Retired and Cooking

 

In 2015, my wife and I retired...  I was 67 and she was 62...  we had calculated our monthly expenses and had enough money for that...  but, we needed to have a little extra for medical for the next 3 years until she was old enough for medicare...

One of the conditions of her retirement that I had to start doing my own cooking and cleaning up...  I wasn't worried about cleaning up but I was wondering if I had the ability to cook...

It is now 2022, 7 years later, and while I am not a professional chef, I have learned a thing or two in the kitchen, however, the dishes I really like to make are the ones that are typically the easiest to make...  GO FIGURE?

I have beans and lentils soaking in water and this is what I plan to do with them:

360 calories   for 1 cup of Pinto beans

110 calories    for 1/2 cup of lentils

20 calories     for one bell pepper

20 calories     for one yellow onion

30 calories     for celery stalks

10 calories      for a cup of chopped mushrooms

120 calories    for 10 cherry tomatoes

200 calories    for 1/3 cup of basmati rice

990 total calories

My first task will be to put the beans and lentils in an instapot and pressure cook them for 12 minutes.  While they are cooking, I will dice up the bell pepper, onion, celery, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms...  

Once the beans are done, I will pour in the other ingredients, along with a hefty amount of black pepper, and some basil and oregano and sweet dill spices.  This mixture I will cook on the soup setting so it will boil for 30-60 minutes.  It is really depend on when the pinto beans start making a thick soup.

In order to pressure cook the beans, I will have used 4-5 cups of water...  so, no more water is needed when I dump in the rice.  Once it starts boiling again on the setting, I will set it to slow cooking for 2-3 hours...  checking to see if I need to add any liquid.

This concoction should make about 3 servings with each serving being 330 calories...

I try to maintain a diet of 1,600 calories a day which gives me 400 calories for 3 meals and 400 calories for an afternoon snack.  If I go over 1,600 I try not to go over 2,000.

If I don't put rice or noodles into a mixture like this, then I chop up a turkey sausage into quarter size slices.

I have stopped eating red meat, focusing instead of fish, chicken, turkey, beans, and veges...  I may eat a juicy cheeseburger and/or a hotdog with chili and slaw once or twice a year but no more...  and, I may eat a fully loaded pizza (without anchovies)every 3 months or so...  but, other than those deviations, I stay with my regular diet.

I really like COD and SALMON and have gotten into the habit of cooking them in an airfryer for about 12-15 minutes right out of the freezer.

Cooking can be fun if you don't try to be too fancy with your imagination...  simply is easy to cook and tastes just as good.