Wow! Thanks for all the good advice!

I am try to incorporate fresh snacks like baby carrots, etc into my diet, but I just struggle figuring out what to eat for meals! Unfortunately, I cannot eat lettuce and apples due to digestive problems, or else I would probably be living on greens alone!

untamed - I really really really love the "sweet asian potstickers" from healthy choice but haven't tried all of them (I checked the ingrediants of a few of there "vegetarian" frozen dinners and a few had meat products, which is annoying). I usually make them in the oven and put a tiny bit of soy sauce on them to add flavor!

Thanks again guys!

Just like you I don't really like cooking (and I don't eat much meat..). I eat lots of Smart Ones frozen meals... really like em. I buy canned green beans and corn, because if I buy fresh it always goes bad. I do buy zucchini because its easy to cook with noodles and tomato sauce. Sandwiches are also easy for me.. I just have to make sure to not go overboard on whatever I'm putting on it (PB&J, ham & cheese, etc). Another thing I eat pretty often is brown rice, and theres this brand they sell here (i think its called Minute Rice or something?) and they sell these single-serving size brown rice cups that cook in one minute.

So I've been able to lose weight on easy foods for sure.. now I'm just trying to work in new veggies/fruits one at a time..

Define "cooking". Because I don't really cook much either. I can but I rarely do.

I tend to eat snacky dinners. Almonds, yogurt, Special K crackers and a wedge of laughing cow cheese is my favorite. Or I'll mash 1/2 avocado, put it on toasted bread thins and top it with spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers. Easy things that don't really need to be cooked. Sandwiches are a quick fix, throw some veggies on the sides and you have a meal. Canned soup is also a great quick meal.

As others have said it is totally possibly to eat healthily without much cooking, I will say that I do eat frozen and prepared foods sometimes but I try to stear away from them unless I am really short on time due to high sodium content.
I love to cook but as a student I really just dont have the time or space to do it so I "cook" but it is very very simple things here are some suggestions.

Smoothies- I use greek yogurt (more protein and thicker) soy milk (you could use cow) and the fruit of my choice that I buy frozen!
Dinners-I also buy a lot of frozen veggies! the ones in the steamer bags are a little more expensive but are so easy and steam up in the mic perfectly. Our grocery chain here even has store brand ones now and they are pretty cheap
Uncle bens ready rice is pretty good and the brown rice is very filling, it is also easy to make a big batch of brown rice and freeze it.
Canned beans are a dieters best friend!! tons of fiber fills me right up.
I make a big pot of bean soup and can eat that for days with a little whole wheat pasta!
Sometimes for dinner I eat one large sweat potato if I am not in the mood to make much!! if you have never tried them they are soooooo good. and easy to just pop in the oven.

I dont know if you eat eggs but I make tons of omelettes, they have so many veggies in them they sort of turned into veggie scrambles...my fave veggies are bell peppers, onions, spinach and zuchini. i just cook the veggies a little in the pan before adding the egg and right before the egg is done cooking I add some cheese if I have room for the cals!

When I was in college i never had time to cook. I also lived alone, so it was cheaper to eat frozen or canned foods as well as going out than cooking at home. I used to order sushi several times a week. i ate a lot of canned soups (like Amy's organic soups...i used to raid whole foods!) I ate some frozen meals, like lean cuisine and healthy Choice. There was also a great salad bar at my schools cafeteria, i used to get a big salad a few days a week as well. Its so much easier to count calories with canned/frozen foods---there's a label!!! It is funny that now that i cook most of my meals, i am much heavier than i was in college. I was always around 110-115 in college, now i am 126 or so.

I second (third? fourth?) the frozen veggies. I think they are more nutritious than most fresh veggies and they stay good until you are ready to use them.

I love the asian mixed veggies (sold for stir fries). Easy low-cal entree: dump a half bag of these veggies in a pot and add a can of healthy soup. Simmer (or microwave) until veggies are as cooked as you want them.

