Help! My dilemma.....
 

Hi there everyone,

Ok, my dilemma is Where I currently live/ work- I have been out in Afghanistan working with the NAAFI and now construction company- 4 of us started our own out here. Anyways - my point is that I don't have an access to any type of shopping place- best I can do is asking my mum to go to the shops and send me things that might make the journey over here in the post- which is mostly tinned things, pasta sauces, beans, soups, pasta and anything in a can And can get very limited access to fresh fruits and vegs and even they are limited to like tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber, chilli, apples and oranges..Can get chicken and beef sometimes.

I have managed to get a George foreman grill over- so trying to be creative... Recently got sushi making stuff sent over and prepared that - went down well....

Not only the lack of fresh and good foods.... Boredom kicks in and the stores provided fatty pies, bagels and chocolate and crisps oh and pizza...

Limited gym access and running outside just causes more damage to your lungs as the dust is constant here.

So the above reasons all seem to make this challenge that bit harder.... I was wondering if any one had any tips or suggestions or perhaps anyone been in the same or similar situation?

Anything welcome...

thank you

Gill x:)

Maybe the best option for you is just to use your common sense and make decent choices until you're back home. Maybe you can do some research about the nutritional content about the local foods and try to find ways to work them in. When I was in India, I ate Indian/Tibetan foods almost entirely, and made it work by finding the healthier dishes (like lentils and vegetable dishes). I know fruit/veggies isn't the best option in a lot of places (like India), but there are ways to get/sterilize produce.

Helloo! Long time lurker here, registered just to answer this thread because you're onto a bit of a passion of mine.

There's actually loads of good stuff available in tins - tinned fruit is great as long as you get the stuff in juice with no added sugar. Lots of vegetables available in tins too - you tend to need to read labels carefully to check how much salt/sugar has been added, but there are pretty good ones about. You mention beans and beans are absolutely great for you - but you don't have to limit yourself to baked beans - there are loads of beans available in tins, butter beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, and there's loads you can do with those. Even a tin of refried beans from the mexican ranges (old el paso etc) are suprisingly low in calories and very tasty. Lots of healthy fishes come in tins too - tuna, salmon - all kinds of oily fishes like sardines, pilchards etc - just make sure you go for the ones in tomato or water, rather than oil.

There's also quite a lot of dried stuff available - certainly you can buy packets of dried mushroooms and dried onions, plus all kinds of fruits come dried.

You mention pasta - but there's other options available in that kind of line - couscous, rice - all kinds of wholegrains like bulgur wheat and quinoa are great for you. And sold dried - so they'd work for posting.

Get a load of herbs and spices and they'll really help. If you're not confident of which ones you like, there's usually all kinds of ready made blends in the spice section (cajun spice, chinese spice, and ones that will say 'for lamb' 'for chicken' etc)
You can also get preprepared garlic in a little metal tube like toothpaste - you can get tomato puree like that as well, which is great for adding flavour.

You'll also find some of the best before dates on some bready things like soft tortillas is suprisingly long, so they'd be sendable. One of my great storecupboard standbys is a bean burrito - tin of kidney beans cooked up with tomato puree, garlic, onion and spices, served in a soft wrap.

Hope I've given you some ideas to get started with!

To add to the above post, Asian supermarkets are great for buying vaccum packed vegetables which don 't need to be refrigerated. You can get things like mushrooms and bamboo shoots sealed in water, various pickles such as ginger and garlic and even some seaweed if that's your thing.

Also sharwoods egg noodles are excellent because they're only 205 cals for per 'nest' which boils up to quite a lot of noodles for a small amount of calories.

Tesco do great tinned mixed bean salad in water.

Have you thought about making your own flat breads? all you need is flour, water and, a little yeast, seasoning and a hot pan but a hot grill could work too.

Originally Posted by kelly315:
Maybe the best option for you is just to use your common sense and make decent choices until you're back home. Maybe you can do some research about the nutritional content about the local foods and try to find ways to work them in. When I was in India, I ate Indian/Tibetan foods almost entirely, and made it work by finding the healthier dishes (like lentils and vegetable dishes). I know fruit/veggies isn't the best option in a lot of places (like India), but there are ways to get/sterilize produce.

Thank you... I have been trying to use my common sense so far.. I live on base where am not allowed out for my own safety haha so not much access to anything haha Gill x

Originally Posted by goggles:
Helloo! Long time lurker here, registered just to answer this thread because you're onto a bit of a passion of mine.

There's actually loads of good stuff available in tins - tinned fruit is great as long as you get the stuff in juice with no added sugar. Lots of vegetables available in tins too - you tend to need to read labels carefully to check how much salt/sugar has been added, but there are pretty good ones about. You mention beans and beans are absolutely great for you - but you don't have to limit yourself to baked beans - there are loads of beans available in tins, butter beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, and there's loads you can do with those. Even a tin of refried beans from the mexican ranges (old el paso etc) are suprisingly low in calories and very tasty. Lots of healthy fishes come in tins too - tuna, salmon - all kinds of oily fishes like sardines, pilchards etc - just make sure you go for the ones in tomato or water, rather than oil.

There's also quite a lot of dried stuff available - certainly you can buy packets of dried mushroooms and dried onions, plus all kinds of fruits come dried.

You mention pasta - but there's other options available in that kind of line - couscous, rice - all kinds of wholegrains like bulgur wheat and quinoa are great for you. And sold dried - so they'd work for posting.

Get a load of herbs and spices and they'll really help. If you're not confident of which ones you like, there's usually all kinds of ready made blends in the spice section (cajun spice, chinese spice, and ones that will say 'for lamb' 'for chicken' etc)
You can also get preprepared garlic in a little metal tube like toothpaste - you can get tomato puree like that as well, which is great for adding flavour.

You'll also find some of the best before dates on some bready things like soft tortillas is suprisingly long, so they'd be sendable. One of my great storecupboard standbys is a bean burrito - tin of kidney beans cooked up with tomato puree, garlic, onion and spices, served in a soft wrap.

Hope I've given you some ideas to get started with!

Aww Thank you for just registering because of this post :) Thanks for all the great ideas... Am loving the ideas with all the beans- Could make some nice meals with that chickpeas... I was looking at water Chesnuts aswell- Would love some Pak Choi but fresh wont get here...And Bean Burrito mmm sounds great- Deef will be trying that one! Couscous another good idea :) Never really made it but am sure ill find some good ideas online :)

Tuna Yeah only fish I like--- I found great things Tuna Tasters Like Lime and Pepper its like a dry mix you put on yummy.

Thank you Gill xx:carrot:

Originally Posted by belmagick:
To add to the above post, Asian supermarkets are great for buying vaccum packed vegetables which don 't need to be refrigerated. You can get things like mushrooms and bamboo shoots sealed in water, various pickles such as ginger and garlic and even some seaweed if that's your thing.

Also sharwoods egg noodles are excellent because they're only 205 cals for per 'nest' which boils up to quite a lot of noodles for a small amount of calories.

Tesco do great tinned mixed bean salad in water.

Have you thought about making your own flat breads? all you need is flour, water and, a little yeast, seasoning and a hot pan but a hot grill could work too.

Thank you- Ohh Asian Shops will have to try get my mum to go have a look for me- Add some Flavour to the cooking... And the noodles good idea :) loads of veggies and some chicken.

We have an Indian Chef here so was looking for him to make some sort of Nann type bread- unsure of the ingredients or how bad or good its for you ?

Gill x