Is there away to eat healthier without adding more fresh food?

[femalephish]

I am so sick of throwing away fresh veggies! My husband and I never eat on any sortof regular schedual and I'm worried about our (mostly his) diets. My DD is eating more of what we're eating now and I want her to start and stay healthy.

My DH works nights so we never eat dinner as a family. I hate it but there is nothing we can do about it right now. When he's not around, I generally eat things that I can grab easy and share with DD because she's pretty needy and I can't count on being able to cook, plus I'm tired and I just don't want to. So we eat a lot of oats, greek yogurt and hummus. My husband ends up just bringing reheatable meat to work. (Which he cooks) With what I like to call, "imitation mashed potato-like product.
We like fruits and veggies when we think of it/have time to cook/are eating together/ but our lives just aren't consistant enough to keep them around all the time. HELP!

[Chamomile Girl]

Steaming veggies is really easy if you have a rice cooker with a steamer insert. It makes it even faster if you buy veggies pre-cut.

Ditto with fruit that you can just grab and much without any prep.

[Thalia the Muse]

Frozen vegetables are perfectly healthy and nutritious -- I prefer fresh for taste and texture reasons, but there's no health reason not to eat frozen if the fresh are going to waste.

for your DD, dried fruit is tasty and nutritious -- it's also super-caloric, but for a toddler that's actually a plus. Dates, apricots, raisins, strips of mango ...

[fruitfulmomma]

nak... frozen veggies are a good choice, also if you are not anti-microwave you can cook potatoes in there in about 12 minutes. they also keep longer than other types of fresh veggies. cheese is also good.

[newcastlemama]

I would buy frozen vegs...especially the mixed stirfry ones that you can make quick. You could also keep hearty produce around like apples, winter squashes ect...When it is cooler you can make soups/stews and freeze portions for days you are tired or just eat it 2 days in a row. I heard a lot of people like Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals...maybe find some sort of quick and healthy cookbook.

I was thinking you could save a portion for your dh every night and then he could he that dinner the next day since you wanted him to eat healthy too.

[LaughingHyena]

Fro frozen veg I like to keep peas, sweetcorn and beans in stock. I find some of the other things like broccoli change texture too much for me when frozen.

Also root veg store well so we have those towards the end of the week.

I find it helpful to plan out the week and think about what veg we are likely to have with each meal. Of course with kids around things change and we don't always eat what was planned. When that happens it useful to know how to freeze things myself (in most cases I chop, dump in boiling water for a couple of minutes, drain and freeze on a tray. You can bag them up once they are frozen.) or think of dishes like soups when you don;t notice that the carrots were a bit past their best.

If I am wanting to hide vegetables in things like pasta sauces I've made a batch of puree and then frozen it in a mini muffin tray. I can pop them into a bag once frozen and just grab a couple as needed. I find this works well for the fruit purees I use to make muffins.

[ollyoxenfree]

Frozen vegetables are pretty nutritious. I use peas and corn and spinach (for spanokopita). I rarely buy anything else because I don't like the texture of frozen beans, carrots, broccoli etc., but that's personal. Some kids prefer frozen to fresh. Root vegetables last quite a while, but I think they require a little more work - peeling and dicing etc. - than things like broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and peppers that just need to be cut up. It only takes a couple of minutes to rinse a head of broccoli and cut it up, and another 5 minutes to steam the florets.

It sounds like meal planning and prep are bigger issues for you. Planning menus realistically (knowing that your schedule may change so plan simple, quick meals) and prepping a little ahead of time can make life much easier.

There's nothing wrong with serving raw veggies either. I'll often serve up a plate of cut up carrots and peppers and cucumber along with whatever protein portion of the meal I've cooked. It saves on cooking time, clean up of pots and pans etc., and it's nutritious. When the kids were younger, they liked to eat "Bugs Bunny carrots", so I didn't even have to cut the tops off!

[*bejeweled*]

We eat lots of frozen organic stir fry. It is and quick.

Are those frozen steamables healthy?

[Magelet]

with just plain frozen veggies, I think they're pretty healthy, I mean, they may lose some nutrients getting cooked and frozen, but mostly, you'd cook them anyways, and freezing doesn't kill a ton of nutrients. Fresh may be tastier, but I think frozen is a pretty good second bet if you don't have access to fresh, or it otherwise doesn't work for you.

