Some Minimally Processed Food Ideas

(since modernity can often make eating decently seem impossible)

2024/08/22

I've already written about natural food alternatives here, but since I'm moving out in a couple of weeks to begin my undergraduate degree, and because the thing I'm most excited for is establishing a better diet with minimal toxins and unnecessary additives, I figured I may as well share the list of foods that I've compiled here.

So far, I've grown up in a household where nobody was particularly concerned about toxins in food or the effects of heavily processed foods on the body, and constantly having processed foods around me wasn't a great environment to be in. At the very least, it didn't encourage me to eat better, and at other times actively encouraged me to do the opposite. I couldn't really do much about it until now, but now that I'll have complete control over the food I buy and have access to, I hope I can continue to make more mindful choices regarding my diet.

I've figured out a few recipes that are fairly painless to cook and prepare, which aren't overly expensive, and which work with my autistic dietary requirements, so I'll include those below, also. They're simple but effective, and I like to think they prove that eating well doesn't have to feel so hard.

Foods I Plan on Including in My Diet

• Locally-sourced grass-fed muscle and organ meat from a company that doesn't use plastic packaging;
• Local free-range eggs;
• Frozen berries and grapes;
• Fresh apples, oranges, and pomegranates;
• Non-concentrate pressed fruit juices;
• Homemade lemon water;
• Sourdough, ciabatta, and focaccia bread;
• Potatoes;
• Carrots and onions;
• Jasmine rice;
• Grass-fed Irish butter;
• Extra virgin olive oil and beef tallow;
• White and oily fish, especially smoked salmon and trout;
• Raw honeycomb;
• No-sugar-added jams and preserves;
• Loose-leaf herbal and fruit tea.

A Few Homemade Meal Ideas

• Peri-peri potato wedges: I made these first on a whim with my best friend, and didn't expect much, but they wound up being really delicious. They take a little while to cook fully, but they're simple and cheap to prepare. I wash and slice potatoes into wedges, then I parboil them for 8-10 minutes. Afterwards, I season them in a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper, peri-peri salt, and mixed herbs. When that's done, I air fry them for 20 minutes at 200 degrees celcius, or until they crisp up nicely. You can take them out sooner if you'd like. This is probably my favourite way of eating potatoes that I've tried so far, and they're delicious without making me feel bad afterwards, because I know all of the ingredients are wholesome and I understand exactly what has gone into my food. When I cook them they look like this.
• Shallow-fried chicken: This isn't the healthiest option, but it's a lot healthier to cook at home than it is to eat it out somewhere where you don't know what ingredients have gone into your food or what it's been cooked in. I debone chicken thighs (which are very cheap!) for this, and set aside 3 bowls: a bowl of plain flour, a bowl filled with crushed cracker crumbs, and in the last I crack a couple of eggs and whisk the white and yolk together with whatever seasoning I want to add (peri-peri salt, pepper, paprika, herbs, et cetera). Then, I dredge the thighs in the flour and egg and coat them with the cracker crumbs, and I use tongs to place them in a pan filled with a shallow layer of my oil of choice (I'm still testing different kinds). When I'm happy one side has fried sufficiently, I turn them, and afterwards I cut them open to make sure the chicken has fully cooked through. This is a really tasty and affordable way to eat fried chicken in a healthier fashion.
• Blue steak ciabatta sandwiches: This is the meal I cook for people who are hesitant to try blue steak for the first time, and it always goes down really well. You'll want to use really good quality ciabatta, which shouldn't be too expensive. For the bread: I slice the loaf in half, drizzle it with some extra virgin olive oil, and then I fry the bread with some more oil in the pan until it crisps up nicely. For the steak: I season it with cracked black pepper, pure sea salt, fresh rosemary, and then cook it blue like usual (8-10 seconds each side on the highest heat in grass-fed butter, making sure to sear the edges after). After the steak is seared, I slice it up into small pieces and put it inside of the bread like this to form a sandwich.
• Rare liver ciabatta sandwiches: If you're more adventurous or you know you like liver already, you could try the above recipe with liver instead, also (preferably rare, for reasons discussed in this article on my site). It might make it more palatable if you have difficulty eating liver on its own already.
• Mashed potatoes: This one might seem really straightforward, but I never liked mashed potatoes growing up until I started cooking them this way, and they're really good for meal prep because they taste delicious reheated and are easy to eat even whenever my mood or appetite is low. After boiling the peeled and chopped potatoes for long enough that a knife will slide through them easily without much effort, I mash them and add a lot of pure salted butter (to taste), which I find really helps with the texture. I add a capful of extra virgin olive oil, mixed herbs, cracked black pepper, and a lot of salt. I found that the reason I didn't like mashed potatoes before is because they tasted too dry or lumpy or bland, but being very generous with the seasoning, adding butter and a bit of oil, and chopping and boiling the potatoes for longer has really helped me to enjoy them more.
• Toasted sourdough with fried eggs and smoked fish: Either as an open or a standard sandwich, this is a really delicious meal and a great breakfast idea that serves as a great vehicle for getting more protein into your diet. Smoked fish isn't necessary (and can be very expensive), but I find it really adds to the flavour and it's one of my favourite things to eat when I can afford to. Smoked salmon and trout work wonderfully.
• Sautéed chicken, bacon, and baby potatoes: This is something my mother always cooked for me growing up, and which is a great way for me to get in the macronutrients I need when weightlifting. It's simple but varied enough that it never really gets stale, and it's simple to cook. I mix and cook all of the sliced bacon and baby potatoes and chicken in a pan together at the end, and the bacon adds a lot of flavour with its saltiness and fat, and the potatoes add a nice texture change.
• Irish stew: Another meal that I was raised on, this is a really great meal prep option, even for someone like me who tends to hate reheating food. It's also a great vehicle for vegetables, which I'm picky about and usually hate to taste. I add carrots and onion, and I use beef, but you can also use lamb if you prefer. The kind of meat you use to cook this stew isn't particularly expensive, so it's a pretty budget-friendly option.
• Frozen berries, raw honeycomb, and sourdough: This is what I like to snack on when I want something sweet. Frozen berries are a lot cheaper than fresh fruit, and they last far longer. As an added bonus, I prefer the texture. You could also substitute in other fruits. Raw honeycomb is fairly cheap to buy locally here, and sourdough is just my preferred bread. You could also have it with local jams or preserves, or raw nut butters. I like the options from Folláin, where no sugar is added and only (usually three) basic fruit ingredients are included in the production process.
• Oat shortbread biscuits: I don't bake overly often, but when I do want to eat something sweet I like to make these. I usually cut them into heart shapes and give them to guests or as gifts to friends, and I love them because they're both sweet and a little salty, and they're full of really wholesome butter. I make sure to use local grass-fed butter when I bake these (I find that salted works fine; I like the taste it adds), and organic oats make the texture and taste even better than that of standard shortbread. This is how mine look before baking.

Some More Notes on Kitchenware

• To further attempt to minimise toxins, I'll probably invest in a water filter once I find a good brand, and I'll buy cast-iron cookware and opt for glass, metal, or wooden utensils and storage containers. You can find microwaveable alloys of metal containers if necessary for food storage and reheating. I don't know much about them, but I imagine they freeze better than glass containers, so they may be worth looking into if that's a concern of yours.