In Defense of Food:An eater's manifesto by Michael Pollen

[lorihadams]

Absolutely you can do it!

When you have the time to cook always try to do a double batch of whatever it is you are cooking! Eat one and freeze the other. I love salads and grew my own lettuce this year and it was so nice to go out and get a salad whenever I wanted. If I do veggies I spend some time cutting everything up and put it in a container in the fridge so I can snack on them or just make a few more cuts for a dinner dish. You can make your own dinner mixes too.....I think there are some recipes on here somewhere.....

 

[Dace]

It is a challenge with an insanely busy schedule, but you can do it!!

You have to eat right? So first step ( I would think) would be to start consuming more whole foods. Less processed. Fresh fruits and veggies do not take much time to prepare, salads are great in a pinch and you can pre-prep the meat portions and have already been suggested. I have single serving sizes of meats in my freezer to pull out on and within a short time they are defrosted enough to add to a salad.

Don't think of it is one giant global change in your life, start small, take baby steps. You have a great group here who are always willing to lend some advice too!


Lori....what a wonderful quote! I have not read that book, but I have had it on my list!

 

[enjoy the ride]

I love the whole message- I just read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. The whole idea is great..but what do you do when you work all the time? How do you prepare fresh whole foods when you get home at 8 o'clock and still have work to do; and you don't have weekends off? I findit impossible. I managed to grow vegetables last year and even when I found time to harvest them, there was never any time to prepare them. They pretty much became compost. Where do people find the time needed to live this way?

I prepared a lot of things that were easy and undemanding. My favorite salad dressing was olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a bit of mustard, a bit of sugar, a bit of pepper. I keep it in a bottle in the fridge- I can't stand sdtore dressings. And takes a couple of minutes to make enough to last a week.
I have a great cookbook too- the 15-minute Chinese Cookbook- love those spring onion egg pancakes. Lots of fast recipes. One of the reasons I love Chinese is the speed at which so much can be made. Cook rice in a rice maker- it keeps in the fridge or freezer to be used when needed. Fried rice is just a matter of throwing stuff in a pan and stir-frying then mixing old rice into it- yum yum and cheap cheap.
Then there is the crock pot style- just throw things together and forget it.
It's not that it neccessarily takes so much time- no Martha Stewart here- but it takes a re-think of prep.
I really believe that why I find prepared foods so attractive -and I still occasionally do- is that it relieves a bit of having to think about it. Actually, I mostly find prepared food more and more unpleasant the more and more I do my own. But every once in awhile, I get whiney and want to be taken care of- so I buy something. OK every great once in awhile.

 

[patandchickens]

Hm, I thought I posted this earlier but don't see it, perhaps I closed the window instead of submitting.

Anyhow: you can make your OWN frozen pizza, for cheaper than storeboughten. Easy peasy, and another great fast meal.

First make the dough (quite easy, make a bunch on a weekend or use a $20 thrift-store bread machine on a timer), shape it, and bake it on a cookie sheet until just cooked through (not browned at all). Cool and freeze.

Then when you want to use it, remove one from freezer (or one for you and one for daughter), add sauce/cheese/toppings to the still-frozen crust, and bake in a preheated 425 F oven til done.

You can experiment with all sorts of nontraditional, using-whats-on-hand pizzas this way, too. I particularly like a white pizza made by drizzling a little olive oil on the crust, grate on some garlic and (if available) some parmesan-type cheese, top with mozzarella and broccoli and onion and whatever else you like, bake and enjoy

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[dragonlaurel]

I used to have to be out the door by 10 AM and not home till around 11 PM. Could not pay to eat lunch out daily so I carried lunches mostly. Also tend towards low blood sugar so I had to have some healthy snacks too.

I used to say I was going to give my Crock Pot a wedding ring cause it was taking such good care of me.
I'd make a batch of beans weekly, and freeze at least half in portion size containers. Made them a little bland so I could add whatever seasonings I was in the mood for when reheating them.
Made a batch of veggie soup frequently too. Also froze some of it.

Bought dried fruit and divided most of it into little containers then stacked them up in the cupboard. I'd cheat and make some snack containers of pretzels too.
Frozen veggies cook pretty fast and go with whatever.
Baked potatoes are good stuffed with lots of kinds of toppings. Leftover chili or soup on them makes it a fast meal.
I like to carry a baggie of veggie sticks and dip them in sour cream for a treat.

Kitchen timers don't have to stay in the kitchen. You can put something in the oven. Set the timer and put it near where you will be so you know when to check the food.
Little jars or containers are our friends. Fill them with assorted leftovers and grab a couple on your way out the door.
Hope this helps.


Edited to add - Just saw about the pizzas. Now I'm hungry. Great idea.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Pat -- I have to say that I admire your ability to nearly repeat verbatim what you wrote before . . . that happened to be on the forum about Hikerchick's financial woes.

I just saw Food Inc. I remember that we got to a point in the movie and I just was so fed up that I said to myself "F-them!" (those who are a part of our current industrialized food system). It made me feel good that I usually do cook from scratch. And it motivated me to be even more vigilant about those times when I just am too tired or too busy to cook a proper meal.

