Real Food

[Summer3]

It's too expensive for us, too, but it's one of our few choices. They currently have two packages of celery for $3, and other sales like that - have done for about a month now - so I've been stocking up. I want to check out Trader Joe's, but we don't have one. I'm going to try growing some of my own food.

 

Sorry for the off-topic, Summer.

 

It's not off-topic. Topic is Real Food you're perfect.

 

I love Trader Joes. I eat the store brand Blueberry Yogurt and drink store brand Green Tea. Great food, great prices and it makes me feel like I'm in a little shop in New England.

 

Best Place on Earth: Nantucket. The restaurants were top notch and the people were kind. If I won the lottery (which I don't play) I'd move there. The crime rate is probably 0%.

[Summer3]

That's because you looked at a jar of sauce, not the basic ingredients that will make you sauce for a dozen pasta meals.

 

If you buy non prepared foods (flour, canned tomatoes, spices), the price is the same at whole foods as any orher grocery store. Buy the 365 store brand of everything.

 

I won't go without meat either. Realize men have a higher requirement for both calories and protein to just maintain our bodies. It's hard to get that from a salad and quinoa. Makes us want to go on a rampage when under nourished. Actually gets me angry.

 

 

Chocolate chip cookies: bye bye weight loss...

 

You MUST use the chips and the Madagascar vanilla extract from Whole foods, or they won't be good. No sub par Nestle or Hershey chocolate! Even Ghrardelli chips are marginal.. Valrhona chips will work though. Good ingredients are why my food knocks people on their @ss. Cheap ingredients means lousy tasting food. There is no way around that. Garbage in = garbage out.

 

get out a mixing dish

melt 1 stick of butter and put it in

put a cup of sugar in, little dab of molasses to make that brown sugar is optional

put in a teaspoon of vanilla extract

(taste this base...yum!)

put 1 egg in

stir the egg in smooth

 

Add white, all purpose flour and a teaspoon or less of baking powder.

Keep adding flour and stirring until it's cookie dough.

Or... about 1.5 cups. But learn to add flour to consistency to get good in the kitchen.

 

Fold in as many chocolate chips as you like in your cookies

I PILE THEM IN!!

 

Take a spoon and a dry cookie sheet (do not grease the pan) and scoop out little walnut size dollops of the cookie dough, placing it in dollop form, all in a ball, on the cookie sheet.

Each dollop well spaced from the next.

 

Bake at 350 until just barely starting to brown the tiniest bit or just starting to look hard.

 

Note: You WILL getfat from these and will get addicted. I think meth is a lot less addictive. I highly suggest not making these cookies until you are done your spring weight loss challenge.

 

Remember how you had the willpower to eat only 2 cookies? You will have problems doing that with these!

 

Just buy cookies without the word "hydrogenated" appearing in the label for now. In lower quality food stores, the "Simply Made" chocolate chip cookie brand is actually made properly. Get those. They don't taste as good as these so you'll have less chance of over eating.

 

LOL! I thought you were going to give me a great tasting low fat recipe for cookies!

 

I'll make them anyway just because they sound amazing and my mom would be so happy if I made her homemade cookies....she might cry. She's so happy I'm cooking.

 

I don't even have flour in my kitchen.

 

Since you cook here is a debate maybe you can settle:

 

My mom says all ingredients including meat need to be at room temperature before you use them in order for the food to taste right. I googled it and a site said that was a myth. Plus, meat will get bacteria if left out for 20 min. and I don't think it's a good idea to leave it out.

 

What do you think?

[loveweary11]

LOL! I thought you were going to give me a great tasting low fat recipe for cookies!

 

I'll make them anyway just because they sound amazing and my mom would be so happy if I made her homemade cookies....she might cry. She's so happy I'm cooking.

 

I don't even have flour in my kitchen.

 

Since you cook here is a debate maybe you can settle:

 

My mom says all ingredients including meat need to be at room temperature before you use them in order for the food to taste right. I googled it and a site said that was a myth. Plus, meat will get bacteria if left out for 20 min. and I don't think it's a good idea to leave it out.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Myth.

 

Better not to be puking all night by having bad food handling practices.

 

Raw meat needs to go right from refrigerator to cooking.

 

PS: Low fat cookies aren't going to help weight loss. Calories are the only thing thar counts and most of those are from the sugar.

 

Low fat or non sugar cookies are horrible. Better to eat real ones but less of them, imo.

Edited March 6, 2016 by loveweary11

[Emilia]

Thank you so much!!!

 

I cannot promise I'll go to Whole Foods because last time I went there I had to take a second mortgage out on my house. (JK) Seriously, we walked out with two bags of groceries and it cost $100. Stop and Shop has a huge organic vegetable section.

 

I'm going to try your pasta recipe it sounds easy enough to make and probably much healthier than the jar stuff I've been eating.

 

For the record I wouldn't eat animals at all. I'm not so fond of people but animals are amazing and I think it's barbaric that we still eat them. I never eat pigs since they are as intelligent as dogs. My husband refuses to go without meat so I need to walk a balance. I ALWAYS buy cage free organic eggs.

 

I'm not ready to make pizza but I wanna hear the cookie recipe:love:

Do not by into the premium food chain BS. They buy from the same suppliers.

