Alannah or Dan - Where can I get some good slow cooker recipes? I would love to use mine more but most of the things I always cooked in them would not be on plan
i have a steamer that i love, or those pampered chef microwave steamer containers are good too, an electric scale, measuring cups, a good water bottle and i put a dry erase marker board on my fridge to write down lists and i also use it to keep track of my monthly exercising goals.
Katy - I guess I just try and modify different recipes. I use the internet a lot. tasteof home.com has tons of recipes and they have recipes on there from their sister magazine light and tasty so some of them are already reduced. I also go to kraft canada to check out recipes etc. I just play with ingredients and throw things together. It usually turns out pretty good. I stay away from anything "cream" type based that would have used soups etc as their base and stick more to broth type basics and load on the spices. Even the people at work who have tried some of my concoctions liked them so I can't be doing all that bad. I also use my slow cooker to make turkey chili in and homemade soups.
Kitchen scale, measuring cups, measuring spoons and ... egg-slicer thingy. I make egg salad often (as I am vegetarian) and it's a very helpful tool. I slice an egg and then I rotate it 90 degrees within the slicer, and slice again. It makes my eggs ... julienne! I slice 3 eggs like that, then I add 1 Tb light mayo, 1 ts of horseradish, and voila!, it is soo good!
Katy - I guess I just try and modify different recipes. I use the internet a lot. tasteof home.com has tons of recipes and they have recipes on there from their sister magazine light and tasty so some of them are already reduced. I also go to kraft canada to check out recipes etc. I just play with ingredients and throw things together. It usually turns out pretty good. I stay away from anything "cream" type based that would have used soups etc as their base and stick more to broth type basics and load on the spices. Even the people at work who have tried some of my concoctions liked them so I can't be doing all that bad. I also use my slow cooker to make turkey chili in and homemade soups.
That about sums it up.. Just google "slow cooker recipies"... A lot of them can be "exchanged" for plan friendly meals.. Just remember to stay away from a lot of sodium.. We mostly use our for roasts.. Just dump a thawed roast in with a cup of water and plenty of herbs and carrots... put it on low and viola! It's done when you get home.
Dan- I call our food saver a food sucker too. Now I kind of just say that because everybody always corrects me. We wore our first one out sucking up all that deer and elk meat, so we are on our second one. I couldn't live without it now.
I also use my George Foreman grill every week. I get the frozen bags of BS chicken breasts and cook up a whole bag at one time then put it in the fridge for quick meals. Cleaning it is a breeze while it's still hot. My outdoor gas grill gets an awful lot of use too. It's just outside the patio door on the deck off the kitchen. Chicken, veggies, grilled fruits, roasted peppers. Gosh, I am getting hungry thinking about all that yummy food.
Pretty much everything everybody else said. Crockpot, tons and tons of plastic containers, boxes of baggies, about 5 sets of measuring cups, good digital food scale, egg slicer, salad shooter.
I haven't gotten a magic bullet yet, but I look everytime I see one. Might have to be a mini goal reward in my future.
Lettie- I also saw on a show where you do the same thing with sweet potatoes and put them on a pan with olive oil and bake them up like chips. It's yummy.
speaking of a vegetable peeler.......... I used mine today on a zuccinni (SP?) and I peeled all sides down to the center seed area, til I had a pile of VERY thin Zuc peices. then I put them in a pan with a little Olive oil and garlic and then some tomatoes. and ate it like spaghetti. I saw Emeril do it the other day to replace pasta. and man it was good!!! It almost felt like real noodles. and it was all veggies!
Ok.. Stupid question so I don't screw this up.. What did you do when you got to the seeded centers? Did you cook those up too? Also, did you discard the outside, or did you cook up the skin too? (That sounds gross, sorry)
Ok, I forgot about my new microwave egg cookers that I got at Wally World. I read about them on a weight loss site.
They are made by Nordic Ware, the Brand is Mainstays and the boxes are blue and white and they are about $5-$7 each.
I bought the 3 varieties. The egg cooker for hard boiled eggs. Holds up to 4 eggs and in 10 minutes you have beautiful eggs. I use it for my egg salad sandwiches. Takes the guess work out of how long the eggs have been boiling.
Then there is the egg poacher and it holds up to 2 eggs.
Lastly, the egg omelet maker and holds 2 to 4 eggs.
Lynn
LAWL franchise center
total lost 62.5 lbs.
Original goal of 50 lbs lost – achieved
New goal to lose total of 65 lbs
I use my slow cooker a lot lately. It's great to make a big roast on Sunday, and then save the leftovers for sandwich meat during the week. No preservatives..homemade and yummy. I get recipes from allrecipes.com (just search 'slow cooker' on their site) and just modify them or weed out the ones that are not going to work with the plan.
Dan -- I do the zucchini thing too, and I just discard the seedy middle part and use all the rest, including the skin. Another great substitute for pasta is spaghetti squash...just a little icbinb, half-salt and pepper maybe garlic...or add a little salsa etc...
Well, I did the thin zucchini slices for dinner and they were a HUGE hit... They were a perfect match for the italian braised chicken I made... I may never eat them a different way!
