Those things are so cheap here, like about a buck a can or something - just don't feed the hot sauce ones to the cat, that may get ugly very very fast. lol

Guacamole is another healthy dip. Some say that avocados are the healthiest food in the world. I like my guac with freshly chopped cilantro, diced red onions, and finely chhopped fresh jalapenos. Mash up the avocados, add the other stuff, maybe also add a couple pinches of sea salt or kosher salt, squeeze a lime over the top, and put it in the fridge for like 30 minutes or so. Good stuff.

Quinoa is another food you should consider. Im sure if you google it you can find tons of good recipes.

Also maybe get a big thing of flax seeds. Tons of health benefits. I like to add a tablespoon to my cereal or oatmeal every day.

I LOVED Guacamole back in the 80's... Shortly after I discovered how great it was I ate so much one night I got sick... :repuke:repuke:repuke:repuke:repuke

Oh the horror... I have thrown up before and since then but NEVER like that! That shit was glowing in the dark flying around the room like Green Alien Ghosts... I somehow managed to throw up 5 times more than I had consumed!

I havent been able to eat it since then... although I KNOW it was so damn good!:winkwink:

Make a salad sandwhich. Really! Take your favourite Salad bits like Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumber, Green Peppers, Hummus and some cheese of any kind and throw it together on a Pita bread. MMMMmm good and good for you.

Another idea for getting ideas is to get a few really nice cookbooks which focus on healthy eating, put them on the coffee table, and then maybe tell your kids something like "Hey, I got these really cool cookbooks. They're on the coffee table. Feel free to look through them and tell me what you think looks good and I'll try to cook it one day."

I don't have kids so don't know if something like that would work but I do know that when I was living with my ex-gf about 10 or more years ago, we had a cookbook from The Spa at Doral and a signed copy of one of the first Jamie Oliver books on our coffee table and when people came over, they would natually flip through one of the books and say 'Ooh, this one looks good'. It gave us some pretty good ideas. Very helpful because it can get stressful to pick out new stuff on your own all the time.

Yup, this is exactly what I am going thru here - we've eaten a certain way all of our lives and for the MOST part I eat pretty damn good - not perfect - but good enough to keep Diabetes at bay and not have an issue with it. But now this is a whole new ballgame - so learning a new way again and knowing what is at stake for her if I don't get this right is pretty damn stressful.

I have a boatload of cookbooks and we look at them all the time - now I'll just have to go get some of these healthier ones geared more towards her.

I did raise my kids to all eat fruits and veggies, which in this day and age is a task on it's own - but I can buy a bag of fruits or veggies and never throw that away - but chocolate, sweets and the like, that goes bad here more than anything else - from the time they were old enough to eat from a spoon, I was mashing up fresh asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and all those things kids never like - so imagine the look on waitresses faces when my kids would order a steak, potato and a salad over chicken nuggets and fries - those are snacks - not food. lol

THANKFULLY all of my kids know how to cook too - that was a must, to be able to feed themselves when they left here.

I think the reason this is so frustrating is because it is my daughter, if not for that, I wouldn't be in such a panic, but the least little thing is making her very sick - and we love trying and experimenting with new things - :thumbsup

Salad on a sandwich, that's a new one - and she LOVES salads, that's one of her goto things - she may love that!! Thank you!

Milk is filled with sugar which are also carbs and not a great source of healthy fats by any means. I would stay away from dairy all together and have your daughter get her healthy fats else where. Salmon, tuna, even red meat in moderation. Supplementing omega's is also a great way to get your daily intake.

what do you think about eating nuts a source of good fats?

Almonds are great...you just need to be careful with anything like this. As theyre extremely dense in calories. Personally I have to portion my "snacks" out otherwise I will keep eating until there's nothing left :1orglaugh

spinach and brussel sprouts

I get bored of eggs in the morning all the time so I have been doing this. Ground Flax Seed, handful of almonds, a few blueberries, and some Whey protein. Makes a good cereal.

