Q: What is one of the most popular Thanksgiving dinner side dishes?

Answer: Green Bean Casserole!

Green bean casserole has become a staple at most everyone’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, the traditional version tends to be loaded with bad fat, salt and calories and is often far from a light and healthy dish. Why not lighten up this Thanksgiving classic and save your calories for the yummier desserts or sweet potato casserole? Substituting reduced fat and light versions of sour cream, heavy cream, and cream cheese or 0% Greek yogurt will still give you a great taste but for a fraction of the calories.

Ode to the humble sweet potato

Don’t judge a vegetable by its cover. A sweet potato is a starchy root vegetable that grows in the ground and to be honest, it is not the most attractive vegetable, with its odd shape, imperfect skin, and dusting of dirt. But whatever you do, don’t let the appearance stop you from incorporating them in your meals. Sweet potatoes are true superfoods, filled with beneficial nutrients including vitamin A, vitamin C, beta carotene, potassium, folate, and manganese, which make them one of the healthiest complex carbs around.

Trick or treat!

Holiday season is right around the corner; the time when working towards our health goals becomes a lot more challenging. The temptation to grab those yummy baked goods and holiday sweets as you walk through the office, local coffee shop, and countless social gatherings can be almost impossible to resist. 

One holiday tip that can help is to bake up your own healthy sweet treats. If you do have a craving for something pumpkiny and sweet, you can easily whip up a single serving in your favorite mug to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Sweeten Your Life with Pears!

A medium pear is a perfect 100-calorie snack with 6 g of fiber and a high content of vitamin C and vitamin K. Pears are a versatile fruit, they can be eaten raw, baked, roasted, sautéed, and grilled. If you like your pears juicy and sweet, place them in brown paper bag and check daily until the neck of the pear gives to gentle pressure. The naturally sweet pears are the perfect ingredient to candy-coat your warm breakfast oatmeal, fruit crisp, or side dish without adding sugar or honey. Try this week’s sweet vegetable and fruit side dish, Roasted Cinnamon Butternut Squash and Pear.

Winter squash --a nutrition bonanza

Fall is officially here!

If you haven’t noticed yet, the grocery stores are stocked with those oddly shaped squash, which happen to be members of the winter squash family.

Just like summer squash, there are many varieties of winter squash. The most popular winter squash are butternut squash, acorn squash, and spaghetti squash. Winter squash is eaten cooked (steamed, baked, or roasted), not raw, and can be prepared as either a sweet or savory dish. Include these super nutritious vegetables in your meals over the fall and winter months to not only warm your belly, but decrease inflammation as well. Brimming with a nice amount of B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin A, and dietary fiber, this is one food that deserves a place on your fall/winter plate.

Eat Summer Squash before it’s too late!

September 21^st is the last day of Summer, which means the Summer season is not over yet!

Summer squash is planted 2-4 weeks before the last spring frost and harvested in the Summer when they are immature unlike winter squash. There are many types of summer squash, but the most popular and familiar of the summer squash family are zucchini and yellow squash. The flesh, skin, and seeds are all soft and edible providing an abundance of beneficial nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin A, manganese, folate, B vitamins, and dietary fiber.

Awesome ALLIUM Veggies

You know that you should be eating vegetables every day, but did you know that you should try and get in allium vegetables on a regular basis? The allium family of veggies include onions, leeks, chives and garlic. What’s so awesome about allium veggies? Allium vegetables house a unique combination of polyphenols and sulfur-containing nutrients that have been shown to decrease the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. They also reduce inflammation and prevent loss of bone and connective tissue.   Perhaps you don’t like raw or cooked onions, but have you tried super delish candy-like caramelized onions? Caramelized onions are easy to make and can be a delicious topping to your pizza, grilled chicken, or salad, as seen in this week’s, Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Stack with balsamic caramelized onions and goat cheese.

The Beauty of Whey Protein

Protein offers great workout benefits; when combined with resistance training, protein can help to build lean muscle, and protein can also help promote muscle repair. But, it can often be a challenge to find fast and delicious ways to get a protein boost.  Whey protein, a high-quality protein that comes naturally from dairy, is a versatile ingredient that can easily be added to many different dishes. 

Got calcium? How much calcium are you consuming per day through food?

Hands down, the healthiest way to meet your daily calcium needs is by EATING your calcium from food (rather than popping pills). Today, many people are consuming other dairy or non-dairy calcium products to meet their calcium needs rather than following the archaic dietary advice to drink 3 glasses of plain cow’s milk a day. Remember that no matter how old you are, calcium is an essential nutrient to build and maintain strong bones as well as keeping your cardiovascular system healthy. 

