11:14 AM CST on Tuesday, February 7, 2006

By Vicente Arenas / 11 News

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When you think of fast food, you don’t often think healthy, but one creative cook in the Heights is changing that.

KHOU-TV

It seems more and more people are buying prepared meals in their fight to lose weight and stay healthy.

In Marcela Perez’s hands, health food is anything but bland.

“I’ve learned to combined herbs, mustard, pepper corns, like toasting different pepper corns and peppers and stuff like that — it enhances the flavor of the food,” Perez said.

In her tiny rented kitchen in the Heights, Perez whips up herb-marinated chicken, sundried turkey burgers and a toasted peppercorn beef that Marcia Norrell said will knock your pounds off.

“The food that I use to eat versus the food that I’m eating right now is so much healthier, and I’ve seen a significant amount of weight loss,” Norrell said.

Norrell picks up the prepared meals once a week, which have very little sodium and sugar.

“Cause everything has natural salt or sugar,” Perez said. ”Everything has natural flavors, and when you combine the right stuff like ginger and basil and oregano — everything’s fresh — it tastes so much better, and you feel like you’re eating healthier.”

Marcella has even started selling her fitness food at a local gym, which is where Kathleen McCarter, a cardiac nurse, said she first had some. And now she can’t get enough.

“She chooses the leanest meats; it’s not just fatty,” McCarter said. “She doesn’t add excess butter or anything like that. It’s just pure healthy ingredients.”

It seems more and more people are buying prepared meals in their fight to lose weight and stay healthy.

For Perez, making them is a passion.