[Closed] Help me to eat healthier

I've recently started having overnight oats, dead easy. 1 part oats to 2 parts milk (partner is vegan so have used soya/coconut/almond milk instead)

Leave in fridge overnight and on the morning just grab the bowl out, slice a banana or throw some blueberries in and away you go. Zero prep, minimal mess and healthy.

I dont really eat any fruit or veg

Start then. Especially veg.

You eat too much processed rubbish and not enough fruit and vegetables.

what 'healthy' stuff do you like and perhaps we can go from there. Well done for taking the first step

I dont really eat any fruit or veg

Eat fruit and veg.

Limit bread to one small rye loaf a week. Fill up on healthy snacks. Google healthy snacks.

Crudité and hummus is a goid gap-filler between meals.

Again. Eat fruit and veg. And unsalted nuts. Fish is good too. Cut down on spuds, have sweet potatoes baked instead. Whole grains too.

Google 'balanced diet'

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If you want to eat more greens you could try a fruit and veg box from somewhere like Abel and Cole. You get basics plus things you wouldn't ordinarily buy and they send you recipe cards and a book so you know how to prepare/cook new stuff.

Firstly, well done for trying to change and improve your diet.

It's not a website but "Nigel Slater's 30 minute cook" book is my go to for feeding the family week to week.

Loads of easy, simple things to do with veg and meat.

Have a read here for starters.

https://www.nutracheck.co.uk/Library/Healthy-Eating/how-to-get-a-healthy-balanced-diet_1.html

https://www.nutracheck.co.uk/Library/directory

BBC Good Food is a good resource for recipes.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/category/healthy

You should try and get in as many vegetables as you can each day in as many different colours as you can (generalisation but each colour provides different vitamins and benefits). 5 a day is not really enough TBH should be aiming for a bit more, at least 7. A portion of fresh fruit/vegetables is only 80 grams so it's not a lot to hit 7 portions a day.

If you make a concentrated effort to eat healthy for just two weeks, you will feel as good as you ever have. Honestly, giving up the crap and going healthy is like cheating or taking performance enhancing drugs, you will feel so much better.

It's not difficult. When making/serving a meal split your plate into two halfs then one of these halfs into half again so you end up with three seperate areas. Fill your half plate with a mix of vegetables, one of the quarters with protein rich food (chicken, fish, lean meat or eggs, vegetarian/vegan alternatives) and then the other quarter with healthy carbs like brown rice, pasta, sweet potato, potato etc. Eat two portions of fresh fruit a day as snacks and add a little bit of nuts/seeds are you are sorted.

Drink lots of water as well, it helps you feel fuller between meals and it makes you feel better as well.

Breakfast - Porridge with added fruit and/or nuts. Or, weetabix/shredded wheat with milk and banana.
Lunch - Wholegrain/seeded bread toast, baked beans, scrambled eggs and fresh baby spinach. Or, soup and sandwich using wholegrain/seeded bread.
Dinner - follow the healthy plate example.

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google LCHF.

Works for me, and for others.

YMMV, of course.

When you go shopping buy fresh fruit and veg instead of ready-made stuff. Then, when you get home, figure out what to do with it. Also, frozen stuff, such as garden peas and prawns are healthy things to have to fall back on.

I also buy butternut squash noodles, which go well in stir-frys.

Thats really helpful thanks and is nice and simple actually. Will take a look at those websites. I get what everyone is saying about eat healthy snacks but I don't snack at all, if I get hungry between meals I just wait and ignore it, I have breakfast, lunch and dinner and thats it and actually if I didn't have these tablets to take I'd rather just roll back to two meals. I have a fairly rocky relationship with food atm!

I don't particularly enjoy cooking or have the flare for it and I've always been a fussy eater (I blame my parents, if you don't want to eat it then you don't have to) so most of the recipes I'm reading immediately put me off for their level of complication and the complex ingredients.

Get an oven pan/tray - Wash/peel a couple of carrots and chop diagonaly into chunky slices. Take a courgette and wash it, slice off the ends and slice into rounds between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Peel and cube a large sweet potato into golf ball size. Add all these to the tray and top with a couple of chicken breasts sliced on the diagonal into two or three pieces each breast. Drizzle the lot with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with your herb of choice (I use frozen herbs ready chopped or use dried). Parsley or Thyme works well. Season with salt and pepper and stick in the oven at 190-200c for 30mins.

I could eat this every night - substitute the vegetable type for whatever takes your fancy - broccoli, cauliflower, squash, cherry tomatoes & peppers etc all work well.

I'll add to the shopping advice. Plan what you're going to eat for the week, right it down and only buy that stuff when you go to the shops. If it's not on the list it ain't going in the basket.

