I wish I planned ahead for meals as much as most foodies and health enthusiasts do. It would at the very least make for fewer trips to the grocery store.
I have read many blogs, magazine articles, and books and have watched shows that utilize unique foods and elaborate preparation methods as a means to making fresh whole food meals and snacks.
I have nothing against these recipes or ideas. In fact, I attempt them from time to time myself. I even aspire to do this more often. But, if you’re anything like me, you work full-time, squeeze in a daily workout, keep up with the house, the laundry, the yard, yet you still want to be involved in the community and spend time with your loved ones or even just enjoy your hobbies. After all of this, the time to spend on planning and preparing meals and or snacks is extremely limited.
I always feel there is a perceived notion that healthy translates over to costly, elaborate, and time consuming. This definitely does not have to be the case.
Healthy can be easy, fast and spontaneous.
A key player in my breakfast -- my smoothie—made me think of this today.
This morning before I left for work, I was looking through my refrigerator and freezer searching for appetizing and healthy things I could throw into my mini blender. The ingredients that I ended up using were random, delicious, and incredibly healthy:
- Some organic blueberries from a gigantic container that I had bought on sale at the end of last month and had frozen because couldn’t eat them quickly enough.
- A mango that I had bought for a mango salsa recipe I failed to make as a complimentary addition to some fish tacos (I still need to make this recipe happen!)
- A small clementine from a bag of fruit that my fiancé’s mother had dropped off (and again I couldn’t finish quickly enough)
- Some frozen strawberries—no fun back story—these were just from a bag of frozen berries I bought from the grocery store.
- A tablespoon of flax seed
- And I topped it off with just enough V8 Fusion Light Peach Mango Fruit and Vegetable Juice to allow the concoction to blend together nicely
The result? A completely haphazard recipe jam-packed with whole foods raging with nutritious components including antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, omega 3 fatty acids, and fiber. All of which are linked to reductions in disease, including cancer and heart disease. Plus they promote healthy skin and aging among other things.
I drank over half of my daily fruit servings in one fell swoop! It was so tasty I even made separate smoothie to bring to work with me in an insulated cup to consume later as a snack, which of course, helped me not only meet, but also exceed the recommended intake for fruits.
It was a delicious reminder that you don’t have to spend a lot of time in order to work in your fruits, your veggies, or other healthy foods into your diet plan.
I encourage everyone to learn about the components that make a food healthy. Is it low in fat/saturated fat or does it have healthy fats from plant sources? Is it a whole food full of fiber and free radical fighting antioxidants? Is it fresh or is it full of sodium, sugar or preservatives?
The key is learning what food components are nutritious and health promoting and then having these foods stock your pantries, refrigerators, and freezers so you can just throw things together on a whim.
Check out my upcoming posts to learn how to spot healthy foods, make good choices in the grocery store, and combine them for a quick and easy healthy meal at home.