We have moved to Skim milk, or in the process of it - this is the one thing, we seem to bounce like a damn ball, one says drink whole, next says drink lowfat/skim and so on - we have gone thru this for so many years and everyone seems to say something different.

WHATEVER kind of milk we drink, it is all organic now, it has made even my lactose intolerant ones feel better AND doesn't expire 2 days after we get it.

I eat a lot of nuts and some I have to put in a different room and just get out what I am supposed to have in a serving or I'd eat the whole damn bag or can - this is one of my very bad weakness ones - but almonds are my least favorite, I use them as shaved on my salads - along with dried and fresh fruits and so on.


Also two of my favorites - I could eat them everyday!!

Oh my god - my husband has been reading this too and he made some fajitas today for lunch - he used coconut oil for heating the shells in a skillet - made homemade pico - all fresh - and roasted a very lean roast all night in the crock pot - wow - this was awesome and that oil made those shells so much less OILY!!

I am not a fan of Mexican food in general - but this was REALLY good - and I don't eat cheese much - so that was less fat for me - lol

Why not ditch it all together? Calcium can be had from other sources and you will take out any unwanted sugars. 13G of sugar per 8oz...no thank you. have 2-3 glasses a day and you might as well crack open a nice cold soda

Oh god, no, we don't drink anywhere near that much - but what the hell are you going to use in cereal? lol

We each MAY drink a glass every few days, and if it is more than that, it's NEVER more than one small glass a day - mostly we bake and cook with it - it's not an everyday thing and sometimes even less than that. lol

That's why I want to last longer, because the non-organic milk spoils before we can even come close to drinking it all.

After reading this how can you have an issue? You eats lots of veggies and decent stuff. I am in deep shit after reading how all of you guys eat....

If its that small of an amount its not bad. As for cereal....carbs and sugar city...no thanks! Ezekiel toast with coconut oil and egg whites for me. Or steel cut oats cooked with some cinnamon, walden farms no calorie syrup and egg whites on the side.

I just have to clean up some of my part - for the most part, we don't eat near as bad as some but a lot worse than others - we are just somewhere right up the middle. A lot has to do with where we are too - if you go off the grid of the normal fresh produce, these people haven't a damn clue what you are talking about - lol

My favorite kind of cereal is whole wheat - shredded wheat - and things like that - there is maybe one or 2 that I eat with sugar - but for the most part, I like wheat and whole grain cereal - and steelcut oats are my favorite - cinnamon and brown sugar is perfect.

I am thinking after all of this, I don't eat THAT bad afterall - just cleaning it up a bit - and got some amazing ideas and some have already been implemented and my whole family is better for it already. :)

if your daughter likes pasta, try this:

dice up chicken, broccoli, garlic, chilies ( if she likes it )
start cooking the chicken on a little butter or oil
grab another pan and boil some salted water, once its done, put some rice noodles in

http://gasztroabc.hu/kepek/lJW/rizsteszta.jpg

and put the chopped broccoli in at the same time


by this time the chicken is ok, so put he garlic in and the cillies
now add 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard and some thyme and add some cream to it

drain the pasta and the broccoli and add it to the chicken - now the cream will coat the pasta nicely

add some Parmesan to it


the reason why it's a good recepie is because the broccoli is always good, the rice pasta is much better than the wheat alternative, and if you put Parmesan on, its gonna be less cheese than any other kind

if you like you can add blue cheese to the sauce


also if you like sandwiches, switch brad to wraps - you tend to put more green leafs into salads

eat 2 courses, first being a soup - that will fill you up

good luck :)

You don't eat unhealthy. But I feel like your balance of protein/fats/carbs is off in your meals. up the proteins and watch those carbs...steel cut oats + sugar :Oh crap

Coconut oil=GOOD!!! Has to be used sparingly... But DAMN it worked out... Thanks to those that suggested that! :thumbsup

This sounds really good, I'll try it. I love broccoli and rice noodles and so does she. They are very hard to find where I am though - starting to catch on, but by the time we know they are on the shelves, so does everyone else. lol

It's funny because I live in a SERIOUSLY redneck town, but I honestly think a great many of them are really TRYING to eat healthy, but the stores just can't seem to catch on!

