Come forward EatBetterers and unite - it's the second happy healthy eating thread!

[fuzzpig]

Here's the previous thread where it all began!

EatBetterers are trying to improve the diets of ourselves and our families. No weighing, restricting, calorie counting etc - just finding joy in nourishing ourselves by making positive changes one step at a time. All welcome! :)

Thanks all. I thought maybe brown sugar was better but hadn't thought of using honey.
As I'm doing this £1 challenge today I had toast & marg for breakfast with a glass of water. Lunch will be homemade veg & bacon soup, and bacon risotto for supper.
I really want a cup of coffee but the budget didn't stretch that far!
Feeling hungry already.

I think the challenge will have an extra benefit for you poshme - by forcing you to eat certain things (by cost I mean) it'll help you learn what affects your body in different ways, like the toast not keeping you full very long :)

Trenzalor how are you doing? Sorry not to have been any help re budgeting.

Yes I'm struggling with budgeting too. We are generally trying to be a bit more frugal now (saving as hard as we can for a house deposit) but I've not really been keeping on top of spending when it comes to groceries. Meal planning is helping though.

Oh and while I was tidying I also found a Really Useful Box that should be the right size for the new minimal drawing supplies!

Right, apologies for just thinking aloud here, I need to just start figuring out what we can tackle during a week off. The main problem is that we don't have a car so can't take anything to the dump - anything big will have to stay for now (dad is more than happy to take stuff for us when he visits, but I would feel bad asking him to come up especially to do that for us IYSWIM).

I guess what we will need to do is make a list of sections in each room or something? And designate a box for stuff to give away, maybe one to sell (not much TBH, really can't be bothered with that anymore unless it's sure to make a lot of money, but I don't think there's much of that anymore!). Obviously we will need a large supply of binbags. I will need to allow myself resting time too - or what we sometimes do is DH going through the stuff while I boss him about from the sofa give my input :o

Oh crap, wrong thread sorry! Am on the minimalist support thread too :o

I am envious of those able to eat eggs, they seem perfect for breakfast. I've offered to buy them for DS and DP but DP is adamant that he won't have anything in the house I can't have as its unfair to me (bless him).

posh your experiment sounds really interesting. Are you using any recipes by Jack Munroe?

fuzzpig I might take a gander at the minimalism thread, need to streamline what's in the house. It's starting to look like a cross between mothercare, forbidden planet and hmv. Am contemplating getting both DSs to share a room when DS2 is sleeping through the night. It does mean a lot of moving stuff about but will give us a spare room back.

I had pizza and chips last night as everyone was feeling awful. Pizza was homemade and delicious (brie and bacon) so that's ok. Wretched night though. DS2 had to cosleep in bed with us as he's outgrown his crib and Moses basket at 11 weeks and I don't want to deprive the toddler of his cot while he's ill. Also I can't face the idea of a rogue toddler wandering about at night right now.

The house is a tip, I've sat DS1 in front of Dr who and am contemplating waffles and beans all round, despite having leftover pizza dough from yesterday. I just want to curl up and die in the corner.

I have to say I would feel lost without eggs, you have my sympathy enormouse. I hope you all feel better soon .

I had two hard boiled eggs (see?) for breakfast with a slice of granary toast and have just eaten a big bowl of mushrooms that I cooked with butter, garlic, a splash of wine and some sliced roast chicken and spinach, with a squeeze of lemon, loads of black pepper and big blob of greek yoghurt, with a slice of toast to mop up the sauce - delicious!

I'd be lost without eggs!

Today - 2 boiled eggs for breakfast, lunch was garlic crackers, avocado and prawns and dinner will be either left over gammon or salmon fillets.

WRT eating read meat, I stopped completely but was craving it madly so have it once or twice a week max now and cravings have gone.

That sounds lovely sleep, I'm going to give it a try when I'm feeling better. I love mushrooms.

Inspired by everyone on this thread and some of the stuff I've read about Scandinavian style breakfasts (like this article ) I've sent dp off to lidl to pick up some nice breakfast stuff - avocados, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, cream cheese, smoked salmon, sardines and smoked ham. I've got some rye flour and seeds in the cupboard so I'm going to stick a loaf on in the breadmaker and try and make my breakfasts a little more exciting.

Have put toddler and baby down for a nap after a delicious lunch of fishfingers, chips and beans. So now am relaxing with mumsnet and pinterest.

Hi all - been lurking while I was away, so nice to just be DH and I for a few days so we are when we needed to rather than picking all day because the DC were needing to be fed. We generally managed to be pretty healthy, tried to eat HM protein bars, bananas and trail mix while hiking the Grand Canyon then a decent but good dinner - but we did drink every night which wasn't in the plan! So, back home and back to sticking to veganism 80% of the time - I'm taking my parents out for lunch today to say thanks for 4 days of babysitting, and we're out for dinner this eve but if I don't snack then that is plenty of food, and both places are very good and have great healthy options

I am enjoying reading all your food ideas.
I did quite well yesterday - although breakfast was waffles with fruit and honey/maple syrup - not so healthy but they were homemade though! It is one of the DCs fave breakfasts. I want to find a recipe that uses less white wheat flour though. Don't think the rest of the family would go for it, but I could make mine separately. Does anyone have a recipe?

