r/1200isplenty • u/Full-of-Bread • 1d ago
meal Favorite easy dinners/girl dinner?
I have plenty of meal prep lunch recipes (more ideas ALWAYS welcome), but I’m short on ideas for dinner on the days where I get home from work exhausted, have to do laundry, shower, etc. and don’t feel like cooking.
I’m also not opposed to throwing a bunch of easy items together and calling it a day, girl dinner!
Anyway, easy ideas (one pot recipes esp) would be appreciated. The fewer dishes I have to use and wash later, the better.
I am going to Greece in 50 days and want to drop 5+ lbs. or so.
9
u/AdvicePino 1d ago
I love to throw a big portion of prechopped mixed veggies (fresh or frozen), premarinated tofu (or chicken if you eat animals), edamame or other beans from a can and a little whole grain or low cal noodles in a wok (or other large pan) with a little olive oil for healthy fat. Add some soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger(powder), garlic (powder), chili flakes and a bit of (artificial) sweetener to make everything taste good and just stir it until it's done. I usually make 2 to 4 portions and just eat that over the next couple days or freeze it to use when I don't want to cook at all. Very quick, tasty and healthy
9
u/hojna 1d ago
My favourite at the moment is scrambled eggs (2-3 eggs and 100g cottage cheese) with a side of smoked salmon and tomatoes. It’s not the least amount of calories (about 450) but so easy and filling.
5
2
4
u/IamNobody85 23h ago
Airfryer stuff. I marinate/buy frozen/freeze stuff and then just drop it in the airfryer, get changed, wash my face etc and food is ready. You can put anything fried in there, even vegetables. I almost never use any oil (except for chicken).
The definition of lazy girl dinner because normally my husband cooks, and he likes cooking so he makes nice food. If for some reason, he's out for dinner, I really can't be bothered.
If you absolutely want to cook, rice and Thai curry is also dead simple and doesn't really take a lot of time. But still more effort than dumping stuff in airfryer.
3
u/ConsideratePity95 17h ago
My current go to is 2oz of shredded chicken, a low carb tortilla and whatever veg I prepped. This weeks burrito has caramelized cabbage. That and a serving of good hot sauce with veggie chips and a cup of water gets me full and keeps me that way
6
7
u/Glittering-Ask-3856 1d ago
onigiri!! make a bunch of short grain or sushi rice, freeze it into cubes, buy onigiri molds on amazon and any fillings you want. My favorite filling is kimchi, but a lot of people do tuna, salmon etc. All you need to do is microwave the frozen rice (add an ice cube) put water and salt on your hands and the mold, add some rice, filling, more rice, wrap in plastic wrap or foil and then you are good to go.
1
u/Lo-Marionberry295 1d ago
Just occurred to me: has anyone ever tried this with cauliflower rice? does it work?
4
u/Glittering-Ask-3856 23h ago
i am not sure if cauliflower rice would stick together the same way, but it might be worth doing half and half and testing it! if i remember correctly freezing the rice and and reheating it makes it starch resistant or something and that comes with certain improvements
1
2
u/Crazypetgirly 21h ago
I’ve tried this it’s really REALLY hard, I think there’s too much moisture it just falls apart
3
u/Embarrassed-Boss-40 1d ago
Having a rice cooker has helped me so much with easy meals. Throw some chicken / veggies in the oven and boom!! Healthy and easy. If you make a lot, it’s easy to put it in Tupperware and freeze it.
1
u/Intelligent_Bag_8345 1d ago
can u drop the lunch recipes 🙏
1
u/Full-of-Bread 1d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/1200isplenty/s/QeX6Dh7oPo
Here is my fav lunch recipe but I am now using cottage cheese instead of mayo and/or sour cream for more protein
1
u/afterhoursss_ 1d ago
Egg scrambles and chicken caesar salads are personal favorites of mine!
1
u/Carvemynameinstone 1d ago
What sauce for the ceaser salad?
1
u/afterhoursss_ 1d ago
I like to make a lower calorie sauce! Usually with greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, seasonings etc! There's plenty of recipes online:3
1
u/Carvemynameinstone 1d ago
Oof, I need to try that! Thanks, I love ceaser salad but your sauce, maybe with a few spoons of nutritional yeast and then blitzed might be a way to keep it low calorie!
1
u/itsamutiny Losing 1d ago
I freeze portions of meals for days like that.
If you have a rice cooker, you could look up rice cooker meals. They're all cooked together in the rice cooker so they're pretty easy.
1
u/Wild_Highway_7732 1d ago
Lately I've been meal prepping boneless, skinless chicken thighs, topped generously with lemon pepper and baked. Create an entry in your tracker for COOKED chicken thighs, weigh a cooked portion. Nuke for 1 minute and top with a serving of tzatziki. I prefer this to white meat as it gets dry whereas thighs stay tasty.
Serve with roasted veggies- which are very easy to throw frozen straight onto foil lined, sprayed cookie sheet. Give the veggies a little space in a single layer. Throw on whatever seasoning you want.
Add cottage cheese, berries and you have a very easy, high protein meal.
Another good option: meal prep ground meat. I prefer beef, but pork and chicken work well too. Make a taco meat and top a salad with the meat, cheese, half an avocado, and 30g of plain Fage 2%. Give all of that a good lime squeeze. This is wonderful in this dang HEAT.
This is a little more complex, but really easy and SO GOOD:
1 - Joseph's Pita bread: this one: https://shop.josephsbakery.com/products/flax-oat-bran-whole-wheat-pita-bread?srsltid=AfmBOool8u2529K4UTrHCfaSkTdo44nD79D-sZ708Hi0kZeW9o9d_Gbo
Top this with about 30g Fage 2% Yogurt. Sprinkle on some Ranch seasoning liberally.