I also frequently use frozen veggies to form the base of (egg beaters) omelettes. Saute the veggies first (use a nonstick skillet and pan spray or a smidge of healthy oil).

If you have red lentils, they keep forever, are healthy, and are very fast & easy to cook. I usually do add a bouillon cube, but that's optional. Zap some frozen veggies and mix them into the lentils to bulk them out into a meal.

Another source of healthy veggies that doesn't go bad quickly is salsa. I use a lot of salsa, and I like it hot! I mix it in with NF cottage cheese for a mini-lunch. I use it instead of dressing on salads. I also make something I call "fiber pizzas" in my toaster oven using a fiber cracker, a layer of salsa and NF cheese (kinda like pizza bagels, but very low cal). I use the "toast" cycle and it couldn't be much easier.

I also use frozen fruits and berries -- like frozen veggies, they are nutritious and wait for you. The best use of these is to make smoothies. If you have a blender, just grind up some berries and maybe some frozen mango with NF yogurt and a spash of NF milk and sweeten to taste.

I also use the frozen berries to dress up my protein pancakes (requires cooking, but not much) -- which serves as an indulgent breakfast or a dessert.

Good luck. Please share any ideas you find that work for you!

I have to add get a rice cooker!!!!! You just throw in the rice and water or stock and click the button and let it do it's thing.... You don't mess with it... I LOVE LOVE LOVE mine.... You can other things besides rice in it too and mine even has a tray to put it to steam veggies as well-

Honestly, you can lose weight eating anything if you stick within your reduced calorie range... for me though a lot of sodium makes me retain water so be careful with that....

Hi everyone! I am also not fan of cooking but I would like to add something here. Canned food is full of additives and if you eat it a lot you could got sick really bad. So do fresh food or at least frozen veggies. It does not matter if you loose weight and instead of it - got sick. Please keep that in mind and take care of yourself! I am bad cook but salads and some meet is not so hard to make...trust me:-)

I think its possible to eat healthy without cooking but it would be really hard. We cook since its to expensive to eat out. Good Luck

Most canned foods contain fewer additives than people assume (and sometimes don't have any - not even salt). Salt and other sodium compounds are common, which is why you have to read lables; however, there are many canned products canned only in water with no perservatives or additives at all. As for sodium, it can be a problem for some people, but isn't for many others. To a very large degree, extra water intake can compensate for increased sodium - unless you have high blood pressure (and even many people with high blood pressure are not sensitive to sodium).

The foods with the most additives are shelf-stable products that if they were homemade could not be stored in the same manner. Things like breads and other baked goods, dried fruits, deli meats, jerky. For example, I make homemade jerky - and while it can be kept outside the refrigerator - it will mold in a few weeks. Packaged jerky will last indefinitely without molding. Compared to most grocery store breads, homemade bread will mold or dry out much, much faster.

Home canning and commercial canning often preserve through heat and vacuum sealing, so little or no preservatives are needed. That doesn't mean none are added - additives to preserve color, texture, or to enhance flavor can be added (but not all brands do). This is where you have to read your labels.

As for canned foods, those "canned" in bottles and glass jars would generally be preferred to cans - and for cans, those with the white linings allow less metal to leach into the food. Foods canned in soft packaging, I'm not too familiar with (like shelf-stable chili and stewes).

There are also many additives that are extremely safe - many are even natural substances that have been in the human diet for millenia - such as acetic acid (vinegar).

For anyone wanting to eat as cleanly as possible, but with a budget that requires some compromises - a good, basic food additive guide is very helpful. There isn't one that all the experts agree upon as being the best, or most accurate - so you've got a couple of choices - pick one with a good reputation (for a recommendation consult a dietitian or diabetic educator, and read the reviews on amazon.com) or check out a few from the library and compare notes. In my experience, there's more agreement than disagreement, except over a few hot-button additives such as aspartame and high fructose corn syrpup - over which there's quite a bit of disagreement and therefore controversy.