Spring Into Health: Shop, Cook & Eat Well with Ease

Spring into health this season by eating nutritious whole food meals. The foundation for healthy living starts with what you eat. Now is a good time to give yourself a refresh and find some inspiration to liven up your cooking and nurture your body with whole foods.

Here are some helpful tips for shopping, healthy cooking, and eating well with ease.

1. Make your own food

Cooking your own food at home will help you optimize your nutrition and health. You can avoid unhealthy additives like MSG, and hidden sugars by minimizing eating out. Cook and eat more simple dishes that are easier on the digestion. 

Eliminate packaged and processed foods as much as possible to reduce the amount of preservatives and unnatural additives. Supply your pantry and fridge with natural whole foods that have higher quality ingredients.

2. Know before you go

Meal planning is a great way to keep up with cooking and eating clean. Write out a list of meals and review the recipes you plan to cook for yourself or family and make a shopping list before going to the store. Having your list of ingredients organized ahead of time will ensure you have what you need when it’s time to cook dinner and prevent those impulse buys that are unnecessary.

3. Keep it fresh

Fresh and natural means healthy and nutritious. Focus your shopping on the perimeter of the store. That’s where you find the fresh produce. Stock up on vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Plan meals that use a variety of colorful fresh ingredients.

You’ll also find your fresh dairy, meats, and seafood here, as well as often the bulk section.  Also, you’ll often find fresh higher quality bread in the bakery area. Read labels and pay attention to the sodium and sugars. If the label is full of ingredients you can’t pronounce, opt out and go for a simple natural choice.

4. Explore Cookbooks

There are so many amazing cookbooks full of diverse, colorful and flavorful ideas to inspire your next meal.

I find that browsing through a new cookbook broadens my horizon, excites my tastebuds and makes cooking fun. There are tons of recipes online to inspire you, however I do find that reading cookbooks and placing a sticky note marker on recipes I want to try really exposes me to new ideas that I wouldn’t necessarily see in an internet search. Go explore the cookbooks at your local library! It is a fun adventure and many good meal ideas will come out of it.

5. Save your favorite recipes

Make your own favorite recipe folder and keep it on hand in the kitchen. Print or write down those good eats you want to make again in your recipe folder. You can save time searching for that recipe you made months ago by storing it in your kitchen recipe folder. You can also organize your recipes digitally using the Trello app or something similar to make boards and lists by category such as healthy dinners, one skillet meals, or Instant pot. Saving your recipes makes it easy to remake meals and share them with friends or put someone else in the family in charge of the cooking for one night.

I hope these tips inspire you to spring into health this season with refreshing recipes!