[lisa_tos]

According to my nutritionist, a healthy diet is approximately (by volume) one half fresh fruits and vegetables, one quarter complex carbohydrates, and one quarter lean protein. The recipes that follow are low fat, low carb (or complex carb) dishes that are high in protein and vegetables that can be cooked with no or little chopping or mixing. The dishes that are more than one serving are one pot dishes that you can just dump everything into the pot to cook without moving anything heavy.

Also check out “The PDQ (pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook” by Donna Klein for many healthy recipes that can be made with frozen and canned beans and vegetables and other packaged foods. Also look for cookbooks that specify all recipes can be made with only a few ingredients (like 5 or so) and kid cookbooks. They often have recipes folks with RSI's can cook.

Try to fit in one tablespoon of flaxseed oil per day. According to my doctor, if you are deficient in the omega-3 fatty acids that flaxseed oil has, you can develop depression (and chronic pain is depressing enough without having nutritional imbalances exasperating the situation). Keep the flaxseed oil refrigerated and only put it on cold or room temperature food as heat destroys the benefits of this oil. Look for ligand free oil.

Useful tools to cook with a repetitive strain injury


- lightweight 2 quart slow cooker with a removable liner. Old slow cookers are often too heavy for repetitive strain injury folks to lift, but newer ones are much lighter. Look for really cheap one and it's likely to be lighter
- food processor - these are invaluable. They often show up at garage sales if you can't afford a new one. Look for one with a really wide feed tube so you don't have to cut up vegetables in order to put them in a food processor. Check that you can operate the locking mechanism and buttons before you purchase it as some are really hard to operate and some are easy. The Cusinart mini prep mini food processor was easier to use than a regular size food processor when I was at my worst.
- sharp knives are much easier to cut with. You can get a rocker knife from an adaptive device catalog that is easier to use if you have a lot of problems cutting.
- bag opener – you can get them from adaptive devices catalogs and they make it easy to open plastic bags
- pasta pot with colander insert. This allows you pull out the colander insert with just the pasta to drain rather than trying to pour out a heavy pot of water.
- silicone hot pads/mitts – these grip well and insulate very well so you don’t burn your hands even if you can’t sense temperature well.
- “Jar Pop” – to open vacuum sealed jars without any force
- electric can opener

How to cook with vegetables when you can't cut them.

Vegetables are quite a challenge for folks with repetitive strain injuries. Here are some ideas:
- cut them after they are cooked rather than before as most recipes specify
- use a food processor.
- look for fresh vegetables that don't need cutting - baby carrots, small red or small fingerling potatoes, snap peas, sugar peas
- look for bags of pre-chopped pre-washed vegetables in the produce section. A number of these can even be microwaved in the plastic bag they come in. There's a really wide variety now - mixed root vegetables, butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, lettuce, spinach. Trader Joe's in particular has a lot of these.
- canned diced tomatoes (make sure it doesn’t have added sugar), canned baby corn, canned water chestnuts, and canned bamboo shoot are often useful additions for recipes
- the frozen food section in supermarkets often have pre-chopped onions and pre-chopped bell peppers which is good for many recipes. I also often use frozen corn, frozen petite peas, frozen stirfry vegetables (without sauce), or frozen artichoke hearts in recipes.
- Santa Cruz Organics has bottled lemon juice and lime juice without sulfates which is great for flavoring dishes without having to squeeze juice. The sulfates are what makes most packaged lemon juice taste funny (and also many people have a negative reaction to sulfates).

[lisa_tos]

BREAKFAST

Protein Shake
Mix 2 scoops of Met-Rx protein plus powder or Spiru-tein protein powder (the only ones I found that are low in carbs, very high in protein, and taste good), 1 T flaxseed oil and some fat free milk or soymilk. Use immersion blender to mix. If you use a blender or food processor, add some spinach, celery, and or cucumber to get some more vegetables into your diet. (These will not change the flavor of the shake if you don’t add huge quantities.) Frozen berries are also good in this.

