Tips for Cooking Healthier

Healthy meals, whether they be for one or a family, can often be the biggest struggle my clients have. Knowing what to serve. Knowing how to cook. Having the time to cook. All of these can be barriers in the way of you and your family's health. We don't want to spend hours in the kitchen; however, we still want to make sure we (and our families) have the best nutrition available.

Check out some of the healthy cooking tips below to see what you can incorporate in your daily routine!

Try one new, healthy, recipe per week (or month)
Feel like you make the same things over and over again? Try cooking one new healthy recipe once a week or once per month. Start weeding through your stacks of paper recipes, cookbooks, or Pinterest saves. You may even find something that becomes apart of your weekly meal rotation!

Try better-for-you cooking methods
Instead of frying try baking, roasting or steaming for your veggies and protein sources. Baking can be a simpler way to get a meal on the table, since it is a bit more hands off once you get the food in the oven. Roasting is a great way to bring out the natural sweetness in veggies! Steaming can help to retain the nutrient content of your foods (versus boiling).

Leave sauces/dressings on the side
We often think about dressings or gravies on-the-side for eating out; however, try the same strategy at home. If you need to, cook with a small amount of the sauce you need and leave the rest on the side to use sparingly.

Swap it out
Do you normally use mayo? How about swapping in avocado instead? Normally use a lot of oil? Try swapping or cutting the oil with a low-sodium vegetable broth. Use white breads or rices? Try whole grain or brown rice options. Look at your typical meals/recipes and see where you can swap in a more nutritious item!

Use more herbs and spices
In place of high-salt, high-fat sauces or seasoning blends, try using fresh or dried herbs/spices - basil, parsley, sage, cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika. etc. Read through the label of your favorite seasoning blends to see if you can replicate a healthier option.

Cook once, eat twice
When cooking grains (rice, quinoa, barley, etc), cook in larger quantities. Use leftovers for the next day's meals so you can reduce the amount of time you spend in the kitchen.

Add at least 1 cup of veggies
Most Americans are not eating enough vegetables. One way to boost your intake is to commit to choosing at least 1 cup (2 servings) of veggies with each meal. Alternate with fresh, no-salt-added frozen or canned veggies. Try a variety of herbs and spices or sprinkle fresh lemon or lime juice on cooked veggies. The veggies will add a variety of nutrients (including fiber) to the meal and help to keep you fuller for longer.

How will you plan to cook healthier this week? Do you have a healthy cooking tip to share? Leave it in the comments below!

Top 6 Meal Planning Tips

How many of you reading this are currently meal planning or have tried it in the past? It can be difficult to plan meals while working, going to school, and managing other activities. You may even feel like you prepare the same meals over and over again, which may get a bit boring. Planning your meals can be such a great tool to help you eat a more well-balanced diet! Planning can also help you to be less tempted to order out, which can get quite expensive. Today, I would like to share with you my top 6 meal-planning tips, in case you're feeling stuck or in a dinner rut!

1. Take some time to look for different recipes. 
Don't be afraid to try something new; it may even make it into your weekly meal rotation! Check out websites like Pinterest, Allrecipes, Food Network, etc, for a plethora of recipes for every cooking level and food preference. 

2. Ask your family what they would like to it. 
They may have some ideas or new favorites that they would like to see more on the kitchen table. This can take some of the pressure off of you, while cooking up something delicious you know your family will enjoy.

3. Take advantage of grocery store sales and ads. 
Don't throw those ads to the wayside while you sifting through your daily newspaper. Browse through the ad for some meal inspirations that won't break the bank. Remember to aim for a non-starchy vegetable (like broccoli or brussels sprouts), protein, and high-fiber carbohydrate (like sweet potatoes or quinoa) for each meal. 

4. Create a theme for some days of the week. 
Meatless Mondays, taco Tuesday, pasta Wednesday, and so on and so forth. Creating a theme will give you a starting point when planning meals. Even if you are making a familiar recipe, try switching up some of the ingredients. For example, on taco Tuesday, try swapping in beans for ground meat or using ground chicken. For pasta Wednesday, try a new low sodium pasta sauce, higher fiber pasta or even a new vegetable. 

