Healthy Dinner Meal
Healthy Dinner Meal is a post about getting nutrition from vegetables. Eating healthy salads with many different varieties of vegetables is an excellent way to give your body the phytonutrients that will help keep your body nourished.
Try to eat a variety of vegetables so your body recognizes and receives the different nutrients that these plants have. Some vegetables are seasonal so I enjoy the summer squash and zucchini when they are in season. Eggplant is another favorite. For the most part, I leave the skins on the vegetables unless I am making a specific recipe that calls for just the mashed potatoes out of a sweet potato. One week I will have my Vegan Southwestern Shepherd’s Pie which calls for me to peel the sweet potato skin and then the next week I will buy a large sweet potato and leave the skin on and just steam a couple of slices of that sweet potato.
There are many powerful nutrients located in the skins of the plants. The whole principle of eating for nutrition is to get as much of the healthful properties out of the food as you can. Ever notice how you are never hungry between meals when you eat the foods I have been sharing with you? I never have snacks. If I do, it would be because I bought a bag of grapes and I need to move the grapes into a container and one or two fell off the vine.
Eating raw vegetables in your salads is an excellent way to get the most enzymes, minerals, nutrients and vitamins from your food. If you need to soften the vegetables, you can lightly steam them. Many stores have the metal steamer baskets that you can place in a pot on your stove top. Add a small amount of water to the bottom and then put your metal steamer basket in to the pot. Turn your burner on a little less than medium and lightly steam. It is best to not get the temperature too hot because the nutrients will be reduced.
There is such a wide variety of vegetables to choose from every day. Grow your own garden if you can. For many years, I had the advantage of walking out into my back yard and picking fresh beans, broccoli, carrots, corn, peas, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes for about 2 months of the year. Fresh from the garden is delicious and you can tell the difference compared to what you buy at your local store.
Check your local area and find out if there is a local farmers market. There are several each week where I live right now. The produce that the organic farmers have for sale also tastes better than the commercial grown produce found in your store.
I have a blog that has many healthy recipes using beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and vegetables. You can go bookmark my site below as I am updating with new recipes each week.
Healthy Recipes
You really can eat very well and have plenty of variety in your dinner meals by trying some of the above suggestions. Your body will never miss the fat and cholesterol from the animal products.
Water
Hydrating the body first thing in the morning is very important. I start the day by drinking a quart of pure water. I have my last large glass of water of the day in the late afternoon about 4:30 pm. Just before bed I drink about 6 ounces of water when I take a Peak Systemic Enzyme
Water is so vital to our overall health. Many people are dehydrated. Our body needs 1/2 of our ideal body weight in fluid ounces of pure water each day. Coffee, tea and sodas do not count. If the weather is hot, your body will need more than the recommendation above. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to drink at least 75 ounces of pure water each day.
One other tip about water is drink about 12 ounces of water at least 30 minutes before your meals. Do not drink anything while you are eating and wait another hour before you drink anything else. The reason behind this hydration principle is that drinking fluids while eating will hinder the digestion process. We want the gastric juices to break down our food and this is best done by drinking the water 30 minutes before eating.
If you need to reach me, visit my Contact Page and I will be happy to help in any way I can!
Your video made me hungry ! 🙂 I love vegetables raw or steamed. Raw when I need the crunch. Even your meatless meatloaf looked and sounded tasty. Will check out your other blog for the recipe.
Thanks for the tip about not drinking while eating, I was not aware that this hinders the digestion process. Will implement right away.
Thank you for this post and video Daniel ! I love how you are balancing your diet, with the vegetables, fruits, oats, the fat from the almonds and walnuts (I agree that moderation is key there) and other essentials like hydration and fiber. Quick question I checked out your recipe site. Terrific recipes! (I will need to spend a lot of time there) but I couldn’t locate the meatless meatloaf recipe. Would you mind sharing a link to the recipe here? Thanks again!
Hello Oge,
Here is the link direct to that meatless meatloaf.
Meatless Meatloaf
The Healthy Living section of my blog will appeal to you.
I just liked your Facebook and Twitter pages.
Thank you for the link and the likes Daniel ! It seems like I will be exploring this section of your blog quite a bit.
Daniel – you’ve got to stop this, you’re making me hungry and I don’t go home for a few more hours! LOL
All kidding aside – this meatless meatloaf sounds GREAT – I’m going to make it for my husband and girls this weekend and see if they notice the ‘change’ (shhhhhhhhhhh) 🙂
Deb
I am not so fond of raw or steamed vegetables, but your video makes me crave for those.
Hello Daniel,
I usually have 2 small meals which contain veggies and I feel balanced because previously when I started exercise it didn’t give me results because I was having a very bad diet routine but now I mostly use vegetables rather than white or red meat. Thank you for pointing out it is best for our digestive system to not drink water while eating. I was not aware of this health principle.