Category Archives for Diet

Winter Warming Foods – Soups and Stews

By Theresa Harding (updated 1/24/21)

My Experience with Soups and Stews

During this time of year, I enjoy hanging out in the kitchen often, cooking up wholesome dishes like comforting winter soups and stews made from my homemade bone stocks and other winter warming foods. Homemade bone stocks are made from the bones of beef or poultry.

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The bones from these meats are simmered for up to 24 hours to produce a healing and flavorful, rich broth. This healing and warming broth can then be used to make soups and stews, and other foods requiring water to cook.  I like to add collagen powder to my broth to increase the health benefits.

Hearty Soups and stews can be easily started in the morning hours in a slow cooker and enjoyed by dinner time. These are great winter meals for the family. My family enjoys these slow-cooking dishes with a side of salad or steamed vegetables — at least once-a-week.

Here are some family-fun meals that can be enjoyed during the winter months. Hanging out in the kitchen for these dishes is no chore:

Winter Beef Stew

Beef Stew is best known as the “medicine” for the winter cold, this is a healthy winter soup that’s the best food for chilly weather, as stews are loaded with wholesome vegetables! Knowing that you’ll have plenty of anti-oxidant protection needed to keep your immunity up.

It is good to note that a winter beef stew can aid in common colds and flu viruses. They’re not a lot of work to prepare either. Simply add the ingredients to a slow cooker first thing in the morning and dinner is served by 5:00 pm!

Oxtail Stew for Winter Cooking

Oxtail Stew

Oxtail is also known as the cow’s tail. The fat, cartilage, and bone marrow give an abundance of flavor to oxtail stew. When cooked for a long period of time, the meat becomes very tender and can be enjoyed during the cold winter months.

This is my most favorite of the stews to prepare during winter. My family enjoys the flavor of the tender meat so much that I have to make a large batch of this stew to be enjoyed DAYS after it’s cooked.  I have my top ten winter foods for the winter if you want to know more foods to eat during the winter.

Not only are these foods great to eat during the winter, but oxtail stew for winter cooking is a hearty soup that also supports your immunity.  We need immune support when we move into the winter months, as the sun isn’t available to us a lot to keep us healthy.  It’s important to eat according to the seasons to keep your immunity strong.

I explain more in this blog post on how to keep your body virus-free during the winter months.  In this article, I share with you 9 ways to strengthen and support your immune system.  These are things I do for myself and my family every winter to keep us healthy and strong.

Chicken & Noodle Soup

I grew up eating chicken & noodle soup. This healthy winter soup was always the soup of choice when things were feeling dull. Chicken & noodle soup is a nourishing soup of nostalgia is a great dish to eat when fighting a cold during the cold/flu season.

It’s loaded with nutrients and vegetables to keep you feeling warm while aiding with the healing process. So the next time you’re feeling “under-the-weather”, have a bowl of chicken & noodle soup!

If you want to learn how to make a nutrient-dense, healing chicken broth, read the book “Nourishing Broth” by Sally Fallon”.  In this book, you will find many healthy, healing recipes and instructions on how to make a healthy bone stock for your chicken & noodle soups.

Winter Lentil Soup

Lentils are loaded with nutrition and my favorite lentils are the red ones, as I love the color in my soups.  I always keep these lentils on hand for my soups and salads.  They’re high in fiber, lean protein, and iron. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that eating plenty of nutrient-dense foods like lentils can lessen your risk of many serious medical problems.

Winter Lentil soup is very easy to prepare and doesn’t require a long soaking time like other beans. Rich in folate and iron, they’re a great choice of beans that require less cooking time.

Lentil soup is also used as a detox soup with added detox spices to aid the detox process.  It’s also known to help with healing the body overall.

Winter Spices 

Winter Herbs & Spices

Let’s not forget to add those winter spices to these delicious soups to top them off.  I like to add my favorite ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, onion powder, and seamoss powder to add minerals, flavor, and heat to my winter soups and stews.  These spices add antioxidants, heat, and minerals to the soups to boost them with dense nutrition.   

I personally add the sea moss for the 92 minerals that it contains, along with the thickness it adds to my soups.  There’s no need to add a flour mix to my soups when I add the sea moss, so it’s become a staple in my home.  We also add sea moss to our smoothies and other dishes.

We all know about the onions and their many uses for healing topically, for hair rinses, and for adding to winter soups and other dishes.  As Tasty explains, it does matter what kind of onions you use in your cooking, especially for these winter warming soups and stews.  I like to use yellow onions for my soups, but you may use what you prefer for your family, whether it be red, white or yellow onions.  You could also use the onion powder if the fresh onions are not favored.

