What are your healthy staple foods?

[Pedal Wench]

To get veggies into breakfast, I love putting spinach and mushrooms in a bowl, cover with a mix of eggwhites and whole eggs (or a mix of egg-beaters and an egg) and microwave it all. Sometimes a little turkey sausage for flavor.

Another thing I just discovered are little packages of roasted seaweed sheets. Crunchy, slightly salty and just a bit of fat from sesame oil. Gets me through a chips craving.

[GLC1968]

I've gotten into the habit of buying multiple bags of frozen organic veggies during the off-garden-season. It makes eating them super quick and easy and they never spoil if I can't get to them in a couple of days!

We eat a LOT of eggs. We've currently got upwards of 7 dozen in our fridge! Fresh, free-range...and WAY tastier than store bought eggs. I find myself altering 'healthy' recipes that call for only egg whites so that I can add the yolks. I just cannot toss away dark orange yolks! Both my husband and I passed our life insurance physical with flying colors. I've always had low cholesterol, but his has traditionally been borderline and his numbers were really good.

Other staples for us: tons of fruit, cabot 75% cheddar cheese, almonds, homemade granola, steel cut oats, our crockpot and our grill.

[Catrin]

I neglected to mention steel-cut oats, blueberries, really any kind of berry. Berries are my favorite fruit. I also tend to use walnuts and pecans quite often.

[Crankin]

My diet is similar to others here, but I still don't eat enough veggies. I do eat a lot of fruit. Lots of avocados, eggs, nuts, blueberries, and some Greek yogurt.
Eggs are low fat. Yeah, they have cholesterol, but since i started eating eggs for breakfast more frequently, my cholesterol has also gone down, too (well, 10 years of cycling helped, too). And Jiffer, I buy bags of those little packets of nuts and cranberries from Trader Joe's. They fill you up and are good for you. Last year, I made a concerted effort to eat tuna and salmon at least twice a week. I ate these foods before, but not always twice a week.
I only eat healthy food, but I eat a variety of stuff. I eat red meat (usually flank steak) and pork about once every ten days. Otherwise, it's chicken, turkey, fish, or vegetarian. I have dessert maybe twice a month? In the summer, I do indulge in soft serve ice cream with a dip of chocolate covering; it's low fat and I get a kiddie size.
I don't do supplements or any of the other things I read about, like fasting or detox. I try to eat a variety of natural, healthy foods and drink lots of water. Oh yes, and a glass of red wine at least 3 times a week.

[OakLeaf]

Veggie staples for me (besides onions and LOTS of garlic) would be mostly greens. Especially kale and chard, which have such a long growing season that they're available almost all year round.

I always have carrots and celery in the house, for soups and stews. Ordinarily I have tomatoes and tomato sauce, too, but last year's crop was mostly wiped out by bacterial speck, I've run through what little I was able to freeze, and commercial tomatoes in jars aren't easy to find around here. Squashes are high on my list too - costata romanesco zucchini in season, lots of butternut to overwinter.

Plenty of parsley, too - I think when you're using more than a half cup of something it graduates from a seasoning to a vegetable.

[KnottedYet]

All my food is healthy.

Nothing I eat has measles, or chicken pox, or mumps. All very healthy food.

Now, whether it's all healthful or not remains open to debate.

[/snark]
(I watched the word "healthful" die a sad unheralded death back in the 1990's. I still mourn...)

I do find it interesting how many of us either saw our own or our spouse's cholesterol improve eating whole eggs. Guess my doctor wasn't crazy, eh?

[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

[spokewench]

All my food is healthy.

Nothing I eat has measles, or chicken pox, or mumps. All very healthy food.

Now, whether it's all healthful or not remains open to debate.

[/snark]
(I watched the word "healthful" die a sad unheralded death back in the 1990's. I still mourn...)

I do find it interesting how many of us either saw our own or our spouse's cholesterol improve eating whole eggs. Guess my doctor wasn't crazy, eh?

I agree with Knotted. There are a few things I avoid completely and try to eat lost of veges, fruit, whole grains, etc.; but the things I avoid are processed foods, sodas, things like that that I have no control over what is in them.

[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

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

(I watched the word "healthful" die a sad unheralded death back in the 1990's. I still mourn...)

I don't know, i like correct word usage, and I like old fashioned terms too. But 'healthful' is one word i don't miss. It sounds so....Puritan or something. Plus, it's a mouthful to say. Try saying 'healthful mouthful' three times fast. lol!

[KnottedYet]

I agree with Knotted. There are a few things I avoid completely and try to eat lost of veges, fruit, whole grains, etc.; but the things I avoid are processed foods, sodas, things like that that I have no control over what is in them.

Actually, I was being a sarcastic grammar grinch over the words "healthy" and "healthful."

I eat all kinds of processed cr@p. Love the stuff. And it's all healthy, cuz none of it is in a state of poor health. (it doesn't have mumps, or fever, or chicken pox, etc.) It is not healthful, however, because it doesn't contribute to a state of good health for the person who consumes it.

[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...

[indysteel]

I neglected to mention steel-cut oats, blueberries, really any kind of berry. Berries are my favorite fruit. I also tend to use walnuts and pecans quite often.

When we were in Utah, we went to a cafe for breakfast every morning call the Mean Bean where I got a daily bowl of steel-cut oats that came with almonds, raisens and dried cranberries. To that, I added a side of really fresh blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. It was delish!

[angelaslc]

Rice Protein Powder
Amazing Greens Superfood - chocolate flavor
Chlorophyll w/ mint
Borage/flax oil
Ground flax and chia seeds.
Asparagus, Broccoli, Zucchini
Organic Mixed Greens or Arugula
Organic Lemons
Organic Dijon Mustard
Wild Cod
Wild Salmon
Organic Quinoa or Brown Rice
Roasted sweet potatoes and onions
Cilantro
Coconut Aminos
Coconut oil & Olive Oil

For snacks occasionally I add in:
Almonds or Walnuts
Coconut yogurt
Coconut water
Organic berries
Kombucha
Hummus with veggies or brown rice chips
Larabars
Bananas
Apples
Oranges
Avocados
Pasture raised farm fresh eggs when I can get them….I love the orange yolk!

I always have a rice protein shakes for breakfast with the superfoods, chlorophyll, borage/flax oil, ground flax and now chia seeds.
I keep a bag of frozen cod and frozen veggies in the freezer at work and use a steamer I keep at work to cook them.
I bring a bag of organic lemons, costco size box of organic mixed greens and organic dijon. I make my own dressing with lemons and Dijon and poor over the fish and veggies and or salad.
Dinner varies but we’ll have marinated salmon on a bed of greens or soups that I make or buy from Whole Foods, Salmon burgers and sweet potato baked fries when we splurge.
My sweet tooth is satisfied with coconut yogurt sprinkled with berries, bananas and walnuts or Endangered species 88% dark chocolate or 72% Deep forrest mint. When we splurge we go to Red Mango for frozen yogurt.