Mom Confessions
I need help! I really want to stop eating so many processed foods. We have been consuming WAY too much sodium and processed crap lately. I want to change it... but I don't even know where to begin! I have thought about making the change many times.... but I feel like the options are limited. I mean... if you take out all processed foods, what are you left with?!
I am a picky eater and so are my kids so that makes it a little harder. But DH will eat just about anything. lol. We do like chicken, turkey, lean beef and some fish... so meat is no problem. And we also love fresh fruits and most veggies. I already go whole grain as much as possible and we really try to avoid white bread. But where we get caught up is with the frozen foods, processed meats like sliced lunch meat, cheeses, soups, seasonings that are loaded with sodium, boxed mac n cheese and other "convenience foods." I don't cook anything from scratch. I really don't know how.
So... for the moms that "eat clean" .... how do you do it?! What do you eat? Give me some meal ideas and examples of what a typical day of meals / snacks looks like in YOUR house.
Replies
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You need cumin, paprika, and garlic.
Quoting Mom2five87:
How? I'm telling you... I am totally clueless about this stuff. lol
Quoting lovinglife0682:
Make your own taco and fajita seasonings.
Quoting Mom2five87:
But how do you make all that stuff without using processed ingredients? Like the BBQ and fajitas. Don't you use BBQ sauce and seasoning mix for the fajitas? And what about tacos? Do you use regular taco seasoning? How do you make Philly cheese steak wraps? That sounds good.
Quoting Anonymous:
Maybe my meal list will help you? If not, sorry for being boring lol
This week for dinners I'm making
Chicken fajitas with rice and beans
Burgers on the grill with a salad
BBQ pork chops with pasta salad and a veggie
Taco night
Crock pot buffalo chicken with raw broccoli and carrots and ranch to dip
Philly cheese steak wraps
For breakfast we do things like eggs and toast, PB toast, homemade muffins, oatmeal, and we always eat a fruit too. Sometimes I'll make a quiche for the week, usually with bacon and broccoli and cheese. I sometimes make a batch of breakfast burritos for the freezer too, we just have to microwave them.
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When cooking rice or veggies I don't add any butter or salt. My kids haven't complained yet. Also instead of avoiding deli meat I just use less. Now when I make a sandwich and see that 4 slices is 600 mg of sodium, I only use 2. I then fill the sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber instead of pickles. -
http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/46653/recipetaco-seasoning-i
Quoting Mom2five87:
How? I'm telling you... I am totally clueless about this stuff. lol
Quoting lovinglife0682:
Make your own taco and fajita seasonings.
Quoting Mom2five87:
But how do you make all that stuff without using processed ingredients? Like the BBQ and fajitas. Don't you use BBQ sauce and seasoning mix for the fajitas? And what about tacos? Do you use regular taco seasoning? How do you make Philly cheese steak wraps? That sounds good.
Quoting Anonymous:
Maybe my meal list will help you? If not, sorry for being boring lol
This week for dinners I'm making
Chicken fajitas with rice and beans
Burgers on the grill with a salad
BBQ pork chops with pasta salad and a veggie
Taco night
Crock pot buffalo chicken with raw broccoli and carrots and ranch to dip
Philly cheese steak wraps
For breakfast we do things like eggs and toast, PB toast, homemade muffins, oatmeal, and we always eat a fruit too. Sometimes I'll make a quiche for the week, usually with bacon and broccoli and cheese. I sometimes make a batch of breakfast burritos for the freezer too, we just have to microwave them.
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This is my same problem too! Every answer I keep getting is "look at a cook book" yeah anybody can follow instructions but my issue is I have no clue what to do when it come to storage and handling foods! What do I do with leftover raw meat? How long will it be good? How long can I freeze it? How do I thaw it? How long can it be left out? What does it look like when its bad? What temperature is it supposed to be? I'm really kinda stupid when it comes to this stuff :/ so here's a bump -
We don't eat a lot of processed food, but it's hard to completely avoid them. These are a few of our favorite meals.
Dijon chicken breast: Brown chicken in skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Add 1/4 cup no sodium chicken broth and 1-2 T dijon mustard. Simmer until Chicken is cooked through. Serve with Quinoa and broccoli.
Turkey burgers. Mix 1 lb of lean ground turkey, 2 T water, 1 T dijon mustard. Grill or broil
Beef Fajitas: Grill sirloin, slice, and squeeze lime over top. Sautee red onion and bell peppers. Serve with whole wheat or corn tortillas. (trader joe's corn tortillas are the best!)
Veggie rice bowls: Steam carrots, broccoli, asparagus; or grill squash and zuchinni. Serve over a bed of brown rice. Season with low sodium teriyaki sauce.
Grilled Squash and Zuchinni. Marinade in equal parts balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and honey. Grill on BBQ. Serve with quinoa or brown rice as a main dish, on a tortilla shell as a veggie fajita, or my favorite way is warm ona cool bed of lettuce (no dressing is needed!)
Minestrone soup: 1L no sodium chicken broth, 1 tomatoe cubed, carrots, onions, zucchini, cilantro. I just throw everything into a pot and boil. Once it boils I simmer for a few more minutes.
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I agree that you should start slowly and make small changes over time. Otherwise it's confusing. Maybe cook completely from scratch a couple of days a week and freeze some meals.
I would get a collection of spices. For chili or fajitas, you can use chili powder and cumin (you can find recipes online I think). If it calls for salt, just leave it out. To season soups, you can use premixed Italian seasoning or even fresh herbs. You can buy low sodium soup stock or use lemon juice and parsley to flavor rice. I'm not sure about cheese and whether there are low sodium versions. There is definitely low fat cheese but I don't know if it tastes good or not.
I am always trying to cut down on junk food. I cut way back on salt years ago and now processed foods sometimes taste too salty for me - which is very helpful because it keeps me from eating them all the time. I still use processed lunch meats because I'm afraid that "real meat" won't keep as well in my daughter's lunch. Maybe I need a better cooler for the lunch bag.
Good luck!
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Its true that cutting out ALL prepackaged food items is hard but using some packaged ingredients like bbq sauce, spices, frozen veg and cheese to make home made meals is nowhere near as bad as using deil meats and boxed meals. Also using sea salt is much better for you then using the ground up stuff in the blue tub. Brown sugar or molassas is better then white sugar, real butter is better then the veg oil kind. ect.
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Quoting Mom2five87:
For sides it just depends on what were eating! I like to make a pasta salad loaded with a bunch of veggies, the kids like it and it lasts a couple meals. We do things like baked potato, sweet potato wedges (I like to make them spicy), the kids love garlic bread, couscous, and occasionally rice.
I always have organic frozen veggies in the freezer, and I buy my fresh produce weekly depending on what looks fresh. -
When seasoning meat I try to avoid salt or seasoning salt. If I do use it, I get out my spoon and measure. If you change maybe one bad habit per week it will make the transition easier.
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Oh yeah, if you're trying to avoid salt watch out for homemade sauce recipes with soy sauce. Always buy the low sodium soy sauce because it is SUPER salty and if you make your own teriyaki or sesame sauce it can be overwhelming. That's what I find anyway.