pre portioning and organics ... any tips ?

LexVex

My job and life consume a lot of my time , but I'm am looking for a permanent lifestyle change . I've heard wonderful things about pre portions meals and I've been trying to stay away from high fructose corn syrup. I have a few recipes on Pinterest but sorting through it is a hassle. I just want a few pointers on how to keep portioning simple and the best way to buy organically. I live in a small town , we don't even have Whole Foods or any organic stores . Also side note, does anyone have a good probiotic supplement?

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Organic food isn't anymore healthy for you than traditionally grown food.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/organic-food-better#1
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/09/04/160395259/why-organic-food-may-not-be-healthier-for-you
http://www.newsweek.com/dirty-truth-about-organic-produce-379464
http://groundedparents.com/2014/12/19/why-this-mom-boycotts-organic-and-will-never-shop-at-whole-foods/

Buy mostly whole foods, lots of vegetables and fruits. Cook up large batches on the weekends. Store them in individual serving sized containers. Things like chicken thighs (breasts can get dry), rice and veggies, pork chops w/ sides, chili, soups, etc. There are plenty of websites out there if you google "Batch Cooking".

not_my_first_rodeo

Do you have a farmers' market? If not, I would start by trying to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables. They should be able to tell you in the grocery store where the produce comes from. Does pre-portioning refer to buying already made meals? Or making your own stuff?

If it's the latter, I keep it simple. Most recipes will tell you how many servings they make. I usually make the full recipe and then I divide it immediately into containers which I can freeze or reheat as needed. I make a lot of recipes from Skinnytaste and they're usually quite good.

LexVex

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

Do you have a farmers' market? If not, I would start by trying to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables. They should be able to tell you in the grocery store where the produce comes from. Does pre-portioning refer to buying already made meals? Or making your own stuff?

If it's the latter, I keep it simple. Most recipes will tell you how many servings they make. I usually make the full recipe and then I divide it immediately into containers which I can freeze or reheat as needed. I make a lot of recipes from Skinnytaste and they're usually quite good.

Awesome I've never heard of skinny taste , I live in Texas so the climate allows for most vegetables to be grown year round . We do have a farmers market but only on weekends, which I work weekends so I'm not able to get to them .

Queenmunchy

I cook things like soup, stew, chili, curry, casseroles, meatballs, mini meatloaf muffins, nuggets, portion and freeze. Some things are better flash frozen, but most of the meals are just divided and frozen.

not_my_first_rodeo

If your local grocery store does not stock organic produce, this may be of some help.

There's a lot of debate about processed food and HCFS, but if you want to avoid all that, just start by cooking your own meals. Read labels in the store. It might take you some time to figure out what methods work for you and I don't know what your comfort level with cooking is, but you can do it.

I sit down about every 3-4 weeks with a pad and paper and my recipes and figure out meal plans. I factor in the occasional meal out.

LexVex

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

If your local grocery store does not stock organic produce, this may be of some help.

There's a lot of debate about processed food and HCFS, but if you want to avoid all that, just start by cooking your own meals. Read labels in the store. It might take you some time to figure out what methods work for you and I don't know what your comfort level with cooking is, but you can do it.

I sit down about every 3-4 weeks with a pad and paper and my recipes and figure out meal plans. I factor in the occasional meal out.

As an Italian woman I'm in the kitchen when ever I get a chance , also as an Italian woman I am way to much in love with pasta

Hamsibian

Go for seasonal vegetables and try to choose local over organic. Local farmers are honest about how their produce are grown. If you're shopping at stores, go for the dirty dozen/clean 15 (Google the list, it's updated annually). Also keep on the look out for sales. I am looking at a fresh thyme ad for next week, and they have some spinach, kale, Apples, and other organic produce for really good prices

That all being said, keep in mind that organic doesn't have to be all or nothing in your diet. Eat conventional if you have to, it's better than not eating vegetables at all.

not_my_first_rodeo

LexVex wrote: »

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

If your local grocery store does not stock organic produce, this may be of some help.

