If ever there was a time to eat with purpose, it is now.
COVID is spreading like a bullet train through our communities and…
every bite we take can help us fight this virus or invite it to take hold.
Over the last week, Thrive has been featuring COVID-busting shopping lists & meal ideas aimed at boosting your immunity and strengthen your respiratory system.
But with the curve continuing to rise, we have to protect our vulnerable more than ever and STAY HOME.
Moreover, we’ve got to be super economical with how we spend our supermarket dollars because the COVID recession will continue to hit us hard for months, if not years, to come.
So how do we make healthy meals from our non-perishables and pantry items that will support our physical and mental health?
How do we maximise the nutrient content of our meals on a budget?
SHOP SMART
Head to the supermarket with your meal plan for the week in mind. This bit of planning will mean you only buy what you need - not what you want.
As part of that meal plan, make sure you have planned to have a protein, carbohydrate and vegetable with each meal in order to maximise your nutritional bang for buck. Tinned fish (in BPA-free tins) is perfectly fine, as are beans and pulses. And go for the cheaper cuts of meats.
When shopping for veggies - prioritise the ones that keep you full the longest and buy less of the ones that will go bad faster or wilt down to nothing. Swap out your white carbs, e.g. potatoes, pasta & rice for nutrient dense carbs like sweet potato, squash & brown rice.
EAT SMART
In times of crisis, our primal selves switch into survival mode:
FILL THE BELLY. DOESN’T MATTER WITH WHAT. JUST DON’T STARVE.
And so, we binge buy pasta and rice and use these ingredients as the bulk of our meals. Unfortunately, these meals have little nutritional value and do not serve to boost your immune system or lower inflammation in the body. Nor do they support your mental health during this stressful time.
I have a mantra I use a lot in my nutritional practice:
“Don’t give it up. TRADE UP.”
We are so used to applying this mantra to other aspects of our life.
Is this the best phone I can buy? The best university I can go to? The best job I can have? The best relationship I can be in? But we don’t think of food this way. We dream about buying the latest iPhone, whilst eating a zero-value breakfast in real life, like toast and black coffee.
The extent to which you can trade up your meal will depend on your budget, but there are THREE really easy ways to reduce your supermarket bill whilst boosting the nutrition value of your meals:
Reduce your protein portion to the size of your fist. These days, you’re welcome to even reduce it further and embrace the opportunity for a detox by eating less protein and carbs and more veggies. Veggies are also cheap & will add more nutrtitional value than white carbs, thereby helping you stay healthy. And if you stay healthy, you’ll have less sick days, be more productive and increase your earning potential.
STOP snacking. Those protein bars, chips, fancy popcorn & lattes are expensive! And they do nothing for your mid-section.
Finally - CHEW SLOWLY and eat mindfully. Chances are you eat way too much on a daily basis and could reduce your portions by a third if you just took the time to listen to your body and pay attention to when it’s full.
COOK SMART
I hate throwing away food — these days more than ever.
Those broccoli stems you were going to bin - DON’T. That water you used to boil your green beans, cauliflower or broccoli - don’t throw it away. All these scraps of fresh produce - add some bones (or not) & use it to make stock.
When you use this stock to cook your beans or carbs, you then exponentially increase the nutritional value of your meal.
I also make my own tomato sauce and add extra veggies and garlic to boost its nutritional value. You’re welcome to use my superfood tomato sauce recipe, passed down by my grandmother.
That’s a wrap, friends.
Follow Thrive’s “Shop, Eat & Cook Smart Guidelines” to build affordable, healthy meal plans for you & your family.
Let’s outsmart this virus every way we can.
Join Thrive next time where we take a deeper diver into building a healthy, nutrient rich pantry full of ingredients you’ll actually use during and after the COVID crisis.
And of course - I’ll be giving you my top pantry recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Stay safe everyone! xx