It's a very common phenomenon to lose your appetite in the summer, and as many people believe, it's a good opportunity to "lose some weight." However, it's definitely wrong to skip dinner completely. Letting a mixed bean porridge be the star of your summer dinner is not only nutritious but also low in calories, highly filling, and genuinely effective for weight loss.
Try to get most of your day's nutrition from breakfast and lunch. Since your activity level is lower in the evening, your nutritional needs are less, so you can eat less and have simpler meals. This is especially true in the summer when your appetite is poor, so dinner should not be too lavish. For breakfast and lunch, try to have as many different kinds of food as possible—rice, noodles, meat, fish, eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits, and more—to ensure a comprehensive and rich intake of nutrients. Dinner should be simpler. Soak various beans like mung beans, red beans, black beans, and kidney beans in advance. Add them to rice, millet, black rice, or glutinous rice. You can also add coix seed, oats, or lilies. Combine these various ingredients and cook them in a rice cooker until they are soft, tender, and fragrant, and you'll have your staple food for dinner.
Mixed beans are rich in nutrients. For example, mung beans can clear heat and remove dampness; red beans can nourish blood and the heart; large red beans can strengthen the spleen and nourish blood; coix seed can strengthen the spleen and promote diuresis; and black beans can nourish the spleen and benefit the kidneys. Cooking these beans into a porridge not only replenishes fluids but also provides a large amount of antioxidant nutrients that are not easily obtained from a daily diet, such as flavonoids, tannins, and saponins, as well as alkaloids, phytosterols, coumarins, cardiac glycosides, and a large amount of dietary fiber.
There are also techniques to cooking porridge. Soak the various beans for an hour in advance. If you're too busy to soak them, you can put the beans and water in a pot, bring to a boil, and then add cold water every two or three minutes. After three to five times, the beans will easily bloom. After they bloom, add the rice, turn down the heat, and simmer for half an hour. This is when the porridge tastes best.
Salads made from vegetables are the most suitable side dishes for mixed bean porridge. The ingredients for the salad should also be "diverse"—use seven or eight different vegetables, with a small amount of each. Tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, purple cabbage, asparagus, and various mushrooms can all be used. Mix them together in a riot of reds and greens, add a little salt and olive oil, and it will not only be a pleasing sight to stimulate your appetite but also allow you to get comprehensive nutrition from different foods.
In the summer, you might eat less animal-based food, so you can appropriately eat some nuts like peanuts, walnuts, and large almonds to supplement essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins. These ingredients can also be added to the porridge to cook together.