my changes have been...local, as much as possible, organic liquid dairy(I don't worry about cheeses as much.)...as much grass feed beef as I can afford. We use organic butter for spreading and quick saute..otherwise the Costco butter is used for baking.
I use pasture raised eggs.
I use coconut oil, butter and EVOO(organic). All my "oils" are cold pressed only.
I add whole grains where ever I can sneak them in...I replace atleast a 1/4 of the flour in my baking with whole wheat. ~again my baking flours are organic.
I avoid genetically modified foods. Especially soy and corn.
I have joined a healthy living co op..that affords the ability to purchase organic produce, meats, dairy (especially great raw milk cheeses) and wonderful Organic Fair Trade Coffee...among some other things.

Joe,

IMO, one of the topics should be serving size. Organic in and of itself doesn't mean "healthier". Sitting down to 10-ounces of beef or 3 cups of pasta isn't really healthier regardless of whether it's organic, or not.

Preparation techniques are also important, IMO. Organic butter's great but I'd be hard pressed to call a sauce made rich from the addition of butter for that 10-ounce piece of beef "healthy".

Presalting may make for a more tender free-range chicken but from what I've seen...a serving of that chicken exceeds the recommended daily sodium intake for a person on a 2,000 calorie/day diet...so, not "healthier".

I guess it comes down to a definition of "healthier"? What are you trying to accomplish with the class?

I'd include a short section on "indulgent" presentation of smaller servings.

/tricia

tricia:

You tell me what "healthier" means.

That's the point of my post.

I don't think any ONE thing -- including organic -- leads to "healthy". Even "presentation" and "preparation techniques" are important.

I'm looking for good brainstorming -- all ideas -- rather than dismissal of any ideas.

I want to present the best OVERALL picture possible.

Thanks,
Joe

I would love to take a class that taught creative vegetable dishes, introduced me to alternative healthy carbs (rather than the standard potatoes, pasta, rice fare), low fat protein and got me excited about new spice combinations. Learning to incorporate fruit into meals would also be useful for me.

Although I love to cook, I am bored bored bored with meals right now. I am not eating or cooking healthy foods because I don't have time to think about it. What a luxury it would be to take a class that showed me the way.

I'll think of some more things...

seagrass

The biggest challenge for the "average Joe" (lol!) IMHO is avoiding the three scourages of the modern food system--saturated fat, refined and highly processed foods, and sugar (which is processed I know, and "refined" too). And to do it while maintinging the high stress, "on the go" lifestyle that a lot of us are forced into.

How to shop, what's a "healthy" bargain and what just looks like one, "eat this, not this" "healthy makeovers" and that type of thing I like too.

The whole "organic" thing is interesting. Organic is big business, and there are plenty of "organic" farmers who don't want to go through the hassle and expense of getting that label--it's a whole political game really. Personally I'm much more interested in WHO is growing the stuff, where it comes from, rather than HOW. They are related though. "How" gets rather complicated though, since agriculture deals with living things and living systems. They are not static, techniques change from month to month and year to year depending on conditions. There's no easy way to pidgeonhole farmining into a "one size fits all" industrial model. Although lots of people, time and energy goes into trying! I would definately hit on they system and politics of the "organic" label. Caveat emptor! (or some such spelling).

What's your target audience? New cooks, intermediate, or experienced? If it were my class (and for new or intermediate cooks) I would push the home made over store bought angle. IMHO I don't care what it is, it's healthier home made from scratch because I can control the fats, there are no preservatives, food coloring or other chemicals, and I use the best possible ingredients I can afford. Best meaning best for flavor and freshness, organic, etc. So many women I know (in fact every woman I know except for here) seems to think cooking is demeaning somehow. I've always loved it but on top of that I feel good about what we eat because I know it is way better for us than fast food, or things out of a box or can. Even better than most restaurants because they use lots of pre-made things from Sysco (sp?), et.

I consider myself an experienced cook so I would not attend a class like that but I would love a class like seagrass described. And I think yummy vegetable dishes and methods of preparing vegetables that are delicious but simple would be good for any kind of class. Seems like most people I know are sorely lacking veggies in their diet.

Joe, one thing to address is the advantage of knowing menus/recipes from other cultures that stretch meat. I rely on Mexican, Chinese and Thai recipes. It makes sense to vary the diet with foods from other cultures, especially when we can de-emphasize meat and emphasize a variety of veggies. This is important in this family because we don't eat red meat.

