how did you go to 'crunchy'?

[lovebug]

I really want to start eating whole foods! But I don’t know where to start? I have never been good at meal planning or working from scratch… please help me!

[Alyantavid]

If you have alot of packaged or processed foods, I'd make a plan to use those up first. Then pick something you eat alot of and find a more wholesome recipe to make it yourself (granola bars were one of my first foods to try). It sort of evolved from there for me.

And then not buying anymore packaged foods. Find a source for meat (if you eat it), eggs, milk, etc.

[ursusarctos]

What Alyantavid said.
I started by buying more fruit for snacks, adding chopped veggies to whatever I was cooking (like spaghetti sauce, scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, etc.), made more soups. Don't worry about fixing up your whole diet at once, when you start making little changes it really adds up after a little while and it's not so overwhelming.
Also if you have the time for it trying new recipes is a good way to encourage yourself to cook from scratch. Especially vegetarian cookbooks can be good for incorporating more veggies into your diet, and the recipes are often easily modifiable to include meat if you want.

[JamieCatheryn]

When I want something I only knew how to make from a mix before, I google a recipe, usually allrecipes.com has the best answers, with ratings and comments and suggested changes too. And when recipes fail me (they all include a bad ingredient) I learn what works as substitutions (coconut oil in place of shortening, for one thing).

[Thalia the Muse]

I would get a good cookbook. Any good cookbook, really (it doesn't have to be a specialized book, especially to start) -- decent recipes are not going to rely on packaged foods. Then pick out a recipe that looks yummy and easily made, and try it!

Some of my favorites:

The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters
The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan
More or less anything by Mark Bittman -- love him, and most of his recipes are very easy and unintimidating
Bistro Cooking, Patricia Wells

Good cooking magazines include Eating Well and Fine Cooking. I LOVE Gourmet -- it's the only one I subscribe to -- but it doesn't exactly focus on easy recipes for beginners. It's certainly inspiring, though.

[lovebug]

Thank you!!! Keep it coming!

Really now my cupboards are empty!!! That is why I am trying to make the change. next spring I am going to start a garden to help on veggie costs!

Is there an easier way to get free range eggs and meat? This is a big deal for me but it is so darn expensive!!!! I don’t know if it is just Colorado, but man its costly!

I am looking to cut beef out a little more and move to buffalo meat does that cook up the same…?

[kriket]

Deer season in my neck of the woods starts soon, you could start there? Venison is plentiful! (and tasty)

a good seqway, is to replace your convenience foods with other 'convenience' foods. Make a huge batch and freeze for easy, pop in the oven dinner. Start buying whole wheat. Make a loaf of bread, of nothing else it feels like you're being crunchy!

[Alyantavid]

Originally Posted by lovebug

Thank you!!! Keep it coming!

Really now my cupboards are empty!!! That is why I am trying to make the change. next spring I am going to start a garden to help on veggie costs!

Is there an easier way to get free range eggs and meat? This is a big deal for me but it is so darn expensive!!!! I don’t know if it is just Colorado, but man its costly!

I am looking to cut beef out a little more and move to buffalo meat does that cook up the same…?

Check craigslist. I see lots of ads for pastured eggs on there for cheap. www.localharvest.com and www.eatwild.com have lots of sources, but I've always found those to be spendy, but it would be a start.

I've never cooked buffalo, but my dad raises his own so he eats it alot. He just uses it the same way he'd use beef.

[Drummer's Wife]

What helps me is to stay out of the center aisles of my grocery store. Not sure if others are set up this way, but mine has eggs, butter, cheese, milk, etc. on one end, meat in the very back, produce on the far other end... so, besides baking goods like flour and oil (which are only like 2 aisles away from fruits and veggies) I don't venture inward. That keeps me from being tempted to buy packaged stuff like crackers, chips, even cereal. I try to stay out of the frozen section, too, b/c I prefer fresh and want to avoid the 'meal' and 'entrees' that tempt me - especially when on sale.

This way I leave with a bunch of healthy, whole foods and I can plan meals around what I bought. I am not a gourmet cook by any means (I am still very much learning my way around the kitchen) so our meals are fairly simple at this point - but at least I know each ingredient and am sure my family is eating a nutritious, well rounded, high in veggies meal.