There's a lot of debate about processed food and HCFS, but if you want to avoid all that, just start by cooking your own meals. Read labels in the store. It might take you some time to figure out what methods work for you and I don't know what your comfort level with cooking is, but you can do it.

I sit down about every 3-4 weeks with a pad and paper and my recipes and figure out meal plans. I factor in the occasional meal out.

As an Italian woman I'm in the kitchen when ever I get a chance , also as an Italian woman I am way to much in love with pasta

Then this is doable for you. Just eat a little less (I am also of Italian descent ). I also found this site that has some good advice (ignore the stuff about money--it's just that you said your options for organic food are limited where you live).

LexVex

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

LexVex wrote: »

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

If your local grocery store does not stock organic produce, this may be of some help.

There's a lot of debate about processed food and HCFS, but if you want to avoid all that, just start by cooking your own meals. Read labels in the store. It might take you some time to figure out what methods work for you and I don't know what your comfort level with cooking is, but you can do it.

I sit down about every 3-4 weeks with a pad and paper and my recipes and figure out meal plans. I factor in the occasional meal out.

As an Italian woman I'm in the kitchen when ever I get a chance , also as an Italian woman I am way to much in love with pasta

Then this is doable for you. Just eat a little less (I am also of Italian descent ). I also found this site that has some good advice (ignore the stuff about money--it's just that you said your options for organic food are limited where you live).

Would love to friend you if that's okay I feel like we would have a lot to talk about .

kshama2001

BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »

Organic food isn't anymore healthy for you than traditionally grown food.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/organic-food-better#1
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/09/04/160395259/why-organic-food-may-not-be-healthier-for-you
http://www.newsweek.com/dirty-truth-about-organic-produce-379464
http://groundedparents.com/2014/12/19/why-this-mom-boycotts-organic-and-will-never-shop-at-whole-foods/

Buy mostly whole foods, lots of vegetables and fruits. Cook up large batches on the weekends. Store them in individual serving sized containers. Things like chicken thighs (breasts can get dry), rice and veggies, pork chops w/ sides, chili, soups, etc. There are plenty of websites out there if you google "Batch Cooking".

“What is organic food? Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.” Consumer Brochure, USDA National Organic Program. 2007.

I don't buy organic because I think it has more nutritional value, but because I want to avoid certain pesticides, and because sustainable agriculture is a value of mine. I grow kale, which is labor intensive to do with only organic-approved methods. It's much simply to douse it with pesticides to kill cabbage worms, hence the higher cost.

I buy the Dirty Dozen produce organic or locally grown. The farms here are small and do not use the practices discussed in this article by Michael Pollan. (Note: Monitor, one of the many pesticides used during potato growing season, is no longer on the market due to being voluntarily removed after California signaled it was moving towards increased regulation or banning.)

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/magazine/playing-god-in-the-garden.html

...Danny Forsyth laid out the dismal economics of potato farming for me one sweltering morning at the coffee shop in downtown Jerome, Idaho. Forsyth, 60, is a slight blue-eyed man with a small gray ponytail; he farms 3,000 acres of potatoes, corn and wheat, and he spoke about agricultural chemicals like a man desperate to kick a bad habit. ''None of us would use them if we had any choice,'' he said glumly.

I asked him to walk me through a season's regimen. It typically begins early in the spring with a soil fumigant; to control nematodes, many potato farmers douse their fields with a chemical toxic enough to kill every trace of microbial life in the soil. Then, at planting, a systemic insecticide (like Thimet) is applied to the soil; this will be absorbed by the young seedlings and, for several weeks, will kill any insect that eats their leaves. After planting, Forsyth puts down an herbicide -- Sencor or Eptam -- to ''clean'' his field of all weeds. When the potato seedlings are six inches tall, an herbicide may be sprayed a second time to control weeds.

