We were in the path of Hurricane Ike. The storm hit hard and did a lot of damage. Many people had to evacuate their homes. Those who remained in their homes endured — and are still enduring — many difficulties.

The storm attacked in the middle of the night, leaving many homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. In the morning, our streets were littered with roof tiles, broken tree branches, broken fences and other debris. Millions of people remain without electricity or other services. The recovery and cleanup will be long and difficult.

My area was among the many hit by the power blackout. We couldn’t open the fridge or the freezer. Keeping them firmly shut was the only way that we could possibly prevent the food from spoiling. I do have a gas cooktop, although I had to use matches in place of the electric starter.

Normally a fancy meal like this would take a long time to prepare. With good preparation and planning, using various tips and tricks, you can make this entire feast in about an hour. And it’s amazingly delicious!

One tip is to use an Indian heat-and-serve packet to season the peas. Another is to use store-bought pickled peppers. To make it vegetarian, use crumbled tofu or chopped seitan in place of the ground beef.

The Menu

• Beef Curry with Apples
• Peas Paneer
• Brown Rice-Oat-Pilaf
• Pickled Pepper Rings (or other pickle)
• Mango Lassi
• Chai Masala

Sometimes I feel too tired to cook. Everything’s raw and/or frozen solid. Canned food doesn’t seem appealing. If only I had planned ahead!

Fortunately, I keep bags of salad greens handy in the fridge. Toss in some cheese, nuts, raisins, and a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and presto -- a light but tasty meal. Alternatively, I can make a sandwich of some kind.

If I’m really in a hurry and all else fails, a can of beans and some additional broth (if broth is not available, a reasonable substitute is bouillon and water), heats up into a nourishing soup, enough for two.

An even better solution, which is ideal for your weight loss meal plan, is to prepare your own diet meals ahead of time. Why pay big bucks to some mail-order diet-food company for the privilege of eating dehydrated, packaged foods just because they are convenient? A little pre-planning can give you all the benefits at a lower cost, with the bonus of tasting great!

Why?

First of all, when you eat out — depending on where you go — you don't have any over the ingredients, the calories, or the nutritional profile of what you eat.

Let's consider a sample meal: egg, cheese, and bacon on an English muffin or roll.

If you order this at a restaurant or at a fast-food place, you will probably get it on a white muffin, or on a white roll.

The bacon will most likely be the ordinary type, made of fatty pork and preserved with sodium nitrite. The cheese will usually be processed American. The egg will be standard battery-farm type. Oils are very often partially hydrogenated with trans-fats.

The whole thing will be overly fatty and high-glycemic, most likely with extra sugars snuck in here and there.

If you make this at home, you can use organic, free-range eggs, uncured, preservative-free, low-fat, or low-sodium bacon (or even turkey bacon), low-fat cheese, and a whole wheat muffin or bun.