A Few Quick Recipes That Are Healthier Than Fast Food

It has been really interesting to me to read your challenges and concerns about eating healthier in the comments of the giveaway post. Many of them are my challenges as well. Over the last six (almost!) months, I have become much better at avoiding fast/convenience foods and eating healthier instead. But... I totally understand the problem of not having the time, or energy, to cook a healthy meal after a busy day. So, here are a few of the "quick but healthier than fast food" recipes I fall back on when I just don't feel like cooking.

The first one I have posted before. That's my Who Hash recipe. The only caveat with this one is that it does involve rice (brown rice, because it's better for you! * Ha! Naturally, having posted that, I then read this article that presents a different view of that. You be the judge!). Sometimes I am too tired to wait for rice to cook. But rice is also something that can be made ahead of time (heck, you can probably even freeze cooked rice for a quick go-to). This is such a simple, filling food- and the kids love it.

Next is what I call Cheater's Chili. I know chili aficionados will be appalled, so it you consider yourself in that category please look away now. Cheater's Chili caveat: involves canned ingredients. I try to avoid canned ingredients these days, but on days where the choice is between canned or take-out, I try to go for the can.

Cheater's Chili

brown a pound of ground beef (with onion if you have it, but it's fine without too)
if there's a lot of fat, drain it off (I don't bother if the meat was very lean)
dump in a couple cans of pre-seasoned chili beans (I like Bush's)
dump in a large can of diced tomatoes
chop a green bell pepper and toss that in
add chili powder
stir while heating through
eat and put leftovers in the fridge

And this last "recipe" is really just a way to prepare salmon (Pacific wild-caught is best, but honestly, you could do a variation of this with canned salmon for less money).

Yummy Salmon

Cover the bottom of a large pan with diced tomatoes, basil, garlic, chopped onion, and chopped/sliced black olives. You can use canned seasoned tomatoes and it works great. Lay the salmon fillet on top of the mix. Cover and heat until salmon is cooked through. The flavors melt together nicely. You don't need to stir this or anything, but use a medium heat so it cooks quickly but doesn't burn to the bottom.

Okay, one more thought... We stir-fry pretty often. I don't really consider stir-fry to be super quick, but it just occurred to me that if I pre-cooked the meat when it was convenient and kept it in the freezer, I could toss it in to re-heat with the veggies and save some time. Especially if I had cooked rice in the freezer. Has anybody frozen cooked rice? How did it work out? I think I have to go try that now... Anybody else care to share your "quick but healthier than fast food recipes"?

Who Hash

This meal is so easy and so tasty. When I was a kid, my mom made this. At some point we started referring to it as Who Hash. Must have been in December when The Grinch Who Stole Christmas played on TV. I had forgotten about this simple dish for a long time, but have been making it recently. There are only three ingredients- all real foods. Plus salt and pepper. Easy.

Who Hash

(amounts of these ingredients can be scaled up or down as appropriate for your needs; this is just how I do it)

1 lb. ground beef
1 cup brown rice (that's one cup dry, which works out to several cooked cups)
1 onion, chopped

1. Cook the rice.
2. While rice is cooking, brown the ground beef and onion together.
3. When rice is done, combine with beef/onion mix and mix well.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This always takes more salt than I expect it to. Add a little, mix well, taste, repeat as necessary.

Enjoy!

Easy Dinner: Salmon, Squash, Spinach

Today, in the course of conversation, I was asked if I had any pictures of the food I've been preparing since starting the 28_day Real Food Challenge. (I'll leave it up to your imagination to determine what sorts of conversations can produce the question "Do you have any pictures of your food?" Actually, let's make a game of it! Post your guess scenario in the comments for a chance to win my undying gratitude.) Anyhoo... the question prompted the realization that, despite starting this blog in order to track and support my goal of shifting my family to a real foods diet, there are, in fact, few photos of food. Huh. I had to think about why that is a little bit, and the answer that came to me is because I've been sort of frustrated in the kitchen lately, so I suppose I haven't been inclined to record that in photos. I mean, seriously, how many photos of "I tried to make.... but this is what it turned out as...." do you want to see?

But tonight I fell back on an old favorite and am gracing you with this riotously exciting photo of it. I love yellow squash, much to the chagrin of The Boy. Don't ask me where this squash came from. I didn't even read the label to find out. Perhaps I didn't want to know. After all, I grew up calling this 'summer squash' and it is hardly summer in this hemisphere. I could eat this stuff all day cooked briefly in a little butter, salt, and pepper.

Spinach is another of my favorite. I will eat spinach almost any way you could think to prepare it. Except, possibly, souffle. The idea of a green souffle just seems wrong to me somehow. I'm not sure spinach is supposed to be that light and fluffy. I think of spinach as a 'workhorse' veggie, so spinach as a souffle seems kinda like putting a dress on a mule to me. But I digress... Tonight's version involved just a little butter and garlic.

The salmon, which I ordinarily would do in a pan but couldn't because the frozen piece of fish was too freaking long to fit in my pan- thank you very much Safeway, I had to do in the oven under the broiler. This recipe really works better in the pan. The salmon cooks on top of a bed of diced tomato with basil, garlic, and oregano (I admit it; it came from a can tonight), black olives, and diced onion. Usually I spoon the veggies over the salmon before serving, but I forgot because I was trying to remember to take the photo and apparently I can remember only one thing at a time. But! This way of preparing salmon is really yummy, so I highly recommend it!

Easy peasy. Just the way I like it. Now how about those scenarios?