The most important food component that will create maintain well being, is to make at least 50% of your daily intake our low starch veggie friends, who turn on our “Inner Healer”.
Sometimes this is “easier said than done” due to busy lifestyles, travel, or simply because you become bored with the same thing day after day.
Here are some tips that amp up the taste quotient & are great for on the go lifestyles.
1) If cutting up fresh veggies for every meal is not possible 100% of the time, it’s better to use flash frozen low starch vegetables rather than lowering your intake or skipping them all together. Just read the labels to make sure you are getting 100% veggies, not any added salt, seasonings or sauces.
Trader Joe’s is a chain of discount gourmet-health foods in many US cities. They have great organic whole green beans, mushroom combos, a spring greens medley, aspargus, artichoke hearts as well as the traditional mixes & singles. Steaming a bag or two for a meal & saving the leftovers to toss into salads or pasta is a super time saver.
2) Use one of the many salt, yeast ,MSG, & gluten free seasoning blends by either the Spice Hunter or Frontier brands stirred into your steamed , sauteed veggies, purees, or salads. These brands can be bought at most standard chains or purchased online. Most supermarket department managers are happy to special order upon request. They are well worth the effort to find & easily pack for trips.
Some of my favorites are Spice Hunter Pasta, Herbs de Provence, Italian, Poultry, Deliciously Dill & Italian Herb blends. Frontier makes a super Pizza , Poultry, Italian, & fish blend as well.
3) Drizzling a tablespoon of a low sodium, sweetner free salad dressing over your salad or added to lightly steamed/sauteed low starch veggies after cooking can be very satisfying.
Sis Meliss (www:sismeliss.com) makes a low sodium, gluten & sweetener free Balsamic Vinagrette that does double duty as a marinade for proteins, a salad dressing, wheat free pasta salad marinade or as an addition to cooked veggies.
I like to marinate leftover lightly cooked vegetables & wheat free pasta overnight in the Sis Meliss dressing for a nice portable lunch.
4)You can also puree a medley of lightly cooked vegetables with some homemade chicken broth for a quick soup.
QUICK CHICKEN BROTH
I cook bone in chicken breast covered in several cups of water adding seasonings of choice, some celery stalks, whole onion, & parsley. When the breast are cooked through, I strain the broth into ice cube trays & keep the chicken on hand to toss into salads or a stirfry. When the broth cubes are solid, I put them into a freezer bag to use later as a soup base or to sautee in.
5) If you are having a meal out, are traveling, or bring take out home, simply put a few fork holes into a zucchini or crooked neck yellow squash & microwave for 1 minute on two sides will provide a health supportive balance. Remember, the low starch veggies are are alkalinizers & turn on our “Inner Healer”.
The “nuked” zucchini or crooked neck yellow squash can be added to a pizza, layered into a sandwhich or burger or sliced into a pasta dish. This tip is a life saver when traveling as most hotels have microwaves in the rooms & all grocery stores have zucchini.
6) Of course, the Bieler’s Soup recipe from my ebook is one of the all time best combinations of healing veggies I have found.
A Votre Sante…..Kaaren