How to Make Your Own Healthy Recipe Binder

For those of us who have the time, cooking can be enjoyable and even therapeutic! Cooking at home helps you eat healthier since you have better control over the ingredients the way your meal is made. Plus, you can tailor your meals to suite your own tastes and special diet. We would love to share with you ways to eat healthy and organize nutritious recipes.

Take a Step Towards a Healthy Change

Though we may be young at heart, sometimes our body reminds us we aren’t exactly 21 anymore. We encounter more medical conditions as time wears on. For example, heartburn with old favorite spicy foods! When that happens, it might be time to change your eating habits for your digestive system. Some of us could also be on medications for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol or heart issues, etc. All these conditions should be taken into account to prevent medication interacting with food choices.

Healthy meal image from “Jessicalettucetomato”

In general you should aim for:

• A higher proportion of (preferably fresh) fruit and veggies in the diet
• Plenty of roughage (dietary fiber such as salads, whole grains, whole fruit etc)
• Smaller portions of everything
• Lower amounts of salt in everything and also fewer packaged/canned foods which are typically laden with sodium and preservatives
• Smaller but perhaps more frequent meals
• Plenty of water
• Healthy fats from fatty fish, nuts and seeds,
• Some additional low fat dairy to replenish calcium stores of the body
• Perhaps some B12 fortified foods (or a supplement) added to the diet

Healthy and Easy Recipes

Forrest Berries Smoothie Image from " AnneCN"

Ideally, recipes should be both healthy and simple. The fewer the ingredients, the better. That means it’s been minimally processed!

Here are some online resources for healthy recipes:

• You could of course eat fruit or veggies, but you could also make use of some of these convenient and delicious smoothies. You can enhance the nutrition of smoothies by adding yogurt or milk and honey to them.
• Soups aren’t just tasty and heartwarming; they have the benefit of making you feel fuller with fewer calories and are a great way to increase the amount of liquid intake per day. Here are some healthy soup recipes
• If you are a vegetarian or plan to cut down on meat in your diet, you should check out healthy vegetarian recipes and some more vegetarian meal plans.
• Some more delicious but healthy giving recipes can be found at A Place for Mom
• If you or your partner has a heart condition, it may be a good idea to check out heart healthy recipes suggested by heart.org.
• Here are some great suggestions if you usually need to cook for just a couple of people
• Mayo Clinic also has these diabetes friendly recipe suggestions to offer

DIY Project: Organize Your Recipes In Binder

Who doesn’t love the convenience of pulling out a recipe from almost anywhere? It can be convenient, but it might be worth the time to print out a good recipe. Save yourself the hassle of looking it up repeatedly.

You can also gather together older recipes and sift through them. First, toss the

Recipe Binder Image from ThirtyHandmadeDays

ones you no longer use or don’t do well with your diet. Then organize them under tabs like: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, Starters, Salads, Soups, Smoothies, etc. Consider putting each recipe printout in a plastic sleeve (easy to wipe off cooking spills).

Use a giant binder if you have one! This will make it easier when your collection starts building up. If you have lots of recipes you may need more binders or files. Tip: Use post-its or labels to indicate different segments or contents to easily find what you’re looking for.

Special Coupon To Help Your Healthy Recipe Project

We are offering 5% off all orders this August. So don’t forget to use Coupon: AUG5 for any order you place until 08/31/2015 at TomatoInk. So here’s wishing you good luck on your happy cooking and healthy eating journey!