You'll think about what you're going to eat all week which will cause you to make better choices.
After a few weeks you'll have developed a menu of meals so things start to become automatic.
Your shopping will most likely become a lot cheaper.

This gives a good basic overview of general healthy eating principles.
https://www.cardiologistskitchen.com/top-tips/one-month-to-change-your-life-part-3/

Some suggestions:

A small glass of orange or grapefruit juice with breakfast.

Frozen blueberries are good with porridge (thaw overnight or in microwave), add maple syrup for sweetness (cheaper in bulk from [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kirkland-Maple-Syrup-Natural-1Litre/dp/B0185SRI7G/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1515967759&sr=1-1&keywords=maple+syrup+kirkland ]Amazon[/url]).

Similarly frozen cherries or good quality honey with greek yoghurt. Toast some almond flakes under the grill to improve it further.

Add apple juice to a bowl of muesli and leave overnight. Thaw and add some frozen berries to it in the morning, maybe with some creme fraiche or greek yoghurt as well.

Before your evening meal have a small glass of tomato juice (or add some lemon juice and Worcester sauce or Tabasco for a Virgin Mary), maybe with a few nuts or olives.

Dried fruit (apricots, prunes and figs) are often a convenient way of eating fruit - the soft/semi-dried organic versions are often nicer, and go well with a piece of cheese.

Finish your lunch and/or evening meal with some fruit (whatever's in season and is therefore likely to be at its best flavour and also good value, i.e. currently oranges.) Peeling an orange or cutting up an apple is a great way to finish a meal in a relaxed leisurely style.

Pasta is great for almost infinite options of different meals with vegetables (as well as fish and meat), and for relatively quick meals. For example pasta with broccoli, various different tomato based sauces (can be batch cooked and frozen in portions), pasta with peppers, mushrooms, courgettes, aubergines etc. etc. etc.

Given that you are both woking and are unlikely to want to spend any more time than necessary cooking in the evening, I would suggest Diana Henry's books [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/SIMPLE-effortless-food-big-flavours-ebook/dp/B01ELUSWJU/ref=la_B0034P3WBM_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515966332&sr=1-1 ]Simple[/url] and [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cook-Simple-Effortless-cooking-every-ebook/dp/B0099UY5BM/ref=la_B0034P3WBM_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515966332&sr=1-4#reader_B0099UY5BM ]Cook Simple[/url] (she has also written one about more healthy eating called A Change of Appetite, but I cannot comment on that one).

Go back to basics and look at Annabel Karmel recipes (aimed at kids). Less fussy ingredients and aimed at kids so simple and palatable flavours.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/5-ingredients-quick-easy-food-recipes/
Some of his "starter" books like this are aimed at people who don't like to cook or feel it's too complicated. Have a flick through next time you see it and see if you can find 5-10 things you would [s]cook[/s] eat, if you do buy the book, spend a little time on some recipe planning for a week and go shopping.
I also picked up this
https://feedzonecookbook.com/feed-zone-table/
Has a great section at the start explaining a lot about nutrition for life and exercise. Lots of good straight forward stuff in there - Idea being you need good food to ride hard and don't always have the time.

For other stuff simply equipping your kitchen a little bit with herbs and spices and a few other basics really helps. That and using the freezer to make bigger and have a couple of portions for later on/next week so you don't have to cook every day.

Recognising you have a problem is probably the most important thing - and let's be straight, the diet you've described is horendous. You must feel awful a lot of the time if that's what you eat regularly!!!

You are already getting some good suggestions so just a few things to think about.
Eat real, minimally processed food. So yes, veg, fruit, grains, pulses, nuts, etc. Make sure you get a balance of the food groups & plenty of protein.

Learn to cook, it's really not hard, is an important life skill & there is virtually unlimited information out there on how to eat well even if your time or resources are limited.

Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are satisfied.

Don't ban certain foods or make food the enemy. If you want to eat ice cream, it's ok, just be sensible & don't be eating it every day.

Avoid jumping on any diet bandwagons, obsessing over food is exhausting, unhealthy & no fun!

Food is energy & medicine, if you think of it that way it will be part of your route to wellness.

Good luck!

Are you able to eat soup, Golfchick? That's a good way to increase your intake of veg.

And have you tried sweet potato wedges or chips? Much healthier (and tastier) than ordinary potatoes.

Much healthier.... than ordinary potatoes.

Are they? I've read there's not much difference. Also, is soup as good a source of veg as non-liquidised veg?

Also, is soup as good a source of veg as non-liquidised veg?

I know, but it's still pretty well boiled to a mush. I'm no nutritionist, but I don't consider soup to be a good source of veg, but I'm probably wrong.

If your not getting any veg at the moment then it's better than that situation, it's also something you can easily make, freeze and take to work, it might not be a perfect solution but as the OP is making a start it's a good step.

Much healthier (and tastier) than ordinary potatoes.

