Eating healthy

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Anglewannabe

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I live alone so cooking for 1 often means buying a lot of things that I don’t use up. I try my best to cook things that I can freeze but that doesn’t work with necessarily everything.

Sometimes I want to buy healthier things but health food stores and expensive and I have to wonder if the food really is of better quality.

It appears no matter what I want to make, there is always something bad in it. For example, when I make styr fry, the teriyaki sauce I buy obviously has a lot of salt in it.

Can people share some tips on how they cut down on salt and sugar that are fairly convenient for day to day life?

Angie
 
If you cook from scratch, you can control how much salt or sugar is in your food. I know it is not fun to try and cook for one sometimes, some things don’t lend themselves to being made in small amounts. But if you can cut down the recipe, or freeze as you mentioned, it’s worth doing to cut down the amount of salt or sugar. Instead of salt, try a salt free blend of herbs. Better yet, experiment with slices and herbs you may not normally use. My recent obsession is smokey paprika!
 
Anglewannabe said:
I live alone so cooking for 1 often means buying a lot of things that I don’t use up. I try my best to cook things that I can freeze but that doesn’t work with necessarily everything.

Sometimes I want to buy healthier things but health food stores and expensive and I have to wonder if the food really is of better quality.

It appears no matter what I want to make, there is always something bad in it. For example, when I make styr fry, the teriyaki sauce I buy obviously has a lot of salt in it.

Can people share some tips on how they cut down on salt and sugar that are fairly convenient for day to day life?

Angie
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They sell a few brands of low salt soy sauce in this area.
 
There is a recipe on line on how to make your own Mrs. Dash. You may have most of the spices in your cabinet. You can make your own Mrs. Dash a lot less expensive than buying it ready made. You could add a small amt. of salt to it if you want. I need salt on my meat otherwise the meat is kind of bland. I will make larger batches of soup and freeze the soup in smaller containers. Good luck.
 
I hear you, lady…I also face the cooking-for-one struggle and know how real it can be! 😃

What I’ve found helpful:
  • The freezer is your friend! Especially with chopped veggies/meat, fruit for smoothies and the like, and leftovers. If time is an issue, make it easy for yourself to grab what you need when you need it- already washed, chopped, etc. and frozen. And you’ll be less likely to grab for those salty and sugary convenience/prepackaged items.
  • Buy in bulk. If you’re fortunate enough to live near some good places that sell grains, spices, etc. in bulk, go for it! Especially since you mentioned cutting down on sugar and salt, moving away from the prepared sauces and flavoring towards bulk spices (or even growing some of your own herbs) can help you avoid the excess salt, sugar, and additives (and there’s nothing quite like fresh spices).
  • Plan your meals. Have a few go-tos that you keep on rotation for ease of shopping and preparation. Depending on how much variety you prefer, this saves a lot of time and energy once you get your rhythm going (and helps you get more efficient about using ingredients). Alternatively, you might find yourself coming across a great ingredient (some deliciously fresh item that is in season perhaps)-- in that case, get creative and plan several meals around it so you can either use as much of it up as possible or freeze it when you’re through.
 
The key is meal planning and not trying to cook a feast each night. Hop on any crossfit site and you’ll find great guides and meal plans for eating healthy, at reasonable costs, and for one.
 
Great ideas about using low-salt products and herbs!

Over the years I have learned how to eat healthy. A good tip I can give is about cooking meatballs, breaded eggplant slices for eggplant parmesan, and breaded chicken cutlets in the oven.

I used to fry all of those foods, and a lot of grease was absorbed by them, especially eggplant which is a sponge for oil!

I like to use parchment paper on a cookie sheet and just place the food on that paper. I do use a soft brush to dab a little bit of olive oil on top of the breaded eggplant slices and breaded chicken. 350 or 400 degree oven

I make my own salad dressing using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and whatever herbs I have.
 
Back when I was single, batch cooking was my friend. I’d spend Saturday morning cooking while catching up on TV shows or listening to the Met Opera broadcast…fun!

