A little healthier

a typical breakfast: fruit & fresh juice

About a year ago papa bear started having some health issues. It's a long and incredibly boring story but in the end it has meant that we've become a much healthier family as a result. As we tried to find a way to make him feel better and discover what's wrong in the first place we began to makeover our pantry and fridge. We started by making small changes and improvements and then, this week, as I was reading Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook It's All Good I realized that all those little changes ended up revamping our whole idea and way of eating/cooking. We've been cutting down on gluten and we try to limit dairy.
I'm all about simplicity, especially when it comes to cooking and especially since I've become a mum. So I have somewhat of a cooking/grocery shopping routine that I've developed over the past year. In an effort to put it down in writing I figured I would share with you what we do and how we do it!

Healthy pantry staples:

Brown rice syrup (for baking)

Coconut oil (I use this daily instead of olive oil)

Brown rice (I buy tons of this stuff)
Gluten free all purpose baking flour (I used the Bob's Red Mill brand)
Gluten free steel cut oats
Quinoa (or blogger manna if you will :) )
Raw honey
Canned tomatoes (for homemade tomato sauce)
Buckwheat (great as a side or for breakfast)
Canned tuna (easy lunch protein)
Granola
Almond butter
Dried mushrooms (great for a quick & light soup)

Healthy fridge staples:
Sweet potatoes (so much better than potatoes)
Red onion (fantastic flavor for salads)
Kale (I use this for juicing or to kick up a bakes sweet potato)
Spinach, arugula and romain
Pickles (so easy)
Vegenaise (I can't believe it took me so long to discover it!)
Whole grain mustard (for making dressing)
Sausage (sometimes from the Russian store, otherwise local)
Sparkling water (for diluting/kicking up juice)
Carrots
Greek yogurt (we use it instead of sour cream)
Almond milk (I totally fell in love with this stuff)
Quality maple syrup (always worth the extra bucks)
Avocados (I eat it in some form almost every day, once again -easy)
Beets (for juicing & salads)
Coconut water

All of this is constantly on rotation at our house and is key for me in order to be able to throw together a quick and healthy meal. After reading Skinny Bitch years ago we have slowly eliminated almost all "crap" foods from our house. It's so true that when it's not there you won't eat it, especially since the nearest grocery store is half an hour from our house. By always having lots of good, healthy options on hand we are sort of "forced" to eat healthier. Of course after some time it becomes your preference and we always find that when we stray from this diet our skin goes nuts, we feel tired and generally "off" and we inevitably start to gain weight. 

Other than what I listed we have also started juicing two or three days a week which helps immensely as well. In addition we have become crazy about drinking lots of water and squeezing in even the smallest amount of exercise into every day (occasionally it's just a short walk but it's better than nothing). 

I hope you find this helpful and please feel free to share any healthy "shortcuts" you yourselves have developed on a quest to eat healthier!

Last but not least here's a recipe for a go-to quick lunch for me:

cook sweet potatoes in pan with lid on low heat, up heat, remove lid & add kale & salt & pepper