HOTB 264: Cooking as a Mindfulness Exercise

I recently came across this article from the Journal of the American Medical Association. It basically says that if you supplement money given to food stamp (SNAP) recipients with programs like healthy cooking classes, the nutritional quality and time spent making home-cooked meals increased significantly. All the numbers improved, folks. Weight decreased, blood sugar decreased, blood pressure decreased, and even moods improved.

Sounds like a magic pill to me. The link to the JAMA article can be found here.

During this episode, I discuss cooking an aromatic dish called coconut chicken curry. The recipe is below:

Coconut Chicken Curry

For a vegetarian version of this dish, swap a 15 oz. can drained, low sodium chickpeas for the chicken. You can alternatively substitute with cashews or peanuts. You can also add ½ teaspoon of garam marsala or cumin if you desire even more aromatics.

Ingredients:

½ - ¾ lb. split chicken breast, (2)
1 tsp. salt

1 onion, chopped or diced
2 Tbs. canola oil

2 cloves fresh garlic

1 cup water or organic broth
1 Tbs. curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

6-8 small red potatoes, cut in half
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
½ fresh green pepper, sliced into strips

5-6 fresh basil leaves

1 large or 2 small bay leaves
1 cup coconut milk

Directions:
• Sauté the onion in the oil for 3-5 minutes. You can brown the chicken at this step and then move to a plate. Add garlic and sauté only another 60 seconds. Add a cup of filtered water or organic broth. If your broth is not low sodium, you may want to omit or reduce the salt.
• Stir in the curry powder/turmeric and cook for 1 minute.
• Add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes. Cover and simmer until carrots, pepper, potatoes are tender, to your liking, about 8-10 minutes.
• Stir in coconut milk. Add the chicken to the skillet and gently simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

If you would like me to record your own personal video on how to make a healthy version of your favorite meal, just click the link here.  I offer cooking instructional videos as an à la carte package or as part of the gold package with eight wellness coaching sessions.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, feel free to email me on my contact page, at Healing Outside the Box.