Begin with Good and End with Better

There you have it, plain and pretty simple. Start off with a good product and there's very little that needs to be done to make it a great one. My apologies to the Photoshop expert who brightened Penelope Cruz's skin and cinched in her waist a tad but that must have been accomplished between three sips of coffee, max.

The same applies to turning a basically healthy meal into one that will deliver maximum taste appeal and pack the biggest nutritional punch. Chances are you'll end up with something you like. I'm looking for a cuisine that's basically vegetarian using locally grown and organic foods, as much as possible. I want my food to taste good, look good and do good. My search is on!

I found 11 helpful links to refer to while making healthy substitutions:

1. 5 Ways to Create Healthy Recipes. Techniques from the Mayo Clinic to reduce fat, calories and sodium from favorite recipes.
2. 12 Foods You Should Buy Organic. Some foods absorb pesticides more readily than others and these 12 should be organic choices. A list of the least contaminated is also included.
3. Cooking Light Magazine is filled with recipes and articles regarding food makeovers. If you're counting calories, fat grams or cholesterol, most of the recipes list all of that data. Lots of meat dishes too.
4. Healthy Recipe Doctor, WebMD. Along with makeover recipes, they do a Taste Test Tuesday feature and review the latest health-claiming food products.
5. Make Your Favorite Recipe Heart Healthier, Methodist Medical Center.I like the first tip: Change one ingredient at a time. 
6. Build a Natural Foods Pantry from my all time favorite food website, 101 Cookbooks. You'll just have to see it to believe it.
7. Nutrition and Healthy Eating, a comprehensive list of nutrition and healthy cooking articles from the Mayo Clinic.
8. Vegetarian Starter Kit. If you're considering a change to a plant based cuisine, Vegetarian Times offers a 16-page booklet in PDF format.
9. FoodFit.com Recipe Makeover. Send in your favorite recipe for a makeover.
10. Cook's Illustrated. Scroll through the list of recipes for well tested foods in all categories, inspiration at its very best.
11. CalorieKing - Low Fat Recipes and Low Carb Recipes, already retooled for you.

Just by looking at a few of these, I can see a recurring theme: eat real food as simply as possible.

It looks like another lesson for another day.

Photo via Damn Cool Pics

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