I'm Starving! Help Me Eat!

July 13, 2006 5:25 AM

Help a girl who is kitchen challenged and has goofy food restrictions put together a grocery shopping list/easy meal ideas.

I am single, no kids. I have no clue what to stock my house with. I need things that are pretty easy to cook and are healthy overall, without spending tons of money. I'd like to go grocery shopping every 2 weeks.

Here's what I can't eat: dairy, alcohol, bread (except whole grain), anything fermented, sugar or anything with sugar or its derivatives.

I have an oven, stove, toaster oven, and a George Foreman grill to work with. I have a Crock Pot but it goes unusued.

I've grown very very very tired of pasta.

posted by miltoncat to food & drink (19 comments total)

Huh?
posted by Gator at 5:28 AM on July 13, 2006

get some nice olive oil and sunflower oil and a frying pan or wok. now you can do stir fried chicken, fish or pork, and vegetables. No soy sauce, as it's fermented.

Get some nice salamis to go with your whole grain bread, and a nice low fat margarine.

Tofu is good, too! uncooked or fried, also tempeh.

for nibbles, try nuts!

get the best fresh fruit and veg you can find, and you'll begin to like and crave it.
posted by By The Grace of God at 5:32 AM on July 13, 2006

Yes, you're very astute. Congrats. You will also notice that last week I got only one reccommendation for a cookbook. So I decided to pose the question a bit differently and see if that would help, because it's something I legitimately need help with. OK?
posted by miltoncat at 5:34 AM on July 13, 2006

What your asking for a shopping list and a menu plan, I think that only you can really do that. However, here are some recipes that I feel meet your requirements.
Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.
posted by bigmusic at 5:45 AM on July 13, 2006

If you work, your company may have an employee assistance program that might cover a few visits with a nutritionist, who can help you plan meals around your food restrictions. Same if you have HMO health insurance. Even if you have to pay for a session yourself, it might be worth it to schedule an appointment with a dietician at your local hospital. Even my health club has a registered dietician on staff.

(For years I've worked for companies with EAPs and thought they were only if you had a drug problem. I've recently used it for all sorts of other advice and am a convert.)
posted by Joleta at 5:50 AM on July 13, 2006

Have you thought about learning to make sushi at all? It's healthy, the rolls are quite easy to make with a little practice. The nigini is a bit tougher and it depends on how you feel about raw fish, but there are a lot of sushi cookbooks out there with a lot of different food combinations. You can't have the soy sauce but it would still be tasty. Literally, there is no cooking required if you don't want to.

For instance, a roll is simply the seaweed wrap, rice, and whatever you want to fill it with. That lets you make something tasty without limiting you to any 4 things in particular. We tried smoked salmon and avocado in a wrap and it was delicous.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 5:52 AM on July 13, 2006

There are several cookbooks that offer menus for people with similar dietary restrictions. The Candida Control Cookbook gets good reviews at Amazon.

(As the ubiquitous wikipedia notes, "Nutritionists often recommend avoidance diets, eliminating sugar and often many other foods for a period," and I guess that's what you're after, but remember that to someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a nutritionist, everything can be fixed by a change in diet. To an "alternative" health fan, nothing that comes by prescription can be trusted. Nonetheless, your best bet might be to focus on standard medical treatment and not to count on a simple diet change to fix your problem. As you know, you need to treat the disease under an actual doctor's guidance, and you need to work on improving your general health -- lose weight, get daily exercise, turn off the TV, get outside, etc. -- becase you want to improve your immune system, which is not doing its job if you're frequently getting infections when others would not. As I mentioned above, there are cookbooks following the restrictions you asked for. It's just that they may disappoint you as a method of disease control.)
posted by pracowity at 6:18 AM on July 13, 2006

Here's what I wrote last week, since it was after the last post on the comment and perhaps you didn't notice:

Disclaimer: I eat like a hippie, so this might not work for you.

I'm pretty sure my recipes can be easily modified to add meat, but I'm a vegetarian so I'm not going to suggest anything I'm unfamiliar with.

