Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
MealEasy Teams with Philips and the Home Shopping Channel
August 20 2014
We’ve teamed up with two big names, the Home Shopping Channel and Philips to offer the MealEasy Meal Planner with the purchase of a Philips Airfryer available through the Home Shopping Channel.
The Airfryer is all about reducing your cooking time and the amount of fat in your food which is exactly what we’re about too!
Check the Home Shopping Channel for a chance to buy the Airfryer and a one year subscription to MealEasy at the same time.
And don’t forget, we’re now selling top quality nonstick baking mats through Amazon as well!
What the French Can Teach Our Kids (and Us) About Eating Healthy
July 29 2014
Eating, and staying slim and healthy, isn’t just about what you eat, but also how, when and why. Yes, French people enjoy junk food occasionally, and sometimes they eat between meals, but people don’t just let loose every day. There’s a code of conduct for food, for big people and little ones alike. Here are 10 quick life lessons.
1. Eat, but not all day long.
Three meals a day, plus the children’s traditional after-school snack, which might be vegetables, fruit or applesauce. When mealtimes roll around, you eat with real pleasure because you’re hungry.
2. Eat real foods and generous portions.
Consuming three meals a day without grazing in between means you can eat well when you sit down at the table — and that includes a starter, main course, cheese and dessert. Portions are generous without going overboard.
3. Choose water.
Generally speaking, the French do not drink their calories. At mealtimes, water (whether still or sparkling) is the drink of choice. Adults might opt for a glass or two of wine, but the glasses are of moderate size.
4. Sit down.
It’s rare to see people eating while walking or shopping. There are no cup holders on caddies, or even in most cars. You eat at the table, not in front of the TV or computer screen and then you leave the table and do something else.
5. Eat lighter at night.
Lunchtime is the main event. Dinner is usually light: soups, salads, an omelet, a simple pasta dish. Dessert might be a yogurt or fruit. And you sleep so much better.
6. When the kitchen closes, it’s CLOSED.
No grazing after dinner.
7. Know your limit and then stop.
Set eating times help you tune in to when you are really hungry or full.
8. Taste your food, guess the ingredients.
The French don’t just like to eat fabulous food and drink wonderful wine, they love to talk about it. Discussing how something tastes, its ingredients and how it was made heightens awareness; children love to join the conversation. They learn about real food and where it comes from.
9. Get cooking!
Along with an interest in ingredients comes an interest in the actual process of cooking food. Children love helping put fresh vegetables or pasta into the pot, or making a chocolate cake from scratch. Being part of the process heightens appreciation, and builds good habits for life.
10. Eating well is not a sin; it’s a pleasure.
Eating great food — no matter how simple or how elaborate — is one of life’s great pleasures, not an endless guilt trip, especially when it’s in moderation.
Adapted from: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12268/10-eating-rules-french-children-know-but-most-americans-dont.html
Together, we can fight obesity
June 06 2014
According to a new global study, almost one third of the world is now fat and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades.
That’s over 2 billion people that are now overweight or obese.
The scientist have also noted an accompanying spike in diabetes and also that rates of cancers linked to weight are also rising.
This disturbing trend is reversible but it has to start at home. The simple act of making healthy nutritious home cooked meals from whole foods is the way to start. Trying to avoid the over use of convenience and processed food products is a must if we want to change our eating habits. As a rule of thumb, think “if it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t”.
MealEasy offers over 1750 delicious, nutritious and healthful meals made with whole ingredients that are easy to prepare and won’t break the bank. Planning your meals ahead of time avoids the stress of last minute preparation and assures that when you go to the grocery store you’re only buying what you need and not being tempted by impulse buys.
Home cooking with real foods can beat obesity.
It’s about education and healthy cooking
May 30 2014
A new report from the NPR states that simply building grocery stores that stock fresh produce may not be enough to encourage healthier eating habits in low-income regions. Rather, broader access to healthy foods must be supplemented by nutritional education and cooking classes.
Researchers from Penn State surveyed Philadelphia residents for six months after a new supermarket with a variety of fresh produce and healthy foods was built. The results were striking. “We don’t find any difference at all,” said lead researcher Stephen Matthews. “We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption.”
Researchers believe that the reason they didn’t observe big changes in eating habits is because such habits are particularly difficult to overcome. Many low-income people grow up in areas populated by bodegas and mini-marts that sell processed foods that are high in salt, sugar, and fat. Therefore, these people just aren’t used to buying and cooking healthier fare.
The intransigence of unhealthy eating habits has been cited by public health experts as one of the reasons that obesity which sets in early on in childhood is so difficult to overcome. Although obesity rates among teenagers from affluent and well-educated families has been falling, obesity is actually on the rise among poor and less educated adolescents, according to a recent Harvard study.
In addition to access to healthy foods, experts say that low-income communities that suffer from high rates of obesity and diabetes also must be taught what to do with these products. “The next part of the intervention is to create demand so the community wants to come to the store and buy healthy fruits and vegetables and go home and prepare those foods in a healthy way, without lots of fat, salt or sugar,” explained public health researcher Alex Ortega in an interview with NPR.
That’s where MealEasy comes in. We’re all about healthy cooking and we know that many people need to be educated on how to cook and what a healthy meal is. The easy to follow instructions and simple yet informative nutritional information MealEasy gives, helps people navigate their way to better health. MealEasy provides complete meals featuring healthy fresh fruits and vegetables and helps you get away from a reliance on processed foods and fast foods. The money saving advantages of meal planning has also been well documented; planning your meals and sticking to both your plan and grocery list can save you time, stress and money.
Together we can be healthier, live longer and save money too.
