Help!

[november]

So...I'm tired of eating junk. Piper is getting bigger and just starting a few solids and I'm very particular about the food she gets. While I sit there drinking a Pepsi and eating Act II popcorn. Such a double standard and not the health message I want to send my daughter, kwim? I want to quit eating so much processed crap. It literally makes me ill and upsets my stomach and yet I continue the vicious cycle.

My problem is...I don't even know where on Earth to start. I cook almost all of our meals so we're not eating a diet consisting only of frozen entrees or fast food, but it's still not sound, healthy, well rounded meals. Lots of "cream of.." soups, velveeta cheese, Kraft cheese for the grilled cheese sandwiches, store-purchased white bread, frozen pizza, pop tarts, Kraft mac 'n cheese, Doritos, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops...you get the picture. (I'm embarrassed to admit this but I need help so I'm sucking up my pride, lol!)

I have a tiny kitchen and not much room for *stuff* and various appliances. I know it's not going to be an overnight transition and it's going to take me a while to weed out all of this junk entirely. I just feel so overwhelmed even trying to figure out where on Earth to start!

I want to feed my daughter healthy meals and I don't want to continue this vicious cycle of crap food. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably never say no to Pepsi and Kraft Mac forever, but I don't want to be eating it on a weekly basis...you know? Also, we could never go vegetarian so that's not an option for us at all. And we don't eat fish/seafood.

Help me! Here are a few things we eat on a regular basis to give you an idea of the things we like: stroganoff (onion soup mix and cream of soup+ sour cream), spaghetti, hamburgers, gulash, salads, chicken strips, BLTs, crock pot rotisserie chicken, taco soup, enchiladas (store bought sauce..), baked ziti, tacos, pork loin, roast (cream of soups..).

See? I need help! Lots of it!

Here's the list of fruits/veggies we like: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce, corn, carrots, celery, apples, bananas, grapes, strawberries, oranges, grapefruit, and kiwi (I'm sure there's more, hard to think of them all). I only like FRESH veggies, never cooked. I'll tolerate *very small* amounts of onions in food, but I don't care for it very much. I'll admit I don't really even know if I like things like zucchini, eggplant, etc. because I've never tried them and I'm nervous to do so, haha! I'm kind of a picky eater.

So....now what? I don't like to spend hours in the kitchen every day cooking so the easier the better. Point me in the right direction!!

ALSO : We aren't currently taking any vitamins. Which would you suggest on a regular basis? It's so overwhelming to try and figure out which is most important and which we need more or less of.

[Magelet]

I would start in the supermarket. Seriously, you can find much better options without having to make a lot of cooking changes. Once you've made those, you can start making some of the easier cooking changes, and keep making forward progress from there.

Lots of "cream of.." soups, velveeta cheese, Kraft cheese for the grilled cheese sandwiches, store-purchased white bread, frozen pizza, pop tarts, Kraft mac 'n cheese, Doritos, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops...you get the picture.

So, instead of velveeta cheese, and kraft cheese, get some real cheese. Tillamook is a healthy, tasty cheese (I've only had their chedder, but I'm sure it would be a good substitute for the kraft. they even sell it in slices.) I'm not sure what velveeta is like, so I'm not sure what type of cheese would be a good substitute, but there are hundreds and hundreds of types of cheese, explore some real cheese. Can you get white bread without corn syrup and dough conditioners and stuff? whole wheat would be even better, but even eliminating that stuff, and getting a nice simple (few ingrediants, probably flour, water, yeast, salt, and maybe sugar, and maybe one or two other ingrediants that you recognize as real things, not giant scientific words) white bread would be better. I don't think there is anything healthy you can substitute for pop tarts... I think really just cutting them out would be the way to go. Regular corn chips (with few ingrediants) would be better than doritos, something like cherrios (even if you add sugar for now) would be better than frosted flakes or fruit loops. instead of kraft maybe annies? It's not super healthy, imo, but I'm sure it's better...

that's some changes just in purchasing, not even with cooking.

For cream of soups, there are two ways to go, you can make a quick "bechemel", by stirring some flour into fat (usually butter) (like say 2 tbs of each) and cooking it a bit, and then adding milk or cream, and some chicken/mushroom/etc stock, or mushrooms. for cream of mushroom soup, personally, I'd probably saute mushrooms, and add cream, maybe making a roux (flour cooked in butter) or maybe not. for cream of chicken soup, I'd add chicken, chicken stock (homemade or from the store), and cream, and maybe a roux. but I'm often lazy, and would rather just add cream. If you cook it a bit, it thickens up.