Nope, they are remarkably similar in glycemic index (effect of particular carbohydrate effect on the digestion system) but sweet potatoes “can” be higher in certain macronutrients and vit a.

Differing methods of cooking can influence how the body treats and absorbs the various nutritional elements in each so it’s not as simple as potato = bad sweet potato = good

I know, but it's still pretty well boiled to a mush.

I know, but it's still pretty well boiled to a mush. I'm no nutritionist, but I don't consider soup to be a good source of veg, but I'm probably wrong.

It's just soup for goodness sake. There's no need to worry about precisely how much nutritional benefit it provides compared with eating food raw or cooking it differently; it just needs to form one small part of a generally balanced diet. The idea that only the most healthy version of a foodstuff should ever be eaten (like brown rice, wholewheat pasta and wholewheat bread) is counter productive: very often it doesn't taste as good as the regular alternatives and the nutritional difference doesn't matter that much in the big scheme of things.

More importantly for Golfchick, New Covent Garden soups are currently half price at [url= https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/soup-lunch-and-light-meals/fresh-soup/all ]Tesco[/url] (and some other supermarkets), so that's one or more to add to the online order.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20436818-the-real-meal-revolution

I've always stuck to some simple advice I heard once, and it's seems to be pretty good:

Different colours on your plate. All Brown, or all white isn't good...

Basically, reading into that, make sure there's a good selection of veg and fruit. Add protein after the FnV, and make that something special, not the main part of the meal.

Apologies beforehand slowster but my response to your post is in no way an ill informed "typical"l stw attack on your genuinely well meaning advice but rather as a way to inform of the true nature of excessive sugar (fructose) intake and the effect it has on your liver regarding the body's response to insulin release to deal with the sugar dump.

Processed fruit juice (essentially pure fructose, which is metabolised differently from glucose=whole fruits + fibre which slows down absorption) whether that be ingested from cartons or made fresh with the aid of juicers is detrimental to health as it does not contain any fibre (juicing releases sugar/removes insoluble fibre which is essential to a healthy gut microbiome), fructose is entirely processed by the liver and the lack of fibre leads to the liver processing the fructose and converting it to free fatty acids, very low density lipoprotein (essentially the cholesterol that restricts blood flow in artery's) and it also aids in the process of increasing fat producing triglycerides. The type of fat laid down in this process is a cause of insulin resistance and can lead to diabetes and weight gain.

I could go on but it gets a bit technical so i'll not bother as time for ZZZZ and even though i have nothing better to do with my time than spend all day attempting to improve my diet/health (diagnosed with MS) by researching the latest peer reviewed papers but i can surmise it as unless you are suffering from massive calorific deficit (olympic rower?, if not ditch all fruit juice) then every time you drink processed fruit juice you are preparing your body to store fat, and not the "good" sort of brown fat but white fat, by which if you increase the amount stored will have a detrimental effect on how your body can utilise the use of brown fat - more white fat stored on your body simply means that you cannot burn the brown fat which leads to an ever increasing amount of white fat laid down on your person. This can (and does according to the latest research) lead to damage to the mitochondrial cells that are the basic powerhouse of life.

For GolfChick : I've no doubt made mistakes above but i can't be arsed reading it over (in true stw tradition - it's all a brain fart after all but there you go) so crack on but lay off the fruit juice for your health, dried fruit is not much better, and lay off the pasta as well, eat eggs/mushrooms for breakfast with some left over veg from the previous night and you'll be in a far better place than your current diet. (it's really ****ing awful...really....really it is).

All meant in the best possible helpful advice, hope i've not been an arse but it's been a long day dealing with the prolonged cancer of a best friend, call me a prick if you like - i don't mind at all 😉

Cheers everyone for the advice so far, I've read it through but will look again later to properly absorb it and heed some advice from it. Yes my diet is awful I know this but thanks for pointing that out again and quite bluntly 😉

Yes I can eat soup and it's alright but having broken my jaw and been forced to consume nothing but soup for two months it's not my favourite. Also my go to with all soup is at least two rounds of white bread toast to dip in and make it a bit more interesting 😆

I think I'll definitely take on board the weetabix with blueberries and bananas for breakfast and maybe pick up some wholewheat bread to go with the egg option. Might even check out these overnight oats or having time some days to cook the oats warm in the morning.

Some suggestions are tricky because I just plain don't like them! I love sweet potato, mushrooms, salad, tomatoes, cucumber, don't mind potatoes, some things I could prob put up with like carrots but I don't like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, green beans, HATE yoghurt, not so sure on squash but prepared to give that a try to figure out either way. I love almost all fruit but its just planning how I can eat it and before, going food shopping say once a month properly, I just don't get enough of it and need to do the weekly shop in order to make it work. Still looking for a warm lunch option to go instead of soup. I'm draw by a stew or some sort of casserole or pasta dish as that way it could be cooking while I'm on the turbo but I haven't found one just yet!

