Low ultra processed food meals/snacks ideas

[Cluelessmumcook]

Single mum of a VERY fussy nearly 2 year old. Wanting to cut out as many ultra processed foods as possible due to reading and watching more and more about the negatives. Our diet contains a LOT of them - kids yoghurts, supermarket bread, quick frozen food, even “healthy” kids snacks you can buy seem to have endless ingredients on the packaging, I could go on. Does anyone please have any meal and snack suggestions we can both eat (no meat but DD “eats” fish - sort of as so fussy!). Bonus points if they’re cheap and quick due to tight budget and me working long hours. Thanks all!

With bread I tend to set the bread maker to “dough” then cook in oven. I find I get a better result doing it this way. But saves me the kneeling and prooving bit which the bread maker does for me

@Cornishbelle not really, I just follow the instructions in the book that came with my breadmaker and it seems to turn out well. I’ve had a couple of fails which I can’t explain but I don’t think there is any skill involved with a breadmaker other than following the recipe closely, I think it’s more of a science than an art!

Hopefully someone else might have some tips!

@Meifly - could you please share your recipe for baked beans?

Am trying to reduce UPF in our household and have a dd who loves baked beans! I buy a lovely sourdough from our local bakery, so paired with homemade baked beans it would be great!

Thank you.

Also, does anyone have any good granola bar/traybake recipes?

I do a few variations but the simplest toddler friendly beans are as follows:

1. Make a tomato 'stock' , to do this add tomato pasata to boiling water and add your prefered stock of choice (I used to use a toddler friendly no salt vegetable stock cube but have recently started preparing stock and keeping it stored in the fridge) . You want the consistency to be liquid but with an opaque red colour, you want to prepare an amount that looks to be around 3:2 ratio liquid:beans

1. Start with a splash of olive oil and a pinch of smoked paprika (increase the amount if you prefer a smokier taste) you can also add a little diced onion at this point if you desire

1. Once you can smell the paprika and the onions (if using) ate soft. Add in your stock with a small pinch of brown sugar and simmer on lowish heat for 20 minutes to thicken the sauce

1. After 20 minutes add in some tinned haricot beans (I assume you could also use pre-soaked dried but haven't tried myself) and test the flavour of the sauce.

1. Adjust with any herbs, spices or sugar you desire and let the beans cook in the sauce for a minimum of 10 minutes or until they reach your desired texture stirring occasionally

Hope that helps. You can also make it with fresh tomatoes and just puree them up using the same timings

Sorry to not have specific measurements but I usually make it based on how much I think my toddler will eat so it's a bit of guess work

@Meifly - that's super helpful, thank you. Will give it a try next week.

Lots of food is processed - milk, yoghurt, pasta etc. But ultra-processed foods are ones that 'real' food ingredients have been removed and replaced with chemicals or industrial by-products, things we actually don't understand the long term impact of very well yet.
They make industrially produced food look more attractive, taste more palatable or give longer shelf life.
If you look at the ingredient list for something and it says wheat, egg, water - it's processed.
If it says emulsifier, stabiliser, xantham gum, maltodextrin, sweetener, preservative - it's ultra processed.

Less processed snacks:
fruit
veg sticks
babybels/cheese
homemade bread rolls
oat pancakes (oats, banana, egg) or scotch pancakes
nuts
olives
greek yoghurt and honey

@Harping try this no bake version. Outstanding and so easy to make up/replace some ingredients.

cookieandkate.com/best-granola-bars-recipe/

Use the rapid setting. So different!

We make pizza bases with wholemeal self raising flour and natural Greek yoghurt. Add home made tomato sauce, veggies and cheese for toppings.

Wow, we definitely are in the same boat! I, for one, would definitely be interested in reading UPF free recipes if you do ever put them online because you’re right - it’s a minefield and I couldn’t find much on google at all, hence the post here. Thanks for all your suggestions, very helpful!

Thanks everyone, this has been so so helpful and I now have a long list of suggestions to try! Just got to hope DD actually eats them 😂

I made a home made granola this morning which was really easy and yummy

Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate
homemade hummus and carrots
fruit
homemade ice lollies
good peanut butter on sourdough
cheese on sourdough toast

honestly a lot of it is bread-based…pick up a loaf of proper sourdough and that’s snacks for the week sorted

Colinfromaccounts I am not sure my kids would accept sourdough rather than soft bread. Do you find yours do?

DS will east sourdough bread if it's in the form of cheese on toast or with toast with soup. He prefers "normal" bread though, but he has no choice as we only buy sourdough, although I do have a pack of sliced wholemeal bread in the freezer for emergencies.

Supermarket sourdough tastes nothing like actual sourdough bread. We buy from a proper baker.

@Harping just slice it thinly and put delicious stuff on it, they’ll come round

Good way to make life easier. Whack a tray of chunky veg in the oven a couple of times a week to use in recipes.

I've just shoved in whole onions (topped and tailed and skin off), carrots with the thinner half cut off and the thick end sliced in half lengthwise, and a quartered enormous cauliflower (one quarter rubbed with curry powder). Tossed in a small amount of oil.

I'll whip one plain bit of cauliflower out half-cooked to make cauliflower cheese on Sunday.

Then:
Some will go with dinner tonight plus green veg from my steamer.
The rest of the onions/carrot will be added to anything where you'd normally have to fry them first, eg pasta sauces and stir fries. This is a massive time saver.
The curry cauliflower will be eaten cold with salad.

I used to make bean burgers/ bean balls for DS when he was little, or he'd have nut butter with fruit chunks or hummous with veg sticks. Also 1 egg omelettes with cheese and peppers or courgette and whatever fruit I'd got to use up mini muffins.

Great to hear!

Had a good success here with soda bread. So easy to make and serve for lunch with salad and cheese

I’m not sure if you’re trying 100% wholewheat but this can definitely be brickish. You could try starting with 50:50 wholewheat and white which will be lighter. This is still better than UPF wholewheat I suspect. We like nice oil instead of butter and found a bit more than the recipe says means it dries out slower. Not a problem if it gets eaten fast! On our Panasonic we can do 50:50 on a basic programme (meant for basic white bread, 4 hours). Build up to 75:25 which would need a wholewheat setting. I agree 100% wholewheat can be tastier if baked in the oven but this can be time consuming.
Also a white seeded loaf changed to 50:50 was also light.
I think if you aim for something light and tasty initially everyone will enjoy it and you can experiment as you become more confident.
Also you can buy instant yeast without emulsifiers if you’re really trying to avoid them altogether 😂 Sometimes just cutting the worst UPF out feels more doable without being overwhelmed.
Maybe your loaves are already fabulous. I hope so. We still regularly have experimental flops or just forget the yeast! I had a co-op loaf which contains wheat protein as the sole UPF which might be a backup for those mornings when you open the breadmaker and there is a hard lump in the bottom 🤪

It is, but it's flour and eggs (home made) or flour and water (commercial).

Spaghetti in tomato sauce or mac n cheese is processed - most of our food is processed from basic ingredients such as flour, milk, cheese (processed itself too). But if you buy a tin of pasta in cheese sauce, it'll probably be ultra processed because it will have ingredients such as modified starch, emulsifiers, preservatives etc - that's what makes it ultra processed - it uses ingredients a home made version doesn't ... well, that's my understanding!