In the last 3 months my husband has lost over 50 pounds on a regimented diet – the kind for which you buy ridiculously expensive, horribly bland, pre-prepared so-called food. Mostly he’s eaten out of packets mixed with water and either heated or chilled, although he’s been allowed one actual meal a day consisting of 5-7 ounces of lean meat and enough vegetables to gag a rabbit. I proudly think that Michael is one of the few people in the world who could actually stick to a diet like this: especially considering all of the free food available at his office during tax season and the fact that we’re not starving to death.\par
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Anyway, he does now look like a shadow of his former self, is back into all of his old clothes, and is having a hard time even eating his one lean and green meal because his stomach has shrunk so drastically that all that protein and green stuff is too much to eat at one time.\’c3\’82\’c2\~But the diet’s designated end-date is April 15th, at\’c3\’82\’c2\~6:00 pm (the End of Tax Season Party). And what then? The diet plan does come\’c3\’82\’c2\~with instructions on how to transition into\’c3\’82\’c2\~eating more like a normal person, and what kind of diet to stick to in order to maintain the weight level desired:\par
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Apparently one should eat around 10 ounces of meat or meat substitutes in a day, a ton of fruits and vegetables, and two (2) servings of whole-grain carbohydrates, plus 3 small snacks that they recommend you continue to buy from the diet company (which of course we will try to appriximate with real food). 2 servings of whole-grain carbohydrates. Does anybody notice how little room that leaves for eating one’s wife’s home-made white sourdough french bread?\par
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I guess that all sounds reasonable, but the problem is that we have always eaten a high-carbohydrate diet because, well, because carbohydrates are cheap. Meat is expensive. So are fruits and vegetables.\’c3\’82\’c2\~(I have a reservation about that purely because it seems ridiculous to me that one has to pay more for less in order to stay skinny – kind of the way I feel about buying a gym membership so that you can go and do activities that resemble working\’c3\’82\’c2\~rather than actually doing, well, work - cause obviously there isn’t enough of that to do in this world..) I guess we’re going to\’c3\’82\’c2\~bite\’c3\’82\’c2\~the bullet\’c3\’82\’c2\~and try it way, and maybe it won’t be\’c3\’82\’c2\~as expensive as I fear, but either way\’c3\’82\’c2\~I’m looking at\’c3\’82\’c2\~completely changing my dinner cooking style. \’c3\’82\’c2\~I have finally started buying boneless skinless chicken breasts, but regarding most other kinds of meat, I’m rather a novice. I don’t know what kind of meats are economical or how to prepare them.\par
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So I thought I’d ask: does anyone in my vast readership (ha ha)\’c3\’82\’c2\~have recommendations for good and\’c3\’82\’c2\~somewhat inexpensive\’c3\’82\’c2\~types and cuts of meat that they know how to prepare? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
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Diet Change5 comments to Diet Change |
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What kind of meats do you normally buy for your pasta dishes? Just whole chickens? I personally don’t think boneless skinless breasts are more expensive for the meat than whole chickens when they are on sale (they go on sale every few weeks around here for 1.78/pound) and I HATE pulling chicken meat off of the bones and Matt HATES biting into pieces of cartilage, so I don’t buy bone-in chicken unless it’s on some super sale. \par
Whatever is on sale in a given month I buy quite a bit of, freeze it in meal-sized portions, and within a few months I have a stock of a variety of meats. Right now I have chicken cut up for stir-fries or soups, chicken bagged in marinades, pork roasts, pot roasts, and pork steaks in marinades.\par
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My general rule of thumb for meats for everyday dinner is $2/pound or less for boneless (including lean ground beef — regular has too much fat to deal with and extra lean doesn’t have enough to keep it from sticking to the pan) and $1/pound or less for bone-in (more like 50-cents or less per pound for bone-in chicken). I probably spend $40-$60 per month on meat, out of our budgeted $225/month. And at our house, if it doesn’t have meat, it isn’t dinner.
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The trick with veggies is eliminating waste. Vegetables that go bad in the fridge are what will increase the cost. I add zucchini to most of my dishes, and love adding bell peppers. Tomato sauce counts as a vegetable serving, too. \par
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I guess the sourdough bread will be all for you, now, eh?
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In our house it’s the opposite…..*I* am the one who needs to exercise restraint and make healthy choices….Matt hasn’t gained a pound since we’ve been married….and I won’t say how much I have gained and lost and gained…..pregnancy is, of course, my excuse.
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Changing cooking styles is a hassle, though, I know. I hope I never have to make major changes again. It took a good 4 months of conscious, time-consuming planning and implementation to shift from the cream-of-mushroom-soup-in-everything days to the various allergy-food-avoidance menus. Expect it to take several months, maybe 6 with the new baby coming, before it’s comfortable.
My comment is almost as long as your post!
I don’t know how much of a necessity it is at your house to have meat with EVERY dinner, but I love having one or two nights a week with vegetarian dishes. We as Americans eat way too much meat in our diet anyway, and it is a cost savings to even cut meat out of one meal a week. Make vegetable soup with only veggies and noodles, make vegetarian lasagne, noodles and vegies with a sauce, lentil and rice casserole, cheese tortellini…the list is endless. All these dishes would go fantastically with your sourdough bread too!\par
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As far as meat, we only buy when it is on sale. Chicken tenders, hamburger, roasts. Only on sale. Even ham is a good choice on sale and feeds us 5 adults and a child for at least two meals and sandwiches too!
> I don\’c3\’83\’c2\’a2\’c3\’a2\’e2\’80\’9a\’c2\’ac\’c3\’a2\’e2\’80\’9e\’c2\’a2t know how much of a necessity it is at your house to have meat with EVERY dinner, but I love having one or two nights a week with vegetarian dishes.\par
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The answer at *this* house is that vegetarian dishes generally cause pitchforks and torches to go on sale at the local hardware store.\par
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I’m just sayin’.\par
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Matt “Where’s the beef?” Winckler
I just started buying meat because Cody eats it. So far I have found chicken to be the cheapest and lightest meat, though I am still working on the cooking end of it all I know how to cook are veggies and fish. Also I just found out in one of my science classes that grass feed beef is lower in fat than corn feed (I am a nerd).