D. R. P. T. ! (dietary revamp processing thread ;) )

[Stiina]

Well...how many hours? I grew up in (and never knew any different) a home with 100% home cooked meals. I do the same, now. I don't buy boxed foods and we rarely eat out. I'd say that I spend 30 mins for breakfast, 40 mins for lunch and 1 hour for supper - if I'm "doing it as I go".

I meal plan now (ooooooh why didn't I start it 3 years ago? Just started it in March) and it makes things much easier. I try to do crock-pot meals a lot so that the 1 hour supper-making is more like 20 minutes in the morning, then 10 minutes to steam some fresh veggies right before supper.

You can do things like...if you're cutting one onion, cut TEN, and then just freeze the rest in little baggies. Make 10 lbs of meatballs like Lisa and Jodi were talking about. Get really fast at chopping things if you're not used to it. Use your food processor to cut veggies...

[Amy]

Hmmm... I've got 4lbs of ground beef. Since I was planning on making meatballs this week anyway I'll make up 4lbs worth and buy more ground beef next week. I need to do better about making things up ahead of time. My poor dishwasher hasn't been able to keep up with all the cooking I've been doing lately.

On a positive note I was able to get rid of the last bit of freezer processed junk this weekend !!

[Katigre]

Originally Posted by JoyGal

Finally joining in here! I've been following from the beginning with interest and hesitation. I have some pretty major adrenal and gut issues and my normal gf diet isn't helping much. After a lot of deliberation, I printed out a weeks worth of recipes, made a giant grocery haul, and set to work. I will say that for the first time in, oh, probably a few years now, I was feeling great! Then, sort of for experimentation and *coughlazinesscough* we went off the 'diet' and I feel like poo. DD and I were munching on some junk and complaining that we didn't feel so great - duh! So we've commited to go back on the diet again and I'm ordering books today (although I've found all of our recipes on this thread and online so far...)

For the first time, my kids were all sleeping through the night.
*I* was sleeping through the night.
My kids were inhaling the food.
We had so many delicious treats and meals.

Here's my problem *coughlazinesscough* I like cooking, sometimes. But for the week that we did this diet, I was in the kitchen for hours everyday. I've relied on convenience foods for years Is there a way to get past the very long kitchen hours or do I just need to suck it up and get used to it?

That is awesome how well you guys are feeling! In terms of cooking times, here is what I found:

The first few weeks are very cooking-intensive as you figure out what works for you and what doesn't, you build a new repoitoire of 'go to' recipes, navigate lunches/snacks, etc... Then you find a groove and don't spend as long in the kitchen.

Now, I'm saying this as someone who is used to doing all our dinner meal cooking so there was no difference in time spent there. For the lunch items/breakfast items/snacks that I no longer use convenience foods for, I'm still in the process of tweaking. I've done a few things:
1. Decide that I will only do 'extra cooking' so many times per week (i.e., I will make one special snack in bulk and freeze it, one additional lunch for DH, and 1-2 additional breakfast items). That means once or twice a week I do those things, not every day .
2. Figure out a rotation of recipes - there is no reason I have to cook X, Y, Z every single week - we can have X week 1, Y week 2, and Z week 3, yk?

[tempus vernum]

Originally Posted by LisaM

The 10 lbs I made were gone in 48 hours!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

WOW! That is crazy - of course, only 2 of us 5 eat meatballs as snacks. the other 3 will only eat them in meals

Originally Posted by JoyGal

Finally joining in here! I've been following from the beginning with interest and hesitation. I have some pretty major adrenal and gut issues and my normal gf diet isn't helping much. After a lot of deliberation, I printed out a weeks worth of recipes, made a giant grocery haul, and set to work. I will say that for the first time in, oh, probably a few years now, I was feeling great! Then, sort of for experimentation and *coughlazinesscough* we went off the 'diet' and I feel like poo. DD and I were munching on some junk and complaining that we didn't feel so great - duh! So we've commited to go back on the diet again and I'm ordering books today (although I've found all of our recipes on this thread and online so far...)

For the first time, my kids were all sleeping through the night.
*I* was sleeping through the night.
My kids were inhaling the food.
We had so many delicious treats and meals.

Here's my problem *coughlazinesscough* I like cooking, sometimes. But for the week that we did this diet, I was in the kitchen for hours everyday. I've relied on convenience foods for years Is there a way to get past the very long kitchen hours or do I just need to suck it up and get used to it?

I also cook mostly meat/veggie meals so it takes about 5 minutes to spice up a slab of meat and toss in oven/crockpot and then some time to chop onion or garlic if I put it in there. Then about 5 to 15 minutes to get my veg ready.

Then I float in and out stirring or whatever.

