"Farm Food" - lower calorie?

[Katy]

A while back Quill mentioned something she called "Farm Food" - basically, a meat, a couple veggies, a starch, a potato.  Old fashioned food, rather than one-dish meals. Well due to an antibiotic causing nausea for a couple members of the family, I've switched to farm food this week. And I've lost two pounds in 3 days.  I was wondering why, and it occurred to me that eating this way is lower calorie. It's boring, but there's no ingredients there that are so delicious they make me want to over eat. There's no cheese.  There's no salsa.  There's nothing to put ranch dressing on.

 

In the past I've prided myself on making food as delicious as possible, and then tried to control portions more than ingredients. And then more often than not, I feel compelled to eat more even though my stomach is full.  But with this simple food, I have no such desire.  I just get satisfied and don't want any more.  I don't know if it's also the lack of artificial spices (I've gotten rid of all the fancy blends and just used salt, pepper, and in one case, onion powder).

 

So I guess I just wanted to talk about that.  Is there some way to make this simple food less boring, without making it easier to overeat?  Or should I just wait a couple weeks until my taste buds adjust?

[Josh Blade]

Why would you get rid of all of your spices? That's exactly how you *spice* up the taste of your food and make it less boring. Spices have little to no calories unless you get into some kind of mix like taco seasoning that has flour in it too, but even then I think it's worth it.  

[StephanieZ]

My guess is that you're using a lot less salt, so you've dropped some water weight. If I'm right, then the first binge on chips/dip or other processed food will bring it right back. :(

 

Processed foods and all the yummy things that go into casseroles often have loads of salt. LOADS. Simply using table salt to flavor home-cooked simple foods likely involves much less sodium than most of the casseroles/etc. 

[HomeAgain]

We serve mostly "farm food" here, but we use a lot of natural spices.  Meat, grains/starch, veggies make up the bulk of our meals, with very little dairy thrown in.  Things I noticed as we switched were we ate less sugar and less salt.  Like, a lot less.  And our cholesterol got better - using less and better oils.  Other thing - processed food started tasting weird.  Crackers taste like cookies (except for Triscuits) because of the sugar in them.  I bought a jar of Jif and my oldest took a big spoonful before making a horrible face - it was like putty compared to natural peanut butter.

 

My husband's siblings have gotten stouter over the years.  He used to look just like his brother, and now the difference between the two is insane.  I think a lot of it has to do with going back toward mostly unprocessed food. We still have a few vices (I like ranch dressing in a bottle so I don't have to make a bottle's worth each time I want some), and we eat jarred salsa, but for the most part - simple ingredients.

 

And timely reminder tonight.  I got lazy and bought a box of 'Creamy Four Cheese Rice-A-Roni' for tonight's dinner.  I had originally planned a long grain/wild rice mixture (unseasoned, adding olive oil) but figured I'd mix it up a little.  Nope.  All of us ate the chicken and the peas, then threw the rice-a-roni in the trash.  It was that bad: artificial tasting, and a weird color.  Even the child who eats everything wouldn't touch it after the first bite.

[Katy]

Why would you get rid of all of your spices? That's exactly how you *spice* up the taste of your food and make it less boring. Spices have little to no calories unless you get into some kind of mix like taco seasoning that has flour in it too, but even then I think it's worth it.  

 

Well I didn't get rid of the spices themselves, just the fancy spice blends with lots of salt, sugar, and MSG and other artificial flavorings blended in.

[Liz CA]

It could be overall less calories or you could be eating less because it satiates you faster and lasts longer.

Food without a lot of additives tends to go straight to where it's needed.

You need not by shy with spices, lots of ginger, garlic, some seal salt, ground pepper, curry, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, sage ....

Edited August 19, 2016 by Liz CA

[regentrude]

Why does the food you describe have to be boring and not delicious???

There are many ways to create yummy meat, veggie and starch dishes.

I do not believe there is anything intrinsically lower calorie about this meal design.

[ktgrok]

I'm agreeing with whoever said it was a lack of sodium, and probably lack of sugar. Those trick your taste buds into wanting more and more, plus cause water retention. 

[KungFuPanda]

"White people colonized and enslaved the world in search of spices and didn't use a damn one!"

 

~random Internet quote

[Zinnia]

If you add spices and flavors, that boring food will become less boring.  And you'll be right back to where you began--eating more of it, to enjoy the flavor rather than just satisfy hunger.

[Josh Blade]

Our meals most every night end up being 300-500 calories. My wife makes up a menu a few weeks at a time so we can avoid the 'what do you want' dance every night. 

