Author: Lisa P

eMeal Plan Week of Mar 4

Posted on by Lisa P

Dinners This Week

We are going for super easy this week, with only one meal (Wednesday) that may edge over the 30 minute mark in terms of hands on time.  Feel free to swap that meal with another night if you need to because of your personal schedule.  This week’s main building block ingredients are my two favorite lean proteins: chicken and shrimp.

Sunday

This meal takes a while in terms of overall time, but your hands on time will be minimal.  Start the chicken two hours before you want to eat. At the same time chop the veggies and put them in a pot with water to cover. Store the pot in the refrigerator until 15 minutes before meal time. Then drain, add the steamer basket and more water, and cook as directed. Continue reading “eMeal Plan Week of Mar 4” →

How to make "Bowls"

How to make “Bowls”

Posted on by Lisa P

“Bowls” are a newly popular concept, and for good reason. They are fresh, generally quick to put together, tasty, and relatively inexpensive.

Think Chipotle, SweetGreen, or pretty much any of the “healthy fast food” franchises popping up in malls across the country. Essentially it’s a pile of stuff in a bowl, with lettuce/greens on the bottom, and stuff on the top. Hm… sounds kind of familiar, right? Like a salad bar? Yep, exactly like a salad bar. The difference is in the marketing, and the proportions. it’s a little bit of salad with a lot of “stuff” arranged in a colorfully pretty selection of “wedges” around the edge.

Literally, it’s just a bowl of different wholesome, nicely flavored ingredients, that you then pour some sauce on and mix together, like… well… like a salad. Yeah.

Creamy Rice with Salmon

I got this rice with salmon (arroz con salmon) recipe from a food blog written by a Columbian woman.  I’m so sorry I’ve lost track of the url of that web site but I made a lot of changes to the recipe anyway, so it barely resembles the original.

I removed several ingredients, changed several others, and used leftovers to compile the dish instead of creating it from scratch.  It was surprisingly good!  I served it with sautéed beet greens but I recommend choosing a side veggie that’s more neutral in flavor, like broccoli or green beans.  The beet greens were good but the strong flavor overpowered the more subtle taste of the rice dish. Continue reading “Creamy Rice with Salmon” →

Freezing Rice and Other Grains

Posted on by Lisa P

Ever make more rice than you can eat? If you aren’t going to use it in the next few days, you can freeze it for later use.  Here’s how:

  1. Put 1-1/2 to 2 cups of plain cooked (cooled) brown rice in a quart-size, freezer-grade ziplock bag. Don’t seal it shut yet.
  2. Flatten the bag out, then gently roll from the bottom up to remove as much air as possible, and zip closed.
  3. Flatten it back out and freeze flat.

To thaw, simply massage the bag briefly to break up the frozen rice, then empty it into a microwave safe bowl, cover with a paper towel, and microwave for 30 seconds or so (depending on the wattage of your microwave).

This works for most other cooked whole grains as well. I used to buy frozen pre-cooked brown rice at Trader Joe’s, but this is more economical and tastes fresher.

How to Cook Whole Grains

Posted on by Lisa P

Barley

Barley is available pearled (the bran has been removed) or quick cooking (parboiled). Technically neither are whole grains but nutritionally speaking they count toward your whole-grain servings because of their high fiber content.

To Cook: Pearl barley Continue reading “How to Cook Whole Grains” →