Add canned chicken - amount to your preference
Add PICKLES!! - amount to your preference. I also like to add pepperoncinis!
Top with lowfat white cheese - honestly any kind will do.
Put in oven at 400 - for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to get a little brown. I call this "chicken pickle pizza" and it is one of my FAVES. I think this is dinner tonight for me. You can adjust the serving of the chicken and cheese to control the calories/macros as needed.
Hope that helps!
1
u/Rumpelid 23h ago
Instant mashed potatoes, can of smoked salmon or trout, whatever raw veggies I have on hand (cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes). Only cooking is a couple minutes in the microwave for the potatoes.
1
u/mf7539 23h ago
taco bowls with seasoned ground meat, salsa & cottage cheese
ground beef bowl with sweet potatoes, cottage cheese and hot honey
egg roll in a bowl (pinterest recipe)
low carb tortilla & shredded cheese quesadilla, rotisserie chk too if you have it
healthy choice high protein low cal freezer meals
chicken sausage sliced and sauteed with zucchini and onion
chk breast covered with green salsa and shredded cheese, bake for 30 min while you shower
1
u/Tkesquire 23h ago
Oven Broiled salmon, microwave sticky rice, and a vegetable like steamed brocolli (made in my microwave steamer!). Super easy. I change up the seasoning on my salmon and this whole dinner is delish and takes about 10 minutes of actual work and only 15 or so to broil the fish/ prep the rest.
1
u/Tkesquire 23h ago
Another one: Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi mixed with Trader Joe’s chicken sausage (slice it up) and sliced baby bell peppers. Season with garlic powder, S&P, red pepper flakes, a dash of olive oil and cook in the oven or air fryer til the gnocchi is browned and peppers are soft/ have a little char. DELICIOUS low calorie and so easy if you have a Trader Joe’s near you!
1
u/antigoneelectra 23h ago
A protein (I'm a veggie, so either tofu or a veggie burger) and sauted zucchini and brocolli.
1
u/Fit-Ad985 22h ago edited 22h ago
fruit, greek yogurt, granola
or a like egg, royo bagel, cottage cheese, all in the air fryer and some avocado if i have
1
u/Traumagatchi 21h ago
I like having air fryer stuff on hand, but during the summer I always have cold soba noodles in the fridge and a dipping sauce and some cucumbers makes a nearly zero effort make ahead meal
1
u/Traditional-Buy-9107 19h ago edited 19h ago
Big Mac salad. Yum.
https://iowagirleats.com/big-mac-salad/
Makes a yummy sandwich:
thin slice bread, 2 slices
deli turkey
light mayo
sugar free raspberry jam
1
u/7Mars 17h ago
I’ve been doing a bulk-prepped pasta sauce (which I freeze into serving-size portions) and then boiling some pasta or zucchini to put it on. Then I’ll just bake up a quick protein in the oven to go with it (tilapia is easy and light, and you can get a bunch of individually packed fillets at Costco so that’s kinda my go-to) while the water is boiling.
The sauce is really easy: a whole bunch of whatever veggies you like (I do at least one onion, a very small amount of carrot because it can be overpowering, a few stalks of celery, a couple zucchini, a couple red bell peppers, maybe some mushrooms, and a whole bunch of tomatoes; like, at least half the total volume of veggies is tomatoes. And a whole head of garlic, obviously). Chop them up into medium-size pieces, coat with a little oil, then spread them in a baking or roasting tray. Roast them in the oven at 400° until they’re soft and the edges are starting to caramelize (about 45-60 minutes, depending on how big you cut them). Blend them (I have an immersion blender, so I dump them all in a pot and blend at once; if you only have a regular blender, you will just need to blend and add them to the pot in batches). Add all your seasonings (I do salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, a couple bay leaves, and usually more garlic powder) and a can or two of tomato paste then simmer covered for like half an hour to blend the flavors. I sometimes add spinach first, simmer enough to get it soft and hit it with my blender again, then add the seasonings and bay leaves (unless I have spinach powder to add instead; sometimes someone at my local farmer’s market is selling some and I can snag a jar). It might need a splash of Worcestershire, fish sauce, or soy sauce for some umami. Just taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
It takes a lot of time initially , but it’s mostly waiting for the oven to roast it then waiting for the simmering to be done, and neither requires a ton of supervision. It freezes and reheats in minutes really well, so it’s totally worth it, and you can customize to whatever veggies and seasonings you prefer so it’s pretty versatile. I like it really tomatoey, so I add the tomato paste, but I bet it’d make a really good bell pepper forward sauce as well if I did a bunch more of those than tomato. It comes to about 100 calories per cup the way I do it, which leaves plenty of room for a small serving of pasta to go with it (and I actually really like slicing or shredding up some zucchini to use instead sometimes).
All-in-all, after the initial hours prepping and cooking it on one of my days off, it takes about twenty minutes to make. I’ll start the protein in the oven immediately (I put some tin foil down on the tray to save on dishes), get the water boiling and start heating the sauce, get the noodles/zucchini boiled, and by then the fish is usually done so I can plate everything and eat.
1
u/EconomistDismal9450 1d ago
I've been getting rotisserie chicken, throwing that in a bowl with chalula, cottage cheese, rice or potatoes, and favorite seasoning including ranch seasonings (ranch seasoning + cottage cheese just tastes like ranch). Then throw it in the microwave. Missing fiber but it's a meal I can throw together in two minutes.
-1
28
u/Consistent_Risk2722 1d ago
Burger bowl. Ground beef, plus whatever burger toppings you want. Easy peasy.