For those that have yet to return to those days where we prepared our own food and are still holding onto the convenience of ready meals and sauces, fear not here are 10 simple ideas which may help break the habit and help you fall back in love with food.
•Make as much as you can from scratch, it is fun and better for you. Processed food is rarely the best option.
•Often when I make a stew, chilli a tomato sauce I am making in bulk and freezing the excess. My own frzen ready meals. It can save you time to do other things
•Make things which, with some simple changes you can change the whole taste of the meal. For instance, cooking a great tomato-based stew then freezing it in small batches, can once de-frosted be changed by adding say chillies, or olives and anchovies, or herbs, vegetables, and/or meat
•Eat plenty of fruit and veg – the rule of 5 a day I still believe holds out
•Reduce wherever you can the amount of saturated fat you eat (butter, lard, ghee, palm and coconut oil and the fat around red meat and underneath poultry skin), in cooking I tend wherever possible to use unsaturated fats such as olive, rapeseed, sunflower and sesame oils.
•Store staple foodstuffs such as nuts (especially almonds), wholegrains, wholemeal pasta, brown/wild rice, beans and pulses. These are all found in my kitchen cupboard.
•Make sure the food is colourful, so many of us eat with our eyes
•Something I fervently believe, buy quality, sometimes it can be a false economy to buy cheap.
•Enjoy treats, we all deserve them once in a while
•Remember supplements and functional foods such as protein bars can be complementary, but they don’t replace a healthy diet
I have one postscript to add, hopefully soon we will be able to, rules permitting and obviously outdoors, invite people round. Entertaining is one of life’s joys and the love and fun of food, I always think, is best shared with family and friends.
**Boldie Thanks:**
Thanks to Eaters Collective on Unsplash for the photograph