Iron Rations: 3 Quick and Healthy Chicken Dishes
Look! A quick chicken. Get it?
One thing I commonly hear when talking to people who say they want to eat better is this:
“I would eat healthier but it takes too long to cook!”
Poppycock!
It just takes a little forethought and kitchen know-how.
The first step to eating healthy is making sure your kitchen is well stocked (here are some kitchen essentials that are always present in my larder). It is very easy to let the temptation of convenience over-ride your desire to be healthier. Don’t fall in the trap of ordering take-out because you let your refrigerator’s contents dwindle!
As I have noted before, I am a big fan of the chicken bird and almost always have some in the house ready to supply me with lean protein goodness. Now, just like everyone, I am often busy and on the go; so the routine of thawing chicken and then preparing it just doesn’t work for me. Instead, once a week I will prepare my chicken ahead of time so that it is ready for me when my stomach starts grumbling!
Depending on how many people you are cooking for this obviously is going to change, but since these quick and healthy chicken dishes generally act as my lunch this is all based on servings for one person.
I will cube 3 whole chicken breasts (skinless of course) and throw them in a big frying pan or stainless steel wok with 2 tbsp of olive oil, then I season them to taste (I generally add 2 tsps of minced garlic, sprinkle liberally with italian seasoning and grind some black pepper over it all) and cook it all up. Then I toss it all in a Tupperware container in my refrigerator. Voila, chicken to last the entire week in about 15 minutes!
Here are 3 healthy and tasty dishes using that chicken as a base, ranging from a light 275 calorie salad to a hearty 500 calorie meal, that you can whip up in under 10 minutes.
No matter what endeavor you want to talk about, one universal truth will hold true – People hate learning/practicing the basics!
There are a lot of secrets to a long and healthy life; some common sense and some not so much. Look across the internet and within the pages of fitness and health magazines and you will see everything from Amazonian superfruits to bizarre yoga poses being touted as that month’s super-duper secret that you have been missing out on! It is that promise, that whatever the flavor of the month exercise or food is the missing ingredient in your life, that hooks you in and gets you to buy whatever product is being sold. It is human nature to feel as though a simple fix is all you need. (But that’s a topic for another day!)
Eggs. The staple of so many people’s morning ritual.
I fondly remember shopping with my mother when I was growing up; wandering the aisles of the grocery store watching her toss endless boxes and bags into the cart, always hoping that if I was good that I would get to pick a comic book from the spinning rack near the checkout. It’s a very simple, and pleasant, memory for me.
Think about it; if there wasn’t a point to doing something unless you were the best at it, then you probably wouldn’t do 99.99999% of the things you do (My apologies to anyone who is the best at something. My bad.) For example, I like to play FPS games like Gears of War and Call of Duty on Xbox Live. I also get shot in the face; a lot. I am far from the best, or even from top-tier (let’s be honest, I kind of suck) but I keep doing it because I find it entertaining.
If ever there was a good reason to skip a scheduled running workout, the most obvious would be that it’s just too cold outside. No two bones about it, running in the cold sucks! Now obviously if you live in a warmer climate this isn’t a problem, but for a lot of people it’s a convenient obstacle to deal with and even more convenient excuse. (Of course you don’t want to run when it’s storming, snowing or icing either, but statistically speaking those are pretty rare events; so stop being argumentative.)
Well, my Jerdlings, we have one more holiday outing left in 2012; and that means one more potential excuse to make bad health choices under the guise of social convention.
I am constantly asked for advice, or to act as a sounding board, by friends dissatisfied with the way they see their health going. It is frustrating to me, not only because I want to see them succeed and live a healthier life but also because of their inability to determine what the actual root cause problems are.
