped
 2 tomatoes, chopped
 6 green onions, thinly sliced
 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Place lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, and cayenne pepper in a small jar. Cover with lid, and shake until ingredients are well mixed.
2. In a salad bowl, combine beans, corn, avocado, bell pepper, tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Shake lime dressing, and pour it over the salad. Stir salad to coat vegetables and beans with dressing, and serve.
 You can add another can of beans if desired, and just use the entire package of corn if you want. Adjusting the amounts does not change the taste much!

We all love it!!! And you can vary the ingredients/proportions to suit your likes.

Enjoy!