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for Calcium: Adults

Age	Male	Female	Pregnant	Lactating
19-50 years	1,000 mg	1,000 mg	1,000 mg	1,000mg
51-70 years	1,000 mg	1,200 mg
71+ years	1,200 mg	1,200 mg

* It is NOT recommended to consume more than 2,500 mg of calcium per day.

How much calcium is in common foods?

Food	Amount	Calcium (mg)
Skim Milk	8 fl oz (1 cup)	300 mg
Soy Milk	8 fl oz (1 cup)	300 mg
Almond Milk	8 fl oz (1 cup)
Yogurt	6 oz	200 mg
Cheese	1 oz	200 mg
Tofu	4 oz	200 mg
Sesame Seeds	1 Tablespoon	90 mg
Low-fat Cottage Cheese	½ cup	80 mg
Halibut	4 oz	80 mg
Beans (kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, pinto beans)	½ cup	60 m g
Raw Almonds	20 almonds	60 mg
Naval Orange	1 medium	60 mg
Shelled Edamame	½ cup	50 mg
Almond Butter	1 tsp	40 mg
Raw Kale	1 cup	40 mg
Raw Spinach	1 cup	30 mg
Raw Broccoli	1 cup	30 mg

Color your Plate with Sweet Summer Produce!

Color your meal with red, orange, yellow, green, and purple foods by aiming to fill half your plate with a variety of fruits and vegetables for maximum anti-oxidant power. Raw fruits and vegetables can often get boring to eat on a daily basis so next time try cooking them, even fruit!

This week's recipe features a cancer-fighting sweet summer salad with seasonal red cherries.

Beans and Broccoli - a Match made in Superfood Heaven!

Instead of bringing the go to pasta salad to a pot luck gathering, be the one to bring a super nutritious bean and broccoli salad. Pick your favorite pasta salad and substitute beans (kidney beans, black eyed beans, pinto beans, navy beans, lentils, and black beans) for the pasta, which increases the protein and fiber content in your dish. Add the broccoli and you have the ultimate cancer prevention meal!

Rather than adding a high fat dressing to your bean salad with oil and mayonnaise, create a healthier creamy dressing with low fat plain Greek yogurt, white vinegar, and various herbs and spices such as the Roasted Garlic Yogurt Dressing featured in this week’s recipe.

Watermelon—Summer Love!

No Summer is complete without a nice juicy piece of watermelon. It is not surprising that

 watermelon is composed of about 90% water, creating the crisp texture with every bite.  

Yes, watermelon is the perfect summer treat to quench our thirst on hot days and satisfy 

our sweet tooth. Watermelon also gives you a nutritious bang for your bite—it contains a 

nice amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, and the nutrient lycopene, which gives watermelon 

its red pigment and decreases inflammation. 1 cup of watermelon yields a mere 46 calories 

and counts as 1 serving of the recommended 2 servings of fruit per day.

As much as watermelon tastes amazing by itself, it also adds the perfect amount of sweetness, 

color, and texture to a salad. In fact, watermelon and feta is a match made in heaven with a

flavorful sweet and salty combination, which featured in this week’s recipe.

- See more at: http://corp.fitnesstogether.com/nutrition-together/nutrition-tips/#sthash.xHMhIrtd.dpuf

Red, white and BLUEBERRY!

Blueberries may be small in size, but boy are they are packed with nutrients that greatly benefit our health!

Go ahead and enhance the nutrition value of your midday snack, breakfast, desserts salads, and 

dessert with the addition of antioxidant-packed blueberries.

In fact, now is the time to buy fresh blueberries! The month of July is prime time for blueberry harvest. 

Translation: fulfill your summer blueberry craving and buy them in bulk to freeze so that you can have 

them at your finger tips for the off season months.

 4th of July is the perfect time to cool off with a icy blueberry sorbet, which is featured in this week's 

recipe. Get in the red, white and blue festive spirit and make an icy strawberry sorbet (substitute 

strawberries for the blueberries) too, top a scoop of your blueberry and strawberry sorbet with a dollop 

of low-fat cool whip!

Happy Independence Day!

- See more at: http://corp.fitnesstogether.com/nutrition-together/nutrition-tips/#sthash.4OdLTxbl.dpuf

Eat Legumes—the longevity food!

Legumes (beans, peas and lentils) are plant power foods that are simply bursting with nutrition. I encourage you to embrace these small life-saving plant proteins. Lentils, for example, have been part of the culinary culture of the Mediterranean throughout the ages. These seeds may be petite, but they are nutrition giants, loaded with the heart healthiest of ingredients including fiber, antioxidants, plant protein, vitamins, minerals, and iron — and all this for just pennies on the dollar. Legumes’ complex carbohydrates provide long-lasting energy and plant protein, and unlike animal protein are rich in plaque fighting fiber and phytochemicals. What’s more, research suggests that eating a daily serving of legumes might just be the dietary secret to longevity. Chick peas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans) definitely count as a legume. Chickpeas are the foundation for hummus—so versatile—this is the perfect season to use for dipping veggies at your outdoor BBQ or as a sandwich spread. - See more at: http://corp.fitnesstogether.com/nutrition-together/nutrition-tips/#sthash.vEAN8bTp.dpuf

Thank Heaven for Ripe and Luscious STRAWBERRIES!

