Learning to eat healthily support thread

[questionssquestions]

I don't know what the name for this sort of eating is. 'Healthy' means different things to different people. Maybe 'normal', but most people in the UK are overweight, so normal is not ideal either.

Anyway, a lot of us need support in learning how to eat better, so I'm hoping there might be people who want to join this thread. This is not a weight loss thread, it is a healthy eating thread.

We try to:

• Eat 5+ fruit and veg a day
• Eat balanced meals (some starchy foods, fruit, veg, protein, dairy)
• Enjoy treats/desserts/puddings etc.
• Maximise our consumption of unprocessed and minimally processed foods
• Minimise our consumption of ultraprocessed foods
• Try to cook from scratch where we can
• Be mindful of portion sizes
• Build enjoyable exercise into our daily lives

We don't:

• Exclude food groups
• Talk of good/bad foods or being good/bad
• Calorie count, fast, detox, or join weight loss clubs
• Talk about our weight or clothes size

I'm hoping this can be a place for support, sharing of ideas and favourite recipes etc.

Hi mummypie
I find porridge the most filling, and the microwave varieties are very easy. Toast with peanut butter and cherry jam is my absolute addiction, although I've cut back down to 1 slice now. Cereal I find totally useless. My idea of a portion is much bigger than quoted on the box, and it still doesn't keep me full for long.
Inspired by Wilderness I'm going to give granola a go next week, and I'm making breakfast muffins for Dh, in an effort to wean him off Belvita's and the like.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/get-and-go-breakfast-muffins

@mummypie17 From reading the Eatbetter threads, the way to a good filling breakfast is to eat fat and protein, but it has to work for you. Some time ago I decided to try and incorporate 1 of my 5 a day into breakfast and that was a good small change that was easy to make. Personally I find peanut butter, eggs, porridge or low sugar granola, yoghurt & fruit the ones that sustain me longest.

Yesterday
B: Bagel with peanut butter, orange juice
L: Scrambled egg & spinach on sourdough, apple
D: Nonna’s tray bake (Chicken & summer veg) www.pressreader.com/uk/good-housekeeping-uk/20170201/282965334752516, 2 choc cookies
No Wine!!

Also, stunned myself with a 1km run and a short walk.

I've just made myself a breakfast and realised that my description yesterday looked anything but healthy probably😂

I just want to add that bacon in there is 1 slice of streaky bacon and chorizo is 1 slice of chorizo salami. They are there mainly for flavour.

Today so far 1whole egg, 2 egg whites, slice of chorizo, spinach and slice of rye bread.

Lunch will be prawn salad with sweet chili sauce, dinner a extra veg chicken stir-fry and I am undecided on snacks still.

We now do stir-fry with half portion of rice noodles topped up with courgetti and dry spice mix rather than sauce. It's really great, still filling, lots of flavour, but not heavy.

I finished week 1 of couch to 5K! Have been eating ok, lots of snacks, but all homemade at least.

Great job!!!

Today:
B: as above
L: prawn salad
S: yogurt with honey, cinnamon and walnuts with apple dippers
D: Stir-fry with veg, rice noodles, chicken and egg
S to come: 2 ryvita rye with spread yogurt, sliced cucumber and 2 slices of chorizo.

All in all plentiful of veg and protein and only 1100 cal yet not hungry😱

Well done questions! That must feel great.

I've not posted my meals recently as have been dealing with a huge admin headache, but the recent highlights include:
Jackfruit curry with no yeast naans. Verdict on jackfruit is it's surprisingly nice, but not great to look at. Probably try it in wraps next time. The naans were delicious, but rather chewy as I think I over cooked them.
Crustless spinach quiche. I love pastry, but actually having the quiche without it was quite light and made a nice change. It tasted great, but I didn't get enough water out of the spinach first so it was rather soggy. Better the second day as it dried out a bit on reheating.
Carrot and coriander soup with lentil fritters. This was go 3 of a big batch of soup I made, and dd finally ate it without a fuss, which was a big win. The fritters were made from my leftover bland dal from the start of the thread, just mix the dal with gram flour and fry. I managed not to disintegrate them. The result was still a bit bland but nice with mango chutney.
There have been countless thousands of snacks, so not great on that score. For dinner Dh requested 'boring pasta' which made me laugh. Family cooking does add an extra layer of difficulty to making changes. I think in many ways breakfast is my favourite meal of the day as I only have to please myself.

Well done everyone. Very impressed with your Couch to 5k start questions. Shrodingersimmigrant your meals sound lovely. GlumyGloomer does jackfruit taste fruity or is it better at absorbing other flavours?

B: Yoghurt, Grapes, Kiwi, PB Granola
L: Reduced salt baked beans on bagel with cheese
D: Salmon on creamy leeks & butter beans, carrots. Rhubarb crumble which I reduced the sugar in. 2 glasses wine.

Flexibility class & a walk.

Wilderness it smells a bit fruity when you open the can, but once made into curry it really just tasted of curry. A bit salty, from the brine it was in, but that's it.

