“Healthifying” Your Recipes

I talk a lot about improving your health by making do-able changes. Some clients are ready to overhaul their health, others prefer a minimal approach, and others can be anywhere on that spectrum, from “all” to “as nothing as possible.”

One of the easiest ways to start improving health is to look at the foods you currently like to eat, and seeing if there are some ingredients you can swap out for a healthier option. This is my “small swaps” approach (more info on that is HERE). For example, use brown rice instead of white in your favorite recipe. Substitute a nondairy yogurt when a recipe calls for sour cream. Use a leaner meat. Add additional vegetables. These small swaps are a great way to start seeing a difference in your well-being. For clients who are ready to completely overhaul their food choices, we make bigger, more significant swaps that yield bigger, more significant results, like switching to plant based eating and eliminating processed foods. With that in mind, let’s look today at putting that into practice with the foods that we eat.

I’m a big advocate of plant based eating (see my post HERE for more on that), but, as with everything, there are levels and variations to that. It’s all about finding what works for you, and what you find sustainable as a long term lifestyle. We all have different starting points, different speeds to our progress, and different stumbling blocks. So when we look at our diet, we need to keep all of the variables in mind. We all have meals that we love, meals that we would like to try, and meals that are a total no-go. Fortunately, we all have the ability to make those choices, and “healthify” those choices. If you’re a meat and potatoes person, eating salads for dinner may not be conceivable, at least right now. But choosing to add a vegetable that is somewhat palatable, or using a different kind of potato, or changing the cut of meat or even the protein may be workable. If you have a seafood allergy, we won’t be choosing shrimp, but we could make the same meal and just use chicken. You get the idea. I have a post on making swaps HERE.

So let’s look at a meal that I made for my family this week, and see how those swaps and substitutions look when creating versions of a recipe.

We LOVE all things Disney, and we were really missing it this weekend. I, for one, am IN LOVE with the “totchos” at Woody’s Lunchbox. Tater tots, chili, cheese, tomatoes, green onion… so much yummy goodness, and there’s a vegetarian option that I can actually eat! Certainly not an every day kind of meal, but for a treat when I’m in Disney World… well, it’s a must-do for me every time we’re there.

To make my own totchos, I used the ingredients that I had on hand (we actually had everything we needed right in the kitchen this time!). I started with the “official” totcho recipe that the Disney Parks Blog had posted (linked HERE), then made three versions of it; all of them were based on my “swaps” approach, and each dish was a different level of “swap”.

My son ate the authentic recipe version with some minor changes (I kept the ingredients that were most palatable for him- the non-negotiable ingredients- and swapped out ingredients that he didn’t mind changing). I started with that slightly better version, then made bigger changes for my husband, and even more changes for me. So we have the original, eat sparingly, yummy but unhealthy version, then the moderated version that my husband ate, then the revamped plant based-ish version that I ate. There are so many other changes that we can make, too, for different needs. Ultimately, it was great that we all got to enjoy a yummy meal in a healthier version that we were each comfortable with eating. And we all got a little piece of Disney magic at home, which we always enjoy.

Let’s look closer at the ingredients and the ways we can healthify it. Here is the original totcho recipe, along with my comments on healthifying each step:

Chili with Beans

• 1 pound lean ground beef (you can use the leanest beef you can find, or swap out for chicken or turkey, or use beans)
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (I’m sensitive to onion, so I used scallions instead. I’ve also used leeks)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (raw garlic has allicin- so many health benefits- but it’s destroyed in cooking. Option 1: cook it anyway. Option 2: mince the garlic and let it sit for 10 minutes then cook it, shown to preserve some of the phytonutrient. Option 3: keep it raw and mix it in at the end)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (I prefer to use whole, fresh, organic tomatoes- or ones from my garden if possible-, and throw them into my food processor to crush them)
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce (same thing here- I’d rather use tomatoes and just puree them into a sauce)
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained (healthier to use fresh beans if you can, or dried beans that are soaked. We skipped these altogether, as the boys think beans are yucky, and I find kidney beans too starchy for me)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (omit if you don’t like spice, but chilis have wonderful health benefits)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt (healthier to use Himalayan salt or sea salt)
• Black pepper, to taste
• Ground cayenne, to taste

Queso Sauce

• 2 cups jar cheese sauce (Nope. Not for us. Too processed. Home made vegan cheese- made from carrots, potatoes, etc. would be my choice, but for this weekend, we skipped this altogether. If you love the queso, you could swap for a home made queso, or add extra real cheese and additional tomato)
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with chilies (again, fresh is always best, so I’d use real tomatoes and real chilies. Alternately, a jarred salsa could work- check that its ingredients are clean and without additives)

Totchos

• 1 (2 pound) bag frozen potato barrels (you could try veggie tots or cauliflower tots, but watch the ingredients! I used cauliflower gnocchi for my meal, which contains only cauliflower, cassava, potato starch, olive oil, and sea salt. Obviously, you could substitute a plate of veggies as well, but then you’d lose that totcho feel altogether)
• 1 1/2 cups corn chips (These are Fritos, super yummy, super unhealthy. We left these out. Another option could be a tortilla chip, baked, no added ingredients, that you could break up and sprinkle over the meal)
• Chili with Beans
• Queso Sauce
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (Shred your own cheddar, as shredded cheese often has added ingredients to keep it from clumping. You could also swap for a vegan cheese, but watch out- those ingredients can be very artificial in some brands. The healthiest option would be to make your own vegan cheese using a vegetable based recipe that’s mostly carrots and potatoes)
• 6 tablespoons sour cream (choose a light version, watch those fat free ones for added chemical ingredients! Another option would be plain Greek yogurt. I used a dairy free unsweetened plain coconut yogurt for my dish).
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to healthify your own favorite dishes. It doesn’t have to be labor intensive (I typically make just one version of a meal and we all eat it), and it doesn’t have to be either “healthy” or “not healthy;” there are so many variations that you can do, based upon your own needs and your own tastebuds and your own health goals.

If it seems like a lot to tackle, or if you want a helping hand to get going, or even if you have a recipe in mind and want some direction in how to healthify it, please reach out HERE!! I’m always here to help you!

Blessings,

Melanie