Real Food VS. Processed Food VS. Balance

You all know the argument... should you eat real foods or processed foods? And we all know the answer. Of course we should eat as many whole, real, unprocessed foods as possible. But we also live in a very "real" world where the real foods we would like to eat are not always as available or affordable as we would like.  I've read some interesting comments lately about foods I've mentioned in my meal plans and foods I've mentioned on my facebook page and I wanted to address the issue.

First, I absolutely think it's best to base your diet around real, whole, unprocessed foods. When I began a gluten free diet in 2007, I was truly appalled at the amount of  "white" flours used in most gluten free baked goods & recipes. It had been preached to me since I was a child that you based your diet on whole grains, even when you were baking. So I created lots of recipes using whole grains: brown rice flour, millet flour, and sorghum flour. 5 years later: I'm using a variety of even more whole grains like teff flour, quinoa flour, and buckwheat flour.

But this post isn't necessarily about baking and using gluten free flours. (Although I am quite passionate about gluten free baking as you well know!)

While I believe it's essential for diets to be based around healthy, whole foods... I also believe it's perfectly acceptable to eat processed foods in moderation. I have practiced & preached both extremes. Especially after becoming gluten free, I learned the nutritional value of eating whole, unprocessed foods, while in my college years I lived on mostly processed foods.

I also understand that finances, living space, and your personal environment can play a HUGE role in diets. Whole foods are expensive. Especially high quality and/or organic whole foods. What I've come to realize is that like in all things, nutrition is about balance.

Financially some months are better for my husband and I than others. We live on a steady income, but as you well know, life & financial burdens are not always steady. During prosperous months we buy fresh vegetables, organic chicken, fresh meats & fish, as much as we can. When I know I can spend more during a those months, I often try to stock up on healthy foods (such as frozen vegetables, high quality meats/chicken) so that I can store as much as I can in the small freezer space that we have. During prosperous months when fresh foods are easily available, it is most likely that we eat healthier.

Other months are much leaner financially. On those months I tend to rely on low sodium and/or "no salt added" canned vegetables & beans, canned fish such as tuna & salmon, and our freezer supply of meats/chicken. Other pantry items such as gluten free pastas, brown rice, millet & quinoa are used a lot as well. Which means on leaner months we tend to eat more "processed" foods.

Since mainstream gluten free products like Udi's bread & Rudi's bread have become more readily available, I also tend to have a loaf or two of gluten free bread in my freezer. Especially in the more prosperous months.  During leaner months, I generally make gluten free bread from scratch and freeze it because I have a supply of gluten free baking ingredients in my pantry.

Other processed foods we generally have on hand?

• Condiments: ketchup, mustard, gluten free barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, A1-sauce, relishes, salsa, hot sauce, etc... 
• Gluten free lunch meats like smoked turkey and ham
• Cheese/ Yogurt
• Peanut butter/ Almond Butter/ Jams/ Jellies/ Honey
• Frozen gluten free treat (like donuts or ice cream) 
• Cereal (My husband's go to meal for any time of the day! lol)
• GF Rolled Oats and gf hot cereal in individual packages
• Almond Milk
• Hemp protein powder
• Chocolate Syrup

Does this mean we eat these foods all the time? No. It means they are available if/when we need them or want them. Does it mean I think processed foods are necessarily healthy? No. It means that often when I'm in a hurry and/or if we are in one of our "lean" months we have provisions that are often still a healthier choice than junk food or using money we don't have for fast food. 

My point in this post is that one thing I've learned over the past few years is that BALANCE in our diets is necessary and important.  It means that while I truly want us to eat healthy, whole, real (even organic and ethically raised) foods... I also have to be content to live within my means. And some months that means depending more on processed foods than whole foods. 

It also means that occasionally I can eat that small serving bag of cheetos and know that because it's not something I do daily or even weekly... that it's okay. It's all about balance.  

What are your thoughts? I know this is an extremely controversial subject, especially in the food/blogging world... I'd really love to know how you stand on this issue? Do you think a balance between whole foods and processed foods is acceptable? 

