Okay, I realize that question is highly subjective, which is why I was hoping I could gain some guidance based on my current diet:
[ul]
[li]Hamburgers (whoppers may be the best thing ever)[/li][li]KFC[/li][li]Cheap TV Dinners (Chicken Nuggets, Pasta, etc)[/li][li]Hotdogs[/li][li]Muffins[/li][li]Pizza (Pepperoni and/or bacon)[/li][li]Fruit (Apples, Oranges, Bananas)[/li][/ul]
In short, I’m addicted to most of those foods, and I find it hard to eat healthier as I have yet to find anything that can rival those. However, since I recently joined a gym, I’d like to add some healthier foods to my diet, so I can actually lose weight instead of staying at the status-quo.
I think part of it is a matter of adjusting your tastebuds, so to speak. Those foods all have very high levels of fat and salt which satiate your brain in different ways than nutritional foods. There’s not much I’m aware of that’s going to give you the same junk food high that those foods do, but there are plenty of foods that are very tasty and are good for you.
Trying “healthy” or low fat/low cal versions of junk food never really works for me, I find I just think they’re gross or don’t taste anything like the original. I find that it’s better for me to eat healthy, nourishing foods 99% of the time and if I want some pizza one day, I eat really good pizza and enjoy every bite. I just don’t make it a daily or weekly habit.
You just have to realize that nothing is going to “rival” KFC in the junk food flavor department, but if you want to make good decisions about what’s healthy for your body that’s a different story.
Anyway there are tons of healthy foods that actually taste good. Right now I’m eating a salad with spinach, fuji apples, baby carrots, a little honey turkey, a little feta, a small handful of walnuts and some raisins with nonfat ceasar dressing. Yum yum yum.
I loves me my spicy-hot V8! Yeah, it’s high in sodium, but is yummy otherwise, with lots of fiber! And flavor! Throw in some lemon juice and worcestershire sauce, and it’s even better.
I think you would just have to submit yourself to two or three weeks of “re-programming,” after which vegetables, whole grains, and lean meat will become appealing.
I like to marinate chicken breasts in yogurt, lemon, and garlic, then broil them. I do a whole package at a time and then pull them out whenever I need a fast meal. This chicken is really good with tzatziki (cucumber, yogurt, garlic, salt, pepper).
The broiler, in general, is my friend. I stick a lot of vegetables in it, to get them a little cooked and crispy.
To clarify my OP a bit, I guess I’m looking for healthy foods that are quick and easy. I don’t really want to spend a lot of time preparing foods, just eating them
So what healthy foods would you recommend that I can pick up fron my grocery store and are pretty much ready to go (aside from heating, and other minor preparations)?
Unlike NajaNivea, I’ve had good success altering my fave foods to make them healthier. If you can make your own burgers, try either using ground turkey breast or 85% lean ground beef for the burgers; use 2% cheese. IMHO, steak sauce is much better on a burger than mayo, and is fat-free.
Hot dogs: look for turkey hot dogs. They’re still high in sodium, but have about 50% less fat than beef/pork hot dogs.
For both your burgers and your dogs, look for whole wheat rolls.
Pizza: bacon is much preferable to pepperoni, in terms of fat. Again, if you can make your own, you can buy whole-wheat crusts at the grocery store (well, I can, and I live in a pissant little nowhere city); top with 2% mozzarella, seasonings of choice, and crisply cooked, well-drained bacon.
The biggest problem with muffins are sizes. The ones you buy in the grocery store are huge. You can make them a lot healthier by buying ones with bran, and eating a half of one.
Fruits: you just need more variety. Seedless grapes are good. Dole makes a line of frozen fruits now that my family likes a lot. You can buy single-fruit bags (pineapple, strawberries, blueberries) or mixed fruit.
I don’t consider my current ‘bachelor food’ to be criminally unhealthy…
Frozen vegetables or pre-washed bagged salads keep and don’t suck. I freeze some meats, but seldom plan ahead far enough to defrost them… sausages are easy and tasty though. I often cook frozen perogies, dumplings, etc, and most ramen noodles have no trans-fat these days.
Hotdogs, muffins, pizza and fruit all sound fine to me… perhaps you’d get some mileage out of low-fat sauces like hot-sauce, teryaki, at so on?
