14 genius tips to make everything you eat healthier & more delicious

Plus, my favorite microbiome-friendly snack.

Hello friends!

One of my life mottos is “wellness shouldn’t make your life worse”—meaning, if the goal is to try to feel better, we shouldn’t be increasing our suffering to get there. That means a lot of things (not stacking your to-do list with so many healthy habits you wind up stressed all the time, not giving up time with friends because a restaurant doesn’t have a perfectly healthy menu) but one thing it definitely means is not eating bad-tasting food.

Suffering through boiled chicken breasts and broccoli is not wellness. In fact, many of the things that make foods better for us actually make them tastier: adding tons of herbs and spices, eating lots of ferments.

This week’s episode of The Liz Moody Podcast gets into a ton of my favorite tips for doing this (8, to be exact). I also promised you a recipe for my famous BBQ-chip chickpeas, which utilize one of my tips from the episode—roasting things like chickpeas, vegetables, and frozen vegetables without oil, which allows the moisture to evaporate and actually leads to better results.

I also love these chickpeas as a snack because, as we learned in last week’s episode, fiber is the number one thing we should be prioritizing for weight loss, longevity, and more and chickpeas are incredibly high in fiber (they have 9 grams, or 38% of your recommended daily value, per serving).

This is a microbiome-friendly snack that needs to be added to your rotation—it keeps well, is SO delicious, makes you have excellent poops, and is very easy to make.

BBQ-Chip Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 13.5 oz can chickpeas

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

• 2 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 3/4 teaspoon chili powder

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

• 2 teaspoons onion powder

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain and rinse chickpeas well and shake dry as much as possible (don’t stress it; part of why I like this way of cooking chickpeas is because it’s more low maintenance). Bake on a parchment-lined pan for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and toss on pan with oil, maple syrup, spices, and salt until well-coated. Re-distribute chickpeas so they’re not touching each other as much as possible and return to oven for 10 more minutes.

From this week’s episode:

“ Frozen veggies are as nutritious or even more so than fresh vegetables since they are picked at peak freshness and then freezing them preserves them.

Fresh produce loses nutrients every single day that it's in transit and every single day that sits on the shelves in a grocery store in your kitchen. Frozen produce tends to be more affordable than fresh produce and you can always have something on hand.”

The takeaway:

You won’t stick to any healthy eating plan if you feel deprived. Prioritize making your food as delicious as possible, in ways that add even more nutrient-benefits.

For more on this topic, including the magic seed that’s even better for you than chia seeds (and so much easier to cook with), check out this week’s episode on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

For paid subscribers, keep on scrolling, baby! I asked my incredible cookbook author friends to give me THEIR favorite tips to make meals healthier and more delicious.

xo,

Liz

14 Genius Ways To Make Your Meals Healthier AND More Delicious