I have seen a shift to more healthier foods and labeling such as "low calorie, low fat, high fiber" , but sometimes this even confuses the consumer more. Big corporations do whatever they can to promote and label a product healthy when in fact it may not be.
The only advice I have is to be informed about the foods that you eat. I see the difficulty in eating healthy due to life stress, long job hours, bad habits & misinformation as people get older. The fact is a lot of people have never had a chance to feel the benefits of eating healthy because they are so used to feeling horrible all the time. I think most people given a choice would eat natural foods and leave the fake artificial crap behind.
Below is a couple great food I incorporate into my diet on a weekly basis. I try to break down the recipe so you can easily try this at home:
1. Baked Brussel Sprouts & Sweet Potato:
Roasted Brussels:
1.) Preheat oven to 400 and cook.
2.)Cut off the end of the brussel sprouts discard, half brussels and lightly coat in Olive Oil Salt & Pepper in a pan.
3.) Cook roughly 30-45 min
4.) Key is every 10 min to shake pan/turn over brussels for even cooking. I love to keep the flakes that fall off each brussel as they turn crisp when baking similar to eating a kale chip.
Baked Sweet Potato:
1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.) Knife the yam/sweet potato (This allows some of the built-up steam to escape from the inside of the potato as it cooks)
3.) Put some tin foil on bottom of a pan and place in the oven for at least an hour. Depending on the size of sweet potato some may take 1.5-2 hours. I usually cook them for as long as 2 hours as I love to eat them as soft as possible.
4.) Once they are done you can enjoy them by slicing them in half to let them cool off. A good addition mashing inside with a ford & mixing a teaspoon of olive oil, salt, pepper into the potato for extra taste.
Option 2: Puree
You can also use your baked sweet potatoes as a puree to incorporate under a seafood/chicken dish or even a soup incorporating stock. All you need is a blender. Complete by removing skins from sweet potato, add some olive oil (experiment with 1/4- 1/2 cup, salt , pepper). You can add spices as well if you have chopped up jalepeno or even minced garlic would be a great additional for flavor.
Option 3: Fries
For a decent sized Yam I would cut in half length wise and then cut each half into 3rd's, which leaves you with 6 yam wedges. You can use as many potatoes as you would like, but clearly try and cut pieces to similar size for even baking. Preheat oven to 400-425 while you lightly coat the sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper. Place on a baking tray and cook for at least 30 minutes or until nice and crispy. After 15-20 minutes I would check on them and flip to other side for a nice burnt, crisp taste.
Kale Chips:
1.) Preheat oven to 225-250 degrees
2.) Cut kale from stems and chop evenly
3.) Lighly coat w/ olive oil, sea salt & pepper
4.) Bake for 15-20 min or until kale turns krispy. Make sure to rotate/flip if needed
2. Roasted Asparagus, Mushrooms, Zucchini with a side of Kale Chips; When baking always lightly coat your veggies with olive oil, salt, pepper. This is key & the flavor will come through baking & roasting for a long period of time.
When preparing fish I usually love to pan seared the fish first. Which includes high heat and a small coat of olive oil salt pepper in the pan. Once hot, place the fish filets in your pan & cook for a couple minutes on each side with the highest heat. You should see each side become a light brown/crisp color. You can cook straight through by lowering the heat & cooking for several more minutes or you can prepare the oven around 325- 350 degrees and bake the fish in a dish. I usually let the fish bake with some minced garlic, vine chopped tomatoes/cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs. You can add a touch of butter for taste, but it isn't necessary. Also, topping your dish off with fresh parmesan or cheese of your choice for an extra bit of flavor.
