Yes! Healthy Eating is possible while stuck at home!
What makes a meal healthy? Adding veggies and fruit! Whether you are eating canned soup, frozen pizza, or a home made gourmet meal, add some veggies and fruit. Having ice cream for dessert? Top it with fresh or frozen berries.
While grocery stores have meager supplies of toilet paper, beans and rice, they do have a lot of fresh produce.
Don’t want to go into a store?
Try ordering via “Insta Cart” from your local supermarket, and have your groceries delivered to your home, or brought out to your car. You have to think ahead, but it is a way to keep your distance from others. If you live in Central Oregon, you also can order food from Bend Food and pick it up later that day at Aloha Foods, at 204585 Murray Road, Bend, OR 97701. They will have your boxes of food ready and load it into your car. (I just ordered a couple weeks of fresh and frozen vegetables and fruits).
Here are a few simple ways to use veggies in a meal:
Sautéed fish or chicken with veggies, plus roasted potatoes and veggies with steamed broccoli
OK, this is a lot of veggies, BUT, it was a delicious meal with a gourmet flavor!
- Sauté some garlic, onions, mushrooms and bell peppers in olive oil. Add thawed, frozen cod fillets to the pan and brown. Add a little white wine and continue cooking until cod is cooked through (5-10 minutes). You can do the same thing with boneless, skinless chicken.
- Cut one small potato per person into thin slices, toss with veggies like onion, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms—whatever you have. Coat with oil (olive, peanut, canola), and season. Mediterranean flavor: curry powder, dry mustard, cumin and ginger. South of the Border flavor: chili powder, cumin, garlic and chopped fresh cilantro. Italian flavor: garlic, Italian herbs and some julienne cut sun dried tomatoes. Be creative! Mix vegetables and seasoning together, and bake on a shallow baking pan at 400 degrees F for 20-40 minutes, or until all veggies are soft.
- Steam some broccoli or asparagus.
- This meal took about 45 minutes start to finish to put together and cook. It would go even faster, if you had someone help you chop the vegetables!
Super Fast Chicken or Burgers with veggies
- Boneless, skinless chicken, coat with oil and sauté or grill, or just pan fry or grill hamburger or salmon patties
- Steamed frozen veggies (green beans, mixed veggies)
- Steamed frozen corn for a whole grain.
- This is a complete meal you OR your kids could make in about 15 minutes start to finish.
Dessert Anyone?
- Fresh fruit all by itself!
- Berries, bananas or other fruit on ice cream, pudding or vanilla yogurt
- Baked apples (Core apple, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon, place in baking pan, cover with lid or foil and bake until soft).
For other ideas, look through the recipes on this blog (Cooking 101).
Healthy eating does NOT have to be difficult! Here are links to the three dishes picture below.
Hearty Salad to Keep You Satisfied for Hours
