Oo good idea on the frozen fruit for smoothies, DianaG! Yum, all of this talk is making me quite hungry
The other good thing about just going to the store and buying fruits/veggies that look good is you tend to rotate what you eat. I sometimes go without a list when it comes to fruits/veggies for that reason. I may randomly pick up swiss chard when I never would have thought to buy swiss chard when making my grocery list or picking out my meals.
If you do shop ingredients first and buy lots of fruits/veggies, some of the above posters have had good ideas on recipes that just call for putting a lot of those together in a pot. In addition to lentil/chili, these include:
- Homemade tomato sauce (lots of tomatos, a can of Hunts tomato paste, and whatever other veggies and spices you want in a frying pan, simmer, wait, enjoy!)
- Vegetable lasagna
- Homemade vegetable pizza with a little cheese
- Smoothies or homemade juice (carrot, etc)
- Hummus with veggies as dippers
- Indian curries (palak paneer, channa masala)
- Thai curries (any veggies you want + lite coconut milk + jar of premade red or green curry paste, or low-fat peanut butter with soy sauce)
- Stir fry
- Vegetable puree soup, including cauliflower soup, yum.
Those are some of my "go to" recipes because they all basically can use whatever vegetables you have around. It's an easy way to get rid of a few random ones you have around after using them for another recipe. If you keep staples like rice or whole wheat pasta around, bam, you've got yourself an easy meal!
Also, I'm a vegetarian so all my meals center around vegetables and fruits, but I'm sure some of the omnivores could toss out some good chicken or lean beef ideas. Happy dining and do share what great ideas you come up with! I'm always on the lookout for new healthy recipes.