switching from processed foods...

What is rice/quinoa blend? How do you make it and what does it taste like? Where did you find Dr. Pepper with Imperial Sugar?

Rice Select makes a brown rice/quinoa/freekah blend called Royal Blend. It cooks in 20 minutes, and quinoa is an excellent source of protein as well. The blend contains red quinoa, which is a bit weird to look at the first few times, because when the hull splits to release the grain upon cooking, there's a little tail-looking thing, but it's not harmful and has no different taste than the rest of the grain.

I live in TX, and most of our grocery stores stock 6-packs of the Imperial Sugar Dr Pepper, either in 12 oz cans or 8 oz bottles. It may be harder to find outside of TX though, I'm not sure.

I would like to incorporate veggies in to my eating habits but I dont know how to make/cook them. I know it sounds silly but only veggies I ever ate came from a can. just heat and add butter. I like broccoli, corn, and french style green beans but i add butter. My boyfriend uses green peppers and onions in our spaghetti sauce.

I can totally relate to this. I never learned to cook much of anything when growing up and my mother mostly made vegetables out of a can (or overcooked), so it was a revelation when I learned to do it myself.

You'll be surprised at how easy it is once you get started. A couple of easy ways to cook vegetables are sauteeing them in the pan and--one of my favorites--roasting them. With the green beans, for example, just spray a pan with olive oil and add fresh beans and sautee them at medium until they look finished. Taste them if you aren't sure. Zucchini is good this same way, as are lots of other vegetables. You can do spinach or chard this way too, but it goes fast. For roasted broccoli, put them in a pan and spray them with oil (if you like), add salt and pepper, and put them in at really whatever temperature is convenient, but 400 works fine, and then cook 10 mins or so, checking to see if they are done. Asparagus and lots of others work the same way.

Spaghetti sauce is definitely a good place to add vegetables--I like to add spinach or zucchini as well as peppers and onions.

I would like to incorporate veggies in to my eating habits but I dont know how to make/cook them. I know it sounds silly but only veggies I ever ate came from a can. just heat and add butter. I like broccoli, corn, and french style green beans but i add butter. My boyfriend uses green peppers and onions in our spaghetti sauce.

They make bags that you can put in the microwave to steam vegetables in 1-2 minutes, easy and quick!

And, here's something which is wonderful:

I never knew how good I could feel until I started eating vegetables. Not the breaded, overcooked, fried stuff we all grew up with...but real vegetables.

I don't class tinned fish as processed... If it has stuff added in the ingredients then yes but a time of 100% tuna I would not hesitate to eat! I tend to go more off ingredients, if I know what each ingredient is and it's a readily available item for the pantry I'll eat it, anything chemically sounding and it's a no no for me

OH, and many, many congrats on your 47 lbs lost!

Frozen vegetables are healthier than canned; they have no added sodium. Find your favorites and start with those. Add a bit of water and microwave them. If I'm craving butter, I spray mine with olive oil and sprinkle with Butter Buds.

Since you're not used to them, you might find you prefer corn and peas. These are naturally higher in sugar. As you get bored with them, start trying others. Give them a chance. A good rule of thumb is, the darker and greener the vegetable, the healthier it is.

Frozen Veg in many cases is better for nutrients than the so called fresh from the shop - If you are in canada right now aside from greenhouse greens everything has traveled for ages to get here Right now the majority is coming from south america but i have a friend who imports just Lettuces and he has ships come in from south africa even. for items that freeze well like Peas Corn Beans Broccoli Cauliflower they will have been flash frozen within hours of picking and that means more preserved nutrients - not so hot for eating in salads but if you have the freezer space just fine for most recipes involving cooking
In fact for Peas I only eat them fresh when i can buy them local in season at the farm otherwise the frozen ones are better because the sugars start converting to starch as soon as they are picked - same for Corn