Cooking for Health

This post is a few weeks late because I changed my schedule around - had to carve out some time in order to make my 5AM spin class before work. Luckily, it's never too late to try something new!

When cooking for health, it's important to have a guideline for how much of each food group you should consume.

Not sure? Hold up your hand and count down with me:

• 5 servings of fruits/vegetables
• 4 servings of dairy
• 3 servings of protein
• 2 servings of whole grains
• 1 serving of "extra" stuff - dessert, drink/wine, etc.

This is just a guideline, you can add or subtract whatever you feel your body needs to thrive.

To ensure I get these servings in, oftentimes, my go-to is a salad. I try to eat one for lunch and almost always make sure to have one before dinner. Growing up, it was practically tradition at my home to have a salad before each meal. My family packs the spring greens full of tomatoes, mozzarella, radishes, onions, chives, and more. Sometimes I mix it up with blueberries and walnuts. It makes for a delicious preamble to the main course.

And for tonight's main course, I'm excited to share my newest creation - chicken curry over brown rice. My friend made this for me and it was sensational so I decided to try my own hand at it. I ended up combining her recipe with a couple others:

Allrecipes

Onceuponachef

I used Greek yogurt and coconut milk instead of heavy cream, which is what the recipe called for originally. I also made brown rice instead of Basmati because sometimes you have to cook with what you've got :)

You can see here, I've already covered my protein, grain, and even dairy. Like I said before, it's all about balance. Once you find some recipes that fit your tastes and my 5-4-3-2-1 rule, you'll be on your way to cooking for health too.

#healthhack
Eat off of a smaller plate or bowl
It helps with portion control and leaves you more satisfied with a clean dish