Nutritious Meals Can Engage Your Senses In A Sumptuous World Of Flavors

Taking a few minutes to prepare quick and healthy meals gives you more control over what you and your family are eating. Seeking out a variety of healthy recipes and preparing nutritious meals can help prevent many common medical conditions, and engages your senses in a sumptuous world of flavors, textures, aromas, sights, and sounds. It can also be a wonderful way to bring your family together, while helping you save money.

Plan a week’s worth of dinners. Many of us don’t know what we’re having for dinner as late as 4pm in the afternoon. Yet planning ahead takes just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it. Every Friday night or Saturday morning, sit down with a pad of paper and your favorite cookbooks or some cookery magazines.

Delegate, delegate, delegate. If you have children aged ten-plus or another adult who gets home before you do, get them started on dinner. For example, you might ask your partner to pick up ingredients on the way home, your teen to start chopping vegetables for the salad and fill the pasta pot with water, and your pre-teen to gather necessary ingredients for a given recipe and put them on the worktop for you, preheat the oven and set the table. Yes, they may think of it as a chore, but if you build in a little opportunity for them to ‘create’ (for example, with place cards for dinner, fancy napkin folding, their own recipes) it will make your children more interested in nutritious food and will encourage them to try new things.

Enjoy the cooking process. Of course, not everyone loves cooking. But there’s no reason to not like doing it. If the thought of cooking fills you full of dread, you need an attitude adjustment. Cooking is a pleasure, far easier than many non-cooks realize. For the sake of your health, your pleasure and your wallet, you should learn – or relearn – the pleasures of cooking. Make it a project. Spend time with your friends and family while they cook so that you can absorb the methods and routines.

The Harvard School of Public Health says a plant-based diet is healthiest. Whip up a quick vegetarian dinner that includes fiber-rich white cannellini beans and broccoli. Cook whole wheat pasta -- any shape you like -- according to package directions. In a large pan, saute finely chopped garlic in a small amount of heart-healthy olive oil and add bite-sized pieces of fresh broccoli crowns. Add a can of white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed to remove excess sodium, and the cooked pasta. Moisten with a splash of chicken broth. Cook until ingredients are heated through. Top with toasted pine nuts and freshly ground black pepper. An arugula salad with chopped tomatoes, shaved Parmesan and a homemade lemon vinaigrette made by shaking together olive oil, lemon juice and d'jon mustard is a more nutritious choice than an iceberg lettuce salad. The bitterness of the salad complements the sweeter beans and provides vitamin A and vitamin C.

Meanwhile, mash roasted sweet potatoes with a splash of coconut milk, salt, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of five-spice powder, which is a ground spice blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds used in Asian cooking. Drizzle in a small amount of maple syrup or honey to enhance the sweetness of the potatoes. For the spinach, place a pan over medium heat and drizzle in a teaspoon of olive or canola oil. Add chopped garlic and allow to sizzle for just 30 seconds to 1 minute. Toss in 4 to 5 oz. of fresh baby spinach. Season lightly with soy sauce. Spinach and sweet potatoes are excellent sources of vitamins A and C and fiber, along with other nutrients. A 4-oz. serving of the pork provides 249 calories with only 4 grams of fat, only 1 gram of which is saturated, and 31 grams of protein.

Pork Chops With Mushroom Soup Is The Perfect Weeknight Dinner

This favorite pork chop dish, served over egg noodles with a tasty sauce is just like mom used to make only quicker and easier! It's the perfect weeknight dinner.Brown pork chops slightly before placing in crock pot. Mix cream of mushroom soup and water. Pour over pork chops and cook on low 6 to 8 hours. There are 346 calories in 1 cup of Ham or Pork with (Mushroom) Soup (Mixture).


PORK CHOPS WITH MUSHROOM SOUP

Ingredients

4 pork chops

salt and pepper to taste

1 pinch garlic salt, or to taste

1 onion, chopped

1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

Directions

Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste.

In a large skillet, brown the chops over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms, and saute for one minute. Pour cream of mushroom soup over chops. Cover skillet, and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes, or until chops are cooked through.


8 pork chops

Garlic

Salt and pepper

Shortening

1/2 can water

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

Sprinkle a little garlic salt on each. Brown chops in a small amount of shortening. Pour grease out of skillet. Put mushroom soup in skillet with 1/2 cup of water. Mix until smooth. Put pork chops back into skillet with the mushroom soup. Put lid on skillet and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn chops once.

Lightly spray slow cooker with butter or garlic flavored non-stick cooking spray. Put onions and potatoes in bottom of slow cooker. Top with pork chops, salt and pepper, pour soup over chops. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, until tender.

Serves 4 to 6.

Tip: You can add any amount to your meal plan, not just common serving units. Want a Pork Chop with Mushroom Soup Sauce serving size to fit your carbs limit? No problem, just use the Pork Chop with Mushroom Soup Sauce nutrition facts serving size tool to the right.