Affordable ways to eat healthy

[Rosamunda]

does anybody have any insights on what could be used as an alternitive to butter?

Why would you want to replace butter? It's a fairly natural product and, as long as you don't over heat it, not bad for you in moderate quantities. Certainly a better option than any processed substitute like margarine.

I agree with the others, either leave it out, or - for cooking - use rapeseed oil or olive oil.

Almonds are super healthy, but also super super expensive.

[tkf]

does anybody have any insights on what could be used as an alternitive to butter?

Why would you want to replace butter? It's a fairly natural product and, as long as you don't over heat it, not bad for you in moderate quantities. Certainly a better option than any processed substitute like margarine.

I agree with the others, either leave it out, or - for cooking - use rapeseed oil or olive oil.

Almonds are super healthy, but also super super expensive.

I do combat sports like BJJ and grappling so I have to be "not just fit but fighting fight" or I get my ass kicked after 3mins of fighting.

Fruit and veg are the main part of my diet. I watch my salt intake and try very hard to avoid sugar which is really hard because me and my partner are both sugar junkies although I feel I have got a grip of my addiction I use dates, honey and raisins as a way to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Somebody mentioned fruits that have been dried, but the acidic ones like peaches, apricots, pineapples, oranges etc, have mostly been sweetened in the process.


I have found lidl to be good for pricing I recently bought avacados there they were quite cheap. I had for breakfast two toasted seeded buns with homemade peanut butter thanks to CH for helping me make this! I added sauteed spinach with sliced avacado and a little bit of pesto it might not sound tasty to some people but it really was and I think it gives you great energy.

[Rosamunda]

(Rumour has it...) the army has reduced the food budget recently (to 3€ p.p./day???) so the meals have gone from disgusting to revolting to inadequate. One of my kids said everyone was groaning in pain when they got on the bus home this afternoon - the eggs they had for lunch were baaaaadddd. Fortunately they come home every weekend nowadays so I have a ton of protein- and vitamin-rich foods waiting for him and what he doesn't eat he takes back, at least as much as he can pack (which he has to carry in the forest all week): nuts, peanuts, energy bars (flapjack, GB style), protein bars, tins of tuna, dried fruit, UHT milk (they only get fat-free milk in the barracks), chocolate. He spends all his wages on food during the week. It doesn't bother him too much, he's adaptable, but he has lost a huge amount of "mass" in the last 8-9 months.

[tuulen]

A reboiled, many days old stock, may be safe to eat after boiling at least 10 minutes but it is littered with billions of dead bacteria and their inactivated toxins.

OK, let me get into the details here. I use a big pot but I cook only enough to last for maybe three or four days, to be served over brown rice, and every day I slowly bring the pot to a gentle boil, then shut the heat off at the moment when it gets to a boil. Besides, after eating the same soup/stew for three or four days it is time to change the menu and go onto something else!

Red meats work excellently, and fish is good, too, but be careful with chicken, the easiest to spoil quickly.

I use lots of veggies, a bit of vegetable oil, some seasonings and only a little meat.

I have been cooking that way for many years, and I remain quite healthy.

[CH]

OK, let me get into the details here. I use a big pot but I cook only enough to last for maybe three or four days, to be served over brown rice, and every day I slowly bring the pot to a gentle boil, then shut the heat off at the moment when it gets to a boil. Besides, after eating the same soup/stew for three or four days it is time to change the menu and go onto something else!

You can of course do what the heck you want with your own health... but can you explain why you rather play food poisoning roulette instead of putting the pot in the refridgerator and just heating up the portion you are going to eat? It makes absolutely no sense to me... I can understand it when there was no refridgerators, but today?

[tkf]

Its really not about scoring points. my main view on boiling veg is, soon as you start to boil veg it starts to lose some nutritional value. I would think veg that is al dente to have the most nutritonal, repeat boiling would imo rid the veg of vital vitamins. When I make a large pot of soup or stew im very careful as not to over cook it, and after I have my fill I let it cool down at room temperature "it take a vey long time" Then I microwave individual portions and consume within 3 days maybe 4 "it does get monotonous eating the same things day after day.

I like things like irish stew and karelian stew. my favorite is scouse http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/298/scouse.aspx I do try to make it more healthy and I add beetroot, although I do admit I use more Worcestershire sauce to season.

[tuulen]

OK, let me get into the details here. I have been cooking that way for many years, and I remain quite healthy.

You can do whatever you like! I thought it necessary to point out to others on the list, however, that one needs to be safe with their food. It would be a shame if some unknown person on this list followed your advice and did get ill... perhaps keeping the pot on the stove and then rewarming the soup up slightly without a good 10 minute boil. Some people aren't the cleverist in the kitchen. Food safety is taught in the schools here so most young people know that refridgeration is mandatory these days.

In the modern world you are correct, refrigeration is necessary. But I grew up in an old world, and I learned from my elders how to live without any refrigeration.

And I remain as healthy as a horse!

[Flossy1978]

I think in some ways our environment for preparing/producing our foods stuff nowadays is too 'pure'.

