Healthy Conversion

Food comes in such colorful varieties these days, that often I buy veggies based on their looks, as well as taste and how fresh they feel or sound. All my senses are involved in shopping, which is part of why taking the time to shop in a place that highlights real good food is such a pleasure and not considered a time waster. Photo by PattyCooks.

Our fast paced world lends itself to ordering food from Grub Hub, getting our salad at Whole Foods, picking up take-out, calling for pizza, receiving food boxes with ingredients and instructions, and lots of Trader Joes frozen or prepacked foods. But this fast paced way of cooking results in higher food costs, foods containing less nutritional value, increased consumption of artificial ingredients, increase in waste packaging, and an increase in food-related illnesses.

Even the idea of cooking at home seems archaic to some folks today. To move to the older, slower, and more meditative ways of cooking can seem onerous and just not doable. But I know it is doable, and also know that ones overall mental and physical health will rejoice at the change. So how does one get from there to here?

Below is a week-by-week description of what I started to do about 2 years ago, along with an update on what I am doing now. I do want to say up front, that as I went through this process I did not just throw out the prepackaged food of course, I either ate them up :), or passed them on to people who would need and appreciate the food items. But the change has adjusted my lifestyle and eating priorities.

My 10-week Conversion

Week 1: Evaluated Sweet

The first week I focused on sweet. I went through our kitchen and kept only natural sweeteners. I kept honey, various beet and cane sugars, agave syrups, and so on. Removed anything that said “diet,” or listed artificial sweeteners. In this process I managed to cleanup my pantry and got rid of items far past their use-by dates.

Now: I do have a diabetic in my life so some diet food, generally not consumed by me, is in the house. Eventually, we separated the diabetic and snack foods from all the other foods, and set those up in a separate cabinet. We figured that by doing this it would be easier for me to not be tempted. Do I occasionally raid that cabinet? Yes, but do not tell anyone please!

Week 2: Trans and Unhealthy Fats

I then turned my focus to fats and oils by removing all trans-fats and unhealthy oils from my diet and pantry. That meant I paid attention to the remaining packaged food and oils in my pantry, and kept only the healthy Items. Regular olive oil has always been my go-to oil, so identifying and removing unhealthy oil and food that was not a huge problem. Most of the prepackaged foods were given away except for the Cornbread mixes, pre-made broth, and some Indian mixes. I focused on eating those items mixed with healthier foods to use them up.

Now: Okay, I do keep somethings handy as emergency, “pull together quick” food. I am not proud about that, but am practical.
I stopped eating at all fast-food places, which I was not addicted to in any case so that was pretty easy to do. Growing up we did not have a KFC or McDonalds in Europe so I was just not that exposed to it.
When we were in the USA we could not afford to eat out, so it was an occasional treat that I liked, but also felt hungry afterwards. My mother was a good cook and I best liked to eat her cooking.

Week 3: Limiting Dairy and Meat

I switched to consuming limited dairy and meat. I decided on buying only Strauss milk products because of the care they take with their food. I buy no-fat milk in bottles, and added no-salt European butter to my list of healthy oils. I decided on organic, pasture-raised chicken eggs and am (still) trying to reduce my cheese to a handful of limited-processed and tasty ones. Reducing meat consumption was not hard. I started to cook only one chicken or meat or fish dish a week. All else are mainly veggies and some fruit (mainly organic bananas, apples, avocado, blueberries, strawberries, and tomatoes).

Now: I still eat yogurt occasionally but mostly mix it in condiments or baking goods. I eventually stopped eating cream cheese and American cheese. I still eat a a fair amount of cheddar, Parmesan Reggiano, Gruyere, and Feta but mainly use them in recipes and not just with crackers or bread. Meat continues at ~once a month if that, fowl at ~once a week, and I have a couple of fish dishes per month.

Week 4: Meal Planning

I started to plan my meals to take advantage of seasonal veggies and fruit. I initially tried to only buy what I needed and paid attention to when I wanted to purchase something not on the list. This in turn lead me to understand my cravings better and forced me to think about what I am habitually turning to for comfort food.

Now: My household is adjusted to my all day cooking on Sunday when I am not at Kitchen on Fire. I put on my headphones, listen to music and cook/clean the kitchen for hours. A very centering and fun time as it turns out. It is a day for myself that I happen to enjoy. This also saves us from eating out a lot for there is food in the fridge that needs to be consumed.

Week 5: Food Prepping

I started to food prep, more as a byproduct of planning meals. I had lots of leftovers so broke them out into serving sizes for easy lunch and dinners. This meant all my packaged frozen dinners had to be given away or eaten since I did not use them anymore. Which in turn caused me to look at all the food I had stashed in my freezer. I found amazing things I did not know I had in there!

