Healthy Eating At Dinner In Less Than 30 Minutes
After a long hard day at work who amongst us has the time to prepare and cook a healthy dinner? This is the main reason why a lot of people opt to grab a fast meal at a fast food restaurant on the way home from work. Fast food is easy, after all there is no preparation and no work.
The problem is that most fast food meals are unhealthy for your body to consume on a regular basis. Do you think that people would eat healthier at dinner time if they could have dinner prepared and ready to eat in under 30 minutes?
Getting a healthy dinner ready and on the table in under 30 minutes may not seem like a possible feat to most individuals but it can be done and without breaking too much of a sweat. How, you ask? In order to make a healthy dinner in under 30 minutes you must be willing to do a little bit of planning and organizing. There are a few things that you can do to achieve this healthy meal in less than 30 minutes and here are some tips on doing just that.
First of all it takes a little planning and making out of a shopping list. Take the list to the store with you and use it, but be flexible because you never know what the produce will look like, or when a totally delectable food item calls out to you. Try new recipes and expand your ability to add new colors and textures to your meals, which will tempt your family to eat more healthy foods.
Another way to trim time is to have your recipes organized so that you know where they are when you need them. Pull out the ones where the prep time is low (under 30 minutes).
If your recipes are in various cookbooks, use tabs or stickies to find them easily. If you use recipe cards have them in categories or arranged alphabetically so that you can find them, whichever is better for you.
If you clip magazine recipes, tape them to thicker paper and organize them by category so that you can make them into a sort of cookbook. Put them into a notebook or binder. You can also make up a recipe file with folders and tabs to throw recipe cards or clippings from magazines into .
For those of you who like to collect their recipes on the Internet, have a favorites folder marked “Recipes” for all your recipes, and have a folder for each food group or category.
Now that you have your recipes organized let’s move on to planning your menus.
Go through your favorite cookbook, or recipe file (listed above) and select some dishes that you want to include in your weekly menus. Make sure you chose a variety of colors and textures. Pick side dishes, main courses, fruits, salads, breads or rolls. Don’t forget cheese to go with your fruit.
Use these menus to write up your shopping list. Mark down the page # of the recipe next to the meal so that you can easily refer to it when needed.
If you know the store well you can make out your shopping list based on how you walk the aisles. Once you have a list that works well, photocopy it and use it as a master (make several copies and have these on hand).
Use a notebook for the shopping list and use the same notebook each week. You will have a handy record of your menus and your shopping list.
Prepare foods ahead of time and store them safely according to food guidelines until needed. You can chop enough carrots for all meals that week at one time, same with potatoes. Double recipes and make two dinners at once, freezing one for another fast meal later in the week.
Blueberries And Their Health Benefits
‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is an old adage that may well be true, but studies have now confirmed that blueberries have far more beneficial health effects than apples.
Let’s take a look at the health benefits of blueberries.
Blueberries ranked the highest in antioxidant properties, and have been proven to aid in the anti-aging process. Moreover, blueberries are known to restrict the harmful effects that free radicals can cause. Not all free radicals are considered harmful, but some can cause damage to our cells, as well as cause various types of cancer. The older we become, the more difficult it is to safeguard against these free radicals. By consuming blueberries, we have a better chance of minimizing the damage.
Have you become forgetful? You know, you’ve misplaced the car keys or just can’t remember somebody’s name? Well the good news is that blueberries, consumed on a daily basis in a bowl of cereal, for example, can improve memory.
Blueberries have also been shown to lower cholesterol, which is a major health problem facing many people today. Research has proved that a specific component in blueberries reduces the chances of urinary tract infections by preventing bacteria from lining the walls of the urinary tract.
Blueberries have effective anti-inflammatory, anti-blood clotting, and antibacterial effects. In fact, they have been used to treat cases of diarrhea and food poisoning.
Studies have also shown that blueberries can improve eyesight, and are thought to help in reducing eye fatigue.
Researchers feel there is a great chance that blueberries can help in the fight against obesity and heart disease. But the most exciting news is that they may be linked in the fight against cancer.
A half cup of blueberries a day can make all the difference in fighting off potential health problems. The next time you go shopping at the supermarket, pick up a pound of fresh blueberries or a bag of frozen blueberries. You’ll love the taste of the blueberries and they will do your health the power of good.
Turkey, Vegetable and Rice Medley
Ingredients:
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1 tablespoon low fat canola oil
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 pound boneless turkey breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, drained
Instructions:
Heat canola oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper and celery. Cook 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender to your liking. Add turkey and continue to cook until turkey is no longer pink. Reduce heat to low. Add tomatoes. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until turkey is cooked completely through. Bring water to a boil over high heat. Add rice. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Serve turkey and vegetables over hot rice.
Tip: Turkey is known for its calming agents.
Additional Nutritional Information:
Calories: 329 Total Fat: 4.8g Cholesterol: 53mg Sodium: 201mg Total Carbs: 47.2g Dietary Fiber: 2.2g Protein: 22.9g
Lifestyle changes since my stroke
I’ve made a number of lifestyle changes since my stroke. If I’d known I was going to have a stroke, I would have made them earlier. Then I wouldn’t have had a stroke in the first place.
Smoking.
I stopped smoking. And yes it’s corny I know, but I stopped smoking at a stroke 
They wouldn’t let me smoke in intensive care and once I got out of hospital I didn’t want to smoke. I knew it had been a big contributor to my condition and that if I kept smoking I could very easily end up in intensive care again. And I have no desire to end up there again thanks very much.
Bear in mind that I had smoked since I was 14 years old. That’s 35 years of smoking between 20 and (at my ‘peak’) 60 cigarettes a day. And I stopped just like that.
If you’ve tried to stop smoking and failed, try again. You can do it.
If I can stop smoking, anybody can. Seriously.
Exercise
I started to exercise. Prior to my stroke, about the only exercise I got was walking from the car to the front door. Now I go for a one mile walk every single morning in the park. And I’ve got to admit it makes me feel much better. Plus I do some of my best thinking when I’m walking round.
Diet
I changed my diet. The biggest change was in the red meats, they haven’t totally bitten the dust but I eat far less steaks and hamburgers these days and more chicken and fish. I eat a lot more vegetables and fruits as well. I concentrate on things that are good for me, not just things that I like.
A lot of the stuff I eat now doesn’t come in a packet. Nor does it get delivered by Domino’s.
All of this is designed to lower my blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
One other change is that I take a lot of pills as well, if you shook me I would rattle.
If I’d made the lifestyle changes earlier, I wouldn’t need the pills.
Change your lifestyle now and you won’t need to bother with the pills.
7 Tips for Living a Stress Free Life
Stress is a funny old thing, some people will tell you that they can’t live with it, while just as many people it seems will insist that they simply can’t live without it. In any event, there’s no doubt that the fact of the matter is that stress can and does cause serious health issues, and should be avoided wherever possible.
Here are seven tips to help you live a stress free life.
Control. If you have an A type personality, the odds are that you are a perfectionist, and as a consequence experience stress most of the time. Control only those things that you can, and leave the rest to fate.
Negativity. If you surround yourself with negative people, or if you have a negative attitude, then you’re always going to be in a stressful mode. Look on the bright side of things. Think positive, be confident, and empower yourself to drive away all the factors that bring negativity into your life.