Aussie:

I know it's hard on you because your husband works and comes home late so he really has no desire to go and learn to cook and do stuff in the kitchen.,

Now let's talk about chinese takeout. The BEAUTY OF CHINESE TAKEOUT IS THAT YOU CAN ORDER IT "YOUR WAY".

When I dont' want to cook (and that's rarely) because we live on a fixed income, but let's say I was at Cornell all day long in NYC and I come home at 7.p.m, I might phone Alan from the Access-a-ride and tell him to go around the corner and pick up some chinese.

Want to know what he orders?

Steamed Chicken and veggies. You can tell them "no salt, just steam the chicken" and then you can say, "with baby corn, with carrots, with mushroom". You can say "no sauce". YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU ORDER IT. It's very hard to eat this way because most people are ordering Spare Ribs, and Chicken with Broccoli, which is made in a brown sauce THAT'S LOADED WITH SODIUM.

But Alan can't have any sodium so everything has to be steamed for him.
Now when I roast a chicken in my oven, I put everything on this chicken (BUT NO SALT) . I put garlic powder, I mince up some onions and sprinkle them. I use something called Cumin and sprinkle it. Then I put some extra virgin olive oil and put it in my clean hands and rub the whole chicken.

Then I take fresh parsley and mince it and sprinkel that over the whole chicken. Then I add some water into the tin foil pan. I have the oven pre-heated to 350 and I cook this big oven stuffer chicken (with a pop up timer thingee in it) and I cook it for 2 and one half hours. During this time, I baste it with the juice in the pan.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS COMES OUT!!!!! And there's no sodium. Imagine if you just sprinkle a little salt into it?? mm mm mm

So to sum it up, if you want to eat healthy chinese take-out, don't order spare ribs or anything like Mu Shu Pork (that will kill you, it has something like 70 grams of fat in the dish). Order the food steamed with fresh veggies and BROWN RICE. not white. You'll be good to go. Now it's one thing to get your OWN taste buds to like this way of eating.

It's a WHOLE OTHER THING TO GET YOUR HUSBAND TO LIKE TO EAT THIS WAY. Guys like spare ribs and pork and fried this and fried that.

I mean, IT TASTES GOOD but it's not good FOR YOU!!!

I had to learn this the hard way. I became a diabetic.

I'll pm you the muffin recipe.

Melody