Three years ago I stumbled upon the Cook 90 Challenge and decided to give it a go. I'm an excellent cook, and a significant part of my job is feeding my father, who is physically disabled. I enjoy cooking. But it's time-consuming, and time is not always a commodity I have in spades. Consequently I had fallen into some less-than-healthful habits w.r.t. eating frozen store-bought pizzas and even worse. So I committed to eating only homemade food, not only for the month of January, but for a whole year (plus a couple of weeks, since I started on January 1, but I typically run my personal challenges from birthday to birthday, which for me is January 13). My challenge went great, and I continued eating only homemade food for 2.5 years. Then I had gum surgery this summer, and my diet fell off the rails. I was so frustrated by the limitations in my post-surgery diet (which were both significantly more restrictive and stretched on for many weeks longer than what the surgeon had informed me pre-surgery to expect) that I gave up my only-homemade commitment. As a result, my diet quickly deteriorated to a place I really don't want it to be. So I'm re-committing to eating only homemade food, and I'm not waiting for my birthday to start. I'm starting tomorrow (January 1, 2023).
For any who want to join me, DAREBEE has a 30-day Challenge that fits the bill:
and also a shorter 15-day challenge for anyone not ready to commit for a full month:
(I'll be challenging myself to continue at least until my birthday on January 13, 2024, with the hope of continuing long-term.)
I do allow myself a few "cheats", primarily in the form of hot sauces and curry paste (which are time-consuming to create from scratch, which I often cannot get the raw ingredients for where I live, and which comprise only a tiny percentage of the total food that I ingest). Other things I get ready made are:
Some recipe resources I'll be using:
The Polyphagous Dragon (my old recipe blog)
Rainbow's Recipes (my recipes in the Old Hive--I still need to move these over to the New Hive!)
The Cook 90 2020 Mealplan (I drastically reduced the amount of salt called for in many of these recipes, as I recall, but I got some good ideas here)
The old DAREBEE Recipes (still available thanks to the Wayback Machine)
I shall post my progress day-to-day in this thread. Other Bees are welcome to join!
For any who want to join me, DAREBEE has a 30-day Challenge that fits the bill:
and also a shorter 15-day challenge for anyone not ready to commit for a full month:
(I'll be challenging myself to continue at least until my birthday on January 13, 2024, with the hope of continuing long-term.)
I do allow myself a few "cheats", primarily in the form of hot sauces and curry paste (which are time-consuming to create from scratch, which I often cannot get the raw ingredients for where I live, and which comprise only a tiny percentage of the total food that I ingest). Other things I get ready made are:
- whole wheat tortillas (I will make my own baguettes, pancakes, pizza dough, muffins, and generally all other baked goods, including some flatbreads, but when I make a wrap I need it to hold together, and the store-bought tortillas are better for that than what I can make myself)
- no-fat, unsweetened, plain, Greek-style yogourt (this is readily available where I live and doesn't contain any additives which would make it less-healthy than homemade yogourt, so why not?)
- unsweetened vanilla almond & cashew nut milk fortified with vitamins, minerals, and pea protein (a staple of my baking, not something I can readily make myself, and the ingredients list is pretty great)
- canned coconut milk (I often can and sometimes do make my own, but canned coconut milk saves a lot of time and isn't significantly different nutritionally)
- commercially prepared oils (olive, coconut, etc.--it's not remotely realistic for me to press my own!)
- commercially prepared nut butters (similar to the coconut milk: I could make my own, but the commercially-prepared product saves a lot of time, is likely actually less-expensive in most cases, and is nutritionally equivalent to homemade anyhow)
- a select few commercially-prepared sauces and dressings (I make these myself as often as possible--especially salad dressings--but it's not realistic for me to try to go wholly homemade in this department)
- cheese (a staple of my diet! I am trying to eat less cheese, but unless a zombie-apocalypse or similar disaster renders it impossible for me to get my hands on this delectable treat, I am never going to give up eating cheese entirely)
- pre-cooked chicken (it's expensive, and yes, seasoned with salt, but it's not bad and I do need the time-saver at times)
- nacho chips (other store-bought chips and similar snacks are off the table, but nacho chips, which I use primarily as a base for homemade food I will still allow myself--provided that I'm only using them as a base for said homemade food and not snacking on them plain or only with store-bought salsa)
- speaking of salsa: Neal Brothers Hot-Hot-Habanero Salsa (it's expensive, and I could make my own--although I often cannot get my hands on fresh habanero peppers, which is a problem for a spice-lover like me--but the Neal Brothers product has a good health profile and it's just too good to give up)
- dark chocolate (primarily for my own baking, although I will allow myself one square per week as a treat
Some recipe resources I'll be using:
The Polyphagous Dragon (my old recipe blog)
Rainbow's Recipes (my recipes in the Old Hive--I still need to move these over to the New Hive!)
The Cook 90 2020 Mealplan (I drastically reduced the amount of salt called for in many of these recipes, as I recall, but I got some good ideas here)
The old DAREBEE Recipes (still available thanks to the Wayback Machine)
I shall post my progress day-to-day in this thread. Other Bees are welcome to join!
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: onions, garlic, tomatoes, crushed chilis, Italian herbs, kale, spinach, cooked chicken breast, whole wheat penne, chevre, 4-year-old cheddar, habanero jack)
