Last night Jonathan watched a movie about how terrible chickens and cows are treated and all the hormones and such they feed them and how processed all the food we eat is and he now thinks he wants to eat really healthy and eat less meat. It is pretty bad when you think of how fake and processed pretty much every thing we eat is. But when I start to consider going more natural and healthy it feels incredibly overwhelming as it would dictate a pretty much complete life style change. And I'm also not sure how much credence I give to organic, natural claims. Are they really all they are cracked up to be? But I've decided we can make some changes, just take it baby steps. Now I am unwilling to become vegetarian, but I can go with the less meat thing. We can plant a garden and shop at local farmers markets in the summer. I also think it would be healthier to bake things myself, then I know exactly what is in them, no fake processed stuff (although how processed is sugar, should I use honey or something instead and while I can grind my own wheat will my kids really eat whole grain chocolate chip cookies.) I can do butter instead of margarine (should I use salted or unsalted for baking/cooking??) This of course means a lot more work for me, Jonathan is not the one who makes any of the food. I think he would need to buy me a kitchen aid/bosch mixer and a food processor to make things a little easier.
So, all you people out there who are the healthy type, please give me your ideas, hints, meatless recipes, places to shop, etc.
4 comments:
I just made homemade applesauce last week for the same reason...the stuff was SO stinkin good and worth the effort and it was nice to control how much sugar was in there (none) and it won't be recalled and there weren't any preservatives...ahhh. I'm like you...not going crazy but I certainly add much less meat into our meals and add more veggies to make up for it (it's cheaper that way, too!) and we love homemade beans and eat them all the time...so easy and good...let's have a cooking party! :) And I most certainly think he needs to get you a bosch :)
We've been making a lot of changes in our diet over the last few years, partly cause we're cheap, partly for the environment, and partly because my health gets seriously messed up if I don't eat a lot of fiber. You're right, it is overwhelming and you have to figure out what your priorities are. We aren't super uptight and I hesitate to label us as 'vegetarian', but we definitely eat better than we did a few years ago.
Organic farming is good for the environment, but I'm not sure it adds much health value to foods. Especially stuff like organic cereals or crackers--it's been processed enough to really not make a difference. When we lived in CA we signed up for an organic produce delivery service. The produce tasted great, but I think a lot of that was due to the fact that it was so fresh. We are going to start a garden this year, but I've been warned by people that it can take a few years to really get going. Ben's mom grows fabulous produce, but she's been practicing for years. She recommends that 'Square Foot Gardening' book.
A few things I've done or are working on:
We are 'mostly meatless'; for a while we almost never ate meat, but we've adding it back in and now we probably do about 2-3 times a week. It really depends. Some of that is because we're talking about different countries and they often eat meat. I do things like substitute beans for stuff (like we eat bean tacos and burritos, kidney beans in pasta salad, garbanzos in soup, etc), just cut out the meat (like spaghetti or lasagne without meat, or veggie stir fry), or eat eggs for protein. As long as you still eat dairy and eggs you really don't have to stress about getting enough protein and nutrients in your diet.
I have started to be more careful about processed foods in general. We're pretty inconsistent on that, depending on what we like. Ben and I like white bread and so we still buy it. But I always eat cracked wheat or oatmeal for breakfast (he and the kids eat cold cereal because he'd die if I took that away). But, I don't buy a lot of things like cake mix, hamburger helper, cream soup, instant pudding, fruit snacks, frozen meals, cookies or baked goods, pancake mix, etc. It really is cheaper to buy basic ingredients and make your own treats. I only cook with butter; I just buy the four-pack at Costco and keep it in the freezer.
Anyways, this is really long. I think for me it helps because I like to cook and I love food. Ben has also never been a real 'meat and potatoes' buy and he doesn't like a lot of junk food, so that helps too (but take away his breakfast cereal and he'd be very sad). For us our priorities are to try and not eat too much junk, limit our meat, and attempt to eat more fruits and veggies instead of other stuff. Sometimes we're good at it, sometimes not.
Oh, and some cookbooks that I really like are by a woman named Nava Atlas. She has one that I own called "The Vegetarian Family Cookbook" and another called "The Five-Ingredient Vegetarian Gourmet". They are really tasty recipes that don't use a lot of crazy ingredients, plus she puts in menu ideas and tips on meatless/healthy cooking.
And if you ever want to get together and do some canning, let me know.
Just be careful of what you buy that claims organic or natural or whatever. A product only has to have like 20%(that percentage maybe not be accurate but it's close to that) organic ingredients in it to be able to claim it's organic. So you could end up paying a bunch of money for something that's not really organic.
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