 

Sauces, etc will have sugar, salt and lots of crap that isn't good for you. The healthiest way to eat is by going back to fresh ingredients. Absolutely does not matter where you get you carrots from. They are still carrots.

 

The only exception is animal products, I care about welfare so I buy organic animal products because they tend to provide the highest level of welfare, but even that's not guaranteed. Free frange means jack **** unfortunately.

[Emilia]

My mom says all ingredients including meat need to be at room temperature before you use them in order for the food to taste right. I googled it and a site said that was a myth. Plus, meat will get bacteria if left out for 20 min. and I don't think it's a good idea to leave it out.

 

What do you think?

Beef yes, it needs to be out of the fridge for about 10-15 minutes (I take it for a little longer) in order to grill it or pan fry it to the right level (rare, medium, etc). If it's too cold, it won't cook as evenly.

 

All other meat/chicken/fish/seafood has to be cooked straight from the fridge.

[Summer3]

Do not by into the premium food chain BS. They buy from the same suppliers.

 

Sauces, etc will have sugar, salt and lots of crap that isn't good for you. The healthiest way to eat is by going back to fresh ingredients. Absolutely does not matter where you get you carrots from. They are still carrots.

 

The only exception is animal products, I care about welfare so I buy organic animal products because they tend to provide the highest level of welfare, but even that's not guaranteed. Free frange means jack **** unfortunately.

 

I wonder about the "free range" label. The store has my soul as hostage because how can I buy eggs that don't say "free range?"

[Emilia]

I wonder about the "free range" label. The store has my soul as hostage because how can I buy eggs that don't say "free range?"

 

Free range is still factory chicken that don't go outside. The only difference is that they aren't in cages. They are still crammed in though

[Emilia]

Beef yes, it needs to be out of the fridge for about 10-15 minutes (I take it for a little longer) in order to grill it or pan fry it to the right level (rare, medium, etc). If it's too cold, it won't cook as evenly.

 

All other meat/chicken/fish/seafood has to be cooked straight from the fridge.

 

Actually lamb might need to be out of the fridge too, can't remember.

[Summer3]

Free range is still factory chicken that don't go outside. The only difference is that they aren't in cages. They are still crammed in though

 

When I read "free range" I think of little chickens running in the grass.

 

[Emilia]

When I read "free range" I think of little chickens running in the grass.

 

 

They never do. It's whether they have access to outside space and how many they cram in within a square metre

[Summer3]

Beef yes, it needs to be out of the fridge for about 10-15 minutes (I take it for a little longer) in order to grill it or pan fry it to the right level (rare, medium, etc). If it's too cold, it won't cook as evenly.

 

All other meat/chicken/fish/seafood has to be cooked straight from the fridge.

 

But doesn't the beef get bacteria? Maybe it'll cook evenly but won't it still be unhealthy?

[Summer3]

They never do. It's whether they have access to outside space and how many they cram in within a square metre

 

Great. I'm going to have eggs for breakfast and now I feel like the devil.

[loveweary11]

Do not by into the premium food chain BS. They buy from the same suppliers.

 

Sauces, etc will have sugar, salt and lots of crap that isn't good for you. The healthiest way to eat is by going back to fresh ingredients. Absolutely does not matter where you get you carrots from. They are still carrots.

 

The only exception is animal products, I care about welfare so I buy organic animal products because they tend to provide the highest level of welfare, but even that's not guaranteed. Free frange means jack **** unfortunately.

 

Completely false in the States.

 

There is a VAST difference in the quality of foods here.

 

You know how you picture American food as bad/nasty?

 

Well, these days we still have that bad food that other countries picture, but we also now have food superior to much of the food in Europe.

 

We also have standards and oversight boards to approve food quality in terms of the "organic" label. There are laws and standards.

 

In a market as large as the USA there are scores of suppliers.

 

Most of the food comes from huge factory farm agribusinesses, who use pesticides, growth hormones and genetically modified crops. These foods are handled poorly, processed poorly (hydrogenated oils and such) and are what you find in costco, Walmart or standard grocery stores.

 

In contrast to this, you have whole foods and true farmer's markets.

 

At farmer's markets you havs food grown by your neighbors and regional farms. Not too much of that is labeled organic because it's so hard to get past the oversight committee that will approve organic labeling. For instance, organic cows need to eat from organic pastures to be certified organic.

 

Then there is whole foods. The meat there is often from local/regional farms, labeled very clearly regarding the life the animal lead. All producers supplying products to whole foods must undergo rigorous tests and visits from the store itself to ensure quality. Their entire market niche is quality, so they are on top of that more than anything else.

 

Whole foods absolutely does not have the same suppliers (large agribusiness corporations) as standard grocery stores in the states.

 

That's a UK thing.

[loveweary11]

When I read "free range" I think of little chickens running in the grass.

 

 

If you get eggs labeled "pasture raised", it's the image in your mind...

[Emilia]

But doesn't the beef get bacteria? Maybe it'll cook evenly but won't it still be unhealthy?

 

All food has bacteria but beef you can eat even raw (beef tartare) while raw fish or chicken could make you very ill or even kill you because of salmonella. Pork has worm eggs.

 

Beef is often left hung just like venison etc https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_(meat)

 

Edit: I suppose in this day and age people assume that all bacteria is bad for you. The blue you see in blue cheese is bacteria. It depends on what it is

Edited March 6, 2016 by Emilia