Friends and clients ask me all the time how they can eat healthier, loose a pound or two, cook for themselves and not dread the Mon-Fri mealtime. It's not hard I tell them, but sometimes what is difficult is changing your thought about it. So lets just start there...affirm you are going to embrace this lifestyle change with good intention. Nothing is written in stone, make it fit your tastes, needs and desires.
You've got to love it. That is the main ingredient.
Cook more, eat less! Nutrition for the soul.
Let's think about it — when you eat in restaurants or order from your favorite take-out restaurant, you almost always eat more calories, fat and sodium. Portions are significantly larger and it is impossible to know exactly what is in that Vegetable Pad Thai you are eating, after all, congratulate yourself you did order the vegetables; plus, you’re paying a premium and you do want your money’s worth. It is funny how we can all justify not taking care of ourselves. One way to begin saying YES! to me is to start planning your dinners in advance. Create a grocery list. Shop on the weekend and take a couple of hours to prep some foods that will make it easier to stick with your plan. . You will have so much already prepared and waiting for you, you will be excited to come home and create a healthy meal. It does get easier with practice. Keep it simple. Menu ideas and recipes should be quick and easy and fit into your lifestyle.
Here are some ideas, guidelines to be modified with whatever works for you.
Your shopping list should have 4-6 fresh vegetables 3 proteins, 2 lettuces, 4-6 fruits, 2 dairy, 3 grains and some dairy and a few extras.
Example:
Staples: Garlic, Onions, Olive Oil, Vinegar, Kosher or Sea Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper, Lemons
Vegetables: brocollini, carrots, artichokes, cauliflower, cucumber, bell peppers
Proteins: Whole free range chicken, ground turkey, salmon fillet
Lettuce: Romaine, Baby Spinach
Fruits: Tomatoes, Melon, Grapes, Apples, Clementines, Pears
Dairy: Non Fat Yogurt, 1 kind of cheese (after all we are human)
Grains: Brown Rice, Quinoa, Lentils
Extras: Raw Nuts (I always keep mine in a glass jar on the counter), 85% cocoa chocolate squares (again, I am human)
Prep Day: Cook the artichokes, drain and refrigerate, Blanche half the brocollini, carrots and cauliflower. Wrap in towel and place in container in refrigerator. Place raw vegetables in refrigerator. Cut cucumber rounds and bell pepper sticks and place on a paper towel in a dish and refrigerate. (absorbs the moisture that makes vegetables rot)
You can reheat blanched veges in the microwave or eat them cold, season either with a drizzle of olive oil or your favorite salad dressing.
Wash grapes, cut into clusters and refrigerate wrapped in a kitchen towel. Wash and dry clementines, apples, pears and tomatoes and place them in a bowl on the counter ready to eat. Cut the melon into portion size sections and refrigerate.
Roast the chicken, cut into portions. Prepare turkey burgers, wrap in saran and refrigerate. Make a turkey meatloaf, cook, cool, wrap and refrigerate. Place the salmon fillet in a baking dish, season with olive oil, salt and pepper, refrigerate and it is ready for baking or broiling.
Cook brown rice and lentils, place in covered dish and refrigerate. Eat hot or cold with olive oil or your favorite dressing.
So, now what haven't I used? Well the lettuces are there to be a side salad or a main course salad mixed with some protein or vegetables. And you can always saute or microwave the fresh spinach with a little garlic and olive oil. The roasted bones of the chicken can be thrown into a pot with water for a quick stock and then voila a soup with the rice, lentils and or the leftover chicken and raw vegetables.
Somehow I think you get the picture. A few hours of prep on any day you choose can take the drudgery of weeknight mealtime. You may be so on top of your game that you invite a neighbor to join you.
Effortlessly with grace and with ease. You don't have to do it all the first week..We are looking for progress not perfection. Do what feels right for you. Baby steps makes big progress!
ps...and I think you know what to do with your square of chocolate...enjoy!
