After spending the afternoon looking over the DASH diet, I find that it’s pretty common-sensical: Lots of whole grains, veggies and fruits, lean meats and seafood, low-fat or no-fat dairy, heart-healthy oils and limited amounts of sweets. Keeping the sodium to less than a teaspoon a day is a challenge. That pretty much means giving up processed foods.
So tonight I made pasta (not whole wheat but fiber-enriched) and loaded it with a half-pound of the leanest ground beef, onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, fire-roasted tomatoes, all in a nicely seasoned organic tomato sauce. I used about two teaspoons of salt in the whole dish, and it feed three people for two different meals. Paired with a salad, it was a fresh, hearty meal.
And taste-wise, it kicked ass, if I do say so myself. Actually I said, “Nom nom nom.”
The beef could easily have been omitted. So could the cheese we sprinkled on top. But I it was certainly tasty this way and I felt better about it than a few other choices I would have made.
Give a fat girl a break. You can’t give up cheese cold turkey. Damn.
Here’s my hubby, my hero, guarding my plate from our table-surfing hound, Dexter.
