By Mollie Millington, guest blogger.
EAT healthy veg! Remember how your mum always told you to eat your vegetables? She was right! In a day and age where so many foods are easily accessible in a shop (but come in a wrapper as a processed food), it’s time we got back to our roots (pun intended). So let’s eat healthy!
It’s time to create delicious meals using vegetables and legumes that are great for freezing too. At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I learned about ‘crowding out.’ During meal selection, think about what healthy foods you can have and eat a lot of them!
Hopefully there won’t be room for anything too naughty after you are done. Try to make half of your dinner plate full of fruit and vegetables, then you really will eat healthy. Keep nuts on hand as a go-to snack. When you have a choice between fruit and vegetables, pick veg every time.
Planning ahead can help you stay on track, too. Set aside an afternoon with your family and get chopping. Make a big batch and freeze portions for an easy mid-week meal. Many of the recipes below use similar vegetables (or ones you can later use in a curry).
Keep cut pieces of carrots, peppers, and cucumbers in the fridge for a quick snack at 3pm. You can really taste the difference when something is homemade with love than created in a sterile factory. For now, you can start off with jarred sauces, but as you gain confidence in the kitchen start experimenting with spices.
Mollie Millington is a London-based personal trainer and Institute of Integrated Nutrition health coach