Eating well...it really doesn't have to be difficult

There was a day when the only "vegetable" in our house was French fries...when every dinner came out of a box. Our weekend entertainment would be to buy a new video game and sit down with a pizza and a 12-pack (which, by the way, is still totally fun.) But we came to a point in our lives when we needed to grow up. After our son was born and we had a few family health scares, the time had come.

We started off slowly...limiting processed foods...experimenting with recipes. I admit that it was intimidating and many of our early experiments were pretty gross, but over time, we got the hang of it. We realized that preparing healthy food doesn't have to be hard, time consuming or necessarily expensive. The best trick that we learned was that a few simple ingredients can make a huge difference.

Our trick
Here's one of our easiest and most useful tips. Olive oil (just a bit), fresh lemon juice and herbs. That's it! That's all you need to start making more nutritious meals.

We threw these ingredients into a bowl one day to marinate some chicken and MAN, was it delicious! Next we basted some veggies on the grill and hot damn, they were fantastic too. Seriously, try this on squash, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms...whatever you like. Even our six year old son loves veggies cooked this way.

We prepare all types of meat like this. Grilled or roasted chicken, steak, fish, shrimp and even (on rare occasion) rock lobster tails.

This makes a terrific salad dressing too. Just mix it up fresh just before you sit down to eat.

Experiment
Notice that I didn't specify which "fresh herbs" to include. Personally, I love rosemary and dill, but I know those aren't everyone's favs. So visit the herb section of your grocery on your next trip and check out what they've got. Give the herbs a good whiff and try out the one(s) that you like the best. Using fresh herbs is one of our best tricks for making any meal more flavorful.

And experimenting doesn't stop there. When I said Olive oil, lemon juice and herbs make a great salad dressing I didn't mean just your standard tossed salad (although that is delicious.) Try mixing it up with different veggies...even nuts. One of our favorites is a cucumber salad. Just dice up some cukes, throw in some sliced cherry tomatoes, a little feta cheese or whatever else you like...no lettuce required. Then drizzle on this tasty dressing.

So...
...what do you think? Are you going to give this a try? Let us know! And, please share any other tips that you have for simple, healthy cooking. We're always looking to learn!