If you have a Whole Foods nearby, you should check out the deli - they have some great pre-cooked meals as well as made-to-order sandwiches. They have great snacks, too, like healthy potato chips and cookies. They also have a good selection of frozen meals like pizza. We’ve recently discovered Wolfgang Puck frozen pizzas - they are very healthy and taste great.
From a low carb POV, all those foods are high in carbs, and for that matter ‘bad’ carbs, and cause a insulin effect that lead to feeling you must eat sooner then you need to.
As a former poor and starving college student, I have much experience in this department.
If you’re on the go, I really like Kashi granola bars. That with a bottle of water will tide you over. If you want to go kinda junky with it, include a small bag of those cheddar Ritz sandwiches and that pretty much filled me up until my classes were over. If you want more variety, you could go to the supermarket, buy some dried fruit like apricots, raisins, cranberries - whatever you like really, and mix them up in little ziplock baggies for later. I like to add in pistachios to add some saltiness to the berries’ sweetness. If you want to junk it up even more, you can add chocolate-covered fruit too. Those are delish.
For meals if you’re going to have pasta, you can boil up those noodles in a bag/box, use sauce from a jar, but you can also add fresh veggies too. Fresh, thinly sliced bell peppers, mushrooms and olives (basically what’s good on a pizza) are heavenly. It will almost seem like you made everything yourself!
The same goes for stir-fry. If you stick some rice, meat and some veggies like fresh carrots, peas and broccoli in a pan and just pour a bit of soy sauce and sugar, you’re good to go. You could experiment and add hoisin sauce and see if you like that combo better, there are so many choices.
If you want something sweet to drink that’s not soda, try OJ, apple juice or my favorite, Alpine spiced cider. True they’re pretty sweet and have a good amount of sugar, but at least they have vitamins that are good for you.
I have a celery casseroale dish that is to die for! It uses a very heavily flavored white sauce (which tastes decadent and fattening but is actually not) and has a variety of ingredients that makes the carious textures VERY apepaling, and parmesan cheese prinkled over top makes it sinfully yummy.
I can make a vegan version if I want to and overall it’s a hetalthy meal with a reasonably short preparation time.
I grab a salmon filet, plunk it on a piece of aluminum foil, cover it liberally (okay, left to my own devices I bury it) in lemon pepper (the kind that comes in its own shaker). Then I wrap the foil around it so it won’t dry out and stick it in the oven for a half hour. Then I go and goof around on the SDMB. Before I know it, it’s ready to eat.
If you really want to spend zero time on preparation but eat better, head for the frozen food aisle and try the dinners until you find some you like. There’s heaps of brands and meals available, including whole lines of healthier and lower-cal dinners.
Try some things you’ve never tried before - you just might find you love a frozen ‘rice bowl’ meal.
But if you really want to change, get tough with yourself and refuse to eat anything deep-fried or greasy (pretty much all your favourite stuff) for a month and eat the healthy stuff. I promise when you taste the greasy stuff again, you’ll not find it so delicious After that, changing your lifestyle will be easy.
Why? well, the stuff you love is bad for you and you won’t enjoy the lifestyle you’ll be forced to adopt if you don’t change now. It doesn’t mean you can never eat the other stuff again, but you won’t even miss it.
You should start shopping at Trader Joe’s. They have have an excellent frozen meals section (frozen food that actually contains food!) with lots of variety AND they are inexpensive.
They have different flavors of hummus, which provides protein and is very filling without being lethal.
Also, salsa has sodium but provides tasty veggies.
Natural peanut butter spread on a celery stick is fine for a healthy snack as well.
Almonds and other nuts are good snacks but you don’t need to have them salted or candied.
The Amy’s line of frozen foods is realatively healthy and quick to cook - vegetarian, and a lot of wheat free dairy free. The spinch feta rolls are to die for.
Canned soups - particularly the ones from “health” companies (Amy’s again, has good soups).
Another thing I find helps me eat steamed vegetables is to sprinkle a little salt (very little, just one dash) and lemon juic on them, especially if it’s a dark green vegetable – Brussels sprouts, spinach, green beans, broccoli. But it’s good even on steamed cauliflower.
