Those who eat a minimally processed diet...

[FartingAgainstThunder]

Could you share your favourite dinner recipes please?
I'm aiming to create a four week rolling menu plan and looking for inspiration.

What I like to do is think about my favourite ultraorocessed foods and make my own wholefood versions. Chicken nuggets, for example, can be really easy with chicken breast, a food processor, some dried herbs and breadcrumbs (which you can also make really easily).

So sorry for my ignorance but what is the difference between ultra processed and processed ?

Chick pea, tomato and sweet potato curry. Can’t tag Recipe, look up ‘jolly festive’.

The key is using whole foods so there's no waste, that keeps cost down. We're veggie as well which means it's easier to make cheap meals. On Sunday we'll have a roast, then the broccoli stalks will become soup for another night (if I don't have enough I top up with frozen which is fine for soup but not nice as a vegetable on your plate) or they get finely chopped with carrots, peas, onions, garlic, ginger, chili and soy to make egg fried rice.

Fry garlic, add chili, add bag of fresh spinach, once it's wilted add cooked spaghetti. Stir, serve with Parmesan

Cook pasta. Fry garlic, add block of cream cheese, stir, add little pasta water to loosen. Add Parmesan. Add pasta. Stir, serve

Lots of stews can be done in the slow cooker

Jacket potato with beans/ cheese/ coleslaw

Curries freeze really well so are brilliant for batch cooking

If you're trying to make the change to eating less processed food then make cake and biscuits too. Any big change in diet can make you feel your missing out, having something delicious to enjoy will stop you nipping out the the shop for a slab of Cadbury's. We usually have chocolate cake and oat and raisin cookies

I reckon something like pasta, cheese, canned tuna, tomato puree counts as processed.

Whereas ultra processed could mean biscuits, sweets, jar of ready made sauce

This is a great thread. Thanks OP.

@Joeslaol00 you need only download the free kindle sample / skim the intro in a bookshop of the van Tulleken book mentioned above to find yourself fully informed.

(Do you not read newspapers at all? It has been everywhere for months!)

I'd recommend some batch cooking and freezing. I've started making home made pizzas and make extra dough when I have time and then freeze it. When defrosted it's quick and easy and so much tastier than shop bought or take away. If you are on facebook there are groups specifically for this and instagram will have a lot of accounts where people share good recipes.

I really love shakshuka. I am coeliac and so do not eat much by way of pasta and bread even gluten free and don’t serve it to the family either. I do a lot of split pea and lentil soups and casseroles with vegetables. Breakfast is always Greek yoghurt berries and nuts. Every day.

This is divine and very easy. Takes 15 mins.

I don't bother with the sweet potato so all you need is tinned toms, white fish and all your spices.
Frozen basa fillets are perfect for this. Normal rice and normal salt too.

Thank you Nigella ♥
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/fear-free-fish-stew

Actually (sorry to quote you a second time @Serencwtch!) you might find this thread supremely helpful:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weight_loss_chat/4975287-what-protein-do-you-eat-when-how-i-need-inspiration?reply=131887814

Stews, curries, pasta etc are the kinds of foods I cook, in summer salads feature more. Tomorrow shepherds pie, lasagne Monday, chicken peanut stew Tuesday (African dish)

Look at the ingredients list, if it has things on there that you wouldn’t find in the average kitchen, like colouring additives, preservatives ,flavour enhancers, weird sounding chemically things that you have no idea what they do then that means the food is ultra processed. Some foods have always been processed, usually for preservation , when you make jam, or chutney then you are processing them. The difference is you know what is in them.

Absolutely not necessary to be so rude! I asked a question because I genuinely didn’t know the difference. I don’t have a kindle ! You will be probably having a dig at someone else by the time you read my reply!

