What should I eat?!

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I'm living independantly, but just barely staying afloat with all my adult responsibilities like keeping my home reasonably clean or making sure my bills get paid on time. One of my main problems is food. I have sensory issues. I have gastrointestinal issues. I can mostly cook okay, but my executive dysfunction and emotion/motivation problems give me trouble with the whole plan-shop-cook-clean cycle, so I need to try to keep things simple.

I can't eat legumes (beans, lentils, soy).
I can't eat dairy (tiny amounts are okay).
I need to limit high-acid foods like tomatos and onions.
I need to limit carb-heavy foods like bread, rice, pasta, and sweets (blood sugar issues).
I can't stand the flavor or texture of most nuts and seeds.
I can't stand the flavor or texture of most uncooked fruits and veggies.
Some cooked veggies are just as bad (carrots!) or worse (leafy greens).
Meat is good, but it's harder to cook, and I think I often give myself mild food poisoning
Processed meat is expensive and often unhealthy.

Anyone got any recipes or general ideas for what I can eat? I'm thinking dishes with meats and veggies cooked together, but most of those I find have something I shouldn't have or are super-complicated.

Right now, I eat really unhealthy, and if I try to stock my home with only healthy food, I tend to just give up and... not eat... until I become weak and desperate and find a way to obtain the unhealthy tasty stuff.

Here is a shortcut I use:

About every 2 months I buy 3lb of decent quality ground beef, then brown it and freeze in bags of about 1/3 lb each. Having a stash of those in the freezer gives me a quick and easy way to keep my protein levels up. I generally prefer chicken, so the beef will last me for a couple of months.

Also, the grocery stores in my area sell freshly roasted whole chickens at a reasonable price. One of those lasts me a few days.

I too have blood sugar issues so keeping higher protein items around is important for me.

Frozen chicken fillets, Like this this
I buy these as they are easy to cook and aren't too expensive and last quite a while as they're frozen. I also have frozen peas and you can buy plenty frozen veg.
Fish fingers are good.
Spaghetti bolognese, I brown the meat (make sure it's all brown), then put the sauce in and cook for a total of 40 minutes and stir every 5 minutes or so. And you can freeze any extra.

I tend to stick to frozen stuff but good frozen stuff rather than pizza etc as I often buy things and don't eat them for a week or so as I eat lots of sandwiches.

Oh, I always underestimate the value of those supermarket chickens! I think I try to hard to be frugal by normal people's and end up thinking, "For the same price, I could get a bigger chicken, all I have to do is cook it...." But it's a hassle to cook, and the extra meat probably goes to waste anyway.

Any tips for freezer organization? I think I have multiple batches of cooked ground meat and other dishes stored from past attempts at cooking ahead. Right now I have a roommate, so we have to share freezer space, but in a few months I'll be starting fresh with a freezer all to myself....

The problem is that the staple of most diets is 'meat and potatoes'. That is, some form of meat, and some form of carb-y food. Chicken, beef, fish; rice, potatoes, noodles, bread. It varies by region and culture, but everyone comes down to some variation on that.

Going right down the list, you've basically crossed out every major food group. Beans & other legumes are the major alternative protein source (instead of meat). Dairy is right out because of lactose intolerance. High-acid foods like tomatoes and onions severely limit your meat-cooking options, because tomatoes and/or onions are pretty much the standard for serving with meat. Limiting carb-heavy foods is also a big problem, because those are the biggest & most common food group; If it's due to diabetes, I'd recommend dropping sugary sweet foods as much as you can before cutting out carbs.

So really, all you have to work with is cooked veggies & meat, which is only a fraction of what your body is supposed to eat. I'm no cook, but I can at least try and give you some advice.

Usually what I do is get some kind of vegetable (often onions or bell peppers), some kind of meat, some kind of sauce (teriyaki's pretty good), some ramen noodles (Just the noodles, not the flavoring). Cut the meat and veggies into finger-size strips and cook the noodles in water as directed, then cook the meat and veggies in a frying pan with the sauce until they're done. Put the noodles on a plate, put your stir-fry'd meat n' veggies on top, maybe add a little more sauce, and eat. You can also use rice instead of noodles.