Winter Herbs

When you’re fighting a cold or flu virus, you need these healing spices to help bring your body back into balance quickly and healthfully.  The fresh ginger root is known to have thermogenic properties that heat you up and can increase your metabolism and increase blood flow.  It’s been recommended to use to help with circulation.  Ginger root should be grated freshly for that added heat or if you prefer, there’s the ginger root powder that is not as strong but has some benefits too.

Garlic freshly diced or minced is an herb known to work in the body as a natural antibiotic and is recommended to help with healing from a cold or flu virus.  An article published by Healthline describes in detail how garlic aids with cold and flu.   You could also use garlic powder if you don’t like the strong flavor of fresh garlic.

It adds the natural healing properties to the soup while giving your body a boost in healing and warmth.  You will find these soups to not only be hot but heated with these herbs and spices.

Turmeric has a peppery taste and can be paired with ginger when added to soups, as this is the perfect combination for warming, healing winter soups.  You can find many recipes online that include turmeric as an added spice.  Grate fresh turmeric or use it grounded, as this spice is known for its anti-inflammatory and healing properties.  This spice is used in smoothies (my main use), soups, medicinal concoctions, etc. 

Summary

I hope you will try these healthy winter soups and stews as warming foods. These nutrient-dense soups will help support your immunity while providing many health benefits to keep you strong in the harshest season.  Be sure to add them to your seasonal menu to help you with the frigid frights of winter!  You could also read more from Sally Fallon’s book, “Nourishing Broth“, where she teaches all about making bone broths the traditional way.  I use this book as a reference to make my own soups, stews, and broths.

However, if you find that you don’t have time, you can purchase bone broth online if that’s easier for you.  I like this brand when I purchase it myself.

These soups and stews will get you well on your way to making hearty soups this winter season, and more to come.  The winter season is the time to make adjustments to your diet to align with the cold season.  It’s always a good idea to eat foods that are in season so that your body will adjust to climate change. 

Eating foods out of season can deprive your body of the nutrient-rich foods that nature provides for us at the proper time.  Foods in-season are mineral-rich and nutrient-dense.  Focus on nature and the abundance it provides for us.

What’s your favorite warming winter food?

Resources & References

https://tasty.co/article/christinebyrne/onions-are-not-created-equal

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.allrecipes.com/

http://www.health.com/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/garlic-fights-colds-and-flu

Detox Your Diet for Better Health

 

By Theresa Harding

When I first started my journey to “clean eating”, I wanted to know if I needed to detox my diet for better health and start with a “clean slate” in my diet.  I consulted with a nutritional coach who informed me that it was not necessary to start with a clean slate.  I just needed to make some easy adjustments and replacements.  

All I needed to do was stop buying what I was buying for groceries, and change my grocery list to “whole food” choices.  So with a few adjustments, and many phone consultations, I changed my diet and lifestyle to achieve a healthy body.

The Diet Detox Process

Did I detox?  In a sense yes!  I felt I needed to.  I wanted to eliminate inflammation, brain fog, fatigue, constipation, and some other symptoms that go along with the need to detox.  I also needed to detox our pantry and refrigerator.  I eliminated unhealthy juices, packaged processed snacks, and unhealthy food choices.  

It wasn’t as hard as I perceived a detox diet would be.  I learned to make healthy choices of food for our family.  We also removed toxic cleaning products and replaced them with Eco-friendly cleaning products.

How I Did a Diet Detox

Knowing what to buy wasn’t easy, as it required lots of label-reading and knowing what ingredients were known toxins.  Since I obviously knew some of the products we usually purchased were toxic, I already knew which products I would replace in our home.  

That was more than 10 years ago, and some products were not easy to find in most grocery stores.   Today, many grocers sell Eco-friendly cleaning products and organic foods that at one time could only be found at Health Food Stores.  

The Results of My Diet Detox

Over a period of time, we had a new way of green living that gave us better health results than before the diet detox, and product changes.  The next time you think of transitioning to better health, don’t focus so much on the changes you’ll have to make, focus on the results you will get when you replace the “bad” for the “good”.

Have you tried to detox your diet?  What was your experience?

Learn how to detox your diet in this free eCourse, The Diet Makeover.  I guide you step-by-step as you remove the unhealthy foods and replace them with healthier selections.  Get started today!

