One of the areas my patients seem to struggle with is how to eat well when life is busy. Limited time means that eating wholesome, healthy, homemade food can seem out of reach and so it becomes that fast food is an easy replacement if the meal isn’t skipped altogether.
I’d suggest having a few quick and easy recipes up your sleeve for busy nights when you don’t have time to cook your ideal healthy homemade meal. (Here‘s some other ideas for anyone who finds being busy and healthy mutually exclusive.)
My first fall back is an omelette packed with veggies. It’s fast and nutritious. Here’s my recipe.
Another quick meal is vegetarian nachos. I try to squeeze in as many nutritious foods as I can into these. I’ve ditched the dairy (no sour cream or cheese here) and well, these nachos are bulked up with so many other great ingredients that you just don’t need it. Plus, they are so much tastier than any nachos I’ve had anywhere else.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective I see this as a yin and blood nourishing meal. The red kidney beans, spinach and tomato mix support the blood. Avocado provides good oils for the body and nourish our yin. The chili and onion are pungent and warm aiding the digestion of the richer, cooler and more nourishing ingredients. From a nutritional perspective, this meal is full of fibre and contains a good serve of vegetarian protein. The lycopene in cooked tomatoes are particularly good for prostate health in men.
Ingredients
- Organic corn chips
- Kidney beans (best case scenario: soaked the night before and cooked, otherwise 1 can of organic canned kidney beans)
- Cooked tomatoes (here’s a nice way to replace canned tomatoes to avoid the BPA lining in the can, otherwise 1 can of organic diced tomatoes)
- Organic salsa (as hot as you like it), 1 jar
- Avocado
- Half a lemon
- Half a red onion, finely diced
- Baby spinach leaves
Method
- In a small saucepan mix and heat kidney beans and tomatoes.
- Mash avocado with onion and squeeze lemon juice into mix.
- Spread half the corn chips onto a large plate and top with spinach leaves.
- Spoon half of the hot tomato and kidney bean mix over the corn chips.
- Top with half a jar of salsa.
- Lastly, serve with half the avocado mix on top.
You should have enough of the corn chips, bean mix, salsa and avocado mix to make a second serve.
To book an appointment at the clinic or further information on Chinese Medicine contact Dr Sarah George (Acupuncture). Sarah is a practitioner of acupuncture (AHPRA registered), massage therapy and natural health.
