Fast food..but healthy and homemade.

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VersysVsWhat

Joined
May 28, 2025
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I'm hoping that other people will share ideas and recipes (or at least generals) as well.

Anyways, sometimes you just don't have enough time and/or energy to cook a full meal or the like, but you still want to eat healthy and save money. I think dips are my primary go to for this purpose. The other day, I mixed up some organic non fat Greek yogurt (from Costco), live sauerkraut, a decent amount of guacamole, a bit of hummus, and a bunch of seasoning (Trader Joes Nori w/ sesame seeds, org. smoked paprika, org. garlic seasoning, and a little Ponzu sauce).

Then ate with brown rice crackers (sometimes I'll use T.J.'s corn tortillas quickly air "fried" instead). Surprisingly filling, very tasty, fairly quick, relatively low calorie, and quite healthy.

Another common go to, is a big bowl of mixed greens salad with a can of smoked sardines on top, and a dressing blend of the above Greek yogurt with some Green Goddess dressing. Then real (sheep dairy based/from Italy) Romano cheese sprinkled on the top. (Clearly obsessed with umami flavors).

Soups/stews are another. A crap ton of veggies (with slight focus/emphasis on broccoli), a little more legume and/or veggie based pasta, mushrooms, super firm org. tofu or tempeh (or occasionally a pea based mock meat like Beyond), some potato or sweet potato, org. green peas, and some of the above seasonings mentioned.

(While I may have decent genetics, I credit a healthy, high in whole plant foods diet as to why I'm usually out of shape* and in my mid 40's, but can mostly keep up with my upper teen students playing basketball etc. As well as rarely ever get any colds, and generally have pretty good health.

* For most of the year, I'm working 3 jobs, 1 full time and 2 part time. Doesn't leave much time/energy for working out properly/consistently. I've recently started to now that I have the time and energy.)
 
Was hoping that this wasn't going to turn into yet another debate, but here we go (seems to be par for the course here).

Greek yogurt has a ton of protein, sardines have a ton of protein, super firm tofu and tempeh have moderately high protein (bordering on a ton, also complete), and romano cheese has a decent amount of protein. Then when they are combined with the protein in legumes especially, the bit in the vegetables, grains, etc, nothing about these meals is low protein unless one is a body builder and I'm not (though I'm doing some resistance training of late).

I'm allergic to egg whites unfortunately. Can do the yolks but there is less protein in them. Sometimes I put a couple of raw egg yolks in a stout or porter and stir it in with a pinch of salt. Been doing this for many years and haven't ever gotten sick from it. My coworker has chickens and sometimes she gives me eggs for free, which is nice in these times (we used to have chickens ourselves, but they kept getting killed, so we stopped).
 
chexxers said:
your doing well BUT have a fat fobia!!! healthy fats yes even saturated are good BUT NO seed oils!!!
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Came here to say this

Ratios are important for a single example yes yogurt has protein but look how much carbohydrates nonfat vs full fat yogurt has

Good ideas though. I’m back and forth on my two meals a day but nothing we have been making since my surgery is super complex or takes a long time because wife is doing 90% of the duties

Plus it’s spring and there is a ton of fresh veggies and fruits
 
Pretty sure guacamole, sardines, and Romano cheese have a decent amount of fat... Even tempeh has a pretty good amount of fat (per 100 grams it has 11gram). Since I'm trying to lose weight and fat is very caloricly dense, I am eating more moderate amounts.

Have I entered into a parallel alternate reality?

I have a different take on seed oils and saturated fat-in that area, I more so align with Biolayne (though I disagree with him on PLENTY), the majority of the scientific studies indicate that when calories are controlled (i.e. not in excess), seed oils (aka primarily polyunsaturated with some monounsaturated and even less saturated fatty acid profiles) lead to between neutral to slightly positive health outcomes, while over consumption of saturated fat tends to lead to from slightly to moderately negative health outcomes. A little here and there is fine, but chronic high amounts not so much.

And there are some differences between the different saturated fats. Long chain seem to be the most problematical in excess, while medium chain slightly less so, and short chain saturated fats (as produced by optimized gut microbiome digestion) are more fully healthy (but rather hard to get an excess of anyways, since there are not many endogenous sources of it and the ones with some, typically have lower amounts).

With that said, sure, you don't want to be consuming much, if any, highly refined, glyphosate laden corn, soy, etc oil either. I certainly don't. (Cold/expeller pressed, organic canola is actually pretty decent, has a nice balanced profile of fatty acids).

