This week’s report in healthy eating
By Linda
When last we left the thrilling subject of Food Habits: Project Revamp, I had some goals in mind for the week ahead. Here’s a progress report:
Meal planning. Yes! I did this! Last Thursday night I spent some time surfing recipes and planning out our meals for the weekend and this week. From there I made a grocery list, and even got anal enough to organize it into grocery departments, enter it into a to-do app, then sync it to my phone for easy access at the store. BOOYAH.
Shopping. Yes indeed! I hit up Whole Foods on Friday afternoon and got everything on my list, even the weird stuff I wasn’t sure how to identify (hello, quinoa, you freaky little fish-eyed chenopod, you).
Cooking. Yes yes yes! Over the weekend I made muffins, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, pizza dough, and a big pot of chicken soup.
We visited a butcher who sells only locally sourced, non-creepy meat products and bought some grassfed ground beef and a couple of “scavenger chickens”—chickens that run unconfined in a yard eating bugs and whatnot. We roasted one of the chickens and used it for a soup and it was quite good, more flavorful dark meat than the giant pillowy white breast cuts I normally get.
I bought a membership to Full Circle Farm, which provides us with a big box of produce every 2 weeks for $30. I can log into their website and customize my order, substituting things I don’t want for other foods, and I can even add local items like dairy and milk. We picked up our first order last night and it’s wonderful: pears, oranges, red lettuce, mushrooms, beets, squash, cucumber, spinach, mango, and sunchokes. Many items are grown at the farm itself, other foods are grown in the Pacific Northwest, and a few things are grown elsewhere (like the tropical fruits, obvs).
From a budgetary perspective I did spend a fair chunk of change at Whole Foods, maybe $150 total, but that was for a lot of ingredients I didn’t have on hand, not packaged snacks and whatnot. Which is to say, I don’t need to buy much this week for next week’s meals, just some replenishing of cereal and dairy items. I believe we spent about $30 at the butcher, which gave us enough for 2 week’s worth of meals (we don’t eat meat every day), and the produce will last nicely. I think overall if we stick to eating this way—cooking ahead, avoiding packaged foods—we’ll be spending quite a bit less than we were before.
I feel really good about spending time in the kitchen again, and shopping thoughtfully instead of just clicking heavily branded products on the Amazon grocery delivery website. It makes me happy to see my kids eating more food that I’ve actually cooked, instead of opening boxes and cans for them. And not to get too far down the rabbit hole, but I’m starting to truly believe that the vast majority of our industrialized food isn’t just full of bad practices, it’s full of things we should not be putting in our bodies. I’m glad we’re taking steps in a better direction.
Recipes and things:
Pizza. We made wheat dough, then cooked pizza with mozzarella cheese, homemade pizza sauce, and olives, and everyone loved it. Riley ate his pieces scraped mostly clean, but he’s kind of a weirdo that way.
Muffins. I start with this recipe, but use wheat flour, dump in some applesauce, halve the sugar, and add wheat germ. Kids love them.
Chicken soup. Super easy to make and keeps well: chicken broth (Whole Foods sells organic/freerange), cut up carrots and celery, thyme, salt and pepper, cooked chicken, wide egg noodles. Kids love it, as long as we pick out the vegetables for Riley.
Wraps: cooked quinoa, some melted cheese, grilled red peppers in a whole wheat tortilla; or cooked salmon, steamed spinach, salt, pepper, lemon in a whole wheat tortilla. Delicious! Kids are not fans, though.
Pancakes: whole wheat mix, wheat germ, some applesauce, agave syrup. I make this for the kids a few days a week in the mornings.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
This all looks delicious! And I’ve found we are going in a similar direction (but we aren’t quite as far down the path as you are). I couple of things I’ve found – since you are roasting your chickens, save the bones and make your own chicken stock (just stash the bones in the freezer after cooking and eating, until you are ready to make the stock) and then follow Danielle’s suggestions here:
http://www.foodmomiac.com/foodmomiac/2009/10/foodmomiacs-guide-to-chicken-stock.html
It’s a good way to use some of your CSA veggies, too. You will not BELEIVE how much better homemade stock is…it will blow your mind.
We do weekend pancakes at our house and there are all kinds of recipes on the web where you can make your own mix and store it in a tupperware until you use it. Ours aren’t as healthy as yours but I make up a big batch every 6 weeks or so. You can add your wheat germ or ground flax seed right to the mix and skip that step in the mornings.
Having this stuff on hand usually requires a bit of time and cash outlay at first, but the savings help later on (good organic chicken stock is pricey!)
January 14th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Hot damn, this makes me miss my CSA.
January 14th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Wow, way to go for your first week tackling healthy, local eating! We just got our first local, organic CSA box yesterday and it was all tastier than our usual supermarket fare. That’s awesome about the local butcher. If you still want tips, I have a few:
-make your own granola! If you find a recipe without a ton of oil, like David Lebovitz’s, give it a shot. It makes a ton and is so much cheaper than store bought.
-make double, or 1.5 times, a recipe and freeze part. We do a lot with meat sauce and bits of vegetable soups tucked away in the freezer.
