Kitchen: Slight Changes to Our Eating Habits

I hate the concept of diets...with a passion.  One cannot live well on a "diet".  A person will feel deprived when on a "diet".  While "dieters" can be successful in their mission to "shape up" and "lose weight", unless (and until) they are satisfied both nutritionally and emotionally with their food choices, they are likely to backslide.   

Just say the word "DIET" and suddenly I am dreaming of chocolate cake and decadent gelato!  My mission, then, is to exchange my current food choices with better choices.  If I am equally satisfied with better choices, then I will still feel like I am just eating...not dieting.

I embrace the crowd that encourages  a healthy lifestyle change to a drastic diet. I don't want to diet--I want to be able to LIVE ON what I enjoy eating.  It makes no sense to me to eat only one or two food groups.  For those who cut out fruits, they miss out on a lot of antioxidants.  Eliminate or drastically reduce your intake of fats and you  lose feeling satiated.  Fats trigger that "full" feeling.  Need to speed digestion so foods won't lay heavy on your stomach?--well, let's just say that is what desserts were made for.  I hope everyone finally believes that one must have fats in their daily intake...A, D, K are fat soluble vitamins. 

The Private Selection Organic Black Beans (found at Fry's Foods) is one of the changes I have made.  
Fry's Food 
They do cost more than a regular can of beans. [I think I paid $1.19 a can on sale the last time I bought some.)   I don't know how much power it takes to actually cook dried beans, but in a true comparison, dried beans are more than the initial purchase price...especially if you add the TIME it takes to cook them.  I've even had problems trying to get dried beans to cook properly.  It is hard to find organic dried beans to cook, as well.  The point is that these canned beans taste good, are full of  nutrients, and I don't need a special dictionary to figure out the list of ingredients.  So, how did I get this good choice into my balking husband's stomach?   I just finessed it in.  [I didn't start out with tofu burgers and almond cheese.]  Translation--I paired it with something he likes, that he is not ready to give up--Smoked Sausage (Beef).  No, that is not a perfect choice; but I was able to slip TWO better choices in by using the sausage since I also used  
Lundberg's Black Japonica Rice   

as part of the recipe.  Prior to the debut of this recipe, whenever Beef Smoked Sausage was served in our house it was served either with Kraft Mac and Cheese out of the box, adding extra cheese, OR with fried potatoes and fried cabbage.  

Adding cooked onions, celery, and carrots to the black beans and Japonica rice not only furthered my goal of exchange/replacement, but it makes a quick, tasty, more filling dish to which the amount of sausage used can be reduced.  When you have time, (weekends?) you can prepare a large pot of onions, celery, and carrots.  Divide what you have cooked into packages and freeze.  This mixture known as mirepoix, is quite useful as a base for many recipes. I will add that my husband still insists on some grated cheese on top, but we are making progress.  A little hot sauce on top works well, too. There are so many more benefits from this recipe, compared to how it was originally served .  We really do like this, and it is, now, in the rotation of regular meals.  And, if once in a while my husband should ask for sausage "the old way", I am not going to have a fit...I'll just try to balance that with another meal later in the week.  (So far I have only prepared it the old way once...without him asking for it, just so it doesn't appear that I am taking away all his favorites.)

• less salt
• more fiber
• more antioxidants
• less fat
• no useless white flour

Color, color, color--that is where the antioxidants are found.  Colored rices (colors occurring naturally--reds, blacks, and purples) have anthocyanins in them.  These are said to be helpful in the fight against atherosclerosis, as well as, many other health issues.  This rice takes about an hour to cook, but can be cooked ahead and refrigerated or frozen 'til needed.  If you have your rice and mirepoix already cooked, throwing this together takes only about 15 minutes.  For added flavor, fry the sausage first prior to mixing it with the beans and rice.  (Place the sausage on paper towel and express some of the excess fats, too.)


Expanding our horizons to trying new foods is not always met with such success, but the successes are worth the effort.  Black beans and Japonica rice--better choices that we WILL eat, in our everyday day choices of foods to live on; not diet.

Good luck on making your changes...I will be posting more about other products that we are adding or exchanging.  Stay tuned for further updates!