Great information! We love our instapot and have a trick to freeze soups and other meals to reheat quickly: find a bowl that is a little smaller than your slow cooker/instapot and pour your soup/rice mixture/etc. into a ziplock bag that you then freeze inside the bowl. When the contents are frozen, remove and you have a perfectly sized freezer meal to use in your slow cooker. We do that with bouef bourgignon (use Julia Child recipe) and other stews in the winter, too.
One thing we love to batch that has a lot of protein (and gluten free!) is something in Denmark we call Stone Age bread. It’s basically a lot of seeds, nuts, and eggs but baked in a bread tin and slices like bread once baked. It’s really great with hummus, dips, cheese, etc. We like ours toasted. Here’s the recipe we like, it’s in danish but easy to translate ☺️ our 3 year old also loves it! https://www.valsemollen.dk/opskrifter/stenalderbroed/
It’s so hard these days to make wise choices. With the way the food industry is, it can be challenging. I love the idea of selecting a few ingredients to prepare each meal. That does make it difficult to prepare a diverse range of meals though. But, I think this is a great idea. So many of the store bought foods are full of ingredients that are so bad for us. Especially the seed oils which seem to be in everything now. Even the bitchin sauce which is so popular!! Now, with the changes that are coming to the food industry, I think things will get better.
Great experiment! We do eat some processed food in our household, but for the most part we eat just the way you did for that week. I started baking sourdough bread like everyone in 2020 and I never stopped, it’s so much tastier and easier on your stomach than store-bought bread. I am also lucky to live in the Swiss countryside with seasonal veggies available in nearby farms.
A few things I find useful to prep for snacking or to make meals more interesting: salad dressing, tahini dressing for veggies and grains, granola, crackers (from sourdough leftovers or from a mix of seeds) houmous, pickled red onions, various energy balls (ex: carrot cake style or chocolate-hazelnut)
Hi Aline, that sounds so lovely. We never got into making our own bread, but I (Julia) have been pushing Thomas to starts (mostly for me because I’d love homemade gf bread). Good dips and sauces are game changers - I agree! x Julia
Hi Julia, I understand, I have no experience with baking with gf flours but I think Cannelle & Vanille has a book that’s dedicated to gf bread, her recipes look great!
Like you said, I think it's surprisingly easier to go low/no processed food, it just takes time and planning. Looks like you guys were well prepped for it! I totally agree that it forces you to pay attention to what you eat, which is never a bad thing. Any investment into your and your family's health is a good one.
We have been an ingredient household for a few years now! Batch cooking is key and we have also found the food processor to be super helpful to make things like hummus, homemade nut butters etc.. We also make a large batch of beef, chicken or turkey meatballs to help with protein intake and homemade sausage patties (i like the goop turkey sausage recipe) are great too!
Love this “experiment”! We’re like you and focus on a “whole foods diet” but guilty with “the creep” that happens with the ultra processed stuff - even from Whole Foods - mainly the kids snacks. One thing I do is pick up an organic veggie tray when shopping (or the smaller “individual” ones) and then have that on hand to lay out after school - or even bring to carpool for my girls to snack on after school. They’re starved and they’ll eat ALL the veggies! Of course I could chop it all myself - but this is a nice time saver that I can count on rather than waiting till I get around to it. I’ve learned to take it where I can get it!😂
Stovetop popcorn is THE BEST 🍿- my little girls even know how to make it now and during the pandemic it was our Friday night ritual! But get the Whirley Pop (https://a.co/d/gzQe9h6) so simple. We melt 1-2 T ghee slowly adding 1/2 t Himalayan salt until it dissolves so you get “salted oil” - then turn up the heat and add 2/3 C good quality popcorn (I get a mixed organic heirloom (https://a.co/d/0Xm0MDz ) after experimenting with lots of small variety packs - “mushroom” shaped popcorn is great!). Twirl and shake the pot a bit until you don’t hear any more popping and voila! No need to season after since the kernels were already coated pre pop! My girls like spraying truffle oil on theirs sometimes!
