Comfort food doesn’t have to mean unhealthy food. No, quite the contrary. There are a plethora of recipes out there for home cooked meals that are also healthy for you and for your family to enjoy.
It’s winter, and if you’re anything like me in the cooler months of the year you desire warmer meals and heartier meals. Three staples that are commonly craved would have to be:
✭ Chunky Soups
✭ Slow Cooker Casseroles
✭ Roasts & Seasonal Vegetables
It’s not difficult to eat healthy and it can be done relatively quickly if you have one of the tools of the trade, like a slow cooker. Here are some recipes that could help to inspire you. Lean meat and some seasonal vegetables are a great start to whipping up a quick meal for a sit down family dinner at home. And by choosing the seasonal vegetables on offer you are more than likely to try new varieties you’ve never tried before. I know that I used to be stuck in a food rut and eat the same things year in year out, not now. By selecting seasonal vegetables it forced me to try new varieties and broaden my taste options. Some were pleasant surprise, some weren’t. But if you’re bored with food this is a great place to start.
Also if you’re time poor like many are these days, a slow cooker will definitely help you out. When you get home from work, place your chosen ingredients into the slow cooker, set the timer and forget about it until it’s time to serve and enjoy. This then frees up your time of an evening to do other important things like domestics, or exercising or spending quality time with your family members. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated
Lamb shanks with mashed sweet potato and beans is a comfort food of mine, what’s yours?
The Healthy Chef AKA Teresa Cutter is the author of one of my cook books “The 80/20 Diet” and I’ve just noticed has recently updated her website. So while I was checking it out I also found some great pdf files you’re might also be interested in. After all, we can never have enough healthy recipes right.
★ Breakfast
★ Lunch
★ Dinner
★ Sweet Stuff
I’ve personally cooked a number of different recipes from her cook book and it’s one that I often pull out and use. Teresa’s also a former figure competitor, although back then it was called body sculpting. When I sent her my book to get personally autographed, she sent it back with photos of herself from her competition days. I don’t know any other author who would do that, do you. So obviously, I think pretty highly of this lady and rightly so.
You’ll all remember the flourless chocolate cakes that I made last year, there were positively delicious. You’ll find that recipe in the “Sweet Stuff” listed above. I also love the Oatmeal Cottage Cheese Pancakes, Miso Soup & Egyptian Lamb Date Salad. So delicious and more importantly so healthy.
What healthy cook books do you have in your kitchen at home?
This is a book I have here at home on my book shelf. I’ve only just recently pulled it out again to refresh my memory due to a new direction I’m possibly heading in. Why, because I prefer a more holistic approach to my health and fitness and this book reinforces that. Paul Check is the author and it’s been a worthwhile investment. Just click on the image for the link.
I’m a bit eclectic in that I like to experience different things to see how how my body responds to it. How else do you learn what works and what doesn’t. Then I take the bits that work and apply them and discard the bits that don’t work to my health and fitness lifestyle. That way, what I’m doing is uniquely mine. It’s the only way to go if you ask me. They do say that variety is the spice of life and I’d have to agree with them.
Working with different coaches, trying different training programs, consuming different nutrition plans and experimenting with supplement is exactly what I’m talking about. Our bodies are forever changing so therefore what we do to them must also change to guarantee their effectiveness. I actually enjoy it because that way I’m always challenging my body and hopefully preventing the dreaded plateau.
So it doesn’t matter if it’s what you’ve always done or if it’s new. If it’s old school or the latest technology. Something is always better than nothing. Just don’t be afraid of trying, what ever it is. As long as you’re moving forward towards your goal and getting results, then you’re on the right path.
Here’s to eating, moving and being healthy!
Last year, for the first time, I under went a Metagenics Detox. It’s something I needed to do and will continue to need to do every year for health reasons. Unfortunately for me I have a genetic predisposition when it comes to my body’s detoxification process and my liver function so this is how I help my body help itself. In the big scheme of things it’s nothing in comparison to some things I’ve seen, but none the less it’s still something that needs addressing.
So of course it’s nearing that time of year again for me to prepare for my annual detox, consisting of ten weeks this year. I’ve downloaded and printed out the patient detox pdf booklet ready to read and check for any updates. Then I need to see what supplements I have here at home and what I’ll need to buy in at Evelyn Faye, South Melbourne.
There are four stages to the detox process:
★ Stage 1: Remove
★ Stage 2: Renew
★ Stage 3: Release
★ Stage 4: Restore
It’s pretty straight forward, just like last year. I’ll also get my Detox 4 Women off the book shelf which was another resource I found very helpful. Knowledge is power after all and it doesn’t hurt to re-read and refresh our memories on things. Especially mine, mine’s hopeless.
I’ll also being having Colon Irrigations just like last time. It’s not the most pleasant experience but a necessary one. If I’m going to do something, I do it properly. So my entire system will be flushed out so to speak and at the end of this process I’ll be so much better for it.
But more about that a little closer to the time. Until then, I’ll see you later.
Yep they’re out there, and at one time or another we’ve all indulged in them. They’re the not so good choices we’ve made because we think we want it or even worse we think we need it! Can you imagine a worse crime than thinking we need to eat something that’s calorie loaded just for the sake of eating. Raise your right hand is this is you. I thought as much, it’s okay because it’s not the end of the world and best of all you can still do something about it.
I’m constantly saying that there’s always a choice and it’s the choice that we make that matters the most. So lets make the smarter choice that we know we want to but often don’t. You can still have your cake and eat it too so to speak by chosing something that’s less calorie dense. Here are some examples of things I’ve done in the past that have helped make a difference:
★ Instead of ice-cream in a cone
✔ I have a single scoop of ice-cream in a cup with a spoon
★ Instead of a ham, cheese, mayonnaise and salad sandwich
✔ I have Subway 6″ roasted chicken on wheat with all the salads and toasted for texture
★ Instead of McDonalds Hamburgers
✔ I have a homemade lean burger in a multi-grain roll with loads of salad to fill me up
★ Instead of a slice of cake
✔ I have a slice of cake for two (half the cake = half the calories)
★ Instead of a latte with sugar
✔ I have a skinny latte with sweetener
★ Instead of dip and biscuits
✔ I have a french onion cottage cheese dip with carrot and celery sticks
★ Instead of a hot chocolate
✔ I have a cup of cocoa with sweetener
★ Instead of dip and biscuits
✔ I have a french onion cottage cheese dip with carrot and celery sticks
You don’t have to go without to be health conscience you just have to make smarter nutritional choices, that’s all. Now I’ve shared with you some of my ideas, I want to know about yours?
