Eating well deliciously!
Going low carb often means missing out on the simple pleasure of a nice soft loaf of bread. Now you can give into your bread cravings guilt free! We created a soft, chewy, white bread that you won’t believe is low carb. Enjoy, plain or toasted – all for only 3g carbs per slice!
I have always subscribed to the notion that the cure to all that ails us lies within the foods we eat. After all, most medicines originate from compounds found in nature including but not limited to plants, trees, fungus, roots, fruits, and vegetables.
Convenience is of great importance to me, especially when it comes to meal preparation. I’ve never aspired to be a chef de cuisine, but rather someone adept at preparing quick, easy, healthy, and most of all, delicious food.
Whenever I have had a particularly hectic day or I’m not in the mood for a lot of cooking, I rely on healthy frozen foods to make quick meals. I have several go-to frozen food brands because they have the perfect balance of taste, nutrition, and price point.
I categorize my healthy frozen foods depending on need – a quick meal, vegetables, proteins, or bread. In this article, I’ll discuss a few of my favorite frozen food selections that you can use to prepare quick, easy, and healthy meals. First up!
Some people are leery of eating frozen vegetables because they genuinely believe that fresh vegetables are better than frozen vegetables. These people couldn’t be more wrong! Look, I’m not knocking fresh vegetables, I think they’re great, but let’s be honest, do you consume all your fresh produce before it starts to rot? I’ll bet not, in fact, I’ll bet you throw away a lot of those “fresh vegetables” before you even get to eat any, am I right?
The fact is vegetables, when flash-frozen at the peak of ripeness, retain all their vitamins and nutrients, all without the need for preservatives. Conversely, fresh vegetables begin to deteriorate and lose their vitamins the longer they’re stored. You see where I’m going here right? Frozen vegetables are far superior to fresh vegetables. Some of my favorites to get include:
Of course, there are plenty of other frozen vegetables available for any cuisine, I just happen to use the listed ones the most. Feel free to explore or find your favorite frozen vegetables at your local supermarket. Next up, fish!
I am a bit more discerning about fish when it comes to frozen foods. Some seafood just doesn’t freeze well, in my opinion. Moreover, I don’t eat just any fish, I try to eat sustainable, wild-caught fish whenever I can. To be sure, these types of fish may cost a bit more than their farmed counterparts, but I put a premium on my health and will happily pay the extra cost whenever I can.
My top picks for frozen fish include:
I’ve tried some frozen seafood that I didn’t enjoy once I defrosted and cooked it. These include:
I find that when defrosted, these fish turn out soggy and mealy-textured, not at all appetizing. Your experience may be different, but I avoid frozen shrimp, cod, and scallops and opt for the fresh version if I’ll be using them in a meal.
Except for the salmon, I buy most of the above-mentioned top-pick list of fish fresh then package them for storage in the freezer. It’s a system that works pretty well and I can prepare delicious fish dishes whenever I have a craving for seafood.
If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you’d know that I’m not much of a bread eater because I follow a keto-ish lifestyle. This means no high-carb bread for me! Since I have to prepare meals for others in my household who are not so finicky about carbs and who insist on having “real bread”, I had to find options that I could prepare on the fly.
Enter frozen bread, frozen flatbread to be specific. Of course, I do include regular loaf bread in my roster of frozen bread but I by far prefer the frozen flatbread options. My top picks for frozen bread include:
There are times in life when frozen meals are a lifesaver for busy people trying to provide a hot meal for their family. However, the one caveat I have to this practice is to choose healthy frozen meals. By this, I mean that frozen meals should be primarily made with healthy and wholesome ingredients very few preservatives, and moderate levels of sodium and sugar.
It takes a lot of label-reading, but it’s necessary to take the extra time to ensure that you’re not delivering a dose of poison along with your frozen chicken pot pie. If you’re not into reading labels but do want the convenience of quality, chef-prepared frozen meals, you can always try Bistromd – they have some great flash-frozen meals prepared according to your diet and ready to heat and eat.
Some of Bistromd’s doctor-designed and chef-prepared frozen meals include:
These are just a few of the meals available on their menu but they have hundreds more including breakfast! If you want true convenience, try Bistromd and you’ll no longer have to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
You don’t need to sacrifice taste and nutrition by using frozen foods you can receive a boost in nutrition by just cooking and eating flash-frozen vegetables!
The fact is, healthy frozen foods can save you a lot of time and convenience for meal preparation when you’re short on time. By going to a freezer well stocked with select frozen foods, you can quickly make breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Make sure your stores include a variety of green and colorful vegetables, lean proteins, and fish that freeze well like the ones mentioned above.
You can round out your frozen food supply with tasty frozen flatbread and if you’re following a meal plan like the ones available at bistromd, you can have doctor-reviewed and chef-prepared frozen meals delivered to your door weekly. Talk about convenience!
