(Don’t do this to your healthy potato!)
You’ve probably joked about people who order a big mac with a diet coke, what’s the point exactly?
But, we see your pinterest boards, and we see folks making a plant-strong meal, completely plant-wrong by adding junk food to an otherwise healthy dish!
Some examples:
A big salad. Healthy, right? Until you add the pure fat, artery clogging, endothelium damaging oil. Pouring a dressing with oil in it, or drizzling olive oil to your salad is like adding crisco to your salad, what is the point? You have made a completely healthy meal into fat with a side of vegetables.
Instead: Use salsa, balsamic vinegar or make your own no added oil salad dressing from Engine 2.
Other pitfalls: Watch the high fat plant-foods like avocado, nuts, seeds and tofu. While a little of these are great as a condiment, your salads should be largely made up of greens, vegetables, beans, whole grains and even fruit.
A baked potato. Healthy, right? Yes, a plain baked potato is a perfectly healthy plant-strong food to eat. However, when you add sour cream (vegan or non vegan), butter (vegan or non vegan), cheese (vegan or non vegan) and bacon bits, all of a sudden you have made a plant-wrong meal.
Instead: top your baked potato with greens, salsa and beans. Sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top for a more cheesy taste. Because you are skipping the calories from all of those fatty junk foods, you can have 3 baked potatoes with toppings instead of one with all of that heart attack inducing “food” on top!
Oatmeal. For the love of grains, PLEASE don’t ruin your beautiful, healthy oatmeal. Oatmeal is healthy, delicious and filling. However when you add butter (veg/or non veg), sugar, tons of nut butter, extracted sweetener syrups you turn that cholesterol reducing dish into a cholesterol increasing dish.
Instead: Eat your oats with a splash of non-dairy milk, a little ground flax seed and some delicious fresh fruit.
Veggie Burgers: When most people think “veggie burger” they think healthy. However, most veggie burgers sold in stores are junk. Add on top of that, things like veg cheese, mayo or dairy cheese, and you have a plant-weak veggie burger.
Instead: Pick up Jeff Novick’s new DVD “Burgers and Fries”. In fact, leave a comment below and tell us why you need this amazing DVD and we will pick a winner tomorrow!
You can also check out our guide to making plant-strong burgers.
Stir Fry: We have a theory: Anything that is left in the fridge can be turned into a stir-fry. We have put everything in our stir-fry. Vegetables, lettuce, apples, tofu, beans, whole grains, you name it, if we are clearing out the fridge, we throw it in.
However, if you throw in things like oil, lots of soy sauce, sauces with fat and sodium, you turn that delicious hearth healthy dish into a heart clogging mess.
Instead: Use water or low sodium vegetable broth to cook your stir-fry. Be cautious with sauces! Use low sodium alternatives and even then, use sparingly. Use salt-free spices like curry to add flavor instead.
Whatever the dish you are making is, be sure to keep it plant-strong and watch what you add to it, so you don’t fall into the “plant-wrong” trap.
Don’t forget to enter our “Burger and Fries” giveaway!