Thanks again guys and girls! 😀

. a chicago town mini pizza

...is a marvel of science. It's hard to know how they managed to make something so small so calorific, as it seems to defy the laws of physics. A third of your daily allowance in something about the size of a coaster.

If you just swap this out for, well, anything else, your overall health will improve massively.

some things I could prob put up with like carrots but I don't like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, green beans,

what about things like tuna, (canned or fresh) salmon fillets , cod fillets , chicken, lean protein?

with the vegetables you like, a piece of lean protein, some lemon juice and oil and a wholegrain bread roll you have an endless variety of healthy easy lunches. bake 3 chicken breasts or whatever on a sunday, lunch sorted.

seeing as your diet is so poor, do it in small steps. Change breakfast a little to a healthier version, perhaps make lunch the big change then do whatever for dinner and look at that at a later date.

More importantly for Golfchick, New Covent Garden soups are currently half price at Tesco (and some other supermarkets), so that's one or more to add to the online order.

processed crap, sorry. probably better than a Chicago town pizza however granted!

From [b]where you are[/b] just start with anything that LOOKS like the ingredients....
Eat as little as anything processed as possible and eat as diverse a range of ingredients as possible.

There is no magic bullet .. in fact most "Wonder Foods" turn out to have bad properties when eaten to excess like anything else.

The general rule of it looking like what it's meant to be made of is fairly simple. Any form of bread for example doesn't LOOK like wheat or rye etc. but if you are eating it then take the option looks closest.

This by itself is a fairly easy start... way from perfect but possibly more importantly its easy and likely you can and will follow it.

The other plus side of this is it starts to educate you as to what the parts are...
Like someone mentioned Crudites and Hummus are a good snack... and a carrot looks like a carrot.. if your lazy and they are washed I just bite the ends off...
Hummus is mainly just blended chick peas and oil with some garlic... (and gets fancier with Tahini) but illustrate a bit of the looking like the ingredients in a more abstract way... if you make your own its just a hand blender and chuck in some cooked chick peas, oil and garlic... even if you only "make it" virtually watching YouTube you then know what goes in... so if you buy supermarket made you know what should be in it.

If you compare to bread or pasta you'd need to get grain and a mill and make flour etc. whereas porridge you can see the oats.

Not every bit of processing is bad... but its a good general rule... and [b]one that will get you past [/b]simply looking at something like the dinner plate pie chart. (Which is not bad - it just ends at that point because it's based on too broad categories and perhaps encourages wholegrain this and that to get fibre you can get elsewhere more healthily) but mostly it just doesn't give you a tool you can take forwards.

I love almost all fruit but its just planning how I can eat it and before, going food shopping say once a month properly, I just don't get enough of it and need to do the weekly shop in order to make it work.

When shopping, pick seven firm apples. Drop them in a paper bag. Take them home. Eat one a day. It won't kill you and will stay fresh in a cool dark place.

Still looking for a warm lunch option to go instead of soup. I'm draw by a stew or some sort of casserole or pasta dish as that way it could be cooking while I'm on the turbo but I haven't found one just yet!

Slow cooker casserole or stew?

Follow [url=

Nutrition on FB[/url], they have lots of simple ideas eg here is a 10 step guide. Rather than change everything in one go, just work your way slowly along it, making one change at a time...

NB Step 10 is obviously factious...

[img] ?oh=ad7b24ca0cc1198e3be94731fa871793&oe=5AF23299[/img]

Still looking for a warm lunch option to go instead of soup. I'm draw by a stew or some sort of casserole or pasta dish as that way it could be cooking while I'm on the turbo but I haven't found one just yet!

I just microwaved three eggs . they were bland and spongy. filled a Chicago town pizza sized hole mind.

Somafunk, thank you for the informative post. I was vaguely aware of the issue with fruit juice vs. the whole fruit, and ordinary pasta being a refined white flour product with, I believe, a high GI.

However, I think we need to be very careful about seeing diet and any particular food as either wholly good or wholly bad (despite the media deliberately mis-representing new food science in just that misleading way, sometimes even facilitated by some scientists themselves given the pressure they are under to be published and obtain funding).

I drink a small glass of grapefruit juice with my breakfast because I like it, even though I know it's not a great way to consume fruit. I would prefer to have half a grapefruit, but that would be somewhere between 50% to 100% more expensive (although having just calculated the monetary price difference prompted by your post, it's not as great as I had thought, and I will switch to buying the whole fruit in future, so thank you for that).

Similarly pasta might not be ideal, but I like it a lot, and it's much easier to eat vegetables with pasta (in very enjoyable recipes) than with chips - chips with broccoli anyone?

