To start, Make one dinner meal meat/fish free - try lentils and beans -
Add a second dinner of meat free pasta or homemade pizza
Commit to fish twice a week for dinner (oily fish one night and white fish on the other)
Roast a mix of veggies every night
Make enough to have leftovers for lunch.

Brown rice over white
Whole grain bread over white

I like America’s Test Kitchen’s two cookbooks on Mediterranean for ideas

Foods with fiber. Learn about the importance of a healthy gut microbiome.

I've done a lot of homework and highly recommend Fiber Fueled by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz.

Anonymous wrote:I try to have big salads or greens based lunches at least three days a week. That means every week I buy 2-3 bags of kale, spinach and/or arguula. I often add an egg. Sometimes I make them as grain salads with cooked farro or barley (which is cook in better than bullion). For fall, another great thing is to roast veggies (carrots, onion, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, whatever) with olive oil salt and garlic. They mix that with a grain and add some salty cheese like feta or manchego if you want. You can also add walnuts. That feels so healthy and is filling and delicious. It’s also easy to make a ton on Sunday and mix it together for dinner lunches.

Great ideas!

I've had a lot of success mixing beans or lentils 50/50 with anything I'd use ground meat for.

Tacos - instead of all ground beef, mix half ground beef and half black beans or pinto beans

Sloppy Joe's - mix half ground beef and half brown lentils

Bolegnese - half (pork / beef / whatever - I use bulk Italian sausage) and half garbanzo or cannelini beans.

Then I make grain bowls for lunch. Brown rice, farro or quinoa made in bulk in the weekend - I rotate which one I cook, and store the extra in the freezer, so I always have a variety available. Lentils or beans. Whatever vegetables I have on hand. Hummus or tzaziki. Olive oil and red wine vinegar or lemon juice. Mix it all together, a minute in the microwave at work, delicious.

Between those, I get all of the protein and fiber in looking for.

Anonymous wrote:Why not start with one day a week of minimally processed eating and home cooking?
Frankly, if Americans just cooked their food rather than ordered in or heating prepared foods, we'd be a lot healthier.
So, you don't need to make your own bread, but try buying from a real bakery. Eat plain yogurt and sweeten with fruit instead of buying pre-sweetened yogurt. Make a salad and add a hard boiled egg, chickpeas, and toasted nuts instead of meat. Use olive oil instead of butter.
I like Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian - it's a really excellent cookbook with a lot of easy and simple recipes.

+1. Out of 21 meals a week, 18-19 are largely homemade. We don’t necessarily eat low carb or low fat, but very little saturated fat except milk, homemade yogurt, and a bit of butter and cheese.

I find my kids get less dysregulated and sick than other kids who eat more processed food.

Be vegan

Why not start with one day a week of minimally processed eating and home cooking?
Frankly, if Americans just cooked their food rather than ordered in or heating prepared foods, we'd be a lot healthier.
So, you don't need to make your own bread, but try buying from a real bakery. Eat plain yogurt and sweeten with fruit instead of buying pre-sweetened yogurt. Make a salad and add a hard boiled egg, chickpeas, and toasted nuts instead of meat. Use olive oil instead of butter.
I like Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian - it's a really excellent cookbook with a lot of easy and simple recipes.

My mom was a lifelong vegetarian who ate mostly home cooked, though not necessarily organic meals. She died of stomach cancer. There are things you can do to try and improve your odds, but it’s really a crapshoot.

Aren't acai bowls ice cream sundaes you think you can feel good about?

Anonymous wrote:Just sub beans for whatever protein. It's not hard.

Beans are more starch/sugar than protein.

Nothing can replace meat but maybe change where you buy it. Crunchy granola people buy only local/farm raised organic meat not tortured slaughterhouse animals but this is expensive but you can find steals and bargains by going to farmers markets and talking to people.

It takes lot of effort to be a real crunchy granola shopper

Minestrone with barley and lots of veggies

Rainbow chard (and/or kale, spinach, rappini etc) + shallots + stems + lots of garlic + olive oil

I agree with PP re lentils. I buy the orange lentils and make soups. Add protein, tomatoes, peppers, greens at the end.

Garbanzo bean salad - beans, carrots, onion, radish, cucumber, tomato, whatever you have around, cheese, oil, vinegar, basil

Açaí bowls aren’t healthy. Granola is super unhealthy (tons of fat and sugar) and the açaí stuff is very sugary too.

I try to have big salads or greens based lunches at least three days a week. That means every week I buy 2-3 bags of kale, spinach and/or arguula. I often add an egg. Sometimes I make them as grain salads with cooked farro or barley (which is cook in better than bullion). For fall, another great thing is to roast veggies (carrots, onion, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, whatever) with olive oil salt and garlic. They mix that with a grain and add some salty cheese like feta or manchego if you want. You can also add walnuts. That feels so healthy and is filling and delicious. It’s also easy to make a ton on Sunday and mix it together for dinner lunches.

Just sub beans for whatever protein. It's not hard.