[snowbunny]

I've always loved food and loved to cook - so that was a real help. But reading Nourishing Traditions, Full Moon Feast and Real Food really helped me to make the transition into whole, traditional foods. Now, it's like second nature for me. There is such pleasure to be had in the subtle nuances of flavor and celebrating and appreciating those flavors, in season makes every meal I cook feel special. I really focused on making good, natural food - just back to basics approaches and cold-turkey on the processed junk. My husband and I cleaned our cabinets of any processed foods and delivered them to the food bank, then loaded up on natural, whole ingredients. First, we gave up breakfast cereals and started making porridge, granola and eggs a lot. We started including pasture- and grass-fed meat with supper. Then it all sort of fell together from there.

[lovebug]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

What helps me is to stay out of the center aisles of my grocery store. Not sure if others are set up this way, but mine has eggs, butter, cheese, milk, etc. on one end, meat in the very back, produce on the far other end... so, besides baking goods like flour and oil (which are only like 2 aisles away from fruits and veggies) I don't venture inward. That keeps me from being tempted to buy packaged stuff like crackers, chips, even cereal. I try to stay out of the frozen section, too, b/c I prefer fresh and want to avoid the 'meal' and 'entrees' that tempt me - especially when on sale.

This way I leave with a bunch of healthy, whole foods and I can plan meals around what I bought. I am not a gourmet cook by any means (I am still very much learning my way around the kitchen) so our meals are fairly simple at this point - but at least I know each ingredient and am sure my family is eating a nutritious, well rounded, high in veggies meal.

what great advice! i never thought of it that way... its so hard because i love cereal! its so sad because when DH is in Iraq i live off the stuff. and it is so bad for me!

Alyantavid: i am going to go look into that now... THANK YOU!!!

snowbunny: i want to live at your house you make it sound so fun! i bet if everyone looked at food that way it would help with weight issues. i know it would help me because i would look at it totally different!

[lovebug]

Originally Posted by kriket

Deer season in my neck of the woods starts soon, you could start there? Venison is plentiful! (and tasty)

a good seqway, is to replace your convenience foods with other 'convenience' foods. Make a huge batch and freeze for easy, pop in the oven dinner. Start buying whole wheat. Make a loaf of bread, of nothing else it feels like you're being crunchy!

i love deer! i wish i could hire some one to get one for me! it is SOOOO yummy!

this is all such great advice!!! how do you all meal plan? that i think is going to be the hardest part for me! i am not very good at it and never have what i need on hand. this is something i HAVE to get down before i have kids!!! and ideas? is there a list of stuff i should always have on hand? can meal 'planning' be made easy and fast? what do i do in a pinch or last minute?

[russsk]

Originally Posted by lovebug

i love deer! i wish i could hire some one to get one for me! it is SOOOO yummy!

this is all such great advice!!! how do you all meal plan? that i think is going to be the hardest part for me! i am not very good at it and never have what i need on hand. this is something i HAVE to get down before i have kids!!! and ideas? is there a list of stuff i should always have on hand? can meal 'planning' be made easy and fast? what do i do in a pinch or last minute?

I don't meal plan - I'm more of a seat of my pants kind of gal! I buy what's in season and work from that. For instance, last night I had some summer squash left over from last week and a hunk of yummy cheddar. So I threw it together with a potato and some herbs, and voila! squash gratin. I know I have some eggplant that needs to be eaten, so tonight I will probably do something with that. I always have nuts, brown rice, beans, lentils, whole wheat pasta and quinoa on hand. I buy pastured meat in bulk, so there's always plenty. Add in some fresh veggies and you can make pretty much anything. I also love yogurt and always have some homemade on hand, so I often find ways to incorporate that into dinner. One of my easy, go-to meals is a lentil stir-fry: sautee some veggies and potatoes, add lentils (that you just cooked or leftover from last time in the freezer). Top with nuts and something a little sweet (like chopped dates or figs).

I also find that if I try to think "non-traditionally" I can come up with something really good for dinner really quick. Sometimes just throwing a whole grain in a bowl, topping with whatever beans/nuts/veggies you have on hand and drizzling some kind of simple sauce or broth (yogurt, nut butter, miso, etc.) can be really yummy and satisfying.

Soup is also a really satisfying way to go. Very simple, and so easy to play with ingredients. Add quinoa and dinner's done.

[lovebug]

a little bump to get more ideas...

[lil_earthmomma]

If you love cereal do what I did for my dh (who LOVES cereal)!

I make granola with lots of yummy healthy seeds, nuts etc. It`s so much better and yummier than cereal, and tastes great with milk.

Check out www.breadtopia.com to learn how to make delicious gorgeous no knead bread. I went from never having baked bread to having people offer to buy it in under a week!

I pretty much just stopped buying processed food. That forced me to become more creative in the kitchen, and now I love love LOVE cooking and baking!

[lovebug]

i am going to check out that website when i get home!!!

do i need a bread maker?