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How To Build A Healthy Pantry … For Busy People! | Healthy Eating

Think you’re just too busy to eat healthy? Use this list of five healthy pantry foods to make sure you always have the right ingredients on hand to eat smart — even when time is scarce.

By Talli van Sunder, DPT, Host of Being Healthy for Busy People 

We’re all busy, so making healthy choices with the many activities that stake claims to our time can be a challenge.

We’re told to exercise, get enough sleep, eat healthy and minimize stress. With all the responsibilities we have, attempting to do all that can be daunting, but it can be done.  The trick to conquering these key areas of health is to focus on one area at a time.  Right now, we’re going to focus on healthy eating — specifically, building a healthy “starter” pantry specifically for people who are busy because of family, career or both.

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Muesli Recipes: Make Your Own Homemade Muesli!

Muesli is an inexpensive and flavorful way to get your daily grains. Learn how to make homemade Muesli with these five easy recipes.

Okay, it has a funny sounding name. But if you are looking for a high-energy, whole-grain food that will also help you get your daily dose of healthy fats and soluble fiber, and fuel your training and workouts, you have to try a bowl of Muesli … or two bowls.

Store-bought Muesli can be expensive (a 1 lb, 18-serving bag, for instance, can cost nearly $5 dollars) so it really pays off to make it yourself. Also, making your own Muesli allows you to customize the recipe based on your own particular preferences. 

And making homemade muesli is also easier than making homemade granola, since you don’t have to bake the mixture in the oven. Basically, you take the Meusli recipe ingredients, toss them together in a bowl and bag it. That’s it. It’s really that simple.

But before we actually get to the Meusli recipes, let’s take a look at the history of this cereal, as well as the health benefits that make this a great fitness food.

The Muesli Story

Muesli (pronounced muse-lee) is a breakfast cereal that has been popular in Europe — especially Switzerland — for over 100 years. It’s made from raw, rolled whole grains like oats, barley, rye, triticale, and wheat and typically contains nuts and dried or fresh fruit.

Muesli was developed by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner around 1900 to serve to patients in his hospital in Zurich. The diet that Bircher-Benner prescribed to his patients was heavy on whole-grains and fresh fruits and vegetables, and Bircher-Benner came up with idea of Muesli after being served a similar dish during a hike in the Swiss Alps.

While popular in Switzerland and parts of Europe for decades, it wasn’t until the health food movement of the 1960s that this tasty and uber-nutritious cereal started to gain fans in the United States. Since then, Muesli has become much more widely available not only in health food stores, but also in mainstream markets and grocery stores.

In the late-80s, Kellogg even tried to cash-in on the healthy reputation of Muesli by developing a boxed, cold cereal version of muesli called Mueslix. Unfortunately, the cereal shared very little in common with the traditional Muesli recipe, and instead had more in common with Corn Flakes than with the whole-grain masterpiece from Switzerland. Kellogg still markets Mueslix in the US and Canada, although their version is a pale-imitation of the real deal.

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Three Bean Salad Recipe | Healthy Recipes and Snacks

This Italian version of the classic Three Bean Salad Recipe uses cannellini beans, kidney beans and garbanzo beans to make a high-protein, high-fiber and low-fat cold bean salad with an extra healthy twist.

3-Bean Salad is a staple of American potlucks and picnics. A breeze to assemble, portable and easy to make ahead and keep in the refrigerator for up to a week,  it makes a great cold side dish – especially in the warm summer months.

But did you know that Three Bean Salad is also a nutritional powerhouse?

Loaded with heart-healthy soluble fiber, complex carbohydrates, protein, and some healthy monounsaturated fats, Three Bean Salad is a fantastic whole-food source of energy and fiber — exactly what you need to fuel your workouts and stay lean and healthy.
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Oatmeal, Oats & Oat Bran | Healthy Food of the Day

Learn How Including Oats, Oatmeal and Oat Bran In Your Diet Can Help You Lose Weight and Have a Healthier Heart

When it comes to healthy fitness foods, oatmeal and oats are the undisputed champions of whole grains.

Inexpensive, loaded with healthy soluble fiber, and incredibly versatile as an ingredient in everything from meat loaf to protein shakes, oats and oatmeal are a staple in the diet of nearly every bodybuilder, fitness model, athlete or healthy person.

But what makes this humble grain that usually found its way into horse and cattle feed such a nutritional powerhouse? And what if you don’t like eating oatmeal? Can you still get the benefits without the mush?

Believe it or not, oats don’t have to be served hot in bowl with cinnamon and raisins. I said this grain was versatile, remember. Read on to find out why you need to include oats in your diet, if you already aren’t.  And if a bowl of oatmeal isn’t doing it for you, we’ll look at some alternative ways of preparing them that can let you have your oats and eat them too.

A (Very) Brief History of Oats

Oats are the harvested seeds of the common oat plant (Avena Sativa).

As I mentioned earlier, oats have historically been used as an inexpensive source of feed for horses and livestock. However, humans have been eating oats as well for centuries, especially in Northern Europe, where the cool, wet weather is perfect for growing oats. The Scottish, in particular, have made oats a staple of their national diet – even lending their name to a particular form of oats known as “Scottish Oats” or “Scottish Oatmeal” (more on this later.)
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