Cooking with Flavor the Easy Way
Healthy food is boring. It tastes like dirt. Rabbit food as people like to call it. Right? WRONG. SO WRONG. SHUT YO MOUTH SUNSHINE YOU IS WRONGO THIS TIME.
Okay, I’m done be obnoxious (maybe).
But honestly! If I hear one more person say that healthy food is gross I’m going to have a cow I tell you. If I had a dollar for ever time my brother in law says “I would never be able to eat like you” I could retire. Not really but you catch my drift.
Healthy food is DELICIOUS. How many times do I have to say it until you believe me?
It all has to do with flavor and how you prepare your food. Eating raw broccoli, plain chicken and rice would be “healthy” but Lord almighty don’t make me eat that.
There are so many options for cooking with flavor. Many of which are very low calorie, light and leave you feeling full and your taste buds completely satisfied. Below I’m going to list my “go-to” easy meal seasonings or sauces. I do love a good simple prepared meal, so these are all so easy to prepare my sister could do it! (That was a joke, my sister can’t cook. She tries, but she mixes up the salt and the sugar a little too frequently).
So let’s hop to it shall we? My favorite not so mainstream ways to add a little (a lot) flavor and pizzazz to every day dishes. Olive oil and herb based seasonings are a given, so I’m going to show you a few besides the no brainers!
Pesto
The perfect healthy fat addition to your meal. Look for a pesto with only whole food ingredients. Better yet, make it yourself! If you have a blender or food processor pesto is very easy to make. I am in the process of creating a recipe book full of easy to prep recipes. Pesto is a recipe that will be included. In the meantime, Rachael’s Good Eats (rachaelsgoodeats.com) created a really great dairy free recipe if you want to give it a go at making it yourself.
Citrus
I love baking chicken or fish with slices of lemon or orange over the top. Add a little olive oil, sea salt and herbs and you’re good to go!
Dijon Mustard
We have been loving baked turkey tenderloins covered in Dijon mustard while baking. The flavor and tenderness is heavenly in itself.
White wine.
This is my secret ingredient in making pasta. I sauté all of my vegetables for the pasta in white wine and it acts as the perfect light sauce! I use about a cup so that it doesn’t get too soggy.
Cooking with salsa
Have you ever tried cooking chicken or lean beef in a crockpot with a small jar of salsa? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Hop to it. It gets perfectly moist and pulls apart easily for a delicious taco, burrito, Mexican bowl, serve it over rice, salad, stuff it in a baked potato, scoop it up with some whole ingredient tortilla chips, with some guac because you’re so extra. That was a horrible run on sentence and I promise you I am a college graduate but I just really wanted to emphasize the fact that that preparation gives you endless options for meals! Look for a salsa with only whole food ingredients and you’re golden!
These are really simple ideas but I want to show you that cooking healthy foods is easy. You don’t need 3 hours or 15 ingredients with a side of unicorn magic and superfood mix to make it good for you, let alone delicious.
Let me know in the comments what your favorite is! Hit the subscribe button if you want more tips and tricks to make being healthy EASY!