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
She Cooks! Nutrition for the Mind
Believe it or not I do not think of myself as one who really sets goals and monitors their outcome, Hmmmm...as I read that I don't know if I can be that honest...It just doesn't sound like the me I think of myself as...you know goal oriented...I guess what I mostly have is thoughts...good thoughts, I do monitor those, like about this blog..i believe and can visualize Bob Proctor reading this blog and then of course making the recipe I have chosen to support it..you see I admire Bob, he is my mentor, like NH was to Bob. I want to work with him like my objective here is to.... Food and spirituality, how do I bridge that. I guess by just as my friend Kwaku said last night ...”don't ever forget about it.”
Today is the first day of a personal, spiritual and physical cleanse. Fruits and vegetables, sans protein. A vitaminly rich 4 oz. Of something good for you 4 x per day...oh and a few nuts tossed in with careless abandon. As I am reading this a few ozs of yogurt would go nicely. I wonder if I will garnish my cupfuls.
And exercise. Ok I know. We all do.
A few timely steps up and down on my heart rate accelerator. Starting off slow always works. I feel determined, I always do the night prior. I smell the artichokes, nearly done. Food is done, people are finished. Artichokes are my favorite food on the planet. Having some as a last summer (meant supper) kind of event...before d-day… didn't think of it that way until now.
Yum
I have been, my whole cooking life, waiting for a state of the art kitchen to call my own, that is relative too you know, state of the art.
The house I bought some 18mos ago was going to be the one....opening that front door, no kitchen in sight just a bare space where logically it would have been, you could see a few wires protruding from the wall. I could see me there, cooking, just cooking, that is all I ever really want to do. Well, seasons and reasons why it did not happen overnight, even though my decorator (sister) her beau (my honeydew too) kept assuring me that it was time and money keeping my vision from being realized. All I wanted to do was cook. So when it was finally 85% finished and I could cook, why was I not Cooking? days later …and still was not cooking...why? But you don't understand, I go into to unrehearsed kitchens all the time and find no problem foraging around turning this and that on till something works...but not in my kitchen. I had to look at it, charm it, zen it, decorate it, stand back and wait for the right moment. Breathe into it. There is something I knew would tell me and move me to the right moment. It was time, I was shopping for produce and came upon the most beautiful, green, luscious, prickly pile of artichokes, two reached up and spoke (poked) to me to take them home. Say no more. They sat overnight in my sea blue glass bowl waiting...of course, to plunge head first into salted water from my boiling All-Clad pot. Artichokes, that was what I was waiting for. They had to be the first thing I would cook in my new kitchen, it all just seemed right. My favorite thing to eat would be my first thing to cook. Simmered artichokes, plain and outstanding.
…listening from my bedroom I could here the simmer and smell the earthiness.
At the moment, and I had to be precise, I took the artichokes out of the green tinted water they were perfectly tender. Cut them in half this time, never have done that... Some things just seem so right. For the first time cooking them was more satisfying than the shredding of each baby leaf through my teeth and the devouring the soft succulent heart. Be still mine.
ARTICHOKES STUFFED WITH CHEESE SOUFFLE...I know it not part of my program, but this recipe is part of my life, rich and full
• 4 T. softened butter
• 6 T. flour
• 2 c. hot milk
• ½ t. paprika
• Pinch nutmeg
• 1 t. salt
• ¼ t. white pepper
• 4 egg yolks
• 6 egg whites
• 1½ c. coarsely grated Swiss cheese(the best you can buy)
• ¾ c. finely grated Imported Parmesan + some to sprinkle on the top
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Trim and prepare 6 artichokes and cook in boiling salted water until hearts are tender. Drain upside down. Remove choke and clean out the hairs around the heart.
