Healthy meals/ideas for clueless college student!

[Fran101]

Ok, well.. Fran the one woman carb/sugar eating machine is moving out on her own. No dining plan or anything lol so nobody to socially coerce me into nothing but pasta, chicken,cereal and french fries (I am so serious lol left alone with no guidance this IS all I will eat lol)

and I'm looking for easy SIMPLE recipes, ideas, etc.. to get more healthy veggies/nutrition in my diet.
I am so against vegetables but I found a few things I like raw (I hate all vegetables cooked).. corn, spinach, lettuce and tomatoes lol and I tried a pomegranate vinagrette I really like once and woud love to know what your favorite vinagrettes are! and any ideas on how to incorperate those veggies in my diet and how to make easy yummy salads!

Ok my studio does NOT have an oven. Not that I would know what to do with one anyway.
BUT I do have a foreman grill, a stovetop, a microwave and a rice cooker. Any ideas for easy healthy meals would be awesome!

Meat wise I hope to stick around chicken mostly.. but I could try some red meat/ground beef recipes if they sound yummy! Lol

This isn't a "diet plan" so feel free to include any healthy options involving.. whole wheat pasta, rice, fruit, yogurt, etc..etc..etc.. even if they aren't "calorie sensitive".. I am just hoping for healthy.
Especially around breakfast time. I need to STEP AWAY from the sugary kids cereals.

Only crux is that I am not a sandwich/wrap person and don't really eat bread lol so try to avoid any sandwhichy options.
oh and I don't like cheese.

Oh and I take a multi-vitamin everyday so don't worry too much about packing EVERY nutrient in there lol I'm just trying to take a few healthy steps forward and learn how to feed myself the healthy way.

Nothing processed please! (no ready made meals, bars, etc..)

Bearing in mind I have NO IDEA how to cook. So this needs to be IDIOT PROOF.
I can boil water and that's basically it.
Keep that in mind lol

I just NEED to start being healthier and stop ordering so much take-out and gorging on white pasta and suggary cereals. the only thing saving me is the fact that I workout a lot but even then.. it's not GOOD for me to be eating like a total pig.

Bless you for even making it through this thread

[PWCorgi]

Step 1: Get a CrockPot.
Step 2: Get an electric skillet.

Seriously, they are amazing. They make the yummiest meat ever.

I've started embarking on a mission to make Adult Lunchables.

Without touching an oven this week I made:
2 batches of carnitas in the crock pot(they taste just like they do at Chipotle!)
Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops in the electric skillet
Pork Chops with Sauteed Apples in the electric skillet
and Beefy Baked Beans in the crock pot.
(If you want the recipes for any of the above, lemme know, they are all really simple/cheap)

Then I put them with fruits/veggies/beans and freeze. The above made 20 frozen meals to take for lunches.

[PWCorgi]

Adult lunchable:



Lol!

Also, I'm using a cookbook called Robin Takes 5.
It's fancy food with 5 ingredients or less, under 500 calories, and there are 500 recipes. They use the oven a lot though.

I never use the stove, that is why I have the skillet

[Dizzy]

Oooooh!

Veggie soup (all the veggies you want in a pan, stock cubes, season, smoosh up and freeze into portions).

Frittata (google it).

I have porridge for breakfast with fat free greek yoghurt, honey and chopped nuts.

Fruit with yogurt for breakie!

Homemade burgers with extra lean mince and a ton of salad or veggies on the side.


Any of these:

http://www.slimmingworld.com/healthy...g/recipes.aspx

[Beanie]

Breakfast: sausage, eggs, and bacon can all be made on your cooktop. You can also Foreman grill sausage patties. Eggs can be microwaved in a pinch (I've done this when running late.) You could also get some ham and do ham and eggs! I confess that almost every single morning I eat sausage, eggs, and bacon. Sometimes in a wrap. I buy a pound of sausage and make a bunch of patties at once, then freeze them individually wrapped in plastic wrap; take one out in the morning and heat it up and NOM NOM. (I like to sleep in so this makes it faster than cooking from fresh ground sausage in the morning.)

Otherwise you can do plenty of stirfry, either grill the chicken in the Foreman or cook it on the cooktop and cut it into bite-size pieces. Stock up on spices at the store (check your ingredient lists though and avoid stuff with additives) and you can eat a different chicken stirfry every week just by putting in different spices. I also buy low-sodium soy sauce (again check the ingredient list) and use that as a bit of sauce. If you have a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods they have some good stirfry sauces. Also Thai Kitchen (a grocery store brand) has some that are pretty clean and additive free. These will contain sugar, but I personally don't object to a bit of sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup.

Sweet potatoes, will you eat those? I just made one in the microwave for my lunch, put on a bit of butter and some cinnamon and chipotle chili powder. I also have about six thin slices of ham and a slice of pepperjack cheese and that's my lunch. I also do apples and natural peanut butter (you could do almond butter too) for lunch a lot since it's hot and a cold, fresh, juicy apple for lunch is amaaaaaazing. Since you don't like cheese, grill up a chicken breast for lunch too and there you go. You can do white potatoes too but I wouldn't make a habit of eating a lot of them if you want to eat healthy. You can do baked potatoes in a crockpot even.

[JessLough]

Have fresh veggies and fruits to munch on when you want a snack. Delicious.

[Xandra]

Souvlaki, tzatziki and greek salad. I could eat this combo at every meal for weeks lol.

[CaliTerp07]

One of my favorites is called "cajun pasta fresca". If you can chop tomatoes and stir, you're golden. Though apparently I can't chop tomatoes, because I sliced my finger yesterday making it. Super easy over whole wheat pasta, and probably over rice too though I've never tried it that way.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cajun-pasta-fresca/

I like that it's super easy to pare down to one or two people also.

Another easy way to sneak in vegetables is through pot pie. I am lazy and tend to dump in canned corn, carrots, peas, and potatoes--though obviously you could use fresh, and use whatever vegetables you wanted. The value of them probably disappears when you smother them in a creamy sauce and eat it topped with pie crust, but I eat a lot of veggies that way.

Edit: Shoot--you need an oven for pot pie. Could you maybe do it in the toaster oven?

[thebigcheese]

I always find a stir fry or thai curry is a really tasty yet healthy way to eat.

Just get some shredded veg, beansprouts, noodles and meat then stir fry it all up with the cooking sauce of your choosing.

Good luck on your quest to health!

[sassafras]

Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest got me through my entire post-high school education cheaply and tastily. If you can't find veggie recipes in there you don't like, then you're just screwed. (I have a newer one by the same author called Vegetable Heaven that I like a lot, too.)