The Great Fitness Experiment!

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Here (as a result of my begging & stalking) by popular demand: the inimitable Charlotte of The Great Fitness Experiment.

We all know her.

We all love her.

We all wanna be her. Enjoy.

I’m Cheap, Easy & Quick

No I’m not a hooker at a blue-light special. I’m talking about the way I cook. Being a health-minded gal with limited culinary abilities and three picky toddlers, I’m in a tough position come every evening round about 5 pm.

Healthy. Cheap. Quick. In that order, those are my three main priorities when it comes to food. (Notice that “tastes good” didn’t even make my top 3? Yeah, sadly, so did my family.) It’s hard to find recipes that do all three things. Sure there are tons of healthy recipes – with 5,000 exotic, expensive ingredients that take an hour just to prep. And of course there’s plenty of cheap, quick food a la McD’s. But all three? Plus yummy?? It’s enough to make this cooking-disabled momma throw the towel in. Literally. Surprisingly it didn’t make the soup taste any worse. All Husband said was “Hmm. Chewy.”

Bring on the Revolution
I grew up with a mom who, like many women of her generation, was enamored of Stuff In A Box (although in her defense she was also a huge fan of fresh produce). So consequently when I went to college I ate a lot of Stuff In A Box. After I got married, I added Frozen Stuff In a Box to the repertoire. It wasn’t pretty.

After gaining 47 pounds with my first pregnancy, I had had it with the unhealthy eating. I read every book I could on the subject and pestered every healthy friend I had and surfed the web like my DSL connection carried oxygen instead of data.

The problem with most “healthy” recipes that I found was that they were either too time consuming & expensive or relied too much on processed crap packaged in a special “healthy” box. (I’m thinking cardboard probably does have a lot of fiber – too bad it doesn’t apply to what’s inside as well.) It was then I realized that I was going to have to learn how to cook. I cried. I screamed at the heavens. I fainted. And then I got up and made dinner. I tried everything and sloooowly taught myself how to cook.

Getting Creative
As if it wasn’t enough of a challenge, I am also a vegetarian (shout out to my girl Ruta Bega and my homie K. Ale!!). So here are my fave strategies for coming up with something healthy, cheap & quick. Note: Omnivores – you know I love all you beautiful little freaks! – can just add meat to most of these dishes or serve it on the side. My husband and kids are all Omni so I know it works!

Soup: I make a lot of soup. And I make it from scratch. The trick is to make it in really big batches. Think witch cauldron minus the snake tongues and beetle butts. I base most of my soups off of beans and/or lentils and vegetables in a broth base. The variations are endless. Then I freeze it in little disposable plastic containers (that I reuse because I’m cheap and, well, I kinda have a soft spot for the ol’ planet) that hold about 4 servings each.

Salad: On Monday of every week I make a ginormous bowl of salad with a little lettuce, a lot of spinach and every conceivable veggie I can throw in. During the week, I’ll pull some of it out and add some cheese or beans or tomatoes or something else to kick it up. I make my own dressing by quickly stirring together some olive oil with a flavored vinegar. It takes me about 30 seconds. If I use my finger to stir it. What? It’s not like I lick it. Usually.

Bread: Being the health nut that I am (when I said I eat healthy I mean Healthy – a friend once told me my intestines must look like burnished steel from all the fiber I eat. I take that as one of the most wonderful compliments I’ve ever gotten!), I make my own whole wheat bread. Every Sunday I cook two loaves (despite what you may have heard bread baking is not that hard and pretty quick) . I leave one out and put one in the freezer.

I also make big batches of snacks for my kids like homemade granola bars, whole wheat banana muffins and the like and then put the extras in… the freezer!

Think Outside the Box
In addition to big batch cooking, my other tip is to make meat, if you eat it, the side dish and make vegetables your main dish. Veggies are cheap, healthy and easy to prep: I’ve never met a veggie that didn’t taste good sautéed in a little olive oil and garlic. (Except you Mr. Okra. Don’t look at me that way. You know what you did!) Stir fry is about as quick a meal as they come. And don’t feel bad at all about buying those pre-cut veggies. Sometimes the time saved is worth the expense.

Beans, lentils and other legumes are also super cheap, especially if you buy them dried and not canned, and only require a little overnight soaking to loosen them up (not unlike some friends I know). Think quick cooking grains as well, like quinoa & couscous. If you throw in a cube of bullion with the cooking water everyone will ask what you did to make it so “fancy.” Then you can go put on your pearls and smile sweetly and tell them you slaved for hours until you oozed enough sweat to give it just the right tang – not that they should feel guilty or anything although you have heard that Nordstrom’s is having a spring shoe sale. Ahem.

