dinner help...its going to be difficult

[Kaido]

That kinda depends your definition of "healthy", doesn't it?

Definitely! Everyone's definition is different & science can't agree on anything. I did a fruitarian diet for 6 months; those guys believe you need a 3k to 4k daily-calorie high-sugar, high-carb diet (best I've ever felt in my life, but I do love my burgers!). IIFYM lets you eat Oreos. Paleo says no preservatives - whole, unprocessed foods only. Vegan says no animal stuff, raw vegan says don't even cook! Recent studies are showing a lot of good things about fat - feeding the brain, high-fat diets for ultra-marathoners, good fats like butter & lard are good for you, not bad for you, etc. No one can agree on anything haha.

Bottom line is you're going to die anyway. That's not to say you should go nuts, but if it's not a strict known consequence (like eating way too much red meat or smoking), if you're not allergic to it, and if your body doesn't suffer any immediate or long-term painful effects from it...all things in moderation, you know? Then personalize from there. In OP's SO's case, she is vegetarian (no meat), plus needs a low-fiber diet due to recent surgery, so you have to customize the menu from there to make it taste good & fit the required nutritional profile.

My dessert tonight was peanut-butter rice krispie treats smothered in Nutella, so I'm definitely not one to talk about the standard definition of healthy by any means :biggrin:

 

[Darwin333]

Nope nothing that swims, fly's or walks essentially nothing can die.

You think the broccoli keeps on living inside of the digestive tract? Maybe "nothing with a heartbeat" would be a better description.

I'm really not sure about the fiber content but what about some rice dishes? Vegetarian and low fiber just sounds like it's going to be absurdly tough. Personally I'd love being able to have a medical excuse to eat more steak but as a vegetarian low fiber has got to suck. My sympathies, hopefully someone else has much better advice.

 

[Mike64]

Vegetarian and low fiber just sounds like it's going to be absurdly tough.

A bit tough, but really not absurdly tough, especially if it's not a long term thing. Kinda hard to be long-term vegetarian without legumes and such, but they're pretty easily avoidable in the short-run. And a superficially surprising number of vegetables aren't very high in fiber...

And as the earlier posts highlight, a lot of "regular" foods, like egg & cheese-based dishes, "happen to be" meatless (and fortunately in this case, low-fiber) even though they don't fit the profile that usually springs to mind when one thinks "vegetarian."

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

You think the broccoli keeps on living inside of the digestive tract? Maybe "nothing with a heartbeat" would be a better description.

Broccoli won't lick you in the face or have sad puppy eyes.

Anthropomorphism ftmfl. It is the driving force behind veggies and vegans.

 

[Mike64]

PS: Here are links to a few sites/web pages that might be helpful in general (obviously you'll have to ignore the stuff about the dead animal parts):

Low-Fiber Vegetable List (SF Chronicle website)
What Are Some Low-Fiber But Still Healthy Foods? (thekitchn.com is generally pretty annoying/frequently wrong, factually, but does have its occasional uses)
Low-fiber diet (Mayo Clinic's site)
Low-Fiber Foods (American Cancer Society's site)
Low-fiber diet (Medline Plus)

And if you google "low fiber diet", you'll come up with more hits than you can shake an overcooked piece of limp, refined-white-flour spaghetti at...

 

[LPCTech]

Im always sad when I hear that people are threatening their health with these "moral diets" but I have had to be on a low fiber diet before. And I ate alot of eggs with jelly and toast. lol but perhaps you should convince her that for a short period of time she needs to eat what the doctors tell her too.

What you said she is currently eating is not acceptable on a low residue diet. If thats what this is.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Im always sad when I hear that people are threatening their health with these "moral diets" but I have had to be on a low fiber diet before. And I ate alot of eggs with jelly and toast. lol but perhaps you should convince her that for a short period of time she needs to eat what the doctors tell her too.

What you said she is currently eating is not acceptable on a low residue diet. If thats what this is.

Her following the diet isn't a problem, she's fine with eggs too. Her meals are so bland I feel bad for her.
There is only so much gardein (meat substitute that's easy to work with) and boiled green beans or boiled broccoli one can take.

 

[gorcorps]

The ingredients don't seem like an issue here, you can make a wide variety of things with a wide variety of flavors with different spices and cooking methods keeping other things the same. Do you have a way to make vegetable noodles?

http://www.amazon.com/Spiral-Slicer...d=1454683436&sr=8-5&keywords=vegetable+spiral

or

http://www.amazon.com/Paderno-World...d=1454683436&sr=8-4&keywords=vegetable+spiral

So you can change up your typical pasta dishes if you want. It sounds to me like you have a cooking comfort zone with the ingredients at hand and just need to look up more recipes to change things up.

 

[momeNt]

Life isn't about food. Dogs by just about every measure are happier than humans and eat the same thing every day. Find an optimal meal plan that is balanced in whatever nutrients she needs, and stick with it.

 

[dank69]

Nope nothing that swims, fly's or walks essentially nothing can die.

Can the plants die?

 

[LPCTech]

even boiled, green beans and broccoli are not acceptable on a low residue diet.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Can the plants die?

