Modern Mommies discussion

Can anyone recommend good recipe books for quick healthy dinners or healthy, un-boring (if that’s a word) brown bag lunches?

I’m tired of buying lunch, not to mention with gas prices I need to save somewhere…lol. I also hate sending my daughter with sandwiches all the time.

Dinner is a nightmare…working full time and trying to eat before 7pm, we’re all putting on weight from eating out too much.

I have lots of cookbooks with healthy quick options.I'll look through them tomorrow and post.

Does anyone have some interesting ideas about mealtimes.I 100% agree with LittleSaintina that supper time is a nightmare.

I am a HUGE fan of slow cooker recipes. During the school year I can be on campus up to 9 hours and I can't tell you how great it is to come home to an already prepared meal.

Like Sherry I have a ton of cookbooks (mostly Weight Watchers as I am a WW) and will look through them and post names, but also a few recipes that we all love.

As far as lunches, I too struggle with that. My daughter doesn't really like sandwiches, so a lot of the time there is yogurt, a slice of meat and fruit. I figure that if she isn't complaining about it, then it works for her.

I can recommend one book I used it for a few months, but then we got bored with the food. My husband was born and raised in Africa, with syrian parents who were raised in India...lol. Can you can spice? He started to find the food too bland and wanted to eat out.

Anyway, Sandi Richard..."Life is on Fire...Cooking for the Rushed". I think her new book that replaced this one is call "The Dinner Fix" These are very kid friendly, and they use a lot of pre-packaged and brand named items. There really isn't any room to spice them up, but my daughter loved the food.

It has weeks of menus, and the grocery list for each menu. It worked really well and I wanted to copy her format to make my own, but with more spicy recipes or at least recipes that gave me room to add.

Thanks you guys, and Stacie, I hear that so often, I have to try the slow cooker again. I tried it once and very clearly had no idea what I was doing...lol.

After browsing my cookbooks I came up with two that may be of interest.
Cook Great Food by Dietitians of Canada.Some good healthy recipes,with ideas of what to serve with the recipes to mround the meal out.Includes stuff for lunches and entertaining.Some interesting ethnic choices as well like thai salad ect...

Another is Canadian Livings Best-Vegetarian Dishes by Canadien Livings Best.Lots of good and easy recipes,soups,pastas,sandwiches ect...

I would recommend the series of "Four Ingredient Cookbooks." They are great because if you are like us when you are looking in a regular cookbook nine times out of ten you don't have everything you need to make a recipe. When using a regular cookbook I almost always have to shop specifically for that dish. They are not always the healthiest of recipes but you can healthy them up a bit. For more healthy cooking we like "Quick and Healthy" by Brenda Ponichtera who is a registered dietician. We bought this book at the gift shop in a health center when my husband had to go on a low sodium diet.

That's great thanks so much. Sherry I'm always wondering what to serve with my meals. And I love the idea of a 4 ingredient book.

I like the idea of a four ingredient book as well.Will have to check it out.

I also wanted to put out there that there is a great website that I use all the time. In fact, I get a recipe a day email from them. Because I am still trying to lose weight (darn last 10 pounds!) I often alter the recipe to fit my dietary needs. The website is allrecipes.com.

It is great...you can actually do a search based on the ingredients you have. One really quick, easy and delicious recipe I like is the herb and chicken pasta (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Herb-and...) I chop up the chicken so that the servings go further. I also serve it on a bed of lightly sauteed spinach, which I saute in shallots, garlic, salt and little bit of olive oil.

Thanks Stacie, I know I've been on that site once or twice, I'm going to take a better look at it now.

I use the Epicurious webite fairly often, as well as the Vegetarian Times free recipe archive on their website.

I have been on that site was well...I have to look up the Vegetarian times, I was just saying to my husband last night I think it's time we give up meat. There is no way he will, but he's on doctors orders to cut back so I said we'll have to cook veggie twice a week and eat more fish. Even my daughter wants to become vegetarian. I think she's starting to sense that meat is getting worse. I worry about what they put in the meat.

Are you a vegetarian Vanessa?

Hi Santina,

I am indeed a vegetarian - for 22 years now. My husband is also (he has been one since he was 9 years old by choice - even though the rest of his family ate meat!). We are raising both of our kids veg - my son is now at an age where he realizes he is in a minority at school (which consists of 1 person - himself), and so I have told him that if he wants to try/eat meat like his friends that he can make that choice for himself, though we won't cook it at home. He still has no desire to - the idea repulses him. So we'll see if that changes. I believe that my kids need to be free to make that choice for themselves, when the time comes, and I understand how difficult it can be to be different from the other kids.

Yes, my daughter and husband are muslim, so we don't eat pork. She often finds herself frustrated when they have things like hot dog day or pizza day. Hot dogs are generally pork and pizza pepperoni. She is only 7, last year we went threw some complaints, but like you, religion or not, we feel she needs to make her choices. We told her if she wanted to eat pork she could and it wouldn't hurt her, but she won't, and it was just this last couple weeks she said she didn't want meat anymore.

I don't think she's completely read to give it up, but she's very happy to eat Vegetarian dishes. I was never like this but lately, the look of meat just makes me cringe. Lately it gets harder to cook it. My daughter too, she said why is there blood. So of course the thought of actually killing a cow to eat the meat, didn't really sit well with her. As we cut back more I think eventually it will be gone altogether.