I feel you on the “pure” protein challenge - I heard someone say the other day that you feel like “you’re walking around with a chicken breast in hand all day” to meet protein goals!😂 We’ve been using Equip Foods Prime Protein for over a year now and really like it - just grass fed beef with a few other ingredients (equivalent to 4oz lean beef) - I’d consider it minimally processed. Strawberry is our fave https://a.co/d/hX1gkt2 - I blend with frozen berries, frozen kale/caulirice/carrots, chia/flax/hemp seeds etc.
Thanks again for sharing the inspiration and reminder to “rein it in” with the “healthy processed” stuff! Going to have to edit the pantry soon!🙌🏻
I had never heard of the term “ingredient household” but it describes what most of us do in France: small grocery runs, everything from scratch, lots of freezing or canning.
3 tools that help my family a lot: slow cooker, instapot and freezer (anything from pancakes, crepes, muffins, quiches, soups, cookies, pasta sauce, home made gluten free bread etc… go into the freezer).
Curious if the dried mango contained added sugar? I find it harder to find a dried fruit snack that doesn’t have a lot of added sugars.
As a vegetarian (who also avoids a lot of gluten and has an interest in nutrition), I typically will eat whole foods and eat like your week. I recommend the Popsmith for making your own popcorn, we use it weekly and it tastes much better than other popcorn we’ve tried. Just add a small amount of coconut oil to the pot and salt afterwards. My kids enjoy dried seaweed snacks, hummus and veggies, and toast (or Siete gf almond flour crepes) with almond butter, banana slices, and cinnamon. We do eat the occasional junk food (I think it’s better to have them experience it than avoid all bad foods and spiral as an adult when you can finally eat sugar/ fried things…but mostly we try to eat better foods at home).
This is sounds like a good opportunity. I'd love to get away from processed snacks. I am a little shocked to know frozen veg is considered processed still.
Great information! We love our instapot and have a trick to freeze soups and other meals to reheat quickly: find a bowl that is a little smaller than your slow cooker/instapot and pour your soup/rice mixture/etc. into a ziplock bag that you then freeze inside the bowl. When the contents are frozen, remove and you have a perfectly sized freezer meal to use in your slow cooker. We do that with bouef bourgignon (use Julia Child recipe) and other stews in the winter, too.
One thing we love to batch that has a lot of protein (and gluten free!) is something in Denmark we call Stone Age bread. It’s basically a lot of seeds, nuts, and eggs but baked in a bread tin and slices like bread once baked. It’s really great with hummus, dips, cheese, etc. We like ours toasted. Here’s the recipe we like, it’s in danish but easy to translate ☺️ our 3 year old also loves it! https://www.valsemollen.dk/opskrifter/stenalderbroed/
YUM! Thank you for sharing. Definitely trying this out. x Julia
It’s so good and easy. And no need to chop any of the nuts before as you will slice the bread 👏🏻
It’s so hard these days to make wise choices. With the way the food industry is, it can be challenging. I love the idea of selecting a few ingredients to prepare each meal. That does make it difficult to prepare a diverse range of meals though. But, I think this is a great idea. So many of the store bought foods are full of ingredients that are so bad for us. Especially the seed oils which seem to be in everything now. Even the bitchin sauce which is so popular!! Now, with the changes that are coming to the food industry, I think things will get better.
Great experiment! We do eat some processed food in our household, but for the most part we eat just the way you did for that week. I started baking sourdough bread like everyone in 2020 and I never stopped, it’s so much tastier and easier on your stomach than store-bought bread. I am also lucky to live in the Swiss countryside with seasonal veggies available in nearby farms.
A few things I find useful to prep for snacking or to make meals more interesting: salad dressing, tahini dressing for veggies and grains, granola, crackers (from sourdough leftovers or from a mix of seeds) houmous, pickled red onions, various energy balls (ex: carrot cake style or chocolate-hazelnut)
Hi Aline, that sounds so lovely. We never got into making our own bread, but I (Julia) have been pushing Thomas to starts (mostly for me because I’d love homemade gf bread). Good dips and sauces are game changers - I agree! x Julia
Hi Julia, I understand, I have no experience with baking with gf flours but I think Cannelle & Vanille has a book that’s dedicated to gf bread, her recipes look great!
