Judy E. Buss

In Part One, (September 10, 2019), we presented healthful breakfast and snack ideas. In this Part Two you will find main meal, dessert, and light meal suggestions. Always keep in mind that it is necessary to plan ahead each day, when you will actually start to prepare a meal. Waiting until you are starving, ready to devour the kitchen counter, is a prescription for: “It’s too late now,” and resorting to an unhealthy option. Remember also that a well-stocked kitchen, with a variety of ingredients from all food groups (whole foods, that is, not the processed stuff), and shopping once per week, list in hand, saves time and money. (Please refer to Part One stocking and shopping suggestions).

The Main meal of the day: Consumed preferably at lunchtime, it should be composed of raw or briefly cooked vegetables, whole grains or root vegetables for starch, and lastly, a 4-ounce portion of fish or lean meat. For a vegetarian day, a main meal may combine whole grain with lentils or beans which cover both your protein and starch. Such dishes are delishified, varied, and nutritionally enhanced with different toppings, sauces, or vegetable stews. Add to this vegetarian meal a generous helping of raw or briefly cooked veggies and you’ve got a super- nutritious, lean, and satisfying meal.

Cooking double batches of certain recipes or a single basic ingredient, as rice or beans, helps expedite meal preparation. The “leftovers” can then morph into entirely different meals a couple of days later. Yes, you want to eat healthy but you can outsmart the “labor monkey.”

The following are menu examples for the main meal of the day. You can mix and match items while adhering to the basic structure of such a meal of vegetables; a starchy plant-based dish of whole grain or a root vegetable (potato, sweet potato, butternut squash, or yucca); and lean meat, or eggs, or fish. Option 1: Steamed zucchini, (chopped steamed) then mashed Herbed Potatoes, Rotisserie chicken.Option 2: Green Beans in Lemon Sauce, Scrambled Eggs, Chopped steamed Sweet Potato. Option 3: Broccoli Salad, Whole grain Mac n’ Cheese,Poached Fish.  Option 4: Green Salad with Herbs; Barley with mixed cooked chopped vegetables, and Chicken. Option 5: (vegetarian):Lentils, brown rice, Eggplant-tomato stew.

Dessert: Great news: eating a dessert only once or twice per week will do wonders for your health, weight, and pocket book! The strategy also saves time, work, and dishes. For an occasional dessert enjoy a piece of seasonal fruit, a cup of fresh (not canned) fruit salad, or a sensible portion of quality frozen yogurt topped with fresh berries and/or granola cereal.

Light Meals: An important principle of healthy eating is the avoidance of consumption two large meals per day. Doing otherwise is a prescription for overeating with all of its detrimental consequences. Having a heavy meal in the evening may also interfere with your sleep, since the body is then charged up with too much energy. So a lighter meal is a better choice for that time of the day. Delicious, scaled down, and satisfying meals can be prepared effortlessly.

If you cook a big pot of fresh soup (YUM!), and/or wash veggies for several days and refrigerate them in an airtight container or a sealed bag, light meals can be a breeze to prepare. Don’t be tempted to use commercially-bought soups. They are highly processed, additive-laden, and devoid of a meaningful nutritional value. The following are some light meal suggestions to get you started:

* Fresh raw vegetable salad served with whole grain toasted bread or pita, or warmed corn bread, spread with a pat of butter.
* Home-cooked soup (loaded with fresh veggies and/or beans or bits of chicken).
* Raw vegetable salad paired with whole grain pilaf and a small serving of quality yellow cheese.
* A whole grain chicken sandwich accompanied with a fresh veggie salad or a bowl of hearty home-cooked soup.
* Whole grain pasta salad, and a fresh vegetable salad or a bowl of home-cooked soup.
* Whole grain bread and quality (not plastic) cheese sandwich, and a bowl of hearty soup.
* Make your own (one) mini pizza on 8-inch whole wheat flatbread loaded with a pile of finely chopped (half) green bell pepper, Roma tomato, and sliced mushrooms covered with 1-1/2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese (bake 8 minutes in 400F degree preheated oven).

“Mission Nutrition” Tips and Recipies from Judy E. Buss, Health Columnist, Nutritional Cooking Instructor.

Excerpted from Judy E. Buss’ article, first published in the “Feeling Fit” Magazine, Sun Coast Media Group newspapers, Florida.

Stay tuned for more Judy E. Buss’ “Mission Nutrition” words of wisdom and recipes.