My shopping list every week consists of:
* huge varieties and quantities of veggies, mostly for cooking and some to eat raw (buy what you like and what's in season)
* a variety of starches to accompany the veggies (mostly whole wheat bread for sandwiches, whole wheat tortillas for wraps, brown rice, pasta, sometimes red potatoes)
* Stuff to flavor the veggies with (you don't want soy sauce, but there's still tomato sauce in a can, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, fresh basil, whole pepper corns to grind up fresh, dried thyme, rosemary and oregano, huge amounts of garlic and lots of other stuff)
* easy-to-snack on fruits and veggies to eat raw (buy enough to eat at least 1.5 servings or half cups per day of stuff like: bananas, apples, oranges, baby carrots)
* breakfast cereals -- cold stuff like amaranth flakes and granola; warm stuff like oatmeal
* stuff to put on the cereals -- Rice Dream takes getting used to, but it's the best non-soy non-dairy alternative I've found.
* dips for textures -- stuff like mayonaise, hummous, ranch dressing, etc.


If you can eat yogurt, that will help a lot too. Organic yogurt + fresh berries + granola = the best dessert I have ever had. Like the best ice cream imaginable times 1000000000.



Here are a few things to try:

Stir fry:
Start cooking some rice before you begin the stir fry.

Heat up olive oil (maybe a tablespoon) over medium high heat on the stove, when it crackles when you splash it with water, it's time to cook.
First throw in chopped up onion and let it cook alone (or throw in some carrot at the same time). If you have any ginger, grate a little bit in. After a couple of minutes, add diced garlic. After two or three more minutes, throw in other sliced veggies -- stuff like broccoli, bell pepper, peas, squash. After about a minute, add some fresh basil leaves, sea salt, pepper. A splash of apple juice is optional. Then remove the whole mix from the stove and eat with the rice.

Roasted veggie wrap:
Take any combination of vegetables that you like -- maybe carrots, asparagus, summer squash, tomatoes (OK, not technically a vegetable, whatever), broccoli, and chop them up. Make a bowl out of aluminum foil and put the veggies at the bottom. Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil on top, add minced garlic, salt, fresh ground pepper, fresh basil. Fold the aluminum bowl shut so you have an aluminum ball.

Stick this whole thing in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Take it out, drain the extra olive oil, and put the veggie mix onto a tortilla that you've spread with hummous or put your favorite variety of canned beans onto. Roll it up and eat.

roasted asparagus and potatoes
Get asparagus and red skinned potatoes. Scrub the potatoes and cut them into 2-inch-by-2-inch cubes. Break off the thick bottoms of the asparagus stalks. Placean aluminum foil bowl. Sprinkle with olive oil, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, dried rosemary and minced garlic. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

veggie sandwich
Spread some mayonaisse, avacado or hummous (only one, please) on two slices of bread. Add some cucumber slices, tomato slices, a leaf of lettuce, a handful of sprouts, and a twist of the pepper mill's worth of pepper. Combine bread into sandwich. Eat.

Even easier meals:
* Spaghetti and sauce -- buy a box of spaghetti, buy a jar of sauce (read the ingredients, you'll find one that meets your needs). Follow the directions on the spaghetti sauce, top with sauce, eat.
* Soup and salad -- buy soup in a can or a carton. Heat in the microwave. Put some lettuce in a bowl. Top with dressing. Eat.

This is enough for me (plus cheese, I throw in a lot of cheese, but you said no dairy). Some people feel really deprived without more protein. You should google around about how to cook beef, bird and fish. I don't get the impression that it's that hard. These veggies are probably really good served next to meat.

You can find more recipes using the advanced search function at allrecipes.com, which allows you to exclude ingredients.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 6:37 AM on July 13, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

You can't get away with going shopping every two weeks. Vegetables rot and dairy products(which you aren't eating) go bad.

Get this book and shop for a couple days worth of recipes at a time, say Monday and Thursday. Learn to re-use leftovers, and find a place that has Sugarbusters, Adkins, or perhaps diabetic products. It's getting much easier to eat while minimizing refined sugar, so you shouldn't have much problem finding stuff if you look a little.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:56 AM on July 13, 2006

I (respectfully) disagree with Mr. Gunn. You can buy lots of fresh veggies for the first week and lots of frozen veggies for the second. Soy milk lasts 2 weeks easy, and since you don't eat dairy, that sounds like a good thing.

Sugarbusters is a decent diet to read about. You could also try shopping at your local farmers market on the weekends to supplement your bi-weekly shopping trip.

