Week Nine: Mike

When dieting, meals tend to be two of either healthy, delicious, or affordable — it's seemingly impossible to find a lunch that's all of the above. What you gain in nutrition, you sacrifice in flavour or cost. Coming into this challenge with a diet that consisted of fast food and TV dinners, one of the biggest adjustments has been finding healthier foods that I actually enjoy eating.

But after doing a bit of legwork, my revised menu has ended up being a lot more flexible than I had anticipated. Unbeknownst to me, it is possible to find cheap and tasty foods that won't cling to my fat cells like fryer grease on a McNugget. The produce department has been my friendliest and most obvious companion, but the problem with fresh fruits and veggies is that they spoil. I'm not alone in knowing that a busy schedule can kill a diet and workout routine, and it's been my bane in the past — if I don't have time to make healthy meals out of the foods I buy, I'm not going to eat them, and they all go bad before I even get the chance.

To counter this, I've found that the bulk foods aisle to be indispensable. Formerly the hot spot for brightly coloured, sugar-coated treats of my childhood, I was befuddled to learn that there's a lot more to it than candy. Beans, lentils, rice, and nuts are all abundant here, and sell at a fraction of what an on-campus eatery would charge. I've dabbled in some cooking in the the past, but you don't have to be Anthony Bourdain to whip up a cheap, tasty, and healthy meal that'll last you through the week.

To supplement my purchases, I've also come into the possession of a crock pot and a pressure cooker. Both serve similar purposes, but in varying capacities depending on how much time I've got to spare. I can throw everything into the crock pot in the morning, switch it on, and come home in the evening to a house filled with aromatic and savoury aromas, and a delicious stew at that. If I don't have the whole day to spare, though, the pressure cooker is able to achieve similar results in under an hour, and can prepare anything from soups to pot roasts to desserts — but I won't be touching many of the latter.

These two recipes have been at the top of my menu in recent weeks, and are flexible enough that should I get tired of one, I can tweak the ingredients and come out with entirely new flavours.

Simple Greek Salad
1 cup romaine lettuce
½ cup tomatoes (chopped or cherry)
½ cup chopped red onion
½ cup kalamata olives
¼ cup feta cheese
2 tbsp fat-free Italian viniagrette dressing

Toss ingredients in a tupperware container and serve. Add or omit portions as desired. Serves one.

Chicken, vegetable, and legume stew

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 carrots
2 cups celery
1 onion
1 red pepper
2 potatoes
1 cup mixed beans
1 cup lentils
½ cup barley
1 can or ½ cup (dried) chick peas
8 cups water (crock pot) / 6 cups water (pressure cooker)
Salt, pepper, and various herbs and spices to taste

Place all ingredients in the pot. In a crock pot, cook for 6-8 hours. In a pressure cooker, cook for 30 minutes, or to your cooker's specifications. Add or omit ingredients as desired. Serves several portions — freeze or refrigerate leftovers.