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Improve
your diet by eating at home
January 25, 2007
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
A
great way to get fit is to do more home cooking. Eating more
meals at home – rather than out – usually results
in fewer calories and better nutrition.
But home cooking doesn’t mean you have to soak beans
and fix tomato sauce from scratch. Shortcuts are OK if you
use high quality ingredients.
And – let’s face it – convenience foods
are a necessity for most of us. If you want dinner by 7 p.m.
and don’t get home ‘til 6 p.m., you likely don’t
have time to press and fill fresh ravioli and toss a green
salad to go with it.
So, carefully chosen, ready-to-use products can save time
and make home-cooked meals possible. What makes a product
“high quality?”
Generally, the best-quality foods are as close to their natural
state as possible. They contain few – if any –
artificial flavorings or colorings, minimal sodium and added
sugar, and no partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, the biggest
source of trans fat. If it’s a bread or cereal, it’s
made with the whole grain. Preferably, it’s organic.
Here are some examples:
* Ready-to-eat vegetables. For instance, mixed, prewashed
salad greens, chopped vegetables for stir-fry, coleslaw mix
and peeled, baby carrots. Do you lose nutrients when vegetables
are cut up and left to sit on supermarket shelves? Yes, but
what’s left is still full of what’s good for you.
You also pay more if someone peels your carrots for you. But
if these products help you to eat more vegetables, they’re
worth it.
* Canned beans. Black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans and
kidney beans, to name a few. Just open the can, rinse beans
in a colander and add them to salads, chili, soup, casseroles,
burritos and rice. Do canned beans contain more sodium than
soaked, dried beans? Yes, but rinsing removes most of the
added sodium.
* Pasta sauce. Bottled tomato sauces are higher in sodium
than those you would make from scratch with fresh tomatoes.
Served over whole wheat linguine with steamed vegetables and
a salad, though, they can be part of an overall nutritious
meal. Look for brands such as Muir Glen, made with organic
tomatoes.
* Seasoning short-cuts. Buy bottled, minced garlic and use
it by the spoonful. It tastes nearly as good as fresh, and
it beats garlic powder for flavor. Also good: fresh (refrigerated)
basil pesto and bottled, sundried tomatoes. I buy mine at
Costco.
* Soup starters. Several companies make ready-to-eat soups
that can also be used as a base. Try organic vegetable –
low sodium or regular – or mushroom broth by Pacific
Natural Foods, sold in aseptic quart boxes. The new Trader
Joe’s in Cary carries a similar product, also organic
and packaged in aseptic, quart boxes. The Organic Tomato &
Roasted Red Pepper Soup, for example, can be cooked with whole
wheat elbow macaroni or barley and your choice of minced vegetables.
* Staple grains. I buy Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Veggie Rotini
and Trader Joe’s Organic Whole Wheat Rotelle Pasta.
Cooked, whole grain pasta tossed with pesto and toasted pine
nuts or olive oil and minced garlic is a quick and healthful
main course. Also try Near East whole grain blends such as
brown rice with roasted pecans and garlic or Mediterranean
Curry couscous. Cooked rice is good mixed with beans for burrito
filling.
There are many other ready-to-eat convenience products out
there, such as Trader Joe’s Masala Simmer Sauce or Fat
Free Spicy Black Bean Dip. In the grocery store, study nutrition
labels and ingredient lists, giving bonus points to packaged
foods with short lists of wholesome ingredients.
Then use those products to help you get through busy days
with health-sustaining, home-cooked meals.
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