Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The added sugars and sodium in take out foods - yes even from so-called healthy places - is doing a number on your health and kids’ health. There are a lot of healthy weight healthy appearing people in USA who have metabolic disorder and who are developing NAFLD beginning in teens and early adulthood.

Do a few hours of food prep with your kids every weekend. You’ll teach them valuable skills and you can prep ahead lunches and dinners too - so many healthy meals you can prep ahead and quickly cook or reheat when you get home from activities. Or foods that travel well and can be eaten on the fly. It’s just a matter of a little planning and a little investment of time but the payoff is huge.

If you don’t teach your kids healthy home cooking skills now, when will they learn them? Or will they join the many Americans who eat takeout nearly the majority of the time, and ultra processed foods most of the rest of the time?

I am not a health nut but, this. I used to work in a restaurant that served extremely high quality, vegetable forward, restaurant food. It still has way more butter, sugar, and salt than anything I'd make at home. That's why it tastes so good! I mean, not the only reason, but it's one reason restaurant food is often so satisfying. Also, a lot of vegan and vegetarian places use a ton of chemicals in their food, it's a real catch-22. But it's how they get vegan food to taste as satisfying as non-vegan food. Restaurant food is something different than what you are supposed to eat every day. Even fast-casual places -- it's the same problem. Same with prepared foods at the grocery store.

You know what I'd do if I were you? Take one night in the next week and serve fried eggs on toast with an arugula salad and whatever dressing you like. See how it goes. That's my "easy dinner" when I just don't feel like cooking and you know what? I love it. It's fat, protein, carbs, greens. You can dress it up (avocado, hot sauce, cheese, roast some veggies to lay over the greens) or serve it as is. It's on the table in five minutes. You control how much salt goes in and what fat you use to fry the egg, and it's no added sugar.

Start there, see how it feels. And then you can build. If you can fry and egg and toast some bread, you can make dinner. Next week throw some pre-chopped veggies on a pan (Whole Foods will sell them ready for roasting) with olive oil, salt and pepper, and grill a couple chicken breasts on a grill pan. Here's a tip -- tenderize the chicken breasts first, before seasoning, as this will make them both cook faster and absorb the seasoning better.

Cooking does not need to be an ordeal. There are a lot of meals you can make at home with less energy than it takes to order take out. Seriously.

?? What chemicals are in the vegan food??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The added sugars and sodium in take out foods - yes even from so-called healthy places - is doing a number on your health and kids’ health. There are a lot of healthy weight healthy appearing people in USA who have metabolic disorder and who are developing NAFLD beginning in teens and early adulthood.

Do a few hours of food prep with your kids every weekend. You’ll teach them valuable skills and you can prep ahead lunches and dinners too - so many healthy meals you can prep ahead and quickly cook or reheat when you get home from activities. Or foods that travel well and can be eaten on the fly. It’s just a matter of a little planning and a little investment of time but the payoff is huge.

If you don’t teach your kids healthy home cooking skills now, when will they learn them? Or will they join the many Americans who eat takeout nearly the majority of the time, and ultra processed foods most of the rest of the time?

I am not a health nut but, this. I used to work in a restaurant that served extremely high quality, vegetable forward, restaurant food. It still has way more butter, sugar, and salt than anything I'd make at home. That's why it tastes so good! I mean, not the only reason, but it's one reason restaurant food is often so satisfying. Also, a lot of vegan and vegetarian places use a ton of chemicals in their food, it's a real catch-22. But it's how they get vegan food to taste as satisfying as non-vegan food. Restaurant food is something different than what you are supposed to eat every day. Even fast-casual places -- it's the same problem. Same with prepared foods at the grocery store.

You know what I'd do if I were you? Take one night in the next week and serve fried eggs on toast with an arugula salad and whatever dressing you like. See how it goes. That's my "easy dinner" when I just don't feel like cooking and you know what? I love it. It's fat, protein, carbs, greens. You can dress it up (avocado, hot sauce, cheese, roast some veggies to lay over the greens) or serve it as is. It's on the table in five minutes. You control how much salt goes in and what fat you use to fry the egg, and it's no added sugar.

Start there, see how it feels. And then you can build. If you can fry and egg and toast some bread, you can make dinner. Next week throw some pre-chopped veggies on a pan (Whole Foods will sell them ready for roasting) with olive oil, salt and pepper, and grill a couple chicken breasts on a grill pan. Here's a tip -- tenderize the chicken breasts first, before seasoning, as this will make them both cook faster and absorb the seasoning better.

Cooking does not need to be an ordeal. There are a lot of meals you can make at home with less energy than it takes to order take out. Seriously.

Anonymous wrote:Cooking isn't just about spending. It's also about being in touch with your humanity and not commoditizing and commercializing your life.

Cooking a casserole/stew dish on the weekend for leftovers at the week, and having whole food sides, is good for you. It's also not too hard to cook simple good meals. Microwaves and air fryers make short work of veggies and proteins, with minimal cleanup.
A little bit of startup planning effort pays dividends in the form of "go to" recipes.

Also question the abundance of activities. Why do your kids need so much distractions ? Sitting in a car isn't an important life skills to practice for hours ever day.

Anonymous wrote:The added sugars and sodium in take out foods - yes even from so-called healthy places - is doing a number on your health and kids’ health. There are a lot of healthy weight healthy appearing people in USA who have metabolic disorder and who are developing NAFLD beginning in teens and early adulthood.

Do a few hours of food prep with your kids every weekend. You’ll teach them valuable skills and you can prep ahead lunches and dinners too - so many healthy meals you can prep ahead and quickly cook or reheat when you get home from activities. Or foods that travel well and can be eaten on the fly. It’s just a matter of a little planning and a little investment of time but the payoff is huge.

If you don’t teach your kids healthy home cooking skills now, when will they learn them? Or will they join the many Americans who eat takeout nearly the majority of the time, and ultra processed foods most of the rest of the time?

Anonymous wrote:Family of four. Me and husband both work fulltime jobs. I work a pretty steady 40 hours a week, but husband generally works about 50-60 hours a week. This means I have to drive the kids to all their activities so I don't have much time to cook. We probably eat out 5 times a week. Lunch is almost always at home but dinner is usually carryout from a restaurant. I feel like such a failure for eating out so much. Anyone else eat out this much? Help me feel better about my excessive eating out please. We do try to keep fast food to once a week and will get food from Whole Foods, cava salads, bbq, things like that.

Anonymous wrote:
Healthy take-out? That's unlikely to happen, unless you ask for a dry salad. Restaurants will hide extra fat and salt in sauces and marinades, and cook things in butter or oil, because they want to make flavors pop. It's only an ignorant non-cook who would say something like this.

OP, you might want to get into slow-cooking.I see this as your only home dinner option. It's pretty fun for winter - all kinds of stews and curries from around the world are available to you.