Have you ever thought about trying the method where you cook a bunch of stuff for the week and then freeze it? I've never tried it, but my boyfriend does all the cooking in our household. If I was single that would probably work incredibly well for me.
posted by pazazygeek at 7:27 AM on July 13, 2006

Also, just in terms of concrete suggestions, here are the things I love to eat that are pretty easy to make:

Brussel Sprouts or Broccoli w/lemon
CousCous (from the box!) (err, this might not be okay on your diet, I'm not sure)
Chicken breasts (usually just cooked in olive oil and spices)
Artichokes (just boil them for 45-minutes to an hour, serve with mayo. Delicious). 2 of them make an excellent dinner.
You can easily make soups in your crock pot, and heat them up when you want a snack.
Cereal with soy milk
Rice cakes
PB&J on whole grain bread
Microwave popcorn
Different types of salads.

In the summer there's a cucumber/tomato & red onion salad that is super easy to make and is delicious. I usually mix it all with vinegar and sugar, but some italian dressing or some other light dressing of your choice would work just as well, I'm sure.
posted by pazazygeek at 7:36 AM on July 13, 2006

I love sushi; made some avocado rolls yesterday. But the bulk of it is white rice, which is pretty sugary to begin with, and then it's flavored with sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. Still, if pasta is OK (you can have pasta but not bread?), maybe sushi would be.

You might want to spend some time looking into soup recipes; I love making a big batch of soup and then eating it through the week (or even more; it freezes well). Some of my favorites are onion/tomato/carrot/green bean/celery/spinach/whatever vegetable soup (notice no potatoes or pasta), and Japanese-ish bean-thread noodle/tofu/carrot/pea/spinach/celery green miso soup. The bean thread noodles (or bean stick noodles) are starchy/sugary, but they're nice. With soup, I might have some sliced cucumbers (maybe with spicy French tomato-based salad dressing).
posted by amtho at 7:42 AM on July 13, 2006

You might do your major grocery shopping every two weeks, but if you have a main dish or two that keeps well and that you can have almost every night (maybe soup, maybe something else), you might make things much nicer for yourself if you can pick up some very fresh vegetables -- on the way home, or Saturday morning at a farmers' market, for example -- to have on the side.

It can save time to have a main dish that you make in bulk, and the monotony of this can be greatly relieved by having small-batch, fresh side dishes to go with it. Plus, anything that keeps well is likely to have a fairly boring texture -- crunchiness is usually about freshly baked, fried, or harvested foot -- so a quick side dish can add lovely texture to your meal.

It's also really wonderful if you can grow some of your own food for a treat; freshly-picked grean beans, snow peas, tomatos, all add incredible dimension to a meal, and they automatically keep well when they're still growing.
posted by amtho at 7:51 AM on July 13, 2006

I meant "freshly baked, fried, or harvested food" (not foot).
posted by amtho at 7:52 AM on July 13, 2006

Two words: Beans and Rice.

Beans can be purchased dried or canned, but either way they keep well and are a good source of protein. And cheap too! If you buy them dry, be aware that lentils cook a whole lot faster than pretty much any other dried bean. This can be the basis for chili, enchiladas, a whole lot of southern and southwestern cuisine. A comprehensive cookbook like How to Cook Everything or Joy of Cooking will have dozens of recipes. Vegetarian or Vegan cookbooks should in theory help you out too.

Rice likewise comes dry and keeps almost forever. What you spend depends on your tastes. I would stay away from instant, minute, converted, or otherwise pre-processed rice products as they cost more and aren't as nutritious. Since I don't notice a rice cooker on your appliance list, the secrets to stovetop rice are a) gas stove, b) stir as little as possible. Rice is a major supporting player in stir frys, curries, and Asian cuisine in general.
posted by ilsa at 8:02 AM on July 13, 2006

You might try signing up at kidswithfoodallergies.org. It's $25 a year and they have a searchable recipe database where you can exclude recipes with the following ingredients from your searches: milk [including all derivatives], peanut, egg, soy, tree nut, corn, gluten, wheat, fish, shellfish, and sesame.

You would obviously have to do further eliminating of some ingredients manually, but these are family and kid-friendly recipes, so there's no alcohol and not a lot of fermented stuff in there. And I think it's pretty easy to scan a recipe & see if there's sugar derivatives.

