Dietitian Orla Walsh joined Doireann Garrihy on RTÉ 2FM to share some tasty ways we can support our bodies through the colder months. Listen back here.
September has arrived, bringing with it a brand new way of eating. While summer was full of lighter meals to keep us going in the warmer weather, autumn is a time for warm comforts.
To keep things balanced, Dietitian Orla Walsh suggests transitioning our vegetable intake from cold salads to warm sandwiches.
“It’s not just soups! Think about roasting vegetables to put them into your sandwiches, so they’re warm, comforting, but still veg-based.”
Another way to keep your veg intake high is to sneak extra ingredients into your weekly meal rotation.
Walsh suggests chopping up a heap of carrot, celery and onion and keeping it at the ready to add to any number of family favourite dinners such as spaghetti bolognese, stew, or a cottage pie.
“In other words, I’m making three or four meals out of that one base,” she explains. “It just quickens up the whole process.”
To add even more fibre to these meals, Walsh sneaks butter beans and lentils into these batch-cooked meals.
If you’re really stuck for time, she suggests buying mashed turnip and mashed potato from the supermarket, as long as the ingredient list is similar to how you would make it at home.
“If you look at the mashed potato in the shops, it might be 98% potato, 2% butter, and I’m like, ‘that’s very similar to how I would make it at home; I’m going to buy that’,” she notes.
Frozen diced onion, garlic, chilli, and ginger are also great staples to have ready to go in the freezer.
“All of those bases are just perfect for the start of slow cooker meals,” she insists.
As well as increasing our vegetable intake through winter, Walsh says it’s important for us to maintain our Vitamin D levels.
According to the HSE, here in Ireland, we should be taking 15 micrograms of Vitamin D daily from about Halloween to Saint Patrick’s Day.
“That’s the guideline for people with light skin, but if you have brown skin, you may have to supplement all year round,” she notes.
If you spend a lot of time indoors, are planning to get pregnant, or are currently pregnant, your needs may vary, so be sure to check in with your GP and HSE.ie for more information.
For more information on warm salads, efficient meal prep, and the importance of omega 3, listen back here.