Friday, May 31, 2013

The Art of Healthy Eating

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the food I am eating and the food I should be eating.  As I have gotten older I have become much more concerned about whole foods versus processed foods and what effect they can have on us. I am working towards making great changes in my life to ensure I am being as healthy as I can be. 30 seems like a good year to start thinking about this. It is definitely hard. I am writing this while eating a lean pocket... My husband is the cook in our house but I am also trying to step up and make meals where I have control over the ingredients and can take pride in making a nourishing meal.

I feel like our world is so fast paced that sometimes just stopping and cutting up vegetables can seem daunting -- to me at least. I want it now! Not in the two whole minutes it's going to take me to cut up and prepare!

So I am opting to slow down and take time to make the right food choices.  Summer is a good time to start because nothing is yummier than cold veggies on a hot day.  This sandwich was perfect and has become an almost daily staple.


I am also paying more attention to Pinterest. I, like most people, am guilty of pinning like crazy but never going back and investigating the things I have pinned.  Lately I have been scouring my food board for yummy healthy food recipes.  This one one pot pasta has been popping up a lot lately and since we love pasta in this house I thought it would be fun to try.  Look how beautiful it is!
Recipe and picture source.

As most real life scenarios typically are, my pasta was not really as beautiful or well-lit as the original source but that didn't matter.  I was cooking!  I had to tweak the recipe a hair but not enough to make a huge difference.


It didn't even occur to me to take an after shot but probably because it wasn't nearly as pretty as the before.  This was a good dish though wayyyyy too salty.  The recipe calls for four ounces of vegetable stock and has a real emphasis on not using the low sodium kind. I'm not sure why it's so important not to use that kind. I noticed in the comments she told someone if they needed lower sodium they should just use water so that's what I will do the next time.  

If you haven't already pinned this click the link from the original picture to get the recipe and give it a try.  

Wish me luck as I continue on this healthy food journey.

Happy Weekend!


2 comments:

robayre said...

I'm right there with you. Only, your two minutes of cutting up vegetables to me is more like 45 minutes. I really loathe cooking because how long it takes for me. Did you ever see the Julia Child movie, and there is that scene where she teaches herself to chop. I really need to do that for myself. I've been making more of an effort to eat real whole foods, as opposed to the frozen bag and box dinners that is more my usual speed. One thing I've really been enjoying is brussels sprouts, but to clean, and cut them is literally 30 to 40 minutes. That's not even counting the cooking, which takes a while because they are so solid. Then all that work cooks down to fit into two very small bowls for Matt and I. Only a side, not a whole entree size portion.

For the last couple of weeks I have been making an effort to eat a large green salad every day, usually for lunch. I'm so lazy I've just been buying the prewashed expensive bags, but there is variety of greens (spring mix) and we eat them fast enough that they don't spoil, which is also a huge problem for me when buying whole foods. A little bit of salad dressing, and some light salad toppings, oh yeah, and I found another cheat, instead of buying tomatoes, green peppers, onions, etc., I've been buying a container of pica de gallo and pouring it on, voila, even more fresh veggies, easy peasy salad. Oh yeah, you can throw some sweet peas on there too ;)

Anonymous said...

I collect cookbooks, I think they're a great start and are really inspiring. I love ones with beautiful illustrations as well. You should look at some of Sophie Dahl's and Rachel Khoo. They both have cooking shows on BBC that I downloaded and watched while I would work on drawings. Also, of course Jamie Oliver has great cookbooks and recipes; 15 minute meals is so nice to have around and Jamie At Home is really beautiful and great especially if you're thinking about growing some veggies at home.