HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
To begin 2022 on a healthy and delicious note, let’s talk ORGANIC!
Today more than ever, strengthening our immune system is imperative to maintaining the level of physical and mental health that we need to live life successfully. Sleep quality, decision making ability, mood, weight control, energy level, motivation and wellbeing all rely on how we fuel our body. In other words, what we put into our bodies in the way of food determines much of how we live.
Through recent years, more and more studies have demonstrated the increased nutrition levels of organically grown food. Certified organic farming operations avoid the use of most synthetic pesticides found in conventional agriculture. Organic growing or farming is based on maintaining a living soil with a diverse population of micro and macro soil organisms.
The end result?
Food grown in healthy soil = healthy humans.
And let’s not forget about the taste factor. Foods grown organically in healthy soils provide us with a God given flavor that only nature can provide …true and honest pleasure to the taste buds! That’s how I initially got hooked 35 years ago!
That being said, how do we begin to venture towards an organic cooking and dietary lifestyle? Read on for some tried and true ideas!
How to Successfully Embark on a Whole and Natural Foods Lifestyle
My first venture into a natural foods store was the result of a mission to buy 3 “organic” items – potato chips, sour cream (for dip) and vanilla ice cream. And voila! A lifestyle was born!
Lifestyle changes, as you’ve most likely experienced, do not usually happen overnight. Our habits, tastes and styles become ingrained over a period of time and it’s challenging to introduce new habits or to modify the old ones – particularly if we enjoyed them. Simple changes and “baby steps” can be most effective when striving for a successful lifestyle change. Instead of totally eliminating your favorite food or dish, when deciding to begin a healthful, new cooking and eating plan, start off by changing the form of that food.
For example –
Are you in the habit of using store-bought pre-prepared salad dressings? It’s sooooooo simple and easy to make your own! Here’s my favorite dressing recipe go-to when time is sparse or I’m in a hurry to get dinner out on the table …
KC’s 3 Ingredient Vinaigrette
Organic extra-virgin, 1st cold-pressed olive oil
Raw, organic apple cider vinegar
Liquid Stevia drops
Celtic sea salt and fresh ground pepper to-taste
In the bottom of a large salad bowl add all 3 ingredients. My preference for the ratio of oil to vinegar is about 50/50 (same amount of both) but you may want to increase or decrease either, should be based upon your palate. Test tasting will help you create the perfect flavor. This holds true with the Stevia drops as well.
You may want to start off with (depending upon the size of your salad) with ¼ cup of olive oil and ¼ cup vinegar.
Whisk dressing until smooth and add salad greens and ingredients on top, then toss.
This is one of my husband’s favorite salad dressings!
My next suggestion is that you select 2 to 3 items that you buy weekly and begin to purchase them in organic form. IE: apples, bananas, rice potatoes, avocados, etc. Select 2 or 3 and each time you purchase, buy organic. Continue to do this until buying these items in organic form until it becomes commonplace. Labels should contain “USDA certified organic” or produce code # should begin with a 9.
NEXT – Watch for next week’s blog when we’ll talk about more ideas for embarking on an organic cooking/dietary lifestyle!
