Do you sometimes find yourself low on time to prepare healthy meals? At some points, the most time consuming part could be simply planning the menu. As February is Heart Month, this week’s blog will be bringing you some heart healthy ideas to consider when meal prepping!
When it comes to meal prepping, it’s typical to want something that can be cooked in bulk and/or without much supervision (hand’s off cooking) such as in our Warm Winter Healthy Taco Soup Recipe blog. Keeping that in mind, you may also want to ensure that you’re getting the proper nutrients that your body requires. Specifically for heart healthy meals, it may prove beneficial to include low-sodium, high-potassium components.
As mentioned by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in their Choose Heart-Healthy Foods blog, “Heart-healthy eating involves choosing certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, while limiting others, such as saturated fats and added sugars.” Mahan & Raymond (2017) state that, “Potassium-rich food sources include fruits, vegetables, fresh meat, and dairy products.” According to The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s article, Potassium, this can include foods such as, “dried fruits (raisins, apricots), beans, lentils, potatoes, winter squash (acorn, butternut), spinach, broccoli, beet greens, avocado, bananas, cantaloupe, oranges, coconut water, tomatoes, dairy and plant milks (soy, almond), yogurt, cashews, almonds, chicken, and salmon.” With this potassium-rich theme, some ideas are:
- Baked or grilled salmon or chicken with a side of roasted or baked vegetables, roasted or baked potatoes, or a quinoa and veggie salad; or even on a bed of lentils (with a sauce made of roasted and pureed squash and/or veggies)
- Lasagna made with lean ground turkey and sliced zucchini instead of ground beef and pasta
- A chicken salad with avocado, dried fruits, and/or nuts
- Greek yogurt parfaits with nuts; Homemade yogurt and fruit puree popsicles
- Homemade hummus with sliced vegetables
The NHLBI also states. “A heart-healthy eating plan limits sodium (salt), saturated fat, added sugars, and alcohol.” Following the low-sodium theme, you want to try and avoid fried foods, meat that has been smoked, salted, or cured, salted nuts, canned items with salt added, etc. Visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services site to see a shopping list of Lower-Sodium Foods.
Since part of the goal is to keep things low in sodium, be mindful when seasoning your food. Maybe try using herbs and/or homemade vinaigrettes instead to add some flavor. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to cook during the prep stage. Once you’ve planned your menu, see what meals use the same or similar ingredients and prepare them at the same time. For example, if you know you’ll be roasting, baking, and/or pureeing a lot of vegetables, you can cut them at the same time. To help save on time, and if you’re able to, consider buying pre-cut vegetables or investing in something like a vegetable chopper.
As an extension of this blog, feel free to look at some of our past blogs on meals and heart health for additional ideas: Eat Heart Healthy, Heart Healthy Valentine Recipes, Heart Healthy Mediterranean Diet, Heart Healthy Black Bean Burgers, and Two Heart-Healthy Recipes to try. Of course, with everything health related, you want to make sure that you consult your primary care physician and/or a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in case you have any health conditions that must be taken into consideration with high-potassium and low-sodium.
Potassium. Hsph.harvard.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/potassium/
Mahan, L. K., & Raymond, J. L. (2017). Krause’s Food & the Nutrition Care Process (14th ed.). Elsevier.
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Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian
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