Too Much Sugar
May 14 2014
Much has been written lately about the amount of sugar North Americans consume and the effects it has on our health. Recent studies have found that obesity and diabetes can be directly linked to a diet high in sugar.
The easiest way to avoid sugar is to cook homemade meals using healthy, unprocessed and natural ingredients. Many processed foods contains large amounts of sugar often hidden on the nutrition labels as forms of glucose. Essentially, if the name ends in “ose” it’s a sugar.
You might be surprised to find out that a ½ cup of fruit juice, which is a recommended daily intake amount in lieu of fresh fruit, in fact contains more sugar than the average soft drink! The best source of a portion of fruit is fruit itself.
At MealEasy, we know the importance of reducing your sugar intake. This is why you can easily filter out any recipe that contains any added sugar. It’s also why we stress using real natural ingredients without added sugars. It’s just another way MealEasy looks out for your health.
How Long Does it Take? And How Much Can You Save?
May 01 2014
A lot of people claim they don’t have time to make their lunch.
A lot of people think spending $6.50 a day on a sandwich is no big deal.
But what if we told you that making a sandwich for lunch would take you about 3 minutes? Compare that to how much time do you spend in line at the sandwich shop.
And what if you did the math? $6.50 a day for 5 work days a week gives us a total of $32.50 a week, Guess that doesn’t seem like all that much does it? Well, let’s look at how much that would be for a full year. Let’s assume a 48 week work year. That would mean that your $6.50 daily sandwich adds up to a whopping $1560!!! Imagine what you could do with an extra $1560 in your pocket! And that’s just one person! What if your spouse did the same? And what about your kid’s lunches as well? It can quickly add up.
Three minutes to make lunch may seem unrealistic to you but here at MealEasy, we’ve made a new video that demonstrates just how easy and realistic it truly is. Starting with leftover chicken, some mayonnaise, mustard, veggies and bread, you get a delicious chicken salad sandwich in about 3 minutes.
Here’s a link to the video so you can see how simple it is. VIDEO
You’d be foolish not to make your own lunch! It saves time and it saves money!
Want Kid Friendly Dinners?
April 16 2014
Eating healthy nutritious foods should start at an early age. But many kids get seduced by the marketing campaigns from fast food outlets and giant food corporations that care nothing for your child’s health. All they care about is making a profit.
So what’s a parent to do when faced with this advertising onslaught?
Get back to real food. That means cooking your meal at home. Sometimes it’s hard to know what they will eat. You end up preparing a meal and set it on the table to a chorus of “I don’t like that”. It can be frustrating.
One of the best ways to open up your children to experience more nutritious foods is to get them to help out in the kitchen with meal preparation.
Depending on their age, kids can help out with setting the table, peeling vegetables and even some chopping and actual cooking. It might sound dangerous to handing your 6 year old a sharp chef’s knife but with proper education and supervision kids can learn the basics at an early age. In fact, according to a new cookbook, it’s dangerous not to teach kids to cook — it’s a basic survival skill. The case Elton makes for teaching cooking to kids is also the case for her new book, Starting from Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking.
The British organization, Children’s Food Trust, which advocates for kids’ nutrition and works to build a body of evidence-based research, found in a recent study that children who cook before the age of eight are 50 per cent more likely to prepare at least five meals from scratch a week when they grow up. Cooking when young builds skills for later in life – and sets a kid up for making healthier food choices. That’s because when you make food from scratch, you get to decide what goes into your body.
There’s research showing that children are more likely to eat healthy food if they’re involved in the cooking, and even more so if they are involved in the growing. Which makes perfect sense: I’m not going to try something icky-looking of unknown provenance, but if I’ve labored to make the thing, of course I’m going to eat it.
In France, a cooking school associated with a Michelin-starred chef where they teach kids, as well as adults, to pan-fry fish or prepare escargots. Kids get to handle knives at the age of six!
While it may seem a bit reckless to be handing junior a 9” chef’s knife, isn’t it in fact more dangerous not to be teaching him how to cook and eat nutritious foods?
With that in mind, we’ve created a new Kid Friendly Meals cookbook available to all our members. In it you will find family favorites and healthy alternatives to fast food meals that kids will not only enjoy but can help prepare as well.
Good food habits begin at an early age.
We call it Mindful Eating
April 03 2014
A Yale University study published recently, which examines everything from “low carb” diets to the Paleo diet concluded that the best diet is, to quote Michael Pollan, to: ”Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”.
That’s called portion control. That’s called eating real and not processed foods. That’s called Mindful eating. You can read the whole report here.
Want to reduce your chance of death by almost 50%?!!!
April 02 2014
A new study says that eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42 percent compared to eating less than one portion. This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.
It’s that simple, eat more fruit and vegetables and you’ll increase your chances of living a longer healthier life. Stop your reliance on processed foods and start making healthy meals at home…your body will thank you.
What do your kids eat?
March 31 2014
We get asked all the time here at MealEasy if we have any “kid friendly meals”. And to be honest, we’re often at a loss on how to answer this question. What defines a “kid friendly meal”? Is something nutritious? Then yes we have those. Is it something quick to prepare? Yes, we have those meals too. Is it something straight out of a package or from a fast food joint? Then NO; those we don’t have.
You cannot be expected to come home after a hard day’s work and make dinner for yourself and your spouse as well as something completely different for the kids. With that in mind, we at MealEasy have compiled an eBook of our most “kid friendly” meal ideas that is set to be released to our subscribers in the near future. We know that this eBook will not only appeal to the kids in your family but will also be loved by the adults as well.
With 15 of our nutritious, healthy and quick to prepare favorites in an easy to reference eBook, we know this will simplify what to make for dinner and will be a hit with even the pickiest of kids…or adult.
Look for the MealEasy Kid Friendly eBook coming soon.