What are your healthy staple foods?

[Jiffer]

I'm really working on eating healthier. Less processed foods, sugar, preservatives and more whole foods, veggies, etc. I buy a lot of organic. I have worked on eating this way for years with some success, making a life long change here and there, doing better at some times than others, but still had a long way to go when I started having health issues, which caused me to get way more serious about it. One of the harder things for me to do is add veggies. I'm not really supposed to eat a lot of fruit right now, but some is ok. Since changing my eating, I have developed some "staples" I tend to eat a lot of as my go to foods. I need to develop more go to foods and figure out how to add more veggies to my life without randomly buying veggies and never actually eating them!

Here are some of my staples.

Eggs, Tomatoes & Avocados

I usually have two eggs for breakfast, sunny side up (the closer to raw, the more nutrients). I just decided a good way to add veggies to my breakfast is to add sliced tomatoes and avocado. It's quick and easy and yummy, and something I can see myself actually doing consistently.

Apples and Peanut Butter

Once a day I usually have apple slices with peanut butter. I need to have protein with every meal or snack. I also have whole wheat toast with peanut butter a lot.

Carrot Sticks

I try having carrot sticks dipped in ranch with a sandwich sometimes. It's really not my fave, but it's good for me. Not the dressing so much, but gotta do something to make myself eat veggies!

Spinach

I try to make salads with either all spinach or spinach mixed with romaine. I also put spinach on a sandwich instead of lettuce a lot. I'm not a big salad person, but trying to work on that.

Nuts

I found small prepackaged bags of various combinations of nuts at Trader Joe's. I LOVE this! I try to keep some handy in my car, so I have them whenever I'm hungry. It was perfect yesterday when I was going to the grocery store and realized I needed a little boost before trying to make food decisions.

That's all I got for healthy "staples". What do you guys do?

[Veronica]

Fage yogurt.

Veronica

[indysteel]

I make a lot of soups. Vegetable, black bean, mushroom and barley, red lentil and lemon, Italian lentil, minestrone, and split pea are my favorites. We also eat beans in a number of other dishes. My DH's favorite is a black bean and sweet potato filling for burritos. We make stir fries and eat a lot of steamed or roasted veggies as side dishes, along with salad. This week we ate grilled portobella sandwiches on whole wheat with pesto, roasted red peppers, red onion, spinach and feta. We also eat pasta with any number of fresh sauces and pestos.

I try to make one vegetarian main dish and one meat-based main dish each week to cover all of our dinners. We usually get some lunches out of that, too.

[KnottedYet]

Miso (red miso is my favorite)
Chili sauce (love Sriracha)
Green leafy things (like kale and chard)


It is so very easy to make a hearty satisfying soup of miso, chili sauce, green things, and maybe some rice noodles and a whipped egg.

Miso is also good spread on crackers or toast, kind of like Vegemite.

Miso makes a great broth, and a great base for just about any stew or pot roast.

(and it keeps for about 3 years in the fridge, though a jar never lasts me that long)

Not sure if it's really "healthful" or not, but it adds a world of taste to many things!

[KnottedYet]

Eggey-bits http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(fo...ritional_value

My doctor had me start eating 1-2 whole eggs a day.

My total cholesterol DROPPED. My good cholesterol got HIGHER than it had been.

Niiiiice...

[emily_in_nc]

Eggey-bits http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html

My doctor had me start eating 1-2 whole eggs a day.

My total cholesterol DROPPED. My good cholesterol got HIGHER than it had been.

Niiiiice...

Yep. My DH eats a fair number of whole eggs. Just got his cholesterol counts done: Total chol = 187, HDL = 100...Now that's a great ratio! Also his triglycerides were only 23. Wow. Whatta guy!

[nscrbug]

My healthy staples include -

raw almonds
walnuts
plain greek yogurt (Fage & Chobani)
ground flaxseed
Ezekial 4:9 low-sodium bread
natural peanut butter (no salt, no sugar)
natural almond butter (no salt, no sugar)
oatmeal
brown basmati rice
whole grain pasta
bananas
berries (fresh if in season, otherwise frozen)
broccoli
baby carrots
eggs
hummus
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
ground turkey breast
fat-free, low sodium chicken broth (I use this a lot in cooking)

[daisylubob]

Fage yogurt.

