Feeling Guilty About Takeaway Night

Takeaway night! Please tell me there's not more than one of these a week - takeaway food should be just a special treat / last resort, not a regular occurrence. Getting the family hooked on takeaway food might save you some time & energy in the short term, but the downside can be pretty sad. Even though the pizza might have a few veggies on it, the burger has some lettuce & tomato, the fish is fresh from the trawler, the chips are made of potatoes and the lovely Chinese / Thai / Indian family cooked it using grandma's recipe...

...it's all going to be swimming in cheap vegetable oil & heavily laced with sugar / MSG / unseen additives.

The takeaway joint needs to make a profit, & you just can't if you're selling $9.95 pizzas made with extra virgin olive oil instead of cheap & nasty 'vegetable oil'. The fish & chip shop ain't frying in coconut oil either. You may think 'oh it's ok - we grew up on fried food as kids' - it was different fat that was used back then though. The fat that's used now is the number one dietary cause of heart disease & the ideal daily intake is zero. Not once or twice a week - ZERO! *in 2011 Australians were set to spend 37 billion $$$ on takeaway and growing at an alarming 4 billion a year – what is it today? No wonder our kids are getting so fat, it's because their parents are too darn busy to spend the necessary time in the supermarket/kitchen! ...so what to do on those 'I simply cannot cook tonight' nights (they happen in healthy homes too!).

Here's a few ideas:

1. Omelettes (use the blender for speed)
2. Smoothies
3. Toast & avocado / beans / tuna /hommous
4. Something frozen from a leftover dinner, a platter (or a pile) to pick from including things like olives, celery, carrots, capsicum, beans, cucumber, snow peas, boiled eggs
5. Cold leftover meat...dinner doesn't always have to be cooked...
6. If you need something warming - a quick bowl of 'instant' miso soup with a handful of baby spinach, cabbage, broccoli or other greens thrown in is great - & maybe even a can of tuna / salmon if you're a bit more hungry.
7. Even porridge with some yoghurt, nuts & berries, some Blend11...it's not really dinner but it's nutritionally much better than a giant pile of trans fat & a few token veggies.

Think of the savings, the health benefits and the guilt factor !!! GET INSPIRED HERE