Processed (or sus) Food Replacements

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
S/O from this thread on the power of processed foods and sugar:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1213724.page

What do you NOT trust and what are you cooking, prepping, replacing with. That's why I put this in the food forum.

I make my own crackers and bread. I **think??** my unbleached flour is OK but I don't know how to do better with that.

Tofu is very processed but I love it. Just got some tips from a friend about making my own from dried soybeans. It will still be a process, but will be my process. Worth it?

Would love any other thoughts, no matter how obvious or complex.

Cooking is a process. You are confusing a processs with "processed" foods.

[Anonymous]

Beans - I use them within three days or freeze them. I do them overnight in the slow cooker with a strip of kombu to reduce gas or in the pressure cooker. Just beware, don’t do kidney beans or cannellini beans. Buy those.

Peanut butter - “Consumers that grind their own peanut butter fresh in the supermarket may be at risk for ingesting aflatoxin, a mold linked to liver cancer. That’s because the peanuts in grinding-machine cases are stored for much longer than those processed for commercial butters, increasing the potential for mold and fungus growth. More, the machines are not tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for aflatoxin contamination.”
Just buy it in a glass jar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I shop at Whole Foods, which eliminates some guesswork, because even though technically "bread" is a processed food, a sourdough boule from the WF bakery has fewer ingredients and is less processed than a sandwich loaf (from WF or elsewhere). The canned salmon is in PBA-free cans. The deli meats are often minimally nitrated, and I buy in moderation. Their packaged foods are usually not ultra-processed, just regular processed, so occasionaly I buy some.

No. The fight is with the humans who live with me. My spouse will go to any supermarket and buy whatever's on sale and looks good, without checking the ingredients, and the kids obviously eat all the snacks he brings home. He has high blood pressure and is prediabetic, and we just found out that our oldest is prediabetic as well (also he's UNDERweight). I don't understand how he doesn't care for his family's health better. Food changes are so easy to make if you have the money, and we definitely have the money.

This is perfect and a struggle here too. I have a macaroni and cheese addict. I can control the cheese sauce and make homemade only but no substitutes for the noodles he likes. Zoodles don't fly, legume pasta is a no. So if I accept it's going to be wheat pasta, do I make my own. And do we have the same issues with wheat in us, flour in us as the other posts? Or is this an area of small concern in the big picture? I mean he's not eating ho-hos and drinking mountain dew. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing what I can.

[Anonymous]

I’ve made pasta, but found 100 % whole wheat pasta is really hard on the machine. It almost burnt it out!! I switched to pepper or spinach pasta instead for homemade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve made pasta, but found 100 % whole wheat pasta is really hard on the machine. It almost burnt it out!! I switched to pepper or spinach pasta instead for homemade

I think spinach pasta would go over really well actually! Thanks for the idea.

[Anonymous]

Diy peanut butter is super simple and cheap. Just grind peanuts in the food processor for 5 minutes. So worth it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve made pasta, but found 100 % whole wheat pasta is really hard on the machine. It almost burnt it out!! I switched to pepper or spinach pasta instead for homemade

I think spinach pasta would go over really well actually! Thanks for the idea.

Spinach pasta with 50% whole wheat and 50% unbleached white

[Anonymous]

This really isn’t the question at hand, but lentil “tofu” is really great. It’s just water, red lentils and whatever spicing you want.

[Anonymous]

I make my own wraps with corn flour (ok they are just tortillas) but does that count? I gave up bread and wheat completely but need something to wrap my food in for sauces, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do all my own baking as well. Try to find organic flour, or at least flour that isn’t “enriched.”

I don’t think making your own tofu is worth it. Plus the Japanese eat a ton of it and they love to 110.

If you’re cooking at home from scratch you’re 99% of the way there.

Thanks! I make my crackers from oat - should have mentioned that- I get steel cut and then combine with processed. I think that's ok. I food process them all to bits.

I will try to find flour that is not enriched but I am aware that it sounds like our flour is still "different" which is too bad.

Noted on the tofu! I think I agree. Will look on here for other things that are better worth my while.

Do you know where the oats come from? Most is from Canada now, and is affected by a pesticide (forget which) that is banned in the US. There were headlines about it. I come from people who were grain farmers. When I was a child it was all oats, wheat, barley, rye, sometimes flax. Very little oats production in the US (they heyday was in 1954, the same year that tractors overtook horses for agricultural power). The cash return isn't feasible to grow it as a commodity crop. There are a few people in the area where my parents were from who grow racing oats (for race horses). Now it's all corn, sopybeans, and wheat.