Carbs are my enemy, for sure - and she eats very good, as well - but the one area this family has really always had hell is the pasta - that's going to be her hardest task in this... but I think her recent time spent in the hospital has really taught her what matters - she is a very disciplined kid, but it takes a bit to get some shit into her head.

Tam you can order stuff on amazon to eat too dont forget...amazon prime ftw! For whatever health issues your daughter may have I suggest getting a food scale and portioning out your food. Yea I understand people dont want to get all "crazy and obsessed" because this isn't the "norm" but would you rather live a healthier life with people questioning why you weigh your food and diet a specific way. Or would you rather live like everyone else with all sorts of ailments who were too lazy to portion their food out and end up hurting themselves in the long run? Our food is our fuel and our blood is our oil...I know I put the best in my own body and car because I want it to last. :thumbsup

Yes I know - My thing with my Diabetes is, do I want that candybar right now, or can I wait and is it worth my leg? That's what gets me thru everything - I am just so grateful I never developed a sweet tooth and I have never been so food driven - and I try and raise my kids the same way - but there are some things, and we all have them, that are going to test us beyond belief.

Believe it or not, they are STILL running tests on her - she is on her 2nd Dr now, the first can't figure out what is going on - this one is a specialist (Upper GI) and he's being extremely thorough - he's running a LOT of tests to help us get to the bottom of it... cheeses, anything with a lot of fat, dairy, things like that - if she eats very much at all, she is in what she calls "insta pain" - so until we find out for 100% sure, it's safer for me to get her on as little whole and fatty and fried things as I can, she seems to tolerate that better... but it's scaring the hell out of me because this is not me, this is my baby!!

We are hoping the tests he has planned for Tuesday will show us whatever it is we need to know to move forward. She's been on clear liquids more than not the past month - poked, prodded, thrown in the hospital, x-rays, cat scans - you name it and she's had it done - up to this, she's been pretty damn healthy!

Im so sorry for all of this. Both of you will get through all of this. Once you figure out your issues I would be more than happy to help put a very easy and managable diet for you and your family. I love doing it and helping people be healthy or lose weight. Whatever the goal may be :) Best of luck to you Tam

chicken, lots of oven cooked chicken, no butter or spices, just chicken.. mmmmmmm

Thank you so much - I just may well take you up on it. Like I said, for the most part we don't do as bad as we could, but we do have a little ways to go to do everything that will make her ok. seems almost everything that goes in her mouth hurts on some level - some worse than others - so it frustrating, at least for now.

Thank god, I am so glad you posted that, I was looking for it and wasn't finding it anywhere. :thumbsup

one of my favourite 'perfect balance' meals is a greek salad with chicken. making your own with good stuff is ideal, but if you need to grab a lunch you really can't go wrong with that.

It has lots of fats, it has some dairy but our body need fats, and feta is pretty good for calcium. It's almost impossible to get enough calcium getting it from vegetables. A lot of guys in the gym who give advice forget this part because they intake a decent amount of whey protein anyway but worth mentioning.

I do something similar that ha been amazing. Obviously the rest of your diet needs to be healthy to get the most out of it, but what I do is Juice every 3-4 days. So 2-3 days normal diet...one day ALL juice.

Cleans you out. You feel energized and amazing

I mix it up a bit and it does take a bit of getting used to, but the CORE of all my juices is....

Kale
Celery (lots of water and makes good filler)
Spinach

and the to make it palatable....

Carrot
Apple (not to much, just enough to take the edge off of the Kale)


Oh, and this is important. You MUST get a cold press juicer...NOT a centrifuge. Invest in a good one. They can be pricey, but the difference in what you get is amazing. Here is the one I use....

