First Posted: 2/24/2015
March is here! March is National Nutrition Month, a time to reflect on our nutrition and physical activity. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics celebrates March as National Nutrition Month yearly. This year’s theme is “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle.”
Living alone can sometimes get in the way of being motivated to eat healthy and to be physically active. Eating at home can be sometimes be monotonous. To help spark some interest and newness in food choices, try planning your meals, even if you eat alone.
Planning meals is the first step to ensure that your meals provide the nutrients our bodies’ need without too many calories. Providing our bodies with its needed nutrients keeps the immune system strong, reduces the risk of getting sick and helps us be a healthy weight. Take time to write out a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner most days of the week using the USDA My Plate as a planning guide.
To plan a menu, first, check to see what foods you have on hand. Set a goal to make a meal plan for one week to include the foods you have on hand — in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer. Using what is on hand saves money and time.
Next, make a list of ingredients and foods that you need to grocery shop for to follow the menu. Try adding a variety of vegetables and grains to avoid boredom with the same meals.
Here are some tips for grocery shopping for just one or two:
• Buy only what you can use and store safely. This can mean buying the smaller, more expensive packages of food. Smaller packages do cost a bit more per unit price, but if you buy the larger portion and can’t eat it all before it spoils, it’s not the best deal.
Sometimes you can divide and freeze larger items like breads or larger bags of frozen vegetables. That way you can get the best unit price and it doesn’t spoil.
• Buy frozen vegetables so you can pour out only what you will eat.
• Buy larger amounts of meat and divide into smaller serving sizes and freeze for later use.
• Buy fresh fruit at different stages of ripeness and eat as it ripens, for example: bananas, pears, avocados and peaches.
• Buy vegetables that have varying shelf life and use accordingly, for example use first: fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and summer squash. And then use others such as: winter squash and cabbage that have a longer shelf life.
Next after shopping, comes cooking. If you don’t like to cook, or feel too tired, start out with simple easy to make recipes. Here are some tips for cooking healthy meals:
• Simple meals are quicker and easier. Skip recipes that have more than just a few steps.
• Cook a pot of stew/soup/chili and freeze in smaller portions for another meal.
• Prepare a family-sized recipe and freeze half for another meal.
• Use “Planned Overs” for foods such as chicken. Eat the chicken for dinner, and in a soup the next day for lunch.
• Use a meat thermometer to gauge cooking times and prevent over cooking.
Keep these tips prominent for easy reference. Planning and cooking more meals at home can help “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle!” Next week, we will highlight some tips to stay motivated to have a more physically active lifestyle. Here is an easy to make recipe that uses canned salmon. Enjoy!
Salmon Patties
1 can salmon (15 1/2 ounce, drained)
1 cup cereal or crackers (whole-grain, crushed)
2 eggs (large, lightly beaten)
1⁄2 cup nonfat milk
1⁄8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
Flake salmon until very fine with a fork. Crumble cereal or crackers into crumbs. Add cereal or cracker crumbs, eggs, milk, and pepper to salmon. Mix thoroughly. Shape into 9 patties.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, carefully brown both the sides until patty is
thoroughly cooked. Makes 9 servings Cool extra in the refrigerator. Then pack and freeze for another meal.
1 serving: Calories 110, Fat 4.5g, Carbohydrate 5g, Protein 12g Sodium 270mg, Fiber 1g, Calcium 15%
