Healthy Meals and Learning to Cook

[WeaselKit]

I've set some goals to meet by the end of the month and I need help.

One of my goals is to eat ONLY healthy, self prepared meals for a month. Problem is I don't know what I should eat because I don't know how to cook ANYTHING and im not exactly sure what exactly is 'healthy'. Along with this I have workout goals.

The other part of this goal is to learn to cook a total of 5 different meals by the end of the month. I want to start out with learning to fry fish, what goes along with a fried fish meal? Fries, garlic bread... ?
What other meals should I learn to prepare that are semi impressive and healthy?

CurrentlyI'm eating:

BREAKFAST
Peanut butter and banana sandwich with oatmeal and orange juice.
(would it be ok to swap Orange Juice with Sunny D? I'm worried about the amount of sugar)

LUNCH
Granola Bars
Ritz Crackers
Peanut better sandwich
water and tea

DINNER
Chicken
Peanut butter sandwich
Baked fries
Fish (when prepared by someone else)
Canned Ravioli

Any suggestions?

[ayingerbrau]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/cooks_guide/

This website tells you how to cook most things and gives you tips on choosing the foods, methods of cooking and so on.

It's a pretty much a basic guide to cooking different foods.

The more and more confident you get with cooking the better you get at it. You're not going to be serving a perfect meal on the first try, you'll learn from mistakes.

As far as looking for what "goes" with what, search for some basic recipes. Say you have Salmon... search for Salmon Recipes. A good healthy meal (in my opinion) is a lean protein source, like Fish, Chicken etc, served with some potatoes and vegetables.

If you're looking for tasty recipes that are also healthy and ideal for an athlete, try looking in the book "Muscle Chow":

http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Health-Mu...2507004&sr=1-1

As far as what's healthy... avoid stuff from packets as often as possible.

What you want to eat is vegetables, berries, fruits, nuts, seeds, lean meats, beef, pork, fish, dairy, eggs, bread, pasta, oats and so on. You get the idea, good wholesome food. Get it locally sourced if you can, the less you buy from supermarkets the better. Free range eggs for example or raw milk is superior to what is sold in the supermarkets.

Some people like to eat a little lower carb, but personally I know plenty of healthy folk who eat a good amount of carbohydrates. Stick to good wholesome food, like I listed above, of course I will have missed something out, but you get the idea. Stay away from junk food like chocolate, potato chips (crisps), pizza and all that kind of shit. Do not avoid fat. Dietary fat will not make you fat. Make sure you DO get plenty of healthy fats. Search healthy fats on google for an idea of what I'm talking about.

The problem with a lot of food is the added shit they put in it. So this is why it's healthier to stick to locally sourced food.

For more on healthy eating, or what we deem to be healthy:

http://www.westonaprice.org/

It's a brilliant site on one of the few nutrition resources I trust.

I recommend this book for nutritional guidelines, by Weston A Price:

http://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Phys.../dp/0879838167

[Rizzo in a box]

What you want to eat is vegetables, berries, fruits, nuts, seeds, lean meats, beef, pork, fish, dairy, eggs, bread, pasta, oats and so on. You get the idea, good wholesome food. Get it locally sourced if you can, the less you buy from supermarkets the better. Free range eggs for example or raw milk is superior to what is sold in the supermarkets.

Nice list, except for the pork.

and eat yr eggs raw. in fact, eat as much raw anything as you can. especially milk. shit makes me feel DAMN good.

[Jai614]

I've been cooking a lot lately, I have a friend who's been really helpful in showing me some good receipts and DOs and DON'Ts.
But what turned out to be a valuable resource for me is YouTube.
Here are some awesome cooking channels that I've subscribed to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CIANetwork
http://www.youtube.com/user/vahchef
http://www.youtube.com/user/startcooking

[rell]

Fuck that, learn to cook from this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/user/papercuts777

[ayingerbrau]

Originally Posted by Rizzo in a box

Nice list, except for the pork.

I can't live without bacon.

[WAN]

You can make wraps. Wraps are very easy to make and they contain raw vegetables (which means you won't have to cook).

[skyclaw441]

Add some vegetables and fruits for sure. I'm working on planning to eat good meals for cheap when I move out, trying to survive on a small amount of money a week but still maintain my health. That would mean smaller portions and different, cheaper foods.

Example:

Breakfast:
Two eggs ($1 for a carton of twelve eggs)
Raisin Bran ($2.50 for several bowls)

Lunch:
White rice (~$1 a pound, and a pound is a lot of rice)
Ramen Noodles (~$0.20 for one packet of Top Ramen, I'll eat these cold in a packed lunch garnished with some salt and spices)
Canned fruit (~$1 for some generic fruit, I'll eat maybe 1/4 the can as a side dish)

Dinner:
Ramen (again, $0.20, this time cooked in the broth)

Total day of food: $2.17

This does not include cost of drinks (probably either milk or generic sodas/mineral water) or random munchies or illegally acquired alcohol or the multivitamin I'll be taking.

[Rizzo in a box]

^^^that shit is not going to make you healthy by any stretch of the imagination.

Unless you're one of those people that can digest anything, in which case yr probably closer to a god than a human.

also: hemp seeds. EAT THEM NAO.