Naked Pear on Substack is a great source for Gf and gum free sourdough recipes! The author has celiac disease as well!
Like you said, I think it's surprisingly easier to go low/no processed food, it just takes time and planning. Looks like you guys were well prepped for it! I totally agree that it forces you to pay attention to what you eat, which is never a bad thing. Any investment into your and your family's health is a good one.
What AI do you use for recipe support? I never thought to use a tool!
Also curious to know more about this!
We have been an ingredient household for a few years now! Batch cooking is key and we have also found the food processor to be super helpful to make things like hummus, homemade nut butters etc.. We also make a large batch of beef, chicken or turkey meatballs to help with protein intake and homemade sausage patties (i like the goop turkey sausage recipe) are great too!
Love this “experiment”! We’re like you and focus on a “whole foods diet” but guilty with “the creep” that happens with the ultra processed stuff - even from Whole Foods - mainly the kids snacks. One thing I do is pick up an organic veggie tray when shopping (or the smaller “individual” ones) and then have that on hand to lay out after school - or even bring to carpool for my girls to snack on after school. They’re starved and they’ll eat ALL the veggies! Of course I could chop it all myself - but this is a nice time saver that I can count on rather than waiting till I get around to it. I’ve learned to take it where I can get it!😂
Stovetop popcorn is THE BEST 🍿- my little girls even know how to make it now and during the pandemic it was our Friday night ritual! But get the Whirley Pop (https://a.co/d/gzQe9h6) so simple. We melt 1-2 T ghee slowly adding 1/2 t Himalayan salt until it dissolves so you get “salted oil” - then turn up the heat and add 2/3 C good quality popcorn (I get a mixed organic heirloom (https://a.co/d/0Xm0MDz ) after experimenting with lots of small variety packs - “mushroom” shaped popcorn is great!). Twirl and shake the pot a bit until you don’t hear any more popping and voila! No need to season after since the kernels were already coated pre pop! My girls like spraying truffle oil on theirs sometimes!
I feel you on the “pure” protein challenge - I heard someone say the other day that you feel like “you’re walking around with a chicken breast in hand all day” to meet protein goals!😂 We’ve been using Equip Foods Prime Protein for over a year now and really like it - just grass fed beef with a few other ingredients (equivalent to 4oz lean beef) - I’d consider it minimally processed. Strawberry is our fave https://a.co/d/hX1gkt2 - I blend with frozen berries, frozen kale/caulirice/carrots, chia/flax/hemp seeds etc.
Thanks again for sharing the inspiration and reminder to “rein it in” with the “healthy processed” stuff! Going to have to edit the pantry soon!🙌🏻
I had never heard of the term “ingredient household” but it describes what most of us do in France: small grocery runs, everything from scratch, lots of freezing or canning.
3 tools that help my family a lot: slow cooker, instapot and freezer (anything from pancakes, crepes, muffins, quiches, soups, cookies, pasta sauce, home made gluten free bread etc… go into the freezer).
Curious if the dried mango contained added sugar? I find it harder to find a dried fruit snack that doesn’t have a lot of added sugars.
As a vegetarian (who also avoids a lot of gluten and has an interest in nutrition), I typically will eat whole foods and eat like your week. I recommend the Popsmith for making your own popcorn, we use it weekly and it tastes much better than other popcorn we’ve tried. Just add a small amount of coconut oil to the pot and salt afterwards. My kids enjoy dried seaweed snacks, hummus and veggies, and toast (or Siete gf almond flour crepes) with almond butter, banana slices, and cinnamon. We do eat the occasional junk food (I think it’s better to have them experience it than avoid all bad foods and spiral as an adult when you can finally eat sugar/ fried things…but mostly we try to eat better foods at home).
Would love to hear your takeaways if you try freezing meals!
This is sounds like a good opportunity. I'd love to get away from processed snacks. I am a little shocked to know frozen veg is considered processed still.
I believe it's consider "processed" because the vegetables are probably machine cut and then bagged.