High Protein, Low Carb Granola
Toast ½ c unsweetened coconut, ½ c pecans, and ½ c almonds. A toaster oven works great for this. Let cool. Add 1 c textured vegetable protein (from health food store) 1 t. cinnamon and ¼ c flaxseed. Keep in frig. Good with milk or in yogurt.

Baked Ricotta Cheese
This tastes best if you eat it within a few hours of baking. Put 1 lb. ricotta cheese into a pie pan and spread out to make a circle 6 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 min. Serve (cut into wedges) after it has cooled to room temperature. You can also add berries or nuts to the ricotta before baking if you like. With berries, it makes a great party or potluck dish.

Waffle with Yogurt, Fruit and Nuts.
Cook a couple multigrain frozen waffles in the toaster. Top with unsweetened nonfat yogurt, some applesauce or defrosted frozen berries, and some walnuts.

Scrambled Tofu
This can be frozen in small portions for an easy breakfast. Serve with whole grain toast. Sauté some pre-chopped onions, pre-chopped garlic, and pre-shredded carrots in a little oil. Add firm tofu, enough turmeric to make the tofu egg colored, and one package defrosted and drained chopped spinach.

[lisa_tos]

SNACKS

Trail mix - Making your own is much cheaper and reduces the sodium. Mix nuts you like with dried cranberries, dried apricots, and/or raisins. Add small amount m&m’s or chocolate chips. If you would like a lighter, lower fat trail mix, add in some puffed rice cereal and or chex cereal

Apple wedges (found in bags in produce section) with cheddar cheese slices.

Celery with peanut or almond butter. Warming the nut butter in the microwave will make it easier to spread.

Defrosted frozen berries with nonfat yogurt or low fat cottage cheese.

Whole grain bread spread with flaxseed oil. If you keep the oil in the freezer it’s easier to spread.

Pre-chopped raw veggies - the produce section of most supermarkets now have bags of these (If they don’t, they will often have baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, and/or snow peas which don’t need chopping.) If you store them in cold water, they will last longer.
Serve with hummus or make a healthy dip for them from nonfat yogurt or low fat cottage cheese (use a blender/food processor to smooth it out) and some seasonings. Dry salad dressing mix or seasoning blends from the spice section of your supermarket are easy ways to season the yogurt. Mixing half grated swiss or cheddar cheese (use food processor) with half cottage cheese is another way to make a healthy dip. “Laurel’s Kitchen” has lots of recipes for easy healthy dips/spreads.

[lisa_tos]

LUNCH and DINNER

Quinoa
This is a nutty grain that is very high in protein. Cook some quinoa like rice for 20 min. in water. Serve with salt free seasoning power and a few nuts.

Fish and Greens
Rinse off (without chopping) some winter greens, broccoli, or green beans. Steam in a pot with a steamer insert with fresh or frozen fish. Add the fish sooner if it’s frozen.

Garbanzo Bean Meal
Open a can of garbanzo beans, Rinse them and add one lemon’s worth of juice to them. Add flaxseed oil, salt, and pepper. Serve with baby carrots and hearty whole grain bread.

Deborah’s Tempeh Dish
Fry in a little oil one or two packages of pre-shredded cabbage, a package of sliced fresh apples, and some chopped up tempeh. Serve with rice.

Mary's Quick Vegetable Soup
Imagine makes a great line of flavorful creamy vegetable soups. They're sold in boxes like soymilk. Get a bag of pre-chopped fresh vegetables that can be microwaved in the bag and microwave it. Add a box of this soup in a flavor you like. Add spices if you like, these are generally very well seasoned so you don't have to. Add some nuts or canned beans for protein. Serve. A couple specific examples of the recipes follows this.

Quick Curried Squash Soup.
One box Imagine brand creamy butternut squash soup, one package fresh sliced mushrooms, some frozen pre-chopped onions, garlic and ginger and curry powder to taste. Just before serving add in one package pre-washed spinach and some sliced almonds.

Quick Black-eyed Pea Soup
One box imagine Brand creamy tomato soup, one 10 ounce package of frozen black-eyed peas, 2 ½ c water, 1 c chunky medium salsa, one package 10 ounce frozen chopped spinach.

