I don’t know about you, but I love trying new foods. Like, LOVE it. In pre-covid times, I traveled for work frequently, and my favorite part about life on the road has always been getting to try new and interesting cuisines (and wine) all over the world. Plus, as a nutritionist I love to be creative with my healthy cooking when I’m home.
During the quarantine, life looked a little different. Not only were my travels been nixed – creating variety in my everyday meals also became a bit of a challenge. The upside is that I had time to be really creative with my healthy cooking ideas.
Globetrotting aside, reliably obtaining groceries turned into an adventure for many of us. People all over the world experienced shortages in certain types of meat, produce, spices, or dry goods.
The result is that many of us found ourselves eating the same foods over and over again . . . Did you get pretty sick of your go-to meals?
Are you feeling sore and want to reduce the sources of your inflammation?
Or maybe you are tired of always feeling like your clothes are too tight when really it’s just the fact that you are bloated.
Registered Nutrition Coach, Dawn McGee has put together a simple and straightforward, 7 Day Detox Guide that will not only reduce inflammation and bloat but also prep your body if you are wanting to continue releasing stored fat.
Click the button below and we will send you your free workbook for your 7 Day Detox.
How can you break up the monotony of mealtime, even when your grocery store isn’t fully stocked and you can’t dine out quite as easily as before?
Your options might look a little different depending on where you live, your family’s preferences, and how much time you’re willing to spend in the kitchen. However, here are a few tips that I used to keep my foodie heart happy during this time:
1. Reimagine New Meals Based On What You Already Have at Home
Eating at home as much as possible makes good financial sense even when we are not in quarantine. This makes your kitchen the perfect first place to look for healthy cooking inspirations! Check out your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, and see what interesting pairings you can come up with.
In particular, protein is a great place to start creating variety. For example, did you know there are literally dozens of different ways to prepare chicken? If you have a bag of frozen chicken breasts, you could turn them into grilled lemon chicken, chicken marsala, fettuccine alfredo with chicken strips, pulled chicken with barbecue sauce, chicken stir fry, homemade chicken soup . . . The list goes on and on!
Try PLW contributor Shannon Labrador’s Healthy Lemon Herbed Roasted Chicken recipe!
2. Evaluate Your Spice & Sauce Options
We all have favorite spices and sauces that we use frequently in our cooking. If you’re looking for an easy way to create variety, try to come up with a dish that would lean heavily on a spice you don’t use very often.
Instead of reaching for the oregano or rosemary, ask yourself what would happen if you tried turmeric, curry powder, fresh ginger, smoked paprika, dill, coriander, or something else you haven’t tried in a while. You might surprise yourself by inventing your family’s new favorite dish!
You can even spice-up your dessert options! Try Dr.Z’s Cinnamon Baked Apples for dessert!
P.S. If you’re not that into experimenting in the kitchen, it’s 100% okay to ask Pinterest or Google for help. Try searching for healthy recipes, or recipes that utilize a particular ingredient you’d like to incorporate. You can even save your favorites for future reference. When I make a new recipe that’s a hit, I keep a copy in my digital recipe box so that I can search for it easily later.
We even have a PEACEFUL EATING BOARD on Pinterest with lots of healthy recipes!
3. Look for New Suppliers
No one said that every single meal has to come from the grocery store. Think outside the box and utilize different suppliers!
Ask around to see if any suppliers are willing to ship ingredients right to your doorstep. My family is part of a seafood CSA that allows us to have fresh local catches delivered weekly, and we love the surprise element of letting the CSA surprise us with a few of our dinners. We also just started getting a monthly delivery of fresh beef, chicken, and pork – which is a total winner so far!
Hopefully these tips have given you some ideas around how you can freshen up your menus and get creative with your healthy cooking!
For more food, nutrition, and health-related tips, tricks, and advice, join me over in my free Facebook community, Never Diet Again! We’re a group for business women and female entrepreneurs who want to “have it all” without needing to have 26+ hours in a day to make it happen . . . and we’d love to have you!
Here’s to Healthy Cooking & More Mealtime Variety!
Dawn
DAWN MCGEE
Dawn McGee is a certified and licensed Nutrition Evangelist and a long-time foodie, she focuses on both the health and joy of food as fuel for your body. She is a driving force in bringing education on healthy eating to more people through her community, my “Reclaim Your Life, One Bite at a Time” programs, and my book “365 Days of Healthy Living”. Her hope for you is that you live a life you love, without being hungry, feeling deprived, or giving up your glass