Idaho farmers like Forsyth farm in vast circles defined by the rotation of a pivot irrigation system, typically 135 acres to a circle; I'd seen them from 30,000 feet flying in, a grid of verdant green coins pressed into a desert of scrubby brown. Pesticides and fertilizers are simply added to the irrigation system, which on Forsyth's farm draws most of its water from the nearby Snake River. Along with their water, Forsyth's potatoes may receive 10 applications of chemical fertilizer during the growing season. Just before the rows close -- when the leaves of one row of plants meet those of the next -- he begins spraying Bravo, a fungicide, to control late blight, one of the biggest threats to the potato crop. (Late blight, which caused the Irish potato famine, is an airborne fungus that turns stored potatoes into rotting mush.) Blight is such a serious problem that the E.P.A. currently allows farmers to spray powerful fungicides that haven't passed the usual approval process. Forsyth's potatoes will receive eight applications of fungicide.

Twice each summer, Forsyth hires a crop duster to spray for aphids. Aphids are harmless in themselves, but they transmit the leafroll virus, which in Russet Burbank potatoes causes net necrosis, a brown spotting that will cause a processor to reject a whole crop. It happened to Forsyth last year. ''I lost 80,000 bags'' -- they're a hundred pounds each -- ''to net necrosis,'' he said. ''Instead of getting $4.95 a bag, I had to take $2 a bag from the dehydrator, and I was lucky to get that.'' Net necrosis is a purely cosmetic defect; yet because big buyers like McDonald's believe (with good reason) that we don't like to see brown spots in our fries, farmers like Danny Forsyth must spray their fields with some of the most toxic chemicals in use, including an organophosphate called Monitor.

''Monitor is a deadly chemical,'' Forsyth said. ''I won't go into a field for four or five days after it's been sprayed -- even to fix a broken pivot.'' That is, he would sooner lose a whole circle to drought than expose himself or an employee to Monitor, which has been found to cause neurological damage.

kshama2001

LexVex wrote: »

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

Do you have a farmers' market? If not, I would start by trying to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables. They should be able to tell you in the grocery store where the produce comes from. Does pre-portioning refer to buying already made meals? Or making your own stuff?

If it's the latter, I keep it simple. Most recipes will tell you how many servings they make. I usually make the full recipe and then I divide it immediately into containers which I can freeze or reheat as needed. I make a lot of recipes from Skinnytaste and they're usually quite good.

Awesome I've never heard of skinny taste , I live in Texas so the climate allows for most vegetables to be grown year round . We do have a farmers market but only on weekends, which I work weekends so I'm not able to get to them .

That's a shame. The produce at my local farmer's market is truly excellent and cheaper too. You may be able to find one that has better hours for you: http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

kshama2001

LexVex wrote: »

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

If your local grocery store does not stock organic produce, this may be of some help.

There's a lot of debate about processed food and HCFS, but if you want to avoid all that, just start by cooking your own meals. Read labels in the store. It might take you some time to figure out what methods work for you and I don't know what your comfort level with cooking is, but you can do it.

I sit down about every 3-4 weeks with a pad and paper and my recipes and figure out meal plans. I factor in the occasional meal out.

As an Italian woman I'm in the kitchen when ever I get a chance , also as an Italian woman I am way to much in love with pasta

I eat pasta once or twice a week, just smaller servings than before, with more meat and veggies.

Hamsibian

kshama2001 wrote: »

LexVex wrote: »

not_my_first_rodeo wrote: »

Do you have a farmers' market? If not, I would start by trying to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables. They should be able to tell you in the grocery store where the produce comes from. Does pre-portioning refer to buying already made meals? Or making your own stuff?

If it's the latter, I keep it simple. Most recipes will tell you how many servings they make. I usually make the full recipe and then I divide it immediately into containers which I can freeze or reheat as needed. I make a lot of recipes from Skinnytaste and they're usually quite good.

Awesome I've never heard of skinny taste , I live in Texas so the climate allows for most vegetables to be grown year round . We do have a farmers market but only on weekends, which I work weekends so I'm not able to get to them .

That's a shame. The produce at my local farmer's market is truly excellent and cheaper too. You may be able to find one that has better hours for you: http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

You may also be able to find a nearby CSA. That way you can pay for local produce throughout the season and pick it up when you can.