This Week's Menu - Homemade Gluten Free Lasagna or Ravioli

"Pantry meal" weeks are common at our house. I like pantry weeks not only because it's a frugal option for us, but it can just make the weekend less stressful because I don't have to go grocery shopping. Generally, my favorite type of shopping is for groceries... but sometimes I just don't feel up to it!

So, as with most pantry weeks, our meals will be very simple. What are you making this week?

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Breakfasts: EcoPlanet Gluten Free Oatmeal + 1 oz. almonds, hemp shakes, boiled eggs, yogurt, homemade gluten free granola + almond milk

Snacks: leftover teff muffins, babybell and/or cheesesticks, yogurt, almonds, mary’s sticks & twigs w/ hummus, apple slices w/ almond butter

Lunch - Leftovers and/or spinach & romaine salad

Pantry/Freezer dinners this week:

• Monday - One-pot meal made with cannellini beans, petit-diced tomatoes, fresh spinach & gluten free pasta (although I may leave the pasta out of my portion) -- look for the recipe later this week!
• Tuesday - Grilled Chicken Breasts w/broccoli
• Wednesday - Crockpot Beef Stew w/ carrots, celery, garlic, onions, few potatoes
• Thursday - Angel Food Gluten Free Country Steak w/ green beans & cinnamon mashed sweet potatoes
• Friday - (Easy!) Breakfast for dinner: gluten free pancakes and scrambled eggs
• Saturday - Homemade Gluten Free Lasagna -OR- Ravioli (using this recipe for gluten free pasta) served w/ sauteed zucchini and mushrooms
• Sunday - Easter -- Dinner with Michael’s family (I may make some sort of casserole and/or several side dishes so I have plenty of gluten free options.)

Monday night Prep Work (Didn't have time on Sunday evening this week!)

• Make large romaine salad
• Make homemade gf granola
• Grill chicken breasts for Tuesday
• Cube & cook sweet potatoes for Thursday
• Prep ingredients for beef stew to add to crockpot on Wednesday morning.

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For a fantastic little round up of gluten free menus this week, please visit Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness, the menu theme this week is sugar-free. 

And for awesome menus of ALL kinds, please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.  

This Week's Menu with "Red & Ready" Spaghetti Sauce

I'm starting to get the hang of this "weekly menu" thing again! And It's been a huge help during the week. With going to the gym 3-4 afternoons a week + our Tuesday & Thursday night activities it can make for a very busy 5 days, and a frustrating 5 days if I don't have our meals planned out.

This week I'm making one of my favorite easy recipes for a quick homemade spaghetti sauce. As a newlywed seven years ago, I found this recipe from Hunts for "Red & Ready" Spaghetti Sauce on the back of a label. It was super easy to make, very cheap, and my husband loved it. A slightly sweet and very simple spaghetti sauce served over your favorite gluten free pasta with a salad on side. This meal can be made in about 15 minutes if you prepare a large salad at the beginning of the week and have it ready to serve! The sauce only takes a few minutes to put together, but if you make it ahead of time, the flavors will really come together and taste fantastic over your pasta when served!

Breakfasts this Week:

• Boiled Eggs, Teff Muffins, Chocolate Hemp Protein Shakes

Snacks This Week:

• Green Smoothies, Chobani yogurt, apple slices + raw almonds, cheese sticks, larabars

Lunches This Week:

• Planned leftovers from dinner -OR- servings of the large romaine salad w/ sliced almonds + apple slices.

photo courtesy of Hunts.com

Dinners This Week:

• Sunday = Angel Food GF Chicken Tenders with steamed broccoli and mashed sweet potatoes
• Monday = "Red & Ready" Spaghetti Sauce served over quinoa pasta with a romaine & carrot salad
• Tuesday = GF Support Group night so quick dinner =  PB & J sandwiches w/ apple slices
• Wednesday = Ground Chicken Taco Salads served with "refried" beans (Michael really liked this meal last week and wanted it again!)
• Thursday = Petsmart Volunteer Night = make ahead meal:  Pakistani Kima (a simple ground beef curry from a favorite cookbook "More with Less")
• Friday = Thai Chicken Stirfry served over red quinoa

Sunday Night Pre-Week Meal Preparations:

• Boil eggs, chill in ice water, peel & place in baggies to take to take to work
• Make half batch of teff muffins for breakfasts
• Make half batch of "Red & Ready" spaghetti sauce for Monday night's dinner.
• Make large salad for to eat with dinner & lunches
• Make ground chicken taco filling for taco salads on Wednesday along with chopping up tomatoes for topping.
• Make Pakistani Kima for Thursday night
• Slice four apples for snacks throughout the week.

