PERFECT FOOD?!

After trying the meal shakes for a week, I became interested in this idea of a "nutritionally perfect food". I just missed actually eating freshly prepared food, and cooking and eating together. This post describes my quest to find THE recipe that you could eat every day for the rest of your life, and be perfectly healthy doing it.

But what is a perfect food, and how much would it differ per person? I realized I had to set certain parameters, and to accept that diet isn't a one-size-fits-all type of deal. My first requirement, I decided, would have to be nutrition. The meal (or day of eating) would have to contain at least all the macronutrients a person needs in a day, and also most of the micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals.

After doing some research and calculations, I came to a list of foods that would satisfy all your daily needs, except for the recommended amount of carbs. In the table below, you can see all the percentages. Some micronutrients are actually (way) higher than the recommended amount, but if you eat them from fresh sources, your body an automatically dispose of them, without causing any harm.

The list of food items became quite long, but I managed to divide them into different meals throughout the day, into actually edible foods.

Breakfast

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs

• 50g omega seed mix

• 100g spinach

• 100g shiitake mushrooms

• a 200ml glass of milk

Preparation:

Cut the shiitake mushrooms into coarse strips and fry them in a non-stick skillet on high heat. You don't have to use oil, but adding a splash of water may help.

Then, add in the spinach and, while stirring, let it reduce. About 1 minute.

Remove the spinach and mushrooms from the pan into a bowl, and add the seed mix.

In another bowl, whisk the three eggs, and add about half of the milk. Season with salt, pepper, and other herbs and spices of your choice. I used a potato seasoning mix. Heat up some oil or butter in the skillet, and add in about half of the egg mixture.

Then, spread out the spinach and mushrooms evenly across the egg layer, and then top off with the rest of the egg. Put a lid on the skillet and cook the omelette evenly on a medium heat, flipping it halfway. Drink the rest of the milk during cooking :)

This breakfast is very filling and tasty, the seed mix also gave a nice bite to it. But for someone who isn't used to eating a lot of food in the morning, it was a little too much, and I couldn't finish all of it. But I recommend making this recipe, even if you aren't following my perfect meal plan. Maybe with one egg less.

Lunch

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of wholegrain bread (about 70g)

• 1 Wasa® Vezelrijk cracker

• 100g smoked or freshly baked salmon

• 100g blue cheese

• 25g omega seed mix

Preparation:

1 hour before lunch, take the cheese out of the fridge, so it gets a bit softer.

There are two options for the salmon and bread. You can toast the bread and divide the salmon over the two bread slices, or you can leave the bread as is and make a sandwich. To add some flavor and freshness, you could also add some arugula and capers. Sprinkle the salmon with the seed mix.

Spread the cheese across the cracker and eat.

This lunch is also pretty filling, but don't eat it too late in the day, because we've also still got a snack later in the day, as well as dinner.

Snack

For a snack, just cut 100g of bell pepper into your desired shape, and have it with the almonds and strawberries.

Dinner

Ingredients:

• 100g broccoli florets

• 100g tomato

• 100g winter squash pieces

• 200g potato

• 100g chicken liver

• 20g dried lentils

• 50g pinto beans

• 25g omega seed mix

Preparation:

Okay so this recipe requires some preparation the morning before, or even a day before, to soak the beans.

To prepare the rest, start with boiling some water, and clean up the chicken livers a little by cutting off the hard and yellow parts. Then, pour the boiling water over the livers and let it sit for five minutes.

Put the beans in a medium pan with the rest of the water and boil for about an hour. Add some salt or a bouillon cube to taste.

In the meantime, cut the potato and tomato into bite size pieces, drain the livers and remove the excess water with kitchen towel.

Heat up some oil in a skillet, and fry the liver pieces for about 4-5 minutes on high heat, so they are just cooked. Transfer to a cutting board, and in the same skillet, stir-fry the broccoli pieces until they are tender enough but still have some bite.

In the last 15 minutes of the bean cooking time, add the potato, squash, tomato and lentils to the pan. Cook until done.

Drain the bean mixture. Smash it using a potato masher, but leave some pieces whole, so there is still some texture in the dish. Season with salt and pepper.

Plate the beans and top off with the broccoli and liver.