I also tend to multitask - for example, while I am brewing water for kombucha, I prep my broth, "flip" my kefir (for those doing dairy - shake, strain and restart next batch), and "flip" my ferments (check them and if ready put in and start new batch). When making meals, I chop extra veggies for snacks or next day. I also make huge meals and then breakfast lunch is leftovers. For example, dh made an enormous batch of pancakes today that will be 5 meals -- we freeze them and pop them out one at a time to be heated up in the toaster oven.

Same as many other things. BUT lunch 95% of the time is leftovers and breakfast is either leftovers or something with 5 minutes prep. Dinner takes from 10 minutes to 1 hour of prep. During cooking, I do laundry or something else while checking, stirring, etc.

Again, like others, I have been cooking from scratch for a long time (over a decade) BUT I grew up in a S.A.D. home - we ate canned soup and mac n cheese for lunch, cereal for breakfast and hamburger helper for lunch. All the cooking I do, I learned as an adult. It *was* hard to get used to especially since my mom still doesn't cook much. BUT now it's just habit.

That said, I have a dh that cooks as many dinners a week as I do that helps tremendously. He also does a lot of chopping for me as I tend to cut myself ALOT in the kitchen

[JoyGal]

Great inspiration gals!

When it was just dd and I and I was a sahm, I made all of our dinners from scratch. Then when I started working, I relied on convenience food. Now that I have a few more people to cook for, it just seems to take a long time to make the foods. We do have a lovely new open floor plan though so I shouldn't make it sound so bad. Even though I'm sahm again, I'm still going to school full-time as well, so I guess it just seemed like I was in the kitchen a lot.

Prepping the food will be a huge help. I should do an OAMC day too.

I'm already getting inspired again!

And all of that being said: Everything we have tried (this thread and internet recipes) has been AMAZING!!

Oh, one thing tho, it seemed I got crampy after eating the Raspberry Strussel (main ingredient is almond flour.) Think that may be something that may continue or is it just my body learning to digest such a protein heavy flour?

[tempus vernum]

Originally Posted by JoyGal

Great inspiration gals!

When it was just dd and I and I was a sahm, I made all of our dinners from scratch. Then when I started working, I relied on convenience food. Now that I have a few more people to cook for, it just seems to take a long time to make the foods. We do have a lovely new open floor plan though so I shouldn't make it sound so bad. Even though I'm sahm again, I'm still going to school full-time as well, so I guess it just seemed like I was in the kitchen a lot.

Prepping the food will be a huge help. I should do an OAMC day too.

I'm already getting inspired again!

And all of that being said: Everything we have tried (this thread and internet recipes) has been AMAZING!!

Oh, one thing tho, it seemed I got crampy after eating the Raspberry Strussel (main ingredient is almond flour.) Think that may be something that may continue or is it just my body learning to digest such a protein heavy flour?

I work a few part time jobs and it's DEFINITELY harder. we've made do but sometimes it's been by the skin of my teeth And sometimes it's with LOTS OF complaints about "too many eggs" or "I'm bored with chili" etc etc.

My solution has been to get the kids cooking (and cleaning but that just gives me more kitchen time). Even the 6yo preps food My 12 yo and 10.5 yo cook quite a bit. Often I have the kids cook and ELAD has helped tremendously with this cuz the kids love the handprints that mean they can do it -- I do all the oven handling though - my older kids are allowed stovetop cooking only

Maybe we should have a spin off thread "grain free OAMC" I'd love more ideas - things I do (and again I'm interested in a spin off if others are)
*chili 5 to 7 gallons at a time
*10 pounds meatballs
*4 3# meatloafs at a time
*chicken nuggets in bulk
*pancakes in bulk

[JoyGal]

Definitely interested in a spinoff for grain free OAMC! I'm especially interested in the recipes for everything you listed there too Grain free chicken nuggets would make my kids happy too

[tempus vernum]

In cookbook forum - Grain free O.A.M.C. (once a month cooking)

http://www.gentlechristianmothers.co...08#post4628308

[Soliloquy]

joygal, you may need to eliminate almonds for a time. Do you muscle test?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[JoyGal]

No, what is muscle testing?

[Stiina]

I wanna know too

Lisa, thx for NutRella recipe btw I made it this morning and it is fabulous!

[LilacPhoenix]

I have the brochure for the muscle testing I use on my phone but I can't upload it

[LearningMama]

I'm convinced Paleo won't make me fat and I may actually loose weight.
Now I need to be convinced it WILL make my dh fat.

Go!

Interestingly I've been using more butter and coconut oil and I lost a pound without any exercise (I really need to get back into my T-Tapp). I'm not sure how this happened

I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the same diet can help one person loose weight and help another person gain weight.

[LilacPhoenix]

It's like going to the chiro for blood pressure issues... Doesn't matter if it's too low or too high, regular adjustments help normalize it by allowing your body to function as it's supposed to. Same goes for dietary changes

[Soliloquy]

http://www.ladybarbara.net/html/self-testing.html

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2