Stir-frys like this are easy and cheap; The main downside to them is that they're usually supposed to act as the 'secondary' part of a meal, rather than the main large portion. You might be able to get by without rice or noodles by adding more veggies; baby corn, onions, broccoli or cauliflower, bell peppers, peas, but that's a bit iffy.

You might want to look into the boxed, frozen meat sold in most supermarkets; Usually they're frozen portions with cooking directions on the box. Since you mentioned food poisoning, I'm going to assume you're still pretty new at this; Putting something in the oven and setting a timer is almost impossible to screw up.

As an aside, if you're cutting out high-acid foods because of stomach trouble (ie heartburn), you may want to try some antacids like Tums for that. I've got some problem like that, where if I eat a lot of tomato-y things I'll have moderate heartburn all night long, but Tums usually fixes that quickly.


Put all the boxes together, stack 'em up. More importantly, eat the stuff in your freezer. If you've got frozen meat, defrost it before buying more meat.

^^^Meat + vegetable stirfry over ramen noodles sounds super good, yum yum yum.

It is, but it can get a bit monotonous after a while; Changing the sauce or meat can help with that. Usually you want to cook beef strips for about five minutes on medium-high, stirring frequently, but individual vegetables may vary by type and personal taste.

I have labelled my freezer drawers. I have frozen veg, frozen meat, pizza, premade meals, ice lollies.

And my fridge has a potato drawer, broccoli shelf, egg shelf, cheese box, meat shelf (stewing steak for my slow cooker and mice for spaghetti bolognese) and butter.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

When you think about it, meats including fish/poultry/eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds are all you're really supposed to eat. (Most populations are lactose intolerant, and humans existed for ages before agriculture made it possible to eat grains and legumes.) My main problem is that I hate most of those things.



I take some medication that causes heartburn. I use calcium carbonate antacids a lot, but it's just not a match for the medicine + tomato sauce.

Maybe you could try whole grain bread, pasta and rice. The fiber in them might help a little with managing blood sugar levels. I eat whole grain pasta and brown rice and it's not very expensive.

I thought about what I would eat if I were you. Breakfast: a couple of boiled eggs and a glass of whatever juice you like best. Lunch: chicken and wild rice soup, lean deli ham piled on Akmak crackers, a can of fruit in light syrup. Dinner: 1/4 of a roasted chicken, whatever cooked veggies are your favorite.

Maybe a big skillet of sweet potato and turkey sausage hash with fried polenta for Saturday brunch, and a nice pot roast for Sunday dinner, if you like to cook! Otherwise the only time you'd have to cook is boiling a dozen eggs and making the pot of soup from the roasted chicken carcass once a week. The rest would just be warming things up.

Edit to add: be sure to take a multivitamin! You may be missing micronutrients because of all the foods you have to avoid.

You might be able to have some dairy if you choose products that are low in lactose

http://www.stevecarper.com/li/list_of_l ... ntages.htm

You can buy milk, cheese, an even ice cream labeled low lactose.

Well aged cheese tends to have less lactose--I'll often get Jarlsburg cheese as it has low lactose.

http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_into ... heese.html

I know those issues. I have allergies towards casein, wheat gluten, soy, egg whites, peanuts and shellfish as well as a suspected allergy against light fungii. I generally eat pasta from spelt, a lot of venison, chicken, garden greens. I make pizza from spelt and use rice milk cheese. As a replacement for milk I generally drink coconut or rice milk. I often find myself making baked fish (filets or bacalhau) with carrots and home fries. I also can have mayonnaise (as it is made from egg yolks and not egg whites) which I normally eat with fries.

You might consider eating pre-cooked chopped ham. It is pretty cheap and can relieve the monotony of eating the same meat all the time if that is an issue for you.

I'd also recommend the multivitamin.

I'm part of a group that's on a diet called Zero Carb, and a lot of the people there eat only meat and drink only water.
Because of my own allergies, I have to be on it, and it is hard because there's nothing to just snack on and meat takes more time to cook, but it's either this or be sick all the time and risk a severe reaction.
If you can do seasoning, it does help, but I've gotten used to just eating plain meat since I react to seasonings too.