Glad to have you back! Here we are at week four of the Good For You Series. We’ve covered some important needs and have been working to get more of the good stuff we need into our daily lives; good sleep, gratitude, human touch. I hope you’ve been able to increase all of these in your days, at least a little of each! I caught a cold a week ago (because I was doing too much), so I immediately starting my immune boosting program, including more sleep. What’s my immune boosting program? Well, that’ll have to be another post. Suffice it to say, this cold only bothered me for a total of three days, instead of being miserable for the full 7-10 days. Sleep was a big part of the healing, for sure! I also have been giving more conscious hugs and I’m working on my third list of 1000 things I’m grateful for. I’m growing in this series too!
So what are we going to talk about this week? We haven’t talked about food yet! I left this one for later in the series because so many people think that eating a whole foods diet is hard work, so I wanted to add other good things in first. But really, what kinds of food you consume can completely change your mood, sleep, energy, weight (of course), and your physical makeup. You can medicate (or poison yourself) with what you put in your mouth. Did you know that in addition to the childhood obesity epidemic, some children and young adults are developing fatty liver disease because of the amount of sugar (sodas, sugary foods, high fructose corn syrup) they consume? We used to only see that in chronic alcoholics…
Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff! I’m going to share a few tactics I use to make sure I can get whole foods for my meals. I don’t buy much in boxes (cereal for the kids and crackers, though I have made them too). Dinner doesn’t have to be rip open a box and add water or order out again. Just a little planning and a whole food dinner is served!
Zucchini and onion
Think ahead and buy what you want to eat
I like to shop at a farmer’s market. They carry so many different kinds of fruits and veggies and I like to try new things! But no matter where you shop, you can think before you go about what kinds of things you want to cook. Then buy one new one and google a recipe. You might find a new favorite!
Use aromatics!
You can chop up an onion and garlic and add to almost any veggie, saute it up, and it’s pure deliciousness in minutes. Onions and garlic are not only nutritional powerhouses, but they make everything taste good! Cabbage, kale, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, spinach… A couple of minutes chopping, stirring, add salt and pepper and you’re done! Maybe a few herbs too…
Sauteeing the onions in my sage-rosemary compound butter from Thanksgiving…
Prep your food
If I know I want to cook something the next day, I’ll often do the “mise en place” (french for “everything in place”) and do the chopping ahead of time. If I cut up the onions, garlic, and veggie of choice, season the chicken parts or measure out the quinoa, put them in their own bags, then the cooking part is just kind of a dump-and-stir. The prep work I can do in 15 minutes in the evening, but that’s 15 minutes I don’t have when I want the food on the plates the next day!
Cook in advance
I boil eggs and keep them in the frig, or cook enough chicken legs for several meals and freeze some. I love to make soup – eat it once and freeze bags for later! It’s hard to freeze rice, but breads, pastas, meats, and lots of other things freeze well. Cook multiple meals at one time, and you can defrost in the morning and warm it for dinner when you can’t cook that night. Sauteed veggies can be thrown over fresh greens for a lunch or dinner salad and boiled eggs travel well for a breakfast at your desk. Your cooking efforts can pay off for multiple meals!
My beautiful farm eggs! Breakfast, egg salad…
What do you do to make sure you get whole foods in your diet? This one was short and sweet. If you want actual recipes, let me know. Share in the comments section below!