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There are many ways to make nutritious, delicious, and attractive meals the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines, but we encourage two main approaches.

One is to create mostly raw Salad Meals. The other is to prepare mostly cooked Steam Meals. Both approaches best optimize our eating patterns within the HumanaNatura technique of Natural Eating, and easily and reliably produce tempting and satisfying meals. This post provides step-by-step guidance on making salad-based meals the HumanaNatura way (click here for info on steaming meals). Of course, the two approaches can be combined.

Sliced Chicken and Veggies Salad Meal

Salad Meal Basics

Depending on how our proteins are selected and prepared, Salad Meals are among the healthiest forms of eating, since generous raw natural vegetables are used, providing essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. Salad-based meals are also a very efficient form of eating, with little waste and meals normally ready to serve in under ten minutes. And Salad Meals can be beautiful meals – as you can see in the photo above and as you can quickly discover for yourself – especially when whole and naturally healthy foods are used.

Though elaborate Salad Meals can be made using a variety of culinary techniques, almost all of the meals we present can be prepared quite simply. If you have a small kitchen and the following tools, you can begin making delicious and healthy Salad Meals the HumanaNatura way today:

• Non-stick sauté pan, wok, or roasting pan
• Heat resistant mitt or cloth
• Wooden spatula
• Cutting board
• Chef’s knife
• Salad vinegar or dressing
• Olive oil
• Seasonings

Continue reading “Making Healthy Salad Meals”

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It’s easy to make nutritious, delicious, and attractive meals the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. One way to do this is by choosing an inviting and memorable protein food. Another is to use both cooked and raw vegetables, making the meal more interesting to behold and eat.

Our example salad meal uses both strategies to create a meal that is as enjoyable to look at as it is to serve. It begins with a pan-sautéed fillet of salmon, which is cooked uncovered on medium-high heat with a splash of olive oil, sliced onion, chopped garlic, black pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Once the fillet is well-seared on both sides, a mix of grated broccoli and carrot, topped with spinach leaves, is added to the pan. The pan is then covered and allowed to sit for about five minutes, with the heat turned off. As the protein and veggie mix cooks, a simple salad base is prepared with chopped red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. When the protein is fully cooked, the ingredients are arranged on a plate as shown, dressed and seasoned with herbs and black pepper to taste, and served promptly.

Learn more about creating naturally delicious, visually interesting, and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide for designing optimally healthy meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for modern natural life and health. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural health!

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For most of the world, summer is here, and hotter weather is turning our thoughts to lighter and cooler meals. But what about healthier meals? This is never a problem with HumanaNatura. Light, cool, and naturally healthy meals are easy to prepare the HumanaNatura way and using HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines.

Our example summertime salad meal begins with stir-fried pork (lamb, beef, or venison would work too), along with sliced onion, minced garlic, and shredded broccoli and carrot. Once cooked, this meat and veggie combo is allowed to cool and then refrigerated until chilled (or served warm if it is not summer and the weather isn’t hot). At mealtime, a simple salad base and mix is prepared with chopped romaine lettuce, julienned cucumber, and sliced tomatoes. A portion of the stir-fry is placed on top and the salad is then garnished with berries, orange pieces, slivered almonds, a mix of herbs, black pepper, and a citrus-vinaigrette dressing. Light, cool, tasty, healthy, and easy, as always, when meals are prepared the HumanaNatura way!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide for designing optimally healthy meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for modern natural life and health. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural health!

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Chicken and other poultry foods are great protein sources, low in saturated fats and high in important minerals. One downside is that poultry can be less appealing if served often, leading to unhealthy sauces and sides. But it doesn’t have to be this way, when meals are made the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. The trick is to include plenty of raw veggies and contrasting tastes, so meals are healthy and do more than “taste like chicken.”

This appetizing salad meal is from NaturaLife contributor Erin Murray. It begins by grilling one or more naturally-raised chicken breasts. While the chicken is grilling, a salad base of spring greens and mix of cucumber, red pepper, mandarin oranges, cilantro, and slivered almonds is prepared, all dressed with a Thai vinaigrette. When done, the chicken is thin-sliced, arranged still-warm atop the salad base and mix, and served promptly. Fast, healthy, and tasty – as always, when meals are prepared the HumanaNatura way!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide for designing optimally healthy meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for modern natural life and health. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural health!

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Though we encourage moderation with saturated fats and red meats, moderation doesn’t mean never, or even sparingly. This is especially true when it comes to lean and ecologically sustainable grass-fed meats, and when meals are made the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. In the HumanaNatura approach, periodic meals with red meats can be served, ones that will be healthy and satisfy your urge for an extra-hearty meal.

This beautiful salad meal, using lean flank steak and a diverse mix of plant foods, was sent to us by Erin Murray. Paying homage to Korean Bulgogi, preparation begins by marinating the steak. refrigerated, with sesame oil, garlic, crushed pineapple, a dash of honey, and low sodium soy sauce for about an hour. The steak is then grilled and thin sliced, before being arranged, still warm, on a salad base and mix of spring greens with strawberries, avocado, macadamia nuts, and almonds. When done, this tempting salad meal is garnished and dressed to taste, and served promptly. Fast, delicious, hearty, and healthy – as always, when meals are prepared the HumanaNatura way!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide for designing optimally healthy meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for modern natural life and health. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural health!

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It’s easy to make healthy and satisfying meals the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. In the HumanaNatura approach, we create delicious and nutritious salad meals via our easy-to-remember OurPlate natural food groups. In just a few minutes, you can prepare delicious and optimally nutritious meals that you and your family or guests will love.

