We have high cholesterol--the good kind--maybe because of foods like this

Last night's Minimal Meat Meal: Squash Tomato Garbanzo Medley
Yeah, branching out from always calling things a "mish mash." ;)

   Despite the pics you saw yesterday of some of the road food we've eaten at locally owned joints in the last year, we seldom eat fried foods. Mainly because I am too lazy to clean up the mess in my own kitchen.
   Our blood work tells the tale: we eat fairly healthy most of the time.

   Hubby and I have both been tested and told we have high cholesterol...of the GOOD kind, the HDL. Though I couldn't point to just one thing, I think our abundance of good cholesterol may be attributed to the fact that we consume plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and raw nuts, ground flax seed and LOTS of olive oil. I cook up primarily minimal meat meals, and the lion's share of the protein nowadays consists of what Hubby brings home, including wild turkey, wild caught fish and venison. If, for instance, we have grilled venison steaks one night, the leftovers will be cut up into a stir fry of mostly vegetables for the next night. Minimal meat meals save us both time and money!
   We eat dairy too, including cheeses. These days I eat 6 ounces of organic whole milk plain yogurt daily. I often cook with butter, never margarine. Hubby drinks whole milk. We eat the skin anytime I cook a humanely raised chicken. We sometimes have whole eggs for breakfast, and in the last year or so these eggs have been organic and certified humane.
   Hubby's cholesterol improved once he retired, but my HDL moved up to "amazing" even before we switched to leaner, organic meats. Maybe because I love fish, eat minimal meats & eat ground flax seed on an almost daily basis??? I'm also addicted to sweets, but that's probably not at play here. ;)
   I may have mentioned this before: A few years back, I quit buying "low fat" products after reading REAL FOOD: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. Her book just made sense to me, and then a few year's later I learned that Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food also validated the principle of eating real foods. For the most part, we just aim to follow Pollan's mantra to eat the way our great grandparents would have eaten.
   Now, it goes without saying: I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. Can't say this method of eating would work for anyone else, just sayin' what works for us. Capiche? ;)

(Ingredients in the squash medley: olive oil, sliced sweet onion, zucchini and yellow squash, minced garlic, about a half cup of cooked organic sausage, dried oregano, freshly ground pepper, red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons of chicken base, half a can of garbanzo beans, pimiento-stuffed olives, plus about 14 ounces of chopped, fire-roasted tomatoes. Added a little bit of cornstarch and water to make a bit of thickened sauce, and added about 3 tablespoons of minced fresh basil at the end.)