 

Transform your Diet from Nutrient-Deficient To Nutrient-Dense

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How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

By Theresa Harding (updated September 2019)

Now that you’ve made up your mind about transitioning to a lifestyle change of clean eating, you see a higher spending category in your good budget.  If you want to learn more about how to eat healthy on a budget then keep reading.  I learned very shortly how to do this after spending lots of money on food in the beginning of my healthy eating journey.

How to Eat Healthy on a Tight Budget

Here’s what I did when I first transitioned to a healthier lifestyle.  I noticed that children tend to lean more to eating snack foods over a full-cooked meal throughout the day.  I took a look at the kind of snacks we were buying, and we noticed they were mostly sugar-laden, puddings, fruit snacks, gogurt cups, granola bars, etc. 

Those snacks are convenient but have way over 10 grams of sugar added to them.  A great rule-of-thumb in choosing snacks is to never exceed 10 grams of sugar in a serving of sweet snacks.

To save money, we swapped the unhealthy snacks for healthier ones and limited the frequency and servings of the snacks.  By setting boundaries, it was easier for us to monitor how often our kids were eating snacks throughout the day.

We also noticed that we didn’t run out of the snacks so fast, with the new boundaries in place.  Our kids soon started to accept that they could not eat excessively a particular snack they favored.  This also meant that we didn’t have to buy as many packaged snacks each shopping trip.

We increased our fruit and raw vegetable servings and stopped buying most of the sugary snacks.  We did, however, allow a treat every now and then. 

It’s important to remember that treats should never be given on a regular basis.  If you want to eliminate the overuse of sugar in your family’s diet, it’s best to limit the intake and make them a treat. 

We started encouraging our children to eat fresh apple slices and fruit smoothies, for instance, to snack on.  You can read more here about how I got my family on board with healthy eating. 

They didn’t like the change, but after about 2 weeks of complaining, they got used to the change.  Again, it’s a lifestyle change and you can do it too if you’re ready.

Start Your Own Garden

When we first moved into our home, the first thing we did was purchase seeds to start our own garden.  We wanted to save money on homegrown organic produce and we did!  If you want to save money on healthy food, consider growing your own food.

You can find lots of information online to guide you through the process of starting a garden.  This is a really good book that teaches you how to start a garden that thrives.  By growing your own food, you can enjoy the fresh taste of vine-ripened fruits and vegetables. 

Having your own garden minimized the risk of the contamination of pesticides or herbicides known to cause gastrointestinal problems and other health problems they cause.

If you can’t start your own garden, and only want to grow your own herbal garden, this book teaches you how to do that too.  you can find homegrown produce in your local farmer’s market.  We shopped for our products in the local farmer’s markets and found some really great deals.  If you’re concerned about buying organic food, but don’t want to spend the extra money, you can find organic foods from the local farmers.

Not only will you find organic food from the local farmer’s market, but the food is fresher and tastes better.  Most growers in your area don’t use pesticides, but you can ask them what kind of bug repellents they use.  That’s what makes shopping from the farmer’s markets beneficial.  You’ll have the ability to talk to the growers and get answers about the food they’re selling, that’s a bonus!

If you’re not sure how to start your own home garden, here is a great article by Better Homes and Gardens to help you get started.  They share some tips on how to get you started for success.  You could even subscribe to their page to get more tips emailed to you.

Buy Food In Season

There’s nothing better than seasonal produce.  During each season around the year, food grows according to what our body needs in that season.  When we eat foods out-of-season, we give our body foods that don’t line up with that particular season. 

The con to this is that your body doesn’t receive the minerals it needs to thrive healthily in that season.  In his article, Dr. Mercola shares some ways to save money on quality foods that’ll give you more information.  Not only is this not good for us, but it’s also bad for our pockets. 

The food costs more when purchased out-of-season so you don’t save money.  For instance, eating melons during the winter season adds more cooling to your body and it costs more!  We should be consuming warming foods like root vegetables during the winter months, not cooling foods.  This is why it’s important to consume food in season.

The Cheapest Most Nutritious Food

The cheapest most nutritious food is whole foods in their natural form.  Fresh fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, bananas, carrots, celery, cucumbers, nuts, and seeds.  These foods can be purchased in their natural forms and prepared in many different ways.

I like to keep things simple and prepare these foods in simple forms, such as roasting nuts with sea salt.  I like to slice cucumbers and have them with a hummus dip or just sprinkled with sea salt.  Kids love these snacks as well!  There’s a lot of money saved in snacking this way.

