Healthy Menu Revamp! Need some help :)

lexicalabrese
lexicalabrese Posts: 200 Member
edited September 21 in Food and Nutrition
Okay fellow MFPers, after looking at the crazy amount of sugar in just about everything I have been eating (think: processed) I have decided to completely revamp my diet! I'm thinking just about everything fresh...still going to use frozen veggies, but everything ELSE fresh. So! Here is my shopping list for tomorrow when I go through and empty these cabinets and start stocking them with freshness!

Please feel free to recommend something to me that you might enjoy...we are looking for low calorie, high nutrient and very filling! I also want things that I don't have to spend more than 15 minutes preparing...I am lazy, and my husband is gone so I'm only cooking for moi :)

Bananas
Strawberries
Watermelon
Kiwis
Apples
Grapes
Blueberries
Brown rice
Whole wheat pasta
Wheat bread
Oatmeal (plain)
Cereal (something like Cheerios)
Hummus
Cucumbers
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Lettuce
EVOO
Broccoli
Peas
Green Beans
Greek yogurt
Almond milk
Pecans
Almonds
Chicken breasts
Ground turkey


Any suggestions? Thanks :)

Replies

  • kcdrake
    kcdrake Posts: 512
    Sounds great!

    The only other additions that I use regularly (and that I can think of off the top of my head):
    Natural Peanut Butter (Jif makes a cheap version that I like)
    Skim Milk
    Eggs (I eat eggs pretty much every morning...)
    Shrimp (I buy it when it's on sale)
    Tomato sauce (I know, not fresh, but Prego makes a "healthy heart" version that is lower in sodium and I think tastes good)
    English Muffins (100 cal muffins)
    Also, for a treat, I like frozen yogurt. Not as bad as ice cream but it hits that sweet-craving spot. :)

    I like the Healthy Harvest Pasta, fyi. I love it. Even my dad, who's totally anti-wheat pasta really likes it.
    Also, I prefer spinach to lettuce. It has more nutrients and I don't really notice the difference on my sandwiches or in salads.

    The only other suggestion I have for you is to make sure you have a meal plan worked out. You have a lot of fresh fruits and veggies on your list (which is GREAT) but you want to make sure you have a plan to use them all before they go bad. It kills me when I buy more than I can eat and some has to be thrown away. :(
  • lexicalabrese
    lexicalabrese Posts: 200 Member
    Yeah I was going to take the grapes and freeze them, probably the blueberries and some of the bananas too...frozen fruit is YUMMY for a snack! Everything else I was going to cut up and portion out and only buy enough to last me about a week so that I can eat it for snacks. I'm pretty much set with my eating routine...breakfast lunch and dinner and 3 snacks on top of those, just need to start eating fruits and veggies instead of 100 calorie packs LOL

    I am so not a shrimp eater, but eggs I didn't even think of and I think we might have some...hmmm. I didn't think of pb either! And I'm ditching milk and going with almond milk instead. I've been doing soy milk, but I need to find something lower in sugar.

    Thank you!!!!
  • rjadams
    rjadams Posts: 4,029 Member
    the unsweetened almond milk is great and low sugar.

    How about avacados? they are awesome in salads and sandwhiches.

    I like to use the sandwich thins for sandwhiches, breakfast or otherwise. also low fat cheese works for me. I like sargento swiss because it is really low in sodium.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    check out Irish steel cut oats. On the one I use they are pretty un processed and great for fiber

    honey if you need some natural sugar
  • antiadipose
    antiadipose Posts: 447
    get some fresh greeeeeens =]

    for salads & sandwiches & wraps! oooooh get some wraps! and im currently addicted to sweet potatoes and oranges and apples. but ur list is great.

    good idea. as long as bad stuff isnt around... ull make better choices!
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
    I eat a lot of fresh spinach... it's the base of all my salads & I add it to just about anything I can!
  • sportsqueen32
    sportsqueen32 Posts: 115
    they make an unsweetened soy milk as well.....it has a lot more protein in it than the unsweetened almond milk. I still buy skim milk by the qt now since i only use it for cereal and cook and serve sugar free chocolate pudding. I usually snack on dry cereal, cheerios, Special K, wheaties. SpecialK has more sodium than the other 2 though.

