Great Single Guy Meals?!
Answers: Anything including pastas, chicken, pork, beef, just need some good ideas, recipes, instead of the usual TV Dinner, cause im trying to eat a bit healthier, just dont know how.
My regular recipes:
Take a rump roast and a jar of your favorite salsa - put them in a slow cooker and wait until the meat starts to fall apart.
Get out the slow cooker again and this time put in a whole chicken cut into quarters, a half cup of vinager, a quarter cup of soy sauce, a bay leaf, a tablespoon of black pepper, and two tablespoons of diced garlic.
Cut up a couple of ripe mangoes and put them in your blender... add soy sauce, olive oil (go easy on the oil), lime juice, and diced habaneros until you have the right balance of sweet, salty, spicy, and sour... Brush the mix on a salmon fillet and put it in the oven at 300°F until done (internal temp of 125°F)
Cut up a half dozen ripe black plums and put them in the blender... add soy sauce, olive oil (go easy on the oil), lime juice, and wasabi until you have the right balance of sweet, salty, spicy, and sour... brush the mix on turkey and then put the turkey on a charcoal grill.
Use the leftover plum wasabi turkey (diced) in this recipe:
Slice up bok choi and red bell peppers - leave the greens of the bok choi aside for later... place them in a hot pan or wok with a little bit of oil, when they start to wilt, add the diced turkey to the mix along with some more of the plum wasabi sauce. After the mix has heated and reduced volume, add the bok choi greens to the top... cover for a minute or two until the greens wilt.
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Two of the recipes included a very basic, very tasty recipe for sauces made with natural, fresh ingredients... Fruit, juice, soy sauce, oil, and spice... this is a winning combination that is healthy and adds great flavor to what would ordinarily be boring and tasteless... I don't give quantities, because its a matter of taste... Experiment and don't be afraid of messing up - you can add ginger, coconut, thai peppers, lemongrass, kafir lime leaves, basil, honey, anything you want - try it and see if you like it.
Another point I'd like to make is that I focus on the meat as the main course, but I always try to serve sides - salads are a perfect compliment to anything grilled or baked. Vegetables are great too - get fresh if you can, but canned if you can't.
Never use part of a bird by itself and never buy chemically treated frozen bird parts. Buy whole poultry and part it out yourself... cut it into quarters - leg/thigh and breast/wing... you can separate the quarters if you want, but you don't have to. Always leave the bone in until after cooking - bones add flavor. Why the whole bird? Thighs have more fat than they need to flavor themselves, but breasts don't have enough fat to flavor themselves... together they work perfectly.
Buy a couple of meat thermometers - digital with an alarm and a quick read analog probe type... don't cook according to time, cook according to internal temperature.
Fresh fruit is a perfect snack - experiment... see what your supermarket has, ask the produce expert what to do with the weird fruits and veggies he has on the shelf - you might discover a new love, and variety keeps your palate happy.
Browning makes flavor - nonstick pans don't facilitate browning very well. Deglazing is easy and it lifts the browned bits of flavor off the bottom of the pan... water and wine work great for this, but don't use good wine (its a waste)
Sweet potatoes are highly under rated - I never buy regular potatoes anymore...
Amatriciana
This is a classic Italian pasta dish. Use fresh basil when it's in season at other times use fresh flat-leaf parsley.
INGREDIENTS
4 slices bacon, diced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
1 pound linguine pasta, uncooked
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
Cook diced bacon in a large saucepan over medium high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of drippings from the pan.
Add onions, and cook over medium heat about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and red pepper flakes; cook 30 seconds. Add canned tomatoes, undrained; simmer 10 minutes, breaking up tomatoes.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of 4 quarts boiling salted water until al dente. Drain.
Stir basil into the sauce, and then toss with cooked pasta. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese
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Best Ever Meatloaf
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
18 saltine crackers, crushed
16 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
DIRECTIONS
In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, and green pepper and saute until onions are soft.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a large mixing bowl, place ground beef, crushed crackers, Cheddar cheese, taco seasoning, and sauteed onion and green pepper. Mix thoroughly.
