Ship of Fools: 5 A day

Thread: 5 A day Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

While redecorating, my kitchen is currently spread over the living room and the oven is out of action.

Reasonably priced meals are easy to find out that contain meat and carbs, similarly ready meals (which I can microwave). Veg howwever seems to be lacking.

In practice, it's not so long that I can't get by on a poorer diet some days, a few more expensive days, splashing out on juice and trying to be more disciplined with fruit.

However it did make me wonder how I'd cope if in that (or similar) situations long term (or if things were a bit closer). Which of course people are.

So what is wanted are food suggestions that are reasonably quick, need minimal preparation space, are cheap and (reasonably) healthy and tasty.

Some requirements can be relaxed a little, if it scores highly elsewhere...but keep things to a constrained situation.

Posted by Mili (# 3254) on :

You can microwave fresh or frozen vegetables to eat on the side of other meals. Or you could make salad if you have the space. Where I live you can buy premade salads too, though they cost more than making a salad from scratch.

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mili:
You can microwave fresh or frozen vegetables to eat on the side of other meals. Or you could make salad if you have the space. Where I live you can buy premade salads too, though they cost more than making a salad from scratch.

Will definitely have to be more respectful of salads (I don't really have the clean space, but will look for future).
The basic veg idea is good, shows a lack of oot-box thinking on my part.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

How about a version of hummus?

Get a tin of chickpeas (garbonzo beans), lentils, black (turtle) beans, or any other that you can find. If you have a blender, throw them in after rinsing them until the water runs clear (we call this rinsing the farts off in my family). If you don't have a blender, put them in a larger bowl that looks reasonable and mash them with a fork or potato masher.

Add something to flavour them. Traditional is chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, ground sesame seeds (tahini), garlic and perhaps cumin. Lots of recipes on line. Mix up and serve. I find this boring and sesame seeds are worth their weight in gold here, so do whatever else tickles your fancy.

An example would be:

-cooked sweet potatoes (left over are fine), tomatoes, green peas (frozen work fine without cooking)
-one or more herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, tarragon
-dash of cayenne or a fresh hot pepper
-some sharply flavoured cheese in small quantities.

I make this usually on Tuesdays when I have supper alone. You can put it on bread, make it into veggie dip, roll it up in a lettuce leaf or anything else that seems reasonable to you. I've also filled peppers with this and nuked in the microwave with a bit of cheese on top.

You can decide how firm you want to make it for whatever use you can think of. Weirdly there are lentil cookie recipes that sort of start the same way but add flour and sugar and bake. Chocolate chips required.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

Have some fresh fruit after the main meal.

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
Have some fresh fruit after the main meal.

That's the plan (it even happened once or twice). It just seemed a bit inelegant.

Will look into NP's humous when the foodprocessor's not surrounded by stuff (and not on carpet).

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

A friend of mine doesn't have an oven at all and does all her cooking using a slow cooker, microwave and electric frypan. She finds she is able to cook anything at all in this way. You can cook a roast in the fry pan or the slow cooker. Frozen and fresh veg do very well in the microwave (I actually prefer broccoli cooked in the microwave).

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

This will probably sound gross, but French cut green beans stir fried with egg are wonderful over rice (with a bit of soy sauce).

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

You could get in a fair proportion of your five-a-day by making veggie soup in a slow-cooker.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Celery sticks, carrot sticks, all the sorts of things you can eat raw, with dip.

One simple dip: plain yogurt with added seasonings.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

I Assume you have a microwave and some other thing that is basically a pot with an electric element at the bottom? I lived for four years without an oven or stove and fed a family of six every night with the help of these two items and one plug in hotplate. Mind you, the microwave was a large convection one. And it's still more than a lot of the world owns to cook with...

It's also a bit difficult to create food preparation areas in rooms primarily used for other purposes.

For a very quick meal, take any kind of favourite pre-made soup, stew or pasta (can/carton/packet) then as it is heating add in fresh chopped vegetables - things like mushrooms, celery tops, and sugar snap peas need only a few minutes to cook. If you are using something pre-made that is tomato based add in fresh tomatoes, garlic and finely chopped zucchini. Etc etc. you get the idea. Just ramp up the veggie content with fresh bits.