Healthy foods:

–I’d roast a whole chicken every week for Sunday dinner. After dinner, I’d chop up the meat and put it into a container in the fridge. Cooked chicken meat is really versatile: you can use it to make a stirfry, you can throw it on top of a salad for protein, eat it on whole wheat bread with a little mayo as a sandwich, put it in a wrap, etc.
–I’d cut up a whole bag of carrots into carrot sticks, put them in a container, and cover them with water before putting the container in the fridge. They’ll be good for a week that way, and the cold water keeps them crisp. Ditto celery stalks. You can use either by themselves as a snack, or bring a bag of them plus a small container of peanut butter and some fruit for a fast, healthy work lunch.
–I’d hang onto the carrot and celery ends until I’d roasted the chicken. On Monday morning, I’d put them plus some leftover bits of onion from cooking something else and the chicken bones/skin/cooking juices into my crockpot on “low.” When I got home from work, I’d have a gorgeous pot of chicken broth. I’d strain out the bones, skin and vegetables, and then set it in the fridge to cool. On Tuesday evening, I could skim off the fat and toss it (some people cook with it, but I didn’t usually), and then I’d have a pot of fat-free chicken broth with which to make a big pot of vegetable soup: add some beans and some vegetables and some bread on the side, and you have a really filling, healthy meal for not much money at all.
–String cheese and fruit is a great snack combo: protein plus calcium plus fiber plus carbs. I’d wash a bunch of grapes and cut them into small bunches and put them in the fridge early in the week, and then all I’d have to do for a healthy snack is grab a bunch of grapes plus a cheese stick. This made it more likely that I’d eat a healthy snack than say, “eh, I don’t feel like washing the grapes, I’ll grab some chocolate instead.”

Finally, eating healthy is often something of a balancing act. Almost no one, barring millionaires with personal chefs, eats perfectly healthy 100% of the time. 😉 Just don’t eat a whole lot of salt at breakfast or lunch if you’re having a stirfry for dinner, and there ya go. (I also use low-sodium soy sauce in most stirfries.)
 
Irishmom2 said:
Yum, Dorothy! What time is dinner? 😉
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Well, if you lived near me that would be nice! 🙂

About once a month I have a pot-luck lunch at my home, and then about five of us ladies watch a good movie DVD together. (Such as “Clare and Francis”, “The Way”, and many others.) After that we pray for each other’s intentions.
 
Budgetbytes.com is one of my favorite websites for recipes - the recipes are frugal and usually very healthy, and most things are made from scratch. The blogger is usually cooking for one, and has advice on how to store and freeze larger recipes.

She’ll also share shopping tips from time to time on how to buy just enough of something, or best ways to store food from partially used cans, etc.

She has a recipe for teriyaki sauce that I love. I usually use reduced sodium soy sauce to make it. It will keep in the fridge a while if you don’t use it all (I’ve even frozen it before and it’s been fine, but I don’t think that’s recommended.)

I do make a lot of my own condiments and spice mixes now. Way cheaper than at the store and usually a lot more flavorful, plus less salt and other not-so-great fillers, and many of them keep just fine in the fridge.
 
pensmama87 said:
Budgetbytes.com is one of my favorite websites for recipes - the recipes are frugal and usually very healthy, and most things are made from scratch. The blogger is usually cooking for one, and has advice on how to store and freeze larger recipes.

She’ll also share shopping tips from time to time on how to buy just enough of something, or best ways to store food from partially used cans, etc.

She has a recipe for teriyaki sauce that I love. I usually use reduced sodium soy sauce to make it. It will keep in the fridge a while if you don’t use it all (I’ve even frozen it before and it’s been fine, but I don’t think that’s recommended.)

I do make a lot of my own condiments and spice mixes now. Way cheaper than at the store and usually a lot more flavorful, plus less salt and other not-so-great fillers, and many of them keep just fine in the fridge.
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This is a very good point, and one I hadn’t thought of.

A lot of recipes will call for, say, “Cajun seasoning,” or “Italian seasoning.” Premade ones are often laden with salt and such. There are a lot of recipes online for make your own, and that way you can adjust the exact amount of salt that you want. They’re really easy–just, say, some paprika, pepper, garlic, onion, thyme and salt in various proportions, put them in a little jar, and shake it a few times before using it.
 
My solution seems to be the opposite of other people’s. I don’t like reheating frozen food, so when I was single, I often planned a soup for the weekend meals. Any extra meat and veggies got thrown in there as well as some frozen veggies and a soup starter. When shopping, I would often buy just a small cut of fresh meat from the butcher department at the market. It was generally cheaper than having a lot left over. I also made use of the small container at the deli and salad bar. Generally it was cheaper to buy a single serving from there than buy all the ingredients to make the thing. Besides, it offered me a wider variety of fresh side dishes. I used the salad bar for toppings for salad or homemade pizza. That way I could get a variety of fresh veggies, without having to buy a package of each kind. For pizza, I could often get ham and pineapple or pepperoni from the salad bar for way less than purchasing a whole package. The market butcher also sold single servings of prepared meats. (Tiny meatloaf, stuffed porkchops, kabobs, bacon wrapped filet) Purchasing one serving of these was much less than buying the ingredients to do the same and you got to eat it fresh!
 