Man, that stuff ROCKS!!! Wish it wasn't so expensive.....

Other staples include
Peanut Butter (just the peanuts, nothing added)
Carrots & peapods daily
Dark Chocolate

[shootingstar]

Healthy staples for me which is more of last 12 months:

Light noodles (durum wheat, seminola, buckwheat, green tea or light egg noodle...)
red/ yellow/orange peppers (I find green peppers just boring)
egg whites (I haven't bought real round breakable eggs for a long time)
cornflakes (no sugar) or oatmeal
skim milk (Canada's version is not a terrible blue-white milky stuff.)
Chinese green veggie (different varieties here)
onions
garlic
ginger root
tomatoes
couscous


I don't eat much bread nor white rice anymore. When I have bread, it's an artisan bread, so good that it needs no spread of any kind.
I have not bought peanut butter for home in...the past decade or so. I have peanut butter on toast at restaurants.

[Jiffer]

egg whites (I haven't bought real round breakable eggs for a long time)

Thanks for your post. I wonder why don't you eat the yokes? That's where all the nutrition is. It's one of the most nutritious foods you can eat.

[Catrin]

The yolks are where the cholesterol and fat are found, egg whites have lots of protein and few carbs. It is a great low-fat protein source. I do consume quite a lot of these, with the occasional whole egg.

Other staples are skinless chicken breasts, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, apples, bananas, peanut butter, salad greens, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and other veggies. Some brown rice and low fat granola.

[Veronica]

A funny thing about cholesterol - my oldest sister spent 6 months or so living on Ensure after her bout with tongue cancer. It didn't change her numbers at all.

Can you imagine how sucky that would be... living on Ensure shots to the stomach (she couldn't swallow) and still have high cholesterol?

Back on topic - Trader Joe's whey protein.

Veronica

[Susan]

Here are some of my staples.

Eggs, Tomatoes & Avocados

Apples and Peanut Butter

Carrot Sticks

Spinach

Nuts

I eat the same things you do, Jiffer, and there are some more that I eat regularly:

Bell pepper
I grill them and eat them with my eggs or make omelet with them as a filling

Onions
Onions are great because you can add them almost everywhere and they make most things taste even better

You can also use Leek for the same purpose.

Garlic
In salads or in most meals I cook.

Zucchini
Broccoli
Eggplant
I grill them and add them to my meals.

Cucumber - mostly in salads
Various salads
I add a salad to almost every meal I cook.

Seasonal veggies:
For example it's asparagus- season atm, I try to add quite a lot of seasonal veggies.

Beans - not exactly veggies but I add them regularly like in Chili or Curry.

I also use quite a lot of frozen berries in my oatmeal or in yoghurt. And a lot of fruit in general but I think you said you have to limit your intake.


In general, I try to add at least 2 handful of veggies to every meal and try to get some variety.



Regarding the whole-egg discussion: My husband and I both eat about one egg per day - and both have low cholesterol and high "good" cholesterol. I couldn't live without them, honestly

[Melalvai]

Since I quit eating sugar (where "quit" means I mostly don't except for occasional guilty binges), I go through phases where I have my favorites "healthier" food. Such as:

Olives, tomato juice, goat cheese, and home made bread (made with more wheat flour or corn flour than white, and honey)

Dried apricots and pecans. (Careful not to go overboard. Too many dried apricots generates the STINKIEST farts ever!)

tostidos and salsa (check the label)

grapenuts with raisins and milk. I feel guilty about this one because all those have a fairly high GI, but they aren't sugar, and I think if I can cut sugar out entirely then it will get easier to cut back on the high GI foods.

If I were to identify one food as a staple, I'd pick bananas. I don't like that it's my staple, because they are environmentally unfriendly, and they don't have the best GI. But they cut the sugar cravings very well at 10 am which is my weak moment with the coke machine just up at the top of the stairs...