Don't Forget the Flavor!

Food is an experience.  Flavor, texture, aroma, and sound.  Take a moment to close your eyes and re-visit one of your favorite dishes or foods.  Does it take you back to a moment, surrounded by family, all joyously feasting on the lovingly prepared dishes of a holiday meal?  Does it take you to a quiet, tender moment in a fancy restaurant savoring an exquisite dish with someone special to you?  Does it take you to a weekend breakfast, flour and eggs strewn about the kitchen, still in your pajamas Saturday morning?  Or is it the crunch and spicy kick of chips and salsa while watching Sunday football?  Or the burst of crisp, sweet-tart juice into your cheek with the first bite of a fresh orchard picked apple? Why does remembering a favorite food or dish come with a scene, a place, a time, a feeling?  Because food is an experience.

When we’re working on trimming our waistline, it’s easy to forget sometimes that we are allowed to enjoy the food we eat.  People will tell me they’re bored of their “healthy” diet.  How does that happen when there are so many choices, foods, and flavors out there?

Don’t get stuck in a rut or think you have to cut the flavor to be healthy.  A classic “healthy” dish that I hear repeated over and over…and over again is a plain baked chicken breast with brown rice and green beans.  I would get bored and find this dish bland over time too.  Yes, this would be healthy and even good from time to time, but healthy does not stop here.  You can cook dishes with flavors, sauces, marinades, and spices.  You can cook casseroles and other mixed dishes without making them “bad for you.”  Sometimes families even make two separate meals because the cook feels like what they are making for everyone else would not “fit” in their diet.  I never hope for this to happen, leaving the cook feeling burdened by their healthy food choice.  Meal time can be a special family time too.  Not only can we enjoy a nutritious meal together, but we can share stories about the day and build stronger bonds without the distraction of everything else going on in our busy lives.

Just approach your meal making with a good-for-you focus.  Use a classic recipe and switch up some ingredients to offer some relief from too much fat, sugar, and calories.  You could swap out full-fat dairy for low fat or fat free versions, you could find whole grain versions of pantry staples like breads and pastas, you could reduce the sugar by 1/3 and likely not even notice, you could replace a red meat with chicken or turkey, you could swap in onions and garlic for too much salt, you could swap in beans for meat on occasion, you could bump up the veggies and have a smaller amount of a richer dish, or you could simply reduce how much of an ingredient you use (like cheese for topping a dish).  Some swaps are more noticeable than others, but find the dishes and swaps that work for you and your family then enjoy in controlled portions. 

For example, one of our favorite dishes is a low fat enchiladas recipe.  Oh man, I like enchilada night!  It transports me to a Mexican restaurant.  These enchiladas are creamy and spicy and oh so filling.  We use fat-free sour cream and cream cheese, green onions and spices, boneless-skinless chicken breasts, whole wheat tortillas, salsa (could use fresh-made or low sodium to make even better), and light sprinklings of reduced fat cheese.  There was no going bare bones tortilla with a few strips of chicken and a little salsa.  No, we kept the flavor alive, but made ingredient decisions that kept the overall fat and calories controlled.  With some extra veggies on the side our meal is complete.

It may take a little extra time and creativity to cook a more healthy diet with flavor, but it is absolutely worth it!  Along the way you may even discover foods and flavors you never knew or thought you would like.  Ditching the flavor, cooking two separate meals, and incorporating little variety will not help you stick to your new way of eating long term.  Meld your taste preferences and new nutrition focus to create food experiences that you’ll remember.  Create food experiences to help you make this a lifelong way of eating that will support your weight loss and wellness goals, not just a quick, “I can make it through,” diet.