Day 14
Cleanse Day 5
Today we take a look at the role that homemade soups and stews can play in our healthy diet along with some GREAT recipes.
Today’s Topic: Soups & Stews
Soups and stews take many of the healthiest ingredients possible and put them together in one pot. They usually involve blending the vegetables or at least chopping them into bite size pieces. This makes them easy to digest so your body can absorb and utilize all of the nutrients more easily...a delicious way to get a cleansing dose of vitamins and minerals.
Soups and stews are a great way to get more vegetables in our diet - and the nutrients they provide. Even leafy greens such as kale and spinach can be added to soup. And vegetables can be pureed and added to soup to create a creamier version without the addition of extra fat.
Another thing is that soups and stews retain the nutrients (vitamins & minerals) of the cooked vegetables since you don’t dispose of the water. Instead the vitamin packed water becomes part of the broth in the soup.
Soups and stews are a low-fat and high fiber meal option, so are both filling and low-calorie. (Please note that recipes with coconut milk added increase the fat content and so, since we are focusing on low-fat for our cleanse, take it easy with those.
People tell me over and over that they are too busy to prepare food to eat healthy. Or that it’s a challenge to cook for just one person. I’m single and lead a extremely busy life and the KEY THAT I have found is to prepare a variety of soups and stews (usually 2-3 times a week all year round) and freeze them in individual serving containers. That way, when I’m in a hurry, on the go, or just too tired to cook, I always have a selection of something delicious and healthy to eat instead of choosing something that isn’t good for me.
It’s kind of a ritual for me to come home from grocery shopping, wash my beautiful produce, and make a pot or two of soup right then and there. Try it – you’ll be glad you did!
(I’ve already shared my blog about Chicken Soup on Day 7, but you can click on the link in the recipe section below if you’d like to read it again.)
Recipes
(Click on the photos below to view recipes.)
Check-in: How are you doing?
Remember that each meal should include a small portion of protein, a small portion of starch, a larger portion of vegetables and fruit, and 1-2 servings of good fat. If the recipes you choose don’t already provide all of those components, you need to adjust your meal accordingly.
I have a smoothie for breakfast and soup for lunch a lot of the time. They are both quick and easy to digest on days that I see massage clients or have a busy schedule. You see, in order to properly digest your food well, your body needs to be in the "relaxation" mode. So when I am physically working hard or on the run, I choose to take it easy on my digestion and save the harder to digest foods for when I'm more relaxed.
Here's a sample of a daily food "plan":
Breakfast: Healthy Smoothie
Lunch: Vegetable Pea Soup, and an orange
Snack: Liver Detox Juice
Dinner: Lamb Salad (at East West Cafe in Sebastopol) - lamb (protein), quinoa (starch), greens, onion, tomato, cucumber, carrots, and tahini lemon dressing, and fresh blueberries for dessert.
Hopefully, you are seeing a theme of a small amount of protein, a small amount of starch, and then lots of veggies and a small amount of fruit to balance the meal. Remember the sections on the picnic plate?
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I AM LEARNING ABOUT HEALTHY ACTIVITIES THAT I’D LIKE TO BE A PART OF!
Tomorrow we’ll explore eating cooked veggies as part of our healthy diet.
Feel free to email me or post a comment below to ask questions or share your thoughts and experiences ~ I’d love to hear from you!
Blessings, JoAnn