This sample OurPlate salad meal took about ten minutes to make. It begins with a salmon fillet that is pan-cooked in olive oil with diced onion, garlic, Cajun seasoning,  lemon, and black pepper. As the salmon cooks, a salad base and veggie mix is prepared, in this case with chopped romaine lettuce, sliced cucumbers and avocado, slivered almonds and dates, and coarsely diced tomato. When done, the cooked fillet is added still warm to the plate, and everything is garnished with parsley, mint, lemon, and black pepper. Fast, delicious, and healthy…as always, when you prepare your meals the HumanaNatura way!

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals like this via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple natural eating guide and tool for designing optimally healthy meals. Experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. And perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong, and lifewide, modern natural health and fitness. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote modern natural life!

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Within the HumanaNatura approach to natural health and HumanaNatura’s OurPlate optimal eating model, there is an option for a slightly more refined form of Natural Eating we would like to share with you. The approach, which we will call staying low, offers a number of important benefits that many of us can and may want to make use of – importantly, as long as we do not have a fish or shellfish allergy.

As discussed in the Natural Eating section of HumanaNatura’s Personal Health Program, the practice of staying low involves getting more or most of our proteins from low in the marine food chain, via small fish and shellfish. It also involves avoid large or mature fish, and perhaps abstaining from the eating of land animals more generally. Notably, however, the approach does not preclude our getting proteins from nuts and seeds, and potentially from eggs and yogurts as well.

This strategy of staying low approach within HumanaNatura’s health technique of Natural Eating has a significant number of benefits. These include:

> High quality proteins and fats – small fish and shellfish are among the healthiest proteins we can eat, are often rich in health-promoting oils, and generally have much lower levels of metals than larger fish

> Low in carbohydrates and lectins – these are two important goals in eating more naturally the HumanaNatura way, and our emphasis of a science-refined modern diet based on earlier hunter-gatherer human eating patterns

Continue reading “Staying Low Salad Meal”

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With the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday upon us, and other seasonal holidays just around the corner in many other countries, we thought this would be a great time to highlight that holiday eating and healthy eating do not have to be at odds with one another.

This is especially true when making holiday meals the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines. All that’s really required is to eliminate especially unhealthy traditional foods, keep the healthier ones, and then combine them with a few renaturalizing foods to create delicious, optimally nutritious, and memorable holiday salad meals.

Our example HumanaNatura salad meal shows how this can be done, using traditional North American Thanksgiving foods as a case in point. First, we’ve eliminated the most unhealthy ones, including carbohydrate-rich, and both body and soil-degrading, annual staple plant foods made from grains, beans, and starches. And we’ve of course passed on all sugary deserts and sweets, for the same reasons.

Next, we’ve kept several popular, personally and ecologically healthy Thanksgiving foods – including sliced turkey breast, carrots, olives, pecans, and even a bit of cranberry sauce – and combined them with chopped romaine lettuce, sliced grape tomatoes, diced cucumber, a bit of red onion, and sliced avocado.

This slightly super-sized, at-once warm and cool salad meal is dressed with olive oil and white wine vinegar. It’s then garnished with paprika, parsley, and black pepper, and served to waiting guests without delay. As you can see, the result is a healthy, attractive, and satisfying holiday meal that should leave no one wanting!

You can learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s natural eating guide and meal rating tool. As you explore the HumanaNatura approach, you will quickly experience how this science-based and 100% natural model for our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live – and help our environment – at holidays and throughout the year.

To learn even more, check out the Natural Eating section of HumanaNatura’s free and comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…promote new natural life and health!

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While it is true that HumanaNatura advocates great care with carbohydrate-rich foods – and even the elimination of grains, beans and significant starches from our diet – this does not mean we are indifferent to fat consumption. In fact, since fats and oils will typically constitute about 50 percent of our daily calories when making meals the HumanaNatura way and following HumanaNatura’s OurPlate healthy eating guidelines, care with fats is especially important.

Our guidelines for fats can be quickly, if roughly, summarized as a three-step process: 1) avoid all dangerous fats, such as trans fats and fats in foods containing nitrates, 2) reduce less desirable fats, especially ones from red meats and eggs, and by favoring lean fish and poultry (as well as leaner and more eco-friendly red meats from grass-fed animals), and 3) ensuring that the majority of our fat (and thus a significant part of our protein) comes from vegetable sources, such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds

Today’s HumanaNatura salad meal shows that attention to our fat levels and types needn’t be a chore, and in fact can be quite easy and delicious. The meal was made in less than 10 minutes, and features a sautéed salmon kabob with mixed greens, diced cucumbers, grape tomatoes, and sliced avocado. It is dressed simply with olive oil and white wine vinegar, and garnished almost as simply with lemon-pepper, a dash or two of Cajun powder, and parsley. Fast, delicious, and rich in healthy fats and oils…as always, when we prepare our meals the HumanaNatura way.

Learn more about creating naturally delicious and optimally nutritious meals via OurPlate, HumanaNatura’s simple optimal eating guide and meal rating tool. And experience how this science-based and 100% natural approach to our daily meals can change the way you eat, feel, and live. Perfect your skills at making delicious and naturally healthy salad meals that follow the OurPlate guidelines via the Meals tab above, our popular article Perfect Salad Meals, or the Natural Eating section of our comprehensive Personal Health Program.

Once you have begun eating the HumanaNatura way, you can explore your many opportunities for new, more natural, and healthier life between meals – via HumanaNatura’s complete and naturally open-ended system for lifelong and lifewide health and fitness. Check out an overview of our health programs at The Four HumanaNatura Techniques.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…create new life and health!