Try a Healthier Caramel Apple!

Say goodbye to hard, sticky and super-sugary caramel apples and hello to a sweet and delicious healthy faux-caramel apple.

Even though apples are a staple “super” fruit we eat all year around, caramel apples are considered a Fall sweet treat. One of the down sides of eating caramel apples is that the caramel tends to get stuck in our teeth. To solve this problem, you can make a healthier caramel by replacing brown sugar and butter with dates and tahini (ground sesame seeds), as feature in this week’s recipe, Natural Caramel Apples. You will be consuming natural caramel-like ingredients to make your faux caramel apple good for your entire body, in addition to preventing cavities!

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.

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. 

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.

Eat a Peach!

​Are you having a peachy day?

A sweet soft peach will provide you with a refreshing boost of energy anytime of the day. Summertime is the perfect time of year to change up your counter top fruit bowl by grabbing a ripe white or yellow peach rather than your typical apple, banana, or orange. Just like all fruits, peaches contain many vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, and they are a great snack, dessert, or addition to your breakfast.

Helpful Tip: Peaches ripen faster in room temperature and even faster in a closed paper brown bag

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.

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!

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. 

Sun-dried tomatoes

—a superbly flavorful, nutritious and delicious way to sweeten up any dish!

Guess what? One piece of sun-dried tomato (in oil, drained) contains a mere 6 calories! Sun-dried tomatoes are just like what you might suspect… ripe tomatoes that have lost most of their water content after spending a majority of their drying time in the sun. The good news is that after this procedure, the dried tomatoes are still overflowing with nutrition—they remain packed with disease-fighting antioxidants such as lycopene and vitamin C plus are virtually fat free. Just be sure that if you buy the oil-packed variety, look for tomatoes packed in extra virgin olive oil—the heart healthiest kind.

Time for some (healthy) comfort food…

When life’s stresses become overwhelming, take solace in the simple pleasures of life—family, friends and delicious heart healthy food. And do your body a favor-be sure to release the pressures of life in a healthful manner (and not internalize them): with daily stress-busting exercise!

POP! POP! POPCORN! The Ultimate Heart-Smart Snack.

Who knew? Popcorn is a 100% whole grain! Not only is it a whole grain but it’s packed with tons of fiber and natural nutrients that come packaged in with unprocessed whole grains such as magnesium and zinc ---and all this for a mere 31 calories per cup.  What’s more, the crunchy hull is rich in polyphenols — antioxidants that prevent damage to cells and have disease-fighting properties. Just remember to nix the movie theater/microwave types (loaded with bad fats and sodium) and pop up your own kernels (I use a microwave-safe popcorn popper and pop the kernels in the microwave on the “popcorn” setting). Season the popcorn yourself and you have the PERFECT snack for good health and weight control!

Lettuce...more than just the tip of the iceberg!

Lettuce is a leafy crunchy vegetable with substantial water content, some fiber and a negligible calorie count—all factors that are beneficial for filling up your plate and pairing down your waistline.

You should know that only certain types of lettuce are loaded with lots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant plant chemicals, whereas others contain virtually nothing in terms of nutrition. Hence, even though all types of lettuce are low in calories, the different varieties offer different valuable sources of nutrients. For example, romaine lettuce is especially rich in vitamins A, C, and K, folate, and manganese when compared to iceberg lettuce.

When making lettuce choices, be sure to get in the power lettuces, romaine and red leaf—the darker the leaf, the greater the amount of nutrients such as vitamin A and folate. Other salad greens, such as spinach, kale, arugula and radicchio, while technically not lettuces, are among the most nutrient-dense foods available.

So when it comes to good health and weight control, be sure to pile on the dark leafy greens (an antioxidant gold mine), and leave the iceberg in the bin! 

Eat Red Beans: Ranked #1 on the Antioxidant Scale.

Who knew? Sometimes you find powerful disease-fighting antioxidant riches in foods you least expect. One of these foods is red beans. Red beans ranked number 1 out of the top 100 foods in terms of total antioxidant capacity per serving—beating out blueberries—which ranked number 2! Beans are also an incredibly heart-healthy source of fiber, complex carbs, vitamins, minerals, and plant protein, with zero cholesterol and negligible fat content. And all this amazing nutrition for just pennies on the dollar! 

