My Plan For Health

Every cookbook I own has the words “fast” or “easy” in the title, so I was excited about the Heart Healthy Pantry webinar from the first slide, which declared that we would learn healthy recipes that could be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

You can download the presentation for details about reinvented oatmeal, a peanut butter and banana rollup, and salmon pasta salad.

According to Julie Kennel, Program Director for the Dietetic Internship in the Department of Human Nutrition, stocking the heart-healthy pantry means learning how to read the labels on dried and canned foods. Look for whole grains, she said, and examine the numbers for fat, sugar, and sodium. Fruits and vegetables are sometimes canned in syrup or oil, often with salt added, and many quick-cooking grains have been processed to remove key parts of the grain and are no longer whole.

There are quick-cooking whole grains out there — most notably quinoa, which I’ve covered here many times before. And there are ways to minimally process whole grains to make them cook faster. One of my favorites is cracked wild rice — just plain wild rice that’s been broken into pieces so it absorbs water faster. One of the attendees asked whether rolled oats are a whole grain, and Kennel explained that they are indeed whole. Rolled oats have just been smashed open, so that the insides are exposed to water when you cook them.

Canned lentils and beans boost protein in fast pantry meals. And here’s an interesting tidbit: rinsing canned beans/lentils removes up to 30 percent of the sodium from the contents, as well as some of the sugars that produce gas.

Other highlights: look for fruits packed in juice and fish packed in water. Canned fish has come a long way since we were kids, she added. There are many choices out there beyond tuna.

Supplement these items with fresh meat and vegetables from your fridge, and you’ve got many healthy meals ahead.