Cooking

Cooking With Steve: Start With Something You Like

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Eating healthy is a pain for a lot of people. We’re not taught how. Advice often seems like it makes eating a chore. There’s also a lot of really tasty stuff that will also kill us – and is easy to prepare.

Now I do advise you to eat healthy, because let’s face it right now a lot of people are eating utter crap and killing themselves. Just reading about current health trends gives me bouts of empathetic hypochondria. That would also be a good band name.

One thing that has helped me that I can pass on is to start eating healthy, start with eating healthy foods you like.

Maybe you like carrots, or cherry tomatoes, or whatever. Take an inventory of things that you like to eat that are good for you (with appropriate research or consultation) and then start eating them more regularly. Reach for that plain yogurt with honey over a milkshake, or that homemade energy bar over a candy bar, or what have you.

You may just surprise yourself. There’s probably lots of stuff that’s good for you that you didn’t think about before.

This makes it a lot easier as you’re eating good things and thus have less room for bad things – and you’re not noticing the loss of deliciousness. If you find enough healthy foods you enjoy, you can flesh out your menu without feeling much sense of loss at all – and have the gain of feeling better and probably enjoying more natural tastes.

Here’s what I advise:

  • Take an inventory of healthy things you enjoy. Think them over because some things are not obviously healthy, some aren’t as healthy as we think, and some are good in moderation (like fatty but nutritious nuts). Also don’t forget some things are only bad to us due to additional things – maybe if you made your own low-fat vegetable dip you’d enjoy those carrots even more and be healthier.
  • Figure out how you can work in these healthy foods into your diet. If you like spinach salads see where you can work them in as a side dish. If you like peanut-butter-on-green-apple then you’ve got a healthy snack.
  • Rotate the foods you like so you don’t get sick of them – unless you find that’s not possible (I love cherry tomatoes, so I could eat them every other day).
  • Explore what related foods and similar foods may be out there that are also healthy and add them to your repertoire.
  • When you make a new discovery of something healthy-you-like add it to rotation. You may be surprised (I was surprised to find out how great Kale is for a salad).

So trying to eat healthy? Start with what you like – it’ll be easier on you.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Recipe: Spiced Peas And Polenta

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This is a quick dish that you can do a number of ways – honestly it’s more an outline than anything else. Give it a shot as it’s pretty easy.

  • 1 1/2 tsp spread (or butter/oil if you don’t mind the fat)
  • 1 1/4 cups frozen peas
  • Your favorite seasoning salt, curry powder, or about a tsp of soy sauce or your favorite sauce.
  • 1/4 cup quick-cook polenta
  • 1 cup water
  1. Put polenta, water, and 1 tsp spread/oil/etc. into microwave safe dish and cook as per directions until done. Warning polenta stays hot a long time.
  2. Unthaw peas. Add 1/2 tsp spread and a few dashes of seasoning or curry powder as preferred.  If you add sauce, leave the spread out. Mix thoroughly.
  3. Place peas atop polenta. Serve. I usually use use the bowl the polenta is in if possible.

That’s it.

This is a nice, easy dish that, due to the ingredients, has a sweet taste that goes very well with savory and spicy seasonings. You may need a bit of salt and pepper depending on your tastes.

I also found this goes really well with a more bitter side dish – like a Kale salad.  That sweet with the bitter and the kick of the dressing was fantastic!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

White Bean Vegetarian Chili

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This is a delightfully different, light, vegetarian chili.  It has a mild but pleasing spicy-sweet taste that is satisfying without being the same old chili flavor.

Makes 6 250 calorie servings or 5 300 calorie servings.

  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided
  • 1 large, white onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp crushed garlic
  • 3 cans (14 oz ea) low-no sodium white beans, about 5 cups
  • 1 1//2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 medium chopped seeded green chili (about 1/4 a cup not packed).
  • 2 Tbsps Soy sauce
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp dried cilantro
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  1. Sautee the onion in one Tbsp Olive oil until it softened.
  2. Add garlic to onion, stir regularly until onion and garlic begin to brown.
  3. Add all other ingredients except remaining olive oil’ lemon juice, and dried cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
  4. Bring to simmer, and simmer covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Add olive oil, cilantro, lemon juice, stir thoroughly. Bring to simmer.
  6. Remove from heat and serve.

Thats it.  Pretty simple – which is another thing I like about it!

You can freeze it pretty easily.  To unthaw it I’d let it unfreeze in a frigde or use microwave defrost a bit then cook it up to a light boil.

As for side dishes I’ve found it goes best with corn, corn chips, steamed broccoli with lemon juice, and (oddly) cherry tomatoes.  I don’t think it’d go good with rice, potatoes, or refritos.  It would probably be an excellent game day chili or event chili, and its thick, creamy broth would also be satisfying in winter – though it’s not too heavy.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.