Thanks everyone for you replies. The problem I have (as Allegra mentioned) is it is sometimes cheaper to buy premade.

Nonetheless, terms such as ‘cook from scratch’ do confuse me. I am under the impression that most of the ingredients (such as flour or applesauce) that goes into recipes are already processed and therefore not the best.

Also, sayings like ‘herbs and spices’ confuses me too because it is too generic. Also, I never really found spices added much flavour, or if it did, the flavour was not a good one. obviously I am doing something wrong.

To the person who suggested to buy spices in bulk, does any bulk store work? Or do I need to go to a healthy food bulk stores. In Canada we have the bulk barn (that I could easily get to 1 to 2 times a month)

And to the person who suggested roasting a chicken, how do you keep the chicken from drying out?

Angie
 
Anglewannabe said:
Thanks everyone for you replies. The problem I have (as Allegra mentioned) is it is sometimes cheaper to buy premade.

Nonetheless, terms such as ‘cook from scratch’ do confuse me. I am under the impression that most of the ingredients (such as flour or applesauce) that goes into recipes are already processed and therefore not the best.

Also, sayings like ‘herbs and spices’ confuses me too because it is too generic. Also, I never really found spices added much flavour, or if it did, the flavour was not a good one. obviously I am doing something wrong.

To the person who suggested to buy spices in bulk, does any bulk store work? Or do I need to go to a healthy food bulk stores. In Canada we have the bulk barn (that I could easily get to 1 to 2 times a month)

And to the person who suggested roasting a chicken, how do you keep the chicken from drying out?

Angie
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The issue with dried herbs and spices is frequently that they are used when they are too old. My mother has parsley in her cupboard that I’m sure has been there at least five years. It may add some interesting flecks of color at this point, but probably tastes like sawdust.

You may simply need more of something, too. Different palates respond to foods differently. I tend to like very spicy and very “hot” food, so when I research a recipe online and it calls for cayenne pepper, for instance, I make a note of the reviews who say whether it was too much or too little. Usually I add a little more, or put the hot sauce on the table for DH and me to spare our children. 😉

That is one way buying “in bulk” may be helpful for you because you may actually be able to buy things in smaller quantities than conventionally packaged so they won’t go bad as fast. I’d say you probably don’t need a health food store to start, at least while you are getting comfortable with ingredients. I buy nothing from health food stores unless it’s cheaper there, which is basically never. 😉

And it’s true that cooking “from scratch” can be kind of a useless term - but basically I take it to mean that I’m not simply buying a prepared product and heating to specification or making only a few modifications. I’m starting with the ingredients myself and putting them together.

If you want to grind your own flour, of course, you can. Homemade applesauce is way better than the stuff at the store, even the “basic” kind without any added fillers. But if you don’t have the time or inclination for that (and most people don’t), using what you have at the store is probably better for you than buying the premade end product.
 
Yes. Allegra had some super useful ideas! There are many people who just prepare meals for themselves and would enjoy something other than what I call “tv dinners”.

So, luckily, there many resources available on the internet for single people to eat frugally and healthfully.
 
Also, if you enjoy Jello, a delicious and super healthful way to prepare it is to buy gelatin packages.

Basically you prepare it according to the directions on the package. However, instead of the added sugars/weird ingredients, you prepare it with fruit juice of your choice and whatever fruit you have on hand. Super easy and super healthful.

I especially enjoy the leftovers for breakfast because I start work at 5:00 am and I can’t quite face actual food at 4:00 am, yet because I do a physical job, I cannot start work on an empty stomach.
 
On roasting chickens:

There are two ways to roast a chicken and get a moist, tasty bird. The principle behind both is moisture, moisture, moisture!

