If washing dishes isn't your idea of a good time, one-dish meals are for you. They save time with both meal prep and cleanup... and don't think casseroles are your only one-dish option! You can easily switch most of your favorite dinners to one-dish meals, but how? Follow these 5 steps to get started: 1. Think outside the box with how you cook your grains. Pasta, rice, and other grains are the basis for many great one-dish meals. The key is cutting out the draining and moving from pot to pot. Rather than boiling it on it's own, cook your pasta or grain with the rest of the ingredients. Here are a couple one-dish pasta meals to start: 2. Time it right. Start with the ingredients that need cooked the longest (like onion, garlic, and grains). Then add less hearty ingredients (like mushrooms and peas), and end with delicate foods (like spinach or other greens). Need an example or two? See below 3. Take the easy way out. Canned and frozen vegetables and beans can be your best friend if you're in a bind, and require very little cooking... perfect for one-dish meals. Exhibits A and B: 4. Leftovers are king. Got some extra chicken from dinner last night? How about leftover rice? Since already made ingredients like this cut out a whole step in the cooking process, they're perfect for making one-dish meals. The dishes below would work well for adding in leftover grain or meat. 5. Test new flavors. Cutting out time consuming steps, like grilling or smoking ingredients before adding them to recipes, can also cut out flavor. Use herbs and spices to kick it back up. Smoked paprika, garlic (or garlic powder), and fresh parsley are great for this.
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You may have heard the terms "one pot meal" and "pantry meal" thrown around recently. One pot meals only need one pot to make. But the beauty of a recipe also being a pantry meal, is that you probably already have most of the ingredients on hand. Meaning fewer grocery trips (yay!). What should you have on hand though? If it's done right, creating a well-stocked pantry is easy.
Below are a few items that will be your meal-making heroes on the bleakest of days. Then scroll down for some recipes that prove it and only require ONE dish to prepare... Some of them use only pantry ingredients!
In the Pantry
In the Freezer
In the Fridge
Pantry Meals
What can you make with all these things? Following are some easy meal ideas:
*Frozen onion/peppers can be used in place of fresh for these recipes.
Pantry Shopping List
When it comes to recipes, there are lots of small tweaks you can make to gain more nutrition without losing flavor. This week we're focusing on saving money and eating healthier by cooking at home. What better time to try some easy changes to your favorite meals? Here are a few trades you can make to health-ify home cooked meals: 1. Sour Cream → Greek Yogurt Let's get one thing clear right off the bat. You definitely do not want strawberry yogurt on your taco/burrito/baked potato. Gross. But have you tried plain nonfat Greek yogurt before? If you have, you may have noticed how similar it tastes to sour cream. And it packs in more than twice as much protein with about 25% of the calories and no fat!
Recipes where you can make this trade: 2. Ground Beef → Lentils/Black Beans Even if you like meals with meat, you can replace at least half of it with beans or lentils to add variety, nutrition, and decrease your cost and calories! (Read more about the benefits of beans here.) Hopefully you love tables, because here's another:
*85% lean ground beef **Cost based on average Connecticut grocery prices. Recipes where you can make this trade: 3. White/Refined Grains → Whole Grains Added fiber and protein are hard to pass up when they're so easy to get. Simply switch out your white rice or pasta for brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Especially in recipes with sauces, you won't notice any difference in flavor! (Read more here about why whole grains rock.) Recipes where you can make this trade: 4. Broth → Water Broth gives soups and chilis a lot of flavor, so you may not want to get rid of it entirely. However, swapping out half the broth in a recipe for water will cut down your sodium and cost. Win! (If you need to decrease sodium in your diet for health reasons, check out this section of heart healthy recipes.) Recipes where you can make this trade:
If there was an award for the most underrated protein/food it would go to black beans hands down. Black beans, and really beans in general, are super versatile and pack a nutritional punch however you use them. Here is why beans are so great... Beans are great for you! A healthy adult needs about 6 oz of protein each day. Black beans are a great source of protein! ½ cup is equal to 2 oz protein, and gives you…
Beans can save you money! Do you like saving money? Our guess is, yes. You can save a ton of money by buying dry black beans instead of canned, roughly 33%! We’ll do the math for you.
Beans are super easy to cook! Dry beans must be soaked before they are incorporated into a meal. The easiest method is to soak overnight.
Once your beans are soaked, you can cook them on the stove, in a slow cooker, or even in the oven. Easy Bean Recipes |
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