I usually use avocado and extra virgin olive oil, when I use concentrated oils.
 
Pablo said:
Came here to say this

Ratios are important for a single example yes yogurt has protein but look how much carbohydrates nonfat vs full fat yogurt has

Good ideas though. I’m back and forth on my two meals a day but nothing we have been making since my surgery is super complex or takes a long time because wife is doing 90% of the duties

Plus it’s spring and there is a ton of fresh veggies and fruits
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The reason why I opt for non fat org. Greek yogurt, is because animals are known to be bio-accumulators of various environmental toxins such as pesticides, heavy metals, PFAS, etc, etc, and most of these happen to be fat soluble and binding in nature. Not to mention, full fat modern cow dairy (especially in the US) is laden with actual real (active) estrogenic hormones, whereas there is evidence that plant based estrogenic like compounds are not biologically active and actually bind to and block the receptors from true, bioactive estrogen.

Cut out the fat, and you cut out the huge majority of all of the above. Meanwhile, avocados have very low amounts of environmental toxins and no estrogen.

Not that there is anything wrong with estrogen completely, even our male bodies need a certain amount and suffer when it gets too low. You just don't necessarily want to get amounts from exogenous sources of same. Our bodies tend to produce the amount that we need, unless we are imbalancing it.
 
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I've learned to make my own raisin bread, buttermilk biscuits, and pizza dough. Mine has no preservatives beyond the single ingredients, tastes better than store bought, and is cheaper. I'm retired so I have time. To save time I'll make double or triple the dough and freeze some for later baking.
 
Kestas said:
I've learned to make my own raisin bread, buttermilk biscuits, and pizza dough. Mine has no preservatives beyond the single ingredients, tastes better than store bought, and is cheaper. I'm retired so I have time. To save time I'll make double or triple the dough and freeze some for later baking.
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Nice. I can't do most wheat, but have found through experimentation that I can do sourdough forms/versions of Einkorn wheat (oldest, least hybridized form). Unfortunately the stuff is crazy expensive, and so I only buy/use it occasionally.
 
Y'all may be seasoned motor oil geeks (and many of you actually are), and I'm not, but I am a seasoned health and diet geek.

I had some health issues when I was 16, and part of my healing journey involved a s.h.i.t.e. ton of research, experimentation, and radical changing/revamping of my diet and health lifestyle over many years. Nearly 3 decades of intensely focusing on this stuff, as necessity is not only the mother of invention but also change/transformation (and actually caring about something).

I don't do "health fads": keto, carnivore, vegan, etc, etc all have their pros and cons, but tend to the extremes from a purely health basis (I respect people who do vegan diets for ethical and environmental reasons, but they lose me when they insist that all animal foods are completely unhealthy). I use a combo of looking at scientific research and listening to my own body and it's reactions. I've had to cut out A LOT of foods due to the latter.

The only general advice that is sound to give, is that it is helpful to eat more whole foods and less highly processed, highly refined foods. Peoples' bodies do vary some too, so I'm not sure there is a universally "most healthiest" diet out there. I'm not sure that an Inuit would do well on a vegan diet, or that someone from a long time Hindu region in India would do well on a carnivore diet. But maybe that's just me being silly?
 
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VersysVsWhat said:
Y'all may be seasoned motor oil geeks (and many of you actually are), and I'm not, but I am a seasoned health and diet geek.

I had some health issues when I was 16, and part of my healing journey involved a s.h.i.t.e. ton of research, experimentation, and radical changing/revamping of my diet and health lifestyle over many years. Nearly 3 decades of intensely focusing on this stuff, as necessity is not only the mother of invention but also change/transformation (and actually caring about something).

I don't do "health fads": keto, carnivore, vegan, etc, etc all have their pros and cons, but tend to the extremes from a purely health basis (I respect people who do vegan diets for ethical and environmental reasons, but they lose me when they insist that all animal foods are completely unhealthy). I use a combo of looking at scientific research and listening to my own body and it's reactions. I've had to cut out A LOT of foods due to the latter.

The only general advice that is sound to give, is that it is helpful to eat more whole foods and less highly processed, highly refined foods. Peoples' bodies do vary some too, so I'm not sure there is a universally "most healthiest" diet out there. I'm not sure that an Inuit would do well on a vegan diet, or that someone from a long time Hindu region in India would do well on a carnivore diet. But maybe that's just me being silly?
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Trust me you may be the newbie but we have had some brilliant health educators on this site over the years and really I am missing one of them and wish he'd come back.
 