Even making a roux though only takes a couple minutes. I know it's a lot of fat, but take a look at the ingrediants on "cream of" soup. It's kind of scary. It's all to imitate a rich taste that butter and milk and cream give you, they are the real food original.

stroganoff (onion soup mix and cream of soup+ sour cream), spaghetti, hamburgers, gulash, salads, chicken strips, BLTs, crock pot rotisserie chicken, taco soup, enchiladas (store bought sauce..), baked ziti, tacos, pork loin, roast (cream of soups..).

So, now that you know how easy it is to make a bechamel instead of cream of soup, try that on your recipes that use cream of soup. for stroganoff, personally, I'd find a recipe that doesn't use onion soup mix, then readapt it to my tastes, but you could try to adapt it to not use onion soup mix, I suppose... So, spagetti, you can make or buy a sauce without corn syrup, or any other ingrediants you can't pronounce. It's easy to make, but might be easier to start with buying it. Hamburgers aren't too bad, if you make the patties yourself and buy some decent buns. salads can be good, vinegrettes are really really easy to make, though I know that might be overwhelming. Chicken strips can be peices of chicken breast, dipped in egg then bread crumbs, and baked. not quite the same, but close, and healthier. chicken sounds good, taco soup sounds good, store bought sauce isn't the end of the world, but it's also easy to make, etc.

I've given you a ton of ideas of changes you *could* make. I do not recommend trying to make them all at once. I recomend trying them one at a time, getting used to each new change, before making another. Personally, I'd start buying some different healthier cheeses. why? Because it's easy to do, and you will feel good about making and sticking to a change to a healthier diet. Then when your totally used to buying the new cheeses, I would start buying healthier versions of the food you buy premade (or as ingrediants). Then when that's comfortable and easy I would learn to make bechamel instead of cream of soups. Then, I would start asking for help on other recipes you love/foods you love, to help make them healthier.

It will be hard while your still eating a lot of processed foods, because they contain a lot of sugar which your body will have gotten used to. If you can reduce the sugar (and all types of sugar, all the -ose's, including/particularly corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup) in your diet, healthy foods will taste better.

HTH

[BetsyS]

We eat a pretty standard diet. Not really out there healthy, not out there anything, really. And, I've gotten there by little steps.

And one of the biggest motivators? Our budget. Honestly. It's a LOT cheaper to make a white sauce than to buy a can of soup. A lot. So, I'd start there.

I still use some convenience products, but not that many, and I've slowly replaced them over the years. For instance, I like ranch. But, my dh doesn't. So, I was buying ranch, and half of it would go bad. I started thinking, "hey, I could make my own, and then I'd just make as much as I like, and it wouldn't go bad (saving money)." So, I started experimenting. Now, I make my own (from store-bought mayo and sour cream), and I like it way better than store bought. I still buy Good Seasons Italian for my dh, though. Baby steps.

I didn't like how much some condiments cost (cause my dh has no portion control). So, I started making my own barbecue sauce, marinades, other salad dressings (besides that Italian), etc. And, we like it better, so we're happier.

Spice blends are easy to make at home, too. For taco seasoning, you can just use spices you have already (cumin, chili powder, garlic, salt, pepper). For marinades, you can mix stuff up.

I have a basic cookbook, The Southern Living Ultimate Cookbook, that I swear by. It has a recipe for pudding in it, for chocolate pie, for stroganoff without cream of soup, for homey casseroles made with real stuff, for basic marinades. It's a great, homey cookbook that I love. The stuff you eat sounds like Southern Living. Maybe check out one of their magazines? Every recipe won't be whole foods, non-convenience, but over half are. The recipes turn out well, they are good, and I think you'll like them. The website is myrecipes.com (it also has recipes from Cooking LIght, which tend to be a bit more involved, but still good).

[ollyoxenfree]

Here's a pretty simple creamy pasta noodle dish:

Boil noodles until al dente.

In a saute pan, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 minced garlic clove, zest of 1 lemon, 1 tsp. dried oregano/basil/thyme (whatever).

Saute chopped broccoli, red/orange/yellow peppers, zucchini, carrot, mushroom, (whatever) - omit if you don't like cooked vegetables.

Reduce heat. Add 1 cup of mascarpone cheese. It will melt and become creamy and sauce-like.

Toss pasta in the pan.

Enjoy!

The mascarpone cheese isn't exactly a heart-healthy ingredient, but I'm sure it's better than canned soup. Condensed skim milk might be even better than the cheese, but the recipe would need a few more flavouring ingredients.

There are lots of similar ways to cook creamy dishes, if that's the texture you like, without opening a can of soup. I'd suggest going to the library and getting a cookbook or two that focus on healthy, simple meals. Then by-pass the processed convenience foods like canned soup and Velveeta in the supermarket, and focus on the fresh, simple food that offers flavour and nutrition.

Good luck making the changes!