Every time I leave this country I get sick eating foods in other countries. Even in my own country which has even stricter rules than here in regards to food preparation for the public. For instance they have gloves and hairnets in Macdonalds in my home country, but not here. But I still get sick when I return home.

Someone told me it's not the food or processing of it, but the water which is making me sick. I don't know if that could be true or not.

I was in England once and my sister left her frozen meat out on the bench to defrost for a few hours. I just knew after eating it everytime I'd get sick..... And I did. I've never met a Fin who leaves their meat out on the bench to defrost. I don't know if it was the meat which was making me sick each time I ate it, or my stomach has just become so sensitive.

I hope you understand when I write 'pure'.

Then you find recipes from around the world where they tell you to leave your meat out of the fridge for an hour before cooking it. So it's at room temperature. And I remember my Grandpa use to leave his butter out on the bench for days on end. Even in Australia in summer. I don't know how it didn't melt or become rancid. He leaves pears, cherries etc out on the bench after he has stewed them for days on end. They always seem to be ok. I suppose if you left them out long enough they'd start to turn into alcohol maybe LOL. Like the fruit punch which has been sitting in the fridge for too many days... It starts to become fizzy like LOL.

I'd never leave a pot of any type of stew out on the bench for days on end, heating it up. Whatever floats your boat..... But that gives me the heebie geebies..... Thinking of what is going on inside the pot while it sit at room temperature. And most houses are above normal room temperature in winter, what with heating being on.

I in fact broke a fridge putting too hot soup into it one time.... It was just homemade tomato soup, but apparently was still too hot for the fridge.

None of my friends here in Finland keep their eggs in the fridge. I do, just out of a lifetime habit. Is it mineral oil you can rub around the egg to prevent it from going bad? I was watching on Sunday nights that Preppers show from America. Where they prep for the worse outcome possible in life. One woman did that with eggs and said they'd last for I think 6 months? And there was the crazy woman who was 'canning' meat in jars. It was years old and she was feeding it to her neighbours and friends.

I don't know what's worse.... 2+ year old homemade jarred meat or soup which has been left out for days on end? LOL.

[Upphew]

None of my friends here in Finland keep their eggs in the fridge. I do, just out of a lifetime habit.

Boiled eggs, yes I do keep them in fridge. Uncooked, why bother. They aren't stored in cold in stores either and in nature they would be sat on.

[Jukka Aho]

I think in some ways our environment for preparing/producing our foods stuff nowadays is too 'pure'.

Every time I leave this country I get sick eating foods in other countries. Even in my own country which has even stricter rules than here in regards to food preparation for the public. For instance they have gloves and hairnets in Macdonalds in my home country, but not here. But I still get sick when I return home.

The usual guidance given to travelers is popping probiotics containing lactic acid bacteria (maitohappobakteeri in Finnish) so that you will have more of these beneficial microorganisms working inside your body, and this way better prepared to deal with foreign strains of pathogens against which you don’t (yet) have good resistance.

I was in England once and my sister left her frozen meat out on the bench to defrost for a few hours. I just knew after eating it everytime I'd get sick..... And I did. I've never met a Fin who leaves their meat out on the bench to defrost.

My parents quite often thaw meat on a plate left on the kitchen counter in room temperature. (Not out in the sun, though!)

Me? I usually defrost meat in the microwave, or just put it in the fridge to thaw if in no hurry.

(I googled around a bit and came across this.)

None of my friends here in Finland keep their eggs in the fridge. I do, just out of a lifetime habit.

Hmm, I keep them in the fridge. Just something my parents did at home and it stuck. (And hey, fridges have these compartments which are marked for eggs!) I guess I have never even given the habit a conscious thought. Better safe than sorry?

[Bavarian]

Boiled eggs, yes I do keep them in fridge. Uncooked, why bother. They aren't stored in cold in stores either

Here in the US they're stored in refrigerated units.

and in nature they would be sat on.

In nature, they're expecting the eggs to hatch, although once the hen is no longer sitting on them, that's no longer going to happen. (I'd love to see the Ilta-Sanomat headline of you waking up to a bunch of hatched eggs in your kitchen, though. )

[Jukka Aho]

In nature, they're expecting the eggs to hatch, although once the hen is no longer sitting on them, that's no longer going to happen. (I'd love to see the Ilta-Sanomat headline of you waking up to a bunch of hatched eggs in your kitchen, though. :) )

Sitting on them or not, I think a rooster would have to be involved somewhere in there for that to happen...

[Bavarian]

I would have thought that once the eggs were already laid, the rooster would no longer be necessary.

(Either they'll already have been fertilized, or they'll never get fertilized. And yes, I understand that most poultry farms don't keep roosters.)

[Upphew]

I would have thought that once the eggs were already laid, the rooster would no longer be necessary.

Hen lays eggs, so do women. Neither grow into anything without rooster/man.

[Pursuivant]

But I still get sick when I return home.

That happens often, its got to do with the bacteria in your gut. basically, each area has a slightly different strain, so you get "tourist runs". One way to get the stomach going is to get some local live yoghurt... but when you swap over, theres then the chance of getting the "tourist runs" when you get back home.