The processed food dilemma

I’ve long been a supporter of fresh food, cooking from scratch and knowing what goes into the meals I eat and serve others.  I’ve a basic rule, I shop from the ‘outside’ of the supermarket….let me explain – if you imagine your local supermarket (pretty much any of them) you enter to lovely fresh flowers, fruit and veg.  There’s the bakery, deli, butchers all around the edge of the store.  Simply, everything that needs to be delivered often is at the edges and everything that can live longer than Cher is in the middle, that’s a gross generalization but you get the point.   So I mainly shop around the edges.

At class people seem surprised that I make my own meals but it’s simple:

•  I want to know what I’m eating
•  I want to control the salt, fat and other undesirable aspects of my food
•  I know how much of everything has gone into a meal
•  I equate food with love, and I cook to the palates of my guests which means I cook from scratch

One of the most common arguments I get is that people don’t have time.  I don’t always have time either but there’s nothing lengthy about reheating a previously made meal or putting together a stir fry which is just a protein of your choice and whatever veggies you have in the fridge chopped up, 10 minutes later you’re done, which I think is faster and better than a frozen box of salty rubbish.  

As for ideas, I have stir fry a couple of times a week fall back on prawns, chicken and sometimes beef.  I bake salmon with soy, lime and chilli flakes and serve it flaked on stir fry veg.  I add baby leeks, onion, mushrooms, courgettes, anything that’s in the fridge and needs eating, it all get chopped up and thrown in.

When I have time, mainly on a weekend, I batch cook and rely on my slow cooker.  I make chilli, bolognaise, cottage pie filling, meatballs, curry, casseroles – you name it, I make it in my slow cooker using fresh ingredients then simply divide up and freeze.  

I tend to cook one thing a week and have built up a stock of foods that I defrost and have during the week.  Again, I know what’s in my meal, the portions are appropriate and they’re all pretty much syn free for my Slimming World friends.  My non Slimming World friends don’t know, but that’s ok, they’re happy with what I make and so far haven’t spotted the difference!  I love to make sure my lean mince is in the slow cooker a good 6 hours to infuse flavor and make sure it’s tender.  A problem I found in the beginning was removing fat removes a chunk of the flavor.  Slow cooking infuses flavor into my meals without the need for fat, perfect!

All I can suggest is you try it, try not eating from the middle of the shop for a week…cut out the processed food and see how you feel, it’s not always easy because we’re conditioned to rely on pre-packaged stuff but give it a whirl and you’ll be glad you did – good luck!

Kathy xx