Canned food

[gobbler]

Just curious, any premeds here eat canned food lots?

Heard they are not healthy but time & money saving. Just wondering if I should stock up on them now.

Also, how do you guys cook food for a week? Never got the hung of it. What's the secret.

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[armybound]

I eat canned vegetables and such.

 

[RySerr21]

Just watch the sodium content. Now a days you can usually find the "no added sodium " option.

 

[efitzpat]

I eat a lot of raw vegetables (salads, etc) or quickly cooked fresh vegetables (blanched). When I bring things home from the store, I chop up my lettuce and veggies, and put them in separate tupperware containers so they are ready made salads for the week.

I make a lot of food on the weekends to freeze or eat during the week. When I have down time I make a lot of turkey burgers and throw individually wrapped ones into the freezer. They can cook frozen or thawed on a George Foreman grill. I also make soups to freeze.

I bake a lot of foods in the oven. Just chopping some veggies and maybe throw in some pork, chicken or fish into the pan and just throw it in the oven.

I buy chicken breast tenders (just cut into little pieces) and, before freezing them, I put 2 or 3 pieces into separate bags so that they can be taken out and thawed quickly and cut up even quicker in a pan or in the oven.

Pasta is always great. This is the only time I use canned veggies. I always have a can of tomatoes on hand. Boil up some pasta, throw some canned tomatoes, garlic, and onions (and whatever vegetables you like) in a pan with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bam! You have a nice, healthy dish.

When I'm too busy, I always have lean cuisines on hand!

I love cooking so I always try to make time for it. These are my quick and easy things that I go to when I'm busy.

 

[Proctodoc]

There's got to be a Rachel Ray forum for these curiosities and tips, but if want input, here's mine. If you want to cook for a week, choose salty foods as salt helps preserve food (you'll notice that a very salty Asian sauce can be stored at room temp in the pantry for probably a year without spoiling). When I cook pasta, I like to make lots of it then store it in the fridge or freezer with the sauce mixed in already as the sauce separates each strand or unit of pasta and the salt in the sauce also extracts some of the extra water from pasta so they don't keep expanding and get all big and soggy. Another thing you can do is cook something half-way, then store it in the fridge and finish cooking when you're about to eat it. I half cook pot stickers and finish them off when I want them. They turn out fresh, hot, and time-saving.

If you don't have enough fridge space and you live in Chicago like I do, start storing food outside on your balcony. This is good for frozen veggies.

 

[Valvool]

Curious as to why you might need to 'stock up'. Do you know something I don't know about impending food shortages?

 

[gobbler]

Hey efitzpat thanks for those suggestions. I will try some.

Proctodoc, your idea with paste is brillant. I never knew. Now I can store pasta.

Going to be busy the next few months, need to stock up since I won't have time to cook properly.

More suggestions welcome.

 

[jinx520]

I did a lot of freezer cooking when I was still in school; will probably pick it up again if I get accepted this cycle. It's really easy once you get the hang of it. Buy a family pack or two of whatever protein is on sale that week, and make a bunch of meals out of it, divvy it up, and freeze it.

One easy way is to buy a bunch of ground beef, season w/salt, pepper, celery seed; cook it up w/some onions, garlic, chopped up bell peppers, carrots (or whatever floats your boat.) Divide it up into meal-sized portions.

1) a packet of taco seasonings turns it into tacos.
2) add beans and a can of chopped tomatoes to #1 and you have chili.
3) add a jar of spagetti sauce and serve over pasta.
4) toss into some prepared mac n' cheese or hamburger helper.
5) saute some cabbage (pre-cut coleslaw mix is good when you're pressed for time), add some soy sauce or teryaki sauce and serve over rice.

You get the picture. Basically, anything that requires cooked ground beef can be made quicker if you do this over the weekend. It doesn't take much more time to prep like this than it does to cook a single meal. You can also make double or triple of a meal and freeze the rest, and slowly stockpile over time. It's cheaper, healthier, and tastier than buying those little freezer meals, but it does take some planning.

Can you tell I'm a mommy premed?