Money saving tip: I usually keep boxes of frozen fruit in the freezer - blueberries, raspberries, strawberries - they are cheaper to buy frozen when out of season, or I buy them fresh reduced and freeze some. They are good for smoothies, and we use them to top our waffles. Take the tops off the strawberries first before freezing them. I find this a good way to get fruit into the DCs when they are bored of apples and bananas.

Lunch was baked salmon, potato dauphinoise, asparagus, leeks, peas and a parsley sauce (all home made). I didn't take a second helping as I realised I wasn't actually hungry!

Because of the big lunch, tea was just scrambled eggs & baked beans on toast, but instead of the toast and baked beans I had some leftover roasted vegetables from yesterday, and some cheese with my eggs.

The downfall has been all the Easter eggs in the house though! I will be glad when they are gone, sitting there tempting me!

Breakfast used to be Special K but I found I was really hungry not long afterwards, so would then have toast (or worse). So today I experimented with granola (sweetened only with honey) and yoghurt. I am always in a rush in the mornings so just don't think I will have time to cook anything up in the week. Anyway the granola did keep me going longer.

However rather depressingly today another mum asked me if I was pregnant . So annoying. My stomach is as big as ever. She suggested I 'go for a couple of days having just rice and water' !! Cheeky.

One thing though I have had some stomach cramps in the morning - maybe it's my body getting used to the diet change?

donteat I use frozen fruit like this: still frozen add the fruit to plain yoghurt and if needed a bit of honey. Whizz with liquidiser & you've got almost ice cream!

I don't think a diet consisting of rice alone would do much for bloating, donteat! Did you ask that woman if she meant to be so rude? :D

How rude (and very badly informed) that woman is donteat - ignore!

Re the waffles, you could try using buckwheat flour - or gradually mixing white flour with buckwheat until everyone adjusts without noticing . I seem to have managed this with dc's pancakes - I don't think they care as long as nutella makes an appearance !

About the stomach cramps (and bloating?) Remind me again what you have changed diet wise....

Thanks for moral support! I always thought it was an unspoken rule among mums not to ask someone if they were pregnant unless you were sure....

Diet changes - at the moment, mainly cutting out refined wheat and replacing with more vegetables/protein/ryvita etc. (But I have always eaten a lot of vegetables.)
Also been cutting down on sugar - still a long way to go but am trying e.g. have got rid of the sweetened yoghurts and having natural yoghurt with fruit & nuts instead; snacking on fruit instead of biscuits.

Trying some peppermint tea tonight to see if it helps.

Will try the buckwheat flour, thanks.

Has the bloating happened suddenly donteat - with the changes, or has it been a problem for a while? Culprit is often too much raw food (fruit and veg), some people don't handle it well, or it could also be wheat and/or dairy but you'd need to cut it out completely for a while to really be sure...I'd certainly ditch the ryvita as a starting point?

Rice and water?! Yes you would lose weight forces few days or your tummy may reduce but she would still be rude and what sort of nutrition is that, plus it could only be temporary. My daughter gets very bloated. She is 9 so I find elimination a bit tricky. It seems to be pasta (always had whole wheat), pizza and bread which suggests wheat? But she hardly has that now and it still seems to happen. Could it be sugar?

Could be still but good luck taking sugar out completely . Could you try cutting both wheat and dairy, if only for a week, then reintroduce separately?

I have made some spelt and pumpkin seed bread in an attempt to recreate what we had on holiday. It LOOKS nice - I will report back later on how it tastes.

Sounds amazing, bamshott, how did you do it??

Luckily my new breadmaker has a "spelt raisin" setting. I just used a recipe for white spelt flour and dried fruit and substituted wholemeal spelt flour and pumpkin seeds. I'm eating the crust now - it's very good!

The bloating has been worse recently. Maybe it is the time of the month, or just all the extra salad! I have always eaten wheat and dairy and it's not been a problem before. I just felt my diet had become a little unbalanced (too much wheat /sugar/processed food) and I need to lose some weight so was attempting to balance things out a bit.

The ryvita is the rye flour one not the wheat one, as I haven't found where to buy rye bread yet, but I have a breadmaker so am going to attempt to make my own. Like the sound of your spelt bread bamshott!

What do you snack on as an alternative to biscuits/crisps? Find I am often hungry about 4/5pm. I am already eating quite a lot of fruit and veg so trying to think of something else to snack on?

It could be the salad then...maybe take a day off the raw stuff and tried cooked veggies only?

Snacks - a handful of raw nuts and a piece of fruit, some crudites and houmous, greek yoghurt with berries, some olives and a bit of feta perhaps, or feta and spicy beetroot, banana, apple or celery with some nut butter, a milky coffee and a couple of pieces of dark chocolate....

Bram your bread sounds so delicious, I would struggle not to go overboard with it - everyone can keep their cake, sweets and chocolate, really good bread is so much better from my pov!

Sorry a random update: no need for spiralizer. Julienne peeler completely epic! Made lovely thin courgette spaghetti for a quick salad just now. It is different to my normal peeler as it has very sharp teeth. Now where's the sunshine as I'm spending summer making pretty salads!!