Lately I have gotten into a system where, because I cannot cook on one night per week and prefer not to cook on another, I am making large batches of soup on a few nights when I have time to cook and then I can just re-heat the two soups on the two nights I don't have time. I also bake bread once a week, on a day when I am home (baking bread doesn't take a LOT of time, but it requires you to be around the house most of that day). I make small loaves so that we are not wasting a lot of bread like we did when I bought store-made bread. After getting into this routine for a few months, we have plenty of extra bread in the freezer for when I need it and we are saving a lot of money too.

 

[big brown horse]

DM did you just drop an F-bomb?! That movie will make you wanna cuss, eh? (Almost as much as the cats tipping over the Christmas tree. ) Glad you saw it now we can talk about it without me ruining the ending for ya!

I am the same as DM, I cook every meal from scratch and have eliminated anything from a box. Keeping it real over here in my little house. I make a lot of soups that can be reheated over and over as needed. (This summer, I stopped using the microwave and now I use it as storage. ) The crockpot is always working on something else. You have to be prepared and organized in the kitchen, but other than that it is easy.

You really brought up a great point, store bought bread is really BIG! I don't feel so bad when my loaves turn out smaller. I remember feeding the ends of the store bought bread to the chickens, now (with my yummy, healthy homemade sourdough, I eat those ends!)

 

[freemotion]

Hm, I thought I posted this earlier but don't see it, perhaps I closed the window instead of submitting.

Anyhow: you can make your OWN frozen pizza, for cheaper than storeboughten. Easy peasy, and another great fast meal.

First make the dough (quite easy, make a bunch on a weekend or use a $20 thrift-store bread machine on a timer), shape it, and bake it on a cookie sheet until just cooked through (not browned at all). Cool and freeze.

Then when you want to use it, remove one from freezer (or one for you and one for daughter), add sauce/cheese/toppings to the still-frozen crust, and bake in a preheated 425 F oven til done.

You can experiment with all sorts of nontraditional, using-whats-on-hand pizzas this way, too. I particularly like a white pizza made by drizzling a little olive oil on the crust, grate on some garlic and (if available) some parmesan-type cheese, top with mozzarella and broccoli and onion and whatever else you like, bake and enjoy

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I used to do something like this when I was single and working full-time. I took it a step further, though. I would make a batch of french bread dough and make about 20 individal-size pizza crusts. These were sized to fit easily in gallon ziplocs. I cut up cardboard boxes to fit and covered them with foil, which I greased lightly and put the dough on.

Then I dressed the raw dough with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, carefully slid each into a ziploc, and stacked them and froze them. I also did a bunch with no sauce, cheddar cheese and cooked brocolli, which I really liked back then.

I would put them in the oven frozen, by taking the foil carefully off the cardboard and putting it right on the oven rack. There was a toaster oven in the tackroom at the stable where I worked and I would cook one for lunch in that.

Making them assembly-line style goes pretty fast, and even though it may take a good chunk of the day off, if you figure out the per-meal-time spent, it is less time than it takes to order a pizza, and the savings really add up.

Portion control takes place, too!

ETA: Re-use the ziplocs, of course!

 

[delia_peterson]

The whole idea is great..but what do you do when you work all the time? How do you prepare fresh whole foods when you get home at 8 o'clock and still have work to do; and you don't have weekends off?

1) the crockpot is your friend!

2) weekend large-batch cooking, when you have time and energy, freezing in meal-size servings that can be zapped in the microwave when you are short on time.

3) soup and salad and sandwich, or any one or two of those. Salads and sandwiches are real quick; soup sounds longer but in reality there are plenty of quick soups (along the theme of 'things heated briefly in chicken broth ) or you can make a big pot of soup on the weekend and eat during the week (freeze some too), or there are a few crockpot soups too.

4) I don't remember whether you are one of our chicken-owning members but if you are, there are a bunch of omelet or frittata or egg burrito type things that can be made in 5-10 minutes, some even that you can make with 2 min of chopping and 2 min microwaving and it's food

I've been in somewhat similar situations at various points in life, no money and *absolutely* no time or energy, and the big thing for me was to learn to like eating what I could realistically cook, rather than trying to cook whatever I got the idea to eat, you know?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

When I first joined this forum I just sat back and rolled my eyes..when will I find the time and strenght? I was like you...long hours, no time, no real incentive..give me the drive-thru any time over going home and cooking, lol! But I started a little at a time, and wow! What a difference! The crockpot is your bestfriend when you work full time. I have a bread maker I got at Goodwill. Food Dehydrator-2of them- one from Goodwill and one from Freecycle(which I am regifting to my DD). It will all come to you a little at a time. And now all my friends think I am weird, lol! But hey..I have a whole new bunch of friends here who accept me as I am and have taught me a new lifestyle to which I am forever gratefull! Thank you all!!!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

BBH, you saw Food Inc. in the theatre, so you probably didn't see the deleted scenes did you? There were quite a few long and informative scenes that did not make "the grade." Interesting.