May 9, 2012

My Food Diary

Baked Chicken, Steamed Broccoli and Zucchini Squash

1 FROZEN chicken breast (I like the NuWave Oven since I can take frozen food and bake it right away)
Ground Black Pepper, Italian Seasoning, and other seasonings if you like
Place chicken breast on drip pan (comes with Nuwave Oven) I insert this drip pan over a 9 in. cake pan with a little water in it to catch the drippings)

Bake in Nuwave Oven for about 10 minutes., Turn chicken over, add more pepper and seasonings, and also add a few veggies in the drip pan with the chicken, if desired. I added sliced zucchini squash, a piece of broccoli, and some chopped green onion.

Bake for 5-10 more minutes or until done. Meantime, see below:

Add broccoli, sliced zucchini, and sliced green onion to a steamer rack inside the rice cooker pot. Place water to just below the veggies in the pot you usually cook the rice in. Turn on the rice cooker and veggies should be done around the time the chicken breast is done.

Extremely easy, I consider it healthy, and easy clean-up. Delicious, too! (But, I’m not picky!) LOL
I did not like the broccoli done in the Nuwave. I’ll have to try another way to do it in Nuwave. But the broccoli in the rice cooker was fantastic!

*I make no health claims. I keep this food diary for personal health reasons. I eat healthier than I did—so—it’s healthy for me. Things I do in NuWave can be done in conventional oven. However, I prefer Nuwave since I can start with frozen meat and cook it without defrosting. It’s moist, done, and easier for ME!

May 1, 2012

My Food Diary, for medical reason, my choice
*Disclaimer: I eat healthier than I did before. I do not claim this is the way for another person to eat. However if you find any of the methods I use or the food I choose, you are welcome to use it yourself for share. Usually, when I cook, I show one or two servings.

Veggie Meal

3 large carrots, brushed, washed, and sliced
2 zucchini squash, brushed, washed, and sliced.
1 t. olive oil
1 t. balsamic dressing
Sprinkle of ground, black pepper
Combine all of above in bowl, stir to coat with the oil and dressing
After stirring, put in a 8 or 9” cake pan, on lower rack of NuWave Oven
Bake for 12 minutes (or until done), stirring once after first 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, Cut up cabbage (about 1/4-1/2 head). Place cabbage on a rack inside rice cooker container. Place rack inside the part you usually cook the rice in. Add water to just below the rack. Cook about 15 minutes or until done, as you like.

While veggies and cabbage are cooking:
Cut up lettuce
chop or slice bell pepper
chop or slice yellow onion
Cut or slice tomato
Sprinkle with ground black pepper
Pour small amount of honey mustard dressing over top of salad

Very easy, fast, uncomplicated (considering following long, long recipes), healthy (healthier than I use to do! LOL), and delicious. Enjoy!

April 30, 2012

My Food Diary, for medical purposes, my choice

Baked fish with veggies, corn and tomatoes, and baked apple slices

It hit me, I was starving for fish! I package the fish I buy in individual plastic bags (usually one piece of fish to a small bag) and then I package several individual bagged fillets into a large freezer bag. I don’t have to use more than the number of bags I need, they don’t stick to each other, and double wrapped—they are protected better while frozen.

Any of this below can be done in conventional oven. I prefer the Nuwave Oven since I can cook frozen fish and not have to have defrost time and then cooking time. I like healthy, easy, fast, and uncomplicated.

Place in drip pan that comes with Nuwave Oven and place a cake pan with some water below this to catch drippings.
1 large frozen fish fillet
Ground black pepper
Italian seasoning
A few onion slices
Bake for 10 or15 minutes.

Turn fish over (leave onion slices on bottom)
Add more black pepper, Italian seasoning, sliced onion, sliced bell pepper, and a couple of slices of tomato.
Placed sliced apple (cut in slices) around in pan and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake for 10 minutes or until done.

I opened a can of whole kernel corn and placed serving on plate along with diced tomatoes (I used canned for this) heat in microwave about 1 1/2 minutes. Add fish with veggies on top, and then add baked apples.

Easy (especially going from frozen to complete mean in about 30 minutes. Healthy, fast, not complicated at all, and DELICIOUS!

April 29, 2012

My Food Diary, medical reasons, my choice to keep diary

Veggie Salad and Crackers

I wasn’t very hungry today but knew I needed something nutritious. I recently got fresh veggies and I know they don’t last forever—so I needed to use some of those first.

I simply chopped up lettuce, bell pepper, yellow onion, green onion, celery, and tomatoes. I layered it as I went, knowing I could eat that way or stir it up after it was done. I did add a small amount of low-fat dressing (especially considering the large size salad) and ate with a few whole wheat crackers.

Delicious, filling, fast, easy, and healthy!

April 26, 2012

Ground Turkey,Rice, Veggie—Stuffed Bell Peppers, Carrot and Tiny Bit of cabbage Slaw, and Sliced Tomatoes.