Find more amazing menus this week at OrgJunkie.com AND for a great little round up of gluten free menus, please visit Angela's Kitchen!

This Week's Menu with A Pantry Casserole Recipe Template

A few reasons I previously "stopped" posting our gluten free menus: 1) they can be boring & repetitive... do you really want to know how often we eat tuna salad? and 2) I often forgot to plan...

I've realized in the past few weeks that even though our menu can be a bit boring, and even if I don't follow it completely... it's SO much easier to eat healthily when I take a few hours to plan out our meals. 

After my weekly coaching session with Cheryl of Harris Whole Health today, I'm going to focus more this week on eating less refined/baked carbs and being more mindful of eating healthy complex carbohydrates at meals. I think the hardest part of letting go of more baked goods is simply that I love to bake. It's an outlet for me, and even though I may only do it once or twice a week at the most it's a stress reliever that's important to me. And while I'm not completely restricted from eating gluten free baked goods... I know it's tempting when they are around the house, even if they are in the freezer. So if I'm able to bake this week, I may attempt something with almond flour, so it would be much lower on the glycemic index.

Breakfasts This Week:

• Boiled Eggs, Amy Green's 7 Grain Breakfast Cereal, Chocolate Hemp Shakes, Berry Hemp Shakes, Eco-Planet gluten free instant hot cereal

Lunch This Week: 

• Most days: planned leftovers from dinner and/or cucumber tomato salad . If dinner leftovers don't work out: peanut butter & jelly sandwich on Udi's bread with a sliced apple and carrot sticks. Make sure not to eat gluten free baked goods on days that you have a sandwich for lunch!

 Dinners this Week: 

• Sunday -  Simple Roast Chicken + green beans with almonds + cheddar mashed potatoes
• Monday - Homemade Ground Turkey Tacos served with quick "Spanish" rice + steamed broccoli
• Tuesday - Baked Potatoes topped with homemade ground turkey chili + simple romaine salad
• Wednesday - Chicken Stirfry using a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables served over brown rice
• Thursday - Pantry Chicken Casserole -- see recipe below
• Friday - Pizza Night! Trying a pizza from "Against the Grain"

Sunday Night Pre- Meal Preparations:

• Make homemade ground turkey chili and pre-bake baked potatoes for a quick dinner on Tuesday. 
• Boil eggs & shell them. Make the 7 grain cereal in the rice cooker for the upcoming week. 
• Shred lettuce & dice tomatoes for ground turkey tacos. 
• Make ground turkey taco filling, so it only needs to be reheated on Monday night. 
• Make simple cucumber, tomato, radish & olive salad for last minute lunches and/or to serve with dinners that need an additional quick veggie. 
• Remove chicken from freezer and place in fridge to defrost for Wednesday night's stir fry. 

My canned goods "pantry." We use a lot of canned goods, especially in the fall and winter and on "lean" grocery weeks. Having a well-stocked pantry is essential when you need quick meals. I often use the canned fruit for last minute green smoothies. I use canned vegetables & beans with several meals during the week -- I'd buy more frozen vegetables but we have a tiny freezer! I love having soy free, dolphin safe tuna (most brands have broth made from soy protein) in the pantry for tuna salad and tuna melts. Peanut butter & almond butter for sandwiches and to spread on apple slices, etc... Knowing I have a pantry full of vegetables, beans, fruits, gluten free pasta, and gluten free grains means I can whip together a casserole pretty quickly during the week. I'm not sure I've ever made the same casserole twice though, much to the disappointment of my husband! This is generally how I create weeknight pantry casseroles:

Quick Gluten Free Pantry Casserole Recipe Template

Here's an easy way to construct a pantry casserole or hot pot depending on which region of the country you are from. We make a meal like this at least once a week. Have fun and use what you have on hand. It may not always be the prettiest meal, but it will always be healthy & filling. 