-you can use up plain leftover cooked grains by adding them to oatmeal after it’s been cooked; brown rice, barley, bulgur, and quinoa all work well.
I also use http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php so I have an idea about the calorie content of a recipe.
Looking forward to the next update!
January 14th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Great suggestions! I’ve been wanting to try making our own granola, the brand we’ve been buying is very good but pretty expensive. Also, I forgot to mention something else we bought: a ton of new storage containers. We have an extra freezer that may get put to good use soon.
January 14th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I agree with kakaty on the chicken stock — I’m telling you these whole chickens are the way to go! I put mine in the crockpot with a cup or so of water and some onions, carrots, and celery, and after six or so hours, you’ve got a few days’ worth of cooked chicken for soups, salads, burritos, etc., and what’s left makes a delicious stock. I put mine in a container in the fridge and the next day, I scraped the fat off the top of the broth with a spoon. I used the stock and the dark meat to make chicken and dumplings.
I agree that when you eat this way, you spend more at the grocery, but I justify the expense by eating out a lot less (as in twice a month, maybe), which has its own rewards. This post is inspiring!
January 14th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I’ve been cooking mostly from scratch for my family for twenty-some years now, and for what it’s worth, my boys (23 &18) are some of the healthiest kids I know: no allergies, no asthma, they are thin and active, and nobody in this house has even had a cold in over two years. Sure, we have had some chips, Little Debbie’s, Kraft Mac’n'Cheeze and such over the years, but they will also choose to have two clementines after their bowl of oatmeal in the morning (even if the oatmeal has chocolate chips in it). I totally attribute our good health to the fact that we have eaten relatively very little processed food over all this time.
So see, if someone wants to pour their kid a bowl of processed cereal, that’s fine, but microwaving a bowl of oatmeal (not the packaged kind, but from the round box, and even if it has a few chocolate chips in it) only takes 2 minutes, tops. And it’s way better for them.
I also make my own yogurt, it’s so easy, no additives and can be made into smoothies and other things, or they eat it with fruit or granola for breakfast.
Ha, don’t mean to preach, but yeah. You’re on the right track here, and with a little planning, it’s totally doable.
January 14th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
I love this post. Thanks so much for sharing!
January 14th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I second the suggestion to make your own chicken stock. It just tastes SO much better than the stuff at the store. Also, keep the fat in the broth. Those little golden droplets in the broth are where all the immune-fighting properties of chicken soup reside.
Look at you! You’re one incredible woman. You set a goal and you fly toward that sucker like a missile. Unbelievable.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Here’s a recipe for granola I make every few months. Lasts FOREVER in the fridge.
http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/recipe-of-the-day-crunchy-granola/
January 14th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
My granola recipe in case you are interested. I LOVE it…. as does everyone else I share it with
http://altajilian.blogspot.com/2009/11/granola-finally.html
I buy most of my ingredients in bulk at our local health food store. In fact I have all the ingredients right now and need to find the time to make it!
January 14th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
My GOD, I appreciate this post. We uhhh, cooked dinner a couple times this week. Baby steps.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Has anyone every used Salba seeds in baking or cooking? They are the seeds from the Chia plant (yes, like a Chia Head) and I’ve been reading about all their super-star qualities. I’ve looked at Whole Foods with no luck but you can order on-line. Since they are said to be flavorless I’m thinking of adding them to smoothies, sauces and baking.
Here are some of the things I’ve read:
6 times more calcium than whole milk
3 times more iron than spinach
the potassium content of 1.5 large bananas,
15 times more magnesium than broccoli
as much vitamin C as 7 oranges
3 times the antioxidant capacity of blueberries
more protein than soy
Stableizes blood sugar levels by slowing digestion
Higher leveles of omega-3 fatty acids than flax seeds
I’m just having trouble finding it locally. Anyone ever use Salba?
January 15th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Hooray for cooking and real food!
I’ve been okay about cooking dinners, but am currently working on tackling our lunches. I’ve made a veggie-based, healthy lunch for myself (and a non-necessarily-veggie based, but still healthy lunch for my fiance) every day for the past two weeks.
Is it shameful to admit that we’ve saved almost $100 by doing this? Because, WOW, we were wasting a lot of money on eating out of the house. :/
January 15th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Ooh, kakaty, I’m interested to hear answers on that too. I bought a bag of chia seeds after reading about their magical properties in Born to Run and I’ve only tried them a few times. I don’t mind their taste (they don’t have much of one) but their texture is . . . a little hard to get used to. They become gel-like, sort of like bubble tea globs, and eating a big spoonful, even mixed with flavorful yogurt, isn’t entirely pleasant. I bet they’d be much better cooked into something, somehow.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Linda – I’ve gone down the Salba-Google rabbit hole and it looks like you can grind the seeds (store leftovers in freezer) and use it to replace 1/4 of the flour in any recipe. Also, the ground seeds are said to be good thickeners for things like chili, tomato sauce and smoothies (for smoothies use in place of other thickeners like yogurt and bananas). There’s also a lot about adding the whole seeds to things like meatloaf, stir-fry and rice/quinoa or sprinkling on salads and cereal. Also, mixing the seeds with spices as a dry-rub on meat.
