anotheranon | other stuff - quick dinner options?

other stuff - quick dinner options?

On the nights I don't feel like cooking, I've taken to fixing up couscous-in-a-box - 5 minutes to cook, with spice pack. It's quick, tastes good, not too filling.

Problem is, I'm sick to death of it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something quick and easy that ISN'T a Lean Cuisine tv dinner or similar? Low carb, please.

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Go to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or your local supermarket and pick up a) a package of whole wheat pitas and b) at least one plastic tub thingee of hummus. They make them in lots of flavours (garlic, red pepper, lemon, garlic & artichoke). Cut up the pitas into little triangles, open the tub and voila! Instant meal. I've been doing that a lot for lunches these days.

That could work.. I've not had pita/hummus for a long time, and really used to enjoy it. Besides, garlic hummus = mmmmm!

The nice thing is that if you get different flavours, it's not like you're eating the exact same thing over n over again. Hummus is really low carb, low fat and high in protein so it's very healthy for you. :)

I've always been fond of cooking pearl barley in chicken stock (or use beef or vegetable), tossing in chopped green onions, frozen peas or corn (after the liquid is almost all absorbed ... the hot barley cooks them perfectly), parmesan cheese, garlic, or anything else that seems like a good idea. Is also delicious cold ... just stir in a favourite salad dressing. Very quick and low labour.

I second the pearl barley comment, although they aren't all that low-carb. They are, however, delicious!

Eggses.

I found lots of nifty microwave egg cooking thingies, and found this neat two-egg cup thingie where I put a squirt of Pam in the bottom of them, toss an egg in each, and nuke for one minute. The plastic is conductive, so the eggses cook really quickly. Then, *ding* and you pull out fully cooked eggs ready to eat. I put a dash of salt and a dash of hot sauce, and I'm a happy kitty.

True. Omelettes = quick/easy; could even use some of the pasteurized "egg substitute" for lower cholesterol.

Lower cholesterol? Do you have probs with your cholesterol? :(

No problems that I know of, but I figure high-cholesterol items are better avoided in quantity than not. Aren't eggs high-cholesterol?

The problem is not whether a particular food is high cholesterol, but how your body metabolizes it. Some people can live on a 100% cholesterol diet and have arteries you could sail the Queen Mary through, others will build blockages out of a water and celery diet.

Are there any tests they can run to find out your metabolization? I can't remember ever having had a bad cholesterol blood test, but I don't think I was ever tested before I started paying attention to these things.

Not that I've heard of (which doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I don't know about 'em). If you're getting good test results and they're consistent (no significant rises or falls), then you likely metabolize carbs efficiently and don't use 'em to plaster your inner walls (if blood relatives also get good results, that's another indicator in your favour).

A woman I know in Lethbridge who is slim, fit (at age 52 she ran in the Olympic torch relay), has healthy eating habits, etc., has continuously tested as having high cholesterol. Her diet is now so restricted by her doctor that her skin is drying out and she's perennially cold because of lack of oils and fats in her diet (and, if I remember correctly, she's permitted one egg a week or something like that) and she STILL tests high ... there's never any significant change. Her twin sister is the same ... the result of metabolisms that actually manufacture blood cholesterol out of nothing.

I'd guess that you're probably safe in eating an egg or two ;-)

(if blood relatives also get good results, that's another indicator in your favour)

My mom doc told her she could eat bacon and eggs with impunity, and not have a problem. Even so, she wound up with some clogged arteries in her heart :( Granted, she was a smoker and I'm not, but I'm not taking any chances - egg substitute it is!

Unless you've been diagnosed with problems with cholesterol, it doesn't make a bit of difference. I eat lots of high-cholesterol things -- meat, cheese, eggs -- and have a chol. level of 172, which is perfectly normal. It's time to do some web-surfing to eddicate y'self on the truth behind cholesterol.

I know there's a difference between LDL and HDL, and I found this (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3006030) (see question 6) at the American Heart Association site.

Looks like you're right - eggs aren't that bad, at least in moderation - a 2-egg omelette once a week or so certainly won't kill me :) However, the cooked-with-bacon-grease variety of my childhood are probably left well alone!

If you want to tip the scales in your favour, buy some lecithin granules and put them in your cereal, juice (they blend right into the pulp in orange juice), casseroles, any baking, etc. Lecithin helps your body break down and remove fatty deposits from the walls of blood vessels and, as a nifty side effect, stimulates production of a brain chemical that enhances memory :-)

here we have frozen mixed vegetables in a bag, quite cheap, different mixes such as asian, japaneese, tai, marocc and s.o. put wok pan on the fire, rip up the bag, stirr, add oyster sause or soya or fish sause...and voila! even the kids eat it without complaints. it takes approximately 5 minutes from the point where you rip the bag open and that includes getting the table set.

OK! I have no suggestions, but just reading all the comments here has given me a raging appetite!!!!

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other stuff - quick dinner options?

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