Migraine

My first post in this folder.

Dar said: "Deb-Chicken parmesean YUM!! You make the best food."

Growing up, I had a mom who was a typical 1960s-70s cook - processed food, canned food, nothing really fresh.

Usually someone cooks the same way they were brought up, but I got some kind of bee in my bonnet and started cooking about 90% from scratch.

Chicken soup, turkey soup, split pea, bean soup, eggplant and chicken parmesean, a special roast from the crock pot that everyone loves, home made green bean casserole (you know, that one everyone always makes at Thanksgiving), fresh fried corn, barely and rice pilaf, lentils with ham hocks and brown rice, etc. (anyone drooling yet? )

Sometimes I get in a rut and I get tired of it, but I always get inspired again by something.

Now, it's a blessing that I do cook this way. Every processed food has MSG in it and if I hadn't been cooking this way from the start, it would be very difficult to change directions in the middle of my life.

I do use some processed foods, but it's soup without MSG or added preservatives, Paul Newman's spaghetti sauce is all organic, chicken stock that is all organic.

It's work and slapping Hamburger Helper on the table would be easier, but this is what I like doing for my family.

Yes, I do a lot of home cooking too. Although sometimes I slip up and go for the Hamburger Helper.

I grew up with just my mom, money was tight, so she was more the "quick fix" cook. Of course out of convience, time, energy and all.

My grandmother, when I would go there on weekends and during the summer...oh the food she would make! Nothing was ready made. Everything from scratch! We would cook up a storm! I think that's where I got it from. She was my inspiration to go to culinary school, well her and Emeril .

DH loves when I cook, but he is easy to please anyway. I love not following recipies and just coming up with stuff on my own. I love to just "wing it" and see what happends.

Deb,

Great topic, And yes I was drooling !!

Being from a family with 11 children, I grew up with my mom cooking all natural food from scratch. But, I have to admit, I was the process Queen. I never really learned how to cook without can products. Now that I have don't eat hardly any processed food, boy this has this been hard. On a good note, I have lost alot of wieght But I am getting sick of the same old food and salads LOL

I have a couple of cookbooks, but would love some more reciepes if anyone wants to share
Also, little hints like the Newman's spaghetti sauce is awesome. I have not had spaghetti sauce in 5 months and alot of other food because of the preservatives and sodium content in them. I am going to check it out!!


Dar

Deb - what kind of soup do you buy that doesn't have MSG? I have some recipes that incorporate basic soups and I've had to give them all up with the MSG, all the stuff like campbells has msg in it. I have no talent at all for making stuff up. If I don't have a recipe then I am lost!

I am not so much at cooking, because these days when I get home from 9 hours at work I am mostly exhausted and cooking feels like a chore.

I used to love to bake though. Pies, cakes, cookies, anything all from scratch. My apt. was very popular in college Got that from my grandmother too. Course now I'm trying not to eat that stuff, so I haven't done it in a while.

My mother was a terrible cook, and besides, there was no variety. We always had the same thing for breakfast every day--eggs, bacon, and toast. On rare weekend days we might have waffles or oatmeal, but that was once every few months. I took the exact same lunch to school with me from the beginning of school until about January, and then switched to a different type of sandwich, which I took until the end of the year. For supper we had a piece of roast beef nearly every night, and either two vegetables or one vegetable and a salad. I learned to like the vegetables the best because that was the part of my diet that actually varied! Now, I'm a vegetarian, primarily because I simply don't find meat palatable.

I have always eaten to supply nutrition to my body rather than as a source of pleasure. Ironically, I love to cook. I always use a recipe, but I do modify the recipes some, or make some substitutions. While I do have a few favorite recipes that I might make once a year, a high percentage of my cooking is with recipes that are brand new to me. I usually have home-cooked lunches with me at work when we are in the office, and my lunches become the envy of my co-workers! Recently, I've been modifying recipes to make them as low-salt as possible, and I've found I appreciate the taste of the food without the salt.

I love my collection of cookbooks, but I also like this website:
www.allrecipes.com .

This is a tough folder, I started to read it and had to go start cooking!! Thanks to you the kids are getting home made yeast rolls tonight for dinner. I love cooking, but these are usually reserved for special occasions, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, not Thursday.

A number of years ago I took a 6 week cooking class, it was almost a religous experience. The first night we tasted salt. I came home and threw out the little girl with her cute umberella and never looked back. I had no idea how awful it made my food taste. After than they taught me to make stock. Who knew what you could do what stock with no fat and salt in it. And then the whole use fresh herbs instead of the jars of stuff that have salt in them too. It was a great 6 weeks.

I still use some processed things. Mainly comfort food items. My children love my "spagettii" is made with canned soups and they love it.

This summer I am determined to learn to "put up" tomoatoes. DBF grows them by the droves and I don't want to waste them. He sun dried some this year, but I want to make sauce this year and have it ready to go when I'm ready to use it during the winter.

Back to the rolls.....

Cindy

Laurelin, Campbells has a line of Healthy Request soups, some are low fat and the mushroom soup I buy has no MSG.

Eileen, I didn't know you went to culinary school!