Not funny its been asked

 

[Fanatical Meat]

even boiled, green beans and broccoli are not acceptable on a low residue diet.

Just low fiber. Dr said they are fine as a side.

 

[dank69]

Not funny its been asked

Tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust.

 

[LPCTech]

Just low fiber. Dr said they are fine as a side.

oh ok low residue is more strict than just low fiber.

There is a chinese dish called ma po tofu, it has pork in it, but I bet there are chinese places that make vegetarian tofu dishes where she could avoid the hard veggies and the sauce would make things less boring.

 

[dainthomas]

And as the earlier posts highlight, a lot of "regular" foods, like egg & cheese-based dishes, "happen to be" meatless (and fortunately in this case, low-fiber) even though they don't fit the profile that usually springs to mind when one thinks "vegetarian."

A friend of mine's daughter was "vegetarian" for a while. Of course her version was spectacularly unhealthy things like grilled cheese, Cheetos etc. Needless to say she ended up going to the doctor with nutritional deficiencies. Now she eats an actual balanced diet (including meat).

 

[Fanatical Meat]

A friend of mine's daughter was "vegetarian" for a while. Of course her version was spectacularly unhealthy things like grilled cheese, Cheetos etc. Needless to say she ended up going to the doctor with nutritional deficiencies. Now she eats an actual balanced diet (including meat).

Funny you say this. When we first met she said many vegetarians eat poorly. They go too heavy on cheeses, chips and snacks. Before we discovered gardein she was big on making sure her plant based proteins ultimately became complete proteins.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Does cooking the hell out of some food containing X amount of fiber really reduce the fiber content?

Ideas:

https://www1.ghc.org/html/public/specialties/gastroenterology/colon-diet

Applesauce, tofu, yogurt, eggs, peeled carrots, mushrooms, potatoes w/o skin, white rice, ripe melons, peanut and almond butters, white bread, mayo, ice cream.

 

[Mike64]

A friend of mine's daughter was "vegetarian" for a while. Of course her version was spectacularly unhealthy things like grilled cheese, Cheetos etc. Needless to say she ended up going to the doctor with nutritional deficiencies. Now she eats an actual balanced diet (including meat).

Therein (the emphasized bits) lies the rub... There's nothing unhealthful about grilled cheese sandwiches even as mainstay of one's diet, though obviously, one does not live healthfully by grilled cheese alone, much less grilled cheese with sides of only junk food... But then one does not live well by hamburgers, Hot Pockets, or even T-bone steak alone either (unless one is a cat of course, and even they need more than just muscle meat)...

It's pretty easy to eat a spectacularly unhealthful diet whether you eat meat or not and unfortunately, teenage American girls are more prone to suffer from those sorts of self-induced dietary "issues" for a variety of cultural reasons... (I'm sometimes amazed, though mostly thankful, that my niece survived her own versions of various dietary 'isms" in reasonable shape, and her environment and background were better than many...)

But it's really not very difficult to a have a perfectly healthful vegetarian diet, especially a "traditional" (these days so-called lacto-ovo) vegetarian diet, though if you aren't more than vaguely aware of human nutritional requirements, you can get yourself into some trouble...

 

[Mike64]

she was big on making sure her plant based proteins ultimately became complete proteins.

It sounds like she knows a thing or two about nutrition, which is of course good, but for what it's worth, the longstanding belief that one needs to eat "complete proteins" at the same time has been disproven by more recent research. As long as you get the necessary component amino acids on a regular basis (ie, more or less daily), you don't have to eat them "at the same time,"' which does make meal planning/cooking/eating a little easier...

 

[Mike64]

Does cooking the hell out of some food containing X amount of fiber really reduce the fiber content?

Basically, no. It does make it easier to puree and strain out some types of fiber from some vegetables, but mostly it just reduces what fiber there is to mush. But even mushy fiber is still "fiber"...

 

[MongGrel]

Life isn't about food. Dogs by just about every measure are happier than humans and eat the same thing every day. Find an optimal meal plan that is balanced in whatever nutrients she needs, and stick with it.

Decent food always makes life more enjoyable.

It is pretty much a requirement to begin with, the better it is made is a big plus in my book.

I'm not sure what spices might be compatible, but even a few lower end ones might help a bit.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Lots of Indian veggie dishes would probably qualify, though not sure about the fiber content.

Channa Masala is spicy garbanzo based dish. They tend to be pretty high protein, but might be too fibrous.
Palak Paneer is a tasty cheesy spinach dish.
Matar paneer is a cheesy peas in tomato base dish, really awesomely delicious.
Egg curry is one of my favorite veggie dishes of all time .. tons of flavor.. so good

Mexican veggie dishes can be quite flavorful as well. Chile Relleno is awesome (cheese & poblano.. mmmm) .


Otherwise, how about asparagus omelets?
I usually use bacon grease in the pan, but you could use butter or something else...

 

[xochi]

what about a vegetarian gumbo?

Alton Brown has the easiest gumbo recipe. Substitute vegetable stock instead of seafood/chicken stock. Substitute mushrooms and carrots, maybe red beans if those work instead of shrimp, sausage, chicken or crab.

It will be flavorful.