"...and short chain saturated fats (as produced by optimized gut microbiome digestion) are more fully healthy (but rather hard to get an excess of anyways, since there are not many endogenous sources of it and the ones with some, typically have lower amounts)..."

The above was meant to be exogenous.
 
VersysVsWhat said:
"...and short chain saturated fats (as produced by optimized gut microbiome digestion) are more fully healthy (but rather hard to get an excess of anyways, since there are not many endogenous sources of it and the ones with some, typically have lower amounts)..."

The above was meant to be exogenous.
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We have a search function much of this has been discussed over and over along with most every thing diet related but ok .
 
#18FAN said:
Trust me you may be the newbie but we have had some brilliant health educators on this site over the years and really I am missing one of them and wish he'd come back.
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Were these medically trained folks, or enthusiasts?

I've run into some serious head bumping with some medically trained ones. They were plain wrong/off on some issues. And lordy, how highly do they think of themselves and their opinions, which makes for a very closed minded approach and inability to listen well. That whole, "God complex" joke is often not far off.

For one example, the allergy specialist at Boston Children's Hospital who told me that I had a rare disease which lead to an allergy to heat*, that it was genetic (and thus incurable), and put me on some powerful anti-histamines to treat the symptoms I was experiencing at the time.

Well he was wrong, wrong, and wrong again. * (He surmised that, because every time my body got hot, I would break out in head to toe, very severe hives, with severe welts, super red, and it was quite uncomfortable putting it mildly. Turns out what was really going on was overly permeable gut aka "leaky gut" induced by a combo of immense stress, taking an SSRI, an extremely unhealthy diet, and lack of general body balance and healthy lifestyle. I healed the gut with diet, herbs, stress management (including meditation), exercise, and lo and behold, the genetically caused, incurable "disease" [how they love this word] magically went away!).

Another example: spouse went to donate eggs. Went through a battery of tests to do so, it was found that her thyroid hormone was too low. The MD overseeing the testing told her that she would have to be on thyroid hormone replacement medication for the rest of her life. She said, hold on, let me talk to my hubby before I make any decisions. She did, I thought about it for a few minutes or so, and I told her to start eating kelp powder (for the high iodine). We had largely stopped eating regular salt which is fortified with iodine, I figured she was probably pretty low on it, and seeing how iodine is such a crucial nutrient to the thyroid, it seemed pretty logical.

She listened to me, a few weeks or so later, went back to get tested and her thyroid hormone levels were in the normal range. He asked her what she did, she told him, and he actually argued with her some about it. Couldn't believe it apparently. She pointed out that even WebMD talks about how important iodine is for the thyroid. He eventually conceded, "well yes, Web MD is pretty credible..."

I tend to be a little skeptical of experts in this field based on the above experiences.
 
Well you will learn you can not give medical advice on this forum
I didn't write the rules on it just giving advice
 
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Beef onions and greens 10min dinner anyone has time to make.
1hr chest and back workout progressive overload as everyone should be lifting it's how you gain properly. Time or endurance has nothing to do with strength training.
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#18FAN said:
Well you will learn you can not give medical advice on this forum
I didn't write the rules on it just giving advice
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Interesting. Well, I have not given any personally directed medical advice, but have only spoken to generalized concepts and principles.

On the other hand, I've already been told that apparently I'm not eating enough protein and not eating enough fat. That seems a lot more like personalized medical advice, never mind the fact that these assertions are completely, demonstrably, patently, and verifiably inaccurate.

My intention for this thread was to share what I consider healthy, quick, homemade meals and have people share what they consider healthy, quick, homemade meals. I thumbs upped a chicken based post, even though I don't personally eat chicken. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
 
#18FAN said:
Beef onions and greens 10min dinner anyone has time to make.
1hr chest and back workout progressive overload as everyone should be lifting it's how you gain properly.* Time or endurance has nothing to do with strength training.
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* I added bolded emphasis in the above

I agree that resistance training is an important part of maintaining health. I would say that cardio is equally, if not more important, as high VO2 max seems to be one of the better predictors of positive health outcomes and longevity. There is burgeoning evidence that lifting too much, can reduce lifespan/longevity. I don't think there has been shown a similar "cap" with cardio/aerobic.

Btw, curious if you take any exogenous testosterone and/or anabolic enhancing chemistry (and I don't mean creatine and other legal supplements)?
 
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