Absolutely freaked a friend when I told him my husband was picking up 1/2 of a roasted deli chicken breast. He couldn't believe that we could have a great meal using 1/2 of a chicken breast, but that's the way we eat. It is not even a matter of the cost of food. It is the fact that our diet has variety to prevent boredom so we don't fall back into old, nasty habits!! Good luck with your project!

I agree with the above, you need to figure out who your target group is.

Me: I'm a wife and mom to 2 boys, ages 11 and 13. I work full-time, although I'm fortunate enough to work from home. My husband, in addition to his regular job, teaches karate. As a result, I work from early in the morning until it's time to pick the kids up from school. At that point, my time is occupied dealing with homework and shuttling kids to karate, piano, guitar, and various other activities. DH is sometimes home from dinner, sometimes not, depending on the day.

If I were to attend a class focused on healthy eating, I would be looking for help in incorporating more veggies, helping to get my kids interested in trying new veggies, learning how to get the most out of a grocery shopping trip, minimizing processed food, and creating a balanced dinner quickly. I do think time could be spent discussing organic foods and what the term organic really means. For instance, I choose organic peaches, apples, and grapes when possible. I don't worry so much about produce that I'm peeling. For me, it's a health issue but also a cost issue.

I would also be interested in a session learning more about whole grains.

I'd love to attend your class!

Mandie

If I were teaching such a class, here are a few things I would include:

fresh salad making that emphasizes texture and includes fruits, nuts, vegetables, and freshly made vinaigrettes

cooking whole grains, introducing the class to new grains they may not have tried

some portion of the class with a focus on vegetables as the meal for one or more meals a week

light soups, as a starter or as the entre paired with salad or sandwich and/or creamy soups with less butter/cream/cheese.

I would emphasize using your time smartly, as much with shopping for food as in cooking it, prepping things in advance so you can put together a meal rapidly, healthy shortcuts also ; people want tasty and healthy, but lack time to organize the dynamics of it all.

You clearly need more than just one class.

I'd start with Newbies. Get them out of that old fast food cycle. Teach them how to cook beans and cornbread, how to make things from scratch that they normally buy, such as pizza, tacos (with home made tortillas), pancakes, omelets, breads, etc. Discuss casseroles and how you can make them out of practically anything -- I think there's a chart somewhere out there on the Internet where you can pick an ingredient from each column and you have the makings for your casserole. Talk about soup. Soup has been around since the beginning of civilization. There's an old, old children's story about stone soup. Remember the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld? You could come dressed as him on Soup night.

Get a local store to sponsor you and see if they will donate enough crock-pots to give each student one. Then show them how easy it is to throw things in there for a great meal at the end of the day. Include safety tips, and lots of economical crock-pot recipes.

I notice most people just don't know how to shop. They grab the first thing they see on the shelves, or whatever they recognize from TV commercials. Teach people to distinguish between terms. "Orange Drink" is not orange juice. "Cheese Food" is not cheese. "Milk Product" may contain very little milk. Teach them how to read labels, what the order of the ingredients tells them and what all those chemicals really are. Talk to them about high fructose corn syrup, MSG, fats and oils. Show them visual examples of how much food a child should eat in a day. I agree that serving sizes should also be taught. You could even touch on low cost weight-loss diets if you had enough in your class that really needed to know that. I've heard so many times people saying that the reason why so many poor people are fat is because cheap food is fattening. This is not true. It is because they eat too much of the cheap food, whether it's out of boredom, depression, not being aware of the calories or whatever. I've been poor, and I always prided myself in the fact that no one in my family ever went to bed hungry. We ate a lot of starchy things -- pasta, beans, rice, potatoes, bread. Sometimes I think we ate too much because it was the only way we could be indulgent. Being poor when most people around you are not is very depressing. Hearing people talk about their vacation in Hawaii when you couldn't even go across your state line is depressing.

Once you've got your Newbies to Intermediate, you've already got your students for the next series of classes.

Here is a link that might be useful: An example of a casserole chart

I think it is important to also cover the use of spices and herbs. They can add a lot of flavor to make food taste interesting and indulgent. And a lot of them have health benefits. For example my oncologist has an article posted about curry lowering the risk of colon cancer.

For me it would be "real food" prepared from scratch.

No boxed mixes or fake anything, whole grain breads and pastas.

I am luckier than some, I live on a farm, raise all my own fruits (almost all) and vegetables. I just recently bought a milk cow, so now have raw milk ( I know that's a whole 'nother subject!)