Veggie curry with chickpeas
Home cooked ham, egg & salad
Rainbow trout stuffed with lemon & herbs, then baked in paper
Chicken & leek pie, with wholemeal pastry, served with mash
Cassoulet made with cubed pork shoulder, diced bacon, tinned tomatoes, garlic & white beans
Pan fried salmon with wholemeal couscous, sweetcorn & peas
Chicken curry made with chicken breast, chilli, coconut & baby plum tomatoes
Home made beef burgers with wholemeal bun, salad & grated cheddar
Seafood risotto made with frozen hake, frozen mussels, fennel sweetcorn & rice

There was nothing ‘rude’ in my response. You asked a question, I told you where you might find the necessary information. You do not need a kindle to access the book or the free sample introduction.

You can download the kindle app to your internet device. Or any similar, compatible app that does the same job.

You can go into a bookshop and browse the book there. Or buy it. As you choose.

You can visit a library or borrow the book online via your library membership.

All these options will be more satisfying, and leave you better informed, than frothing at strangers on the Internet.

Lots of slow cooker recipes here

www.instagram.com/boredoflunch?igsh=Nmk0ZGRrYm1vd2lv

I cook a lot of batch recipes from this guy should be on commission with how often I recommend him

www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk

This is amazing guys, Thank you all so much.
Just going to take an inventory of what I have in stock, make a meal plan and get an online shop organised.
Can't wait to get started 😀

@TheOriginalFrench tnere is nothing wrong with good quality butchers sausages. It's pork, rusk, spices/herbs in a casing.

As ever it is about not eating shit food, not excluding whole foods.

Sure, it’s all very well (if you eat meat) if you have the money to source meat whose blameless provenance can be traced back for generations. The trouble is, @Ginmonkeyagain, cheap, mass produced sausages are an easy repository for all sorts of crap, and may contain very little actual, natural food. And the OP is looking to keep her budget as low as is possible / reasonable.

I mean I grew up on a farm so, yes, I know all about cheap processed meat thanks.

My point still stands that people have rather lost their shit over this UPF stuff. There is a whole contiuum between horrible cheap frozen "pork slurry" sausages and super expensive farmers market free range sausages.

Check ingredients, use your common sense, as with all meat buy the best you can afford and remember a few sausages now and tnen in a diet that is mainly home cooked whole foods is not going to do much harm.

🙄This is the Internet. We are all anonymous strangers. There is no need to take offence because other posters have no pre-knowledge of your personal history …

That looks delicious but I wouldn't touch basa!

https://www.timesfoodie.com/nutritional-facts/basa-fish-danger-health-risks/88759297.cms

Cod or another white fish would work well.

Also some advice is a bit mad. I read something today about avoiding flavoured yoghurts - we buy Yeo Valley fruit yoghurts when they are on special and the ingredients are literally yoghurt, fruit puree, corn starch, sugar and fruit juice. Yes a bit sugary but not anything you wouldn't find in your kitchen.
There's a lot of sugar there! There's sugaring the puree,plus the fruit juice then the added sugar. And why would you want corn starch in your yogurt. Surely its just as easy to buy a large tub of greek or natural and flavour with what you fancy?
You cannot avoid processed food unless you have lots of time and money or grow your own fruit and veg !
There's nothing wrong with a lot of processed foods. Chick peas that are canned or bottled are processed, so are tinned tomatoes and natural and greek yogurt.
To be honest I think this thread is a bit mad. The receipes are great but all the op needs to do is pick up a cook book and follow a receipe. Other than that Google 'healthy family meals' or what ever.
Just read labels when shopping.
Trying to eat less meat but finding that veggie/vegan means more UPF.
This is one of the daftest and untrue statements I've seen in a while!!!

I mean I do mainly eat plain youghurt (usually one of those massive tubs from Lidl) with fruit or museli - mainly because it works out cheaper. But sometimes I like a little Yeo Valley fruit flavoured yoghurt.

My point is not "fill your boots with sugary yoghurts" but more don't stress about the occasional good quality fruit yoghurt.