KariKinsey's Profile

I think if you are mostly cooking toward MEN you need to start with really familiar ingredients. These low income men are more likely to have been eating mostly junk food for a large portion of their lives. Teaching them how to cook something SIMILAR from scratch would be a good idea. Like spaghetti with whole wheat noodles and a homemade (quick) sauce. I know there are lots of people who are anti cans but use a lot of cans. Why? Because people can get lots of canned veggies and beans from the local food pantry. Tour the area, the food pantry for what they have available and like someone else suggested the grocery store. You may find out that these men don't have the resources for ANY fresh veggies or fruits and you're going to have to teach them how to cook as wholesome as possible from cans and boxes. And maybe I'm being judgmental but even some of my upper income friends wouldn't go near a butternut squash (too intimidating!) so I think you should start with really familiar 'comfortable' items and branch out from there.

DON'T FORGET YOUR 'SPECIALS' TEACHERS! Don't forget your music, art, gym, librarians etc! When I taught elementary school I only got a few things from a few random kids and I saw 500 kids a week! I think it's mostly over sight because you see the kids 2x's a week vs every day. You don't have to get them the same thing as your classroom teacher but a card saying what a great Christmas program you put on would be much appreciated!

Chocolate Chess pie (the Kitchn recipe just search it). Easiest pie ever (especially if you use a store bought oreo crust...don't judge). Seriously everyone LOVES this pie when I make it and I never admit how easy it really is!! :-)

I'm going to second a poster from above who said Weight Watchers.

I lost 110 lbs on Weigh Watchers and I ate real food the whole time. LOTS of fruits, veggies, lean proteins and whole grains. You learn to season your food with seasonings instead of fats and you're 'allowed' whatever you want as long as you count it. It focuses on long term sustainable weight loss so you'll be making choices on how you eat that you'll keep for the rest of your life.

For me I'm a volume eater and hate being told I can only have a tiny amount of something so I was forced to change WHAT I ate so I could eat more of it. That's just me though. Some people find that simply restricting what they normally eat to smaller amounts works for them.

I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend getting a quality digital food scale, LOTS of measuring cups (you weigh and measure EVERYTHING don't eyeball anything!) and use the website www.calorieking.com. Calorie king tells you exactly how many calories are in the 4.2 oz chicken breast you just ate s you can input those stats exactly into your WW calculator. CK would help me plan out my dinners with knowing how many oz of chicken I wanted to eat, potatoes etc. It's great. Good luck!

It's not Christmas in our family without Banket (sp?). It's a Dutch pastry that is filled with this glorious almond paste filling. Seriously it's incredible. Our family always makes it in sticks but some people form their sticks into letters. It doesn't matter it's addicting! We also make what we call 'Ollie Balls' (a fried doughnut type ball with raisins), a rye bread (with a ridiculous Dutch name I can't spell) and rum raisins that my uncles bury in their backyards (no joke!).

I have done this with strawberries with pretty good success. I like being able to just pull them out of the fridge and eat them without having to wash. After I let them soak in the vinegar solution for a while I give them a good rinse and that seems to take care of any leftover vinegar taste.

watermelon, tomatoes, berries (of all varieties). Ok really just all fruits!

I had the pleasure if visiting China several years ago and usually felt great about what we were eating. I LOVED going to the markets and seeing the amazing variety of fresh fruits and veggies. Some of the best mangos I've ever eaten in my life were from a street vendor! On a really funny 'only in China' moment one of my friends DID find a screw (a literal screw) in one of his meals!