1. Fresh fruits and vegetables
2. Ingredients for fast, healthy meals
While ordering pizza three nights a week or falling back on frozen meals (no matter how low-calorie they are) may be tempting, a healthy woman cooks. And since not every healthy woman has tons of time on her hands, she needs to have items on hand that make for quick meals. This means making sure your cupboards are home to healthy items you can toss together in a pinch. These include the following:
- Canned beans
- Chopped canned tomatoes
- Quinoa and couscous
- Coconut milk and curry paste for south Asian or Indian dishes
- Raw nuts and seeds for topping salads or pastas
- Flavorful nut oils and vinegars for salad dressing or seasonings
- Capers for anything from pizza to salad
- Kalamata olives
3. Blender and/or juicer
What’s healthier than downing a power smoothie or super-juice filled with good-for-you ingredients? Not much, which is why having a blender or juicer on hand can go a long way toward boosting your health. Both smoothies and juices are a great opportunity to get more essential nutrients into your life. Skip the oversized bagel or muffin; instead make a delicious and healthy smoothie with ingredients such as frozen berries, low-fat yogurt, almond butter, bananas, chia seeds, hemp seeds and flax powder. Boost your fruit and veggie intake with juices packed with leafy greens, apples, beets, pineapple, citrus fruits, apples, cucumber and carrots.
4. Items that add flavor without fat
You don’t need to rely on fats to add flavor, a trick every healthy woman knows. Rather than processed, pre-packaged sauces, stock your kitchen with fresh herbs, lemons and limes, garlic, various vinegars, flavorful oils and other seasonings that don’t contain fat but contribute to the creation of a satisfying meal.
5. Nutritious snacks
No healthy woman’s kitchen will contain snacks that don’t offer some sort of nutritional benefit. That means no snack cakes, no packaged cookies, granola bars or bags of chips. A healthy woman tries her best to snack on healthy items. Of course, they can taste good too, but snacks shouldn’t be void of nutrients. What should you snack on? Opt for items that taste good, satisfy a craving and offer you some serious healthy points. Our picks include:
- Steamed asparagus or broccoli
- Broccoli with hummus
- Apple slices or celery sticks topped with all-natural nut butter
- Low-fat yogurt topped with frozen raspberries, hemp seeds and raw walnuts
- Quinoa dressed with lemon juice and mixed with diced raw vegetables
- Cottage cheese tossed with maple syrup, blueberries and chia seeds
