How to handle eating flavorless healthy foods?

@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
May 6, 2012 8:07pm CST
I love homemade tortilla chips. Just buy the corn tortillas (3 do for around a buck!) and some vegetable oil (I tired them all, vege works the best) and then get the oil hot, and cut the torts into triangles (or any shape you like) and deep fry them, drain on paper towels, shake on sale and boy howdy, chow down!!!! They are so addicting I could just eat them all day every day..alone or with a homemade bean dip I make or just with salsa! Problem. In trying to eat healthy, since deep frying is fatty and all (although the ingredient label doesn't say it is all that bad on vege oil) I tried baking the tortillas. In the toaster oven until nicely toasted. I shuck on some salt and of course it just rolled off. The tortillas were perfectly crispy, but had no flavor at all!It was like eating cardboard! I had a great salsa con queso dip which was great, but that is all I tasted..the chips had no flavor at all. Ergo, some things just can't be made "healthy". I mean, if this is my choice, I'd rather not eat them at all. And I have found this the issue with alot of things...trying to make the more healthy or less fattening or low of the cholorestrol etc. All I have been able to come up with...do it the best way for flavor and eat in moderation (although that is not possible on these chips!) but you get the picture. So how do you handle things like this? Do you just keep eating them plain and tasteless until you forget how they used to taste? OR do you just forget the healthy benefits and eat them the best way? I'd be wafer thin if I had to eat only "healthy" stuff...as the flavor is so dull, boring or not even there, that I'd just rather not eat it. How do you handle a situation like this?
2 people like this
4 responses
@momof3kids (1894)
• Singapore
7 May 12
I know what you mean. I cannot resist a chocolate bar when it is shoved at me. I would like to eat a lot more if its not a issue with health. But it is :( It all comes down to self control I guess. Looking at how much I weigh I do not have a lot of self control. But I do know that I can be in control of my eating and I try my best to avoid eating all that is delicious (and I know all that is delicious is almost always bad) all the time. For example when I go out grocery shopping, I deliberately avoid the tidbit aisle. Another one I try to water down my sugary drinks with drinking plain water afterwards, or I try to avoid the sweet drinks altogether. I learnt somewhere that the mind can get used to anything we put it up to, so I am trying to take advantage of that.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
7 May 12
I'd rather have these chips than candy! I hardly ever eat candy...just to sweet and I use sweetener in my ice tea (half a packet per glass) and never drink sodas (to sweet too!) But what I do is eat these and ONLY these all day...and then the next day none. I would fry half now half next week or something, but with all that oil making a mess, I dont' want to clean the mess up twice, plus my husband gives me crap if I make a mess, regardless if I clean it up in the end...but another story for another time. I have found the way to satisfy my cookie/treat crave. I mix a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I spoon the mounds onto a cookie sheet and FREEZE the dough mounds then put them in a freezer container. Then..when the craving hits... I take out 6, and bake them in my toaster oven. Done in like 8 minutes and I have 6 cookies to last me the day (sometimes 2 days) and don't pig out on them and have that wonderful "homemade cookie" smell in the house! Great also for fresh baked cookies in the summer time...can't heat up the house with the oven...so this works perfectly! But... I still crave my chips...boy they are so good.. and I have to give credit where credit is due... I was raised on them. My mom did this when I was in high school (at least that is when I first remember her doing them). They were great then and great now! And for every family function we have ever had in the last 34 years... my chips and dip have been requested by everyone "For next time".
• Singapore
8 May 12
• United States
7 May 12
With the baked ones couldn't you brush on some oil and then add the seasoning before you bake them? If I can't make it healthier it depends on what it is if it's worth giving up. Odds are if it came out of a factory and not from scratch it probably is worth giving up... unless it's your vice like chocolate Otherwise I've been doing pretty good at just trying to buy more produce and less processed anything. Looking fwd to going to the farmers market.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
7 May 12
I like fresh stuff...problem is most of the time I can't afford it! No Farmers Markets around my area either. I have always done scratch...I was before the microwave era! But thank goodness for the freezer! I'd bake big batches of stuff on weekends and freeze it in portion sizes for during the week. Really helped being a full time working mother of 2! I can't give up my chips! I just hate most store bought ones. And the store bought tortilla chips are to dry and tastless! So I will just fry my own and be adult about how much I eat. I just did fry 3 doz tortillas this morning...I am a happy camper! Hopefully I can make them last at least 3 days!!!
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
7 May 12
Well to begin with Tortilla Chips cannot be made healthy. Healthy food comes from the garden, each time it is heated (cooked) or altered in any way it becomes progressively more unhealthy. If you are looking for healthy food forget all things deep-fried, and anything that is pre-cooked, or ready to eat. Plant a big garden (or buy them market fresh)and eat your veggies raw, or cook them lightly and eat them as fresh as possible.
• United States
7 May 12
If healthy food is tasteless, it isn't the fault of the food but, rather, the person preparing the food. I follow a diet filled with things that are healthy, and the foods that I prepare are far from being without flavor. The corn tortillas that you're buying most likely are unhealthy anyways. They are probably made of GMO ingredients that were liberally doused in pesticides. Therefore, it doesn't matter how you prepare them.