The term indulgent is interesting.........meaning what exactly?

gldno1:

"Indulgent", at this point, is a marketing attention-grabber.

Right now, I'm not sure how I will approach "cooking for healthy living", hence this "survey". I'm not even sure what "healthy" means.

But I am sure what it doesn't have to mean. Too many people, especially those who cook, are afraid of the word "healthy", thinking that such food is bland, inedible and somehow a sacrfice in one's life. "Indulgent" just might be the word to change peop[le's minds.

Joe

I can get gourmet soups at the grocery, the most decadent desserts, sushi, you name it. But to me, the most "indulgent" things nowdays are fresh grown fruits and vegetables. Nothing more "indulgent" than a fresh ripe peach or pear, IMHO! Homegrown tomatoes. Homeade soup and homeade cornbread. I made homeade applesauce this week, and homeade cranberry sauce. Both were simple as could be, but oh so good, and nothing could compare to them that was "store bought." So something like "what apples make the best pie, (granny smith), how to make pie lower in fat, (serve "crisp" instead), what apples make the best applesauce (golden delicious), how to jazz up applesauce (put blueberries, raspberry juice, cranberries or strawberries in it), how to use an apple peeler, etc. to me are "indulgent." Then maybe compare what you've made to Mott's all natural organic brand. A fine product, to be sure, but NO WAY can it compare to homeade in any shape or form.

Thanks for the answer.

As I stated, healthy means as few chemicals as possible and control of the bad ingredients such as salt and saturated fats.

The interesting thing is a cake made from scratch probably takes very little more time, if any, than opening a box, breaking eggs, measuring oil and then mixing.

Not everyone can have a garden, but we can shop at local Farmer's Markets in season for fresh produce and shop at area orchards where trucking across country isn't involved.

I used to raise all I needed for a family of 3 in a very small, 12x12 garden.

These are just some rambling thoughts.

If you don't think you can eat extremely well, even when working, and doing it from scratch, just read a few of AnnT's menus!

Another vote for some previous suggestions:
Label reading - organic is nice and so is fresh but both are expensive and can be hard to find, people will default to ready made. So I think trying to find foods that don't have additives, sweetners (whether its HFCS or sugar) is ly important. For example, most canned kidney beans have added sweetner of some kind but if you look hard most times you can find maybe 1 brand that is just "beans". Sometimes its the organic brand sometimes its not. If in that situation I would probably choose the non-organic non sweetened over the organic sweetened. But I don't know - can you rinse away the sugar or is it now in the beans themselves?

Portion control - I agree with triciae and others on this one. I have a horrible problem with this. I do know I'd rather eat a smaller portion with a real ingredient than some low-fat version of say, cream cheese with a bunch of weird "gums" and things in it although I tend to eat a large portion with the real deal (bad bad!)

And I think you are absolutely right - the hurdle of learning cooking from scratch. I really really struggle with this. It takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with. I procrastinate and stick with my processed food habit because it just seems to take so much "research" to learn to do things that first few times. You really have to practice to get comfortable and to practice - well your cooking so much you start to put on weight!
Maybe a simple ingredients list and all the things you can do with it?

gldno1 - your are living my dream lucky girl!

I'm wondering if your audience will already know what "healthy" means and will be looking for creative healthy cooking ideas or if you will be educating them on healthy.

To me healthy is:

Eating as many foods as possible in the state they grew in; i.e. not processed - particularly grains

Eating more whole grains and more fruits and vegetables

Eating less sodium and discovering the world of spices and other flavors you actually taste when you get rid of the salt

Eating what comes from the perimeter of the grocery store and as little as possible from the middle (processed and full of who knows what).

I think the portion control is a key concept too - including the use of a kitchen scale.

I personally try to keep my fat and red meat consumption low but with portion control I'm all for eating any of these things in moderation. I think it helps you be more satisfied with your diet overall and stay with it for a lifetime.

I would not focus on the organic thing unless you know your audience has plenty of discretionary spending power. I think in this economy more and more people are not going to be able to afford the premium price of organic foods. Plus I think the average American diet is so bad that there is plenty of room to improve before resorting to the higher cost of organic.

It does depend though on the audience - how knowledgeable they already are and how much they can spend on groceries and what shopping venues they have access to.

The Gibby3000 squarely hits the highlights for me. I agree that organic is down the list of priorities for me.

