Do you make meals at home all the time?
Ver2
Posts: 37
I wanted to know how often you guys make your own things at home, and if so, how you store them in your fridge to keep them fresh for longer?
What kinds do you MUST have stocked in the fridge? For me, it's yogurt because that doesn't go bad particularly quickly...and milk, but I'm open to other things!
It's so much cheaper to buy things in bulk, but it's really crappy when something goes bad because I wasn't eating it fast enough.
Or maybe some of you guys never make meals at home and still lose weight anyway? :P
What kinds do you MUST have stocked in the fridge? For me, it's yogurt because that doesn't go bad particularly quickly...and milk, but I'm open to other things!
It's so much cheaper to buy things in bulk, but it's really crappy when something goes bad because I wasn't eating it fast enough.
Or maybe some of you guys never make meals at home and still lose weight anyway? :P
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Replies
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We only eat out once in a while - the vast majority of the time, we make food at home. Even if we make something that isn't as good nutritionally, we'll do it at home. A home cooked burger, and homemade fries are definitely going to be way better for you than the restaurant variety.
I buy a lot of fresh things, but I freeze meats, freeze some leftovers for re-heats, etc. Usually we don't lose a whole lot to spoilage.0 -
i have fruit or a yoghurt for my breakfast
I wither cook a small meal or make a salad (meat or fish) for lunch
I cook every evening for my dinner - I'm really liking stir fry or salad right now as it's warm
i havent had a meal out since i started on 29th March, but when I do I shall go to Pizza Express and have the new Leggera range0 -
I almost always cook at home because it is so much easier to control waht goes into the meal. When we do eat out, I stick with grilled chicken or shrimp and steamed veggies.
When we have leftovers we freeze them a lot for an easy dinner later.
I agree that it is the pits when we do have to throw away food because we didn't use it. If you like salmon, I always keep the pouches of smoked salmon in the pantry and have it with Triscuit Thin Crisps or other lower calorie crackers and laughing cow cheese for a quick and easy dinner.0 -
I try to have a cook day frequently.
I pick 3 recipes in the low cal section from recipe.com, buy and cook them all.
I put is microwave safe plastic bowls of 1 or 2 servings.
each day i throw together a salad or broccoli or open a can of veggies then ring the dinner bell.
There's only tow of us eating it 1 or 2 times per day, so the 3 dishes last all week.
I get a lot of interesting variety too.0 -
I make most of my meals at home. If you buy something in bulk, or you have something that you haven't used that will go bad quickly, like meat, FREEZE IT!! One of my friends, for example, will make two large pans of lasagna, and section them up into tupperware containers, and freeze the portions she won't be eating right away. Voila! Homemade TV dinners.0
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How do you not get the 'freezer' taste when you guys freeze extra meats? I always get the not-so-fresh tastes
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When i was younger i ate dinner out a lot, rationalizing it in a variety of ways. I always bought my lunches too. I thought i enjoyed eating out, but i think i was making excuses back then.
Over the past few years i've really cut back on how much i eat out. We eat out maybe once every two weeks, sometimes less often than that. When i think back to a) all the money i wasted b) all the time i wasted waiting in restaurants c) all the unhealthy food i ate (and i rarely ate at fast food restaurants - it was always sit down places, but still...), i just shake my head. I will definitely say that when i lived & often cooked alone, it was more of a challenge because like you say, things do go bad.
An example: today we are cutting up ingredients to make a big pot pie. It has lean organic ground beef in it & that's likely the unhealthiest thing. The rest of it will contain mostly root vegetables with some seasoning. That will last for 3 to 5 meals, & i have no issues eating the same thing for dinner several nights in a row if we vary up the salad that goes with the meal. We usually freeze a couple of portions & just keep the rest in the fridge. We always try to make much more than we need & then eat it throughout the week. This works well when things get busy.
I make my lunches too & since i joined this site have been refining them to try to make healthier choices. A couple years back i lost about 7 lbs just by starting to brown bag my lunches. I've changed my breakfast choices up too in terms of portions & such - this week i stopped eating regular old cereals & switched to steel cut oats. I still have a ways to go but it's the journey that's important.
To be honest, our freezer is small & we're thinking of buying a separate freezer so we can store more home cooked frozen meals in it.0 -
A number of things come up for this with me and my partner.