Soba with Winter Greens Soup
Cook buckwheat soba noodles with some chopped kale or chard . Add tofu or tempeh if you need some more protein. When done add in some mild miso (like white miso or red barley miso) to the cooking broth and serve.

Tortellini Soup
This isn’t super healthy given the refined carbs and sodium, but it does have the advantage of being able to be prepared from prepared ingredients. Cook some frozen or dried tortellini in low sodium broth with some frozen pre-chopped greens - spinach, watercress, swiss chard, and/or kale.

Broccoli Ricotta Pasta
Either get some pre-chopped broccoli that you can steam in the bag and microwave it or defrost some frozen chopped broccoli. Mix with some cooked whole grain pasta, some ricotta cheese, and some garlic powder and heat to serving temperature.

Quick Bean and Corn Soup
Put in a pot one onion’s worth of pre-chopped frozen onions, two cubes of Organic Gourmet vegetable bouillon cubes, 1 - 14 oz. can stewed tomatoes, 2 - 15 oz. cans kidney beans, 1 ½ cups frozen corn kernels, 2 t chili powder, ½ t cumin, ¼ t pepper.

Farmer’s Market Kale
This recipe was given to me by a farmer that was so enthusiastic about it that he gave me a free bunch of Russian kale to try the recipe. Fry some crushed garlic from a jar (1-3 cloves worth) with some olive oil. Steam a bunch of kale. Mix the kale, the oil and garlic and some crumbled feta together and serve.

Sesame Seed Rice Meal
Cook some brown rice in a rice cooker. Sprinkle a bowl of cooked rice with a lot of sesame seeds (this makes a complete protein). Sprinkle on some nori and a little bit of bonito flakes, if you have them (available in asian and health food markets). If your rice cooker has a warm setting, you can just make this in the morning and eat it for all your meals.
If you would like to add some vegetables to this meal and have a food processor, check out “New Salads – Quick Healthy Recipes from Japan” by Shinko Shimizu. There are lots of recipes with just one or two vegetables and a few seasonings.

Brown Rice and Dahl Curry
Cook 1 c red lentils and 1-2 T of curry power in 2 cups water until the lentils are soft. If you are well enough, you can sauté 1 or 2 shallots and a chile in a little oil before you add the lentils and water to the pan but it’s not necessary. After the lentils are done, add one can coconut milk and heat until hot. Serve with brown rice.
Since most of the flavor is from the curry power, use a good one. Two that I like are Sun brand Madras curry power and Larich brand dark roasted curry powder. This recipe is also good if you substitute shrimp or a firm whitefish for the lentils.

[lisa_tos]

Simple Green Salad
Mix together pre-washed, pre-chopped romaine lettuce, pre-shredded carrots, white wine vinegar, olive oil or flaxseed oil, seeds (sesame, sunflower, and/or flax), crumbled blue cheese. Serve with hearty whole grain bread.

Harvest Salad
Sprinkle pre-chopped chicken over a bag of pre- washed salad greens (a mesclun mix is particularly good here), sprinkle with cranberries, walnuts and feta cheese and toss with dressing of your choice.

Tuna Salad
Mix a can of drained water packed chuck light tuna with some Nasoya (fake soy mayo), capers, dill weed, and a pinch of sage. If you are up for chopping a little celery, that’s nice in this but not necessary. Serve over pre-washed, pre-chopped lettuce. Serve with hearty whole grain bread. You can substitute canned salmon for the tuna if you like. Make sure it’s the kind without bones.

[lisa_tos]

Slow Cooker Stew
This is a nice one dish meal that keeps for a few days in the frig and freezes well. It’s the main dish I eat most in the winter.

Choose a protein source - either beans, lentils, or poultry/stew meat. If using dried beans put them in a pot with a lot of water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat off and let soak overnight. In the morning remove the water (remember you can use a cup to remove it a little at a time rather than trying to pick up the whole heavy pot). This will make the beans cook in a reasonable time in the slow cooker and also will prevent them from causing gas. If using meat or poultry, get them pre-chopped or chop them at the end of the cooking when they're very soft.

