Health food eaters - what do you find delicious?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I think dieting should concentrate on reducing portion sizes as well as limiting bad foods. If you don’t have the self control to avoid scarfing a whole bag of Cheetos, then don’t buy Cheetos. If you have some self-control, buy those mimi Hallowe’en bags of Cheetos and eat them occasionally.

Same thing with pasta. You can add lemon pepper, garlic, chopped onion and eggplant to get a bit of flavour. But why not add small amounts of thinly sliced low-fat sausage (e.g. Schneider’s tasty “Lean Links” in Canada, 8% fat by weight) – a little meat can go a long way.

You can eat veggie-burgers. Or you can add considerable amounts of grated carrot, garlic mashed potato flakes, ketchup, mustard and chopped to lean ground beef and get a surprisingly tasty burger.

Eat popcorn. But buy the smaller snack-size bags 55g vs. 99g; portion control is important too.

Some meats are low in fat. Smoked hams are often only 2 to 4% fat; a quarter pound slice may only have 100 calories! Chicken without the skin and many types of fish are bland – make them into a stir-fry or add dry cajun spice or Indian hot lime pickle (fantastic with barbq tuna steaks – if your budget allows, eat tuna steaks and not their miserable cousin canned tuna).

Fish is fantastic. Eat more.

I like pappadoms. Instead of slathering them with oil, just put them in the microwave on high for 30-45 seconds. Tasty and nutritious.

I love beef jerky. I make my own using sirloin tips, another lean meat. It’s almost pure protein.

If you eat out, stick to fish dishes, go easy on desert and say no to french fries.

Switch to skim or 1% milk, and drink more. Switch to low fat cheese. Look for innovative desserts like tasty chocolate sorbet or low fat rice pudding.

Get a copy of the Moosewood Cookbook – and modify the recipes to taste.

Eat more soup and more salad. Stick to low fat salad dressings.

22

I eat a fair amount of healthy food, but whole wheat pasta is something I still struggle with. Any success I’ve had is with not treating it like regular pasta, but more like the kind of topping that you think would be a good sandwich on whole wheat bread. And start with side-dish size portions of it before committing to make it your whole meal.

One of my fave healthy, easy meals is Health Valley canned vegetarian fat-free chili over brown rice. Filling, complete protein, easy to prepare. You can top with Tabasco sauce or cheese depending on whether cheese is OK in your diet.

Oatmeal is another whole grain that can be made to taste pretty good. Make it with skim milk for added nutrition and good flavor. Top with fruit.

23

The Veggie Patty Sub from Subway is delicious! It’s not available in all stores in my neck of the woods, so ask around.

24

Edamame (soybeans) makes a great snack. I’m not kidding. You can find them in the frozen foods, get them in the pod. The directions will say to boil, but I find microwaving works well, too. Grind up some rock salt (regular salt will do ok) and dip the pods in the salt, and suck the beans out of the pod. I’d rather have these than potato chips!

25

Amaranth breads and cereals and pancake mix … a fabulous tasting grain!

Flax Seed oil… put it on your breads or salads also a great taste.

The vege burgers and fake sausage from Morningside … also show up in your local Safeway’s freezer case … They are really pretty tasty.

Vanilla Soy Milk … it’s great … anywhere you’d use milk ('cept in making pudding … then the stuff doesn’t gel … sigh I know, I shoulda known better!)

and on and on and on …

26

I love EAS shakes and a bit of frozen fruit, if you make them right(blending the ice, water and frozen fruit til it’s slushy BEFORE adding the EAS mix), they taste almost exactly like a Mickey D’s shake.

Also, baby carrots (yeah, I KNOW they’re really just carrots polished down to a “baby” size, but it takes all the bitter dirt tasting skin off and they’re yummy).

Also
Pecans
Hazelnuts

Although, I don’t eat just exclusively health food, so I’m not sure if I count.

27

You really ought to check out a couple of good vegan cookbooks, How It All Vegan and The Garden of Vegan. Even though you may not be a vegan or even be considering a vegan diet, there are some really good, healthy recipes in those books. And I don’t mean good-considering-they’re-vegan, but really and truly good. You can usually tell what you’ll like and what you won’t by looking at the recipes.

You might also check out the authors’ website. They have a nifty message board, too, and if you join it, you can ask the other members for good recipes that might not be in the books. They may also have ideas about how to adapt non-vegan recipes you’re fond of into vegan ones. Again, even though you may not be considering a totally vegan (or even vegetarian) diet, vegan food is usually much healthier.