Mom was right! Breakfast is the most important meal

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as it increases your metabolism, helps you management your weight, refuels your blood sugar and replenishes your glycogen stores after an 8-12 hour overnight fast, and kick starts your energy level to make you more alert for the rest of the day.
Start your day refreshed and satisfied by drinking a complete smoothie with a serving of vegetables, fruit, omega 3 fatty acids, and protein. Smoothies are a great grab-n-go breakfast that you can easily prepare in less than 5 minutes and drink on the way to work!

Thicken winter soups with super-nutritious cauliflower, beans and potatoes

Warm up with a cup of creamy winter soup without all the added saturated fat. Cauliflower, potatoes, and white beans are non-fat and vegetarian options to make your soups thick and creamy.

Add an extra punch of flavor to each cup of soup by adding fresh or dried herbs and spices, as featured in this recipe with fresh thyme and ground smoked paprika.

Valentine's Day Power Pair: Oatmeal and Pomegranate

February is National Heart Month! Maintain a healthy heart by consuming oats for breakfast. Oats contain soluble fiber, which lowers cholesterol levels by removing plaque build up in the arteries making the heart pump more efficiently. Oats can be made into oatmeal or added to yogurt, pancakes, and smoothies!   

 

You just can’t find a more perfect food for the month of February (heart health month ablaze in the color red) than the ancient pomegranate seed. They have been around for 4,000 years and have been a symbol of hope, prosperity and abundance. Small but mighty these little bubble-like (juice packed) seeds are considered a true “superfood” because of their high nutrient content. For a mere 70 calories per half cup of seeds you get a nice amount of the minerals calcium, magnesium and potassium as well as a shot of vitamin C and a whopping 5 grams of dietary fiber. Try sprinkling red pomegranate seeds on anything and everything from salads to pancakes!

Go Greek!

Non-fat Greek yogurt is a creamy substitute to replace sour cream, cream cheese, and/or mayonnaise in your favorite Super Bowl party dip or dish. In fact, a 6-ounce serving of plain Greek yogurt contains zero fat, about 15-20 grams of protein (equivalent to 2-3 ounces of meat), and 20% of your daily recommended calcium intake!

Sweet, sweet potatoes

PACKED WITH NUTRIENTS, ESPECIALLY THE ANTIOXIDANT PRO-VITAMIN BETA-CAROTENE AND THE BLOOD PRESSURE LOWERING MINERAL POTASSIUM, THIS POTATO IS YOUR BEST BET FOR A LOW-CALORIE, HIGH-FIBER, COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATE. NEXT TIME YOU’RE FACED WITH A POTATO DECISION, ORANGE OR WHITE, CHOOSE THE ORANGE FOR A NUTRITION-PACKED SWEET TREAT.

New Year's Resolution: Eat more anti-cancer veggies

Did you know that cruciferous vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, are associated with a decreased risk of several types of cancers? Why not start the NEW YEAR out on a healthy note by pledging to eat some of Mother Nature's potent anti-cancer veggies on most days of the week?

Cruciferous or the cabbage family of vegetables is a true class of superfoods that have it all when it comes to vitamins (especially vitamin C), minerals, fiber and disease-fighting phytochemicals. Cruciferous vegetables are actually members of the Brassica family, widely cultivated with many genera and species. The alternate name, Cruciferae, is Latin for "cross bearing," named for the shape of their flowers—which resemble a cross!

What really makes the Brassica family of vegetables superbly medicinal are two sharp-tasting phytochemical compounds buried within them, called sulphoraphane and diindolylmethane. These plant chemicals have demonstrated the ability to activate enzymes in the body that act to detoxify carcinogens before they can do cellular damage. Sulphoraphane has also been shown to cut off the circulation of nutrients to the tumor hence helping to treat existing cancer. According to the American Institute of Cancer Research, cruciferous vegetables have been shown to stop the growth of cancer cells for tumors in the breast, uterine lining, cervix, lung, colon and liver.

Here is a list of cancer-fighting cruciferous vegetables, try to eat some every day: horseradish, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, Rapini (broccoli rabe), cabbage, turnip root greens, rutabaga, kale, mustard seeds, arugula (rocket), watercress, radish, daikon, and wasabi.