Obviously people's personal circumstances will vary, not only preferences (which can change for better or worse) but also health and the ability to afford and access to good food and the knowledge and facilities to benefit from and enjoy them.

I do think it's important to try to take a relaxed and balanced attitude to things like diet and nutrition, and I have given up paying much attention to the ceaseless dross of media commentary on diet. One year caffeine is bad for you, the next it's good, ditto a glass of wine. Frankly, I like one or two cups of good coffee a day and a glass of wine with my evening meal, and I am not going to waste any more of my life reading any more articles about whether or not they are good or bad.

Put very simply, I will never know if any scientific publication on the benefits or otherwise of any food is correct, properly balanced and the definitive word on the subject, because there will always be another scientist saying something else next year. What I do know absolutely, is what I like, and my attitude is that I am going to eat what I like and drink what I like, enjoying both variety and moderation in all things. Far too much of modern life is obsessed with telling us as individuals what we should eat, drink, wear, believe etc. (see the Farron and Referendum threads).

Tonight I shall have a small glass of tomato juice, Nigel Slater's smoked mackerel potato dauphinoise with a side dish of green beans tossed in olive oil, all washed down with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and a tangerine to finish. I intend to enjoy every last bit of it.

Obviously Somafunk you have your own choices to make, and I appreciate that your own health and any medical condition will influence your choices. I do recall from your past posts that you like good coffee, good whisky and a hot curry, and long may you and I both continue to enjoy them.

I would toss those beans in lemon juice and olive oil, pinch of Maldon. The lemon will cut throught the creaminess of the mackerel dauph. Sounds divine.

Not that I'm telling you what to do!

Good post slowster, a fair bit more balanced than my outburst this morning - in my defence i'd been up for most of the weekend and feeling rather stressed out over my mates deterioration, took him to hospital this morning for supposed chemo after managing a couple of hours sleep, clots on lungs so no more chemo/treatment for his secondary liver cancer can be carried out - home to die (pretty bloody soon by all accounts) which is devastating for wife/10yr old son.

Yeah i banged on a fair bit, i guess i should have railed my somewhat incohesive rant elsewhere - perhaps at the ever powerful sugar lobby and the utter shite that is promoted processed foods/slurry but we all know the most effective place to vent righteous anger and enable a cultural shift within the population is on the stw forum 😉

Ps : I still consider fruit juice in the morning to be the work of the devil [i](I'm running away now....still running........bit further to go.......La...La....La....La...can't hear you anymore......dives under bridge.... buries head in mud)[/i] 🙂

Let's also not forget that even the not so good ideas suggested above are far better than regular ginsters pastie or a frozen micro pizza.

a fair bit more balanced than my outburst this morning

On the contrary somafunk, I thought your post was very informative, and I had in fact hesitated to suggest fruit juice in my original post, because I was vaguely aware of the concerns about the sugar hit (and missing the fibre benefit of eating the actual fruit). You were quite right to point this issue out, and I am grateful to you because it's made me realise that the raw fruit is not that much more expensive. I've even got some of those fancy grapefruit spoons with serrated edges, and I'm now quite looking forward to getting some use out of them.

I agree with you about the sugar industry and heavily processed foods. That doesn't stop me from having sugar on my pancakes, I just don't have pancakes very often.

I am sorry to hear about your friend and his family. Life can be absolutely awful at times, and sometimes I think all we can do is hang onto and enjoy the good moments, whether it's the company of a friend, a nice bike ride, a good view from the top of a hill, or a good meal/drink.

howsyourdad1, I prefer a grinding of pepper to your suggestion of Maldon sea salt, but I agree with you about the lemon. However, I have only one lemon left at the moment and I am not cutting that up until I've first used the zest in [url= http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/linguine-prawns-lemon-parsley-recipe ]garlic, chilli, lemon and prawn linguine[/url].

I haven't read the whole thread so this may already have been said, but you can buy microwaveable packets of fresh veg from most supermarkets. It's usually a mix of things so not too boring and you can just stick them on a plate with whatever you'd usually have with chips. The microwave just steams them so they come out quite nicely and not all soggy and horrible.

Here's an idea I have been looking at while shopping for food recently. Simply check the ingredients and if there is ANYTHING in there that you don't recognise as a food in its own right or stuff you are pretty sure you would not be able to buy locally, then put it back on the shelves. So things containing, glucose syrup, lecithin, palm oil, hydrogenated fats, Most E numbers etc. get left behind. You will soon end up just buying fresh, tinned, dried or raw ingredients when you begin to realise just what rubbish you are otherwise eating.

i do not particularly like fruit or veg either. i eat it if its on the plate but would never cook them for myself! i have weetabix with milk (no syrup) for breako, a carton of fresh soup for dinner, then pretty much whatever i want for tea - although i always try to avoid anything with a red traffic light on the packet. confine crisps and snacks to weekend too, and i only ever drink water (except beer etc, also at weekend only) having said that ive just necked a door stop of Parkin...