Lastly, I assume you’re eating whole wheat pasta in order to get more whole grains in your diet. If you hate the stuff that much, there are other ways to get whole grains. Wheatberry bread and rye bread are two of my favorites. Get your whole grains elsewhere and enjoy your pasta!

28

Here’s a recipe for you, which may or may not meet your needs: it’s whole-grain, soy goodness, slathered in fat.

Peanut Tofu Kale Stuff
(Or: Pan-seared, chile-encrusted bean curd in peanut-ginger aioli over wilted greens, if you’re being hoity-toity)

Put on a pot of brown rice – one part rice to two parts water is about right.
Chop a block of tofu into bite-sized cubes. Put it in a bowl, and cover it with a mixture of tamari (soy sauce), red chile pepper flakes, crushed garlic, ginger, and water. Use flavorings to taste. Microwave the bowlful of goodness for about seven minutes. (Or you can marinate it for a few hours, if you think about these things ahead of time).
Drain the tofu, reserving the juices. Saute the tofu in a combination of olive oil seasoned with a little bit of dark sesame oil. Throw in some sesame seeds if you have them.
Meanwhile, mix a big glop of natural peanut butter into the reserved marinade. Whisk it in well. When the tofu is getting golden, pour the marinade over it.
Cook until the marinade starts to get thick. Meanwhile, chop up a bunch of kale into bite-sized strips. Throw it in about five minutes before you’re ready to eat, stirring it into the tofu mixture. Cook, covered, until the kale is tender.
Serve over rice. Yum!
Daniel

29

Grilled Salmon! Grilled shrimp! Lotsa fish grilled.

Double Veggie or Soyburger with all the fixuns on a wheat roll. High protein, low fat, good carbs for just under 500 calories.

Grilled Chicken Caesar salad, with just the right am’t of dressing. Big time fibre and protein, low cals. Big portion near 600 cals. Complete meal.

Steamed fresh asparagus, sweet potatos, brussel sprouts, or
numerous other veggies. Sweet potato is my secret weapon. This food is a hidden treasure it how it helps you diet.

Beans, beans and more beans. Love chick peas. Love assorted plain nuts.

Olive oil! Garlic get’s it’s due, but let’s not forget the olive oil, in appropriate am’ts!

30

I have an easy answer to Sat on Cookie’s wheat pasta problem. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Don’t force it in as a side dish. Some people don’t like some foods. Hundreds of other healthy foods out there.

If you are moving away from a lousy fast food habit, you don’t need to go cold turkey. If it becomes a chore, you will not stick too it. Slowly add more salads. Bring an apple and eat it with the sub rather than a bag of chips.

Find a crunchy veggie you like and take it to work as a snack, perhaps with a single cookie. The “baby” carrots CanvasShoes mentions ARE better tasting than regular carrots. Regular carrot were bred to have a sturdy green top to tie the carrots in bunches. Once the baby carrots took off, they started cultivating varieties for flavor and increased sweetness.

Beyond eating fewer junk foods and adding in some fiber, the question becomes… what is your motivation? Are you trying to loose weight? Improve athletic performance?

31

Drat. I read the thread. Really I did. The fact that I didn’t notice that MidnightRadio had already given the same advice about the wheat pasta I blame on… on… umm… the moons of Jupiter got in my eyes.

One warning about soybeans. If you think that roasted soybeans will make a nice nutritious snack, and you buy a bag, and start eating it, you might find as I did that they are marginally tasty but also very addictive. And then you might find as I did that eating 1 lb of anything at a sitting is not a good idea. And that stomaches really do not like having a pound of roasted soybeans inside them. You will also find that you get very little sympathy from friends or spouses when you tell them why you are holding your belly groaning.

32

I’m not a fan of faux foods so many veggie solutions strike me as just so-so. If you want to go the fast-and-simple route, Morningside “chicken” things aren’t bad. Why settle for faux solutions when the real deal can be really good?

Grab a portabella 'shroom. Purists say to scrape out the dark gills. Nonsense. Just trim down the tough stem, or pry it out. Brush or spray it with a little olive oil. Plop it on a grill or onto a dry skillet (non-stick or cast iron, preferably.) Let is soften and darken a tad, flip and then sprinkle with basalmic vinegar, McCormick’s Montreal seasoning, Worchestershire, garlic salt, Italian salad dressing…whatever you have handy. Settle atop a toasted bun, w/ thinly sliced onion, tomato, shavings of cheese, whatever. Or slice atop mounds of good greens. Serve w/ lashings of shaved cheese, olives, lots of fresh-ground pepper. This is stuff restaunts charge out the wazoo for, but it’s MUCH faster, cheaper–and better–then frozen faux foods.