My favourite was to boil fresh cubed potatoes and spiral pasta with a vegetable stock cube and then add garlic, fresh celery tops and a can of organic minestrone soup. Serve with planks of crusty bread - a fast light meal in cold and 'flu season.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Another one who has just bought an oven after several years with a microwave, slow cooker and rice cooker for cooking. Daily cooking was lots of high vegetable one pot meals in the rice cooker and slow cooker:

risottos with vegetables,
stir fries with loads of vegetables, served with noodles, ready made or dried fine egg noodles which cook OK by having boiling water poured over and leaving to steep - the stir fry mix works in the microwave, not brilliantly, but isn't bad.
onion, potato, cabbage and bacon or sausage mixes work well in a rice cooker;
Italian sausage casserole mix (tomatoes with sausages) - I add spinach to that sort of mix, frozen works well in cooking;
Spanish omelette in the microwave - cook potatoes, onions first, add vegetables before cooking again, then add egg, serve with salad;
Cous-cous salads, cous-cous cooks by pouring boiling water over it and leaving it - nice with chick peas (either tinned or cooked in the slow cooker) and/or tuna, salad stuff;
Beans and other pulses make good high fibre salads or can be heated up with other foods in the microwave;
baked potatoes in the microwave with salad mixes;
casseroles with dumplings work well in the slow cooker.

You can bake in the microwave - soda bread works OK, and chocolate cake (other cakes come out looking too pale to be appetising unless you ice them). Steamed puddings are brilliant in a microwave and can be filled with fruit. I gave up when I ended up dealing with gluten-free dairy-free baking in the microwave as beyond fun.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

The Grandad is very naughty about vegetables (though we eat lots of fresh fruit – an orange at breakfast, banana or grapes after lunch, melon, apples, kiwi fruit or stone fruit for dessert).
But we both love ratatouille, which I make with aubergine, courgettes, onion, capsicum, and canned chopped tomatoes – and lots of chopped parsley. It's made in a frypan and finished with the cover on; the last big batch was enough for several days plus some for another couple of dinners in the freezer.

GG

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

I have heard that the orangey bits from five Jaffa Cakes constitute one of your five a day.

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :

I now have very limited access to a full kitchen. For most of the week I have a toaster oven, a small slow-cooker, and a hotpot for boiling water, and feel the OP's pain. The lack of a fridge has proved a stumper for me. Buying a whole bunch of celery or a head of cabbage is an issue. While it's still cold, I can keep a small tin of evaporated milk for tea for a few days, or a (very) small jar of something requiring refrigeration after opening, because I have an under-the-sink cupboard on an outside wall. I don't know what I'll do when the weather turns warm.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

The old fashioned way of dealing with a lack of fridge was evaporation.

Cover already covered and sealed food with a damp tea towel to evaporate and cool the food during the day. Or the old earthenware containers for milk bottles were made so that sat the milk bottle in a dish filled with water, covered with an unglazed earthenware top. The earthenware wicked up the water staying damp, allowing evaporation to cool the milk (and butter/cheese).

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
the OP's pain.

Thanks, to be honest for me there not really any pain. It's for so short a time (assuming I don't make a total mess of it), it's just a change.

So for me it's mainly another reminder of what I take for granted, and to be grateful, etc...(and a chance to learn good ideas) And a recognition that for others it's different.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

If there's no space for preparation of salad put the ingredients into a plastic bag, add oil, vinegar and salt. Shake.

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

I subsist on spinach and blueberries. I snack on them by the handful straight from the container, as I used to do with chips/crisps. I go though a bag of fresh spinach a day, and when blueberries are around I can knock back a large carton a day without blinking. It's a bit spendier, but so is junk food (compare a bag of chips with a bag of spinach, by volume rather that weight: it's a screaming deal) and I feel better. Plus, I'm 41 with the skin of a 30 year old.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Frozen peas are an easy thing to microwave along with the meat/carb. They're easily portioned and pretty indestructible to over/under cooking.

In my family there was a tradition of thawing but not cooking frozen string beans and putting them in a vinaigrette, either made or bought as salad dressing. It keeps pretty well for several days.
The other traditional food that it's easy to bring back is pickled food; cucumber, sauerkraut, pickled beets.

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

I made this one skillet meal for my vegetarian the other day and we all loved it:

Heat two tablespoons oil in the skillet, chop in half a green bell pepper and a zucchini, saute for five minutes.

Add a can of black beans, drained, a can of diced tomatoes with garlic, not-drained, 3/4 cup water.

Bring to a boil, turn off heat, and add I cup instant rice. Let stand for 7 minutes. Serve it from the skillet.