In the morning put in all the ingredients that have to cook for a long time, the protein source and your choice of the following ingredients: frozen chopped onions, canned chopped tomatoes in juice, baby potatoes, baby carrots, bag of pre-chopped root vegetables, bag of pre-chopped squash, bag of pre-chopped cauliflower. Add water to cover.

Add seasonings. I strongly recommend getting vegetable bouillon cubes made by the company Organic Gourmet. I found this made a big difference in the flavor.
Use at least two for one to 2 quarts of stew. If you want garlic or ginger, you can find jars in the ethnic food section that have them pre-chopped. A good rule of thumb for seasonings comes from Alice's restaurant cookbook: "Don't be intimidated by foreign cookery. Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French; sour cream makes it Russian: lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes a Chinese; garlic makes it good. Now you are an international cook"

Midway through the cooking add broccoli or green beans if you're using them. If you want to add rice, you need to use converted rice (sometimes labeled easy-cook rice or parboiled rice). Add it about an hour before you want the stew to finish. At the end of the cooking add in winter greens (they turn bitter if cooked to long) , frozen corn, frozen peas, or other frozen vegetables if you're using them.

I have given some examples of combinations you can try with this recipe below. Slow cooker cookbooks will have lots of other combinations you can try if you get bored with these. Two books I particularly like are “Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker” by Robin Robertson and “The Slow Cooker Recipe Book” by Catherine Atkinson.


Italian Bean Soup
Follow the above directions for slow cooker soup with the following ingredients:
1 ½ c dried navy or cannelloni beans, 2 T olive oil, one onion, one stalk celery, one carrot (slice all vegetables thinly in the food processor), 1 - 14oz can diced tomatoes, three or four cloves worth of pre-minced garlic, two cubes of Organic Gourmet vegetable bouillon cubes, 2 bay leaves, 2 t dried rosemary, 1 t dried sage, 1 T dried basil leaves.

Many Bean Soup
Follow the above directions for slow cooked stews with the following ingredients:
20 ounces mixed beans (supermarkets usually sell packages of mixed beans of this size), one onion, two carrots, two stalks celery all sliced in the food processor, ½ t garlic powder, 1 t chili powder, one lemon's worth of lemon juice, 1 – 15oz can of stewed tomatoes, one box Imagine brand creamy tomato soup, 2 Organic Gourmet vegetable bouillon cubes, and cooked sausage if you wish

Carl’s Lentil Soup
Follow the above directions for slow cooked stews with the following ingredients:
one half pound red lentils, handful converted rice, 4 carrots, one onion ( both thinly sliced with a food processor), canned diced tomatoes, fresh spinach, oregano, basil, Spike brand seasoning salt, pinch cumin seed (about 15 seeds) a little sage, pepper.

Lamb Stew
Follow the above directions for slow cooked stews with the following ingredients: one package lamb stew meat, one onion’s worth of frozen pre-chopped onions (if you're up for chopping two or three shallots instead that will give a better flavor), a package of peeled baby carrots, some small new potatoes or fingerling potatoes (not too many as they are high carb), some green beans, one bay leaf, three tablespoons dill weed, 2 Organic Gourmet vegetable bouillon cubes, 1 T olive oil, and water to cover.

Ginger Beef or Chicken
Follow the above directions for slow cooked stews with the following ingredients: either a package of chicken tenders or beef stew meat, lots of minced ginger from a jar, a little bit of crushed garlic from a jar, some low sodium soy sauce and vegetables. For vegetables you can use a fresh or frozen package of stir fry vegetables or some combination of the following: pre-chopped broccoli, pre-sliced mushrooms, baby carrots, snow peas, canned baby corn. Add some converted rice towards the end of the cooking. Serve with cashews if you used chicken or lots of sesame seeds if you used beef.

