Coronavirus Healthy Cooking – One Thing I Can Control In The Chaos! (RECIPES & PICS)
I know what you’re thinking, if only I could find the actual food to do this! It took me stops at three different grocery stores to get all of the ingredients for these healthy recipes. One thing we can control, keeping up our immune system during the coronavirus outbreak by eating healthy foods.
I know what you're thinking, if only I could find the actual food to do this! It took me stops at three different grocery stores to get all of the ingredients for these healthy recipes. One thing we can control, keeping up our immune system during the coronavirus outbreak by eating healthy foods.
I hadn't done any healthy food prep in a few months, so I had no healthy meals in my freezer before Saturday night...
Deirdre DagataYes, it was frustrating that when I did decide to go to the grocery store, ingredients for the recipes I chose were few and far between! I had the most trouble finding the ground turkey, chicken and ground turkey sausage because all of the meat shelves in two out of three groceries stores I went to were bare. The third grocery store was the charm and I was ready to start my food prep on Saturday morning!
Deirdre DagataI picked two of my Skinnytaste go-to recipes because I love them and I've made them before and got them going in two of my three crock pots.
Gina Homolka is the author and recipe developer of Skinnytaste.com. I LOVE her recipes! Her website "features delicious, healthy, family-friendly recipes made with real food."
I always double a recipe, if I can, so I can have extra portions to freeze and these two are very easy to double!
My first Skinnytaste go-to is the Slow Cooker 3-Bean Turkey Chili. I only do a 2-bean version because I don't care for red beans but I love that this recipe has chickpeas in it!
My second Skinnytaste go-to is the Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joe recipe. I don't even put it on a roll, I eat it as is! I doubled this recipe too for extra portions to freeze.
The third Skinnytaste recipe I cooked, that I had never made before, was the Chicken Soup with Spinach and Whole Wheat Acini di Pepe. This was a stove top recipe and I doubled it to have extras to freeze. It's delicious! Another one I will definitely make again. I love that this recipe has spinach in it.
The only thing I messed up was that I misread the recipe and thought it called for 1 cup of carrots and celery. It was only a HALF of a cup and, because I doubled it, I ended up putting TWO cups of each in the soup. OOPS! I'm not a fan of carrots, so my mother got a kick out of this when told her what I did. We both agreed that, the more veggies, the better. I should have added more broth but I didn't so now it's more of a chicken soup stew... but it's still delicious!
In my third crock pot (yes, I have three) I made slow cooker lasagna with this Skinny Ms. recipe. I know what you're probably thinking, the first time I made it I thought the same thing... you can't make lasagna in a slow cooker! Um, yes you can and it's delicious!
My favorite part is that you don't even have to cook the lasagna noodles! You just break them up and throw them in! I remix this recipe and use part-skim ricotta instead of the cottage cheese the recipe calls for. I also use mild Italian turkey sausage instead of just ground turkey. I also cooked it for less time than the recipe said. The first time I made it, it seemed overcooked and dry. I would check it occasionally to see how your crock pot cooks it.
The last thing I made was just simple Italian turkey sausage with peppers and onions. I made two package of sausages and portioned those out as well to freeze. I love mild Italian turkey sausages. They really do taste similar to a regular sausage.
Deirdre DagataMy freezer and fridge are full now! I feel a little better about being proactive with this coronavirus craziness that's happening. Since I'm considered an "essential employee" and have to come into work, at least I've got healthy food to eat to try to keep up my immune system to stay healthy.
Deirdre Dagata
Deirdre DagataIt is a scary situation, for sure, but I find that doing what you CAN do, helps ease the stress and anxiety of what is happening with the coronavirus outbreak.
If you have any healthy recipes or cooking tips that you'd like to share, please e-mail me at: ddagata@hot969boston.com.
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