Nutritious choices made simple®
When you shop with Guiding Stars, you know that you’re working toward your diet goals. You’re filling your shopping cart with foods that are nutritious and lower in negative attributes like added sugars and sodium. That said, there is no such thing as a perfect eater, nor a “perfect” cart. The goal of the Guiding Stars program is to guide you toward the “good, better, and best” options so that you can follow a balanced diet that works for you.
The release of updated Dietary Guidelines happens every 5 years. This allows improved scientific findings to be folded into the USDA’s healthy eating recommendations. At Guiding Stars, we closely examine updates to these guidelines. We’ll share what’s changed, and how you can fold the new recommendations into your eating patterns.
We’ve been talking about cooking on a budget all month on a planning level. This week, I’m going to give you a quick tour of a few of my favorite recipes that lean on inexpensive ingredients.
Hunger knows no season, and yet there’s something especially heart-rending about the reality of human hunger during the holiday season. If you are fortunate enough to have plenty of food on your table, it can be hard to imagine the toll that a daily lack of food takes on what’s supposed to be a season filled with joy. And yet, we all know that there are many people who want for nourishing food.
When you’re trying to save money on food, buying in bulk can be your friend. It’s not universally true for all ingredients. Let’s look at how it works best and how to work with what you’ve bought.
Rice is the epitome of a pantry staple. It’s a basic, inexpensive ingredient, with a long shelf life, that’s easy-to-use in a variety of ways. In fact, rice is a main staple in over 100 countries worldwide. By keeping this sure-to-please grain on hand, you’re well on your way to creating a delicious dish. For this month’s Nutritious Nudge, I want to share some reasons why brown rice is worthy of staple status in your pantry.
Cooking from sales is a skill I was brought up with. In my adult life, my need to use it has come and gone, but it’s always been my preferred way to cook. I find that constraints keep the routine task of cooking interesting. Whether you shop sales out of genuine need or another reason, here are a few tips to help the process go more smoothly.
The foods we choose throughout the day play a significant role in determining how hungry or full we will be. Honoring hunger and nourishing our bodies with the “right” calories is a balancing act. Sure, a low-calorie beverage makes a lot of sense but, a low-calorie snack may not be the smartest choice. Choose a low-quality calorie option, and you’ll be hungry again soon (which means more calories). Choose a high-quality calorie, and you’ll be fuller longer. This means you’re less likely to eat more than you should over the course of a day. Finally, here’s the conundrum for calorie watchers: sometimes we need to eat more calories in the moment to ultimately eat fewer in the day (yup, you read that right).