[kavamamakava]

Wow! You've gotten some excellent suggestions. I was thinking that if you start cutting out the processed foods that have all that corn syrup and other sugars (and you'd be surprised where it's hiding) you might crave some more junk. Try eating fruit when you have that craving. Same with the Act II or Doritos. Try eating apples with cheese instead or having a bowl of fresh summer berries.
Do you like omelets? You can try a lot of veggies that way to see if you like them. Things like mushrooms and spinach and zucchini and broccoli can be chopped up small and cooked into it.
I do think a cookbook is a great idea because you can find out how to make your favorite dishes without too much fuss using more basic ingredients.

[mumkimum]

I'd start by making simple changes with foods/meals you do eat regularly to slowly include more 'real'/unprocessed foods.

Some ideas:

try munster cheese for your grilled cheese (it melts really creamy, so would probably be most similar to an american cheese slice)

try to find an alternative to the white bread that everyone likes - I often get the store bakery wheat bread, which is fresher and not quite as dense as other wheat breads, oatmeal breads are also tasty and not so different, or just try getting a bakery white bread with fewer preservatives/additives

check that you get a frozen pizza that's as additive-free as you can find (it's totally possible)

Kraft macaroni & cheese could get switched for annie's boxed mac & cheese

try tortilla chips and salsa sometimes instead of doritos

we don't really get breakfast cereals here so I'm not sure what I'd recommend (cause we just don't care for most of them) but I'd ditch having the junky ones around regularly - something more in the middle like honey nut cheerios might be a decent change?

A lot of your regular meals could also have a little tweaking to add in more veggies or something without really changing much. A lot of them aren't bad at all provided you're including a good amount of veg and getting decent other ingredients. (Add grated carrot or zucchini to spaghetti, use ww pasta, get tomato sauce without corn syrup or with minimal added sugars.)

Cookbook-wise, you might want to check out cookbooks geared for kids specifically - they're usually simple and fast recipes without a lot of ingredients, there'll be simple variations on traditional meals to make them a little more varied nutritionally. (We're mostly a vegetarian house, but I think of the book better than peanut butter and jelly which has a lot of easy-to-like recipes (that are veg) - something similar to that might be a good starting place and give you some ideas).

Vitamin-wise, we all take a multivitamin - usually every other day or so. We also do omega-3's - which I think of as particularly good for preg/nursing mamas and young kids. I think highly of taking probiotics regularly, and maybe we'll get there soon but don't currently take them.

[mamadelbosque]

I'll tell you how I learned to cook (and am still learning!! I think we all are, really, a few years ago. I thought of things I liked to eat out and looked up recipse online for them - my first two were chicken parmesan & general tsos' chicken. I learned to make my own spaghetti/maranara sauce via a lasagna recipe, but really, store bought maranar isn't that bad, and I still buy it from time to time.

We go through spouts where we're buying lots of crap and then periods where don't buy any... we're kinda in the middle right now - there are poptarts in my house along with doritos and potato chips right now for example - but I've also been cooking a lot the past few weeks.

Also, its really helpful to just keep track fo what you've been eating so you don't get in a rut. I just have a spread sheet on my computer with the days of the week and what I made for dinner that night, then color coded for type (beef, venison, chicken, pork, lamb, goat, vegetarian, seafood... pizza & takeout). Its amazingly helpful to just look and see what you've eaten over the past week/month/year and what you haven't made in months or weeks... or to realize, crap! we *just* had tacos, didn't we...

Good luck!!

[november]

Thanks for the ideas, ladies!

I am so proud of myself. We went grocery shopping this afternoon, spent about $50 LESS than we normally do, and came home with a cart full of healthy foods. No cream of soups, no sugary cereal, no pop, no pop tarts. I did cave and buy a box of Annie's "organic" cheddar bunnies....hey, it's better than the Cheez Its I was going to grab! LOL

Tons of produce (I want to make smoothies and freeze them for our breakfasts), I'm going to make real fruit roll ups in the dehydrator, pasta salad, and the bread, pasta, buns, and tortillas I bought were whole wheat (and potato bread--no high fructose corn syrup and I LOVE potato bread!). By dern, I WILL force myself to convert to whole wheat (and potato) because that's one simple thing I can do that's a LOT healthier. I finally bought a loaf pan so I'm going to try baking my own bread w/ a friend of mine's recipe, too!

Another friend of my mine said she loves to cook noodles, drizzle a little butter, salt, pepper and parm cheese (made with whole milk, not skim) and says it's really good so I'm going to try that. Might throw in a grilled chicken breast cut up to make it a little more filling, so hopefully that tastes good!

As for spaghetti/marinara sauce, I've always made my own so I guess it's not AS bad as I was making it seem. I want to learn how to make a few other types of pasta sauce--alfredo, etc. from scratch, too. Well, I don't technically make it totally from scratch...I buy the sauce and add the spices I want, I am far too lazy to make my own sauce, LOL.

I also scored a really great deal on some fresh green beans and butternut squash that I'm currently steaming and I'll use most of it for Piper's purees but will serve the green beans with supper!

