So now you’re all suited up and ready to get cooking but you have no idea what to do. You know that you want something that’s fulfilling and delicious for dinner but you don’t want to have to spend 4 hours making it. You also really don’t want to whip out your water heater to make ramen. So what do you do? Here’s a list of a few easy, healthy, delicious (and cheap!) foods that will quell all of your hunger pangs.
- Lentils:
They’re great. They’re delicious! They’re versatile! They store really well! They come in a bunch of different varieties(including green, black, red, orange-red, yellow). Lentils are amazing. They are full of really great nutrients (lots of fiber, protein, and iron) and a small amount go a really long way. They’re great in everything from soups to stews to curries to salads. And you can easily mix them with lots of other foods to make delicious and balanced meals. And the best part? They’re super easy to make!
Recipe: Curried Lentil Soup
- Rice:
Rice is one of the perfect compliments to just about everything. It’s a fairly neutral food which means that you can manipulate it whichever way you want for a delicious meal (pineapple fried rice anyone? or maybe rice pudding? The entire rice world is at your disposal). And if you use your rice cooker, it’s one of the easiest things that you can make.
Recipe: Pineapple Fried Rice
- Sweet Potatoes:
Sweet Potatoes are the potato’s confused cousin. Some people think that it’s a potato. Some people think that it’s a yam. Technically, it’s neither. Whatever, it is, this orange potato “thing” is sweet, delicious and super good for you. You can stick the whole thing in the oven and have a sweet baked potato. Mash it, and have orange mashed potatoes. It’s all the fun of any regular potato, but in a fun color.
Recipe: Mashed Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
- Plantains:
I love plantains. Love them. They’re the banana’s superior cousin.There are a myriad of different ways to make them, but frying them is my personal preferred method. Buy them green and make crunchy tostones, or get them ripe and bask in the salty-sweet deliciousness.
Recipe: Fried (Ripe) Plantains
- Frozen Veggies:
So say you’re not feeling the entire prepare-cook-wash dishes-clean up routine and you just really want mac and cheese. Add some vital nutrients to your quick fix meal by mixing in frozen broccoli or spinach. All the joy of vegetables, without all the work.
- Oatmeal:
Oatmeal may bring about awkward flashbacks of watery mush with technicolor dinosaur eggs, but trust me when I say that when done right, oatmeal can be a warm delicious experience. It takes almost no time to make and you can customize your oatmeal with anything you’d like (my personal favorite is peanut butter, nutella, and dried coconut). Be adventurous!
Recipe: Pumpkin Gingerbread Chocolate Oats
