Name One Change - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

Hyacinth · 03-19-2009, 09:18 PM

Hi there, I love the idea of making change that make my lifestyle a little more whole-foody. Please tell me what you've done, are doing, or are considering doing to make this happen for you!

My latest has been only eating bread that I bake myself. I don't consume a lot of it anyway, and making it myself ensures that it's free of chemicals, HCFS, or other things that I don't want in there. My favorite is a basic French bread recipe ... I use the bread maker to mix the dough, which makes two loaves that I bake in the oven, and I have them in the refrigerator all week to add whatever to it (peanut butter, meat, cheese, jam, etc). I would love to get in the habit of doing this more regularly because it's so easy, but I just don't get it done that often. My next loaf will be made with whole-wheat flour, and a baguette pan is on my birthday wish list.

What whole-foods activity interests you these days?

CountingDown · 03-19-2009, 09:22 PM

Making my own WW pastas. I love fresh pasta

Glory87 · 03-19-2009, 10:14 PM

Wow, I'm not up to making bread or pasta yet! But, I do sliced my own fresh fruit and add it to non fat yogurt, something I never dreamed I would ever take the time to do back back before I changed my life.

CountingDown · 03-19-2009, 10:21 PM

Glory, that reminds me of another change - I LOVE making my own yogurt!

mamaspank · 03-19-2009, 10:44 PM

I grow my own huge heirloom tomato garden, and this year I am going to learn to can my own tomatoes!

Fox · 03-20-2009, 10:44 AM

My biggest one is probably soup. I love soup and used to eat around 4-5 cans of soup a week. Now I make my own soups from scratch. I do a lot of cooking but soups were something that I'd never made and seemed sort of intimidating (silly I know!) so I just started experimenting and now I can make killer soups of all different varieties.

nelie · 03-20-2009, 11:29 AM

I don't make my own bread or pasta, although I eat pasta maybe once a year and bread is fairly rare.

Only thing I really make is my own seitan versus buying it. I can make veggie sausages and roasts fairly easily, even veggie ribs.

I am growing my own herbs thanks to the aerogarden

Also, my trips to costco generally just consist of an entire basket of fruits/veggies. I went yesterday and got sweeties (pommelo/grapefruit), tomatoes, romaine lettuce, frozen blueberries, bananas, apples, plums, celery and cucumber. That was it (oh and a pair of exercise pants but those don't count).

Hyacinth · 03-20-2009, 07:03 PM

My last one was soup stock ... it's so easy, it is in alignment with my values (if you're going to eat meat, get as much use as possible out of it). It started with the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, and over winter I did a few turkeys, a beef, and a chicken. I save all vegetable scraps and add them to a bag in the freezer, along with a few carrots, onion, and celery. I froze the broth in an ice-cube tray and use the broth in stir-fry, for liquid in cooking rice, and in place of water in any savory dish. Yum!

Oh Nelie, that areogarden looks super-cool! I've never heard of that before.

tdiprincess · 03-21-2009, 12:00 AM

Hyacinth: That's some really great idea for the broth. And I never thought of freezing the veggie bits to make the stock instead of just throwing them out once they go bad and I haven't made any stock with them!

Otherwise, my biggest change is not allowing white bread, rice or pasta in the house. DH doesn't even get white whole grain bread anymore- that stuff is a joke BTW!! I have him eating the lite whole wheat bread now!

JulieJ08 · 03-21-2009, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdiprincess;2663885DH

doesn't even get white whole grain bread anymore- that stuff is a joke BTW!! I have him eating the lite whole wheat bread now!

Why is white whole wheat a joke?

canadianwoman · 03-22-2009, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdiprincess

Otherwise, my biggest change is not allowing white bread, rice or pasta in the house.

What is wrong with rice? I love Tusk brand basmati rice but I eat it in moderation. Is that bad?

My biggest change is that I use a lot less sodium in my foods now and am making my own soups.

Glory87 · 03-23-2009, 12:19 AM

There's nothing really WRONG with white rice (imo) but they do strip all the goodness out of it (the bran, so it looks prettier and cooks fluffier) so it's pretty nutritionally vacant. I still eat white rice occasionally (sushi, Chipotle) but when I"m making rice at home, I try to use brown rice (or sexy black rice!). Brown rice has more fiber

Stuff I found on the internet:

One cup of brown rice has 3 1/2 grams of fiber while the same amount of white rice has less than one gram of fiber. We all need from 25 to 38 grams of fiber in our diet everyday.

Brown rice also contains nutrients like magnesium, manganese, and zinc. White rice has reduced levels of these nutrients, but is often fortified with iron, and some B vitamins.

mayness · 03-27-2009, 12:41 PM

I make chicken/turkey stock, which is actually a really convenient way to use up bits of vegetables (dried out carrots, ends of onions, etc) and bones from chicken (I rarely buy boneless due to cost).

I cook brown rice ahead of time and freeze it instead of buying that crappy "instant" brown rice. (The trick is to rinse it with cold water before freezing to stop the cooking - it doesn't get mushy that way.)

I buy cheese in blocks and shred it myself.. I figure the shredding process uses up some energy that I'd rather conserve, and it doesn't have that weird powder all over it so it melts better.

I've got plans to try making yogurt some time soon... I've got enough store-bought plain yogurt to last me 2 more weeks, but that will give me time to figure out how the heck to keep it at the right temperature.

I'd also like to start growing some herbs, but I haven't gotten around to figuring that out yet.

canadianwoman · 03-27-2009, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayness

I'd also like to start growing some herbs, but I haven't gotten around to figuring that out yet.

Oh that is EASY!! If you have a sunny window, some pots and some potting soil and some seeds you're good to go.

mayness · 03-27-2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canadianwoman

Oh that is EASY!! If you have a sunny window, some pots and some potting soil and some seeds you're good to go.

I've got the window, and that's about it.

I'm willing to work it into my grocery budget, I just don't even know where to buy things like small pots and small amounts of soil. We've got a monster Agway down the road from us, but I'm afraid I'd have to buy 25 lb of soil or something, lol.