Healthy Meals For Your Busy Life Cookbook

INTRODUCTION

“What’s for dinner?” When you face the demands of a busy day, cooking isn’t always in the cards, but there is a way to get scratch results without scratch efforts. If you want to prepare nutritious, delicious, and satisfying home-cooked meals but don’t have time, this book is for you. It takes the guesswork out of how to shop for the healthiest foods and prepare balanced meals in a snap. The recipes and meals incorporate a mix of fresh wholesome ingredients and the healthiest convenience items, including fresh, frozen, canned, and dried foods to boost health and save time.

The Ultimate Guide

Forget the Guesswork Not only does Healthy Meals for Your Busy Life make healthy food shopping and preparation easier, it takes the guesswork out of meal planning. How many times have you prepared a dish and wondered what to pair it with? Here you’ll find recipes grouped into balanced meals and menus, with a wide array of choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks and desserts. Every food group is represented, from beef, chicken and fish, to pork, veal, lamb, and vegetarian. You’ll also find an assortment of menus for special events, such as a backyard barbecue, a Mexican fiesta, a formal dinner party, and more. Your guests will love these tasty, satisfying and healthy menus. The best part is: they’ll never know you had a little help from convenience.

Conveniently Healthy

Today’s farm to fork trends include heading to the farm for pesticide-free produce and grass-fed meats, cooking them from scratch and avoiding all processed foods. But in the time-starved, hectic world we live in, reality dictates that this is not always possible and most of us need a little help from convenience. Unfortunately the terms “convenience” or “processed” have a bad stigma, as they tend to conjure up images of whoopie pies, donuts and cheese puffs – obviously not the most nutritious choices. However, the time-saving products used in this book, such as frozen vegetables, dairy products, canned fruits and more are technically processed, yet have the ability to provide our bodies with an abundance of beneficial nutrients. In addition, manufacturers are becoming more socially responsible than ever before, populating the grocery shelves with an ever-increasing amount of healthier products every day.

Credible Approach

Forget about fad diets. You can feel good about serving these recipes and meals to your family and guests, because they are based on the latest nutrition recommendations. Many requirements for both children and adults are met with this one book, including people who want to boost their energy, improve performance, control weight, and help prevent illness. Each recipe and meal includes a detailed nutrient analysis, highlighting calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, fiber, and more. In addition, all meals meet the following criteria, which is based on the latest scientific evidence and endorsed by leading health professionals and organizations: • Less than 600 calories • Less than 30 calories from total fat or less than 15 grams • Less than 10 percent calories from saturated fat or no more 3 grams • Zero Trans Fat • Less than 100 milligrams cholesterol • Less than 900 milligrams sodium • At least 4 grams fiber

Delicious and Satisfying Healthy Meals for Your Busy Life Cookbook is based on the premise that great food does not have to be unhealthy and healthy food needn’t be boring. The recipes and meals address an important feature: “filling you up,” so you can refocus your thinking from “diet and deprivation” to “eating and satisfaction.” You can enjoy full portions of popular favorites prepared with a delicious healthy twist. French toast, burgers, pizza, fries, fajitas, and even cheesecake are included.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Part I: Smart Supermarket Shopping This section contains information on how to select the healthiest products in the supermarket. It includes tips on reading labels, interpreting marketing claims and deciphering ingredient lists. Parts II and III: Meal Planning and Recipes Part II includes balanced meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as menus for entertaining. They are created using the recipes from Part III and a wide variety of healthy branded products. Brand names: The brands represented in this book have been chosen due to their strong nutrient profile. Although the nutrient analysis is based on these selected brands, they are examples only, and there are other healthy products on the market which can be used in their place. Use the techniques outlined in Part I of this book to select the healthiest ones.

Preparation Time Icons

These are located next to each meal to indicate the approximate time it takes for hands-on preparation. Note that this does not include the time needed for the food to sit while marinating or cooking

Substitutions: At the bottom of some recipes and meals, suggestions are made for alternate products to ensure convenience, and efficiency. • Substitute Suggestions: If certain products used in the recipes or meals are not available, suggestions are made for alternatives. • Time Saving Substitutions: Suggestions to replace certain ingredients are provided in order to further reduce the time of preparation • Dessert Suggestions: Ideas for desserts are included for some of the meals.

Nutrient analysis: Each recipe and meal combination provide detailed nutrient analysis, highlighting calories, fat, saturated and trans fat, cholesterol, protein, carbohydrate, sodium, and fiber. Keep in mind the following information as you review the nutrient analysis: • Brand names identified and used in the body of the recipes are calculated in the nutrient analysis • The Nutrient analysis reflects only those products and ingredients included in the body of the recipe or meal, not the substitutions or add-on suggestions.

• If ingredient choices are provided, nutrient analysis includes the first one listed. • The nutrient content of meat is based on lean meat trimmed of all visible fat. • The nutrient analysis is based on the prepared product rather than raw ingredients, because a cooked product can yield a different amount and nutrient profile and the prepared product is what you ultimately consume. • When marinades are used, only the amount absorbed by the item being marinated is included in the nutrient analysis. Again, this more accurately reflects analysis based on an item “as consumed.” • Many non-stick aerosol cooking sprays on the market are free of artificial additives and preservatives, but if you want to use a non-aerosol form, place canola or olive oil in a mister or pump bottle.

Part IV: The Healthy Food Mix What makes this book healthy? The underlying nutrition theory is credible and endorsed by dietitians and other health professionals. Part IV explains this theory in a clear and concise way making it easy to understand and apply.