* We have had to look at what we eat when we go out, and how much they server us. I feel that restaurants think that by giving you big plates with lots of food they will get you to come back. Show me a restaurant that servers a normal portion and I'll bet you that the patrons are a totally different class of person than at any normal sit-down place I ever be able to afford regularly
* Like others have said you don't know what the ingredients are that they use, but you could guess that they try to make money and less expensive ingredients will have more fat, HFCS, less organic, type products, and are usually hidden by breading, sauces, and toppings.
*When we do eat out we try to practice portion control, and bring home a doggie bag with 1/2 of the meal, sometimes more, that make a great meal the next day. This has been made easier by asking for the doggie bag/box up front, with the order - and not eat anything until they bring the box - then split it in half right away.
* Eating at home means having a scale for everything and a bunch of measuring cups of various sizes (many 1/4, 1/3, and 1/8 cups are important), which is pretty easy - helps to have a good electronic scale that lets you use a tare weight quickly so you can measure individual ingredients on the same plate.
* We have been practicing over-cooked meals to have left overs, but both of us have to practice the - put it all away right away - that way we don't wander back for another serving.
* Now i admit I haven't been so good at bringing lunches to work, and so I eat out more than I should, but like with everything else having a partner to help or a buddy that will keep you on track makes it so much easier
Hope these tips make sense - plus you'll save lots of money then you can afford that new wardrobe that you'll need after you make your goals!0 -
How do you not get the 'freezer' taste when you guys freeze extra meats? I always get the not-so-fresh tastes
Don't heat them up in a microwave - use conventional heat - either oven or stove-top.0 -
my must have fridge staples:
baby carrots
oranges
organic fat free milk
greek yogurt
hummus
pita
feta cheese
low fat string cheese0 -
When I used to eat healthily in the past, I used to cook all my meals at home, weighing everything and freezing individual meals. Right now I'm having rather a chaotic time but still want to go back to eating more sensibly so I'm relying on ready prepared meals, mostly from the healthy eating ranges, most of which are cook / chill products from my local supermarkets.
As I understand it, in the US and in Canada healthy edible pre-prepared meals aren't widely available and where they are, they are often full of processed foods and additives; when I visit my partner in Canada, we cook from scratch.0 -
A number of things come up for this with me and my partner.
* We have had to look at what we eat when we go out, and how much they server us. I feel that restaurants think that by giving you big plates with lots of food they will get you to come back. Show me a restaurant that servers a normal portion and I'll bet you that the patrons are a totally different class of person than at any normal sit-down place I ever be able to afford regularly
* Like others have said you don't know what the ingredients are that they use, but you could guess that they try to make money and less expensive ingredients will have more fat, HFCS, less organic, type products, and are usually hidden by breading, sauces, and toppings.
*When we do eat out we try to practice portion control, and bring home a doggie bag with 1/2 of the meal, sometimes more, that make a great meal the next day. This has been made easier by asking for the doggie bag/box up front, with the order - and not eat anything until they bring the box - then split it in half right away.
* Eating at home means having a scale for everything and a bunch of measuring cups of various sizes (many 1/4, 1/3, and 1/8 cups are important), which is pretty easy - helps to have a good electronic scale that lets you use a tare weight quickly so you can measure individual ingredients on the same plate.
* We have been practicing over-cooked meals to have left overs, but both of us have to practice the - put it all away right away - that way we don't wander back for another serving.
* Now i admit I haven't been so good at bringing lunches to work, and so I eat out more than I should, but like with everything else having a partner to help or a buddy that will keep you on track makes it so much easier
Hope these tips make sense - plus you'll save lots of money then you can afford that new wardrobe that you'll need after you make your goals!
I own a restaurant, and I think you are correct about any chain restaurant - the sit-down, family type variety - but most locally owned restaurants, especially serving ethnic food - serve normal portions, and do not use HFCS, breading, sauces etc. It is actually the American diet that promotes that and maybe Italian, too. Greek-American, Tex-Mex, etc are probably not good choices either. Ours is a Middle Eastern restaurant. We serve normal portions. We do not add any fillers and use no HFCS except in the ketchup which is actually only on the menu because the average American insists on having it. This is not to say that everything on our menu is healthy. No - we deep fry foods, etc. But, at least 70% of our menu is not only healthy, it is VERY healthy. We make our own hummus, our salads are dressed with olive oil and lime, and all our vegies are fresh, We grill our meats and/or put them on the rotisserie for slow roasting. We use fresh herbs and spices. We make our own tahini, and our salsas are absolutely fresh, in-house and low cal with no fillers or sugars. We bake our own pita bread every morning. As a result, we do not make a lot of money, but we are happy to have a healthy yet delicious menu, and our customers are very appreciative.