In a large saucepan, melt 3 T. butter over medium high heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the butter and flour foam and froth. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the hot milk, then simmer over medium heat and stir slowly until thick, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the seasonings, then the egg yolks, 1 by 1. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Whip the egg whites to stiff, shining peaks, then whisk 1/4 of them into the sauce to lighten it. Delicately fold the remaining egg whites into the sauce, alternating with the grated Swiss cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Cut pieces of foil large enough to surround the artichokes. Brush the foil pieces with olive oil and wrap around the artichokes. Turn the souffle mixture and fill to the top into the prepared artichokes, dust with paprika. Bake until the souffle has puffed 1 or 2-inches.and the top is slightly browned about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Today is the first day of a personal, spiritual and physical cleanse. Fruits and vegetables, sans protein. A vitaminly rich 4 oz. Of something good for you 4 x per day...oh and a few nuts tossed in with careless abandon. As I am reading this a few ozs of yogurt would go nicely. I wonder if I will garnish my cupfuls.
And exercise. Ok I know. We all do.
A few timely steps up and down on my heart rate accelerator. Starting off slow always works. I feel determined, I always do the night prior. I smell the artichokes, nearly done. Food is done, people are finished. Artichokes are my favorite food on the planet. Having some as a last summer (meant supper) kind of event...before d-day… didn't think of it that way until now.
Yum
I have been, my whole cooking life, waiting for a state of the art kitchen to call my own, that is relative too you know, state of the art.
The house I bought some 18mos ago was going to be the one....opening that front door, no kitchen in sight just a bare space where logically it would have been, you could see a few wires protruding from the wall. I could see me there, cooking, just cooking, that is all I ever really want to do. Well, seasons and reasons why it did not happen overnight, even though my decorator (sister) her beau (my honeydew too) kept assuring me that it was time and money keeping my vision from being realized. All I wanted to do was cook. So when it was finally 85% finished and I could cook, why was I not Cooking? days later …and still was not cooking...why? But you don't understand, I go into to unrehearsed kitchens all the time and find no problem foraging around turning this and that on till something works...but not in my kitchen. I had to look at it, charm it, zen it, decorate it, stand back and wait for the right moment. Breathe into it. There is something I knew would tell me and move me to the right moment. It was time, I was shopping for produce and came upon the most beautiful, green, luscious, prickly pile of artichokes, two reached up and spoke (poked) to me to take them home. Say no more. They sat overnight in my sea blue glass bowl waiting...of course, to plunge head first into salted water from my boiling All-Clad pot. Artichokes, that was what I was waiting for. They had to be the first thing I would cook in my new kitchen, it all just seemed right. My favorite thing to eat would be my first thing to cook. Simmered artichokes, plain and outstanding.
…listening from my bedroom I could here the simmer and smell the earthiness.
At the moment, and I had to be precise, I took the artichokes out of the green tinted water they were perfectly tender. Cut them in half this time, never have done that... Some things just seem so right. For the first time cooking them was more satisfying than the shredding of each baby leaf through my teeth and the devouring the soft succulent heart. Be still mine.
ARTICHOKES STUFFED WITH CHEESE SOUFFLE...I know it not part of my program, but this recipe is part of my life, rich and full
• 4 T. softened butter
• 6 T. flour
• 2 c. hot milk
• ½ t. paprika
• Pinch nutmeg
• 1 t. salt
• ¼ t. white pepper
• 4 egg yolks
• 6 egg whites
• 1½ c. coarsely grated Swiss cheese(the best you can buy)
• ¾ c. finely grated Imported Parmesan + some to sprinkle on the top
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Trim and prepare 6 artichokes and cook in boiling salted water until hearts are tender. Drain upside down. Remove choke and clean out the hairs around the heart.
In a large saucepan, melt 3 T. butter over medium high heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the butter and flour foam and froth. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the hot milk, then simmer over medium heat and stir slowly until thick, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the seasonings, then the egg yolks, 1 by 1. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Whip the egg whites to stiff, shining peaks, then whisk 1/4 of them into the sauce to lighten it. Delicately fold the remaining egg whites into the sauce, alternating with the grated Swiss cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Cut pieces of foil large enough to surround the artichokes. Brush the foil pieces with olive oil and wrap around the artichokes. Turn the souffle mixture and fill to the top into the prepared artichokes, dust with paprika. Bake until the souffle has puffed 1 or 2-inches.and the top is slightly browned about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
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