Announcing Eat Like A Grown Up month

Okay, people. Being delirious with fever for a week tends to give you a fresh perspective on things and re-examine some of your assumptions. My primary conclusion coming out of last week's frankly awful fever is that eating shit like I do is going to kill me. Instapasta and a stir-in, sans vegetables of any kind, upwards of 3 nights a week, accompanied by large volumes of sweets and frequently skipped meals explains why I have been so ill and so often over the last 6-9 months. Prior to that period I was getting a weekly dose of vegetarianism from M, and it is only now that I've worked out that the transition in my health seems to go back to around then.

So! New flat, new attitude, I'm going to be cooking lots of nice and healthy things to eat, starting with a one-month blitz to get me into the habit of cooking every day.

The problem is that I don't have any time to go grocery shopping every time I want dinner -- in fact, if I manage to get down to the grocery once a fortnight, that's pretty good. So we will be getting our wonderful grocery delivery service to kick in on that one.

What's still missing is inspiration. Food is like French to me: I can read it, but I can't speak it. So if you give me a recipe I can look at it and translate it into food, but I can't just come up with an idea for food from nothing. So this is where you come in: suggest three meals that I can make myself for dinner. Not recipes: I can look them up on the Internet if need be. I just need the ideas for what to eat in the first place, so I know what to buy. Criteria are:

  • Healthy and nutritious: it doesn't have to be low fat, it just has to be reasonably balanced
  • Full meal: instructions like "serve with a salad" or "your choice of veg" make sense only to somebody who is used to eating like a grown-up. That's not me. Specify all parts of the meal.
  • Ingredients: Meat, fish or vegetarian are all okay; my only allergy is to pimento peppers.
  • Durability: ingredients should be able to sit in the fridge for a few days if I don't immediately get around to cooking them
  • Cooking and preparation time: must be under 90 minutes, preferably less than an hour. I work late, and I'm tired. Anything taking over 90 minutes I'll just never do.

You can post your meals in the comments, or to your own blog, or even mail me. An example of a good suggestion I've had so far:

Leafy green salad with olives and cherry tomatoes, with a small piece of grilled fish and some pasta.

More like the above, please. And remember: you're helping me not die!