Is your audience composed of beginning cooks or accomplished cooks seeking to broaden their knowledge? If they are beginners, I'd focus on healthy, tasty conversions of some classic recipes. And introduce herbs and spices, lemon juice, vinegars, wine etc. and ways to use them to enhance flavor without adding sodium and fat calories. This a health concern with an over 40 group more than with a younger group.

Including simple and tasty ways to incorporate more fresh fruits and veggies is important. No cream sauces for veggies!

Portion control is less of an issue for me. I can manage that easily. I'd rather have a small portion of something really wonderful and satisfying than a large plate of eh.

I was in our brand new Walmart last week. It is close to the house and is a good destination for an exercise walk if I need a thing or two. (There is a Target 2 blocks way and a good grocery a mile and a half away. Walmart is a good mid-distance for when I don't have time for the longer walk.) I was in line and happened to eyeball the cart behind me. Not one fresh item. No fruit, no veggies, not even any raw meat. EVERYTHING was a boxed meal thing, a can, or a frozen bag of something prepared. I found myself doing an inward shudder at the sodium and fat content. And my guess is that this woman probably actually believes she cooks!

I think it would be easy to overwhelm if the group is made up of novice cooks. I certainly am not going to plant a kitchen garden or drive out to the farm stands every week. I simply do not have time as a single, working mom who commutes from time to time. I do get to commute to Napa, which a foodie's mecca. Yum.

For many decades we were a two-income household. It's the norm here in CA. All the younger couples we know (Gen X & Y) both work and plan to keep on doing so, with or without kids.

They shop at Trader Joe's and Costco. Seldom at Whole Foods; too expensive except for an occasional trip. Standard grocery chains (Lucky, Safeway, Andronico) for standard stuff.

They are very busy, and need to make a complete healthy dinner in 30 minutes, max. They vacillate between Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade, ethnic restaurant/takeout, and quickie chicken, pasta, or rice meals (homemade, but nothing fancy).

One thing I really notice they are missing: they do very little make-ahead cooking. My mother was one of the rare women who worked outside the home in the 50Âs and Â60Âs. She did a lot of cooking which was done in advance: stews, casseroles, braises. Not necessarily a completed dish, but rather one where you break the steps down over a couple of days, then assemble and finish cooking to serve.

To this day I cook this way. I almost never just "degrease the pan juices and serve" Â I prefer to refrigerate and lift off all the fat. Since most meat is so lean you donÂt need to cook it for hours to become tender (it only dries out), I work on creating a flavorful sauce with some vegetables after browning the meat. Similar in concept to the Spanish ÂsofritoÂ, almost always with olive oil and sometimes a bit of wine. Refrigerated overnight, it gains flavor and depth, adding a richness to the finished dish that goes far beyond what can be achieved in a 15-minute saute.

For the older generation, I find many cook with too many additives, too much salt and fat (especially trans-fat), and too much sugar. They need to realize changing the diet can be done gradually and easily. Start with small changes, then work up to bigger ones. Frozen foods can be high in salt with plenty of additives, so although fine once in a while they should not be the mainstay of a diet  many seniors, especially when single due to death or divorce, find it much easier to use ready-made processed meals rather than try to cook for one.

They need to be encouraged to try different brands until they find one that works for them. For instance, my MIL prefers her bread white and soft, but my DH needs fiber and whole grains. I tried different breads until I found a whole-wheat thatÂs a good compromise they can both agree on. Every once in a while white bread is served with a meal, but not more than two or three times a month. No more soda pop, first juice, then eventually juice mixed with water, once a day  the rest of the time, plain water (we have an undercounter filter at the kitchen sink, saving us thousands of $$ from bottled water).

I tried salt substitutes, but didnÂt like any of them. Then I tried lemon pepper, and found a brand that was easily available which we liked, thatÂs among the lowest in sodium content. Fresh herbs, when possible, also help cut down the salt cravings. No snack foods except for healthy ones: no-salt roasted nuts, popcorn without butter, whole- or multi-grain crackers, raisins or dried cranberries/apricots/prunes. You have to watch the portion sizes (pre-packaging into small baggies really helps!), but they are much healthier than chips.

And of course, dips for those (healthy, preferably baked) chips are easy to make with yoghurt and much healthier than processed ones!

Cooking Light magazine is a wonderful resource to start with, and their "Recipe Remake", where they take a readerÂs high-fat recipe and refine it into a healthier version that still tastes great, is a great inspiration for people to start reconsidering how they can change their diets without feeling deprived.

