Now that you’ve refreshed your kitchen, you have all of the right ingredients to get started on creating healthy and balanced meals.
Now that you've refreshed your kitchen, you have all of the right ingredients to get started on creating healthy and balanced meals.
So where to start? Our Resident Nutritionist Steph Lowe recommends you should aim to achieve the following whether you're prepping breakfast, lunch or dinner:
- Vegetables: Start with 2 cups of predominately non-starchy 'rainbow' vegetables such as broccoli, carrot or capsicum with each meal (yes, that's right – even breakfast! It's not as hard as it may seem, adding spinach to your smoothie or scrambled eggs counts!)
- Protein: Combine 1 serve of good quality protein, such as palm sized grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish or meat-free alternatives such as 3 free range eggs, chickpeas, lentils or tofus (try to get some meat-free meals in throughout the week). Other protein sources include nuts and seeds (which also double as excellent sources of healthy fats – bonus!) and greens, such as spinach and kale (which are also high in iron).
- Good fats: Add 2 portions of good fats, such as half an avocado, two tablespoons of good quality olive oil, MCT oil, grass-fed butter or ghee and a handful of nuts and seeds.
- Carbs: Add ½ -1 cup of a wholefood carbohydrates (depending on your nutrition and fitness goals), such as quinoa, brown rice and starchy vegetables like sweet potato and beetroot. If you are exercising at a high intensity, adding one serve of a wholefoods carbohydrate to the meal you eat within one hour post training is important to aid your recovery.
Ready to get cooking and looking for some inspiration? With the help of our Resident Wholefoods Cook Dani Venn along with our Resident Nutritionist Steph Lowe and our Melrose Ambassador Rachael Finch, we've created this collection of healthy recipes to get you started.
Happy Eating!
