An Easy Recipe For Eating Healthy

By Lewis Stonham

As you walk through the grocery store, pushing your cart, you can't help but notice all of the pre-prepared, pre-packaged meals that are on the shelf. While not exactly fast food, these products are convenience food. A majority of these prepackaged meals state on the box, just add meat and stir. With a little planning, a little thought you can create the same meal from fresh ingredients. These fresh ingredients constitute an easy recipe for eating healthy and your meal will taste better.

When food is pre-packaged and pre-prepared; preservatives, chemical flavorings and coloring are added to the product. These chemical compounds while not harmful in themselves can create a decidedly unhealthy diet. Fats taste good on the human palate. Prepackaged foods can be high in fat simply to make the food taste better.

People often state that the reason that they purchase the convenience foods is that they don't have time to cook. The reality is that meat must still be browned, pasta or potatoes must still be cooked and the concoction must be simmered for a period of time. Whether the product is pre-prepared or created from scratch, the time to cook the food remains the same.

Another reason for purchasing pre-prepared food is "I can't cook". Cooking is simply following directions. Most good cookbooks, Fannie Farmer and Betty Crocker for example, provide step by step instructions on how to create tasty wholesome meals from scratch. These cookbooks also include a glossary that explains terms for the novice cook. Read more...