Teaching You How to Use Lifestyle as Medicine
Making a roast in the slow cooker is an excellent method for leaner, tougher, and cheaper(!) cuts of meat like chuck. The slow, lower temp cooking method is ideal for tenderizing and breaking down fibers while maximizing flavor. Roast is great for make-ahead protein, too. To keep with our CARE goal of red meat no more than 2 meals per week, enjoy a dinner with the root vegetables you cook it with the night you make it, then pre-portion and freeze left-overs for upcoming meal plans.
This recipe is a staple in CARE. It’s introduced in the first week’s sample meal plan for new members for a reason. It’s easy, so family-friendly, and a great example of how balanced doesn’t have to mean boring. Using store-bought rotisserie chicken and making your rice ahead of time makes this a quick 20-minute dinner option (lean ground turkey could also be used). This recipe also shows you how you can still make savory, comforting dishes with cheese and rice – by balancing the right quality and in the right amounts.
Roasted chickpeas were made for us “salty snackers”. Replace the afternoon pretzels with this high-fiber, high-protein yet salty and crunchy- alternative. Chickpeas are a rich pre-biotic food (from our CARE Bonus Step: Strengthening Digestion). Pair with an herbal digestive tea, like ginger or mint, for a therapeutic mid-day break that actually support your intestinal cells vs stress them (like high caffeine, high sugar afternoon snacks). PLUS, this is a great portable snack that keeps in desk drawers and bags making sure adhering to meal timing is not a problem!
I love this snack as an example of food first (vs. supplements). This snack supports your immune system, natural detoxification, and thyroid by providing 100% of your daily needs for both vitamin C (kiwi) and selenium (Brazil nuts). It also provides fiber and just the right combination of healthy carbohydrate (kiwi) and healthy fat (Brazil nut) to help control your blood sugar in-between meals. This is how easy, and tasty, it is to eat with purpose.
Fresh papaya, in addition to tasting like a tropical dream, contains the digestive enzyme papain. This makes it a wonderful complement to richer dishes that contain legumes and animal proteins. It is also in season during our colder months, bringing a bit of sun to our shorter days up north. This stew also uses cheese and avocado in balanced amounts to add rich flavor and texture, as well as, nutrition (calcium from cheese and mono-unsaturated fat from avocado). In a consistent, long-term therapeutic lifestyle focuses on how to add favorites vs. restrict them.
Let me show you how to stretch your chocolate craving by using chia seeds and real peanut butter in this no-bake, 5-minute, 5-ingredient recipe! We talk a lot about the benefits of high-volume, low-density leafy and tender carbohydrates on our plates, but there are three times when dense might just be better.
I love turning ingredient labels into recipes so played with this one – adding edamame for more protein and came up with the following adaptation of this salad. The smell is absolutely intoxicating as you make this salad. I haven’t tried the store’s version of it to see how close I am to the original in taste, but I think that’s OK.
This is another take on the popular CARE Orange and Grape Chicken Salad. With this version, I want to show you how easy it is to create a completely new taste with just a few substitutions. In this case, I change out oranges to take advantage of now in-season blueberries. I also switch to a low-fat mayo allowing me to add extra nutrition and crunch with the addition of walnuts.
Here is another way that I like to use the CARE Tater Tot Hash. At least twice per month, I have an egg bake on my meal plan. Their versatility is endless. My husband is actually the one that discovered using tater tots with riced cauliflower while making brunch one weekend. He paired the hash with bell peppers and eggs. It was delicious. Here I turn it into a bake for easy make-ahead weekday breakfasts.
This lunch is surprisingly fast to put together. Once the hash is made (either the first day you make it or made-ahead over the weekend), toss with pre-shredded greens and a reheated lean sausage (or other protein of choice) for a nutrient-rich lunch… with tater tots.