Printer-friendly Recipe

1. 1-2 cups cooked, chopped protein (chicken, beans, ground beef or turkey, tofu, pork, etc..)
2. 1-2 cups cooked starch (gluten free pasta, rice, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, wild rice, millet, quinoa, aramanth, etc..)
3. 3 cups your favorite vegetables, either pre-cooked, frozen, canned (and drained), or raw (chopped into bite size pieces) = (zucchini/yellow squash, mushrooms, green or red peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, green beans, kale, spinach, carrots, garden peas, asparagus, etc...)
4. 2-3 cups liquid (chicken broth, plain tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, beef broth, vegetable broth, homemade gluten free "cream soup", etc..)
5. Seasonings & Spices: use what you like with the flavor you like... here's are two great guides for different international flavors:  Cooking Light World Cuisine Spice Guide & Cooking With Us - Cultural Spice Guide
6. Toppings (optional - I usually don't add a topping -- but for company and presentation it's nice!) -- blanched almond flour is awesome and looks & tastes like parmesan cheese when sprinkled evenly over casserole, bread crumbs or crushed corn tortillas, sliced almonds, shredded cheese if you're a dairy person, etc...

Directions:

Super fast casserole: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make this uber fast, simply toss all ingredients but the topping in a large bowl and mix together. Pour casserole mixture into a greased 9x13 casserole dish -or- 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle on toppings if desired. Bake for 30 minutes until casserole is heated through. 

Layered casserole: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease casserole dish. Add ingredients in layers and sprinkle your seasonings on each layer (layer of protein, layer of starch, layer of vegetables etc). Pour liquid of choice over casserole. Add toppings if desired.  Bake for 30 minutes or until casserole is heated through. 

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving!

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Other great gluten free menus this week can be found at Celiac Family who is hosting this week's gluten free menu swap! 

An amazing roundup of menus of ALL kinds can be found at OrgJunkie.com

Gym Hamster - Week 9 Update - Lifestyle Changes

It's week 9 at the gym and that's no April Fool! My workout is pretty routine now. I rotate equipment every day I go so that work outs aren't completely the same... but I'm also interested in trying some classes now!

I've noticed when I work out at home with "Leslie" I often push myself harder than I would at the gym because she encourages me to do so. And sometimes all we need is a little push!  So next week I want to try one or two classes at the gym and see what they "feel" like, I really want to be challenged.

Weight loss for me has been slow but steady. As much as I would like to lose weight more quickly I feel like this is the first time in my life I'm truly understanding what it means to eat healthily for my body for LIFE. That this change will have to be lifelong. It can't just stop once I've lost the weight I need to lose.

When I lost weight "the first time" in my adult life, it was just before I got married. And it wasn't because I was getting married... we had super quick engagement and decided in two months to plan a wedding and get married... because we roll like that. (lol since Sally thought "shot gun" seemed inappropriate since babies weren't involved!)  But previous to those decisions I lost fifty pounds.

I lost weight initially by using the Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds videos (and they were literally VIDEOS back then! lol), then joining Curves and meticulously watching what I ate. I used several methods to keep track of my food. I used a "Food Mover"  from Richard Simmons... I attempted Weight Watchers... several times... I cut out ALL carbs for a few weeks (that didn't last long)... I don't remember everything I did... but it was never consistent. I never learned how to make healthy eating (or exercising) a LIFESTYLE. 

And that's what is different this go around. I lost weight quickly five years ago... but I didn't do it in the right way. And it didn't "stick."

On this journey, I want it to "stick." I want working out just to be a part of life, not something I do to lose weight. I want healthy meals and keeping portions in check to be part of every day... not just for a few months "this time."

So really today, it's just about realizing this is life. I've never going to be someone who can eat "anything they want" and be healthy. It just doesn't work for my body that way. But it doesn't mean I can't have a cupcake when I want one. It means to simply have ONE, be mindful of eating it, and remember that it's not something to be eaten every day. But it doesn't mean I have to cut it out completely as I did in the past. That wasn't healthy either.

What is something that's simply part of a healthier lifestyle for you today? Something not necessarily about weight loss, but just something that you know you have to do to be healthier forever?