Sorry Welshfarmer 99% of your advice is excellent but E numbers are misunderstood and aren't all bad at all for example Vit C is E300.

If you can find the program on Iplayer the Truth about E Numbers is an excellent primer on what they're about. It's ok though we won't have them for long as the E stands for European.

Edit Link to a blog post that went with the program. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/food/2010/08/are-e-numbers-really-bad-for-y.shtml

Some suggestions are tricky because I just plain don't like them!

I grew up loathing vegetables. But eventually I figured out ways to cook them well.

Last night had a couple of slices of roast ham with roasted parsnips, baby pots, sweet potatoes and squash with carrots and green beans covered in butter. It was bloody lovely.

If you don't like a vegetable, roast it, fry it or cover it in cheese and try again.

No, I fully agree. BUT if you see an E number and don't know what it is then get your phone out an inform yourself. Maybe it is something benign and can go in the trolley, but maybe not. If you are happy you can buy vit C elsewhere for example, then fine. All I am suggesting is a very simple way to cut down on some of the, lets us say, less essential parts of our modern diet, and to actually think about what we are consuming.

You'd expect pasta sauces in a jar to have loads of crap in, but they don't any more. At least Dolmio and Lloyd G don't.

You'd expect pasta sauces in a jar to have loads of crap in, but they don't any more. At least Dolmio and Lloyd G don't.

And if you don't like the 'bits' you could blitz the sauce with a blender to get a smooth sauce (although I believe Dolmio do smooth versions of some of their sauces now).

They do, they are a bit sticky sweet but some might like it - I used to.

Some suggestions are tricky because I just plain don't like them! I love sweet potato, mushrooms, salad, tomatoes, cucumber, don't mind potatoes, some things I could prob put up with like carrots but I don't like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, green beans

As molgrips implies, how you cook and serve vegetables can make a huge difference. Too many domestic and commercial 'cooks' in the UK think that cooking vegetables simply means cutting them up and boiling them in water. GolfChick, if you can afford it I would suggest that you try eating out at least occasionally at good restaurants offering differing types of cuisine (italian, spanish, turkish, medditerranean, far eastern, indian etc.) and see if you particularly like how they cook vegetables and what they serve them with.

For example, the typical italian dish of broccoli and pasta would involve boiling pieces of broccoli but what makes all the difference is that they are then sautéd in olive oil flavoured with garlic, chilli and possibly anchovies. Similarly as howsyourdad1 notes above, it is the olive oil and lemon dressing for boiled green beans that make them work so well with a rich cream laden dish like potato dauphinoise. And yet a completely different result can be had by cooking green beans in a curry like [url= https://www.the-pool.com/food-home/food-honestly/2016/34/meera-sodha-on-cooling-summer-curries-when-its-hot-outside ]this one[/url] which also contains tomatoes, mange tout and peas.

Tenderstem broccoli boiled/sauteed with butter and some almond flakes - lovely.

Also something like Thai curry or a stir fry of some Asian type for different veg served differently.

Slowster we should hang out

Simply check the ingredients and if there is ANYTHING in there that you don't recognise as a food in its own right or stuff you are pretty sure you would not be able to buy locally, then put it back on the shelves. So things containing, glucose syrup, lecithin, palm oil, hydrogenated fats, Most E numbers etc. get left behind.

It may be odd but it is a starting point if someone really wants to eat more healthily. Lecithin may be available in Holland and Barret but would you recognise it as a cooking ingredient? And why use a synthesised product which is essentially nothing more than egg yolk, when egg yolks are readily available?

As for sugar, I would agree, although most sugar-rich foods these days have had the sugar content replaced by glucose syrup anyway. Part 2 of my healthy eating plan would be to not buy anything containing sugar (or at least containing a significant amount??). But then it is up to the individual how far your take any of this.

BTW I cannot give up my baked beans despite them containing sugar and modified maize starch 🙂

howsyourdad1 - Member

More importantly for Golfchick, New Covent Garden soups are currently half price at Tesco (and some other supermarkets), so that's one or more to add to the online order.

processed crap, sorry. probably better than a Chicago town pizza however granted!

