Monte sent me! Do you have recs for 'healthy food for lazy people?' Big portions are a plus (I know everyone says 'if you want to lose weight just eat less food' but like then I'm just hungry and cranky all the time and I hate myself even MORE), microwaves are a plus, one pot/not having a lot of dishes at the end is a plus, NOT needing a blender or food processor is a plus.
The “lose weight = less food” way of dieting is kind of bullshit for the exact reason you just listed. Most people lose weight by a combination of diet AND exercise. So, dramatic cuts to caloric intake reduces energy which makes exercise more difficult, in turn resulting in no weight loss for the dieter. The best thing to do is to maintain a healthy calorie level (which can be calculated with your age, weight and activity level but I can’t recall the exact formula) & a healthy level of physical activity. So reducing portions is not a good piece of advice.
The place that people don’t often think about for “healthy & lazy” is their snacking habits! The easiest way to make a healthy change with really minimal effort is to invest in healthy snacks (ditch chips & crackers & cheez-its & etc., for things like sunflower seeds, nuts, fruit, etc.), depending on your budget. Having a healthy snack in between healthy meals is a good start and requires 0 energy or effort. Just have it on hand.
As for a few good “healthy & lazy” meals, I use a crockpot a lot so I love slow cooker recipes (but that can be substituted for a regular pot if you don’t have a slow cooker!). Soup is a great meal when you’re looking for big portions & healthy ingredients because usually it’s just a bunch of vegetables cooked together so they don’t go to waste. Poultry as your go-to meat is also a surefire way to be a little healthier, too.
Anyway, here are my top 3 Healthy Single Pot/Minimal Dish Meals: (and also easy to reheat/have leftovers).
slow cooker chicken tacos/fajitas – chicken breast, jalapeno, onion, chicken stock. season with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika & cayenne (depending on spiciness preferences & availability). cook the chicken and vegetables down (either in a pot on the stove or in a slowcooker on low) until it pulls apart [think NC BBQ consistency], dump it into corn tortillas. top with vegetables (or cheese, but you asked for healthy so I am omitting cheese) such as spinach, chopped onions, or avocados. a full pot will last about a week depending on how many people it’s feeding. pork can also be used, but chicken is generally regarded as healthier. completely safe to reheat in the microwave or eat cold. throw a can of blackbeans in the microwave with some onion, jalapeno & cumin and add it to the chicken (or use it by itself for a vegan friendly taco filling!)
potato soup – (I use a blender for this recipe but you honestly don’t need to) so - big chunks of potatoes (with or without skin is up to you, but with skin is a little healthier), chopped onion, celery & carrot. cover in chicken stock and cook until potatoes are cooked through. stir it up really well or hit it with a potato masher to get more consistency/fewer chunks. when it’s almost done cooking, add milk or cream and let it simmer for a few minutes until it’s the right thickness (this is a matter of preference, not an exact science). top with veggies (chives) or cheese/bacon bits. easily reheated in the microwave and one pot lasts about a week. (note: this can be basically any soup. soup is just chopped up vegetables + stock and occasionally chunks of meat).
big salad bowls. i tend to buy the plastic packages of greens from walmart (they come in a bunch of different varieties; spinach, spinach/kale blends, spinach/arugula, sweet greens, spring mix) for about $2.50 and dump the entire container into a bowl and throw in some chopped veggies (onion, peppers, cucumbers, apples, nuts if that’s what floats your boat). this itself makes a solid snack or compliment to a meal, but you can also grill a couple of chicken breasts and make a chicken salad out of it for something more substantial. one big bowl of salad lasts like 3 days but is definitely a solid four or five meals until the veggies start to wilt. dressing tends to be unhealthy but a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice will dress it right up and still be really good for you. (also put a pinch of salt on all of your salads from now on forever and thank me later).
those are my Big Three Easy & Healthy-ish meals that don’t take a lot of prep or kitchen space (basically just a cutting board and a single pot or slow cooker to cook in). I have more elaborate ones and more straightforward ones. (like, cook a couple of chicken breasts and eat them with some vegetables of your choosing! that’s my go-to healthy meal but it’s very Boring.) These aren’t precisely recipes because I don’t so much use recipes, but they’re things that I make the way I make them (and I’ve been trying to eat healthier this year so as the months wear on I’ll probably have more of these to share), and I hope that helps.
