I know it’s only February, but I thought that now would be a good time to discuss nutrition.  As you can probably tell from this website, I am not above eating the occasional horrendous meal consisting mostly of empty calories and exorbitant amounts of fat.  However, since I cook most of the meals that my family eats, I try to make sure that most of them are nutritious and healthy.  I’m not a nutritionist but I’d like to share with you a few of the simple things that I’ve learned where healthy eating is concerned.

Look at your plate.

How colorful is the meal you are about to eat?  Is it mostly a beige and brown meal?  Believe it or not, by eating a meal that is full of natural (i.e. they occur in the food naturally and not by process) color, you are pretty safe in assuming that you are eating a meal full of essential vitamins and minerals.  You want to eat food that is dark and green, dark blue/purple, bright orange, and red.  When you are eating processed food and fried food, the colors will tend to be a beige and/or brown color.  While this is fine in smaller portions for certain meals, you certainly don’t want it to make up the bulk of your meal.

Avocado is a must.

Take a quick read why.

In general, the avocado is tasteless or very mild in taste.  It’s very easy to punch up the flavor with herbs, citrus, and spices.  Use simple mashed up avocado in place of mayonnaise on your turkey sandwich.  Make a big bowl of creamy guacamole and serve it with pork chops or chicken breasts instead of just tortilla chips.  Use it as a way to make a smoothie extra creamy and thick.  Add it to a citrus based pasta salad for an extra punch.  It’s recommended that you try to consume avocado at least 3 times a week.  Since they can be expensive, though, try for a once a week consumption.

FISH FISH FISH FISH.

Fish is good….for the most part.  Read this article.  I’ll wait.

Fish is super good for you to eat, again for the most part.  If you are pregnant or have a frail condition, you certainly want to avoid larger fish such as tuna, shark, swordfish, and other huge fish to avoid mercury poisoning.  We like to hear about those lovely Omega 3 Fatty Acids and oily fish are one of the best places to get it.  Salmon is good.  Sardines are great.  Mackerel is divine.  The internet is flooded with thousands of recipes for fish.

If you’re still one of those people who hate fish?  Look, you really ought to try to get your palate used to it.  Start with a very mild fish like flounder and start working your way up.  Try different recipes.  Use fresh ingredients.  Citrus and fresh herbs make almost any fish taste better.

Dark Leafy Greens

I know that I made mention of these above, but this category is seriously one of the most important. It’s a super food.  No joke.  Here, read this.

I’ll tell you one thing, my freezer ALWAYS has frozen broccoli and spinach.  They can sometimes be flat and the taste can get old, so you turn to the internet to spice things up.  One of my favorite ways to spice up a bag of frozen spinach is to add a can of stewed tomatoes and about a teaspoon of curry powder along with a pinch of salt and pepper.  It makes a great side dish to any week night meal.  And honestly, I prefer my broccoli steamed with no flavorings added.

In the summer, when all of those beautiful salad mixes are out, I like to buy some and have side salads with ever meal dressed with a simple lemon vinaigrette ( I almost never buy salad dressing).

Whole Grains

Hugely important in every diet.  Here’s a short article.

One of the easiest grains to have access to is brown rice.  I’ll be honest with you, I do not care for brown rice and planned to never buy it again.  However, I’ve decided to give it another chance.  I recently read that, instead of preparing brown rice the way you might prepare white rice, bake it.  So, I’m going to give it a whirl.

My favorite whole grain is bulgur wheat.  I love Tabbouleh.  You can find so many recipes for it online and you can find bulgur wheat quite easily in most supermarkets.

Don’t forget about oatmeal.  I try to eat oatmeal for breakfast every day.  I get SICK TO DEATH of it, but I still try to eat it.  I buy dried fruit and add a little bit every morning to make it more interesting.

Elementary School should have taught you the “elementaries”.

The rest of the important stuff, you should remember from elementary school.  Do you remember the food pyramid?  We need to remember that.  Remember being taught the difference between processed sugars and natural sugars?  Here’s a must read on that subject.

It’s still pretty simple.  Eat your fruits and vegetables.  Drink lots of water.  You need calcium (either through dairy or other means).  Beans are good for you.  You don’t need more than 4 oz. of lean meat at your evening meal.  Dessert is nice, but not needed.  Snacks are recommended but should consist of nuts and fruit instead of candy bars and potato chips.

As I said before, I am not a nutritionist.  I’m just a mom and a housewife who has learned these very simple facts concerning nutrition.  The most unfortunate thing about eating healthy is that it is so much more expensive than eating junk.

A few things that I always keep on hand to help me with this are frozen fruits and vegetables (not as perishable and more affordable in the long run), canned tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes.  Don’t buy premade tomato sauce as it can contain a lot of unhealthy ingredients that you don’t want…and it’s way more expensive.  I try to buy whole grain pasta (but read the labels on those.  They aren’t always really whole grain).  And I’ve always got both green and black tea on hand.  Oh, did I forget to mention tea?  Ok, here:

Drink Tea.

Green tea is thought to be great, but is lacking real world evidence.  So what?  It’s loaded with antioxidants!  Read this.

Although it isn’t praised as much as green tea, black tea is super too!  Read this.

As you know, I like to make homemade (i.e. not made from a pre-sweetened powder) iced tea.  I also like to make iced green tea.  We love it and drink it by the gallon!

There.  That about covers all of my personal knowledge concerning nutrition.  I’m by no means a professional and I’m sure I still have a thing or two to learn.  I hope someone out there finds this helpful.

Enjoy!