Staying healthy
These 4 recipes can help you keep those 2024 resolutions
Many of us start a new year by promising ourselves we’ll do better — save more money, perhaps, or lose those extra pounds by starting an exercise program.
During the holiday season, eating healthier is also high on the list of New Year’s resolutions.
Giving up alcohol after the excesses of December — a popular trend known as Dry or Damp January — is often a simple first step since it’s easy to find other ways to hydrate. (Really!) It’s everything else you put on the table at mealtime that can be vexing.
We all know we should eat more vegetables, for example, but it often can be difficult to work the four or five portions a day the USDA recommends for adults into a daily diet if you’re not a huge salad eater. Two to three servings of fish a week can also seem challenging if you don’t count frozen fish sticks, which when breaded and fried are high in both sodium and calories.
Occasionally eating more plant-based protein and fewer animal products is also better for both our and our planet’s health. And after all the sweets America as a whole consumes between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, goodness knows a little less sugar wouldn’t hurt.
To give you a gentle push in the right direction, we’ve assembled a few good-foryou recipes to add to your weekly rotation. All are easy and inexpensive to prepare, and will appeal to kids as well as adults. They include a vegetable lasagna packed with pepper, zucchini and fresh spinach; a foolproof baked salmon burger that gets a bright and zesty punch of flavor from fresh ginger, miso and pineapple; and a crispy rice salad topped with lightly fried tofu, a versatile protein powerhouse that’s cholesterol free and rich in calcium.
When you need a sweet snack or bit of dessert to release endorphins, those chemicals that make us feel good, a low-sugar chocolate chip cookie sweetened with mashed banana should hit the spot.