A Day With Anya: What's On Her Real Food Plate

In an ideal world, every meal that goes past my lips would be carefully curated to include the correct ratio of protein, carbs, and fat. In the real world, every meal that goes past my lips is anything but carefully curated. Simply because I don't have time to sit down and count the nutritional value of everything I eat. Furthermore, I don't believe that is a healthy approach to food, as I would rather focus on balance than numbers. My food philosophy is simple: eat whole foods and be nourished! To be nourished, one must include nourishing foods. What are nourishing foods? They are, in my opinion, traditionally prepared, nutrient-dense foods such as bone broth, fermented foods, and organ meats. It's the kind of food that gives my body the fuel to live with optimal health.

So what do I eat?

To be fair, I do have three simple rules that I do my best to follow:

1. I try to include a fermented food at each meal. This may include a side of sauerkraut, lacto-fermented jalapeños on my tacos, or cultured crème Fraiche on a salad.
2. I incorporate bone broth into my meals as much as possible. Bone broth is a superfood rich in glucosamine and other minerals. Besides using broth in soups and gravies, I cook grains in broth and occasionally drink it straight out of mugs.
3. I include offal proteins at least few times a week, such as chicken liver, salmon roe, or beef tongue.

Notice I didn't mention the superfood kale or açaí berries?! While those are good, the greater return, for me, comes from traditional, nutrient-rich foods such as broth, ferments and organ meats. Remembering these three simple points makes meal time simple and guilt-free. I know that my meals are balanced and nutritious when I follow this.

Nourishing Breakfast

For a simple breakfast on this particular day, I browned a few chicken sausages and fried zucchini noodles with two eggs. My default for fermented foods is pickles, and they were delicious next to the sausages and zoodles. I like to add some Wildly Organic Coconut Oil in my coffee and froth it gently. This creates a very lush and creamy coffee. Nourishing Breakfast Tip: A side of berries is a good, low-carb choice if you really like having something sweet with breakfast. You'll stay fuller longer if you include protein.

Nourishing Lunch

For lunch, I like to keep it even simpler than breakfast. Typically, that includes leftovers from the night before but if no leftovers are available, I go for a nourishing bowl of some kind. This will include protein, veggies and some healthy carbs. This day's bowl was a collection of roasted veggies and mahi-mahi on sprouted rice drizzled with Lemon Yogurt Dressing as my ferment. Nourishing Lunch Tip: One easy lunch idea that incorporates nourishing bone broth is a Simple Egg Drop Soup. Whisk a few eggs and add them to the simmering broth. Add your favorite seasonings and flavorings and you have delicious and nutritious lunch with under 10 minutes of prep. My favorite way to enjoy Egg Drop Soup is with lemon juice and coconut cream. It's creamy and rich and delicious in one bowl. For an easy snack, I love munching on Wildly Organic's wide selection of nuts — walnuts, almonds, cashews and don't forget Brazil nuts for their selenium content!

Nourishing Dinner

When I have my life together, I like to create a weekly menu plan consisting of alternating proteins (our favorites are chicken, lamb, and seafood) with soups every other day. All the other weeks, I totally wing it depending on what we have on hand and what's on sale at the market. Frozen meats are easily thawed in cold water (if vacuumed sealed) or cooked in my electric pressure cooker for those frantic late afternoons. Nourishing Dinner Tip: Remember how I mentioned that nourishing foods are nutrient-dense foods? The ground liver is easily snuck in any meat mix with ground beef (or turkey, sausage, or pork), like chili and meatloaf. This is one way to include that nutrient dense, iron-rich liver in your meals. In fact, I try to add a bit of liver to every ground meat dish I prepare. It's undetectable but you're still benefiting from the nutrition. An easy side salad is mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette. Salads are almost always better with a healthy topping of organic nuts and seeds and even berries, such as these antioxidant-rich goji berries. Don't forget to browse Wildly Organic's selection of salad dressings to make healthy salads a breeze. That's what a day on my plate looks like! A mix of stupid-simple ideas with others that require more effort keeps my family and me eating nourishing, delicious meals... almost all the time! :)

I'd love to know how you include nourishing foods at every meal!