There are a lot of locally owned restaurants in our neighborhood, and I know a fair number of the owners, and I can say with a fair amount of certainty that what I say about my restaurant is true about theirs too. So, don't give up on restaurants.
Another thing - ASK THE SERVER, and if you aren't satisfied with his/her answer - ASK THE CHEF. S/he will usually be happy to tell you what is in the food. Just try to do it during off hours. Don't do it during a rush. Go in between meals, and have a conversation with the owner, kitchen manager or chef and you will soon find what you are looking for.
Good luck!0 -
Wish there was a Middle Eastern restaurant somewhere near me, Iran is the only place I've been where I actually lost weight without trying - and it's not because the food wasn't absolutely fantastic!Ours is a Middle Eastern restaurant. We serve normal portions.
My problem with restaurants is not that there's nothing healthy on offer, I can usually find something (or at least something that can be easily modified) my problem is that the non-healthy offerings can tempt me far too easily.0 -
I make all my own food from scratch, I just cook each meal as it comes. I don't store any made up meals in advance.0
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That is really good! Good job girl. I wish i had that dicipline.0
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Staples:
eggs
whole wheat bread
oranges
apples
bananas
oatmeal
frozen berries
frozen asparagus
frozen green beans
frozen broccoli
canned tuna
frozen fish (tilapia/haddock/salmon)
chicken (either frozen boneless/skinless breasts or a fam pack of leg quarters that I'll skin later)
ground turkey
green tea
orange pekoe tea
chicken
potatoes
canned tomatoes
egg noodles and penne pasta (but a bag and a box of each lasts a while)
canned pumpkin
sweetener
bagged salad
coffee
Staples that I don't have to buy *every* week:
vanilla extract
lemon pepper
bacon (husband loves bacon and I use .5 tsp bacon grease on my microwaved potato)
low cal mayo
low cal salad dressing
Ital. seasoning
protein powder
dry milk
cinnamon
ginger
women's multi-vitamin
generic tums (calcium supplement that doubles as candy X-D)
SF Jell-O (I don't over indulge because of the sodium)
popcorn (bag of kernels)
unsweetened cocoa powder
carrots
celery
onions
fresh garlic0 -
I understand what you mean about 'freezer taste'. I can't stand it. It's not that I have a sensitive palate either. But I feel like I can taste every single time the freezer went off and on, if that makes any sense! I think it might be because when I was a kid, my mom always shopped for daily for fresh meat that she would be cooking that day or the day after. I can't stand freezer food! (Not even from the grocery freezer!)0
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It's not so much to do with discipline, I was just brought up cooking, so I don't think not to. We live in the middle of nowhere so takeout is not an option, and I don't like ready meals.0
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My staples are -
milk, butter, eggs, yoghurt, truffles (I know, but we spend a lot of time in Italy so I stock up on them when we go), dried pasta, rice, potatoes, carrots, onions, plain flour, dark chocolate (for cooking), sugar, vanilla, curry spices, salt, olive oil (also imported from Italy in bulk), passata, red lentils, apples, bananas, lemons and rocket. Also dozens of jars of home made jams and jellies as I make hundreds of jars of damson jam and chilli, quince, crabapple and mint jelly every October. I also always have a freezer full of frozen apple, quince and damsons.
I never ever don't have those ingredients in my kitchen.0 -
Oh wow, you guys have some great ideas. Keep them coming!0
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We cook every meal at home, breakfast/lunch/dinner. On work days we bring something that doesn't have to be refridgerated so its cup of Cambell's soups and Clif bars at the moment. Otherwise too expensive and unhealthy to eat out and its more special if we do it less often. In our opinion anyways! 0
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To avoid spoilage and combat a small food budget I rely a lot on canned fruit (packed in juice) and frozen vegetables. I keep all my cheese frozen and when my yogurt gets near it's expiration date I toss it in the freezer too (super delicious).
I usually got to the store every few days to replenish my fresh produce (it's a 1 and 1/2 mile walk so I count it was exercise).
I bake myself a fresh batch of pita bread every few weeks.0 -
I used to make elaborate meals, but it got expensive, so then we started eating out, that got expensive. So no we eat simple. We eat tacos and salad nearly every night for dinner. There is such a variety of tacos that we never get tired of it. For breakfast it is either cereal and a fruit, or toast and cottage cheese and a fruit, or one egg and yogurt. For lunch I make tuna salad . Very simple and I don't have to think about it, that is what is making losing weight much easier this time around!!0
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What brand of taco stuff do you use? I love tacos but tortillas always scare me
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