Protein, the challenge.
Meat is beyond our food budget, and to be honest the prospect of eating once sentient beings doesn’t appeal to me much. I was quite happy with what I was eating, and do not miss meat one bit. But, sigh, the dietitian has a point, more protein is needed in my diet.
So, while I figure this out, I am resorting to ultraprocessed “foods” to bring protein content up, protein powder and peanut butter and cocoa powder, with artificial sweeteners, liquid stevia and liquid monk fruit. This is not ideal, nutrients are better eaten as whole foods. But I haven’t got that all figured out yet, figuring out how to add protein-via-food will have to be “nickled and dimed” (slowly, bit by bit, worked out).
Oh how I wish I loved the taste of plain cooked unsalted beans, or liked yogurt, or could eat ricotta cheese, or even cottage cheese. Red meats are not only expensive, they aren’t considered a good choice, fish comes with mercury so consumption has to be limited. So many food choices aren’t viable in my case, I am not left with much to work with, and making what I can have taste good without adding the bad stuff is the challenge of a lifetime.
Making food taste good is essential to success. I know I will not follow a diet of less than appealing foods for very long, before becoming downhearted and finally making it up to myself with spur of the moment bad choices. Food has to taste good, or the longevity of the diet is short.
I will get there eventually, but this is going to take some time.
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Quote
“It appears I have digressed. Unhappily, it is a frequent fault but one that I am willing to share with friends. And since others do not matter, I am sure to be forgiven. In which case, let me return to talk of vegetables.”
The Sicilian Gentleman’s Cookbook by Don Baratta, pg 26.
Some cookbooks are just plain fun to read!
Maggie, after my shoulder replacement, I wanted to add more protein to my diet to help with healing without eating more meat. I ate quite a lot of quinoa. It doesn’t have much flavor on its own but is wonderfully receptive to just about any spice, herb or seasoning combination you care to use and is great with vegetables mixed into it.
Wendy, thank you for that tip! I think that might be good with my stir fried vegetables! And I it will probably fit into other dishes I am accustomed to making!
How do you feel about chicken? DH and I use store rotisserie chickens for recipes, like Chicken Enchilada Casserole that needs shredded chicken breast. We also do chicken thighs for bbq, marinated in Italian dressing, or tandoori chicken, and a chicken, mushroom, green chile and mayo/sour cream mix with taco seasoning that we love. We wait for sales and buy and freeze for later consumption.
Teri, those dishes sound delicious!
Chicken and fish are animal proteins that I don’t mind eating.
We enjoy our pork sausage patties, but limit red meat to one day a week at most.
I have found good prices on frozen fish from time to time and stock up for the freezer at that time, canned tuna also is economical, but three times a week only for fish.
Chicken is a lot more expensive, so we have a chicken breast between us about once a month. It isn’t enough protein to get the amount of protein I need. My sister likes the store rotisserie chickens too, they can be very economical… but they are prepared with preservatives so aren’t an option for us.
We do roast several large turkeys each year that have been purchased on sale and frozen, and freeze one cup portions of that for casseroles and stews, again mainly for flavour because it isn’t enough protein to bring me me up to snuff.
Dairy is problematic, I can tolerate a little bit, but will suffer if I eat very much of it.
The recommended amount of protein daily for me is around 80 gm, it is challenging to get that much protein into my body with food that tastes OK, and is within all the restrictions I have.
The low sodium thing is a real kicker, a lot of things that taste good with a little salt don’t taste so special without it.