Well balanced meals

Question
I am re-evaluating my food habits.  I've worked salads & fruits & veggies into my diet daily.  The trouble I now am finding is creating well balanced meals for the whole family.  I find that I am preparing an adult meal & kids meals and it's too much work, even for a stay-at-home mom.  

What do u suggest in terms of well balanced meals.  Please note that I am not that savvy with food.  I only know of a few starches and proteins.  I could use a good reading reference.  Whenever I pickup a book to check out nutrition info or meal ideas I feel like like it's too detailed or the food is way weird.  

Thanks,
Totally overwhelmed with nutrition & food.

Answer
I hear ya, food - including shopping, preparing, cooking and eating is supposed to be a joy. Not every second of it, but mostly. Keep it simple, the less you do to it, the healthier it is.

Fruit - always raw, cooking it, even pasteurizing juice, ruins the sugar, not only not good for you, but actually bad for you.

Non-starchy vegetables (starchy being potatoes, corn, yams, parsnips..) are good raw or slightly cooked, just enough to break down the tough cell walls. Asparagus, broccoli change color, but should still be a bright green. When they get a greyish green, totally limp, you have gone too far, Broil, stir fry in olive oil or real butter, or steam, but never boil.

Modern milk may contain calcium, but in a form that actually pulls more calcium out than it adds. Honest, the countries that use the most dairy products have the most osteoporosis. Dairy products are more of a political lobby group than a food group.

You want totaly whole grains - not refined flour dyed brown to impersonate whole wheat. Look at labels, the more ingredients, esp. stuff you can't pronounce, the less nutrition.  

If you can swallow any of the above, please continue at http://www.premiiumfuel.com decades of studing the studies of what's new, what's safe, what works and what lasts.

http://premiumfuel.com/real_food.html
http://premiumfuel.com/sugar.html

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