Do you use frozen foods? What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments. Until next time: Happy Eating!
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We hear a lot these days about antioxidants and how they are important for our health and well-being. We even get recommendations on what foods we can eat or which supplements we can use to get these coveted antioxidants. The fact remains that even though we know about how great antioxidants are, many of us don’t have a good understanding of what antioxidants are and why we need to incorporate them into our diets.
In this article, I will break down the ins and outs of antioxidants to show how they help our bodies function. I’ll also show why we need antioxidants and foods high in this essential nutrient to help us achieve the best health outcomes.
So what exactly is an antioxidant? Let’s break down the word to its two parts: “anti” meaning against and “oxidant” meaning a substance formed from oxidation or the removal of electrons from a compound. A good example of oxidation in nature is rust which happens when iron reacts with oxygen and loses its electrons. So essentially, an antioxidant prevents the loss of electrons from one substance when combined with oxygen. But how does this apply to us and our bodies?
The Wikipedia definition of antioxidants gives us a clearer understanding of how they work inside our bodies. It states:
Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals, thereby leading to chain reactions that may damage the cells of organisms. Antioxidants such as thiols or ascorbic acid terminate these chain reactions.
This definition explains that chemical reactions that naturally occur in our bodies may produce free radicals or independent molecules that if left alone, can cause oxidative stress or “rust” in the body. This oxidative stress, if not contained can lead to diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Antioxidants prevent this damage from taking root and spreading in our bodies.
Now that we have a basic understanding of antioxidants the next question is where can we get this compound that is so indispensable for our good health?
The good news is that we naturally produce antioxidants inside our bodies. Much in the same way that we are able to synthesize some of our nutrients, (for example Vitamin D when we’re exposed to sunlight), we do not produce sufficient quantities for our viability. This is where we have to look to external sources to supplement some of the nutrients we naturally produce.
Antioxidants are among the compounds we naturally produce, but still, need additional amounts from the foods we eat or any supplements we take. The great news is that there are plenty of fresh, healthy and delicious sources of antioxidants present in many of our favorite foods.
How do we which foods are high in antioxidants? Fortunately, science has already done the work for us by developing a test known as a ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) assay that is quick, sensitive and very affordable to perform. This test measures the antioxidant content of foods by how well they neutralize the aforementioned free radicals. This is all you really need to know about this test, but if you want to learn more, just do a quick Google search.
There are many published studies that have used the FRAP assay which has generated a large database of the antioxidant content of various food. Among the foods that are rich in antioxidants by category are:
Cranberries
Blueberries
Blackberries
Raspberries
Beans
Artichokes
Russet Potatoes
Cilantro
Cruciferous vegetables
Walnuts
Pecans
Brazil Nuts
Dark Chocolate
Red Wine
Green Tea
The last category is my favorite of the bunch. 🙂 Believe it or not, dark chocolate is a powerful source of antioxidants and may contain even more of this beneficial nutrient than any fruit or vegetable!
So go ahead and enjoy your dark chocolate and red wine, in moderation of course! If you prefer a non-alcoholic antioxidant, just enjoy a nice cup of green tea.
Eating our antioxidants is always the best way to go, but I know that many of us either don’t have the time to prepare/get nutritious food or we are plain just too lazy to do it. Nonetheless, we still need antioxidants to stave off scary diseases, so of course, there are supplements available that we can use to boost our levels.
According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamins A, C, and E along with the minerals copper, zinc and selenium, are the main antioxidants that help to regulate free radicals and oxidative stress in the body. Many over the counter vitamin supplements are fortified with these nutrients, so just by taking a multi-vitamin, you’re also getting antioxidants.
However, is it really a good idea to take antioxidant supplements? Studies have shown that antioxidant supplements have no beneficial effect and may in fact interfere with the body’s natural processes of ridding itself of free radicals. For this reason alone, I don’t recommend taking any antioxidant supplement with maybe the exception of Vitamin C – especially for smokers who are exposed to more free-radical causing, environmental toxins.
Antioxidants are extremely important for our overall health and thankfully our bodies are very capable of producing them. Given that our bodies need more antioxidants than we can naturally produce it is very important to add them from external sources.
Food, not pills, should always be the primary source of your antioxidants. Try to source fresh, organic fruits like wild blueberries, cranberries and strawberries. Include cruciferous vegetables and nuts. Finally, top it all off with some nice dark chocolate or a glass of wine or a cup of green tea.
Who says being healthy can’t be fun? I really believe that food holds the cure for all that ails us, and when we eat the right foods or follow the right diet for our body types, we really can achieve the holy grail of health and well being.
So, do you get in your daily levels of antioxidants? What are your favorite high-antioxidant foods? Let us know in the comments. Until next time: Happy Eating!