Option A is a bit more time-consuming, but produces a chicken with deliciously crisp, brown skin. For this, take the chicken, and place it breast-up in a baking dish or pan that you’ve coated with a thin layer of either oil (olive is best) or butter. Pour a little oil or melted butter (or both) over it. You don’t need much–just 2-3 tablespoons. Add your herbs–I’d suggest thyme, tarragon, and sage, a light dusting of each, and ditto salt and pepper. You could also mix 2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice with the butter or oil, and then sprinkle some crushed rosemary and salt and pepper over the chicken. Put it in the oven, which you’ve preheated to 350 degrees. Before you throw away the wrapper the chicken came in, make a note of the weight. You’ll be cooking the chicken for approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees. Every 15-20 minutes, open the oven, take a big spoon, and dip up the butter/oil/chicken drippings mixture from the pan, and pour it over the chicken. The idea is to keep a layer of that stuff over the chicken at all times. Like I said, more time-consuming, but the skin that comes off a bird cooked like that is the best. 😃 Not especially healthy, of course, but…yummmm! 😃

Option B is much like Option A, except that you put the chicken in a greased pan with the seasonings like in option A, but use for the pan either a dutch oven (think a wide, heavy, ovensafe pot with a lid), a casserole with a lid, or a deepish pan that you can cover with aluminum foil. Once more, cook for 18-20 minutes/pound or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 165. Because the chicken is covered, it’s almost more steamed than roasted–water can’t escape much from the inside of the pan, so the chicken won’t get dry unless you roast it a ridiculously long time.

Option B, crockpot edition is the easiest of all, though again, it means not having as tasty skin. Take the chicken, and put it in the crockpot. Drizzle with a little oil or butter. Dust it with seasonings. If you want, you could throw some carrots under the chicken. (Some people suggest potatoes, but they always come out really mushy for me like this, so I’m not a fan.) Put the lid on the crockpot, and set it on “low.” Go to work. Come home, and enjoy the fact that dinner is already made for you. You could even get the chicken ready the night before: just put it and the seasonings and so on in the ceramic dish part of the crockpot, but set that in the fridge, and the next morning, all you have to do is set it in the crockpot pan, turn the switch, and go to work. I like recipes like this . Lots of flavor!

I’m told you can also put a crockpot chicken under a broiler for 4-5 minutes if you want the skin crisped up, but I haven’t tried that so can’t really comment on it.

Insofar as processed food goes, you can drive yourself mad trying to follow every dietary recommendation out there. 😉 Everything in moderation, including moderation! I wouldn’t suggest for a second a diet consisting entirely of white flour, but dipping a chicken thigh in it before cooking it on the stove can keep it moister and more flavorful at the expense of eating a total of, what, half a teaspoon of flour, max? Likewise, applesauce is, well, cooked apples. You can make your own, of course, if you want to (there are some quite good crockpot recipes out there, and you could freeze single servings of it in sandwich-sized bags stacked flat in the freezer), but as processed foods go, I’d avoid, say, “fruit-flavored snacks,” but not unsweetened applesauce whose ingredients are apples, water, and citric acid. (Citric acid is Vitamin C, and is often added to products with a high amount of fruit of the kind that browns when exposed to oxygen. Citric acid prevents this.) I’d also eat some fresh apples. Balance is the idea here.

Another great and healthy food to batch cook is brown rice. You can cook several servings at once, and use it for a lot of things. One day, you might eat it with chicken. The next, you might throw a cup of it in a pan with some soy sauce, a couple of eggs, some chopped vegetables, and a bit of ginger and garlic and have some awesome fried rice. Then you might have the rest of it in a tortilla with some beans as a burrito a couple of days later.
 
Anglewannabe said:
Thanks everyone for you replies. The problem I have (as Allegra mentioned) is it is sometimes cheaper to buy premade.

Nonetheless, terms such as ‘cook from scratch’ do confuse me. I am under the impression that most of the ingredients (such as flour or applesauce) that goes into recipes are already processed and therefore not the best.

Also, sayings like ‘herbs and spices’ confuses me too because it is too generic. Also, I never really found spices added much flavour, or if it did, the flavour was not a good one. obviously I am doing something wrong.

To the person who suggested to buy spices in bulk, does any bulk store work? Or do I need to go to a healthy food bulk stores. In Canada we have the bulk barn (that I could easily get to 1 to 2 times a month)

And to the person who suggested roasting a chicken, how do you keep the chicken from drying out?

Angie
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I cook poultry by slicing up a couple green apples and stuffing them inside. Then I rub butter and poultry seasoning on the skin to make it crispy, and cook in in the roaster. THe apples make sure the meat is very moist. I’ve found that most of the seasoning you put on the chicken is wasted as far as taste. Unless you inject it through the skin, into the meat, it doesn’t really change the taste much. It makes the house smell good though.
 
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