What snacks can your family do without?  Add more fruit to your grocery list, eliminate the juice, and eliminate the unhealthy snacks and you will see a decrease in your grocery budget.  Do the same for cereal. 

Cook oatmeal instead, even make overnight oatmeal if you’re pressed for time in the morning.  You’ll balance out your grocery budget with the “out with the bad, in with the good” method, in no time.

Foods We Removed From Our Grocery List

Here’s a list of foods we no longer purchase on a regular basis, they are given as “treats” on occasion:  Sweet cereals, yogurt cups (I buy organic plain and add fresh or dried fruit, or add to smoothies), granola bars, unless they contain less than 10 grams of sugar, pudding cups, fruit snacks (you could try fruit leathers, in moderation), juice (drink more water), and flavored chips. 

Try this and they won’t look for unhealthy snacks anymore.  I had to get used to the prices of whole foods and realize that I was actually saving money.  I understood that I could make my own healthy snacks with whole foods instead of spending more money on processed foods. You can read how to detox your diet here.

It’s always best to make your own, this way you know what’s in the food and you don’t spend more than your budget.  This was fun because I would make my own fast food selections that I used to buy for our family, but ours tasted fresher.

Summary

With some small changes step-by-step, you can begin a healthy eating journey for your family.  Healthy eating on a budget is not impossible to do.  Explain to everyone that they can have a choice in the changes and help prepare foods with you.  It takes some getting used to, but it is possible.

What are some ways you eat healthy on a budget?

Resources and References

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/30/5-ways-to-afford-whole-foods-on-a-budget.aspx

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/vegetable/vegetables/tips-for-growing-an-organic-vegetable-garden/

Clean Eating Tips for Your Family

By Theresa Harding (updated 9/2/19)

Finding Healthy Foods Without the Hassle is Possible

Shopping for healthy food doesn’t have to become a daunting task.  In this article, I will share with you simple clean eating tips for your family, as it’s not as difficult as it sounds.  For most of us, it’s an adventure, as we learn of new and different food choices there are in our local market. 

Patience, planning, and consistency will score you better deals and success in your efforts.   The one key thing to remember is, you may not find your entire grocery list from one single store. 

When I shop for food, I usually find my complete shopping list from up to 3 different grocery stores.  You will find that you might have to do the same.  This is because all grocery stores have different inventory of foods and so they are not consistent from store-to-store. 

You might find one type of produce in one store, and you won’t see that type of produce in another store.  So then, you will have to go to your next best store choice to find what you need.

This post contains affiliate links which means I will receive a small commission at no charge to you when you click a link to purchase.

How to Start a Clean Eating Diet 

When I first started my healthy eating journey, I didn’t know what I’d find in my favorite stores.  I purchased my first bag of organic apples and I remember feeling so proud of myself.  I thought for sure I’d win the “mother of the year award”, lol!  Then I went to Whole Foods store and spent $50 to $75 more on groceries! 

I was trying to continue buying my usual 4 boxes of cereals, but the “healthier” brands cost more.  I thought healthy eating meant only shopping at the health food stores.  Once I went to my neighborhood grocer, I actually found some of the same brands of food at a lower price.

As you can see, this healthy way of shopping starts small.  Start purchasing one food group at-a-time until you feel comfortable with this shopping routine.  Then, over time, you can replace one unhealthy food choice with a healthy version.  For example, I used to purchase white flour, but I switched to purchasing whole grain flour. 

Instead of non-organic apples, I chose organic apples.  This is the pattern I followed.  For every one product you currently purchase, you just swap it out for a healthy version.  Instead of buying boxed potato buds, I purchased the whole potatoes and prepared my own mashed potatoes. 

This was not a tough process for me because I really wanted to eliminate the health challenges we were struggling with due to making the wrong food choices. 

The health challenges among my family members were High Cholesterol, severe Eczema, overweight, High blood Pressure, Abnormal Pap Smears, and Subclinical Hypothyroidism.  Most of these were diet-related and could be reversed with a healthier, clean-eating diet, and it worked!

Can You Lose Weight By Eating Clean?

Clean Foods May Promote Weight Loss

It is possible to experience some weight loss when eating clean.  The reason is that you swap out your unhealthy snacks that are loaded with artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and chemical food coloring.  These unhealthy ingredients also known as food additives cause all kinds of health problems like food allergies,  food sensitivities, food addictions, food cravings, and weight gain.

There is research that shows how a food additive called propionate can cause insulin resistance.  This food additive is used in many foods like cereals, dairy and egg-based desserts, some sausages, sports drinks, etc.  These food additives are known to present a risk factor to causing obesity in many.