 

[dw2158]

Proctodoc, ITA about the half cooking stuff. Also your avatar is basically the best thing ever.

Over the weekend I usually chop up a lot of veggies and put them in tupperware in individually sized portions with salsa or hummus so I can just grab them for lunch each day. Beyond that, I just freeze everything I cook and defrost as I go.

 

[vadd0]

I eat canned fruits and vegetables because they're cheaper and do not expire. Pasta/rice, beef/chicken, canned vegetable, canned fruit are my normal dinner foods. I grew up eating canned fruits and vegetables though, so I will always be able to eat them

 

[229141]

Just curious, any premeds here eat canned food lots?

Heard they are not healthy but time & money saving. Just wondering if I should stock up on them now.

Also, how do you guys cook food for a week? Never got the hung of it. What's the secret.

My best friend eats spaghettios like every meal...damn brilliant guy too!

I eat chunk soup and some canned veggies. The reason they may not be healthy is due to high sodium typically and cheap processing

 

[229141]

i grew up eating canned fruits and vegetables though, so i will always be able to eat them

evolution!

 

[236116]

Canned or frozen veggies. Fresh when I can get them. Fruit... I only really like canteloupe and watermelon and some berries.

Rice, pasta. Minimal dairy. Fish, the occasional bit of seafood.

(Very picky eater (mostly-vegetarian) with food allergies, intolerances, esophageal spasms, and issues with eating... aka why I don't eat in public.)

I used to love spaghettios. Until I realised they were giving me splotchies.

 

[229141]

Canned or frozen veggies. Fresh when I can get them. Fruit... I only really like canteloupe and watermelon and some berries.

Rice, pasta. Minimal dairy. Fish, the occasional bit of seafood.

(Very picky eater (mostly-vegetarian) with food allergies, intolerances, esophageal spasms, and issues with eating... aka why I don't eat in public.)

I used to love spaghettios. Until I realised they were giving me splotchies.

I forgot what dilophosaurus eats...I thought veggies only

 

[236116]

I forgot what dilophosaurus eats...I thought veggies only

Fat white guys, apparently. The occasional Costa Rican, as per the book.

 

[nick_carraway]

Pasta is always great. This is the only time I use canned veggies. I always have a can of tomatoes on hand. Boil up some pasta, throw some canned tomatoes, garlic, and onions (and whatever vegetables you like) in a pan with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bam! You have a nice, healthy dish.

I agree with this. A can of stewed tomatoes makes any pasta taste that much more delicious and is an example of a vegetable that actually gets healthier for you by sitting in a can.

I also use frozen peas and toss them into pastas or curries since I think frozen peas have a distinct taste and covering them up with sauce makes it unnoticeable.

I like canned BBQ beans to serve alongside steaks or with salads or sandwiches.

Besides canned foods, you can freeze tons of things like others are saying and it makes your life really freaking easy. Whenever I buy a duck, I separate the skin from the fat from the meat from the bones. Between all those parts, you can freeze them and have enough ingredients for a month or more worth of dishes from just a $10 bird.

BTW, great job on the apps, efitzpat. As a fellow CA resident with a prior 3.3 who got soundly rejected from all my schools last cycle, I'm proud of you! 3/3 interviews is awesome!

 

[katarina90]

Hmm. I'm also a mostly vegetarian (fell off the wagon in college--lots of good sushi places haha) and also have hypoglycemia so mine's somewhat offbeat.

I make a lot of baked potatoes (like half a bag at a time, slow cooked in the oven), refrigerate and then heat them for about a minute in the microwave when I want to eat them. I usually eat baked potatoes for breakfast : )

I also live at home with a quite large family, so I always make a lot of food (and usually have leftovers). Lots of pasta (with canned sauce, its easy; marinara -or-white sauce with defrosted shrimp that I bought already cooked).

I go for canned soups but not often. Usually I use soup base and
canned tomatoes and then mix in a lot of chopped fresh veggies (potatoes, celery, fresh or frozen corn, zucchini, etc.)

Reading through all these food tips is making me hungry : )