Three simple steps to a healthier household

We recently moved house… Packing up the old house forces you to clean out your cupboards, sort through your rogue cans, empty the fridge and defrost the freezer. Once arriving at the new house you must decide where everything should be kept…should I put cans on this shelf? Where should we keep the fruit bowl?

When creating a healthier home you should think about where you place the food in your kitchen. It is important to have food both available and accessible.

Firstly you must have food physically available – you can’t eat fruit if you don’t buy it! Accessible means healthy food is easily in sight so that you remember to eat it; making healthy food the easy choice!! Many people keep veggies in the bottom of their fridge and only get them out at dinner time. Try pre-chopping some carrots sticks, celery, red peppers, cucumber and snow peas and store them in a bowl of water on the top shelf. Or have a bunch of grapes on the top shelf. You are more likely to grab these foods at snack time.

Everyone should take the opportunity to think about their kitchen…

Here are 3 simple steps to make your household healthier….

Re-order your pantry and fridge

Open the doors and what do you see? Healthy foods should be staring back at you. Make sure that your ‘everyday’ foods are at eye level. Take those ‘extra’ foods and put them out of sight. We keep our ‘treats’ on the top shelf behind the baking ingredients. We need a step-ladder to access them! When we open the cupboard we see multigrain crackers, nuts and dried fruit.

A place for everything and everything in it’s place

Organise and order your fridge, cupboard and freezer. Keep it simple:

Put cans into lines of food categories…tinned fish, veggies, beans, light carnation milk etc.
Fridge into food groups…dairy, veggies and meat.
Cupboard into meal-times; breakfast, snacks, rice/pasta etc, herbs and spices.

Before shopping I take a quick look around and it’s easy to identify what I need. This ensures you are always well stocked with your essentials – ensuring healthy food availability! And makes it quicker and easier to put away the shopping!

Stock your freezer

A well stocked freezer makes it easy to have a quick and healthy meal always available. Store a range of veggies, leftovers, fresh or pre-packaged fish, pizza bases, fruits etc. With winter approaching make a big pot of vegetable soup and freeze it for a rainy day. Remember to first look inside your freezer before calling the take-away shop.

Recipe of the Month: Raspberry and Coconut Muffins

Article written by Kate Wengier, APD.

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