When you think of a healthy meal, do you conjure up thoughts of a boneless, skinless baked chicken breast with brown rice and steamed broccoli?
Grilled chicken breast on a bed of romaine lettuce?
Pulled chicken breast salad with fat-free mayo and whole wheat crackers?
Rotisserie chicken with wild rice and green beans?
OK, you get the point. While there’s nothing wrong with any of these options, if you’re trying to eat well, you may find yourself stuck in the Land of I-Only-Eat-Chicken.
We don’t exactly have anything against being in a chicken rut, so if you’re one of those people who can eat the same exact thing day after day, year after year, there’s no need to create a problem where none exists, so keep on cluckin’. But for the rest of us, acute cases of chicken breast burnout cause culinary boredom…which leads to a need for food excitement – in the form of calorific takeout, fatty fast food, and funky frozen stuff. Not good.
So why do we get stuck on chicken anyway?
- We’re out of practice. People aren’t preparing much food at home anymore, so being able to throw together something beyond the norm (norm = chicken) is simply a lost art.
- We’re scared. Inexperienced cooks think that cooking is hard; we watch so many cooking shows that cooking seems like something only expert chefs can handle. When we doubt our skills, we fall back on what we know…yes, that’s right – chicken.
- We overcommit and underplan. There are many, many healthy meals that can be on the table just as quickly as the Big C (chicken, of course), but cooking them does require a little bit of planning.
To overcome these obstacles, here are 3 tips for putting some non-chicken excitement into your healthy dinners:
- Learn to prep and plan meals for the week. Try cooking in bulk once or twice a week and freeze or refrigerate food for quick reheating. Wash, chop and dry all of your produce for the week on Sunday. Or a personal favorite, cook tomorrow’s dinner tonight…after you’ve decompressed, put the kids to bed, and the house is quiet. For help, download our free meal planner in the sidebar of this page.
- Spend some time in the kitchen. You become proficient at cooking by practicing. You don’t have to attend cooking school to become a good home cook. Take a little time to master the preparation of healthy, simple meals. Create a repertoire of your go-to favorites using recipes, and then start to experiment with your own creative concoctions.
- Run towards the unknown. 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have known what to do with quinoa, kale, or fresh rosemary if you paid me. Tonight, I used all 3 with ease and confidence. I always wanted to know how to cook, but I thought that I just wasn’t one of “those” people. How wrong I was. I committed to buying 1 or 2 unfamiliar foods each time I went to the grocery store, and I would come home and find healthy recipes online. I’m not going to lie; sometimes the dishes did not come out well, and I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos (i.e. how to peel garlic, how to cook amaranth, how to chop thyme, etc.), but usually the end result was delicious…and healthy…and not chicken.
