Make my dinner!

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Individual
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Make my dinner!

Post by Individual »

In the past few days, I seemed to have developed a hyper-sensitivity to salt. All the processed food in my refrigerator tastes like it's had a bottle of salt dumped on it. It tastes bad and I'm worried it will kill me.

Plus, I like to be surprised by food.

So, here is what we will do: Every day, I will make whatever the people on here tell me to prepare. Will it be the first person who responds or will I simply pick one I like? I don't know yet! :)

Only three rules:
1. The food and quantity and quality has to be filling and nutritious. (As much as I'd like to live on raw fruits and vegetables, when I do that I feel constantly tired and hungry)
2. The ingredients must be readily found in an American grocery store. However, I live in a multicultural community, with a couple of "international" grocery stores, so I still might be able to find stuff like plum sauce, kimchi, seaweed, and eels.
3. The dish cannot take more than 30 minutes to prepare or require any difficult preparation process.

There are no specific rules on taste or contents, although I probably won't be eating any slugs or rats off of the ground, sorry.

When I'm done, I'll take photos and tell you how it was.

This is all being done 24 hours in advance. So, any responses today is what I will be eating for dinner tomorrow.
The best things in life aren't things.

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Fede
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Fede »

Looks like a great day for fasting...... :tongue:
"Samsara: The human condition's heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment." Elizabeth Gilbert, 'Eat, Pray, Love'.

Simplify: 17 into 1 WILL go: Mindfulness!

Quieta movere magna merces videbatur. (Sallust, c.86-c.35 BC)
Translation: Just to stir things up seemed a good reward in itself. ;)

I am sooooo happy - How on earth could I be otherwise?! :D


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Ben
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Ben »

We started a healthy recipe thread in this subforum many moons ago.
Once you've finished Fede's fast, you'll find some good ideas in this thread:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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retrofuturist
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Individual,

Rather than prescribe a specific recipe, I'll give you some broad parameters and you can work with them! Often you never know quite what you will and will not find at the local Asian grocery, so you'll need to be prepared to be a bit flexible.

If you're interested in visiting your local Chinese grocery, you can get a whole bag of dried ramen noodles for cheap. Excellent value in fact. You can use these for noodles based dishes, or for soups... so they work on both counts.

If you're going down the soup avenue, you can usually get Asian-style stock-cubes at the Asian Grocery too. Dried mushrooms are usually readily available, and when boiled in a soup they come to life and give the soup a nice flavour. Some kind of sprouts or greenery (see what they've got) could add to the healthiness/fillingness of the soup. If you want to see what such a soup might end up looking like, take a look through my Facebook photo album called the Wonderful World of Miscellania... it's the vodka pho. :stirthepot:

Try to find a bag of dumplings in the freezer... alternatively, some 'balls' from the fridge or freezer, or even tinned 'mock meat' if you can find it. Not only are dumplings fun to have (steamed) with noodles, but you can also use them in soups. If you're leaning towards the noodles option, try to find some kind of bottle sauce thing that takes your fancy - feel free to try something a little unusual.

(Pre)Fried shallots work well too, in both soup and noodle dishes. Chili is fun too, if you like it...

As far as health/diet goes, I think the above suggestions are quite healthy, and the mode of cooking involves no oils etc. so that's good too.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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m0rl0ck
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by m0rl0ck »

Individual wrote:In the past few days, I seemed to have developed a hyper-sensitivity to salt. All the processed food in my refrigerator tastes like it's had a bottle of salt dumped on it. It tastes bad and I'm worried it will kill me.

Plus, I like to be surprised by food.

So, here is what we will do: Every day, I will make whatever the people on here tell me to prepare. Will it be the first person who responds or will I simply pick one I like? I don't know yet! :)

Only three rules:
1. The food and quantity and quality has to be filling and nutritious. (As much as I'd like to live on raw fruits and vegetables, when I do that I feel constantly tired and hungry)
2. The ingredients must be readily found in an American grocery store. However, I live in a multicultural community, with a couple of "international" grocery stores, so I still might be able to find stuff like plum sauce, kimchi, seaweed, and eels.
3. The dish cannot take more than 30 minutes to prepare or require any difficult preparation process.

There are no specific rules on taste or contents, although I probably won't be eating any slugs or rats off of the ground, sorry.

When I'm done, I'll take photos and tell you how it was.

This is all being done 24 hours in advance. So, any responses today is what I will be eating for dinner tomorrow.

I'll just tell you what im having :)

A big bowl of jasmine rice, portabella mushrooms and frozen stir fry veggies.

Cook the jasmine rice, about 15 minutes, you can just cut up the mushrooms in a bowl and nuke them for about 4 minutes, add the rice to the bowl, top with stir fry veggies and nuke again for about 5.5 minutes. Add garlic powder, cayenne and soy sauce or curry powder to taste.

Its easier to make stuff like this if you already have the rice cooked and in the fridge. I always have already cooked beans or lentils and jasmine rice in the fridge ready to go. All you have to do is put the beans or lentils in a bowl with some rice and cut up some fresh veggies while its warming in the microwave and you have dinner :)

EDIT: Soy sauce does have a lot of sodium, so you might want to use a light hand with it. Oh and add some oil to those mushrooms in the first step and maybe some garlic.
Last edited by m0rl0ck on Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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bodom
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by bodom »

I had two microwavable burritos with nacho cheese sauce... :jawdrop:

Times are tough.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
Individual
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Individual »

Ben wrote:We started a healthy recipe thread in this subforum many moons ago.
Once you've finished Fede's fast, you'll find some good ideas in this thread:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I'll look through the thread and make everything on the list, from start to finish.
Fede wrote:Looks like a great day for fasting...... :tongue:
Fasting, meaning what?

