Still waiting for the date..

while i'm waiting on the clearance to get to my doctor thats gonna do me, i find myself eating out all the time..even before, i think im addicted to eating out..i get home late, seems like daily i forget to take something out to cook. I am gonna buy a slow cooker, im hoping there are meals that are healthy that i can cook in it...

If worse comes to worst, fill your freezer with weight watchers and smart ones meals.

They take 3.5 minutes from freezer to mouth.

lollllllllllllll i have 2 kids (i'm ashamed to say):thumbup: i wish it wa so easy..this will be motivation and a learning experience as well i think..unfortunatly i'm not a good cook..thanks for the suggestion..i love those meals

Then fill half of your freezer with Lean Cuisine and the other half with Kid Cuisine dinners.

You don't have to be a chef to nuke a frozen dinner; it's cheaper than eating out and you can teach the kids to nuke their own at an early age. :thumbup:

There are some amazing recipes out there for slow cookers. Want the juiciest, tenderest, most awesome-ist roast chicken you've ever had (and I used to hate roast chicken). Just throw a thawed chicken in the crock pot on top of a quartered onion so that it's not sitting directly on the pot, set it on low for the day and when you come home - falling off the bone goodness.

(yes, no broth, no water, no fluids, no nothing. you can dry rub the chicken if you like, but not necessary, either)

Pulled pork? Again, throw a thawed pork shoulder in the crock with about a cup of beer. Set the crock pot on low and when you come home - it will already be shredded. Tons of leftovers, too, so you'll be able to do many things with those. Freeze what you have left when the appetite says "no more pork".

Pot of chili? Brown 1 lb of beef and then throw that together with sauteed onions and garlic, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste, 1 cup of beer, chili to your liking, pepper to your liking and about 1/2 cup of water. Let it simmer on low all day - wah lah, great chili!

The nice thing about the crock pot is you can make "bigger" meals and take those leftovers and freeze them. Then you can reheat those leftovers two weeks down the road for another home cooked meal...

btrieger-you are so right...they know how to microwave, sometimes i think my oldest (14) knows a bit more than me when it comes to cooking LOL

dswims-thanks so much for that...now if only i can get my girls to eat chili :thumbup: but all this is lapband-diet-userfriendly?

The chicken and pork are both high in protein and surprisingly low in fat. I am sure some docs would say those are a no-no but I've been losing weight while eating it. I think, personally, I subscribe more to the everything in moderation theory - but I do make sure I use good, natural, wholesome ingredients. The chili, depending on how you do the beef, can be not so bad, too. For my specific recipe, if you use lean sirloin beef it amounts to just under 400 calories and only 8 grams of fat. The protein is not as high, though, as the pork or chicken.

Like I said, I'm losing weight on this. But I'm like a few others on here, too - I'm not going to "diet", I'm going to eat normally, just less.

*just in case you don't know this about me, I'm not yet banded. So take this all with a grain of salt, I guess. I am 4 months into my 6 month weightloss program for insurance purposes. And with just changing what I'm eating (and it includes all three of these recipes) I've lost weight. Not exercising (although that's killing me) and not cutting calories - but I am tracking my protein more. I like variety and I love to cook so I love to try new things. Hubby's eating this - and losing weight. Neighbors/friends/family are eating this and saying it's healthier than what they cook. But like I said, feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

Maybe I should also say that these are not recipes to eat on a weekly basis. Like I said, I like variety. I don't cook most meals in the crockpot, but these are just some ideas. If these recipes get in the mix once a month or so, they are being used frequently. But they do provide a good amount of leftovers. I use the chicken leftovers in chicken broth with veggies for a light soup for a meal, for example. The pork leftovers we scramble in with scrambled eggs and onions, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers (cleaned well) - a high protein start to the day.

The chili freezes well and my hubby likes to take it for lunches. But like I said - not eating this stuff every week...usually not even once a month...just some alternatives...

If I had a 14 year old, they'd be doing the cooking to earn their keep so when I got home I could eat and relax.

Send him/her here: BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition - Bariatric Recipes

Good luck and thanks for the ideas LDS!

awesome!!!