Stop N Shop's Healthy Ideas

From Meatless Mondays (or Soy Sundays, whichever day my meal-planning falls on) to cutting out ground meat, me and mine have been making an effort to get more nutritional value from each meal I make. It has been such a fun endeavor to research, plan and shop for meals that will satisfy the nutritional pyramid, but are also really good. No matter how health conscious I become, if what I'm eating doesn't taste good, I won't be able to continue for any length of time.

The Weight Watchers Pure Comfort cookbook has been a staple in my repertoire, and I was excited to see that Stop n Shop, which is conveniently located about 2 miles from my house, has added an online resource called Healthy Ideas which provides recipe makeovers of all your family's favorites, using the FDA and USDA guidelines. The recipes provided on the website range from "Holiday" to "Vegetarian" and everything in between.

In addition to the database of recipes, there are images of dishes featured that allow you to click on the various icons to see what ingredient they've swapped and what it saves you fat and calorie-wise. For example, making a classic lasagna with extra-lean ground turkey, no salt added tomato sauce and fat-free ricotta cheese is a great and tasty alternative to sausage or beef, full-fat cheese and otherwise sodium packed sauce.

Taking simple steps is what will allow people to 'walk the walk' of healthy living.