I have a subscription, and although I can't help you access the site for free in any way, if you want me to look up a couple of sample recipes to see if it's something that might work for you, email is in my profile.

Oh, and can you eat eggs? This opens up a huge number of possibilities. Egg is NOT DAIRY. Dairy = cows. You might be shocked at the number of people, including medical professionals, who don't know this.
posted by peep at 9:30 AM on July 13, 2006

I second the soup recommendation. I go about once a week: I typically make a veggie side for myself for each meal (or just raw vegs) and eat an Amy's frozen meal and some fruit. I always have homemade soup on hand. Chunky tomato soup is always great and freezes well--so stock up on diced/peeled canned tomatoes and get canned beans/frozen spinach, etc to improvise.

I highly recommend the "Everyday Food" cookbook. The recipes are very basic and have a lot of healthy options and include really good tips.
posted by clairezulkey at 9:44 AM on July 13, 2006

It appears your lack of bread is a desire to avoid processed carbohydrates, not a gluten allergy (the pasta thing). Be more specific there and I can help more.

I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, but I don't really have milk products in my pantry. Here is what you should put in the pantry if you're a bad cook right now:

Black Beans ->Read labels, some are sugary, most are not
Dried Lentils -> Like beans, they are dried and SUPER cheap. Unlike dried beans, you don't have to soak them before cooking.
Barley -> Same as lentils, except less protein, more whole grain.
Oil -> I prefer canola, as its cheap, yet not horrible for you. YMMV
Protein-Based "Bread Crumbs" -> Almost all the brands that make bread crumbs make these. They substitute for recipes with "Bread Crumbs" in them.
Silken Tofu-> Not to be used in chunks, you use this as a substitute for cream in recipes.
Alton Brown's "I'm just here for the food" -> While it contains some recipes, it's mainly a book explaining HOW to cook, how to boil veggies, how to sear, roast, fry meat, etc. Sounds like something that would help you.
Steel Cut Oats (refrigerate, yes really, whole grain stuff goes rancid)-> This is not your grandmother's oatmeal. Not flat and mushy like quaker oats, these are still mostly whole. They take longer to cook, but fill you up like cement, and taste ungodly good.
Onions (in pantyhose, in the dark, in the pantry/closet). -> Take women's pantyhose. Put one onion in one leg. Tie a knot. Repeat. Hang in dark place, cut off as needed. Onions are cheap, and if cooked in a pan before almost anything, make it taste better. Try even with steel cut oats.
Minced Garlic in a jar (refrigerate): Lasts a long time. Use similarly to the onions. Much easier to use than fresh pressed.
Whole black pepper and a pepper grinder -> Tastes MUCH better than the stuff that comes out of a shaker, and is a really good kitchen seasoning.
Ground Cumin-> This is the stuff that makes ranch dressing taste ranchy. You will recognize it immediately.
Cornmeal-> You seem to have an issue with wheat. This will act as breading in pantries/baked things that usually call for flower
Lard-> No, this doesn't taste at all like pork. As you can't use butter, this will substitute in most of the places butter does. Add a little water when substituting (butter is 15% water). Knowing how to make a roux. A roux is a 1-1 mixture of fat and flour that will soak up water type liquids like crazy. This is how gravies and many other sauces are made. Take 1 Tbsp lard and 1 Tbsp of flour and cook in the bottom of the pan (whisking) until they "change" (You'll notice it). You didn't notice the change if the roux starts to darken. Pour up to 3/4 cups of broth, milk (not in your case), veggie puree, stock, or other watery liquid per 2 tbsp of roux.
Veggies to keep around in cans:
Green Beans
Peas
asparagus

Veggies to buy fresh (from a farmer's Market):
asparagus (Poach it, put pesto sauce from a jar on it)
Those onions I mentioned before
Broccoli (Poach it)
Cauliflower (Cook in a pan with a roux, some cumin and black pepper and salt)
Celery (Cool with any of the grains/lentils or eat raw)
posted by gte910h at 11:23 AM on July 13, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Print this out and you've got a grocery list template (letter format) (a4) pdfs.

... but since it's been about a year since you asked this question, hopefully you've found something that works for you already;)
posted by acro at 6:10 PM on July 5, 2007