I’ve always tried to cook healthy meals for Chris and I, but over the last few months and especially the last two weeks since Chris got out of the hospital I’ve really stepped it up.
We’d occasionally have a pre-made frozen dinner such as Loblaws Blue Menu grilled vegetable lasagna, but after re-reading the ingredients list and cholesterol listings on the package we’ve even cut that out of our “occasional easy food menu”. Chris has really high bad and good cholesterol levels as well as very low triglycerides. He’s on medication now to control his cholesterol and given the way we normally eat we don’t think our diet has much to do with his high cholesterol levels even the docs say it’s probably genetic, but it sure can’t hurt either him or I to eat even better.
Lately we’ve been eating a lot of skinless boneless chicken breasts. I bake them in the oven in a casserole dish and they are very tender and moist. I also steam up to three different veggies in the microwave – usually carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. Last night we had Teriyaki chicken and tonight we’re going to have chicken breasts marinated in a honey Dijon marinade. Yummy.
Sometime in the future when we have a little extra cash I’d love to get a fruit and vegetable juice extractor. We used to have a juicer but we found that we didn’t use it as much as we should have and gave it to Chris’ aunt. Of course now that it’s gone, and now that we are really trying to eat healthy, I’d love to have a fruit and veggie juicer again. Store bought juices contain far too many sugars and well, buying veggie juices in a health food store is pretty expensive. I don’t see why I can’t make our own carrot juice and other juices right at home.
Each year we grow strawberries, raspberries, carrots and tomatoes in our “flower” garden so I could even save money by using the fruit and veggies that we grow to make juice too.
As I said we don’t have any extra money right now so I’ll have to wait until we have some spare cash and wait for a juicer to go on sale before we get one, but I think that’s definitely on our want list. In the mean time we’ll just eat as many fruit and veggies as we can – they certainly help fill you up and they’re healthy.
Do you read the ingredient labels on the items you buy in the grocery store? Have you been trying to eat healthier lately too?
Blue Menu mealsa re a great healthy choice if you are not already eating fairly healthy. It’s like Nutrigrain bars. They are a superbly healthy alternative to , say, an Oh Henry bar. But if you use them as advertised, as an alternative to a real breakfast, they should be thrown into the bonfire.
Eat healthily? Does this mean less hamburgers?
You are on the right track, go skinless on the chicken and stick with the whiter meats (less fat). Juicing is an excellent food source and it can be used for both fruits and vegetables.
a good way to cook chicken breasts is in individual foil parcels, just add some seasons, herbs and a slice of lemon. Add a splash of white wine or water. Seal each packet. Takes about 20′ at 200c pre-heated oven. A very healthy way of cooking chicken as it avoids the use of fat/oil and all the goodness is sealed-in making the meat very moist and tender.
I tried the juicing thing for about 2 months and i saw a lot of results. I felt better and had a lot more energy. I also bought The Paleo Recipe Book to learn to learn how to cook healthier meals. The book really showed me how to cut out the sodium and sugar and eat a more balanced meal.