So there you have it – cooking tips from the girl who can’t cook! I’m assuming that most of you have mad kitch skillz so please leave me your suggestions and comments.

PS> What? You want a recipe? You actually trust me to give you a recipe?? Fools! Muwhahahah!  D’s Special Granola Bars (not special like that, psychos). There. I’m done with you.

Thank you Charlotte. I know you are a busyworkingwritingmama and appreciate you making time for us!

(Yada Yada Yada YAHOO! Im over here today talking about ways to EEEEEK the most out of your workout time.)

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Comments

  1. 1.- Try traditional “mommy” dishes, which are often quite easy to make. A basic marmitako, for example, it’s gently fried onions and garlic or leek on a pot, then pour water, salt, pepper, broken potatoes, and seafood if you want a strong flavor. Let it boil. When done, add fish (we use hake here), let it cook for five minutes or so and add chopped parley.

    (Sometimes I pureé the soup before adding the fish)

    2.- Freeze in one plate portions in tight containers. That way, it’s easier to find room in the freezer, you never over-feed and have a handy supply for those lazy days.

  2. Charlotte, that was awesome!

    Great suggestions, and hilarious as well. I too grew up with a lot of Stuff in a Box and am still struggling with the transition to adult cooking. Thanks for the tips!

  3. OK, Now this is the same woman that gives her view on all different exercise programs. Making soup and wrapping up for later in the week, huge bowl of salad, her own granola bars and baking bread each week. I seem to remember also that you are now with child again. “Hey Charlotte there’s only 24 hours in each day”. Don’t tell me you have some sort of vampire properties that allows you to sleep only one hour a night. I bow down to your very efficient use of time.

    But seriously Charlotte’s daily prose has the honor of being in the category of must read daily. Mizfit and Cranky Fitness are also in this threesome. Thanks for sharing Miz.

  5. Charlotte, love it love it love it. I live with a man who can COOK and when I’m left to myself in the kitchen I cook eggs and rice if you’re lucky. Thanks for so many fantastic easy quick ideas. You rock!

  6. Yes! So with you on the baking bread. I also make a whole wheat loaf pretty much every week. I also home-make healthy granola, bfast bars, and a treats for the husband every Sunday. Healthy can be easy, just requires some planning ahead!

  10. Bulk cooking is the way to go! Even those of us who don’t have children can really benefit from ways to save time and take the headache out of deciding what’s for dinner!

  11. Great tips! Really? No recipie for the bread? What if I bat my eyelashes and say pretty, pretty please? And, look all pathetic and dejected? I will promptly scour your blog for it.

  13. I like your version of easy (home made bread, granola bars…). My family gives me a funny look if I slap down pasta and a salad…that’s my “off night.”

    I just pulled some roasted almonds & walnuts out of the oven and will mix them with dried cherries. Quick and easy, maybe not so cheap, but healthy and diet friendly!

  14. i’m impressed!! baking bread is the only way to go! i thought i read “you should make your own meat”. wha?? and then i saw the end of the sentence–“a side dish” 🙂

  16. Those actually are pretty great tips.

    And I’m really trying hard not to think about what making your own meat would entail (although I’m thinking it has something to do with babies….).

  17. Not too many years ago I was ‘technically challenged’ in the kitchen. My idea of “cooking” was preparing a salad, reheating something from a frozen box — and if that was too ‘time consuming’…. some popped popcorn or cereal would do for dinner.

    Flash forward to living in France, where dinner in a box doesn’t really exist. Popcorn? Tough to come by. Cereal? They just don’t have the same stuff as here in the US.

    They eat REAL foods. Not out of a box, not microwaved, and believe it or not — they do like things Easy & Quick, and don’t want to hand over their weekly salary on food.
    (hey, the women WORK there & have families too!)

    So when I lived there I hit the kitchen with gusto (okay, I actually HAD to cook or I’d starve).

    At first I was afraid, afraid of the kitchen and how I would destroy it and the food. But little by little I learned. And yes, I learned from the French. But I learned it was NOT so difficult.

    I now ENJOY cooking & have learned how to make it cheap, quick & easy. I don’t spend hours in the kitchen. I make big batches of soup on Sundays & freeze them, do make lots of salads in summer, eats lots of beans, lentils and whole grains (like quinoa, wheat berries, couscous, etc). And it’s EASY.

    As I now feel so much better eating real, whole foods that I cooked — it is a sense of joy & pride.

