Page 812 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 14, 1993

Make fast food — not trash food

ITH everyone rush- ing about to get everything done, | thought it might be helpful to talk about foods that are quick to prepare at home.

Fast food at home can be much healthier than at reslauranis. This is because you have complete control over the food choices you make, ;

There’s no need to use frozen dinners. | They aren’t very balanced to begin with, despite their promotions.

With a little planning ahead of time.and a good freezer compart- ment in your fridge, you'can have a high-fibre, moderate-fat, salt and sugar meal in the same lime it takes to heat a frozen dinner. —

‘Scan through these-ideas and try out a couple that you think you might like. A microwave will give you the quickest results, but you can always adapt the ideas to the slave-top.

There is’a list of items I always keep on hand for quick meals. Rather than relying on frozen din- ners, I buy relatively unprocessed foods:

"Meat; Fish, Poultry

and Alternates: ;

* Fish fillets, frozen separately (Fish fillets cook up faster than fish fingers, and have no fat or

saltadded) © - © Pork loins; frozen separately (far lower in fat than pork chops)

* Lean hamburger, made into 75-100 g patties and frozen sepa- rately. :

° Regular hamburger, cooked and drained, frozen ina. freezer

bag and tossed while freezing to

prevent clumps. -

* Chicken breast halves, ‘frozen ,

separately (boneless cook up in minutes. They: are more ex- pensive. but with 10 waste: the cost is made-up.) :

.* Homemade or delicmade hom- a ae

mous (garbanzo bean and ‘garlic spiéad) to keep in the fridge. ~ © Tinned baked beans fe > SOEINS Su De mo ' Breads and Cereals: . “© Brown. tice, cooked ina big batch. and frozen in ore-cup por-

tions, or stored i ina cold fridge up.

to one week. (outrageously. more . nutrilious than minute Tice!) °

© Pasta (try. . Catelli’s . whole. |

grain spaghetti and macaroni)

-* Brown atid serve whole’ grain

buns, frozen.

* Couscous: sa Mice grin to ty. It cooks: in minutes just by -

pouring boiling water over it, - Fruits. and Vegetables:

© Frozen plain vegelables, Limit

the ones in sauce or butter,

“© Buy fresh’ veggies and wash and trim -them, ready-to-cook, as: Soon aS you get the groceries home.’ : Store them. in air-tight containers. :

* Chop’ up carrot sticks for the

week and. ‘eep, then ing a 1 bowl of water. | aan ot 4 . cs : * Salsa,

‘Milk dnd will products: _* Grate-a big block of ctieese, and freeze ina freezer bag. -

* Parmesan n cheese

Here are some ways to make a) these ingredients ‘into supertast,

super fuutritiows meals:

The Basic. 7 Cook a pork chip, fish . fillet, chicken. breast, pork “loin, - or - burger “ina ‘non-stick: - pan. Lowry’ 8 salt-ftee: meat Seasoning or any: hot satice‘adds: zing, :Place

a portion. each of frozen: ‘vegeta. |

bles ‘and frozen ‘cooked ~ ‘brown:

tice on serving plates and zap in | the microwave... Sprinkle the veg-; gies-with Molly McButter.. Place - : Wash it: down *.,

meat on plate; with a glass of low-fat milk.

(Variation: substitute couscous forthe ice)» Ota

~The Heaitth Cheat

Take: any, lower-fat frozen din- ner,:.and:-heat’ ii according to directions; In the last few minutes of heating, add a serving of green or oratige. frozen vegetable to your plate, “Servo with a whole grain roll, and a ‘glass of milk if the. dinner dovsn’t: inchide cheese. This makes’ the. dinner more ap- propriate I calories and nutrient

Faux. Kraft Dinner. while. “you, aro cooking: some

whole: rheat ‘macaroni, get:your

prewashed broccoli. out of the

iridge and chop it into ‘pieces.’ Ta

the last two minutes add the broc- coli lo the pot. Drain. Add back to pot. Stir in a small spoonful of Margarine or butier, a heaping heiping of milk, some parmesan and frozen grated cheese.

Spud Special

Zap a big potato in the. micro- wave for five minutes while you heat your toaster oven to 425 de- grees F, then put the potato in the oven, Read the paper for 20-30 minutes.. (No microwave? Allow 50 minutes to cook.) Slice the polato lengthwise and top with a large spoon of frozen cooked hamburger, ‘Salsa, and frozen

Nutrition Notes by Gerry Kasten

grated cheese. Microwave for an- other minute,

Speedy Vegetarian Heat a frozen brown and serve whole wheat bun in the toaster

_ oven at 375 degrees for five

minutes. Grab some carrot sticks, a glass of milk or slice of cheese, and heap some hommous on a plate. Spread hommous on

opened bun. (Variation: heat a.

tin of baked beans instead of hommious).

Gerry Kasten is a nutritionist with the Skeena Health Unit.

It's time for stories:

Preschool storytime is back at the Terrace Public Library!

Starting this week three- to five-year-olds can drop in at 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoons and 10:30 a.m. Friday mornings. —

The 45-minute sessions feature picture books, puppeis, fingerplays

and lots of fun.

There’s no charge, but please register in advance by calling 638-

8177.

And ‘Tales for Twos’? will be held Thursday mornings at-L0:30 a.m. This is a half hour version of preschool oy time for two year olds,

Children must be accompanied bya an adult,

DIAMOND HAS POLISH

Charlotte Diamond's tour of the northwest this week will highlight the celebrated children’s en- tertainer’s sixth recording — My Bear Gruff.

Ten years ago she was a Vancouver junior high school teacher who had started writing songs for her own children.

Her performances for her children’s parent- participation preschool mushroomed into re- quests for workshops, school concerts and family

| shows around Vancouver.

In 1986 she used her teacher’s pension fund to

go ahead with her independent production and release of her debut album 20 Carrot Diamond. The recording won a Juno Award and eventual- ly went gold while Diamond's music career quickly turned professional.

She now has six albums out, a string of awards and will tour throughout Canada and the U.S. this year.

Her now teenage sons help her with the writing of some songs —- such as “Slimy the Slug’’ and “Dicky Dinosaur’’, a prehistoric rap song,

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