An article published by Science Daily explains how an added ingredient known as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is linked to obesity.  This food enhancer is added to many foods like Chinese food, Processed food, canned soups, and many others. 

This ingredient is known to be an addictive additive, causing more hunger and food craving.  This, in turn, causes unwanted weight gain in many.  

When I was struggling with helping my son lose weight, I found that MSG was in most of the foods in my home.  Once I started buying more whole, clean foods, my family’s food cravings went away.  We were also making healthier food choices to keep us satiated without the need for dessert after every meal!

How to Remove Bad Additives 

To eliminate this ingredient from your life and end one of your struggles with unnecessary food cravings and weight gain, go through all your canned foods.  If you find MSG in the ingredients list, toss it.  This is what I did.  Seriously do an inventory of your pantry and refrigerator with a pen and note pad in hand.

Write down all foods you will replace with healthier choices so you can strategically go throughout the grocery store without wasting time trying to remember which foods to replace.  I did this and it saved me so much time in the stores. 

Instead of buying canned soups, I now purchase bulk pasta, organic chicken flavoring, dried herbs and spices, and fresh carrots and celery to create my own soups. 

It’s really simple if you’re patient, as you’ll soon learn that homemade taste better-it’s fresher and your family will appreciate the love you put into your home-cooked meals.  Your body will start adjusting to your healthy way of eating and soon you’ll notice the food cravings will disappear along with the unwanted weight.  I’ve seen this happen with many people I share this information with.

Ways to Find Healthy Food

You don’t have to shop at specialty stores for natural and organic foods today.  With the major competition in the food industry, many grocery chains sell natural and organic brands of food.  Just choose 2-3 of your favorite stores and make a list of your favorite foods you find in each of those stores, and shop their sales each week, using their weekly Circular. 

Always shop from your local Farmers Market in your neighborhood.  A lot of the produce sold at farmers’ markets is organic unless the seller tells you they used chemical sprays on their crops.  You can ask questions as you’re shopping as a way to learn where your food comes from and the methods used to grow them.  This is as close to Clean Eating as it gets!

We love shopping at farmers’ markets, as we find it fun to get to know the sellers and learn more about their farming methods.  You learn to appreciate your food more from this experience.  That’s always been our experience. 

You can always grow your own by starting a garden.  This can be done in your backyard, in a small space like on your patio in large pots, or even on your back porch in pots.  The possibilities are endless!  I’ve even seen someone grow herbs in their cookware!

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget 

Healthy Eating on a Budget

My biggest concern when I changed my way of shopping is the price of the food I needed.  I didn’t want to spend too much on food, but I did want cleaner food, so I had to learn how to eat healthy on a budget. 

To counter this, I stopped buying processed snack foods and started buying more fruits and vegetables, which actually balanced out my grocery bill.  I found that as I swapped out my unhealthy foods for the healthier choices, my grocery bill almost balanced out.

My shopping cart used to be about 80% processed foods and 20% of whole foods.  I spent unnecessary amounts on processed, boxed foods that were sometimes pricey per item!  Trading in unhealthy foods and snacks for fresh produce wasn’t so expensive after all! 

Instead of buying fruit juices, we now buy fresh fruit and the cost is a balance because we bought more processed food than fresh.   This is how we did it.

Many grocery chains run sales on a rotating schedule throughout the month.  You must pay close attention when your favorite products go on sale again to know how much to stock up on, so you’ll have enough of that product for the next sale.  Use store and manufacturer’s coupons if you have the patience for them and you’ll be well on your way to seeing savings in your grocery bill.

Summary

1. Plan your meals around the foods on sale for that week.  You’ll find many deals on organic foods.  This is how we save tremendously! 
2. Stock up when your favorite products go on sale. 
3. Learn the sales cycles of your favorite store.  Some stores promote sales every 4 to 6 weeks. 
4. Once you learn their sales cycle, you can shop on those specific days to save a lot of money.

What are some ways that you save money on natural and organic foods?

References

https://www.livescience.com/49949-food-additives-cause-inflammation.html

http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/about-codex/en/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325034.php

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080813164638.htm

A healthy diet is one key component that can affect the state of our mind.  We must nourish our mind by eating nutrient-dense foods daily.  If you need to improve your current diet from a nutrient deficient one to a nutrient-dense one, I have a free Diet Makeover course that teaches you step-by-step how to do this.  This is what I did to change the health of my family and I know it will help you too.  Click below to get started.

Get Terry’s FREE Diet Makeover Course