freeze it.

so i've been wanting to chili for a while; i've never actually made it before today. but you can eat it for snack or for a meal, and i know that it's super easy to store. in addition, there are a lot of ways to make it --you can pretty much add or take away anything from it, and as long as it has beans, it's chili! 


the recipe i have below is (in my mind), a poor girl's version of chili, because i forgot to buy chili powder, and i only put in one type of bean. some other suggestions i found while looking for chili recipes include black, kidney, and pinto beans, in addition the chili beans. you can also add practically any type of vegetable --if you're a vegetarian, mushrooms are a good substitute for a more meat-like texture. i even found a recipe that suggested crumbling up veggie burgers! which might actually be good, but i was a little skeptical, so i didn't try it out. if you're not a vegetarian, you would just add in ground meat of your choice, and let it cook through (usually til it browns) before adding the beans and tomatoes at the end...this will add probably 5-10 min of cooking time, according to most recipes out there.


more importantly: chili is easy to store. as delicious and flexible as it is, this does actually take longer to make than i'd prefer, so if i'm going to spend an hour making a dish, i'd like to keep it around for a while so i can eat it later in the week. while researching what meals are easy to freeze, i came across this website from TLC:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-freeze-foods1.htm

which i just thought was interesting. and useful, because i found this site over break last week, after i had left school leaving my heavy cream in the freezer. oops. but back to the original matter: when you're busy, the last thing you want to deal with is finding something to eat. so if you have about an hour on a sunday morning, like i did, you can make a dish that you know you'll eat later in the week.

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#3: Vegetarian chili (4 servings)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup carrots, chopped

1 green bell pepper

2 tomatoes

1 can chili beans, with the liquid

cumin, pepper, basil, garlic powder for seasoning

Heat the oil in a pot (low heat) while chopping the garlic, carrots, and peppers. Mix in the carrots and garlic into the oil, and let it cook for about 4 minutes on medium heat or until the carrots are tender. Add in peppers and again, let it cook until tender. Add in cumin seeds (about 1/4 tsp).

Stir in the beans with the liquid, and chopped tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, basil, etc, and let it simmer for about 20 min, stirring occasionally. If you prefer it a little less thick, add about 1/4 cup of water.

If you want to store it rather than eat it immediately, let it cool for about 5 minutes before putting it away in the fridge.

Prep time: 5-10 min (this includes taking out all of your ingredients, and starting to chop the vegetables)

Total cook time: about 45 min

Plus clean up: 50-60 min (if you can, collect all of the garbage from chopping on a plastic bag, so while the chili is simmering, you can clean up quickly!)

Nutritional facts:

Serving size: 1 cup

Calories: 92                       from fat:35

Total fat:4g

Cholesterol: 0 

Sodium: 153mg

Carbs: 13g                        sugars: 9g

Protein: 3g

 

This meal also has LOTS of vitamin A and C. And if you add more beans (different types), that will increase the amount of protein!

i'm bored

okay, i am SO bored at home. so here's another recipe, even though i made these last week (and also a few weeks ago for valentines <3 )

i realize this isn't exactly the healthiest snack/dessert you could have, but it's so fast and easy to make, and it definitely makes you feel better after a long day. and it's dark chocolate, which is good for you! AND after you make something, you usually don't feel like gorging yourself on it (that's how i feel, at least), so it's like built-in portion control.

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#2: Chocolate truffles:

8 oz DARK chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

mini cupcake liners

Microwave the chocolate chips and butter for about 2 min, then add heavy cream, and mix (an electric hand-mixer makes this go SUPER fast). Scoop about 1 tablespoon in each cupcake liner (fills about 20), and refrigerate for at least 30 min. 

To add something extra, chop up almonds (about 1/4 cup) and add them to the cupcake liners before adding the chocolate. The only problem with this is if you have whole almonds, they are a huge pain to cut...it adds at least another 10 min of prep time. BUT if you already have chopped almonds (you can buy them), then you're good to go!

Prep time: 0 min!! (without almonds)

Cook time: 5 min (with clean-up: 15-20 min...the chocolate sauce can be a little hard to get off the mixers and sides of the bowl, so i just let it soak while the chocolate is in the fridge).

Nutritional facts: (these are approximate!)

Serving size: 2

Calories: 200                        from fat:139

Total fat: 16g

Cholesterol: 12mg

Sodium: 12mg

Carbs: 18g                          sugars: 16g

Protein: 2g

 

okay, so it's not great. you're getting some vitamin A from the dairy, but otherwise....well, like i said, dark chocolate is good for you! and you need to indulge sometimes, right? :)

the beginning

SO!

this is my last semester of undergrad, and i'm starting medical school in august. and even though i have a pretty relaxed semester, i know that when i get stressed out, i can't think about anything but school work. stress, coupled with lack of sleep and an overload of information, will make what i'm eating be pretty much my last priority. getting bogged down with that much work always makes me just grab the fastest thing to eat, which usually ends up being something deep-fried from a drive-through, or lots and lots of carbs.

my parents are pretty big health nuts, so when i come home from school, it's like a whole other world: we eat organic, home-made, low carb low fat allaroundgoodforyou stuff, but that's just it. my mom has lots of time to make these things, and honestly, most of the ingredients are too expensive for someone that makes minimum wage at a part-time job (and spends most of that money on other things anyway).

so here's my idea:

at least once a week, come up with a recipe that is healthy, not too expensive, and doesn't take too much time. i'll try to get as many different types of food as i can up --appetizers, snacks, actual meals, and dessert (obv). hopefully it works out!

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#1:Tomato halves

(i actually made these about a week ago, but it just feels wrong not starting with a recipe)

3 large tomatoes, cut in half

~2 tbsp pesto

Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)

Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of tomato flesh from each tomato half. Pack in pesto into each tomato "pocket", and then sprinkle cheese on top. Place the tomatoes in a baking pan that is oiled, and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 min, or until the cheese starts to bubble.

This is a recipe I found from allrecipes.com, more or less. When I did it, I added about 1 cup spinach to the pesto (which isn't a lot...when you add it, chopped, to pesto, it seems to condense), and put cheese at the bottom of the pocket and at the top, so it was a little cheesier. You could also use mozzarella cheese to put on top instead of parmesan. This could be a snack/appetizer, but if you're not really hungry, having two halves is a good light meal.

Prep time: 5 min without the spinach, maybe 10 with it (you really have to wash spinach well).

Overall time (including cleanup!): about 30 min.

Nutritional facts

Serving size: 2 halves

Calories: 106                        from fat: 77

Total fat: 9g

Cholesterol: 10 mg

Sodium: 186mg

Carbs: 8g                          sugars: 3.5g

Protein: 14.5g

Pesto is a little high in sodium and fat, but that plus the parmesan cheese is a good source of calcium, and the tomato gives you vitamin C and A. Adding spinach doesn't change a lot, but it's also a good source of vitamin A, plus adds some iron.