    Another idea is to make fruit smoothies, i know you were planning to buy the greek yogurt but I use dannon carb and sugar control vanilla bean in mine cuz it has way less sugar. Right now the only sugar i get in my diet is from fruits and veggies and the occasional spaghetti sauce and skim milk.

    Hope this helps!!
  • lexicalabrese
    lexicalabrese Posts: 200 Member
    Yummmmm!

    My little one and I went shopping today to get all of our groceries...we bought everything on that list and didn't stray very much! Whole wheat pastas, sandwich thins, plain oats, etc etc.

    Btw...how do you know if oats are "steel cut" if it doesn't say it on the package? I have no idea...:grumble:

    I did splurge a little bit and bought some whipped honey...yummmm! I want to eat it straight, it's soooo good! I got it for a little bit of sweetening for my oatmeal in the mornings :wink:

    For lunch today? I had a yummy wrap! And guess what...none of it was frozen!!! A tomato basil wrap, some baked chicken, lettuce, hummus, and balsamic vinaigrette...mmmm! I know, it isn't chock full of yummies and veggies, but I was starving and wanted a quick lunch. I also decided to pre-cook about 3 or 4 days worth of chicken for the week. I'll be doing the same with my ground turkey that I got...we're having turkey burgers tonight (and probably the next few nights :laugh: )! Mmmmmm....

    I bought tons and tons of fruit...bananas, strawberries, kiwis, watermelon, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries...I wasn't kidding when I said lots! I cut up the watermelon and kiwis and put them in the fridge so they'd be super easy access when I'm hungry for something sweet. Veggies are all frozen still because I am too lazy to buy them raw and cook them...but i DID buy some carrots :tongue:

    Thanks for all of the suggestions! Later on today I'm gonna be boiling some eggs for the week :)
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
    Great job, Lexi! :flowerforyou:
  • ciaobella47
    ciaobella47 Posts: 95 Member
    If it doesn't say "steel cut oats" on the front, it most likely isn't. My favorite is McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal. Cooks pretty quick. (I usually use a little stevia and some chopped strawberries or other fruit.)

    I'd love to see your meal plan or an idea of it. I really, really want to go fresh but I'm so used to processed shortcuts that I'm running out of ideas quickly.

    -Rusti
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
    I'd love to see your meal plans as well! A couple of suggestions I haven't seen on this topic:

    Black beans or some other kind of beans (dried would be less processed, I assume -- you can cook lots in the crockpot and freeze to use as needed)

    Corn (either fresh or frozen)
  • lexicalabrese
    lexicalabrese Posts: 200 Member
    Well, my meal plan is very much the same thing everyday lol.

    Since I cooked meat for the week and only stored it in the refrigerator, I'll probably be having the same thing every day this week until that meat runs out...which I don't mind doing, because the stuff I made was yummy!

    I cooked some chicken (boiled it then pan browned it without any butter or oils so it tasted "cooked") and have been using that in a delicious chicken wrap! 4 ounces of chicken, a wrap (it's tomato basil, I forget the company but they're only 100 calories each and they're delicious and HUGE!),some hummus, lettuce, cucumber and balsamic vinaigrette. That thing is so big that it fills me up and I don't need a side, but if I do want something else I throw in some sliced cucumbers and grape tomatoes.

    Dinner is a turkey burger (ground turkey, Worcestershire sauce, egg white and some yogurt to keep them moist when you cook them, then broil them for 6 minutes on each side) on a sandwich thin (100 calories each and whole grain, no high fructose corn syrup) with some lettuce, tomato and any sauce I feel in the mood for. Lately I've used A1 and hummus, but mustard and light mayo are good too :)

    Throughout the day I eat lots of fruit...I pre-sliced some watermelon, cucumbers, strawberries, etc. I've got bananas, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries on hand also. I'll throw some of those together with some Splenda or some honey and make a yummy fruit salad!

    Breakfast is oatmeal with some fruit, or Cheerios with soymilk, or some egg whites. It all depends on what I want to make this week. Breakfast is really the only meal I have some flexibility with.

    Next week it'll be completely different, since I'll be cooking and freezing up completely different meats/meals. I'm thinking whole wheat pasta, rice, healthy ground turkey tacos with beans and rice, etc.

    Hope that helps :flowerforyou:
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