I’m afraid I’m a terrible cook.
To save me time because I have to work, my to go menu was to prepare a stew with ground meat, mostly chicken, and potatoes, ‘cause they’re cheap and fill you up fast. Add water and pepper, cook, done. I try to cook big batches to save time.
A friend gave me a leek, so I added it to my usual mix: now I feel I’m fuller for longer and don’t have to eat that much meat (I usually mix the same amount of meat and potatoes).
Have I been coking wrong the whole time?
What else can I add to my stews to feel full for longer, to not gain weight but to have enough energy to do my job?
Any downsides to eating less meat?
That stew does sound rather plain. I’d add stuff like leeks and also just more vegetables of your choosing. A mirepoix, spinach, kale, peas, whatever vegetables you like. I’d also add some stock cubes. I don’t think ground meat makes very good stock, so it would benefit from stock cubes/powder. It’s just cheaper to bulk things out with vegetables and carbs.
As for making you feel full for longer, generally fat makes you feel full for longer, so you could try getting ground meat with higher % fat (sticking to your ingredients) or just adding maybe some olive oil or butter to the stew. It is extra calories which I guess might make you gain weight, but calories are energy and excess energy becomes fat (stored energy), so your two stated goals of not gaining weight and having enough energy are at odds—not irreconcilable, but it’d be a balancing act.
Ginger and cinnamon, as well as garlic for some people, accelerate your metabolism. You feel like you have more energy, no matter what you eat. And you burn more energy just sitting down doing nothing (faster metabolism) but also because you get more active.
It’s kind of but not exactly like coffee, chocolate and chilli, but also these have an effect much much shorter. In my case, they last a couple hours, while ginger and garlic give me a boost of a couple days.