Now that we are stocked up on real, whole foods and have cleared out any industrial not-so-foods cluttering our precious kitchen space, we had best take the time to learn to turn these individual foods into a meal.
Cooking can be an obstacle for many when it comes to eating healthy. This is unfortunate, as a few simple cooking techniques are all you need to be able to cook healthy and delicious meals.
This is what I am going to teach you today: my process for creating healthy meals that balances efficiency and ease of mind with room for creativity and unique taste.
Note that you won’t find any fancy techniques here. This is all about learning simple processes for efficiently creating healthy meals that satisfy our taste buds and keep us satiated for hours.
The Art of Creating a Meal
1. Begin with chopped veggies
The base of almost every single meal of mine is the same 2 or 3 veggies. The idea is to find vegetables that you enjoy (or, at least in the beginning, can tolerate), and to keep these on stock at all times. These vegetables serve to add flavor and nutritional value without any significant calories.
You can make your life even easier by keeping a stash of pre-washed and chopped vegetables in the fridge, ready at all times for immediate use.
My 3 favorites:
- Onion
- Mushroom
- Zucchini
Some other options:
- Tomatoes
- Bell Peppers
- Spinach
2. Pick Your Protein
Make this easy for yourself by circulating through different types of meat. I tend to prepare meat a couple times a week, each time with it serving me for two or three days.
My two favorites:
- Ground Beef or Steak
- Chicken (I prefer to buy a whole chicken, or at least cuts with the bone in; the bones and connective tissue add in different types of protein that you will not get by eating muscle alone).
Keep in mind that quality is everything with meat. Aim for grass-fed beef and free-range chicken. Always avoid meat in which the animals were treated inhumanely (e.g. given antibiotics to overcome horrific living conditions) – the outcome is disastrous for your health and pure horror for the animal.
3. Pick Your Energy
Remember, the food you eat serves to fuel your body so that you can function all day long. When cooking your own meals, take time to appreciate the energy that is supporting your ability to do the things that you want to do each and every day.
- Starch (complex carbohydrate): potatoes, beans, quinoa, lentils, squash
- Fats: meat, fish, butter, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil
Take a moment to really appreciate the importance of the quality of fats here. The last thing you want to do is to consume poor quality fats in the name of providing energy for your body. When you consume poor quality fats, they readily damage the ability of your body to metabolize energy, thus leading you down the energy dysregulation pathway to poor health and modern disease.
Poor quality fats consist of:
- oxidized polyunsaturated vegetable/seed oils
- low-quality animal fats – fats from animals that were raised on poor diets (e.g. grain-fed cows), given antibiotics
When choosing fats, aim for:
- animal fats that came from healthy animals. If you don’t know the source, it is best to avoid it and choose the second option.
- plant sources of fat, including avocado, olive oil, or coconut oil
4. Additional Satiety and Nutritional Value: Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli, cabbage, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, bok choy, cauliflower, etc.) are packed full of beneficial compounds, are high in fiber, and are very low in carbohydrate. They also happen to be incredibly satiating and flavorful!
This means that they not only fill us up and provide great nutritional benefits, but they are also sort of caloric freebies.
And did I mention that they are delicious???
My three favorites:
- kale
- broccoli
- purple cabbage
5. Additions: Herbs, Spices, and Sauces
This last section is where you have a chance to add in real flavor to your meal while also boosting the nutritional content with phytochemicals from herbs and spices.
Keep a couple of things in mind:
- If these foods are new to you, it may take time to adjust to some of the flavors. Believe me, over time you will grow to enjoy these foods for their own flavor if you consistently eat them and pair them with other tasty foods. In the meantime though, feel free to slather on the sauces and seasonings to create the flavor you enjoy.
- If you already get great satisfaction from the taste of these foods (believe me, truly, we will all get there), then think of this as an opportunity to add even more flavor and nutritional value.
My favorite additions:
- turmeric
- cinnamon
- ginger
- garlic
A word of caution: this last section also creates room to easily add industrial not-so-foods to your meal. Sugar, vegetable oil, and chemical additives are abundant in most store-bought sauces and even in some seasonings. Make sure that you take care that none of these are making their way into your diet through this last category.
Combinations:
I just outlined five categories to think about when creating a meal. However, it is not necessary that you always pick different foods to fit each category.
Almost all foods are going to check more than one box. Here are a few examples:
- High Quality Animal Products – contain both fat and protein
- Plant Foods – contain carbohydrate and protein
- Nuts and Seeds – contain varying ratios of all three macronutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrate
Not feeling in the mood for meat? No problem, just start with your basic veggies, add in those cruciferous veggies, and then add in even more plant foods!
Or, feeling really lazy and just want to throw something together in a couple minutes? Just crack a couple eggs in some butter and there you have a high protein meal with fats to energize you and the fat-soluble vitamins provided by both eggs and butter.
Or, feeling like you didn’t quite eat enough and you want to round off the meal? A handful of nuts will do the trick to add in fat, protein, and carbohydrate along with a dose of minerals.
Put it Altogether
Cooking Methods
I have found that a significant obstacle for individuals learning to enjoy real, whole foods (especially vegetables) is that they get overcooked or soggy. When food is cooked on too high or for too long or in too much water, many of the nutrients get degraded, along with much of the flavor.
My favorite method for cooking is to toss everything into a pan with a bit of oil or butter. This avoids the problems stated above while allowing for full visualization at all times so that you know exactly when it is done.
saute your meals: pan + vegetables + fat + heat
Fat/oil options:
- avocado oil – almost tasteless and stable
- coconut oil – stable with a nutty flavor
- butter – stable, and with high quality comes great flavor and fat-soluble vitamins
