5 Tips to Keeping Food Healthy & Fun

There is often a misconception that “healthy” food doesn’t taste good/is boring and honestly, that misconception is probably based on some truly terrible food experiences that carry the term “health food”.  I’m here to tell you though, there is absolutely no reason why your fruits, vegetables, lower carb, lower fat, higher protein, higher fiber, etc. food shouldn’t taste just as amazing as all the other food choices out there.  Because let's be real for a minute, if it doesn’t taste good who the heck is going to choose to eat it more than once or twice?

I’m going to share a few of my tips and tricks for how to keep your foods tasting 100% edible for all members of your family without breaking your budget or adding tons of extra calories to your meal.

1. Hot Sauce is king. Y’all, it can be added to eggs, meat, and vegetables for so much added flavor!  It can be added before, during, or after cooking and guess what, there are so many dang hot sauce options out there that they don’t even have to be spicy to add flavor!  My personal favorite things to add hot sauce to are eggs and chicken.
2. Everything Bagel Seasoning is basically the toping that comes on an everything bagel, it’s found in the spice section of your grocery store, and it is delicious on steamed vegetables, avacado, and as chicken/beef seasoning!  I eat it the most on mashed avacado on a plain rice cake.  Totally boring and tasteless “health food” elevated to delicious snack instantly!
3. Water flavoring (I prefer liquid) is a great way to dress up your plain jane Greek yogurt.  If you’re not opposed to tiny amounts of sugar substitute here and there this is a GREAT option.  It takes ~¼ of what you would put in your water to turn 6oz of yogurt into whatever flavor you want!  Seriously, those water enhancers come in every flavor under the sun.  My personal favorite is Black Cherry + nonfat Greek Yogurt
4. Strong flavored cheeses are an awesome way to add flavor to food!  Not everyone is a blue cheese or parmesan cheese fan but they are great options to add some zippy flavor to eggs, pasta, vegetables/salads, and meat (as a topping or stuffing)!  I LOVE blue cheese on top of my scrambled eggs + beaters; add a little hot sauce and spinach and it’s basically well-balanced heaven on a plate!  Another “cheesy” alternative is popcorn topping cheese.  It has a few additives that some people can have sensitivities too but if you’re looking for a good way to dress up your popcorn, vegetables, and/or pasta it’s not a bad option.
5. Last but certainly not least, switch up how you cook your food!  Gone are the days of “only bake or boil it or it’s not 'healthy'”.  Absolutely untrue!  If you normally bake your chicken then throw it on the grill every now and then! Same with your veggies.  You can eat the same exact food at least 5 different ways over the course of a week which will trick your brain into the mindset that “this is new” even if really all ya did was throw your chicken breast in the air fryer instead of the oven. 

<3 Mara Dupuis COTA/L, PES