Healthy diet

[imisschocolate]

I'm wanting to majorly overhall my diet now that my DD has started eating. I think my is very carb and sugar heavy I would like to include pulses and things like that which i don't eat at all. Also want to increase plant based portiin of diet.

Where do i start? Can anyone recommend good cook books?

I do 3 days a week meat free, I found BBC goof food and Tesco real food have great recipes.
Use lots of herbs and spices to flavour food, it's a great way of cutting out sugar and salt.
Here's an example of my meals for a day:
Breakfast: Egg on seeded toast

Lunch: Avocado, tomato and mozzarella salad drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

Dinner: Falafel with wholemeal pitta's, salad, salsa and guacamole.

Snacks would be: Fruit, nuts, rice cakes with cheese spread, Apple slices with peanut butter.

Also pulses and lentils are a great way of bulking out meals such as:

Curry
Casseroles
Stews
Shepherds pie

Carbs are not an enemy, just get the right kind of carbs:
Sweet potato
Brown rice
Beans
Vegetables
Nuts and seeds
Porridge oats ( 100% )

Go to the library or a book shop and look through some books to find some that appeal to your tastes and style of cooking. The internet is fantastic for finding recipes. The Jamie Oliver site is also good and well indexed in addition to those listed by other posters above.

Putting black beans or kidney beans in a chilli or lentils in a bolognaise or shepherds pie (you can do 50/50 to cut down the meat) is a really easy way to introduce pulses to your diet. Keep carrot batons in the fridge and nuts, apples etc in the kitchen for snacking. Do not buy sugary things you like - just don't have them in the house the temptation will be too much (says me after eating an entire bar of Green and Blacks Almond chocolate that I know I should have deleted from my shopping).

As for plants - just buy in a lot and add a big amount on the side of your meal and give yourself a smaller portion of carbs. I have started adding, for example, a half a head of broccoli and a handful of green beans and a few carrots on to my dinner even if it has veg in the main dish already.

On pulses - if you aren't used to them introduce them gradually so your digestive system can adapt.

Try and find a Mediterranean cookbook. I use the American Test Kitchen one (I'm not in the UK) and it's great.

Mostly plants, lots of pulses, meat as a flavouring rather than the main event. We're really enjoying it

There is good magazine that you can get called Healthy Food Guide - it has lots of good information, meal plans (for meat eaters and veggies) recipes and could help get you off to a good start