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Meme from ornerie
"What do you do for pantry based quick meals that are waist friendly?"
These were developed for those nights when the baby is cranky and dinner needs to be done NOW. I make the brown rice up in advance and have a container of it in the fridge. I have a lot of stuff that's in the freezer, chicken breasts, frozen veggies, fish, meat, etc. I also tend to make enough for lunch the next day.  I need to eat a lot of protein both for the baby and just because I don't function well on a higher carb diet.

My quick waist friendly meals are:

Breakfasts/Lunches
- Sliced turkey lunch meat, apple and yogurt
- Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free hot breakfast cereal with dried fruit added at the same time as the cereal. Serve with sugar and soy milk and its 4 points that will last you till lunch.
-Leftovers

Dinners
-Chicken breast stir fried in 2T Italian dressing served with brown rice and veggies

- Beef cut into small cubes and stir fried with Thai sweet chili sauce and soy sauce, served with no-fat refried beans and corn tortillas or tortilla chips (The sauces make the beef taste very much like carne asada)

- Beef and broccoli stir fried with soy sauce, served over rice.

-Scallops sauted in a non-stick pan with a little butter, splash of lemon juice and two splashes of white wine, served over brown rice or potatoes. The non-stick pan is key with this recipe, cast iron doesn't work.

- Broiled pork chops with rice and Thai sweet chili sauce (or cranberry sauce), veggies

- Baked fish, potatoes, veggies

-Pasta florentine: Brown rice pasta with frozen spinach and romano cheese stirred in, topped with a chunky tomato sauce (leftovers are especially good the next day)

-Sauteed mushrooms and cold sliced roast beef.
- Frozen soup out of the freezer.

I have other recipes that are quick but don't fall into the "Easy to cook with a screaming baby distracting you"  or "Waist friendly"  catagory. Pancakes are a great, but are hard to flip while holding a baby in one arm, especially when said baby is trying to grab the spatula. :D

Brown rice risotto

This recipe is based off of the recipe for Riso in the cookbook Tasty: Get great food on the table everyday by Roy Finamore. I *love* this cookbook, and I'm ordering it from Amazon since its passed my "cookbook from the library" test of making three recipes out of it and at least one good enough to make twice.

Ingredients
1 cup short grain brown rice (I used Farmer's Select California brown rice, its the same size as the Aborio that I have in the cupboard)
2 Tablespoons Lemon juice (the original calls for juice and zest of one lemon, I used lemon juice since I had it and left out the lemon peel since that makes it a bit too lemony for my taste)
1 large egg
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 c freshly grated pecorino romano (the original calls for Parmesan)

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil and salt it liberally. Pour rice into the water while you stir it so it doesn't clump. Put lid back on pan and cook it until rice is soft but still a bit chewy. I cooked it for around 30 mins, and it probably needed more as the resulting rice is a bit chewy.
Meanwhile, combine the egg and lemon juice and beat it well with a fork. Grate cheese.

When the rice is done, save 1 cup of the cooking water, and drain the rice but not too throughly. Add the lemon and egg and stir. Add the butter and stir. (You can mix these two steps up and it still comes out fine!)
When the butter is melted, stir in the cheese. Add enough of the cooking water until the rice is a bit soupy. The original says not to make it too soupy, but the rice will continue to absorb moisture and if you don't make it a bit soupy the leftovers are too dry.

Serve right away, and its supposed to make 4 servings, but I find that it makes a good side dish for dinner and lunch the next day for one person.

The resulting risotto is a bit chewier than regular risotto, but the flavor is fantastic and its great comfort food for a day like today.