Found In Food

Effortlessly healthy eating
06.04.2013

Vegetable Chili Over Quinoa

DSC_0267Behold an apt illustration of ‘effortlessly healthy’ and another extremely easy thing to do with the Hearty Vegetable Chili recipe. This recipe needs very little explanation. I simply set aside a few cups of the chili before I added the grains. The next day I served it over quinoa topped with cilantro and sunflower seeds. Delicious and truly effortless!

It occurred to me that perhaps I should elaborate on what I mean by ‘effortlessly healthy’. I will refrain from expounding the many virtues of cooking here as they will undoubtedly trickle in to this post or that in the days to come. For now I will simply say that I believe it is important to have a connection to the food you eat and the best way to do that is to spend time preparing it. So when I say effortless I am not claiming that you will never spend more than 30 minutes preparing a meal, for example. Rather what I wish to impart can be summed up in three points:

  1. Narrow the scope of ingredients to fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains to make things more simple. Focus on whole, plant-based foods and you eliminate (1) the confusion created by packaged and processed foods, (2) the need to read nutrition panels and (3) the need to count calories. Rely on your body’s incredible ability to synthesize what it needs from what nature has provided.
  2. There are an infinite number of possibilities when the focus is on fresh fruits and veggies. The multiplicity of tastes, textures and colors found in the enormous range of fruits and vegetables is enough to make any dish interesting. Instead of cheese top your pasta with nuts, fresh herbs and more fresh vegetables to give it multiple dimensions of tastes and textures that will make each bite infinitely more interesting than a bit of parmesan cheese will.
  3. Leverage your food. Make salads and soups with an abundance of veggies and then creatively and effortlessly spin them into new tasty dishes.

 

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