Do you like Indian Food? We tend to eat that a lot, my husband used to eat a lot of lamb and beef, but he can be really satisfied just eating indian vegetarian dishes. For a meat eater that is a bit deal...lol

We love Indian! My kids consider it a big treat to get Indian takeout (though they mostly like to stuff themselves with Nan bread and aren't able to handle the spicy dishes yet). We also lie Thai (we have several here in town, and most of them do vegetarian dishes eg pumpkin curry, veg pad thai, love the mock duck masaman curry). My son is also 7 years old, and has had to take a bit of teasing for his vegetarianism at school - kids biting into chicken legs and making them scream or saying "I love animals - to EAT hahaha". I hate that they have to try and make him feel bad about this issue, but after some initial outrage he has learned to shrug them off, which has reduced the amount of teasing. I guess kids will always find something to tease about.

This is very true...my daughter will only get frustrated for a short time, she can't be bothered much longer than that. Plus I'm, well ...lol. I'm the type of mother that will tell her to tease back and give her some lines to use. Hahaha..of course I get a child that would never ever, but it makes her laugh when I say things like that, I think she lets her imagination take over if kids bother her and that helps her shrug it off.

One day she took and avacado to school for snack with a spoon, and this little kid that always teases her, said something, of course my girl didn't want it next time, so I told her to tell this child it's gross that she eats pigs, they roll around in their own poo....I'm so mean, but my daughter would never, so instead she took her avacado and ignored that kid, and probably did laugh at the thought of her eating pig poo.

But you're right, they will tease about anything, it just makes kids stronger. Gives them character.

Hey. I am new to the group. Anyway, I find that Eating Well magazine and their cookbooks have (mostly) fast, fresh meals that cook up in under half an hour. Hope it helps!

Hi Carrie and welcome to the group.

Hi Carrie, welcome.

Thanks for the tip.

Ok...I never thought I would try or say this but, Instant Mash Potatoes...HELLO. Why have I not tried these before? So my daughter wanted Hot Chicken Sandwiches and mash last night with our leftovers. Great I said sandwiches are easy, I stopped to get potatoes and thought about how much work that would be since I only slept 2 hours the night before due to my accident, I thought oh to hell with it I'll try the instant ones for today.

I grabbed a box, mixed them up, it took 5 minutes and voila...Mash...and it was actually good. I can't believe it. Sure it's not as good the real thing, I wouldn't use it for Christmas Dinner, but seriously, for a working mother, I think I just found a new blessing.

So I have a dilemma when cooking of late.Last year I was diagnosed with several food intolerances as well as high blood pressure.
So I now can eat no gluten(wheat)sugar,dairy(though I'm ok with some cheese and sour cream)processed foods and I have to be very careful with sodium content.

All the things I used to cook are now out the window and we aren't liking the things I'm cooking now.I hate going to the trouble only to find I don't like the taste.My son has pretty much stopped eating most of what I'm cooking.

Anyone else with these considerations to deal with when cooking and any advice to give?

Oh Lord Sherry, that sucks. I bet there are website out there with other people who have the same issues you can probably talk to. Not that anyone here can't help, but we're such a small group. No Gluten...is that siliac?

I'm not a celiac but my symtoms are very close to a celiac's as I can get pretty sick and sore if I eat gluten.There are sites but they're not very helpful as I'm always on GRs :)
They just don't address the things that are an issue for me.I have cookbooks to but honetly the recipes don't turn out all that well.Guess I should have posted this in bitchfest!

Speaking of bitchfest,I think we may have a spammer.

Mmmmm...Spam. Just kidding. But I thought it might helps someone for a meal idea (-:

Sorry Sherry, everything thing I think of that might work ends up having one of the things that you can't have. I will keep looking and if I find something will definitely let you know.

Wait, can you eat quinoa? I have a very good recipe with quinoa and beans...

OH yes I just read that, she's been in the group since June 26, but has never posted a comment. Thank you for replying to her.

I hope you find some useful recipes...that's such a limited way to cook. If I hear of anything I will let you know for sure.

Hi Sherry,

Bummer about the ban on certain foods - but I once worked in a health food shop and came across so many people with the same issues and know that there are many possibilities out there for you. They make bread from spelt and kamut, they also sell different flours/baking mixes/pancake mixes/pastas made from spelt, kamut, millet, etc. You might also want to check out some soy cheeses or cheeses made from other sources - nuts etc. I never cared for a lot of soy cheeses - I found Soya Kaas mozzerella to be the most palatable of the lot when melted, but everyone's taste is different. I have found almond cheese to be quite good, but I can't remember the brand to recommend to you. There are a zillion different soy milks, rice milks and nut milks - most people seem to prefer Silk, but I always liked a product called Better Than Milk (not sure if is still available). Re. sweeteners - is it just processed sugar that you can't eat, or all forms of sugar? A lot of people who can't eat processed sugar eat sucanat instead, which has a higher nutirtional value. Otherwise, you may have already explored other sweetener options, but some people like Stevia extract, which is made from the stevia plant. It is very sweet, but has a slight licorice flavor which might take some getting used to. Anyway, if you have a health food store or a Whole Foods near you, you can likely find a knowledgeable staff member to talk to about the many options out there. It is hard to give up favorite foods, I know, but there really are a multitude of options and I hope you'll be able to find some new favorites! Good luck!

Wow...so much info, that's great Vanessa. Now you now everyone is going to remember this when they have health food concerns. You might need your own little thread on here...LOL

I'll have to check my book,I'm not sure if I can or not.Thanks for the support.

I'm a member on the Food Network website. You can sign up for newsletters which include a daily recipe sent to your email and there is a recipe box on the site so you can store any recipes you like in folders with their own titles such as drinks,desserts,entrees etc. and refer to them later.

Fix-It And Forget-It Cookbook: Revised & Updated 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes
* by:
* Good, Phyllis Pellman

I loved that slowcooker book!