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There is one big drawback - am I looking for excuses? <g> - you buy ingredients and they go bad before you finally use them up. Just before Christmas, I found several jars of outdated and spoiled foods (sauces, etc.) in my fridge. One - forget which now - had expired several years ago. I'd used it once and let it sit in the forever.
Yes, there seems to be an overdose of pasta in everything now. Maybe they don't know how to cook veggies? I will say this, though. I've never been wild about vegetables until I came across those of Margaret Holmes. At least I'm eating veggies now and with relish. They even have collard greens and kale. I suppose you can get those in the produce section also but I'll bet I can't season them like they do. Southern cooking.
Speaking of sugar, I read an interview once. During WW I, the Australian soldiers were fighting somewhere in the Greece/Turkey area. Someone in Australia created a nourishing cookie to be mailed to them. This cookie became quite famous and sold well long after the war. Recently, someone wanted to start making and selling them again. He talked about where he could sell them. Someone asked if he'd be sending them to America. He said something like "Well, we could but we'd have to add sugar. Americans love sugar."
What little baking I do, I omit all or almost all the sugar. Highland scones, cranberry/vanilla yogurt scones. They don't need sugar.
By the way, other than a food like pasta, what makes the extra carbs in prepared foods? Is it mostly added sugar?
A lot of frozen cooked veggies don't reheat well -- which is why the selection of frozen foods is limited. And Pasta is cheap and yummy -- the prepared food is made to maximize the producers bottom line, not our health.
A lot of frozen food sauces have flour in them to thicken -- which is a carb.
Sugar in baking does two jobs -- it sweetens, yes -- but it's also a preservative and adds texture. Like -- you couldn't make a chocolate chip cookie with no sugar (or sugar substitute). You'd end up with a chocolate chip brick. If you look at a recipe, a chocolate chip cookie made with all brown sugar is chewy, from the added moisture in the brown sugar, and the cookie made with all white sugar is crunchy. I use a cup of sugar in my recipe -- I use 2/3 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar.
I've heard that often -- that Americana are sugar addicts. But I have to say, when I see a recipe for chocolate chip cookies from overseas -- it's pretty much the same recipe. I'm thinking they mean prepackaged foods. And yes -- a lot time there is a lot of sugar in them, mostly as a preservative. Salt is also a preservative.... but usually for meats.
As to using up ingredients -- make a menu. That was you can know that you have to buy this mount of mushrooms and that amount of brussels sprouts and you won't have waste. If you choose to buy a large amount of something, you can also plan other dishes to use that ingredient in.
Thanks. That's an interesting page. I'm going back to "Eat Real Food". :-)
You might want to get into cooking meals with ingredients you choose,Maybe start on the weekends with some easy meals,hopefully you come to enjoy the creative aspects of cooking, Google is a great resource for recipes as you just type in the ingredients you have on hand and Google will offer pages of recipes with those ingredients and often with a step by step video.
A couple of recommendations i find useful as a diabetic.
South Beach Diet Cookbook.
I try to adhere to the Paleo Diet.
Read the book "Wheat Belly" it will change your life.(Dietarily speaking)
You might want to get into cooking meals with ingredients you choose,Maybe start on the weekends with some easy meals,hopefully you come to enjoy the creative aspects of cooking, Google is a great resource for recipes as you just type in the ingredients you have on hand and Google will offer pages of recipes with those ingredients and often with a step by step video.
A couple of recommendations i find useful as a diabetic.
South Beach Diet Cookbook.
I try to adhere to the Paleo Diet.
Read the book "Wheat Belly" it will change your life.(Dietarily speaking)
Indeed, like the delicious-sounding recipe for pumpkin pudding that I saw yesterday. No pastry in it.
A lot of frozen cooked veggies don't reheat well -- which is why the selection of frozen foods is limited. And Pasta is cheap and yummy -- the prepared food is made to maximize the producers bottom line, not our health.
A lot of frozen food sauces have flour in them to thicken -- which is a carb.
Sugar in baking does two jobs -- it sweetens, yes -- but it's also a preservative and adds texture. Like -- you couldn't make a chocolate chip cookie with no sugar (or sugar substitute). You'd end up with a chocolate chip brick. If you look at a recipe, a chocolate chip cookie made with all brown sugar is chewy, from the added moisture in the brown sugar, and the cookie made with all white sugar is crunchy. I use a cup of sugar in my recipe -- I use 2/3 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar.
I've heard that often -- that Americana are sugar addicts. But I have to say, when I see a recipe for chocolate chip cookies from overseas -- it's pretty much the same recipe. I'm thinking they mean prepackaged foods. And yes -- a lot time there is a lot of sugar in them, mostly as a preservative. Salt is also a preservative.... but usually for meats.
As to using up ingredients -- make a menu. That was you can know that you have to buy this mount of mushrooms and that amount of brussels sprouts and you won't have waste. If you choose to buy a large amount of something, you can also plan other dishes to use that ingredient in.
Food waste is a planning issue.
I didn't know that about brown sugar and white sugar. So, the soft cookies that I prefer use brown sugar?
I have had chocolate from France and I can say it was sweeter than any chocolate I've eaten in America. Too sweet. Once a friend who'd gone to France brought back a bar of chocolate. She thought it was regular chocolate but when I read the label I found it was really baking chocolate. Even that was sweeter than our baking chocolate.
I don't know about cookies with no sugar. I don't bake those temptations. But I do know the two scones that I make do fine with no sugar. Of course, in one case, the yogurt has sugar. Also the Craisins, I imagine. The Highland scones have currents. But, other than that, no sugar. I started omitting the sugar when I had a diabetic friend. He really liked them that way.
The one vegetable that I've found does not freeze - or can for that matter but especially freeze - well is spinach.
Well -- a scone is a biscuit with sugar. The currants probably help with moisture retention. I have to admit -- I've been married and cooking for over 30 years and I can count on ONE HAND the times I've made a biscuit or scone (homemade) that turned out well. And I wouldn't use all my fingers.
There is just something about them that I don't get right. They all turn into roofing tiles. Flat roofing tiles.
Later in the book, she stated that her objective was to “write on simple food for simple-living people” and to pass on her ideas about cooking, “which call for little experience, little time, little money, few ingredients, and a minimum of complication.”
Yes, they add sugar to just about everything.....veggies, meat, bread.
My favorite, salami, 3 grams of sugar per serving.....WTF, sugar in salami just ruins the taste!
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