 

Here's a sample of some of the stuff we'll make over the next few weeks:

 

Bulgogi

Chicken Tacos (had this last night. 3 tacos packed with meat/chease were just over 450 calories)

Parmesan Porkchops (parmesan bread crumb coating - fried)

Chili

Burgers

Soy Chicken and fried rice

BBQ Chicken (chicken breast pan fried or baked with no breading cooked with a bbq on them at the end)

Shake n Bake Pork Chops

Chicken Fingers (chicken breast cut up to size with shake n bake)

beef stir fry

Chicken wings (baked or smoked on the smoker)

Pulled Pork (on the smoker or in a crock pot)

Chicken/Rice/gravy (one of our favorite easy low cal meals. It ends up being about 300 calories for a bowl filled to the brim)

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Parmesan Chicken (this one usually ends up around 800 after breadsticks/pasta so it's on the upper end of what we normally eat calories wise)

Ribs (smoker or baked)

 

Then we have slight variations on several of them. We typically have rice/mashed potatoes/baked potatoes/corn/raw carrots/mac n cheese as our sides. We're not super big into vegetables, but luckily you can add a ton of those without adding many calories. We pretty much always use chicken breast / 90-10 hamburger / bone out pork chops as a reference. On average we have 7-8 oz of whatever meat we're having. Sometimes as low as 5 or as high as 10 depending on what else is going with it. We use My fitness pal to create recipes for things we make a lot so it's easier to log.

 

If you've never used a calorie tracker before, it can be eye opening if you're religious about tracking every little thing. It's just like how if you don't keep close track of where your money goes you find yourself saying 'how did we spend this much?' Then we you start looking you see where it all went. With calorie trackers, it really shows you how all the little things add up and makes you much more conscious of what you put in your mouth. I pretty much only eat things that taste great now because I'm not wasting calories on something that's only ok. 

[Carrie12345]

Why does the food you describe have to be boring and not delicious???

There are many ways to create yummy meat, veggie and starch dishes.

I do not believe there is anything intrinsically lower calorie about this meal design.

 

:iagree:

A person can eat 1,000 calories in simple, basic food.  That said, it's a lot easier to scarf down 1,000 calories in fillers, fats, and sugars that are pressed into the shape of natural foods.

 

One of my favorite "let's pretend I'm a kid again" foods is a frozen tray of what is said to be chicken parmesan.  I can easily toss 3 of those patties back before my body even *begins to think maybe I've had enough, at 200 calories/pop.  Probably on high calorie, non-filling store bought rolls, too.  Or, I can have a very large portion of a coated and baked chicken breast with some homemade (or even jarred) sauce and a respectable amount of cheese with a nice serving of some grain or another and a bunch of vegetables, and I'll wind up eating slower and feeling fuller before I can clean my plate.  I *might* be able to push myself to take in 600 calories of the Actual Chicken dish, but it'd have to be an intentional effort for no good reason.

 

There's a great big range between plain steak/plain potato/plain broccoli and a tater tot casserole.  It is 100% worth finding your personal sweet spot (har har) on that spectrum without resorting to extremes (unless you truly love a plain dish.)

[MSNative]

You could branch out and try new veggies or cook them in a new way. Right now we are having a lot of roasted tomatoes, peppers and onions, grilled zucchini, etc. Totally different flavor than just slicing them or sautéing them. We grew several new varieties this year and then grab some others from the store or farmers market to mix it up. I try to not serve the same veg twice in a week (except salad. Lettuces just go bad too quickly so when we have salad we might have it two nights in a row)

 

My middle son loves to cook recipes from all over the world - currently he's on a Thai binge but he just came off an Indian one. Each time we find some new dishes or methods that we add to our family favorites. Its a fun way to learn a bit about different cultures and the work is done for you- someone else has figured out creative and new ways to use foods and spices.

[Katy]

You could branch out and try new veggies or cook them in a new way. Right now we are having a lot of roasted tomatoes, peppers and onions, grilled zucchini, etc. Totally different flavor than just slicing them or sautéing them. We grew several new varieties this year and then grab some others from the store or farmers market to mix it up. I try to not serve the same veg twice in a week (except salad. Lettuces just go bad too quickly so when we have salad we might have it two nights in a row)

 

My middle son loves to cook recipes from all over the world - currently he's on a Thai binge but he just came off an Indian one. Each time we find some new dishes or methods that we add to our family favorites. Its a fun way to learn a bit about different cultures and the work is done for you- someone else has figured out creative and new ways to use foods and spices.

 

Yes, roasted veggies.  That's a great idea.