food traditions broken

I was raised that you always have to have 1 meat, 1 veggie with lots of melted butter and salt and 1 starch on your plate and you have to eat it all. Well, I am trying to get out of the starch routine (I do love me some starches though). I try to just have grilled chicken and a steamed veggie. We also always had a desert after a meal. Sundays were always a big country meal of chicken fried steak, gravy, buttery mashed potatoes and buttery vegetables. I have totally stopped this one!!

Good thread, thanks.

Memaw

I can relate. I am a southern!! All of our meals when I was growing up consisted of comfort full, lots of starches and FRIED, FRIED, FRIED!! I think my grandmother seasoned everything with bacon grease. :laugh:

I don't have too tough a time staying away from the above foods now as my grandmother passed away and the only time I have some of them is at the holidays and family reunions. I can manage that.

For me it's cheese!! In the past, I would eat a piece of tree bark if it's covered in cheese. I have learned to eat my salad without any cheese at all! I feel like this is a major accomplishment for me. :happy: In the past, I would never make myself a salad at home if there was no cheese in the fridge. Now, I settle for a cheese stick several times a week and other types only on special occasions. It's amazing how that change makes me feel, like I've really forged ahead in my habit changes. :-)

I come from a mostly Polish, part Slovak family. I was raised on mostly butter, meat and noodles. I became a vegetarian when I was 11, that was very tough! When my mom cooks there is ALWAYS meat, rarley any side dishes, so finding a vegetable in that house is not likely....(unless its in a can)

Now that I am all grown up, I continue to avoid meat for the most part, I only eat veggies that come from a market or frozen if I absolutley must, and I save the Traditional Polish goodies for the Holidays only! I don't restrict myself at those times either....as unhealthy as it is, a nice plate of kielbasa and saurkraut, peirogi fried in butter, and some golabki.....Well its in my blood to enjoy it with some vodka to boot:drinker: , lol You can take the girl outta Poland, but you can't take the butter outta her veins, hahaha:laugh:

ohhh hmm im puerto rican and we eat alota meat and starches!! like rice, malanga, potatoes, ohh and pork, and chicken, and omgosh it all tastes soooo good its sooo hard to let go of all of it :[ im stil lworking at it, but that ok

I partly think because this is a cheaper way to eat and people over there can't afford healthier foods. Isn't that sad? When you think about it, here in the US, a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of cauliflower...:huh:

I don't think that's true... I think if you're careful, you can definitely find healthy ways to eat no matter what your budget is. A bag of chips may be cheaper than a head of cauliflower in some places, but it's certainly not cheaper than a head of lettuce, an apple, and a pound of carrots (all three!)

A pound of beans isn't expensive, and it's not fattening unless you cook it with lard and add greasy meat to it! :bigsmile: Choices, Choices!!! :bigsmile:

EDIT: I misread your post!! I thought you were saying your scenario for HERE, not Croatia!! That is sad - so many places in the world, it IS indeed difficult and expensive to eat and obtain healthy and fresh fruits, veggies, etc for families. It's so important to help however and wherever we can.

Back to the original topic.... I remember eating a lot of chicken with skin on, baked in the oven... served with some grease dripping off..... whole milk or 2% milk, lots of starchy stuff. Things I looooved like fresh hot homemade bread with melted butter dripping off.... I avoid that kind of stuff now, or make my bread with whole wheat! I also remember a lot of summer salads with tuna and eggs, fresh garden vegetables, etc, and I still eat tons of those!

Sorry, I refuse to give up any of the foods I love, I just don't eat them as much as I used to.

Oh I haven't given them up--I'm just not in an area where I can get that kind of thing right now.

I'm sorry to hear that.
I wasn't really directing the post at anyone in particular, just a general statement.

My favorite food growing up was fried okra. They made sure to always hand the okra plate to me last so everybody else could get some. :laugh:

Now I cut it up and spread it out flat on a cookie sheet. Then I sprinkle a little seasoned corn meal and flour on top with salt & pepper and bake it til crispy. I can't say its quite the same, but its better than not having it at all!

Oh thank God....I needed this recipe. I've always fried mine and never thought of baking it. At Thanksgiving my mom still to this day makes me a plate...just for me :blushing: . I love it too much to give it up.

For me its more about getting away from cooking the same meals over and over that my mum (sorry I'm from the UK!!!) cooked for my family when we were younger.

