Eating Slow Food in a Fast Food World

A few months ago I purchased The Ultimate Bundle which included like 80 E-Books, some free giveaway goodies, and access to 12 weeks of Coffee Table Conversations (Q&A's with the authors of these books). The first conference last week was on the topic of "Eating Slow Food in a Fast Food World". It was an interesting to hear the perspective of these authors, mommy bloggers, health coaches, and kitchen gurus sharing their healthy living tips with their listeners. 

Here are some of the tips that I learned or thought were neat to share with my readers!

Tips on freezing: 

• you can freeze soup or broth in jars (thought this was cool considering I always end up wasting some)
• buy stuff in summer and cut up and freeze so it is cheaper in the winter 
• ex. red bell peppers cost an arm and a leg in the winter time, buy them in the summer, cut them up, and freeze for the winter
• label label & label everything
• once you really get into freezing it is easy to mix things up so label your pasta sauce so you can tell it apart from your enchilada sauce
• add dates so you can use the oldest ones first

Finding prep time with small children:

• quadruple meats etc. when cooking
• ex. when you have a second to yourself to prep/cook dinner, quadruple the meat or other things that need prep so you can freeze or refrigerate for another meal
• saves at least 10 minutes for the next time that you need that same ingredient
• doing a little extra during dinner time prep
• when you are cooking dinner for that night, start to pack your kids lunches or your own lunches for the next day while things are either in the oven or on the stove that way you don't have to go back and do it later

How to get things done quickly:

• ask yourself... what can i use this dish for again?
• ex. if you are shredding cheese and then need the shredder for another ingredient all you need is a simple warm rinse, not a complete wash before you use it again
• double whatever you’re making and freeze it
• if you are making enchiladas for a family of 5, cook for a family of 10 and then freeze and use that frozen meal on a busy night next week
• cooking chicken in the crock pot overnight and then shredding and freezing
• something I am dying to try... boil your chicken in the crock pot overnight so in the morning you can shred and use it for the day and freeze the rest for another night

If you have limited room and want quick easy things to grab they recommend:

• yogurts
• fruit
• rolled oats
• nuts

How to help a family transition to eating real food with a picky eater:

• blending soup
• use immersion blender to thicken up soup by blending vegetables so your kids or spouse don't even see them
• have kids use a straw to drink out of their soup bowl
• just changing it up will be fun enough for them to help them to eat it
• kids won’t starve if they don’t like their dinner, do not reward the picky behavior
• do not let your kid have a cookie after dinner if they are hungry because they didn't like dinner, rewarding picky behavior encourages the behavior
• don’t try to control what your kids are eating outside of the home like at grandmas or a friends or something
• be sure though to develop a healthy palate for them inside the home where you can have more control

If wanting to start eating real foods:

• first step is the pantry, re-stock to have the healthier foods on hand
• meal planning, just decide not to buy anymore of the processed foods when you plan meals
• clean out your freezer
• that way you have room for your frozen meals
• make small changes first
• ex. start by throwing out the hamburger helper or by just simply not buying it anymore

How do you shop at Walmart and still eat Real Food:

• don’t feel like you can’t do it because you shop at Walmart, they HAVE healthy food there!
• they will supply what the customers want 
• tell the manager that you are grateful that they carry something that you enjoy
• stay away from chip and cookie isle which are located at any grocery store, even the "healthy" ones

Clean up sucks, how do I deal with it:

• paper plates (dollar store)
• washing as you cook 
• rinse a bowl out and use it again rather than getting a clean bowl out
• rinse RIGHT AWAY so food doesn't begin to cake on and make cleaning longer
• start in the biggest pot
• if you are making a soup or something that requires a big pot but the first step is to saute the veggies, use that pot rather than another pan and then dump everything else in the pot
• clean right after dinner while you are already in the kitchen

Hope someone out there finds these tips helpful! I know they will for sure be of use to me a few years down the road when I am super busy with kids!