{"id":5054,"date":"2023-01-02T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T21:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/?p=5054"},"modified":"2023-01-02T15:54:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T21:54:08","slug":"start-fresh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/start-fresh\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Fresh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new year is a great time to start\nfresh! When it comes to food, fresh means more nutrients, fewer chemicals, and\nless hidden ingredients. All of these make fresh food healthier. But most of us\nknow that. Perhaps all we need to put a plan to eat more healthy foods into\naction are some simple steps to follow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Throw out the packaged foods<\/strong>. I am not suggesting you waste anything. Food prices are too high to be cavalier about trashing food. Instead, consider a pantry challenge<\/a> to empty your cupboard of many of the prepackaged, prepared foods, and canned foods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If those items are in your pantry\nbecause they no longer appeal, you may be able to donate them to a food pantry,\nfoodbank, homeless shelter, or school. As the need for donated food has grown,\nso have the outlets that accept donations. I typically donate food to a nearby\nhomeless shelter or a van that delivers goods to homeless camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Begin with subtle changes.<\/strong>\nYou don\u2019t have to go to extremes when cleaning out the pantry and refrigerator.\nIf your schedule is too tight to make fresh pasta, keep the dried pasta in the cabinet\nbut make your own sauce using fresh veggies, milk, butter, and cheese. Top homemade\negg salad with jarred pickles on homemade bread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it a salad<\/strong>. If you don\u2019t bake bread, skip\nthe sandwich and serve egg salad over lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and green\nonion. Oven roasted chicken, steak, and baked salmon are other delicious salad\ntoppers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shake up some dressing. <\/strong>It\nonly takes a few minutes to create salad dressing or BBQ sauce. Yesterday, I\nstirred together mayonnaise, spicy brown mustard, honey, and ginger for a\ncreamy salad dressing. I could also have used yogurt or sour cream instead of\nthe mayo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customizing small amounts of\ndressing to fit a specific flavor profile can be less expensive and contain fewer\npreservatives than stocking up on a variety of bottled dressings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switch crunchies.<\/strong> Instead\nof a bag of chips, grab a red bell pepper, celery, and sugar snap peas to eat\nwith your favorite dip. Sliced cucumber, summer squash, and carrots are also\ndelicious dippers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top salads with raw nuts or seeds,\ntoasted coconut, jicama, or apples for crunch instead of packaged croutons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook in groups.<\/strong> Oven roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut\nsquash, or cauliflower. While they\u2019re in the oven, prepare and steam broccoli\nand carrots, and saut\u00e9\ngreen beans or Brussels sprouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having multiple vegetables\navailable to mix and match will reduce your time in the kitchen later and make\nit less tempting to reach for something boxed or canned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eat fruit.<\/strong> Most fresh\nfruit can be eaten without any preparation other than washing. Keep fresh fruit\nhandy for those times you may not have vegetables available. Fruit is a great\noffice or car snack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it a habit<\/strong>. Minor changes\nyou can sustain will have more positive long-term effects than drastic changes\nthat only last a week. Start small and expand when you are ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more you eat fresh, the more\nappealing it becomes. At some point, you may want to consider planting a few\nfresh items in pots, raised beds, or in the ground. But there\u2019s no need for that\nin the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start fresh for 2023, all you\nreally need is to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new year is a great time to start fresh! When it comes to food, fresh means more nutrients, fewer chemicals, and less hidden ingredients. All of these make fresh food healthier. But most of us know that. Perhaps all we need to put a plan to eat more healthy foods into action are some … Continue reading “Start Fresh”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[3357,3354,3355,1615,207,3356],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5058,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions\/5058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}