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/omeg...iRfgo dkjUAEw

At least once a week I make a soup. Just start it simmering about an hour before dinner time and you're gold. It'll be even better in leftovers. Cheap n' cheerful!

Broccoli and cheese - sautee onion in butter, add chicken or veg broth and a bunch of broccoli. Boil until broccoli is tender. Add cream. Boil. Stir in grated cheese (parmesan, cream cheese, monterey jack, whatever you have) until creamy. Make it super smooth with a stick mixer in the pot.

Curried sweet potato and carrot - sautee onion, carrot, celery in butter/oil. Add cumin, curry powder, smoky paprika. Add veg broth. Boil. Add chopped up sweet potato and boil until potato is soft. Add cream if you want a cream base. Otherwise just take your stick mixer to it.

Lamb lentil stew - hearty! sautee your mire poix (garlic, onion, celery, carrot) in butter. Add beef or chicken broth. Boil. Add 1 or 2 lamb neck sections. Add can of diced tomatoes. Simmer for a long while, until the meat falls off the bone when prodded. Add dried lentils, black beans, whatever legume you like. Add carrot chunks, potato chunks if you like. Simmer for another 45 mins until legumes are done.

Good luck and I really hope your daughter improves soon! So many of my friends in their 30s are taking ill with gall bladder issues and IBS. Makes me wonder what the heck is going on.

I make a lot of soups - most of the time I don't even know what is going to be in them until it's in our bowls and we are eating it - we love soups, especially this time of the year, and they are so cheap to make. I typically will start it the night before and boil the crap out of it, let it sit overnight to get back to room temp or cold and start it back the next morning - so when we eat it the first time, it is left over - who wants fresh soup? lol

I swear it's in the shit they put in our food - I was told to watch the High Fructose Corn Syrup, for me and her - and do you have ANY idea how hard THAT is to get around?

I am with baddog, if you need to read the label, don't eat it - but sometimes you just have to because you can't find things you need here where I am in the fresh or even frozen isles. :Oh crap

Yes, soups are wonderful! Especially on stormy winter nights :)

My husband and I have been going lazy keto since May, and love it. We found it wasn't hard at all to avoid the High Fructose Corn Syrup. It wasn't really in anything that we ate already except some coffee flavouring syrups that we now avoid. What are you having trouble avoiding the corn syrup with? There might be an easy substitute.

Not so much anything now - we've been finding alternatives - she liked her coffee syrups too, and several of the juices we were getting had it, tomato sauces - things like that - that one would think you wouldn't see it in - but we avoid it now - hell, it was even in our bread - my husband is changing us over to wraps and potato bread now - which seems to be working very well with him and her - I am not a huge fan of bread as an everyday thing - random weird breads yes, but not much in just everyday eating. I love English Muffins and those types of bread. lol

If you really must have bread in the house, nothing beats a bread machine. You just pop in your recipe and go and voila! Fresh bread. I was using mine a few times a week before we went low-carb. That way you have control over the ingredients, and it's always fresh!

Yeah, I know what you mean - I think I still have my bread machine somewhere - but since they found this potato bread, they seem pretty happy with it and it hasn't hurt her to eat it - so for now, I am going to leave well enough alone - for everything that doesn't hurt her to eat, that's a plus and something I am not going to mess with a lot. But I have to admit, there isn't a thing in the world like fresh warm bread popping out - but I'd probably get into trouble. lol

Oh good grief - I made popcorn with this tonight and it went over so well - the last time, I guess I had too much coconut oil in it - I found a thing that said use a tablespoon and a half in a 1/2 cup of popcorn and it was the best popcorn I've ever made at home - didn't taste like movie popcorn which is my favorite, but I bet it was healthier - and my daughter even loved it - THANK YOU - for forcing my hand to try it again - wow, it was just amazing!! :thumbsup

what do you guys think is better health-wise? butter or non-hydrogenated margarine?

I'm gonna go with butter for the Daily Double on this one, Alex.