So this passion project has been interesting exploring new ways to create quick, healthy meals without a ton of mess. I am proud of myself for what I have been able to create in terms of healthier options and now have at least three full meal options that I can use. I am hoping by the end of this week I will have four possibly five meals, giving me a full week of easy, healthy meals that won't require too much cleanup.
What have I noticed about my learning? I love cooking, eating, dining out and watching food shows, so this was an exciting project for me to start. I also love trying out new recipes. What I DON'T like is the cleanup part. I also hate feeling guilty when I eat a really good meal and then it stays with me for at least the next few days (middle age is NOT kind to those of us who like to eat). For the most part I was able to create some tasty meals that had healthy ingredients and knew pretty much what I was looking for. What was frustrating for me was researching all of the nutrition information and tracking it for all of the ingredients in my recipes. I discovered that there is a TON of information out there on ingredients, and sometimes it is misleading. And unless you are a nutritionist or watching specific dietary needs, most people are not going to know the exact nutrition information for their fruits and vegetables. To me the tracking was the most frustrating, and this is why I have not been able to follow food tracking very well. I discovered that it takes a LOT of time and you have to be very careful about hidden ingredients in foods that you THINK you are eating that are healthy (added caramel color in balsamic vinegar for example).
In this process I have been most efficient when I have been able to organize my information. I have found Google Docs and Google Sheets VERY helpful in being able to organize my nutrition information for foods, and write out recipes. I can pull these up whenever I need and it stores automatically. Thank you Google! I also found some helpful websites for fruit and veggie nutrition information and a nutrition calculator:
Even though I AM a visual learner, I have found that I don't really need to take pictures of the recipes to see what I want to create; however, I did realize that it might be helpful for other people to see pictures of the foods if they are going to use my recipes. So it was a bit of an adjustment for me remembering to take pictures as I went along. I usually don't need pictures of foods to help me decide on a recipe if I have a specific food in mind. I mostly just look at the nutrition information. So this was something that I had to deliberately think about.
Overall the biggest challenge in this process has been TIME. Even though it is summer, there are so many obligations and projects at home that have needed my attention that if I didn't deliberately set aside time to plan and cook these recipes I probably would not be on my way to finishing this project (like many of the other open-ended projects I still have around the house). I do think I will be able to finish a whole week of recipes by the end of my journey though (YAY!) Below is a copy of my learning journey throughout this project. Thanks for the inspiration everyone!
Maureen,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are doing great on your project! I agree - cleanup is the worst part of cooking (and is part of the reason I don't do more of it). Something I've used in the past to track my food is an app called MyFitnessPal - it lets you search foods and gives you the nutrition information for each thing. You can even scan products and the app will find it for you and log the nutrition info! It was very easy to use and track what I was eating each day!
Good Luck!
Maya Adra
Hi Maya, I did come across MyFitnessPal a few times in some searches, and yes, you are right, it is super helpful in finding foods. I also have the Weight Watchers app, which has been helping me track foods too (I ended up joining with a group of teachers from my school so that has helped). Thanks for the comment!
DeleteMaureen,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your project! I agree the cleanup is the worst part! I also feel like I always make a bigger mess than needed. I followed a nutrition template when I was training in olympic weightlifting and found weighing my food to be helpful. You can find average macros for foods like banana's and such but I found weighing my foods gave me spot on feedback. It's super time consuming but it gave me better context when eyeballing foods for macronutrients.
Christina, that is really cool that you were training in Olympic weightlifting! It is really time consuming tracking foods, so I ended up using some of the similar vegetables and seasonings in some of the recipes once I had researched their nutrient content, so I already knew what I was eating and was a bit easier to track. I can't imagine having to weigh foods for weightlifting, but that sounds so cool! Thanks for the comments!
DeleteHi Laura, thanks for your comments! Yes, I have shared my final collection of recipes in my last post. I hope you can take a look!
ReplyDelete