How natural is your diet

[Eve]

I was pondering this while looking through the kitchen cupboard this morning.

Do you tend to buy fresh over frozen (or grow your own), eat things in their natural form (butter rather than spread, whole milk over skimmed), make your own meals rather than buying pre prepared/microwave meals etc... similarly with sauces, gravies etc... use things like sweetners rather than sugar.

More a general question, not judging haha, I'm the microwave queen although trying to be better at cooking and eating more natural stuff.

[pastafreak]

@ ktee.....a slow cooker will use half the electricity in 8hours that an oven will use in 2 hours. So - very cost effective.

[ktee]

Thank you pastafreak. Most of my friends have one but I've always been wary of leaving one on for so long.

[pastafreak]

Leaving it on is no problem whatsoever. I was wary at first also...but I wouldn't be without mine now.
In fact-I broke the crock of my big one a few weeks ago (put it on the hob-then turned on that hob by mistake....dohhhh!)..and went into panic mode. Luckily I had a mini one that my daughter never took away-so I'm using that for now.
You can buy the smallest for a tenner,and cook enough for 2 meals in it.

[coccinelle]

Since I'm now on my own I was wary of leaving the slow cooker on in case I didn't get home for some reason... so now I have it on a timer so it will knock itself off at about 8pm.

[bimbo123456]

As for the so called fresh veg in the supermarkets....Have you seen where a lot of them come from????? I think if something comes from Kenya or Peru it is plainly not going to be fresh. It is well known that frozen veg have more vitamins in them anyway. OI don't have frozen carrots which are gross unless you are putting them in a stew. And frozen brocolli is a completely different texture to fresh but nevertheless quite adequate. I think we should count ourselves lucky not to be tied to the seasons like our forbears.

[woozer]

Hi Ktee - I worried about leaving my slow cooker at first but to start off I used it when I knew I would be in the house all day did big bathces of chillie etc at the weekend - nothing exploded so I now just turn it on and go out. They are brilliant - enjoy.

[ktee]

Hi woozer, that's a great idea, I think I'll look for a small one like pastafreak suggested (thanks for that btw) and try them out.

[boxtops]

I'm with bimbo on the fruit front. I had a row with the grocery manager in Tesco last year - they were only selling rock-hard dark purple Spanish plums, while our Kentish farmers were having to plough back the lovely ripe Victoria plums we can buy only from roadside kiosks - because the home grown price wasn't cheap enough for Tesco to sell in volume, Disgusting - our own produce (when available) should come first. I have to say that their cherries are local this year - so hopefully a change in practice is on the way.

[pastafreak]

I saw a program last year that showed that beans from Kenya are picked and shipped via air in 24-36 hours. So-not much different from local.
Even local is not always fresh if it has been stored for any period.

[Quassia]

Hi Jenna,
there's probably room for improvement! I have used skimmed milk for a long time now. I have an unhealthy habit with sacharins, use them in cereal and as a replacement sugar in my coffee. I buy frozen veg, just more economical & saves preparation. I buy tinned fruit in 'juice' .. never in syrup, again saves time. I don't buy microwave meals at all. I use my microwave all the time as well as my halogen oven, but all food is made from scratch.

[LDC134]

I don't own a microwave. I make almost all meals from scratch or with the help of a packet / jar. I waste as little as possible, making soup with any left over veg and then freezing the soup. I lived on my own for 5 years and never ate pre-packed / ready meals - it's ever so easy to knock up an omlette, or a spanish tortilla and use up anything which you have left over, I am rarely ill and as a drinker and smoker, I firmly believe this is down to diet (and a bit of genetics !)
I highly recommend a cook book called 'How to boil an egg' by Jan Arkless which is a paperback and a brilliant intro to cooking / substituting ingredients and using up leftovers, I couldn't cook when I left home and this really helped.