Like welshfarmer, I often check the ingredients of any processed food, and the presence of palm oil and long chemical names usually kills whatever appetite I might initially have had when looking at the enticing image on the packet. In the case of New Covent Garden, they have a reputation of making good quality soups with basic ingredients (and they have published a number of their own recipe books). The ingredients of their tomato soup are:

Water, Tomatoes (26%), Onions, Tomato Paste (3%), Slow Roasted Tomatoes (1.8%), Basil (1%), Sugar, Sundried Tomato Paste (0.5%), Cornflour, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Garlic, Coarse Ground Black Pepper

Slow Roasted Tomatoes contains: Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Rapeseed Oil, Garlic, Oregano

Sundried Tomato Paste contains: Sundried Tomatoes (53.5%), Rapeseed Oil, Wine Vinegar, Sugar, Salt

Processed? Of course, but it is fundamentally no different from the cooking and blending processes to make soup at home. Crap? I don't think so, and it passes welshfarmer's test.

Are you sure we should hang out? 😉

BTW I cannot give up my baked beans despite them containing sugar

They (Heinz) seem to have changed the recipe and they are a lot less sweet now. Anyone else notice this?

OP yes definitely a good idea to ditch the white bread for wholemeal, but just remember that there are loads of different wholemeal/brown breads available - you might have to try a couple before you find one you like.

Also try to do a weekly shop. Monthly isn't frequent enough for fruit and veg.

All the best with it.

@slowster I don't use 3 teaspoons of sugar per 300gms of soup when I make it at home. I don't need to mention the salt either. In half a carton.

It is processed crap, IMHO. It's less crap than a ready made pizza , but it is poor quality food. I stand by that. Everything in moderation of course and products like this certainly have their place in modern life.

That depends, when is prawn linguine night?

I want your metabolism, my diet is pretty good bar a couple of teas with sugar a day but I just eat too much of it 🙁

my dad who sadly died of cancer a couple of years ago was convinced that sugar and non organic dairy were the work of the devil. Probably total balls but I promised him I'd try to consume as little as possible!

I don't use 3 teaspoons of sugar per 300gms of soup when I make it at home. I don't need to mention the salt either. In half a carton.

Sugar is below something that's 1% on the ingredients list. Less than basil. So if it's 1% too, that's 3g, less than one tsp.

Most of the sugar will be natural, from the toms and tom paste.

Still better to make your own. And I agree on the salt.

Called into Aldi last night before circuits and bought a lot of green and healthy items, most of which I have no clue how to cook but I'm sure I'll figure it out, recipes seemed easy enough. Managed to spend about £16 on two bags worth and then spent the same on only one bag at tesco, typical!

Had my first tub of overnight oats this morning with blueberries and bananas, ridiculously yummy! For lunch had wholegrain bread sandwich with lettuce, cucumuber, tomato and a slice of ham. Dinner not so great as we're having burgers but I'm doing home made sweet potatoe fries and I'll have some mushrooms and salad on the plate as well, all in balance and I have to appears my boyfriend who isn't necessarily onboard with the whole healthy scheme!

a lot of green and healthy items,

Tell us what they are and we'll help.

Remember - most boiled veg are shit, they need butter, seasoning, nuts, bacon, spice etc to make them nice. At the very least the first two in that list. Then if that fails, roast them.

Dinner not so great as we're having burgers

Burgers are not a problem at all. Go with no bun if you like, but sweet pot fries (or roasted) and corn on the cob are nice accompaniments, as are buttery green beans. Then have cheese, optionally bacon and barbecue sauce on. Few jalapenos or some salsa too if you like. Nom. One of my most satisfying low carb meals that.

It is processed crap, IMHO.

Define 'processed'. Soup is always processed because you are boiling it all down, even when you make it yourself. And don't assume sugar on the nutritional breakdown means ADDED sugar. Tomatoes are sugary as are lots of other natural wholesome things.

it is poor quality food

Why, specifically?

GolfChick - Member
Called into Aldi last night before circuits and bought a lot of green and healthy items, most of which I have no clue how to cook but I'm sure I'll figure it out, recipes seemed easy enough.

Remember - most boiled veg are shit

Good (local or own) produce steamed is a world away from supermarket stuff boiled to rags. A squirt of lemon juice, garlic maybe, but I've been suprised at the difference. I steam in microwave in an old takeaway container, works a treat and is economical compared to stove-top

Forget the title, the recipes in here are awesome, and the portions are flippin huge, if you don't wanna lose weight, just eat more of it. All recipes are for one person too, which is such a sensible idea, and one that not many cook books do.

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Good (local or own)

Seems to be this idea floating around that if you grow it, it'll automatically be great. This is not the case in my experience, having tried to eat what our garden produced 🙂

tru dat @beej, unnecessary in my mind though , plus the salt yep.

@molgrips because of the added salt and sugar, over and beyond what would needed if you were cooking it from scratch with good quality ingredients. IMHO of course, you are entitled to yours. foods like this create the desire for sweetness, more salt etc in my personal experience.

but anyhow @golfchick that is massive progress, good work!

I don't use 3 teaspoons of sugar per 300gms of soup when I make it at home.