    And as a weight-loss coach, I must say a HUGE KEY to losing weight and keeping it off is learning how to cook. And like you showed, it can be easy!

    EVERYTHING you said is so right on! Great advice and tips Charlotte — great! Looking forward to reading more from you. Thanks MizFit for having her!! (love her sense of humor too).

  18. I’m with Tom – Charlotte, Miz, and Cranky are my early morning reads EVERY DAY. Although I mostly just lurk on Charlotte’s site – don’t know why, because I pretty much never shut up here or at Cranky’s.

    This is a great post and I can’t wait to make those granola bars!!

  19. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a Mom who is an excellent cook and my sisters & I picked it up pretty early. But I do a lot of the same things – I like to make batches of soup to freeze, bake a loaf of bread on Sundays, etc. I can cook, and when I have time I like to cook…But when I get home from work I really don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning up. So making meals to produce leftovers that can be frozen always comes into my meal planning. I like mine to be healthy, quick, cheap and taste good though. 🙂

  20. Miguel – Thanks for the recipe! Sounds delish!

    Tom – I’ll let you in my secret (and no, it’s not Vampirism): my house is a wreck. Completely. I exercise. I eat healthy. Something has to give. Apparently it’s cleanliness. And my sanity because yes… I’m preggers again!

    Diana – All my recipes I’ve stolen from other people. I’m awesome, I know. My WW bread recipe is courtesy of none other than the wonderful Betty Crocker! I’d post it but I’m pretty sure I’d get nailed for copyright violations. Although http://www.allrecipes.com also has some GREAT bread recipes that I use to mix things up too.

  23. ttfn300 – oh you made me giggle. And think dirty thoughts. Which I felt bad about until I read Tricia2’s comment. I love you people!

    Dinneen – I had a very similar experience living in Europe! I think the other thing they have going for them is they walk everywhere!

    Jill – Delurk, sister!! I love noisy people:)

    Javachick – SOMEday my meals will taste good too. I’m working on that one!

  24. Heyyy, Charlotte, you stole my time-saving secret. I’ve never been cited by the Board of Health, but let’s just say that you wouldn’t want to eat off my floors.

    Don’t forget that cooking can mean NOT cooking. Today the hubby and I will be going to a new raw-food vegan restaurant in town:

    http://www.seedrestaurant.com/

    Check out that menu. Do those vegan entrees look yummy, or what? I just hope the portions are generous enough so we feel like we had a meal. We’re accustomed to having a slab of meat with our veggies.

  25. …And she cooks, too? Awesome post, Charlotte!

    We’ve had good luck using our bread machine for homemade bread. If you put it on the dough cycle, you can take the dough and make a nice artisinal-looking loaf and bake it in the oven. Or, as we more often do, make some into breadsticks and the rest into pizza crust. We sometimes throw the ingredients in earlier in the day and set the timer to have it done when we’re making dinner.

  26. Thank you so much for the tips! I do many of the same (the freezer is my BFF) even though I don’t have kids or many, many mouths to feed – I just like to get it all done and over with (the cooking) at once. It ain’t my thang. 🙂

  27. I just checked out Charlotte’s blog.
    Wow!
    How have I missed that??

    Liked your Yahoo! post on bodybuilding too.

  29. Great tips!

    To eat mostly veggies, I started planning meals around the veggies we buy every week at the Farmers’ Market. Not only am I more organized (for once!), but we truly eat mostly veggies with some chicken or meat on the side.

  30. Great guest post, Charlotte! Very entertaining and informative.

    (totally cracked up over the comment about making your own meat…. immediately thought “hey, I do that… sorta…”)

  32. Yay that Farmer’s Market season is beginning – and so is serious gardening season. While the veggies tend to be fairly predictable, they are fresh, organic and cheap.

    Who can say no to a platterful of grilled veggies drizzled with some good balsamic? Not me.

    That’s my summer time saver. I grill a platterful, then spend the next 3 days eating them -chopped in a sauce over rice, in a sandwich, on a salad, or on their own.

    MizFit & Charlotte are 2 of my morning must-reads.

  34. Way to break it down, Charlotte. Big fan of your blog, btw.

    I have similar criteria for my own cooking and pretty much have patience to make one new fancy recipe per week. And even then it never takes more than like, an hour. When I have neither the patience nor the time, I say Bonjour Madame Omelette. That pretty much fulfills cheap/easy/quick AND tasty! Thank God. ::wipes brow in relief::

  35. Love the post. Very funny. It makes me want to get more organized in the kitchen and to TRY new things that aren’t purchased in a box.