I'm OK with fasting meaning I can only eat bread and drink water, but I think that abstaining from food completely is unhealthy and it makes you feel horrible: tired, irritable, etc..
retrofuturist wrote: If you're interested in visiting your local Chinese grocery, you can get a whole bag of dried ramen noodles for cheap. Excellent value in fact. You can use these for noodles based dishes, or for soups... so they work on both counts.
I like ramen a lot, but there is a problem: It tends to fill me up, but then I feel hungry 30 minutes later.
retrofuturist wrote: Chili is fun too, if you like it...
I do like it, but from a poor diet and too much caffeine, my stomach can't handle it. I get uncomfortable stomach gurgling if I eat something like that, or if I eat too much.

Also, I like your other suggestions, but would you know of any specific recipes or websites with recipes? I cannot cook anything without directions.
The best things in life aren't things.

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retrofuturist
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings Individual,
Individual wrote:I like ramen a lot, but there is a problem: It tends to fill me up, but then I feel hungry 30 minutes later.
In that case, I'd recommend trying the soup option. I don't know of any specific Asian soup recipes but what I've explained above should be enough to help you muddle through one.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Ben
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Ben »

Knowing Fede as I do, I am sure she was joking about the 'fasting'.

I wish I had the recipe for an amazing soup I do with me at the moment. I made turkish red-lentil soup forinstead of an awful packet minestrone that the kids and teachers on our camps were getting on the first night. The outdoor education staff, who attend all the camps and were getting the same crappy meals, just loved this soup. I subsituted the beef stock with vegetable stock and it was completely vegetarian. And vegan if you didn't have a dollop of the minted yoghurt condiment. Its spicy without being hot. From memory has carrots, onions and cellery as well as red lentils,some chickpeas and a little bit of rice. Very filling and very tasty. The spices are ground fenugreek, cumin, coriander seed and others. While it contains a little bit of chilli, I was serving it to kids who had very sensitive pallets and they raved about it. Its also just a matter of 'assembly', cut and chop your vegetables and put everything into a pot and put onto a low heat and come back 45 minutes later.
I'll be home in a few days and I'll transcribe the recipe for you then.
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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octathlon
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by octathlon »

Hi Individual,

Are you drinking enough water? I remember one period of time when everything tasted salty to me and it turned out I was dehydrated. Your electrolytes could be out of balance (salt to potassium ratio). Don't know if you can get that checked out, but you could try increasing K-rich foods like bananas, cantaloupe, tomatoes, etc.
sattva
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by sattva »

Hi Individual


If you aren't allergic to wheat or dairy. Homemade mac and cheese or Italian dishes might be nice to try. There are probably even low-salt sauces in the health food aisle. You can buy unsalted butter. For a healthier butter spread soften the butter and then mix it with olive or canola oil.
If it is getting cooler where you live, go towards warmer foods. Soups, especially bean soups can be very filling. Dried beans cannot be made in a crockpot like canned beans because they need to be cooked at a higher temp to get rid of a toxin in them. Canned beans have already been cooked.

Looks like some of these sites have some good recipes and now i want to try them :)

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetari ... ecipes.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/easyrecipes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.cooking-for-compliments.com/ ... cipes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/One-Dish-V ... etail.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.chatzy.com/25904628501622
Individual
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Individual »

octathlon wrote: Are you drinking enough water?
Yes, definitely.
sattva wrote:Hi Individual


If you aren't allergic to wheat or dairy. Homemade mac and cheese or Italian dishes might be nice to try. There are probably even low-salt sauces in the health food aisle. You can buy unsalted butter. For a healthier butter spread soften the butter and then mix it with olive or canola oil.
If it is getting cooler where you live, go towards warmer foods. Soups, especially bean soups can be very filling. Dried beans cannot be made in a crockpot like canned beans because they need to be cooked at a higher temp to get rid of a toxin in them. Canned beans have already been cooked.

Looks like some of these sites have some good recipes and now i want to try them :)

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetari ... ecipes.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/easyrecipes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.cooking-for-compliments.com/ ... cipes.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/One-Dish-V ... etail.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That could work.

Also, I should've foreseen that only vegetarians would respond to this thread.
The best things in life aren't things.

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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

:tongue: Then just toss some browned ground beef of chopped chicken breast in with the recipes and get your omnivore on my man.

An easy full-meal dish I like is called Jacob's Guile. Lay a bed of rice, cover with lentils, top with chopped salad (lettuce and tomatoes)garnish with olives if you like, onions too if you like, then dress with vinegar and oil dressing. Add grilled chicken if you must eat dead animal tissue. We vegetarians will abstain. Image
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Individual
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Individual »

I suppose it was unreasonable to ask for a recipe every day, so I had a better idea.

I am going to compile a large list of recipes (including some of the recipes you've mentioned), print them out, and put them into the "mystery dinner box". Every day, I will draw a recipe out of the box and that will be dinner.

I will post the recipe here, with pictures. :)

As for today, it will not be a mystery. This will be tonight's dinner:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/thai_ ... sauce.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The best things in life aren't things.

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Ytrog
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Re: Make my dinner!

Post by Ytrog »

Well, my dinner just failed. I had a pizza in the oven (combi microwave actually) and it did't stop at the 11 min. I'd set it to. The pizza is charred.
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