5. Repurpose leftovers. 
When planning out meals (or theme-nights), remember to designate a day of the week (or two) for leftovers. Those leftovers can really add up and you want to utilize them before they end up going bad. If you don't have enough for a whole family meal, use leftovers in your lunch box for work or incorporate them into a new dish. Let's say you made a baked chicken (or tofu for my vegan/vegetarian friends) recipe on Sunday, but there isn't enough to make another full meal with it. Instead, dice it up and add it to a casserole with extra veggies, a low sodium broth, and some quinoa or brown rice. Or, use leftover proteins on a fresh bed of greens. Get creative with those leftovers!

6. Utilize your freezer. 
If you find that you can't cook a lot during the week, try to double your recipes when you do cook. You can freeze whatever isn't eaten and defrost it at a later time when your stuck on a meal idea or don't feel like cooking.

Leave a comment and let me know how your meal planning/prepping is going and if any of these tips have helped you to step up the variety!

Conventional Vs. Organic Produce

One of the debates going on now is whether or not organic produce is more nutritious than conventional produce.

As per the USDA, "Produce can be called organic if it's certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for 3 years prior to harvest. Prohibited substances include more synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.""Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used." Organic farms and processors support animal health and welfare, do not use genetically modified ingredients, separate organic food from non-organic, and preserve natural resources.

There are some minimal differences in the nutritional profile between organic and conventional produce with organic being higher. This difference, however, is not substantial enough to fully say that all organic is better than conventional. There is some alarm being raised with the pesticide use on conventional produce. Pesticides are regulated by the EPA and are mainly used to protect the produce from bugs and extend their shelf life. There has been some links in research from exposure to pesticides to cancers and brain/central nervous system defects.

Before you start throwing away everything in your fridge, know that there is a threshold for the amount of pesticides you can consume safely. Also, different fruits and vegetables have varying levels of pesticide residues. I love the Safe Fruits and Veggies pesticide calculator because you can see how much of the item you would need to eat in order to see any negative effects from the pesticides. For example, a woman would need to consume more than 2332 servings of kale in one day to have any sort of effect of the pesticides even if the kale had the highest levels of residues. For women and potato consumption, the amount is more than 7379 servings in one day to see any harmful effects.

Check out the link below for a complete list of the dirty dozen (produce with the highest level of pesticide residue that are best to buy organic) and clean fifteen (produce with the lowest level of pesticide residue).
-->Dirty Dozen (best to buy organic) --> LINK
--> Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen Cards --> LINK

One of the biggest complaints about buying organic is that it is more expensive than the conventional. While this may be true, think about how much of the produce you consume that is on the dirty dozen list and if you could spend a little bit more money in this area than in other areas (like on snacks or treats). I don't want those of you reading this to think that if you can't afford organic, that means you should avoid fruits and vegetables. That is certainly not the case! Fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of so many diseases. Also, it is way better to eat a conventionally grown apple than it is to eat potato chips or donuts.

One way to keep your produce safe is to make sure it is washed thoroughly. For conventional or organic produce, the FDA recommends washing fruits and vegetables under running water just before eating or cooking, using a brush to scrub produce with hard surfaces, and cutting away any damaged or bruised areas. If you buy lettuce or greens in a bundle, the recommendation is to toss the outer layer. By following these steps, you can decrease, if not eliminate, the pesticide residue on your produce.

Below are some other great links I discovered for pesticides and safety levels along with organic practices and standards!

Risk Level Calculator --> LINK
Research on Pesticide Residues --> LINK
Organic Standards USDA --> LINK
Introduction to Organic Practices --> LINK

Eating fruits and vegetables (conventional or organic) is way better than eating the processed junk foods. Finally, organic chips and pretzels are still just chips and pretzels. So, don't be blinded by the use of the word organic for covering up junk!