Kudos to you for the inspiration for this class, and best wishes for success!

When I read your initial post describing what you were looking for, I immediately thought of the PBS program named "Fast Food My Way by Jacque Pepin". I think it is an infomercial for this cook book but wow is it really great. It is all about quality but he definitely keeps things simple but of course being the great chef that he is, he has some very nice presentations.

I haven't seen every show, it is coming on on Saturdays here in Houston but as far as I can tell, he emphasizes very little if any meat of mammals but does demonstrate fish cooking quite a bit. But also mostly vegetarian... I think he has a web site selling this cook book. I am trying to keep my cookbooks down in quantity because there is so much on the web but I am thinking about buying this one.
He has desserts but they all appear to me to be "healthy but indulgent". Good luck with your classes.

I think I would flip the name and call it Healthy Cooking for Indulgent Living.

Since it is a cooking class I would want to include very practical information including easy substitutes that can "health" up a dish.

Take a dish that seems very indulgent live French Onion Soup and demo how to make it more healthful.

Thank you all so much for some very valuable input. I'm definitely refining my angle.

Here's what I've pulled off so far:

Fresh (versus packaged/processed)
Whole Grains
More Fruits, Veggies, salads, light soups
Buying locally, co-ops
Shopping ("perimeter") and organizing
Portions
Preparation Techniques
Reducing the intake of the "big" ones (saturated fat, salt, sugar)
Substitutes and conversions
Bigger flavors with herbs and spices
Ethnic cuisines that emphasize healthier approaches

More?

Joe

maybe something about stocks...as in use as much as you can of the chicken you just bought.

I think some people are suprised at how much 1 chicken can do. Maybe something along the lines of #1 roasting-eat, #2 leftover "quick" meal from the pickins, #3 simple stock....

gldn01~I'm jealous..I want a milk cow...I love my raw milk!!

Food Attitude... so many people that I've worked with over the years, (after seeing what I've heated up for lunch, asking me what restaurant I ate at the night before, then dropping their chins when I tell them I made it,) say, "I don't understand why you are not as big as a house."

That boggles my mind because those very same people eat a bunch of crap all day long. McDonald's for breakfast, vending machine and a soda mid-morning, Fast food or cheap restaurant food for lunch, another vending machine in the afternoon. Then they go home and munch through whatever snack foods they have and throw in a microwave meal. And a lot of people feel like they are being healthy if all they eat in the evening is a Healthy Choice microwave meal.

And they wonder why I'm not overweight? I think a lot of people have a sugar addiction. Also, I truly believe that if the meals you eat are delicious, natural, balanced and satisfying then the body doesn't need constant snacking and an influx of sugar, carb, sugar, carb. Because people eat food that isn't actually nutritious (even thought it may taste good to them) their bodies just keep on craving. Just mho.

My children (ages 27-32) all lead very busy lives, and they all "cook," but some have serious problems with meal planning. If I were teaching your class, at each meeting, I'd teach how to plan, shop for and cook a different healthy, tasty meal. It would be great if you could fit in "planned overs" and cover modifications to create a different meal from the same basic recipes another time. (I'm amazed at how few people are unable or unwilling to modify recipes.)

After four meetings, students should have a really solid idea of how to think like a healthy cook. Wouldn't it be fun to give a "final exam" requiring each student to plan a healthy meal on her own or in pairs?

I think this is a much needed course and I applaud you for tackling these issues.

I am struck when I run into my kids' friends from HS & college to see many of them in their mid/late 20's & early 30's with serious weight issues. These were fit, athletic people until they began working full-time and living on their own. Now many of them look like they have "middle age spread."

My own DD gained a lot of weight after college when she moved into her own place. Although she was raised on 3 meals a day of nearly almost all home-cooked food she went the eat-out, take-out, fast food route most days. She also rarely ate breakfast. It wasn't long before the effects of this lifestyle caught up with her.

I think this is the age group that would most benefit from such a course. They will soon be raising a generation that will consider warming up a jar of sauce and dumping it on boiled pasta a "homecooked" meal.

Lots and lots of families do doughnuts in the morning, McDonald's for lunch and take-out pizza for dinner and don't think there's anything wrong with that. Very scary..

trsinc made some excellent points about attitude and awareness. Unfortunately the idea of a proper diet has come to connote deprivation in most people's minds. If they could be shown how well they could eat within healthy guidelines that would be a good jumping off place.