By tweaking your favourite recipes and swapping ingredients, you can enjoy your food and feel lighter and healthier at the same time.
Manage those cravings
To help manage cravings, a balanced low-GI diet that helps to keep your blog sugar levels stable, as well as eating at regular intervals, may help stave off the desire for unhealthy food choices. But this needn’t mean denying yourself, indulging in the occasional treat may help keeping your mind off it but just look for the lower-fat, lower-sugar variety of your favourite treat. It’s win-win!
- Salt cravings can be a sign of dehydration. Instead of reaching for peanuts or chips, grab a glass of refreshing water.
- If savoury food has your focus try a low-fat, low-salt snack like freshly popped popcorn without the salt or butter.
- Afternoon sugar cravings can often see us reaching for chocolate. If you can’t get over that urge look for dark chocolate with has a reduced sugar content. Try Simply Less Dark Chocolate (Search 9945643 at Coles online)
Snacking
Smart snacking is important for healthy weight control. While sugary fatty chocolate bars, cakes and chips are out, there are plenty of healthier options.
- Dieticians recommend eating 5 small meals a day to maintain a healthy weight. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.
- Remember a snack is not a meal and should leave you feeling satisfied not full.
- Fresh fruit is a great snack because it’s healthy and portable
- Try a small punnet of cherry tomatoes, carrot, cucumber or celery sticks with hummus or a small tub or low-fat yoghurt. Try Simply less Greek style yogurt (Search 9888743 at Coles online)
Simple Switches
You don’t need to miss out on your favourite foods entirely. Just make some smart, simple switches.
- Swap fried eggs, bacon and sausages for poached eggs and asparagus
- Swap toast and butter for yoghurt and fresh fruit salad
- Swap lard and dripping when roasting meat and veg with a light oil. Remember to trim the fat too.
- Swap creamy curries for lightly marinaded oven cooked chicken in tandoori paste
- Swap full-fat cheddar and instead opt for a deliciously tangy low-fat fetta instead. Try Simply less Light Fetta Cheese (Search 9921340 at Coles online)
For more delicious recipes using Coles Simply Less ingredients, visit coles.com.au/simplylessrecipes.
Macadamias are our native nut and they are as healthy as they are versatile and delicious. Packed with goodness, macadamia nuts contain mono-unsaturated fats and are a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals that are essential to a healthy diet and they’re also believed to help lower cholesterol. If that’s not enough – they taste fabulous!
Dry roasted macadamias make an ideal snack to serve with drinks. Lightly sprinkle them with curry powder or Mexican-style chilli powder for a flavour boost. Try them in a pesto sauce as a change from pine nuts, or add some chopped to an Anzac biscuit mixture for the ultimate patriotic treat. They lend themselves perfectly for baking, desserts, salads and stir-fries, too. For a fresh take on a summer salad, combine salad leaves, mixed berries and toasted macadamia nuts with sliced white peaches and goat’s cheese. Add a splash of your favourite salad dressing and serve.