I like to avoid as much fat as I can. I use drip pan with Nuwave oven to allow meat to cook but not have the fat, etc.

Ground Turkey, (I made two patties)
Black ground pepper or seasoning of your choice)
Place patties on drip pan, bake about 10 minutes, flip patties, bake for about 10 minutes more. Test for doneness. This was fresh ground turkey, not frozen as I frequently do.

While cooking Ground Turkey, cook rice in rice cooker
1 cup rice
2 cups water
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4-1/2 onion, chopped (amount depends on your taste)
Small amount black ground pepper
Cook all of this in rice cooker together. I just put rice in, water, and put the chopped veggies on top of that and turned the cooker on. LOL

When rice is done and ground turkey patties are done, crumble patties into the rice mixture and stir.

2 bellpeppers, washed and cored
Stuff bellpeppers with cooked rice, veggie, and meat mixture. Bake on drip pan of Nuwave for about 15 minutes. When done, add to plate with sliced tomatoes, and carrot slaw. I added a small amount of prepared, low fat dressing to my serving of carrot salad.

2 large carrots
1/4 head cabbage (if desired)
Process with food processor.

I enjoyed this very much. It was actually fast, easy, and healthy. Thanks for your interest in my blog about “My Food Diary”—kept for medical reasons—my choice. :)

April 20, 2012

Subway Chicken breast 1/2 foot-long, sliced apple, and lemon cupcake with icing!

Well, I’ve been eating really quite healthy as my blog shows. However, every now and then, a little fun food is called for. Actually the chicken sandwich is quite healthy. I get 9 grain bread, whole roasted chicken breast, lettuce, olives, tomato, pickle, yellow and green pepper, purple onion, (seems I’m leaving something out!), and honey mustard sauce.

Nothing wrong with sliced apple, that’s healthy.

But, fun food is the delicious lemon muffin that is iced with buttercream icing. Found the package of muffins 1/2 off and just had to have it! I don’t make a habit of it but quantity of life sometimes has to give in to a bit of quality. Just saying’. LOL I don’t enjoy being so rigid that I break. Kinda like having an open mind. I have an open mind but not so open that my brains fall out! :)

Eat healthy but have a bit of fun now and then, too!

March 24, 2012

My daughter cooked for friends and I was invited.  I wasn’t hungry when the meal was ready so I did a bring home plate which I ate a couple of days later.  It certainly was good.  I didn’t cook this so I can’t tell you how it was cooked. 

I do know it had veggies, roast beef, and garlic bread and it was delicious!

March 19, 2012 

My Leftovers Meal

Yeah, I know.  A lot of macaroni and starch!  One good thing, One side with the macaroni did include the turnips, apple, green bean mixture.  The other side with the macaroni has english peas and was cooked in chicken broth.  I sprinkled both with parmesan & Romano Cheese. I also had one of the Salmon patties I did last night.  The peaches were the last serving of those.  Actually, all-in-all, this wasn’t a bad meal.  Maybe now I can move on to other things.

I’ve spoken to the doctor and we have a little better understanding of “watching” what is high in potassium and what is high in cholesterol—without going crazy.  I typically cook many of the things I’ve had but wasn’t having to be so afraid until this past two weeks.  I’ve stopped buying bananas and will strictly limit oranges and orange juice though I do use orange juice in cooking sometimes.  It just won’t be often or of much quantity. Until the potassium gets down, I’ll limit how often I eat mustard greens, etc. I’ll get canned greens and leach them before using.  It shouldn’t take long to be at least normal with the potassium.

I really love all of my appliances and find that using them really saves time, energy, and helps with needing oil and grease.  Today I simply just warmed over my plate of food in the microwave. I don’t know how women even lived before all these great appliances, though I liked the “old ways” concerning family time, family togetherness, and values that are so rapidly going away. 

Thanks for taking time to read through my moaning and groaning about trying to fix healthy, decent meals. I also hope along the way that perhaps senior citizens, single folks, or special diet people can find a couple of useful things via this blog. Don’t expect to find me in “Food Beautiful”, lol or any of that type stuff.  I’m into healthy, inexpensive, time-saving, down home cooking.  I don’t use recipes much and when I do, it’s not one with rows of ingredients to try to keep up with.  LOL

Tuna Salad

In bowl combine:

1 small can tuna, packed in water

1 T. pickle relish

Couple of squirts of spicy mustard

In small food processor combine:

celery

onion

green onion

bell pepper

1/2 apple

Process until copped to desired consistency

Add to tuna mixture. Sprinkle with black pepper and any seasonings desired.

Toast 2 slices wheat bread, cut in triangles or squares, if desired.

Sprinkle a few raisins on top.

I’m told tuna is a fatty fish that contains omega 3 fatty acids which is ok if watching high cholesterol.