  37. Homemade soup is the BEST. I like to do batch cooking on Sunday and then stockpile delicious concoctions in the freezer just like you do. Aren’t those plastic containers the best? I’ve re-used mine for over a year now. I probably have cancer from it, but at least I’m doing it green.

  38. Charlotte, you BAKE YOUR OWN BREAD?! Wow. I have a whole new level of respect for you. 😀

    Best thing I ever bought was a non-stick grill pan. I can grill veggies, meat, whatever, in LITERALLY 10 minutes or less. That’s my go-to prep for mid-week dinners.

  43. Great suggestions! I too have fallen into the trap that if it doesn’t come in a box or a can then I’m just not going to cook it. And I had a mother who did everything from scratch! Unfortunately, my nutritional preference genes were inherited from my PB&J father. This is really something I need to address. Thanks for all the helpful hints.

  47. Charlotte never fails to entertain me! And she’s right… nutritious food is easy to prepare, especially if you’re organized.

  50. Going from boxes to baking your own bread? I have a breadmaker that’s in some closet, somewhere, after being used, like, twice, so I’m impressed! You soooo can’t call yourself the girl who can’t cook anymore. Great guest post.

  52. I read your own post today, Charlotte & like I said there, I am not a cook either & even my hubby runs from me! Your suggestions are great! I have found things I can do plus I love my homemade protein bars & healthy oatmeal raisin cookies that are even easy enough for me to bake! My sister also sent me this bread book, ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY by J. Hertzberg and Z. François. Even I can bake that bread! Yummy too!

    Thx for a very informative & entertaining post!

  53. I loved the idea Charlotte 🙂 Reminds me of being a kid …..my mom totally cooked healthy and very similar to you. I am baking my own whole wheat bread now too because I was tired of seeing HFCS in supposedly healthy bread 🙂

    I am going to try the bars for the kiddos and hubby this week 🙂

  55. Charlotte – I am impressed that you make your own bread every Sunday. Do you use a bread maker or loaf pans? I use my bread maker for the dough and then construct some complicated buns and braids from that and bake them in the over. Aisde from that, I LIVE for my crockpot as it makes meals and clean up a breeze. I just have to get better at making smaller batches now that I am not cooking for 3 or 4 people.

  56. Great post!! However, I demand your whole wheat bread recipe. All my whole wheat breads refuse to raise, and no one in my family will touch my sad little mutant bread!

  57. Awesome and hilarious post! I have major love for soups from scratch too, but I don’t make them as often as I should. And I love me a good stir fry! 🙂

  59. “Omnivores – you know I love all you beautiful little freaks!” This made me laugh out loud! Oh Charlotte, I heart you muchly. Thanks for the great ideas.

    PS Adored your post too over at Yahoo, Miz!

  60. I’ve never visited Charlotte’s blog but I will now, Miz! Thanks for a great guest post! Charlotte, what a great idea with the salad base. I’m going to do it this weekend 😀

  61. I have known Charlotte since her Vitamix giveaway (LOL..of course, I didn’t win). I don’t do well with planning and freezing things ahead of time, but if there is one thing that I couldn’t live without in my kitchen: it is the pressure cooker. I make bean soups in it all the time. I grew up with pressure cookers. You don’t even have to presoak your beans. Just soak it in hot water for 30 mins and pressure cook it..

    I don’t have a fancy smacny pressure cooker , just an ordinary presto. I grew up with pressure cookers as South Indians use it to cook their rice and lentils every day.

  62. Charlotte: You really should go find yourself an Asian Indian who cooks OKRA.. you will love it, I guarantee. Until then, try this: wash your okras before you chop them, then drain the remaining bits of water ( I just wash it and leave it in a colander for a few minutes.. I did say 2 mins), some people suggest blotting it dry with paper towel. Now proceed to cut and cook. Resist the urge to cut it very small and be a bit geneorus with the oil when you pan fry.

  63. I don’t know why I always forget about the freezer – what a great way to keep things simple!!!

    We do well with making homemade pizza once/week – I use whole wheat flour and throw in a handful or so of oatmeal for a little extra fiber kick. The homemade way of doing it is not only tastier and cheaper than carry-out, but the kids get to help roll out the dough (which I make in the bread machine – LOVE it!) and add the toppings of their choosing (also great with my son who has food allergies). We have my parents over on pizza nights to make it a fun family dinner night. That’s tonight, in fact (the bread machine his humming as I type)!

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