Finding inspiration to cook!

Good nutrition is a key way to keep your body and mind healthy as well as helping fight and prevent illness. Sometimes though, it can be hard to find the motivation to cook healthy food from scratch.

Tying in with Nutrition Awareness Week and Diabetes Awareness Month, David, a member of the community has shared a recipe for his red lentil soup for our newsletter. These days, he finds inspiration in cooking simple comfort food that can also help keep diabetes at bay.

Sharing food and ideas for what to cook are great ways to keep up with healthy eating. 

Tying in with both Nutrition Awareness Week and Diabetes Awareness Month, David, a member of the community has shared a recipe for his red lentil soup for our newsletter. A batch of this soup will last him for the week. A chef trained in French cooking, since he lost his partner 5 months ago, he feels much less motivated to cook the more elaborate meals that he used to, saying “I am much more motivated to cook for people that I care for than for myself.”

These days he is much more focused on creating simple comfort foods that are healthy. These are inexpensive and he always tries to keep them under £3.50, which coincidently is the price of a fast food meal.  

EASY RED LENTIL SOUP

Ingredients:

1 onion, 2 carrots, 1 potato*

500g of red lentils

1 chunk on butter + a little oil

A pinch of celery seeds or a stick of celery.

2 chicken stock cubes

Preparation:

Dice all the vegetables, onion, carrots, potato* and celery if you use it. *If you are managing diabetes, leave out 'fast' carbohydrate like potato.

Rince the lentil until clear water.

Simmer the onion in butter and oil in a large saucepan. 

When the onions are soft, add the carrots and celery. Mix together with the onion and let them simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add the red lentil, cover with boiling water.

Add the diced potato.

Add the chicken stock cubes

Add a pinch of celery seeds.

Wait until the water boil again and cook for an hour with a lid on, checking from time to time and add water if need it.

When is cook put it in the back of the cooker until you are ready to eat.  

Enjoy with crackers or croutons or just on his own. 

Keeping Diabetes at Bay and a Challenge for You! 

Since being diagnosed as being pre-diabetic 3 months ago, he has changed his diet to reduce the amount of white flour, white bread and sugar that he eats. He likes to cook simple Indian, Chinese and Japanese dishes.  Soba noodles with gluten free tamari sauce, chilli sauce and boiled fish and vegetables is one of his favourite things to cook. Buckwheat is another staple food in his kitchen cupboards.  He cooks this with some boiled vegetables to go with it.

David has set a challenge for anyone that perhaps needs to find some inspiration to cook healthy meals from scratch – to take a box of vegetables and to work out what to do with one of the vegetables. With spinach, for example, this could be putting it in a salad or soup. 

He has a handy tip in the run-up to Halloween – the pumpkins that are being sold as decorations are only £2 each.  They are hard to open, but you can boil them which makes them easier to peel.  You can then put them in a soup, roast them and put them in a nut roast, or put them in a pumpkin pie.

Getting and sharing inspiration!

Even if you’re on a tight budget, sharing food, ideas for what to cook and recipes are also great ways to inspire yourself to eat more healthily.

Have a favourite recipe? Let us know so we can share with other community members! Email Katie Skea, Age UK Islington Communications Manager at communications@ageukislington.org.uk

For more recipe inspiration: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/travel-hobbies/hobbies/recipes/ 

Join a community lunch to share a meal with community members. Learn more about how to join here [details coming soon].

More information about nutrition

Finding You Have Poor Appetite and Weight Loss 

How can you tell if you or someone may not be getting enough food and nutrients? If you’re not getting enough vitamins and nutrients, you might: 

• Feel more tired or low on energy
• Notice your clothes or jewelry are fitting looser than usual
• Find planning, cooking and shopping becoming more of an effort

Find out more about this here. 

Healthy Eating: Fact Vs. Fiction 

There’s so much information about food and nutrition it can be hard to keep track of what to know. Here are some common food myths and facts: 

Low fat-food 

• Myth: Low-fat foods are the healthiest options
• Fact: Having some fat and oil foods like fish can help reduce heart disease

Fresh fruit and veg 

• Myth: You can only get nutrients from fresh fruit and veg
• Fact: Freezing fruit and veg helps preserve nutrients and can help reduce food waste

Snacks 

• Myth: Snacking is bad for you
• Fact: Our appetites change over time and eating every 3-4 hours can help keep us more energised throughout the day

Read more ‘Myths & Facts’ here. 

Tips on Healthy Eating 

Keys to eating healthy include: 

• Eating different food groups to get a mix of nutrients and vitamins to keep your body balanced
• Drinking fluids during the day to keep hydrated
• If you’re only a little hungry, making sure to eat nourishing foods
• Keeping a food diary to keep track of what you eat to have a balanced diet
• Eat six small meals and snacks every day, rather than 3 main meals.
• If you’re finding it difficult to shop or cook for yourself, ask for help.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of money on food. You can eat healthy on a budget by: 

• Making and sticking to a shopping list
• Buying frozen or tinned foods
• Planning ahead and making large batches of food to save

Learn more about healthy eating here.