How to Make Easy Alkalising Meals

Many people believe that healthy living is too time-consuming and expensive. An alkaline diet is easy and cost-effective however, and you probably already have many appropriate ingredients already in your pantry.

The formula for any main meal is to contain a balance of slow-digesting carbs, protein, and fat. You should Boost Your Muscle Health and Energy Levels in the healthy way.

Among other functions, carbs give you energy, protein develops your muscles, and both protein and fat slow down the digestion of the carbs so that your body can burn them as energy instead of storing them around your waste.

In other words, if you omit carbs from your diet, you will be lethargic and more likely to lie around the house. If you omit fat, in addition to jeopardizing your organs that need fat to protect them, you will store carbs as fat.

That is primarily why diets that omit one of these food groups tend to fail.

Ideally, breakfast, lunch, and supper should include all three groups, with the amount of carbs being reduced relative to the other two groups as night approaches.

The healthiest meals involve alkaline ingredients in all three these food groups. Within these limits, you can be as creative as you like which is why many people find the alkaline 70/30 diet (70% of the day’s food is alkaline food and 30% is neutral or slightly acidic) so successful.

Grain Bowls

With the extremely low-carb diet falling out of fashion due to its negative effects on health, grain bowls have become popular all over again.

The basic method is to layer the bottom of a bowl with a cooked wholegrain, build the next layer from vegetables and beans, scoop over a low sugar, low sodium sauce, and top it off with garnish such as nuts and/or fresh herbs.

Choose a gluten-free whole grain for the base. You can also mix two or more whole grains into a more interesting grain layer, or opt for lentils together with one whole grain.

Steer clear of refined grains, since these have had their nutritional components removed.

Whole grains provide carbs, protein, and fat and many vitamins and minerals essential to good health.

Organic Vegetables and Protein Sources Are Kinder to Your Health

Two thirds to three quarters of the next layer should be vegetables, while only one third should be protein. This is because vegetables are more alkaline than proteins, and because the grains already contribute some acidity and a lot of protein.

The vegetable part of this layer is limited only by your imagination or the content of your pantry, if you do not feel like shopping. A combination of root and green vegetables will give the best nutritional variety.

For the protein part, use any beans, lentils, quinoa or animal protein such as carefully reared organic chicken, turkey or wild line pole caught fish.

If you are not careful, the sauce can convert the bowl into an acidic one, especially if you buy premade sauces. Store bought sauces can also be loaded with ridiculously high levels of refined table sugar and salt - not the best options when you are trying to stay alkaline, and if you would like to achieve excellent health.

The best approach is to therefore to make your own sauce by cooking a variety of vegetables, fruit, and herbs and chasing the cooked mix through the blender. You can control the thickness of the sauce by straining the blended mixture. Thick sauces will have more of the pulp than the liquid, while runny sauces will contain the liquid without the pulp. Make enough so that you can store some in your fridge or freezer to help you save time for future grain bowl dishes.

The garnish can include coriander seed, sesame seed, pumpkin seeds, black and red peppercorns, cayenne pepper, paprika, bay leaves, chopped parsley, dill or any other green herb you like or are partial too.

Herbs also pack a powerful nutritional punch in very small amounts.

Stews

This can be even easier than a grain bowl because you don't have to pre-cook and layer the ingredients. The Italians call one version of this dish risotto, while Middle Easterners and Indians call another version of it pilaf. Whatever the exact recipe, it contains whole grains, vegetables, and meat, the latter to be replaced with beans and nuts for a less acidic protein if you wish.

The method is simple. Cook some long-cooking ingredients in a large pot with fresh filtered tap water. Gradually add the faster-cooking ingredients as appropriate. Serve the mix when everything is soft.

There are almost no ingredients that you cannot use in a stew, which makes it an ideal dish to empty the fridge and pantry without any special shopping. Brown rice, quinoa, millet, teff, and buckwheat are all gluten-free, alkaline, and protein-rich. Vegetables and fresh herbs are all neutral or alkaline and, thus, appropriate ingredients in any stew recipe. You can include beans or nuts inside the dish for protein also at any time and this variety of stew works well for Meat Free Mondays.

Tip: Any beans you used must always be soaked and cooked separately. If there is no time, use lentils as a protein instead. The juice of the vegetables is already inside the stew as a sauce. The taste can be greatly enhanced through the use of onion, garlic, and fresh herbs. You can also convert it into a curry, which has a neutral pH.

Make a grain, nut, bean, vegetable, and herb stuffing of your choice. It works best if the stuffing is not creamy or watery, so keep it out of the blender and food processor.

Steam cabbage leaves for around 10 minutes until they are soft. Place them rib-side down and put on some stuffing. Start rolling them from the stem-end, tucking the sides in as you go along. Then cook them in a pot or bake them in the oven in a sauce of your choice.

Use combinations of lime juice, apple cider vinegar, herbs, and even sweeteners like maple syrup, date syrup, and unpasteurized raw honey in the sauce. You can use tofu to make the sauce creamier, or coconut milk.

For a variation, make eggplant rolls. The only difference is the longer cooking time to soften the eggplant leaves. This can even work with lettuce leaves, in which case Middle Easterners call it a ‘dolma’ or ‘dolmades’. The leaves are so tender that the rolls work best when eaten cold as a starter or a salad. Grape leaves also work, but they have to be slightly cooked before use.

As simple as the name implies, arrange any vegetables in a baking dish, pour a herb sauce in and around them, top it with quinoa, millet or some other gluten-free whole grain, and bake it in the oven. Green beans and green vegetables are highly alkaline, and a green bean grain bake or a mixed green vegetable grain bake are great options.

Any sweet winter squash is the tastiest squash to stuff. In fact, if you have a sweet tooth, you can even stuff it with fruit. Halve the squash and remove the seeds. Bake the halves, cut-side down, in the oven in a bit of oil and water for about half an hour. Then you are ready to add the filling.

Consider adding whole grains, fresh herbs, sweet fruit, and the crunchiness of nuts for the stuffing.

Bake it for another half an hour, covered with foil. Then it will be soft enough to eat.

Cut the bell peppers lengthwise in half, remove the seeds and membranes, stuff the halves with ingredients of your choice, and put them in the oven to roast. The sweetness of the peppers mixes well with a savoury stuffing. It is easier to cut and stuff them if they have been slightly cooked to soften them first.

You can use any beans, nuts, vegetables or herbs in the stuffing. Add the whole grains by sprinkling whole grain bread crumbs or quinoa on top before you roast them.

These are all simple dishes in which you can use a wide variety of alkaline ingredients of your choice. You do not even need to follow exact recipes. Just obtain an acid/alkaline chart and mix and match as you wish.

Don't have enough time to make all these delicious treats? Try our Green Food Supplements and Alkaline Jug Filter which are a great convenient way to increase your pH.