PLEASE help me get started--books, websites, anything

[AntoninBeGonin]

I want to eat healthy. I really do. I know it's best for me, my husband, our kids, heck even our cats. But *insert whiny voice* I just can't get started. Right now, our food habits are so bad that some of you might need to avert your eyes before reading any further . I'm talking frozen pizza, hotdogs, those single serving cups of macaroni and cheese every night for the kids, no salad, no fruit, no vegetables. Totally embarrassing and what's worse, I have always gravitated towards being ecologically minded and natural. I hate using single-serving foods with huge amounts of waste, but that's where we are now.

So, please, just toss me some lifelines..er..ideas...for how I can get on the right track. Websites, personal advice or stories, or books. Thank you!

[Ambishop19]

I'm trying the same thing. My son is just about 6 months, and I don't want him to grow up eating the same way his dad and I do now. One book I'm reading that I like is The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by Dr. Sears.

[matthia]

I don't really have any book recommendations but as for practical recommendations, I have a few. I was raised pretty crunchy, and never had a problem with veggies and whatnot. One thing you HAVE to be prepared for is that is defninitely takes more time and effort to eat well. But I think you already know the benefits will hugely outweigh the pain. Being on my own, and with my husband, definitely makes it easier to eat crap when we're feeling tired. One of the things we do is take the crappy food and try to make it better.
Example: If you eat a lot of pizza, spend a couple of hours one day making some pizza sauce, adding some shredded carrots or even beets to it, and then freeze it in the fridge. When you want pizza, grab some pita pockets or even a premade crust, unthaw some sauce, toss on the toppings and there you go. With the pita pockets, you each get an individual pizza and kids LOVE anything they get to make themselves. If you get the sauce defrosting in the morning or the night before, it takes barely longer than a frozen pizza to put together but you have more control over what goes on it and it's a good place to get creative. Plus there's the hidden veggies in the sauce.

I guess my recommendation would be to get one of those cookbooks for picky children, to start. I know jerry seinfeld's wife did one and there's a few others that show you how to hide veggies in food. If you can still indulge in mac and cheese but know you're eating a bit better already by having an easy recipe you love (or something like that) it might inspire you to add more variety to your meals. Small steps in the right direction still count and if you try too much at once, it can make thing even harder when you backslide.

[Drummer's Wife]

Real Food by Nina Planck is a great place to start.

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

Real Food by Nina Planck is a great place to start.

ITA

Good blogs for Real Food recipes, etc.:

www.thenourishinggourmet.com
www.nourishedkitchen.com
www.kellythekitchenkop.com
www.cheeseslave.com
www.organicthrifty.com/
www.gnowfglins.com

[KatWrangler]

I have some other links to blogs, but I will have to get to them later. Gotta get my son on the bus.

Anyhow, I love http://foodgawker.com/ when I am searching for something new. It's definately food porn. However, I would do a search for say salads and see if you can find a blog that way. Cheeseslave is one I found this way.

I will be back....

eta -

http://www.thinspiredblog.com/thinspired-to-cook/
http://101cookbooks.com/

[AntoninBeGonin]

Thank you all so much! Those are great ways to start .

[KatWrangler]

http://simplyrecipes.com/

Love this one!

Love Pioneer Woman! She also has a new cookbook out.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

Great blog for crockpot cooking.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx

This is Rachael's blog. She is an MDC Mama. She also has a Yahoo group that I am on.

http://cookingformyfamily.blogspot.com/

http://simplehealthytasty.blogspot.com/

http://tammysrecipes.com/node

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/

Love Nick's blog!

http://www.macheesmo.com/

http://haleysuzanne.wordpress.com/

http://thespicedlife.blogspot.com/

http://www.delish-blog.com/

http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/

http://blog.healthyeats.com/

http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/

http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/

http://zestycook.com/

http://skinnyfoodbyamy.wordpress.com/

http://www.johnnaknowsgoodfood.com/

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/

http://framed-mylifeonepictureatatime.blogspot.com/

I have her cookbook and love it!

http://steamykitchen.com/

These are a few I have bookmarked or I get emailed updates for. I have more.

[napless]

The La Leche League cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole Family, is a good place to start!

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by napless

The La Leche League cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole Family, is a good place to start!

That's a great book

[soxthecatrules]

I want to let you all know that I appreciate this thread. I was really needing/wanting the types of foods I am seeing on the links.

[Violet2]

I don't know if my blog qualifies for you but feel free to check out Food Costs Too Much.

However, I really wanted to talk about how we manage veggies here as that's a hard one for us.

I just buy some organic romaine, red cabbage, and some shredded carrots. This will give me salad for 3 to 5 days depending on how long the lettuce keeps. I have to be disciplined about chopping it up and assembling it, but once it's done, it's simply a matter of grabbing a handful and putting it on the plate--so easy. Having a salad at the ready has been a huge improvement for us in veggie consumption.

Carrot sticks with some dip too (hummus or ranch) is good.

