#esp. the tomato sauce I've been eating so much of it bc it's just easy and doesn't take much work and time and it's tasty

[petite-elf]

okay so first one is tomato sauce that you can add to pasta, chickpeas or idk beans :) idk if it's super healthy but i don't think it's super unhealthy as well and I've been eating it a lot when i didn't have the energy to cook complicated meals so i hope it's not too difficult or complicated to prepare - i think that dicing onions is the part that needs the most work, other than that it's mostly stirring and waiting a bit. and it doesn't involve many pans and dishes, just one (or 2 if you're making pasta) so you don't have a lot of cleaning to do afterwards. :)

so,

Tomato sauce:

ingredients (idk the exact amounts so you kinda have to eyeball it according to how much you want to eat and what ingredients you're using):

- oil for frying

- onions (let's say 2, but i like to go nuts with onions bc i love onions)

- garlic powder (as much as you want, i use it instead of regular garlic bc imo it adds more flavor, doesn't go bad as quickly and you don't have to chop it and get dirty)

- italian herbs (as much as you want)

- salt

- tomato sauce (passata?)

- tomato paste (adds nice sweetness)

- optionally: if you're making the sauce for pasta, you can add canned corn, it gives it nice sweetness as well

- you can garnish it with sunflower seeds or some other kind of seeds or diced nuts if you want for it to be a bit healthier :)

Preparation:

1) dice the onions

2) pour some oil into a pan and throw in the onions

3) when the onions go a bit softer, add salt, herbs and garlic powder. stir for a moment, so that the spices let out some flavor (if you're doing the chickpeas version, add the chickpeas and stir for a bit. if you're using corn, add corn and stir for a bit)

4) add the tomato paste

5) stir for a bit, so that the flavours mix and add the tomato sauce

6) let the sauce boil, stirring from time to time, until it gets thicker (i recommend covering the pan at this point bc the sauce likes to splash out of the pan and it's annoying to clean up later)

7) voilà it's ready!! :D

you can make a bit more and just eat it for a few meals, thats what i do - it can definitely survive a day in the fridge!

the other one is fried rice (with eggs or without eggs)

Fried rice:

Ingredients:

- oil for frying (if you want to spice things up you can use sesame oil but it's not necessary at all)

- rice (i use white rice but i think you can use brown rice for a healthier meal)

- onions

- garlic powder

- salt & pepper & other spices

(you can experiment with spices, paprika is good, curry is good, even italian herbs are ok in my opinion)

- frozen vegetables (whatever you like, i don't recommend the ones with potatoes tho! :))

- optionally: a few eggs

- optionally: smoked tofu

Preparation:

1. Prepare your preferred rice and set it aside.

2. Dice the onion and set it aside or just leave it on the cutting board when you...

3. Prepare frozen vegetables (you're probably going to fry them in a pan until they get hot ig?)

4. Add the onions to the vegetables, fry them together, and when the onions get a bit soft, add garlic powder and other spices. Stir for a moment (if you're using tofu, add tofu now).

5. Add rice.

6. Stir and fry for a few moments.

7. If you're adding eggs, add them now and stir until they're set. You're done! :D

anyways sorry if the instructions/ingredients are not precise enough, i can try to come up with exact proportions if you need it! i also want to say that I'm Polish so all of the ingredients are quite cheap and available here so sorry if advance if they are hard to get where you live! (and pls excuse any mistakes I made, English is not my first language :)

I'm not a food expert so I'm not sure how healthy these meals are but they are probably healthier and cheaper than heavily processed ready to eat meals. :) I also like them bc you can buy ingredients in bulk and they don't go bad quickly so you can just keep them in your shelves/freezer without worrying about wasting food/grocery shopping etc. :)

Also: frozen vegetables are often simple to prepare and by adding eggs or beans etc. to them you can eat quite a healthy (and imo tasty) meal, so it's good for when you really have no energy to cook.

can anyone share their healthy depression meals? like things that are quick and simple to make? its been difficult to eat in a normal way and i dont want to eat super processed stuff for every meal thnx