March is National Nutrition Month®. National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign held in March each year by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Their goal is to help people make informed choices when it comes to food and to develop good eating and exercise habits.
This year’s theme for National Nutrition Month® is “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right”.
When it comes to choosing what we eat, nutrition should be the deciding factor, but in reality we know it isn’t. We choose to eat what tastes good. However, these two can go hand in hand and eating right can even be fun! Yes you heard me, FUN!
One way to have fun eating healthy food that tastes great is by exploring NEW healthy foods to try. This could be as simple as trying a different type of apple or potato than you normally eat. Or by selecting a new healthy food you had never even heard of.
To have fun with this, make it a weekly ritual to try one new fruit, vegetable or whole grain once a week to discover new healthy foods you may enjoy. Make it fun by getting your children involved. Together you could learn about all of the different types of apples or potatoes and have a scavenger hunt at the grocery store to find them. Choose one to take home and try in a new recipe!
Seriously, do you know how many variety of potatoes there are?! Thousands! Thanks Wikipedia! Potato Goodness was kind enough to share this beautiful photo of Fingerling Potatoes in addition to a lot of other varieties with recipes to boot! You can check it out here.
Another easy way to “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right” is to make an alteration in preparing the healthy foods you already know and love. This can be done by flavoring it with new spices and herbs. Or by steaming instead of sautéing, grilling instead of baking or roasting instead of steaming. This can completely change the texture and modify the flavor.
One example of this that is an absolute favorite of mine is roasted broccoli. When you roast broccoli instead of steaming it, it takes on a nutty flavor with an amazing texture. Simply coat your broccoli spears with some olive oil, minced garlic and salt free seasoning if you choose and roast it in the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until the ends are crisp and brown and the stalks are tender. It tastes amazing! Elise of Simply Recipes has as a slightly different recipe for roasted broccoli that looks equally delicious. You can find her recipe here.
Oh, and here’s the segment I did on Good Morning Northland where I share more tips on how to Enjoy The Taste Of Eating Right!
Click on the image above to see the segment that aired on Good Morning Northland on WDIO this morning. Maarja Anderson and I shared tips to enjoy the taste of eating right and a yummy recipe to start your day. As you can see, we had fun and proved you CAN enjoy eating right!
Ingredients:
1 medium banana
1 large egg or 1/4 cup of egg whites
1/4 cup non-fat, plain, greek yogurt
1/4 cup oatmeal
1 serving vanilla protein powder (I used brown rice protein.)
1 tsp of apple pie or pumpkin pie spice with a dash of cinnamon
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend well. Alternatively, you can mash the banana and mix by hand. Then simply prepare the pancake on a griddle and enjoy! These pancakes freeze well so feel free to make an extra batch to store in the freezer and warm up on busy mornings!
Photos: simplyrecipes.com & potatogoodness.com