I’m going to order some tonight and start experimenting.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Oh cool. Also, a CHIA UPDATE! I sprinkled some, unsoaked, on my granola/flax/almond cereal this morning, and they were great as is! Sort of like poppyseeds.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:02 am
1. On a lot of blogs I’ve seen people use the chia seeds in smoothies (mixed in the blender) and in oatmeal – I haven’t tried them, but guessing you don’t notice their gelatinous texture as musch in those formats.
2. I LOVE me some quinoa – I have some great recipes for using it, but I only cook for the husband and me so i don’t have a good sense for how to make it “kid-friendly” (EXAMPLE: One of them uses goat cheese, which I’m not sure most kids enjoy?)
3. I meant to comment on your first post about this to say I’m with you on the splenda in coffee thing. I can’t pull away and don’t really want to. If that’s the unhealthiest thing I put in my body, then I’m cool with that. I do the best I can everywhere else.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I love food and all things related to it (buying, cooking, eating) and was really affected by Food, Inc. so I do find this a thrilling subject.
January 16th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Hi Linda, Not sure you read comments but I wanted to tell you about my grocery list ap. I bought it for around $2.99, it’s called grocery IQ. You enter what you want (it has an immense list of things built in, so you only enter the first few letters and it finds it) , it will separate it by isle and location for you, you can input quantities, sale prices pounds etc. You can also separate it by store which I love. AND for geeks like me, they just added a new scanning feature, so if I’m running out of my favorite strawberry yogurt cheerios, I don’t have to enter or search anything, I just scan the UPC and BAMN it’s on my list.
Anyway, I thought I would share, it is so much easier then hand written or other ways. You can check off each item as you buy it, and then it moves to the bottom. When you are done, you hit check out and it will get rid of everything you bought leaving things you still need or couldn’t find. It has a favorites option, where I keep our milk and eggs etc. I also like it because it’s simple enough that even my husband can pick it up and add to the list.
Okay done geeking out here, but give it a try.
January 16th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I LOVE quinoa! Never use rice anymore. Also, my insanely picky 3yo who beyond hates rice gobbles it up. Meh, kids are weird.
You’re not the first person I’ve heard talk about Food Inc. After reading The Unhealthy Truth, I made changes (more home cooked meals and trying for no dyed foods – hard with cereal bar junkies). Going organic is kind of daunting though, for me anyway. There’s just… so much to think about.
January 17th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Glad to hear your week went well! I’ve had a couple days of backsliding into some bad habits, but probably only because I haven’t been tracking it. Tomorrow though, I think I’m gonna make some granola or granola bars and get back on that wagon!
I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel.
Love the updates and everyone’s input. I’ve never heard of those chia/salba seeds. I’ll have to check ‘em out.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Pancake tip: Make a lot on the weekend, freeze leftovers between wax paper and stuff into a tupperware. Reheat in the toaster and voila! Instant breakfast. Serve with real maple syrup, not fake stuff. Imitation is made with corn syrup and fenugreek. Ick.
January 20th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Love this post. We’re trying to do this too – cut WAY down on packaged/processed foods, and just eat REAL food. If we DO eat packaged foods, we try to just eat it from Trader Joe’s, and even though it’s not fresh it’s soooooo much better than the alternative. I can pronounce all the ingredients, for one thing! I’ve noticed in the last few weeks, since trying to cut down on chemicals, that I can really sense the aftertaste in a lot of processed food now. And I don’t like it. Give me real food any day!
January 20th, 2010 at 7:45 am
Saw Food Inc too and was greatly affected. We already eat mostly vegetarian and buy a lot of organic. Despite living in a sizeable metro area, we don’t have access to good CSAs and there is no Whole Foods. We have to rely on the organic sections of the local grocery stores. There are sizeable but our grocery bill has gone waaaay up since we started buying more organic. It sucks that so much of the good stuff is still pricey and hard to obtain for most people.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I applaud you for choosing this route. Eating from scratch food is so much healthier than prepackaged and it gets easier the more you do it. I was particularly interested in your mention of the cost. We do not do organic for the most part, b/c it’s too expensive. I buy organic eggs and milk, but that’s all my budget will allow. We eat mostly fresh (or frozen)veggies and I buy inexpensive cuts of meat (like the whole chicken instead of just a breast), but I haven’t found a way for eating organic to be cheaper, ever. I’d really be interested in hearing more about how you, and even some of your commenters, keep costs down.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Also, that’s great your CSA lets you pick and choose your veggies. We were members of a CSA two summers ago and it was kind of a bust. I loved trying new veggies and picking up a big box every week. It was a different story for the rest of my family. My kids eat a large number of veggies, but they won’t even try the scary looking ones. So, I ended up with lots of rotting vegetables — there’s only so much kale one woman can eat in a week. Being able to pick and choose would’ve been great.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:01 am
Linda you are so motivational and inspirational! I LOVE this post and hope that you will continue to post recipes and ideas, I’ve printed some out and plan to make them this coming week. Thank you! Also, you should try “Stevia”…it’s a sweetener made straight from the stevia plant. nothing artificial, but tastes just like Splenda and comes in a small packet, too!