Tamarind Fish
Mix the following in a slow cooker: 3 T tamarind paste, 1 line’s worth of juice, 4 t chile powder, 1 t ground pepper, pinch cloves, 5 cloves worth of crushed garlic from a jar and some minced ginger from a jar. Add a pound firm fish and cook for a number of hours. Either serve with rice and Dahl curry (recipe given above) or towards the end of the cooking add enough water to cook rice and add some converted rice.

[lisa_tos]

Cold Main Salad
This is a complete meal by itself and keeps in the frig for several days (as long as you don’t add oil to it), so you can make some and then not have to cook at all for a couple days. The proportions are about ¼ cooked pasta (or cooked whole grains), ½ veggies, and ¼ protein rich foods. This is the main dish I cook in the summer.

For the veggies I look for pre-chopped ones at the store or use a food processors. Use some combination of raw green or red peppers, raw carrots, raw celery, frozen or canned artichoke hearts, capers, raw or blanched asparagus, raw or blanched green beans, small tomatoes (there are cherry and a couple other kinds you don’t have to chop), frozen petit peas, frozen corn, raw green or red onions, olives, a jar of roasted red peppers.

For protein, I usually use either black, red kidney, or garbanzo canned beans. Sometimes I put in feta cheese or blue cheese in the salad. I suppose you could use cooked cubed chicken or cooked shrimp as the protein source but I never have.

For dressing, I use rice vinegar (get the unseasoned kind) or wine vinegar and whatever seasoning seem to go with the rest of the dish. If you want, you can add a little olive oil or flaxseed oil and/or some nuts when you serve it (but don’t add in advance or it will not keep well).

If you look in health food oriented cookbooks (especially those with an international selection of recipes) for main dish or pasta salads, you can get lots of ideas of combinations to try in this recipe. Sometimes you have to decrease the carbs and increase the vegetables and/or protein from the amounts given in the recipes to make the dish healthy. Two books that I particularly like are “Pasta and Other Special Salads” by Ceil Dyer and Simply Healthful Pasta Salads by Andrea Chesman.

Sesame Ginger Orzo Pasta Salad
This is a little more complicated than most cold salads I make but I include it as it makes a great party or potluck dish. Everybody I know who tries it likes it. Cook 1 package orzo. Mix with 3 T sesame seed oil, ½ c rice vinegar, 1 T sherry vinegar, ½ t grated orange peel, 1 t soy sauce, 2 T green onions sliced in food processor, 1 t minced ginger from a jar, ½ t crushed garlic from a jar, ¼ t crushed red pepper flakes, 1 t black pepper, 1 T sugar, 2 T chopped cilantro, 3 c pre-shredded carrots, 2 c raisins.

[lisa_tos]

(If you have your neurotalk settings set up to show most recent posts first, read this in reverse order, it will make more sense.)

[gibbrn]

I seem to be eating like crap....need to revamp the menu.....after all DH or DF(fiance) is doing most of the cooking so we get a lot of bbq and not a lot of veg.

My doctor has said I need 11 oz protien a day which is difficult when you don't get up till 12 noon...oh I am also not allowed to set an alarm clock...if my body needs the sleep I;m supposed to sleep..anyhow...it's difficult when you are not able to cook for yourself with out causing too much pain...
I eat baby bell cheese and Costco has some prepackaged cheese as well tht is really good. White cheddar with spices....hope you can find it it's terrrific.
Granola bars and of course the shakes when I feel up to it!

thanks for the great thread!!!!

Love and hugs,
Victoria

[lisa_tos]

Costco also has some soft turkey teriyaki jerky that's good if you need more protein.

My nutritionist also suggested that to get more protein, add some whey protien powder to recipes. It's pretty bland, so you can add some without changing the taste and it's pretty cheap. She also recommend looking for granola/ protein bars that have more protien than carbs. I forget the ratio, but I think you want twice as much protien as carbs.

Also in anyone is interested in the cookbooks I recommened, you might try www.abebooks.com as they can be cheaper and easier to deal with than amazon.com.
Most of my books come from thift stores so I am guessing some of those cookbooks are out of print.