How to make any Pinterest recipe with two simple steps
Here we see a “healthy” meal, looks delicious but honestly probably tastes terrible. Who doesn’t remove the tomatoes from the vine? This is silly, and should be judged as silly.
Fun fact, while writing this blog, I never learned how to properly spell ‘recipe’ and required spell check for every single one.
While working with a client a few months ago, we were discussing time wasters and bad habits. She had mentioned that Pinterest was her go-to. Mine is usually Facebook and Reddit (the former less so, thanks to changes I made). But it sparked my memory and I hopped on the app for the first time in about a decade. It was so old, I had a different last name as in my profile (yikes).
Anyway, I was going through my old recipes I had pinned, my old tattoo inspiration board (another yikes), and some other cringe-worthy things I thought were cool 15 years ago. Let’s just say that large, teal, chunky necklaces against a white tank top are not timeless looks.
Here are my actual fashion pins. This was my “first year teacher” era.
I was going through my old “healthy” recipes and I noticed a disturbing trend. These weren’t healthy. Delicious, probably, but not what I would consider healthy. Now, I could take an entire post and talk about healthy versus unhealthy foods. Instead, I will let you watch/listen to an actual doctor whose opinion I’ve adopted: Dr. Mike Israetel and his schpeal on Good and Bad Foods. TL; DW: Leave the terms “good” and “bad” for children, and understand that every food has a place and eat the damn cookie if it fits within the larger scope of your daily eating habits.
However - I think most adults can look at a recipe and see that 1/2 cup of butter for a meal that has 2 servings and think “Hmmm, yeah no, this ain’t the healthiest meal I can make today.”
With that being said, most recipes can be adjusted to make it fit better to your health goals. But you’re going to have to work on your culinary skills a bit because this does take some practice. You are adjusting a recipe on the fly, and making that taste palatable can be a challenge if you’re not used to cooking like that.
Here are the two steps of changes to improve your recipe that applies to soups, casseroles, one-pot dishes, and more.
1) Double the protein
2) Halve the refined carbs
Will you need to adjust the seasoning? Yes. Will you have to adjust water content or other base materials? Probably yes. But use it as a guide and get funky. And take some advice from my 1-year-old: food is meant to be played with. Experiment, add and remove, and mess with different ingredients. I rarely use recipe books anymore, but when I do, I adjust so many things to make the meal better fit our needs - because I know my oven gets things crispy in the front near the door - and my significant other hates the crunch of onions. So I better be removing them, or cooking them into caramelized onions.
Make adjustments and learn. It takes time and patience, and the occasional takeout from a ruined meal. But overall, increase your protein intake. Decrease refined carbs. Eat more veggies. Enjoy your food.
