In 2020 we learned to embrace home cooking and cultivated some new skills. We have become more focused on we are what we eat and how it impacts our susceptibility to disease. Fast forward to February 2021. Our intentions are good for keeping healthy eating on track, but we have spent the day working in front of the computer, the kids are home, and we are out of ideas as to what to eat for dinner. You don’t wait to have the perfect plan in place. Perfection (what exactly is that anyway), can keep you from taking any steps in moving forward. Focus on building daily habits that will become part of your routine.
Here are some of the daily practices I’m focusing on right now.
Simplify
As a chef, I spend hours a day cooking and recipe testing, and I love it. However, just like you, there are times when I just want an easy to prepare, but nutritious and delicious meal. Sure, I could just pick up the phone and order take-out. These are the times when I reach for my go-to simple meals. Sheet pan meals, stir-fry dishes, one-pot curry dishes, or cauliflower fried rice (add in some chicken, tempeh, or other protein) are some of my favorites.
Take action:
Make a list of your favorite go-to dishes or try a new one this week.
Make food prep a part of your daily routine
If you have a solid food prep routine going, good for you. You don’t have to commit to a 1-2x week for a 3-4 hour stretch. Try a little food prep every day, when you bring your groceries home and are preparing your regular meals.
Take Action:
- Wash and clean produce when you bring it home. Set up your cutting board by the sink and fill your salad spinner or a large bowl with cool water. Cut up heartier dark leafy greens such as kale, swiss chard, dandelion greens, and collard greens into bite-size pieces. Drain, spin dry, and store in clean storage bags.
- Chop up an extra onion (or pepper, carrots, or celery) and store it in a container in the refrigerator for another meal or for snacking.
- Peel and chop several heads of garlic in a food processor with oil and store in a jar to use during the week for all of your cooking.
- Batch cook soups, stocks, bone-broth, casseroles, sauces, pesto, and cooked grains (rice, quinoa, wild rice), which can easily be frozen for another meal. Making a little more than you need for a meal doesn’t take that much longer to prepare.
Eat More Dark Green Leafy Vegetables
Take Action:
Dark leafy green vegetables are filled with minerals including iron, calcium, and potassium. They are also low in calories and high in fiber. What’s not to love.? There are so many to choose from. Some of my favorites include chicory, spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, arugula, wild greens native to the area where you live, parsley, beet greens, watercress, dandelion greens, mustard greens, arugula, and broccoli.
Your body needs a little fat to help absorb some of the vitamins and nutrients in dark leafy green vegetables. Prepare them with a little olive oil, make a tasty salad dressing with walnut or pumpkin seed oil, toss in some avocado chunks, add a few olives to your sauteed swiss chard, and crumble up some feta cheese to toss in with steamed beet greens.
If some of the bitter greens just don’t taste good to you, a little flavor balancing can help. Try adding a squeeze of fresh lemon, lime, or balsamic vinegar, add in a pinch of good quality salt, and don’t forget the fat.
Sprouts and micro-greens are another go-to dark leafy green on my list. These little powerhouses are said to have 40-60x more nutrients than the mature plant. Try broccoli, radish, pea, arugula, and cilantro. Here are a few more ideas:
- Add some greens to your favorite slaw (try my rainbow cabbage salad recipe)
- Add finely chopped greens to your curried sweet potato soup
- Use leftover sauteed greens in place of pasta and top with your favorite rich tomato sauce and some shaved parmesan
- Top a homemade or store-bought pizza with sauteed garlicky spinach
- Load up your wrap sandwiches with sprouts or micro-greens
- Refresh a frozen stew or soup with chopped greens and let it cook while you reheat it
- Add large kale or collard leaves to your next sheet pan meal and let them get crispy (yum!)
Take the stress out of cooking and keep the joy and nourishment that comes from gathering around the table for a meal. Pick a simple step to try out. Let me know how it goes and how I can help.
With much love & good health,
Cathy