Whether you’re just beginning to start eating healthier or you’ve been doing it for a while, you can easily find yourself in a rut and doing the same boring dishes over and over again. You may find yourself wanting to cheat more often or that healthy foods don’t sounds that appealing. However, you can easily introduce new and exciting ways to keep your nutrition efforts interesting.
Below is a list of 15 different things you can do to spice up your nutrition life:
1. Experiment with new foods and combinations. Purchase a new fruit or vegetable each week and try it in a meal. This way you can look forward to something new and you can really expand your food options.
2. Take advantage of ready-to-use foods. Fresh-bagged salads, frozen vegetables, etc. Just stay smart about it and read the food label.
3. Add legumes/beans to your salads.
4. Try meat alternatives. The food industry has come along way with providing us with tofu or veggy-based meat alternatives. Buy some and try it out!
5. Use herbs and spices to add color, savory taste and sensational aroma.
6. Take advantage of healthy side dishes offered at fast-food restaurants. Get a side salad or baked potato instead of the usual french fries. 
7. Use salsa for more than just chips. Add it to your eggs, meat, potatoes, veggies!
8. Plan meals so that you can use the extra food in other dishes.
9. Marinate meat, chicken and fish before cooking to tenderize and add flavor to foods. Try mixtures of herbs or spices with wine, olive oil, soy sauce, cider vinegar or lemon juice.
10. Expand your grain repertoire with whole-grain complements, such as kasha, brown rice, wild rice, barley or whole-wheat tortillas.
11. Explore world cuisine. Discover and enjoy foods from around the world: Mexican, Latin American, Indian, Greek, French, Asian, etc. 
13. Add milled flax seed, crushed bran cereal, or unprocessed wheat bran to your baked goods or any dish you see appropriate.
14. Try something new for breakfast. Eat last night’s dinner or cook fresh veggies. Who says breakfast has to consist of eggs or cereal only?
15. Decrease the meat portion on your plate and increase the serving size of vegetables. Use three times as many vegetables on pizzas, casseroles and soups.
Great list, Kinsey!
I like putting salsa in my salads instead of using dressing. I’d also want to remind people before buying marinades at the store- be conscientious of the high amount of sodium that goes into those. Whole grain tortillas and pastas rock- I won’t eat them any other way!!