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The recipes in this category are aimed at enhancing meals based on a piece of poultry, meat or fish. You would obviously know how to pan fry, grill, roast or barbeque a fillet, steak, chop, rissole or sausage. Under this category, you’ll find recipes for marinades, sauces and side dishes, designed to give them a taste and vegetable boost.
People who have undergone gastric or bariatric surgery may choose to be vegans or vegetarians. However, there are certain essential nutrients that we can either only obtain from poultry, meat and fish or are found there in their most concentrated or efficient forms – in particular protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B12. This is an important consideration when you have only a limited stomach capacity.
As well as being excellent sources of protein, iron and vitamin B12, meat and poultry also contain other nutrients your body needs, such as iodine and zinc. Fish provides all of the above as well as readily available long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for heart health, brain function and reducing inflammation. While there are other sources of protein and iron, such as dairy, eggs, nuts and seeds, and legumes or beans, animal-based proteins are more easily digested and contain all the essential amino acids required by the body.
These foods become even more important as we age when our bodies require more protein to maintain muscle mass and prevent muscle loss, which can lead to falls and other health problems. The omega-3 fatty acids these foods contain can also help stave off mental disorders such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. Older adults are also at a higher risk of developing nutrient deficiencies which they can help prevent by including these foods in their diet.
Nutritionists recommend that you eat 1–3 serves of these protein sources every day. To make sure you get enough iron and zinc, around half these serves should be lean red meat, while two per week should be fish.
BTW: I know you’ve been frying sausages forever, but there’s one tip I recently discovered that I must share with you. Sometimes when we fry a sausage, especially a nice, thick dense sausage, the outside can get quite brown (read ‘burned’) while the inside remains raw. One way to overcome this is to boil the sausage for 10–15 minutes, thus cooking the inside, before frying it to brown the outside. You can also wrap it in baking paper and microwave it for 2–3 minutes before frying it. Just remember to pierce it with a fork first to avoid it bursting. Isn’t that cool?
Recipe Collections:
» Tasty Marinades from the Pantry: a range of tasty but easy marinades that will give your piece of chicken or cut of meat a flavour boost
» Quick Vegetable Side Dishes from the Pantry: a large selection of simple side dishes to give your piece of chicken, cut of meat or fish fillet a vegetable boost
» Quick and Easy Sauces from the Pantry: easy and tasty sauces that will give your piece of chicken, cut of meat or fish fillet both a flavour and a vegetable boost