Also, our menu plan uses veggies as sides. We don't do potatoes or rice unless we absolutely need to. So steak is served with just steamed asparagus, which takes maybe 1 minute longer to prep and cook than an instant meal. We had bbq chicken with green beans on the side last night. That kind of stuff.

I would suggest that you start meal planning, but don't go cold turkey on your way of life just because the cooking logistics will overwhelm you. Ease into it with just 3 nights, for example, of home cooking.

It sounds like you need/like quick food so try to find fast home cooked meals. Replace current convenient foods with more nutritionally dense 'convenient' foods. And focus on slow cooker recipes that cook large batches without constant attention.

We do frozen burgers which are super easy. Serve with a side of salad.

Italian sausage rigatoni is super easy and quick as well. You can use veggie sausage or turkey sausage too.

Hummus with some pita chips, fruit and salad or carrot sticks is a quick, fresh and healthy meal that most people enjoy.

HTH

V

[Smokering]

Wholemeal pasta is less "empty" than regular. Wholemeal pasta topped with a decent jar of tomato sauce (get a nice flavour like "oven roasted vegetables") and real cheese isn't a terrible meal, and it's very easy - grate the cheese and heat the sauce while the pasta boils! For greens, chuck in some frozen peas a few minutes before the pasta is done. Come to think of it, frozen corn and carrots wouldn't go astray either.

Meals like that aren't the be-all and end-all of nutrition, but they give you protein and carbs and veggies... and they're not bright orange, nor they smell like burned plastic, which is a definite asset.

Other quick meals along those lines:

Wholegrain toast topped with an egg (fried or boiled). Serve simply steamed veggies on the side.

Stir fries are good and easy. If you want to avoid white rice, soak brown rice in chicken stock in the morning - it takes less time to cook and tastes SO good. I often do veggie stir fries, using a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil for flavour, and we don't miss the meat. (Meat's good too, it just adds to the cost and prep time.)

Cauliflower cheese is a good way to get veggies down kids. I put in carrots, peas and other veggies too, not just cauli - the cheese sauce makes it all seem more glamorous.

Microwaved potatoes are very quick - top with nutritional yeast, cheese, tomato/pizza/pasta sauce, sour cream, olive oil, spring onions, or whatever you want!

A free range egg, boiled ahead of time and eaten with salt as a snack, is no bad thing.

[peaceful_mama]

i loved this book I just inter-library loaned. There's a website too. www.feedingthekids.com

The book is Feeding the Kids it'll be on the site.

It's probably the best book I've seen to date for just what you described.

And it goes through a 6 week thing. You are not *supposed* to quit making your favorites. What it suggests is going to a simple plan of three meals and three snacks. Week by week you add in a food/group.
Week one is fruit, "because most kids like it". Your challenge is to serve fruit 3 times a day. That's it. They don't even have to always eat it, they actually recommend *against* "bunny bites" and the like. Sometime in the course of a breakfast, lunch, after school snack, if they take a morning snack to school or eat one, dinner, and a bedtime snack, you put fruit out there 3 times.

So on and so forth, through veggies (week 2), dairy options (they recommend switching to low-fat/skim which I don't really agree with maybe that's not even a week for you), and switching to whole grain breads, crackers, pasta, and the like.

Not till the *last* week do they suggest "Eliminating Empties" The basic concept is that by cooking and serving all this "healthy" stuff, they'll try it and end up liking some of it and your "junk" will be edged out by all the healthy new stuff.

And there's a recipe section, and all of it is very easy, quick-prep stuff.

Some people may not think it's a great nutrition book or anything, I found it extremely useful, especially each section's instruction on how to read a label and tell if a food is a truly good choice or not--in about three seconds! (It'll help you avoid a lot of hidden sugar foods which was an eye-opener for me)

Good luck!

[star792]

I just wanted to say, to start slow. Don't get to overwhelmed with all the information. Maybe pick one area that is the most important, like veggies at dinner, and start there. Then, work on meal planning. Then, work on making things from scratch to get rid of convenience foods. If you do it all at once, you will exhaust yourself.
You are doing to best you can, and being conscious of the problem is a good way to start.
Go to the library and get some cookbooks and see what you like and recipezaar and allrecipes are awesome.

[maguvet]

your cats

a quick message from a veterinarian mom: please do not be tempted to make your cats vegetarians! unlike humans, cats are true carnivores. the healthiest thing you could do for them is to find a cat food that uses human-grade meats, so they are not eating food 'not fit for human consumption' (ie anibiotic injections sites, tumors, meat from diseased animals).

if that is too expensive, consider a food that does not contain by-products, ideally lists whole meats before meat meals, and does not have lots of artificial colors & fillers. finally, skip the commercial cat treats. instead, consider fresh foods for treats for your cats: boiled chicken breast, a piece of steamed fish, cooked egg, a small spoonful of yogurt. as long as your cat eats 80% cat food, you can supplement with fresh food treats without worrying about nutritional imbalance.

just be sure to start slow, and transition gradually with any food changes (over about 2 weeks) - to avoid diarrhea & vomiting. cats are creatures of habit, and often don't like change, so offer new things alongside their old favorites, and be patient, sometimes they will reject something several times before giving it a try.