from SAD to Healthy Carbs and fats- please help!

[made4more]

Every time I've gone on a specific diet, sure it was about health,but it has always been first and foremost about weight loss. This time, I am wanting to do this for my health, strangely. I cook fatty carby salty messes of goodness (think pioneer woman, barefoot contessa, etc) and my dh loves it when I do. I NEED recipes and ideas that dh will like (love?) and the kids will eat, kwim? I'm really concerned about this- I'm unsure how to go about the switch...

hayelp! and this isn't something I want to do slowly- I want to do it friday when dh gets paid, so that I can start to feel better. (adrenal fatigue) I feel just aweful, to the point htat I was wondering if I had cancer or something. Ir eally think this is my answer.

[bec28]

[deena]

Originally Posted by amytug

I feel just aweful, to the point htat I was wondering if I had cancer or something. Ir eally think this is my answer.

This is absolutely a part of or completely the solution!

As for recipes. Off the top of my head: grilling meats and serving with rice is a staple in this house. It's soooo yummy and healthy. Throw some vegetables on the side. Grilled or not.

---------- Post added at 12:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 PM ----------

I also wanted to say that you have to come to the realization and accept the fact that a healthy diet is more expensive. It can be hard, but it's worth it.

[Macky]

I just cruised around the Pioneer Woman website (haven't encountered it before) and there are a LOT of healthy recipes there. It's kind of hard to make suggestions when we don't know exactly what your family likes to eat. Carby goodness is pretty relative. Your body needs carbs in moderation like everything else. Don't cut them out; eat healthier versions of what you already like. If you eat white bread now, buy whole grain instead. If you eat white pasta now, buy whole grain. If you eat a tonne of potatoes now, eat them less often and cooked in ways that leave the skin on and don't need lots of fats to moisten them. Your body needs salt, too. Don't cut it out entirely. Use less. Take recipes you already like and make healthier substitutions with whole foods. A lot of basic foods get painted as evil in the low-fat, "health" food world. They're not. They just need moderation. I'd much rather use real butter in a cookie and only eat one then buy or make some sort of awful thing with fake ingredients and eat ten. ETA: So it's not such a shock to your family (changing the diet quickly rarely sticks long term), make smaller portions of the things they like and fill the rest of the plate with veggies of all sorts.

baby steps are best. make small changes and they will hardly be noticeable. my husband is a complete carnivore and my 10 year old son is incredibly picky. you can satisfy your family with healthy cooking. it can be done.

you might want to try things like this:

• omit potatoes and corn (starchy veggies)
• avoid white flour
• substitute brown rice for white (short grain brown rice is my favorite)
• use honey instead of sugar
• try to eat 2 veggies with lunch and dinner
• keep a fruit bowl on the counter filled with fruit (that's our snack go-to)
• keep peanut butter or almond butter (great snack with apples)
• keep chopped up veggies for snacking (great with hummus or ranch dip)
• do a food prep each week (roast some chicken breasts, cut up veggies, boil some eggs). this makes for a quick meal when needed.
• use steel cut oats instead of instant

and, yes, some of the pioneer woman recipes are really good. last night for dinner we had oven fried chicken breasts (using milled wheat flour for the breading), green beans with butter and a chopped salad (romaine, red onions, almonds, blue cheese, carrots with a blue cheese vinegarette). totally tasty and totally healthy.

good luck. you can do this!

[Mother of Sons]

The way I do this easiest is to figure that half the meal should be vegetables, a quarter from protein and a quarter or less of starch/carb which would include any kind of fruit or dessert.

Tonight I made a stir fry with some steak and lots of vegetables. It was really good, very fast to make and satisfying. You would probably want to add a small amount of noodles or rice. Those aren't healthy for me so I don't include them.

Last night we ate out. I ended up having an avocado burger with no bun and veggies instead of fries.

Try to ease into it. Start by adding more veggies and less main dish. Ty a new main dish once or twice a week and keep track of the ones that everyone likes.

[Soliloquy]

Barefoot Contessa is really healthy! (Except for most of the desserts and baked goods).

This really helps me. http://www.cookingTF.com/ she has a weekly menu mailer, a book with 16 weeks of menus, shopping lists, and recipes, and other really helpful things like a course for people who want to learn.

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon was also instrumental in helping me learn how to nourish my family, not just fill them up.

[made4more]

OK the things we like to eat are
chicken and noodles (homemade)- maybe chicken and cauliflower instead??? and tons of veggies

homemade pizza - but I have a lovely cauliflower crust recipe, so I know how to do this...

spaghetti- I'll do this with way less noodles for me, and whole wheat noodles at that.

what else?

meatloaf isn't hard to LOW carb-

I have a great spinach lasagna recipe from (lindas low carb)

chicken fried steak with gravy.. man i wish there was a lc way to make gravy. MMMM.... (white)

chicken spaghetti..... again- less noodles,wheat....

anything I'm missing?

My topping for my meatloaf that I make has brown sugar in it for the sticky sweetness. not sure what to substitute here, that won't crash my blood sugar...

[ServingGod]

I put organic ketchup on my meatloaf and let it get a bit dark, super yummy. I also add a ton of veggies into my meatloaf and some wheat germ, and oatmeal or wheat bran.

[mamacat]

Switch to celtic or himalayan sea salt - it is good for you so you can eat all you want. I would love to have cauliflower pizza crust recipe. If you cant or dont want to do raw milk do a search for a non - homogenized milk in your area . Is healthier.I dont see why you cant still make gravy. If you use healthy fats like butter,coconut and olive oil to cook with.Some people feel better to totally cut out grains.If you think it is more blood sugar issues then I try to do things like if we are having a starchy vegie then it is the carb - if we have meat and corn I dont also serve any kind of bread in addition.So if you make chicken fried steak with breading and gravy I wouldnt also have potatos or rice or anything bready.Just that and maybe a salad or some other kind of steamed green veggie

[made4more]

Hm- flax might help too.. I am almost positive i made a lc meatloaf recipe before that held together really well and didn't have any breading of any sort. I'll try to find that again. I may just have to do catsup, mustard, worcestershire, a lil um... ooh do they make sf bbq sauce? that might take the place of the brown sugar in my sauce.. Hrm....

veggies- onions, peppers?? anything else?

[Soliloquy]

PLEASE share your cauliflower crust recipe!!!!!! I want pizza so badly!

I have my spaghetti, alfredo,etc sauce over sauteed greens rather than pasta.

[made4more]

ooh I just remembered that I have the spiraler thingie to make zuch into noodles!

Here is the recipe- the first time i made it it was really wet and the kids wouldn't eat it. the next time i made it it turned out better but the children still had the memory of the last crust so they wouldn't try it, lol.. Here is the recipe- the trick is to squeeze the snot out of the cauli once you've riced (shredded it in fp) it. It looks weird, but it's soooo yummy! http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009...uliflower.html (broken link)

I also keep meaning to try her oopsie rolls as she calls them, for bread!
http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009...uliflower.html

I'm also sharing the recipe for the spin lasagna cuz it's SO SO good! (the second variation)
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/spinach_lasagna.html

course i just got to thinking and this stuff might not fit into the whole tf thing so well

[mamacat]

You can also do things like make meat balls with sauce and cheese like you would have on spaghetti but just have that part with a salad adding cinnamon to things wherever you can helps to keep blood sugars balanced you might want to try counting carbs or check a glycemic index thing to help figure out Maybe a little molasses on top of meat loaf?

[Soliloquy]

Chlorella is a whole-food supplement that helps balance blood sugars, too. I think it's important during pregnancy and breastfeeding for how it keeps toxins out of breastmilk.