[ollyoxenfree]

Yay! Sounds delicious. Remember you don't have to change everything at once. I bet you start feeling better soon.

[kavamamakava]

Ooh smoothies are always popular around here.

[Alyantavid]

Originally Posted by november

As for spaghetti/marinara sauce, I've always made my own so I guess it's not AS bad as I was making it seem. I want to learn how to make a few other types of pasta sauce--alfredo, etc. from scratch, too. Well, I don't technically make it totally from scratch...I buy the sauce and add the spices I want, I am far too lazy to make my own sauce, LOL.

Sounds like you're making some great choices. I do agree though, to make small changes, it'll be easier that way.

This pasta is great. You can modify it alot too. Like instead of cashews, that I didn't have at the time, I added nutritional yeast.

Works great for my dairy free kids and even my meat loving dh loved it.

[november]

Oh yum! That pasta looks delicious! Bookmarking it now...going to have to try that for sure.

[ammiga]

Do you live anywhere near a Trader Joe's? I've found that shopping there makes buying some convenience foods much healthier, because none of their products have HFCS, artificial colors or preservatives, or other things you want to avoid. It's a great place to start taking baby steps!

One change that we made in our house that everyone is very happy with is we completely cut out white flour noodles and switched to brown rice noodles. Trader Joe's sells some inexpensive organic ones that taste great and cook up really nicely! It takes a while to get used to cooking them instead of the white flour noodles, but once we got the hang of it, they are great. We need to really closely watch their cooking time and stir them quite frequently. I think the spaghetti and spiral shaped ones are more forgiving than the penne. These go great with almost any sauce!

Here's my easy Mac and Cheese recipe that makes enough for plenty of leftovers:

1 lb of noodles (I use fusilli brown rice from Trader Joe's)
4 cups shredded cheese, plus 1/2 cup
1/2-3/4 cup sour cream (depends on my mood or how accurate I'm being with the measuring cup)
4 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (I use whole milk)
salt and pepper to taste
I usually add 1-2 cups of peas
I also add some ground turkey meat if we have it (brown before adding)
1 handful of cornflake crumbs (if you like them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot, bring water to boil, cook noodles.

While pasta is cooking, in a separate medium bowl, using a whisk, combine the sour cream, butter, eggs, salt, pepper, and milk. When pasta is done cooking, drain, return to pot, then add to the mixture. I just leave the butter in small cubes, the hot noodles melt most/all of it, the rest will melt in the oven.

Add 4 cups of cheese while pasta is still hot. If you are adding the peas, add them after the cheese is stirred in and mostly melted (I use frozen ones, so they would cool the noodles to much to melt the cheese). It's ok if not everything melts completely, it will in the oven. Top with cornflake crumbs and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.



Other ideas to change up some of your foods:
Popcorn- get fresh kernels and use safflower oil to cook it on the stove top. Salt to taste. It's so easy and takes the same amount of time/effort as microwave, with none of the chemicals.

Chicken strips- cut chicken into strips, marinate in a bit of buttermilk and salt (and hot sauce, if you like it), toss in a mix of flour and your favorite seasonings, brush with melted butter, bake in the oven. Serve with oven baked fries and a veggie.

Grilled cheese- a good whole wheat or multigrain with any real cheese! Delicious!

Enchiladas- use whole wheat tortillas. With all those ingredients, you won't even know the difference. My family loves this recipe (try it, but don't tell your carnivore husband what's in it until he eats it). If he likes teriyaki, he'll probably like it. Here is an easy recipe for enchilada sauce that freezes really well.

This got very long! Hopefully it helps

[BetsyS]

Oh, I forgot to add. I've always liked cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, but one thing that really got me excited about 8-9 years ago was discovering *good* recipes for Mexican food beyond Old El Paso.

My dh loves Mexican food, and he wanted tacos once a week. Booooooring. So, I started figuring out how to please that want of his, in a way that I liked as well. I discovered Rick Bayless, and I started reading his cookbooks, trying new recipes on the weekends, experimenting here and there. And we LOVED it. Everything I made, we loved. Much better than Old El Paso, plus it was fresher and healthier (not the point, but it worked out that way).

That experimentation taught me a new way to look at Mexican food (but it could be whatever your favorite cuisine is). Now, I think nothing of adding vegetables and healthier ingredients to our favorite Mexican food. And, because the spices are familiar, it always tastes good. I can hide anything in an enchilada/gordita/taco/soup/etc.

So, now, even in a pinch, I can make a quick, healthy, easy meal of Mexican food faster than I used to make my old staples (yellow rice from a mix, canned green beans, and salisbury steak-- ). I still make salisbury steak sometimes, but I tend to go for the healthier (and easier) option more often.

It was a matter of changing what and HOW I was cooking.