We watch the FoodNetwork a lot here and when we see something we like, we find the recipe. Some are complicated, but a lot are simple.

DBF and I cook a lot without processed foods. I've gone to a pretty strict diet out of consideration for my head and digestive system both - no gluten, dairy, MSG, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, sugar; low salt, preservatives, chemical additives of any kind, nitrates/nitrites, etc. I do occasionally break the rules but try hard not to. (Usually I only break it for dark chocolate.) So because of this we've had to start cooking on our own. And I will also say DBF does the vast majority of cooking, but I don't think he minds it because it gives him a way to feel like he's doing something to help manage my disease.

Every week we sit down and put together a menu for the week. From the menu we make our shopping list. The menu then goes on the fridge. That way we can plan what gets thawed, marinated, cooked when. We're sure to take servings into consideration - I eat dinner leftovers for lunch at work during the week. We often do a slow cooker recipe on the weekend and freeze half of it for later.

We have gotten very good at modifying recipes. We have a good collection of regular cookbooks. Our favorite is his Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. We haven't found a bad recipe in there yet. But we can't use any of the recipes as-is. Normally we take out some ingredients and modify others to suit my diet.

We also check out cookbooks from the library occasionally and scan to his computer the recipes that sound worth trying. Much better on the budget that way.

We're actually in the process of putting together a cookbook this year. We try 1-2 new recipes each week from our collection of cookbooks. We take pictures of the finished dishes. We keep track of the modifications we make. By the end of the year we'll have enough to put together as a cookbook for our family and friends for Christmas presents. The cookbook will be a wonderful collection of healthy, easy homecooked meals.

Since November I've lost about 20 pounds or so, so I can't complain about this diet. I haven't really eliminated any migraine triggers (except sugar) but I have found a healthier way of eating. And found a way for DBF to help me manage my disease. If it were up to me I definitely couldn't do this much cooking on my own.

Yep, Johnson and Wales University, Charleston SC

The same school as Emeril Lagasse - except he went to the Rhode Island campus....years before me

I went for baking and pastry arts.

quote:

Originally posted by DebHOST:
Eileen, I didn't know you went to culinary school!

MJ what a great gift to your families and yourselves. My niece's mother in law did that with all the family recipes for her three kids one year.

You might be surprised how something like that might be a best seller!! People are looking more and more for ways to cook and eat healthy. When I lived in Portland, Oregon in the late 70's early 80's the hospital I worked at, Portland Adventist got written up as the best vegitarian resturant in the city. How sad was that?

I keep telling myself I need to do the same thing and get all the pieaces of paper in the same place for my kids. They are soon leaving the nest and will want this information. Man does not live on boxed mac and cheese forever

Cindy

My mom was also a not so great cook. She just had no passion about it plus, my dad LOVED to eat out. We spent more time in diners and restaurants than our own kitchen. Of course, growing up, I thought it was great. I grew up by the ocean and love fresh seafood so I ate that a lot growing up...that and Greek Salad. My dad is Greek so we ate alot of Greek food. Yummy!!!

Nowadays, we can't afford to eat out very often. So, I had to learn how to cook on my own. My DH and kids are also easy to please and on migraine days they cook on their own or eat leftovers. I will admit, we do eat pizza more than we should. I do try to keep things healthy though. My kids' snacks are fruit and the like so that when I splurge on Oreo's (low fat) - they think it is the best thing ever LOL.

Funny story: My first DH's family knew I had no clue how to cook so Nanny called and told me that his favorite dessert was grilled watermelon and asked if I had ever made it. I said, nope, never heard of it. She actually gave me a detailed recipe and me, being all of 20 years old was going to make it. DH came home in time to stop me!

Ok, now I want some shrimp scampi and a Greek salad...Eileen are you available???

Yeah Laura,

I'll be there in like, what 7 hours???? LOL

Cindy, thanks for the encouragement! It was partially my mom's idea. My sister and I have been bugging her the past few years to get some of her recipes, and I guess my mom has taken that to heart because she suggested DBF and I actually give our cookbook out as a gift. (We had already planned to put one together for ourselves, though probably without the fancy photos and all.) My whole family was upset when my dad's mother died without passing on her recipe for escarole soup. We managed to get all of hers except that one and to this day no one has recreated it successfully.

And let me just say that computers are a godsend. DBF's scanner has the capability to convert scanned documents directly to text (depending on the font) so that makes it easier to add our changes to recipes as we go.

I think it will turn out well. We've got a couple of soups, a few chicken dishes, pork dishes, and various other things we've tried. And who knows, maybe if we get good feedback from our families we'll sell them.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindy:
MJ what a great gift to your families and yourselves. My niece's mother in law did that with all the family recipes for her three kids one year.

You might be surprised how something like that might be a best seller!! People are looking more and more for ways to cook and eat healthy. When I lived in Portland, Oregon in the late 70's early 80's the hospital I worked at, Portland Adventist got written up as the best vegitarian resturant in the city. How sad was that?

I keep telling myself I need to do the same thing and get all the pieaces of paper in the same place for my kids. They are soon leaving the nest and will want this information. Man does not live on boxed mac and cheese forever

Cindy