We ate reasonably healthily, and up until recently I've been cooking the same 'healthy' meals that my mum makes, only problem is there were about 4 recipes! Gets a bit boring after a while.

Sites like this are great for learning new recipes and meal ideas, so I'm broadening my repetoire of healthy meals!

I had no idea what a chicken fried steak was either!! :blushing:

Growing up it was a lot of carbs and not the whole grain high fiber kind either. Bagels, muffins, bread, pasta, potatoes with gravy etc etc...

Double Post....:grumble:

We've changed so much of what we eat ---- no more fried stuff - no fried squash or potatoes now I roast them in oven with a little olive oil.

No skin on chicken. Cut the fat off meats, little to no butter, no margarine, skim milk only, no regular ranch dressing - which is good on everything in the south....no biscuits and gravy for breakfast - poached eggs or egg beater breakfast sandwich....

so many changes - so much better for me!!!

um....perhaps off topic...but what the heck is chicken fried steak?

Wow, that's funny. I never even thought that someone might not know what chicken fried steak is.

Chicken fried steak is a a steak (usually cube steak or something similar) breaded and fried. It's really yummy but really fattening!! It's usually served with cream gravy, mashed potatoes and a veggie like green beans. If you live in Texas you can't go to a resturaunt that doesn't have it on the menu.

Memaw

Wow! That is some meal. I had no idea....I'm French Canadian, and probably the closest relative to comfort food of this sort is Poutine...which consists of French Fries smothered in cheese curd and hot gravy...a hot mess of loveliness...but it is a once in a year or two thing for me right now, lol
A.

Ummmm poutine I haven't had poutine forever!!! (I too am French Canadian, can u tell? :bigsmile:

I always have and always will be a heavy carb eater, but I intend to make that a needed item by running again (training for a 5K in 9 weeks, and plan to keep running 5Ks regularly). But I have stopped eating it four days a week like I did growing up!

My mom also used to make a lot of stuff either frying it in the frying pan on the stove, or baking it in the oven, but had so much junk on it, when she pulled it out of the oven, when we lifted the steaks off the baking sheet, there would be a puddle of SOMETHING on the sheet. I changed that as soon as I started cooking (even before my weight became an issue) and have stopped cooking just about EVERYTHING on the stove top unless it is in a saucepan (you can't bake spaghetti sauce!) or being browned. I bake just about EVERYTHING.

I refuse to add butter or grease to a pan for non-stickness... I ALWAYS use spray stuff since I use less of it. It winds up saving me money, too, since the Pam costs a bit more, I am more stingy about spraying it, whereas, the butter I had no choice but to toss it on in tabs to smear it around.

My mom used to make steak, pork chops, etc, in the oven (with the puddles) about 3-5 days a week. We usually only did chicken breasts during the summer on the grill. My husband, the red meat eater he is, will GRILL anything he can, even pancakes!! He always looks for the cuts with the least fat, and we try to keep the red meat to once a week. Depending on money and food supply, we will eat baked chicken (boneless, SKINLESS breasts) about twice a week and fish at least once a week if we have it... and he will grill the fish!!

I am also trying to get in the habit of buying fresh veggies and steaming them (although I am still keeping canned stuff in stock, and I don't like frozen veggies for some reason). I still need to invest in a better steamer!!

I WAS drinking skim milk since my ex and I split in 04, but my husband (and my ex) can't stand skim milk, (my ex refuses to buy anything but whole milk) but my husband is willing to drink 2%, and since I grew up on 2%, I am willing to drink that. But when my husband deploys in a couple months, I am switching back to skim milk til he gets home. But I already have to buy two milks because my son needs soy, so trying to stock THREE milks is just too much for me.

I also grew up on white bread, wouldn't eat anything BUT, couldn't stand the taste. Now I won't eat white, I can't stand the way it sticks to the roof of my mouth, I will only eat wheat bread!

I have also started cutting back on my milk intake overall. I used to drink it like water growing up, went through a gallon every two days when I lived alone in the barracks (plus the milk I drank in the chow hall!). Now i can make two gallons last me about three to five days depending on if it is just me and hubby, or if kids or frequent guest is here with us.

I haven't given them up, I just don't eat like that very often any more. And when I do, my stomach really pays the price. But they just taste so darn good!!!


Memaw

I bought a book (on sale at the school's book fair) about making your kids eat healthier. Didn't really learn much, because I've already learned so much... Other than sometimes foods. Yes, you can have those yummy things, but only sometimes. I just like the phrasing...

Sometimes foods