Finally, a post from your blogger

Indian food -- from my kitchen!

Well, it's been quite awhile, hasn't it! Let's just say.... I've been busy. Thank my daughter, Willa Hahn, for inspring this next post. She's going to be competing for Miss Eastern Panhandle in a few weeks, after finishing as runner up in the Miss Berkeley County pageant a few weeks ago. Each contestant is expected to have a platform; hers is "Healthy West Virginia." One problem she contemplates in creating a program is one we at the practice hear often: It takes too long to make healthy meals, and it's so easy to grab a meal at McDonalds, or buy a frozen meal. OK, that's not terrible once in awhile. But not every day. Our obesity problem in West Virginia is not going to be solved at the drive-up window of a fast-food restaurant, sorry!

So what's a busy family to do? I have the luxury of working flexible hours, so I often come home a few hours before my family to get household chores done, including cooking a healthy meal. We eat a home-cooked meal almost every night. But this "luxury" wasn't always the case. There were the days when we both had full-time jobs, visiting the gym after work almost every day, along with everything else. But we still ate at home almost every night. To top it off, we were fairly strict vegetarians at the time. I relied on  books like Meatless Dishes in Twenty Minutes or Less, a great little paperback that I believe is still in print. There are tons of other books and websites dedicated to making your mealtime less stressful. Here are a few:

• Eating Well Quick and Healthy Dinner Recipes and Menus
• Serious Eats 25 Quick Dinner Recipes Besides these dinner suggestions, this is a real foodies' paradise. It links to recipes, yes; but you can also read other foodies' blogs, restaurant reviews, and watch instructional videos on cooking techniques. Want to obsess about the best hard cider, or ask a question about the best way to poach an egg? This is the place.
• Cooking Light, one of the more popular magazines in our office judging by the dog-eared pages, always features quick, easy, healthy recipes. I love the slideshows with pictures of the food. Right now they're featuring an article on 100 ways to cook Salmon!

Some of these sites allow you to save favorite recipes, and even create a shopping list from those recipes. Many of them also have smartphone applications so you can look up recipes on the go. I use Epicurious.com's app quite often.

You'll see that the quick meals featured usually use some convenience foods to short-cut preparation time. Sometimes it's simply pre-grated cheese; but when using a pre-made sauce, for example, be careful  to choose a healthy variety.

It's always better to start with a plan. Always make a weekly menu, and from that, create your shopping list. I dread the end of a work day when I don't know what I'm going to make for dinner -- it just puts me in a bad mood! And keep some staples in your pantry for those days: some canned beans, tortillas, and cheese can make a quick burrito dinner with a few fresh additions, for example.

Besides finding a few favorite quick recipes, there is the make-ahead option. I know friends who spend their weekends cooking and freezing meals for the week. My mother is an amazing soup chef, and she'll make up a huge pot of beef vegetable soup and eat it throughout the week, adding a salad or a sandwich to the mix.

And even if you don't go crazy on the make-ahead meals, do this: when chopping an onion for tonight's meal, go ahead and chop an extra for tomorrow's and put it in a zip lock bag. Same for cheese, etc. 

And how about getting your kids involved? They probably get home from school before you get home from work. Leave them some simple instructions to shred some cheese, or prep some vegetables. If they're too young to handle the tools, maybe they could simply empty the dishwasher, or set the table. 

A rather creative idea is to start a meal-swap with a few friends. There are lots of ways  you could organize this; I first read about it in the Real Simple magazine. The basic concept is, you make meals enough for members of a group, and meet regularly to swap the meals. With a group of folks that are also committed to making healthy meals, this could be a lot of fun. I always like food that's cooked by someone else!

Anybody else out there love Pinterest? You can find tons of recipes, along with pictures of the food.  As you pin pictures of your own food, you might even inspire others!  Here's mine.  OK, some of those things aren't so healthy.... so don't look at those!