Food Rules

Good chilly evening to you!  Over the weekend, I picked up the newest copy of Michael Pollan's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual.  Now, I love Michael Pollan.  If you've seen Food, Inc., you probably know who this guy is.  He also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defence of Food, both of which I highly recommend reading if you are interested in where your food comes from.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through Food Rules and it has really gotten me thinking about how I have been slipping on eating healthfully.  Food Rules gives you easy rules of thumb for healthy eating under three categories:  "What should I eat?," "What kind of foods should I eat?," and "How much should I eat?"  Most of this stuff we probably already know, but having it in short, memorable phrases makes it easier to remember in my daily life.

I have been focusing way too much on how many calories I am eating and not enough on the quality of foods I am consuming.  While I am still eating plenty of fruits and veggies and have been cutting back on chicken and turkey, I am (was?) still eating more than my fair share of candy (Reeses are my weakness), chips, etc. 

So, I am working on cutting back on the unnatural "foodlike substances," as Pollan calls these types of foods, and replacing the "foodlike substances" with whole and natural foods.  This is really not that hard, I just need to be more diligent.  In fact, instead of being hard, it is very tasty.  My new favorite snack is olives with tomatoes and cheese (see below)!  Tonight, I also made a "taco" and rice plate (I really need to come up with better names here....).

My "Mediterranean Fix" Snack

Perfect bite!

I'm slightly obsessed with my local pizza place's Mediterranean Gluten Free pizza.  It is so good but I really can't eat like that very often.  I had their Greek salad last night, which is what inspired this snack today.  This is just mini-heirloom tomatoes cut in half, kalamata olives, and fresh mozzarella.  So good and satisfied my salty tooth today.  Plus, a handful of tomatoes + 1 oz mozzarella + 7ish Kalamata olives = 95 calories.  Score!

"Taco" and Rice Plate

As a way to eat less meat on the times when I actually want to eat something meat-like, I add in tons of veggies to fill out a dish.  So, in the pot, I had a small zucchini, 1/2 an onion, a small carrot, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, and 3 servings of extra-lean ground turkey.  Once all of this cooked and was softened, I seasoned the mixture with salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, chipotle chili powder, chili powder, cumin, and cilantro.  Such a good mixture - better than packaged taco seasoning!  I split this into 4 portions.  I also made 2 servings of brown rice to go with the turkey and veggie mixture.  I tend to only eat a 1/2 serving of rice with dishes like these.  Topping this with salsa and sour cream really jazzed it up.  The best part?  Lunch leftovers for three days!

Stay warm (and healthy!) tonight!