Press beef mixture into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until done. Check with a meat thermometer for doneness. Internal temperature should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C)
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INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons butter, softened
12 slices white bread
1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, chopped
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter one side of each slice of bread, and press each slice butter-side down into the cups of a muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, egg, onion, cream of mushroom soup, salt and pepper until well blended. Fill each bread cup with the mixture. Sprinkle shredded Cheddar cheese over the tops.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until meat is cooked through
Tater Tot Casserole
1lb Hamburger
1 Chopped small onion
1 16oz bag of tater tots
1 can cream of mushroom soup
-1/2 can of milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
9 X 11 Baking dish
Preheat oven to 400*
Cook hamburger and onion until brown. Combine can of cream of mushroom and half of a can of milk in a bowl and mix it up. Place the hamburger in the bottom of the baking dish, top with tater tots until mostly covered. Pour cream of mushroom and milk mixture over tater tots, top with shredded cheese. Cook in oven for about 20 minutes, as long as it takes to cook the tots and melt the cheese....
You could also use a bit of a smaller baking dish.
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Or try Shake 'N Bake...that's good stuff too...
ramen and hotdogs
you take 2 chicken breasts (boneless) and place in a caserole dish pour low sodium cream of mushroom or cream of chicken (kind of redundant but if you are alergic to mushrooms it does not effect the taste)
this is the main dish bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes but keep an eye on it so it does not burn
as for vegetable fresh is always best but you can do canned place just enough of your vegitable in a pan and "cook" it on low to med-low so that by the time the chicken in the oven is done the vegies are warmed up and ready to eat
if you want potatoes there is instant or quick fix type you can microwave
Frozen chicken breasts are easy to cook, just thaw in the microwave then bake or fry. You can season them with just about anything and eat with pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. Also very healthy - low fat and high protein.
Also try looking for recipes at http://allrecipes.com/ or http://www.foodnetwork.com
Good to see you're turning your life around.
Why not shop for meats on sale, along with other vegies and pastas.
If you find a recipe in a book thats for 2, why not half it - and you won't be able to miss out on it :)
Something that might help with the eating better is the Deli section at the grocery store. They will usually have rotisserie chicken already cooked. You can get whole or halves. Then all you need to do is make a great salad and some veggie sides. If your worried about fresh veggies going bad, then buy frozen. You don't want canned, too many preservatives.
Also, ask the meat dept butchers what steaks are the best for grilling. That is always a simple thing to cook. Salt and pepper is all you need. Toss it on the open flame of your grill or you can use the broiler in your oven. They will have great recipes to share.
If you like seafood, ask for some advice in the seafood dept. They will love to help you and they will have excellent recipes for you to try. They will also have great suggestions for side dishes.
They can help you a lot more than we can. They can give you a personal relationship and daily advise on what to cook for dinner.
Good luck and don't be shy.
You can do it, a couple recipes to give you the confidence and you will be Stouffers free in no time! Buy a george forman grill. Stock up on some basics, and meals will become easy to create.
Lemon Pepper seasoning, Tony's creole or Zatarains seasoning, old bay seasoning ( buy a jar of each)
Basics: buy chicken breasts, boneless pork chops, beef steaks, salmon fillets, shrimp. All can be frozen individually- the glad press and seal freezer wrap is great.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, winter squash like butternut or acorn
apples, oranges, celery, carrots, garlic ( minced in a jar is fine)
pasta and rice ( spaghetti, fettucini, white rice) and spaghetti sauce. Stuffing mix.
Bagged salad mix , olive oil, lemon juice.
Meals/Recipes:
Defrost a basic and sprinkle with a seaoning. Preheat the grill and cook the main entree while you make some sides, here are some ideas:
Pork chops with creole seasoning, baked (microwaved) sweet potato ( wash, pierce with fork, microwave 8 minutes, sauteed apples and onions ( chop 1/2 onion and 1 apple. Put 1 tbs butter or olive oil in a skillet and cook the onions until soft, add the apples and cook untill soft, add salt and pepper)
Ceasar grilled chicken: Put lemon pepper on chicken and grill on the foreman. Peel and chop a large white potato and boil for 16 minutes or until soft. Heat a tsp of garlic in the skillet until browned, mush it up, and add boiled drained potatoes, smashing them up and mixing in the garlic. Eat with a salad.
Shrimp with pasta- sprinkle shrimp with old bay seasoning and some minced garlic and grill. Boil some spaghetti. Mix hot drained pasta with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and top with shrimp, serve with salad