Temptation to eat away from home abounds in many of our
lives. Lent has inspired a friend of
mine to remove “fast food” from their family routine. As for myself, I simply love food. This love doesn’t pair well with my mission
to resume triathlon training or to return to a great level of physical health. I could return to an effective routine of
cooking to my heart’s content and then treating all those around me to the
excess calories. Unfortunately that
solution is in conflict with my professional role. What kind of dietitian would consciously
derail the health goals of others? We’ll
save that discussion for another day.
Unlike other habits, eating is not a habit that we should
remove from our lives. I am becoming
less and less of a fan of products that provide zero calorie savory or sweet
through a creative combination of chemical mixtures not found in nature and
with unknown effects on our health. I want
real food. I want wonderfully presented
food. I am no fan of bacon but show me
the real butter. So my solution has been
to combine my love of food with my love of planning meals, experimenting with
recipes and cooking techniques and the knowledge of feeding a healthy
body. Science has increasingly
demonstrated how little we really know about nutrition but many things are
increasingly clear – eat more raw foods (unprocessed fruits, vegetables, nuts,
seeds), nature didn’t provide us with a calorie free sweetener that taste good,
how much we eat of different foods may be more important than any specific food
we consume (more details at a later date but just know that adding acai to a
crappy diet ≠the magic bullet to health).
So my plan-I have been selecting 3-4 meals to prepare each
week. The meals planned become a balance
of food sources, cost considerations but all are planned with the intent to
promote variety for feeding the body as well as great taste to feed the soul.
The process:
1)
Be realistic about your schedule-don’t attempt a
meal that takes over an hour to prepare if your cooking limit is at 20-30
minutes. The crock pot/slow cooker,
assigning a cooking day each week or dividing cooking tasks among your
household members are all great strategies for managing the time associated
with food preparation.
2)
Shop at home-take a look at items in your
pantry, freezer, refrigerator to start planning your meals based on what items
you already have on hand and might need to use quickly. The pears and Coq au Vin are the direct
result of the need to use of some pears and chicken that I have on hand. What makes each special is the long desire to
try poached pears and the soul nourishing concept of some Coq au Vin on a bed
of fresh whipped garlic potatoes.
3)
Make a Plan-meal plans can be as simple as a
list of the meals you plan to prepare for the week or as detailed as a daily
plan for all meals, snacks and food preparation tasks. I sometimes jot down a note to portion out my
meals for lunches or quick dinners on non-cooking nights. A plan might help you avoid planning chicken
for dinner and then coming home to a 10 pound container of chicken that is
frozen solid.
This week Coq au Vin, Salmon Patties, Manicotti, Cheesecake
Pancakes, Poached Pears and Homemade Pizza are on the menu. Who’s coming to dinner?
