Over the years I’ve learned how to cook some basic things, it doesn’t get much more complicated than cooking some lean meat in the frying pan, boiling some rice and steaming some veggies on the stove, but i’ve also stumbled upon a few quick, tasty and healthy meals which help me add a bit of variety into my healthy eating plan.
Now I am not a good cook whatsoever (so don’t expect anything elaborate), nor do I particularly like cooking, which is unfortunate cos I quite like eating… (nor do I like the cleaning and washing up part).
These are some good rules to live by if you have the same feelings as me about the dishes…
Anyway below I’ve listed 5 quick, easy and healthy meals you may not have tried before – steal them and add them to your healthy meal reportiore if that’s the case (assuming you like them), we can never have enough of these in our toolbox to choose from, and if I can make them, you certainly can, in fact you’ll probably be able to make it better.
Roast Lamb Salad
I’m not sure if this is an official salad with a name and I just happen to make it, or if its just some random ingredients that seem to taste really good together. Anyway, I’ve made this salad a few times recently and it is awesome. This lamb salad takes the longest out of all the meals / snacks I’ve listed here but it’s by no means hard to make.
1. Put butterfly leg of lamb in the oven at 180 degrees, the ones with that are ‘herbed’ already are the easiest, otherwise flavour as you please
2. Find something to keep yourself occupied for 35-45 minutes. (Do a workout, foam roll, stretch, make yourself some snacks to take to work tomorrow etc)
3. Take the lamb out and let it sit for a few minutes to cool down
4. Pour a ton of baby spinach into a bowl, throw in some red onion, mushroom, cucumber, a few tablespoons of hommus, pour some olive oil over it and squeeze lemon juice over it.
5. Cut up some chunks of juicy lamb, throw over the salad and give it a mix
Here’s one I prepared earlier…
Scrambled Eggs with Tuna
I’ve been making this meal for a while now, I think one of our Fit Stop clients told me about this a while ago now and I’ve used it ever since.
1. Heat up pan and put some coconut oil in
2. scramble 2-4 eggs and place in the pan
3. Just when the eggs are nearly done and ready to go, turn off the flame and pour a big can of tuna in olive oil through the whole thing whilst still warm.
4. Throw in a small can of ‘4 bean mix’ lentils, and some chilli sauce or chilli flakes and stir. (you can also get tuna in chilli oil, haven’t tried this but could be good! )
Fried Banana In Coconut Oil
This tastes awesome, I often make this for my kids and they think it’s a real treat, and they’re completely unaware that it is healthy for them… (insert evil laugh here). For those who haven’t used coconut oil before, it’s the healthiest oil you can cook with due to its high smoke point (heating other oils like vegetable and olive oil changes the chemical structure of the oil and is BAD for your body), I’ve been cooking with coconut oil for about 10 years now, and these days you’re probably starting to hear all about it in popular magazines and ‘celebrity diets’, (this isn’t just another fad though, coconut oil is legit). It’s also the key to giving this meal a great flavour.
Its as simple as:
1. Put some coconut oil in a pan and heat
2. Place a couple of bananas in the pan and fry both sides till a little brown
3. Take bananas out, put some natural greek yogurt or some CoYo (coconut yoghurt) on top.
(Whilst very healthy, if weight loss is the goal, I wouldn’t necessarily be making this a staple in my diet every single day, obviously factor in what the rest of your diet is looking like to determine this and don’t go overboard with either too many bananas OR with the coconut oil, a tablespoon is enough. I would use this more so as a healthy ‘treat’ or eat it within a couple of hours after a metabolic weight training workout)
ProYo (Protein yoghurt)
I literally just made up the name of this just then after writing about CoYo, but it’s quite catchy so I’ll stick with it. I actually stole this off one of our Fit Stop clients (Shirley) when she made me a sample and brought it in for me one day (isn’t she lovely!). I may have modified this a little from the original recipe but here’s the gist of it:
1. Put some natural greek yoghurt or coconut yoghurt in a bowl
2. Mix in half a scoop of vanilla protein powder and stir into a paste
3. Throw in some walnuts, cranberries, (and/or blueberries) and sprinkle some cinnamon through the whole thing – yum!
You could also get away with using ‘no added sugar’ yoghurt like Jalna if you’re eating this after a training session.
Random fact 1: Just because something says ‘no added sugar’ does not mean that there’s not alot of sugar in it in the first place…can be misleading, common with yoghurts, fruit juice and other snacks
Random Fact 2: cinnamon is helpful for controlling insulin in your body, which helps with weight loss, so don’t skimp on the cinnamon!
Rice Cake Open Sandwich
Once of the most difficult things for a lot of people when trying to lose weight and eat healthy is ditching the bread. Bread or toast often gives people that ‘base’ for other ingredients, and some people just seem to be lost without it. If you’re looking for a quick, filling snack you’re much better off using thin rice cakes as your base. Rice cakes are basically just puffed rice, so you’re not eating any wheat or gluten that you find in bread, which gives a lot of people trouble with digestion, bloating, lethargy, weight gain etc.
Here is a common snack I regularly make:
1. Spread avocado, and hommus on a couple of rice cakes
2. Put a pile of sliced turkey on top (and a slice of tomato if you like)
3. sprinkle with pepper
Also good is smoked salmon & cream cheese…
One last little note, remember it’s a good idea to try and eat some veggies ANY time you eat, this is a good rule to try to stick to to ensure you’re getting in enough on a daily basis, you can never overdo vegetable intake. So for any of the above where veggies aren’t included, try to eat some either before or afterwards. This could be something as simple as eating a raw carrot dipped in hommus, or a handful of baby spinach straight In the mouth. (not fine dining but gets the job done!)
So there you go! 5 healthy meals for you to try,
I’d be interested to hear what everyone else does for healthy meal or snack ideas, no matter how basic. If you’ve got some regular snacks in your rotation please let everyone know in the comments section below – doesn’t have to be anything revolutionary, sometimes we overlook the simplest things. So help eachother out with some ideas!
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