(no subject)

[titusnowl]

So I have to go on a low-cholesterol diet.  However, I HATE HATE HATE trying to make food for just one person while Justin has nothing but cheese toast for dinner, so I have to try to find healthy, inexpensive meals to cook that both of us will eat.   This means that the meals may contain:

- Chicken breasts (no dark meat)
- Beef of any kind
- Salmon, perhaps, if it's prepared a certain way

It may not contain:
- Cooked tomatoes
- Peppers (bell or hot)
- Carrots
- Mushrooms
- Any sort of sauce that gets poured over top of a meat
- Cheeses other than cheddar and possibly mozzarella, but again, the cheese can't be on top of the meat

So basically we're just going to be having sautéd chicken every night and some vegetables that I cook on the side (except that I don't know what to do with a vegetable besides put butter on it, and the butter is bad for me).

Comments

[emmycantbemeeko.livejournal.com]

Two extremely tasty ways to prepare fish which are just about impossible to mess up:

1. Pesto/Butter rub.

step one: Make pesto (you can find a bajillion recipes by googling.

step two: blend together butter and pesto.

step three: rub the butter/pesto all over the top of the filet.

step four: bake.

It's not health food, but it isn't wretched for you, especially if you're sparing with the rub, and it's a good way to acclimate anti-fish people to the Joy of Fish.

2. olive oil and black pepper

step one: brush olive oil on filets.

step two: sprinkle with black pepper. Substitute lemon pepper seasoning if you prefer.

step three: bake.

This works best on a light, mild fish like tilapia. It's so, so delicious- flaky and faintly sweet and just wonderful. It probably wouldn't be enough flavor for a strong fish like salmon, but for anything mild, it's perfect. If it isn't quite strongly flavored enough for you, squirt with lemon juice after preparing.

For healthy veggies, try steaming them and then eating them with salad dressing. Use the fork method- put the dressing in a little bowl or cup, then dip your fork into the dressing before stabbing the veggies. This way you get the flavor without massive amounts of the dressing. This is how I always eat salad, and am now so accustomed to it that pouring dressing directly onto salad is appallingly rich for me- I can't stomach it.

Stir-fried veggies in olive oil are also delicious, and you can use all sorts of seasonings to spice them up. Once you get away from the powerful, dulling flavor of butter, you can really taste other flavors, and you come to appreciate them more. And do experiment with spices- they can bring up the flavor of a dish drastically without adding any calories at all.

Good luck!

[tiny-nomad.livejournal.com]

We've been on a big vegetable kick recently, here are a few things you might enjoy that are low in cholesterol:

Roasted veggies:
Throw some asparagus and cauliflower in a pan with some sliced garlic and a bit of oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Pop them in the oven for 30-40 mins on 450 until brown and crispy. Enjoy!
My favorite veggies to roast are asparagus (it gets really crsipy) and cauliflower (it absorbs the garlic well) but you can do with all sorts of vegetables.

Homemade sushi:
You can get some of the seaweed wraps at the grocery store to use. Before cooking the rice, be sure to rinse it thoroughly to get all the excess starch off. Cook it and drain it, make sure it dries well (we use a fan over it which helps). Dash a little rice wine vinegar on the rice and spread it out over the seaweed sheet. Then you can place bits of sliced cucumber, carrots, avocado or whatever you like. We use a bit of smoked salmon or crab meat (very small amounts). Then you roll the whole thing up, and cut it into pieces.

Hummus:
Get a couple cans of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), a can of tahini, a lime (or lemon, your preference), garlic, salt, cumin, and paprika. Drain the chickpeas and set the juice aside. Mix both cans of chickpeas with about half a cup of tahini. Pour in about half the remaining juice, and squeeze in one entire lime/lemon. Chop up a couple cloves of garlic, and add that along with a dash of paprika and about a half teaspoon of cumin. Mix the whole deal up in a food processer or with a hand blender and voila! Nice tasty snack spread to eat with crackers or pita bread.

Also, here's a great site that shows how much is in stuff: http://www.calorie-count.com/

[tiny-nomad.livejournal.com]

Also:

Variations on ceviche should be low on cholesterol. You can look up specific recipes but the basic idea is you use the acids in lemons and limes to cook the fish. Get a filet you like, cut it up into small bits and put it in a bowl with some chopped up veggies, cilantro, onions, and lemon/lime juice. Is very tasty!

[zyada.livejournal.com]

Ok, who has a problem with which?

Tabbouleh

[up-a-creek.livejournal.com]

Tabbouleh is basically a parsley salad. No cooking (that is, heating things up) involved. Pretty good stuff. This recipe comes from Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

1/2 cup bulgur wheat
Juice of 1-2 lemons, to taste
4 firm ripe tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
4 scallions, chopped
2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (aka Italian parsley)
2/3 cup finely chopped mint leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

My abbreviated instructions again:
1. Soak the bulgur in at least 1 cup of cold water for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander or strainer for another 10 minutes and press out the excess water.

2. Combine the bulgur with the remaining ingredients. Let sit for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to combine.

Bulgur wheat (spelled in about a million different ways) is parboiled cracked wheat grains, and so can be eaten with very little or even no cooking. Your best chances of finding it is probably at the bulk aisle in a natural foods store. It has a shelf life of approximately forever, so that's something else you can load up in Dallas if you can't find it in Greenville.

I believe that flat-leaf parsley is traditional to this dish, but regular parsley can probably be used, too (I haven't tried that myself, though). Parsley and mint will both chop down to almost nothing, so you'll need more than you might at first think. One bunch of parsley and one package of mint is probably a good place to start.

[davew0071.livejournal.com]

Seasonings and cooking methods can go a long way to making the same ol' entree seem different. Try cutting the chicken breasts into thin strips and stir-frying them (canola oil is good for this, as it's low in cholesterol and withstands high temperatures). Then serve with brown rice and a veggie on the side. Very tasty, especially if you get creative with seasonings, like ginger and Chinese five-spice and such.

Find a cookbook especially for low-chol diets. It'll give you good ideas.

And buy some Molly McButter. Sprinkled on steamed vegetables, it's delicious.