On the hunt for sugar-free frozen potatoes...(Healthy Eating Post) - updated

I am a lazy cook. I used to do gourmet meals, spend time in the kitchen, but there's just way too much to do in life these days. I'd rather be in the studio!

Given there's only two of us, buying fresh often results in a lot of waste. I toss half of what we buy sometimes simply because we like variety and we can't eat a whole bunch or bag before it goes bad.

I'm not into buying real potatoes, cleaning and cooking them either. Yep, lazy cook. I will at times but when I want hash browns for breakfast or fries for dinner I want them now.

If you've read any of my past posts you know I don't eat any form of added sugar. It works for me...maybe not for you. I have found so many benefits from cutting it completely out of my diet over the years! Plus I've learned it's easier to ditch it all rather than try to eat just a little. I always want more and the craving cycle starts.

I've looked for frozen potatoes without added sugar over the past few years without success. Now that I'm moving to a much higher plant-based diet I wanted, needed, some potatoes. I got serious about finding some.

Who would have thought that finding hash browns, home fries or other frozen potato products without added sugar would be a problem? Did you know that your Ore-Ida, Alexia, etc. have sugar on them? It's getting harder and harder to find things that don't have some form of added sugar.

I know many of you are saying something along the lines of "who cares?". If you're diabetic they tell you not to eat potatoes anyway, sugar or no added sugar. Most of you already think I'm over the top with my 'no sugar' life-style! Give up cookies? cake? candy?

If you're eating sugar and you know it, that's one thing. But if you are eating sugar in your blue cheese salad dressings, mayonnaise, and other items that don't need or call for sugar, it seems kind of sneaky. According to some statistics over 80% of what you buy these days has added sugar. I dare you to go to the store and fill your cart up with things that have no added sugar...and try to go just five days without sugar. Bet you spend those five days craving the stuff, talking yourself out of giving it up. You will go through withdrawals.

I recently watched a fairly short documentary narrated by Katie Couric titled "Fed Up". If you have kids, or you struggle with your weight, I'd highly recommend that you watch it.

Here's the trailer:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM)

I looked at every single bag in the grocery store's regular frozen food section. No luck. Every single bag had added sugar, plus many had things I couldn't pronounce. I went on-line looking at ingredients. No luck until...I finally found ONE company that doesn't add sugar to their potatoes: Cascadian Farms.  (http://www.cascadianfarm.com/products/frozen-potatoes). Guess where I'll be heading later today??? They sell them at Kroger in their healthy section. They probably sell them at Publix and other stores, too. They are organic, too! Big plus.

Here's another documentary, from Canada that's well worth watching.




 And one more (I keep finding them and adding):




I found some interesting sites while on my search:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48 - interesting take on the much-maligned potato
http://www.potatopro.com/ - loads of information
http://www.potatoesusa.com/index.php - United States Potato Board

Shopping at Sams Club (Healthy Eating Post)

I was pleasantly surprised to see more organic offerings in the aisles as I wandered. There is very little I will buy at Sams aside from paper products as they only stock the most popular selling items. Sadly that means some of the most unhealthy stuff that exists usually.

They've always had a sampling of organic fresh veggies such as spinach, kale and lettuce. This time I noted they had carrots --- non-GMO labeled, too. I found a number of things that were labeled non-GMO.

I didn't find any organic fresh fruit. Maybe they had some frozen organic but I already have enough so didn't check it out.

The organics things they had on the dry / non-refrigerator/freezer aisles included some soups, some chips and a few other items. All but one of them had sugar of some sort. I don't do sugar. It was nice though to see a better selection.

I found some non-GMO/organic rice with kale and chia seeds that I grabbed to try. Very good, had it for dinner when I got home. It's microwavable stuff, too. I hate to spend the time cooking any more, just too much to do in this world. Dislike cleaning up even more than cooking...

re: Healthy Eating Post - I thought I'd start labeling them with that title just so those who could care less will know to skip them. That is assuming anyone at all is reading along...

People think I'm crazy...

Yep, they do. Well, I probably am in many ways that seem normal to me...but the one that most of my "normal" friends and family think I'm over the top about is what I eat.

I'm usually the lone one who asks for a veggie plate at a banquet. I'm the one my Mom calls before I go visit to find out if I'll eat this or that...and no matter how many times I tell her I'll find something to eat she still wants to try. I love her all the more because she does try, even though she thinks I'm crazy! I'm the one who gets the call asking if I'll bring my own food at Board meetings or other day-long events because they can't figure out what to order for me.

Now I'm kind of inching toward going vegan. I'm already a self-titled vegetarian. I will drink milk, eat some cheeses and eggs and haven't cared if my gluten-free, sugar-free waffles were made with dairy (I just discovered they aren't!). Going vegan means I'd give up all by-products with dairy, cheese, eggs and other food items made with animal products.

I'll tell you up-front that I think animals are on this earth so we can eat them and / or wear them. I've been a vegetarian since my teen years. I've probably bought and cooked meat three times in the past 20 years --- to feed someone else. Grass fed, hormone and antibiotic meat raised the way they used to be raised, of course.

I've known that it was kind of hypocritical to not eat meat because of the way they're processed, fed, treated, but give a pass to the milk, eggs, and other products produced from those same animals. I buy organic, cage free, but haven't been as stringent when it comes to the mixes, frozen waffles, etc. that I buy for convenience.

As I wrote in a previous blog I have been watching all kinds of food and health related documentaries while I'm walking on the treadmill. They have finally convinced me to give it a shot.

I'm going to move slowly, not go hog wild (pun intended).

I am going to majorly increase my veggie and legume consumption. I am going to only buy vegan processed foods (like my waffles). I pulled the cheese out of the fridge and tossed it in the freezer so I can give it to someone in the family who eats cheese. I left some things in the fridge because my husband is not on the same page and so we'll have dual eating habits.

I'm doing this for two main reasons that have a lot of subsets.

1- the health benefits. I watched, and then read, enough to see clearly that meat, dairy, etc. eaters had much higher incidents of a wide, wide assortment of illnesses. I won't bore you with all the details but it was enough to make me dig further and ultimately decide that our food and diets have changed over the past 50 or more years and it just ain't healthy to eat them pigs...

2 - the way we raise and process our meats is disgusting, criminal, horrific. Castrating animals without any anesthesia? cramming them into pens? cutting off beaks? grinding up live chicks? Not to mention the deplorable working conditions for those who work in the meat processing plants.

This isn't a "new years resolution", it's something I've been moving toward for a while and yesterday watching one of the movies again things crystallized in my mind.

Here's my plan:

• No cheese.
• No eggs.
• No butter.

Just doing those three is going to be a major adjustment but I'm not stopping there...
I will:

• Use organic, non-GMO, farm raised cow milk in my morning tea for a while until I've cleansed my palette and adjust to the other changes. That's the only time I use milk and I that tea is a vice I enjoy too much to ditch. Gosh, I am already doing enough crazy without depriving myself of my early-morning enjoyment!
• Substitute vegan foods (waffles, mayo, butter, etc.) for some of my current choices.
• Include a daily veggie smoothy with some fruit (decided the juicing was for the devout)
• Eat more legumes, seeds and nuts.
• Make my plate 70+% veggies.
• Take a B12 supplement off and on. 

Those are some major changes for yours truly. I'll keep you posted. I had a vegan waffle with half a banana, natural peanut butter and organic raisins for breakfast. Wonder what I'll do for lunch?

My friends and family thought I was crazy before. Now they are going to think I'm certifiable.