Now: There are still some frozen prepared food but they have not been touched in a very long time. My freezer is now stuffed with home packaged frozen vegetables + fruit, bone broth, pre-portioned meats, some bread, and frozen dinners I have cooked.

Week 6: DIY Efforts

Then I started to realize that much of the food items I had on hand were related to cooking, like spices or condiments, but were not edible by themselves. Also that many of those items had a very long shelf life which meant they had stuff in them that kept them stable, and probably those things were not healthy. So I started looking at what I had and what I needed. Immediately I knew I could make my own broth. I had prepared Trader Joe’s packs of rice in my freezer, so I used them up and started to cook my own rice. Then made my own salad dressings as I ran out. Frankly I have just kept going along those lines: my own spice mixes, my own dried herbs, my own extracts, you name it.

Now: The frozen rice is still there for emergencies, but I make my own. I have gotten rid of my aluminum-based rice cooker and just cook rice in a pan since it is easy to do. I did buy some ceramic pots to help with that. I only buy broth when I have no options, my broth ALWAYS tastes better and is better for me.

Week 7: Rethinking Protein

My pantry was full of cans of beans, knowing full well that making my own cooked beans would lead to less salt, money savings, and less preservatives in my diet. I started to look at protein differently so added lentils, garbanzo, soy and tempeh to my diet.

Now: I rarely eat red meat at this point and overall my meat consumption has reduced dramatically as I use other foods for protein.
Still not there yet, still use some canned beans, but did start buying beans in glass containers rather than cans and I wash them thoroughly before using. Lentils are now fully integrated into my diet and I still need to pay attention to portion size.

Week 8: Prepared + Processed

I stopped buying premade cookies, cupcakes, cakes, quick loafs, cornbread, etc. It is tastier to make my own and healthier too since I learned to add flax, chia or hemp seeds to my meals. I started to read more about food since I was paying more attention to what I consumed. As a result I started to use mined salt given the news about plastic in the oceans and learned to use whole spices (peppercorns, nutmeg, seeds) and to grind my own when needed.

Now: Still learning about spices, herbs, seeds and nuts. I have mainly stopped eating cookies, cakes, and cupcakes. I favor quick loafs, crackers, and nuts.
I am not a sweet person, I prefer savory, so that helps greatly. I do not have a passion for chocolate or sweets so it is easy for me to limit intake of high caloric foods like that. (However, once a year I get a bad craving for a banana split!!!)

Week 9: Eating Out

As a byproduct of these changes I reduced eating out. Why pay a premium for food I can make better at home? So now I generally eat at a restaurant if I am really desperate, or they make something I cannot yet cook myself. The result is more fun, since eating out is now a more adventurous experience. Of course it also saves me money.

Now: On average we eat out once every couple of weeks but at relatively cheap places that produce excellent food. I still do not want to eat at a place where I know I can make it better. I like to eat out at Indian, Thai, Ethiopian and other high-flavor places where my skill level is as a novice.

Week 10: Exploring Options

I started started to explore recipes online and via television to get more ideas on what I may like. Friends lent me their favorite cookbooks so I could explore what is out there. I watched many cooking shows on Netflix that were more documentary style, rather than Iron Chef style. These actions culminated in my making a recipe notebook full of ideas. I go through this notebook once a week as part of my meal planning and if the dish turns out great I mark it with double stars (cook for friends), or a single star (just ok and I would eat again).

Week 52: Website + Blog

I started working on this website and blog, and started teaching and apprenticing at Kitchen on Fire.

–Patty

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NEWS: August recalls include 1) Tyson Foods recalls Weaver Brand Ready-To-Eat Chicken Patty Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination. 2) Taylor Farms Illinois recalls Chicken Products due to Possible Processing Defect. 3) Top Taste Food Warehouse recalls Meat and Poultry Products produced without benefit of inspection.

Recipes: Three Color Soboro Don and added a section under recipes to help with easy entertaining foods (expect this section to grow as I have time).

Articles: I added a list of my medical + nutrition sources and have updated my Vinegars page.

TIPS: Why do Chefs salt their food starting about a foot above the food? Some Chefs have even made a name for themselves on Youtube just by how they salt food. I asked Chef Olive about this and he said it is the best way to make sure you are seasoning the whole dish and not just a part of it. I then checked Cook’s to see what they think, and they agreed. Their experiments showed the higher the starting point (they salted at 4”, 6” and 12”) the more evenly the salt was distributed on the food.