And neither does New Covent Garden: although sugar is indeed an added ingredient, most of the sugar that makes up the 12.6g per 300g serving is the natural sugar present in the tomatoes. By way of comparison their vegetable soup and carrot and corriander soup both contain 9g of sugar, even though sugar is not an added ingredient. In their recipe for making the slow roasted tomato soup for four people at home, they list 1 teaspoon of caster sugar in the ingredients, which is sprinkled over the tomatoes before roasting them in the oven, presumably to increase the caramelisation/Maillard reaction (or 'burning it a bit', which is my definition of most cooking).

I think the addition of sugar specifically to some tomato sauce and soup recipes is not uncommon, e.g. napolitana sauce for pasta, although my own personal preference is for those tomato sauces which contain garlic and chilli instead.

I don't need to mention the salt either. In half a carton.

I'm not sure what you mean. The salt content is 1g per 300g serving. Food manufacturers are obliged to list the salt content, whereas any recipe for cooking at home would leave the amount of any seasoning to the taste of the cook, and that might not be enough for some at the table who would add more: it's personal preference/choice. I imagine that New Covent Garden add the minimum amount of salt that they consider necessary for the flavour of their product, leaving it to consumers to add more if they wish.

when is prawn linguine night?

I've just taken the prawns out to defrost.

In terms of ingredients I've bought and not sure about I've gone for the following two recipes

[url= https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1897698/cheesy-leek-and-bacon-pasta ]Leek and Bacon Pasta[/url]

[url= https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1742634/butternut-macaroni-cheese ]Butternut Macaroni Cheese[/url]

I couldn't find the mustard powder so I'll be ignoring that part. PLan for both is left overs goes for lunch the next day so I can warm it up a little and serve with a side salad.

I think it may be a good idea to make a list of some meals I can cook to try to stop myself falling into a bad routine, so it occured to me this morning while making my ham salad that I could do egg salad sandwich one day too.

I really want some sort of seafood pasta and mushroom pasta as I love both but it's finding one that's not too super complicated. I'm tempted to try to just buy some sauce jars to go with both so that I dont have to quite cook from scratch.

I couldn't find the mustard powder so I'll be ignoring that part

Just use mustard. Mustard powder is just dry mustard.

I'm tempted to try to just buy some sauce jars to go with both so that I dont have to quite cook from scratch.

Despite what foodie snobs say, sauce jars can be brilliant, as long as you get good ones. For me I buy the Lloyd Grossman ones and they are better than a lot of Italian restaurants I've eaten in. And you end up with a pretty damn good super quick meal.

The tomato and chilly one poured over some chicken breasts and baked then topped with parmesan is bloody lovely and then served with roasted sweet potatoes. MMM. Just be sure to periodically spoon the sauce back over the breasts as it reduces so you get a nice coating.

Oh and top tip if you want roasted veg - microwave them first. For sweet pots it's about 5 mins til they are just a bit underdone then in the oven for 20 mins.

I think it may be a good idea to make a list of some meals I can cook

Yeah this is a great way - just learn a few staple meals and then you don't have think about cooking unless you want to.

@molgrips because of the added salt and sugar, over and beyond what would needed if you were cooking it from scratch with good quality ingredients.

Except we've already shown that there isn't loads of added salt and sugar in some of them. Don't look down on everything pre-packaged. There's a world of difference between New Covent Garden soups and a Farm Foods frozen ready meal.

There has been a lot of development in food technology since I started cooking for myself. Not quite sure what has changed but you can now buy food that is more or less exactly as it would be cooked by a good chef but put into jars and pasteurised. And our tastes have developed over the years too.

I think the addition of sugar specifically to some tomato sauce and soup recipes is not uncommon

For me I buy the Lloyd Grossman ones and they are better than a lot of Italian restaurants I've eaten in.

Yeah I love the Lloyd Grossman Tomato and Basil, use it for meatballs and pasta for when the kids come at the weekends. I need to have a look at the other flavours that would compliment a mushroom pasta. Good to know it's not too bad ingredient etc wise!

But this is where opinion comes in no as to what constitutes 'a load' ? I occasionally add a pinch, the smallest pinch, of sugar (or more often red wine vinegar) to a homemade tomato sauce. I don't feel like it needs more, particularly if they are good tomatoes grown in my greenhouse . A teaspoon I would find very sweet. Perhaps because I rarely eat packet sauces 😀
Granted that Covent garden one does seem better you are right there, but in general , in my opinion, most are to be avoided.

If we are doing cooking tips, if you cook the tomatoes whole and crush them later the bitterness from the seeds is less pronounced.

Lamb and lentils for me tonight , enjoy dinner one and all

The LG sauces are decent, but no more convenient, and way more expensive, than making a decent sauce from scratch.

It takes a few mins preparation to make a big pot of a good tomato sauce, then batch freeze.