Eating Better in the New Year

A common New Year’s resolution is to eat better. This year, I definitely want to focus on eating more healthy foods. I have resolved to eat more soup, for one thing. I found that when I was eating a lot of soup last month, I ate less but felt just as satisfied, which is great if you’re trying to lose or maintain weight. Also, it’s easy to pack vegetables into soup. So I want to keep soup on the menu most days of the week.

Here are some resources I’ve found to help meet those healthy eating goals:

• Going semi-vegan: Mark Bittman advises us to eat at least one vegan meal a week. That doesn’t seem too hard.
• Ditch the recipes: The idea behind simplifying your cooking efforts and not relying so much on recipes is that you’ll cook more often and that you’ll eat up the produce you buy instead of letting it spoil. So, it leads to more healthy eating and less food waste.
• Eat more whole grains: If you replace refined grains with whole grains, at least partly, you’ll eat less and they’re better for you.

Related articles

• No More Food Waste! (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

First Challenge of the New Year

My husband has issued his first cooking challenge of 2011, due this weekend. I think you’ll all agree that it is appropriate for those of us who over-indulged during the holidays.

He has challenged me to make a salad, preferably including chicken, that will satisfy him as a meal. This is a bit of a personal challenge, since I am acquainted with my husband’s tastes in salad greens (limited) and dressing (the zestier, the better). I will probably end up combining ideas from many different recipes. Look for the results early next week.