Today I bravely made the vegetable peelings soup. It looked like pond scum but actually tasted delicious. We used the letter lentil fritters as croutons and it was great.

You basically boil the lot for 2 hours, then blend.

That sounds like a great frugal meal, and probably really quite healthy if you think about what is retained in the skins. I try to use as much of the veg as possible, but I like this idea for scraps.

That's great @GlumyGloomer
I have a scrap bag in a freezer where peels, offcuts, bones and meat off cuts go and when it's full, I add oxtail and some marrow bones and make slowcooker broth. I am not a fan of blended soups (I just never got used to them) so bone broth is my to go thing. It's really good for sauces etc too

B: 2 x seeded toast & jam
L: Fish finger & salad sandwich, tomatoes, apple
D: Chicken parmigiana, salad, bread. Vanilla cheesecake

25 mins yoga/flexibility.
Not exactly the best day. I didn’t buy enough fresh fruit & veg this week so feel I’m struggling for healthy inspiration.

B: banana bread
L: left over scrap soup with left over takeaway pizza
D: microwave tuna pasta with garlic doughballs
S: more banana bread and a chocolate doughnut
Very much a return to the bad old days (except for the soup I guess) partly because I had urgent admin to deal with and partly because I went to an actual shop and was seduced by the reduced stickers.
Hopefully back on track tomorrow.
Shrodinger I use chicken bones to make stock, but I never thought to save veg peelings for it. I've been using fresh veg all this time! I'll definitely be trying to waste less veg in the future.

First time making granola, it's so much nicer than the shop version! This recipe is from my Nadiya cook book, but next time I will make the peanut butter recipe from up thread.

I'm really enjoying being part of this thread, so thanks everyone, especially questions

Today I had:

Two slices of toast with peanut butter and jam
Half a gingerbread man
1.5 tuna sweetcorn pitta breads
Stick of celery, apple and peanut butter
Fish, egg, lentils and veg
Apple and slice of bread with jam

I make that 4-5 of my 5 a day. I really have to try to shoehorn fruit in though to make up the numbers. I need to figure out how to make eating more fruit and veg a habit.

B: PB granola, yoghurt, grapes
L: Tuna salad sandwich, few tortilla chips, apple
D: Italian sausage risotto (with sweet potato & pepper) was lovely
Also: too much wine, seaweed coated peanuts and 3 biscuits

Does anyone use a rice cooker? Looking to buy one for DS but know literally nothing about them.

B: granola and yoghurt
L: tomato soup and ciabatta
D: sea bass in tomato olive sauce, hash browns, steamfresh veg.
The sea bass was a win, dd1 even asked for a second portion.
Sorry, no advice on rice cookers, I've not had space for many gadgets until recently. I do have a raclette grill which we got as an engagement present 6 years ago. We've never actually used it but it looks fun so I'm bracing myself to give it a go..

Today
B: 2egg whites, 1 egg, slice of rye bread
L: salad with shameful seafood sticks and sweet chili
S: FF yogurt and sour cherries
D: kuftas with potatoes and brussel sprouts
S: ryvita rye with hardboiled eggwhite/quark/chives topping

I too have no experience with rice cookers. What i do now, because I've never been able to cook less than 7 portions even though I am sure I put just enough for 1 in, is that I cook a lot of rice and then portion it into a freezer. It's amazing. I now have 1 portion of rice with my meals😂

B: granola and yoghurt
L: mumbai potato wraps with mint yogurt
D: chicken shawarma with garlic and ginger rice and ubiquitous steamfresh veg.

The chicken did not hold together into something you could slice, but was still delicious. Dh did not like it because 'it tastes like rice' . When asked for clarification he explained that 'it tastes like something you'd have with rice.'
I dispare of him sometimes 🤦‍♀️

GlumyGloomer I think the shawarma sounds good.

B: poached egg, spinach, seeded toast, tomatoes
L: Mushroom pate sandwich, Disco’s (wow, they are so salty), apple
D: Chicken & mozzarella salad oldukhealthyfood.co.uk/recipe/joe-wicks-chicken-mozzarella-salad-warm-tomato-dressing/, sourdough, 2 biscuits

Think I went overboard with the fruit & veg in my shop to make up for the lack this week - I now have 2 pineapples! Am hoping to make a soup of some kind today.

I started a FutureLearn course about Superfoods this week which is quite interesting. Did you know that you get more health benefits from eating garlic raw - a lot is destroyed in the cooking process. Might start rubbing a cut clove of garlic on my bread at lunch.

Did you know that you get more health benefits from eating garlic raw - a lot is destroyed in the cooking process. Might start rubbing a cut clove of garlic on my bread at lunch.

Yup. I rub garlic on toast when I don't have to go anywhere. I grow my own so I learned how to use it the best since I put actual work into it😂
Lots of things lose vitamins and minerals when cooking, but some are better cooked. For example tomatoes.

B: granola, yoghurt, apple
L: fish finger sandwich, peas
D: homemade pizza
S: breakfast muffins x2 (they are cup cake size, as that was the case size I had. That's my excuse anyway)