Posted by HughWillRidmee (# 15614) on :

I get much of my 5-a-day over and done with early.

Breakfast is porridge (bran flakes in warmer months) with three dried apricots and three dried prunes diced and added, with c.30 sultanas, prior to microwaving (I don't microwave branflakes, of course). Own brand "saver" fruits work just as well as branded ones. The packet says 2 mins - I like 90 secs, stir thoroughly and give it a further 60 second blast. Add sweetener/sugar/syrup/extra milk to taste, stir thoroughly, allow to cool a little and enjoy!

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

You can buy a very cheap plastic microwave steamer that enables you to cook all your veg in the microwave in one go. Just chop up, put in the top compartment with a little bit of water in the bottom, microwave for 5 mins and you're done. I do all mine that way.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

If you are cooking for one and your greens go limp before you can use them all, food process them into mush and add them to a gravy. Microwaved pie + a gravy full of greens with added pepper and/or garlic should help the 5 a day along.

Posted by Barnabas Aus (# 15869) on :

We have available several brands of microwave ready steam-in-the-bag frozen vegetable combinations which would be ideal for this situation. 90 seconds in the microwave and they're done. Not as good as fresh, but just the thing when emergencies arise.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Banner Lady:
If you are cooking for one and your greens go limp before you can use them all, food process them into mush and add them to a gravy. Microwaved pie + a gravy full of greens with added pepper and/or garlic should help the 5 a day along.

That sounds suspiciously like a meat pie floater to me!

[Big Grin]

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

I knew a chap who wouldn't eat his veg - turned out he'd been consuming spinach sauce thinking it was parsley for over 30 years. All Bolognese sauce contained fine-grated carrot, cheese sauce blitzed butter or cannellini beans, the salads he loved (just lettuce is fine for me) were largely spinach and chard, 'green' sauce was blitzed calabrese and spinach, etc, etc.

How did he discover? One day when boasting about his 'perfect' gut health despite never eating vegetables his wife lost it and out it all came [Snigger]

Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :

My 5-a-day comes mostly from salad. I eat most veg raw in a salad - my salads can have spinach, kale, broccoli, onion, carrot, peppers, cabbage, beetroot, babycorn, sugar snap peas, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, and any other stuff I find. I go to the supermarket in the evening when fruit and veg about to go out-of-date is sold at reduced prices, and I buy lots of fruit and veg that way, so it's very cheap. It tends to be good for quite a few days after its sell by date too.

I have fresh fruit for breakfast - I chop it up and add yogurt (which I also buy when it's reduced and it lasts way behind its use-by date).

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

Easy, tasty, minimum cooking required comfort-food: beans on toast. (Baked beans count in the five-a-day.)

Hmmm I feel a trip to Marks & Sparks coming on…

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

Originally posted by Sparrow:

quote:
That sounds suspiciously like a meat pie floater to me!

And what is wrong with a meat pie floater? In Oz, Victorians and South Australians are quite partial to 'em. Mind you the gravy doesn't have to be green. TP does a spinach, garlic & onion gravy that looks just like gravy but tastes wonderfully rich and hearty. And you can always have it with a chicken & veg pie.

May not be haute cuisine, but you can't separate Australians from their love for a meat pie. I believe there's even a song about it...

(Edited for code)

[ 09. March 2015, 21:12: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
Easy, tasty, minimum cooking required comfort-food: beans on toast. (Baked beans count in the five-a-day.)

Not going to try washing that up.

The veg ready to sneak in sauces is a great idea that I'm totally going to nick when normal service is resumed (especially as one of the things I bought, expecting to have to empty the fridge was potatos in spinich gravy which was nice, and I have a surfeit of spinach anyway)

Pleasantly surprised in some respects. I'd expected to have to mix (really) unhealthy home heated stuff, with more expensive (but still cheap) food out. But that's not been the case.

Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :

Cubby and I need to eat more salad.

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
You can buy a very cheap plastic microwave steamer that enables you to cook all your veg in the microwave in one go.

My local Tesco has cheapo steamers for £12 that are self-contained rather than microwave ones. I bought one when my electrics blew up in the kitchen and I steamed all my meals in the shed. Fish, rice and veg can be done in one go and you can also steam couscous (nicer than just steeping in hot water), gammon (surprisingly tasty) black puddings and chicken. Black pud, new potatoes and kale was a firm favourite done in half an hour of steaming. Add a small camping stove into the equation and you can cook virtually anything less adventurous than a Sunday roast.

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