Are you a strawberry lover? If so, you are in for a treat because it's strawberry season!

 

Did you know that citrus fruits are not the only fruit that contain a large source of vitamin C? In fact, eight strawberries contain 140% of the recommended daily intake for vitamin C! Vitamin C helps maintain a healthy immune system and is a natural anti-inflammatory--decreasing your body’s systematic inflammation.

If you are craving sweet strawberries, June and July are the best months to buy ripe and cheap strawberries. You will notice the amount of strawberries in the grocery stores (or better yet, the farmer's market) will increase greatly, as the strawberry harvest is happening now!

It's KABOB season!

Do you Kabob?

Are you bored of your same old meat and vegetable stir-fry?

Kabobs are a fun way to get the whole family involved in cooking a healthy weekday or weekend meal. Everyone can skew their own kabobs with their favorite meat, vegetables, and fruit before placing them on the grill or baking them in the oven. Skew a rainbow! 

Try Tempeh-a perfect plant protein

Vegetable protein is a healthy alternative to animal protein because of it is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. The soybean, part of the legume family, is the main ingredient of many common vegetable proteins such tofu, tempeh, and textured vegetable protein. You can eat these raw or baked, grilled, and sautéed. Edamame is the immature soybean inside the pod—a great snack on-the-go, salad topper, or even as a substitute for chickpeas in hummus.

Tempeh is made from cooked and slightly fermented soybeans and formed into a patty, similar to a very firm veggie burger. It is low in sodium yet packed with protein, iron and calcium. Tempeh is a cholesterol-free vegan-friendly food.

Try something new this week or hop on the Meatless Monday train by incorporating one of these vegetable proteins in a meal and/or snack, if you haven’t already. 

Time for some FroYo!

Frozen sweet treats become very appealing this time of year, as the weather is getting warmer and a cold dessert always seems to make Spring and Summer at lot cooler. Self-serve frozen yogurt stores are popping up in every corner, where you pay by the weight of your cup. You are allowed to serve yourself from one or multiple frozen yogurt flavors and can sprinkle your yogurt with an assortment of toppings.

Frozen yogurt is lower in fat than regular ice cream per serving, but you still need to think of frozen yogurt as a treat and eat it in moderation. You can quickly create a high calorie dessert with more than 1 serving of yogurt and multiple toppings. The toppings sometimes can add up to more calories and fat than the actual frozen yogurt alone. Therefore, try to chose 1-2 flavors of frozen yogurt and add 1-3 toppings. The most nutritious toppings are fruit, sprinkles, dark chocolate, granola, almond slices, and chopped walnuts.  

Nutrition Facts: Per Size: ½ cup (83 g, 4 oz)

Non-fat Flavors: Food weight: 1.0, Calories: 80-100 kcal, Fat: 0g, Carbohydrate: 18-22g, Protein: 3-4g.

Low-fat Flavors: Food weight: 1.5, Calories: 110-140 kcal, Fat: 3-5g, Carbohydrate: 18-22g, Protein: 3-4g. 

Cannellini Beans--a blood-pressure-lowering superfood

Did you know that white beans are a potassium superfood? High in protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and super low in fat and calories (compare to fatty animal protein sources). White kidney beans are also known as cannellini beans. Cannellini beans are often featured in traditional Italian recipes. White kidney beans are nutritionally rich foods. These beans are high in protein, complex carbohydrates and fiber, yet low in fat. A half cup serving has 150 calories and a whopping 600 mg of potassium! For those interested in lowering blood pressure using food and exercise—potassium –rich foods such as white beans should be a staple on your plate.

How GREEN is your valley (or springtime dinner plate)?

It’s SPRINGTIME! That means time to tap into Mother Nature’s bounty of gorgeous vegetables that have finally come into season. Asparagus is one of my favorite spring veggies (March through May). The long green shoots contain a unique array of healthful plant chemicals as well as a nice amount of fiber and the vitamins K, B, A and C. At just  43 calories a cup—be sure to pile the asparagus onto your dinner plate! Cooking tips: choose firm spears, not the wrinkled ones; simply break the ends off the entire stalk where it is easiest—with two hands. Asparagus is easy to overcook so watch cooking time. Cook asparagus by simply grilling or broiling -- a great low-calorie way to let the natural flavors peek through.