Also, most other healthy, whole food besides veggies doesn't have to be fresh, a lot of it stores well. For instance, meat you can freeze (you can even freeze ground meat cooked, and add it to stuff), a lot of veggies you can freeze (potatoes not quite so much), beans you can freeze, etc. beans and grains you can also get dried, which is easy, they won't go bad until you cook them.

[tanyalynn]

The thing that saves us (when I do it ) from resorting to convenience foods is, when I know I've got a chunk of time, I make extra, either to be lunch all week or even better, to freeze half or 2/3 so I've got dinner on a night when I'm just tired out. So you can buy fresh, cook, freeze, and then just re-heat. I also like frozen veggies, the peppers and onions (they call it a fajita mix around here) is great sauteed, then add eggs for breakfast burritos (which are nice for dinner) or chicken. It's fast, which is what we need sometimes.

[Sol_y_Paz]

Proper prep helps some.
When I go to the grocery store I plan on coming home right after to prep everything. Prep the celery consists of cleaning it, washing it, cutting it, and storing it in a baggie. The lettuce prep consists of washing, lettuce spinner, then proper storage with paper towels, helps it really last. You can pre-cut onions at this time too, wash, chop, store. Also avocados mashed can be stored for days if you squeeze a lot of fresh lime juice in them. You get the idea. All of that might help you toss things together easier.
Also, when making dinner, make enough for lunch the next day. I love that as it is so easy, no more dishes from all the cooking. I am not big on freezing meals, but some people are and that works out awesome for them. The crock pot can also be your best friend for a busy schedule.
Fruit can be stored whole in the fridge and then cut up when needed to eat fresh or dipped in nut butters or organic yogurt.
Hope this helps some.

[Mosaic]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

Proper prep helps some.
When I go to the grocery store I plan on coming home right after to prep everything. Prep the celery consists of cleaning it, washing it, cutting it, and storing it in a baggie. The lettuce prep consists of washing, lettuce spinner, then proper storage with paper towels, helps it really last. You can pre-cut onions at this time too, wash, chop, store. Also avocados mashed can be stored for days if you squeeze a lot of fresh lime juice in them. You get the idea. All of that might help you toss things together easier.
Also, when making dinner, make enough for lunch the next day. I love that as it is so easy, no more dishes from all the cooking. I am not big on freezing meals, but some people are and that works out awesome for them. The crock pot can also be your best friend for a busy schedule.
Fruit can be stored whole in the fridge and then cut up when needed to eat fresh or dipped in nut butters or organic yogurt.
Hope this helps some.

I love all these tips, but I'll admit that prepped veggies (especially organic) don't seem to last as long for me. I don't know if it's a moisture thing or what, but washing/cutting celery, etc. drastically reduces fridge life for me.

I get tons of frozen veggies and throw them into things like omlettes, veggie rice, spaghetti sauce, etc. That way, the texture change isn't as noticeable.

I also find that in my microwave, you can bake a single potato in about 4 min.

When my DH was working nights, I ended up doing once-a-week-cooking. I'd shop Sat., cook on Sunday, and then DH would have healthy meals to bring to work and I wouldn't have to cook after work with a little one glued to my leg. Nothing ever sat in the fridge and went bad; plus I ended up eating healthier because I actually cooked real, balanced meals instead of grazed on what was in the fridge.

[mumkimum]

For us, yes we keep both frozen veggies & fruits around for easy meal additives and for snacking (dd likes both still frozen sometimes).
We almost always have frozen peas and corn. We often keep frozen mango, strawberry, or cherries around too. Frozen banana halves on popsicle sticks are a great treat too, so are frozen grapes.

It helped me immensely finding just one fresh veggie I could add to almost any meal (for myself at least) all the time - and I keep that around as much as possible (it's baby spinach - I eat it with eggs for breakfast, on sandwiches, as salads, or sautee for a side.) If you're having trouble fitting anything in - work on fitting in your favorite or the easiest to add in as much as possible.
For dd1 - it's carrots, I can almost always count on her to eat a whole carrot worth of carrotsticks a day if I leave them around.
Dh gets into apples, mostly, and eats 1-2 a day easily (especially in the fall).

[SilverFish]

if you can find a frozen veg that appeals to you, that helps a lot. personally, i really like cooking from fresh most days, but i always keep frozen peas and frozen brussel sprouts on hand for those days when i don't feel like or can't cook a proper meal. steamed brussel sprouts always seem to elevate pasta and tomato sauce to a real meal.

i would keep a supply of fresh veg and fruit around that are easy to eat. avacado, baby carrots, apples, banana, cucumber, grapes, are all toddler friendly and have nonexistent prep time.