Or fish or chicken fillets. Chop a few fresh veggies of choice. Collect condiments (garlic, lemons, cajun spices, whatever.) Start boiling rice or noodles. Spray a nonstick skillet w/ Pam or olive oil. Plop fish/chix into skillet; cook a few minutes and then flip. After a few more minutes, remove and keep warm. Add condiments to pan. Toss veggies into hot skillet; toss for a few minutes. Splash liquid of choice into pan (white wine, lemon or orange juice, chix broth, mix-and-match, whatever). De-glaze pan, i.e. get the tasty into the liquid. Plop drained rice/noodles onto plate, top with fish/chix, then drizzle skillet liquid with veggies overtop. Presto! Fast, good, complete dinner.

And don’t even get me started on soups. A generous platter of hot soup, a plate of green salad and good bread…'tis to swoon.

33

Whole wheat tortillas with 3 Italian cheese shredded and melted with homemade salsa.

Lentil soup: I put two turkey legs into it for a little meat and flavor. Also ginger.

I cook all my veggies in parchment paper and it keeps all the flavor in; it’s Fall so it’s back to squashes here in northern Maine so I steamed some Delectia yesterday and it was so tasty. Until I moved here I never ate squash that much, but now I’ve become a squash lover.

You can whirl whole oats (not quick) and soy milk and fry it in a little olive oil. with honey these are good for a change. The consistency is a little tricky.

I find it hard to eat 5 fruits a day because I don’t like store fruit that much, but that’s all that’s available, so I make a smoothie at night. Tonight it was strawberries, kiwi, peach, dried apricots and ginger. Put in blender with soy milk and 5 ice cubes. this is like a meal. But I also ate low-fat cheese, multi-grain bread, and pepperocinis later.

One of my favorite lunches is a (natural-no preservatives) chunky peanut butter on whole wheat bread with a Gala apple. this combination of flavors is very good.

I also munch on no salt soy nuts when I’m watching TV.

My experiment tomorrow is to take a can of garbanzo beans and toss them in garlic powder, then toast them in the oven for about 25 minutes for a veggie snack.

I’m lucky because I wasn’t raised in the fast food, junk food generation so I never developed a taste for that kind of food. However, sometimes I have visions of jelly donuts but since I’ve decided not to eat white sugar, I do use Splenda. sometimes I use raw honey.

This link has lots of recipes of all kinds: www.recipezaar.com

34

Building on suzeekay’s ideas, a fast, easy and tasty breakfast option:
The night before, put oats and dried fruit into a container. Use what you like: cranberries, apricots, raisins, pears, apples whatever. Choose a liquid: milk, soy milk, apple juice or even water. Pour over oat-fruit mixture to cover and just above. You want it rehydrated, not mushy. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning, mix in:

  • fruit chunks, fresh or canned
  • nuts (I’m partial to salted sunflower seeds)
    Eat as-is or topped with yogurt. It’s remarkably filling. A cup of this stuff will set you up for the day.
35

I just added flaxseed in my diet within the last week.

It has a pecanish (is that a word? lol) taste, I put it in my apple sauce.

36

As others have suggested, give the whole wheat pasta a rest and look into other whole grain foods: brown rice, oats, whole wheat couscous, bulgur wheat, kasha, barley, millet, quinoa, multi-grain breads, etc.

There are lots of different flavors and textures–it’s hard to get bored.

Check the health-food/organic aisle of the grocery store. Lots of grains are available in quick-cooking verisions. Presumably you lose a little of the nutrition, but it’s still good if you need a quick meanl.

For cooking from scratch, I second Dr_Paprika’s Moosewood cookbooks recommendation. I almost never take mine off the shelf anymore–not because they aren’t good, but because I’ve memorized my favorite recipies, and also they’ve taught me the basic skills for preparing beans, grains, and other good stuff and making my own dishes.

And, do persevere! It takes a while for your tastebuds to “recalibrate,” but now I crave my favorite healthy snacks and dishes, while pepperoni pizza and potato chips seem unpalatably greasy. Sugary soft drinks and even flavored yogurt are so sweet to me that they make me sick to my stomach! Gimme some juice mixed with sparkling water, and plain yogurt with a dab of jam mixed in, any day!