veggie stock & microwave
 

Ok, 2 seperate questions here:
1)I was upping my vegetable intake, but I'm always pressed for time between two jobs so (as I'm really having a hard time getting used to raw veggies) sauteing is the fastest way to get them cooked. Unfortunately I was recording this on FitDay and the fat in olive oil is killing me! I read somewhere that you can use vegetable stock-I have no clue what this is, what it looks like, if it tastes/cooks any good, and what aisle in wal-mart shall I be looking?!

2)Speaking of pressed-for-time, what are some good recipes for microwaving? I mean, can I steam veggies in the microwave? Eggs? How?

TIA!

I have sauted in water before and it turned out good, so I'm sure you could do it in stock. I usually shop at Walmart and the stock is usually found in cans or boxes by the soup. At my Walmart they are on the bottom shelves though so you kinda have to look down to see them. A big stock maker brand is Swanson, so if it helps you might try to look for that brand to find where it is.

You can also steam veggies in the micro. I use frozen usually, but I've done fresh too with carrots and such. I put them in a bowl, put a dab of water in the bottom and cover it with a paper towel. My microwave has a veggie setting so I use that button and they turn out fine. For one serving it takes about 2:30, for 2 servings 5 minutes for the veggies to cook usually.

For eggs you can just put them in a bowl/cup and nuke them for a few seconds on high. Eggs don't really take that long... I haven't made them in a long time but it wasn't much more than a minute or two... Sorry I can't be more specific!

You can also bake potatoes in the microwave. A medium sweet potato, which is what I usually do, takes about 3.5-5 minutes on high, depending on your microwave.

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to try them out this weekend!

If you have a non-stick pan, you can saute veggies with a miniscule amount of olive oil--just a spray or two if you have a sprayer or you can pour a small amount of oil into the pan and then use a paper towel to spread it around the pan and wipe out the excess. This reduces the amount of olive oil you are using to a negligible amount of calories. You will have to stir the veggies continuously as they are cooking or they'll burn, though. Also, don't use Pam or other chemical cooking sprays as a sub for the olive oil spray--I ruined a perfectly good non-stick pan doing this.

Also, I've found that I rarely need the amount of olive oil actually called for in a recipe. For example, a lot of recipes call for sauteing veggies in 1 to 2 tbsp of olive oil and I've found that 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp is usually plenty (and doesn't require constant stirring as the above method does). This cuts back on the calories quite a bit.

If you're going to cook an egg in the microwave.....be SURE to poke a hole in the yolk or you will have a yolk bomb go off in there!

Uh-oh, guess what I've been doing with my new pan that I bought this weekend. :o So...how does it ruin it? I've never heard this before...

We always cooked vegetables in a little bit of water. Just put the fresh or frozen vegetables in a saucepan, put in just enough water to cover the bottom, no more than a quarter inch, bring it to a boil (takes like 2 minutes), then turn down to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Covered for the simmer always, covered before the boil is your choice. I guess it's sort of a hick steaming method. Drain out the little bit of water that's left, either be happy you didn't lose too many vitamins, or fret that you lost a few stragglers, and then season the veggies as you like.

I'm not a huge fan of raw vegetables most of the year, the exception being if they're fresh out of the garden, and this or the steaming in the microwave method mentioned above are both great ways to cook them up a bit without them getting soft and mushy and icky.

In my case, it made my non-stick finish not so non-stick anymore. The teflon finish is still there, but now food sticks to it. It's really hard to get the pan clean because, of course, I can't use anything abrasive on it. It also means that food has a tendency to burn more because it is sticking to the pan.

I was using a cheap generic spray, maybe it doesn't happen with the better sprays. If you haven't noticed a problem with the pan, then it's probably fine. You'd notice if there was a problem because you'd have a lot of trouble getting the pan clean. But now I only use the real olive oil sprays.

Ah, I see. Well, I don't know if that's why my last teflon stopped "non-sticking" because it never got a chance; the husband kept "accidentally" sticking it in the dish washer and it was never the same :p