Power Smoothies

Summer is in full swing and it is HOT outside! Forget the soda and the ice cream. One of the best ways to cool off, hydrate, and load up on nutrition is to make a homemade smoothie. These are seriously my newest addiction. I have one for breakfast about 5 days a week and they are light but filling and they provide you with a steady stream of energy that will hold you over until lunch.

The trick is to keep the sugar low and the fiber high. Adding some healthy fat (flax seed, nuts or nut butter, coconut oil) will help keep your hair shiny and your skin glowing. Throwing in some yogurt or kefir will give you a probiotic boost. And fresh fruits and vegetables provide you with tons of vitamins, minerals, and healthy fiber.

I’ve been experimenting a lot so here are a couple of my favorite recipes:

 

Blueberry-Raspberry-Banana: Toss a banana, about 1/2 cup soy milk,1/2 cup greek yogurt,1 cup mixed blueberries and raspberries, 1 Tbs. ground flax seed, and a handful of ice into a high-powered blender (Such as a Vitamix or Ninja). Add more soy milk if necessary.

* If you like it sweeter add a tablespoon of honey or a little stevia. I also add a little green powder if I have it on hand.

 

Green Smoothie: Blend 1 banana, 1/2 mango, 1 cup of strawberries, 3/4 cup apple juice, 1 Tbs. ground flax, 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger, a handful of mint, and a handful of mesclun greens or kale, and some ice cubes.

These smoothies are nutritional powerhouses because you have so many healthy elements blended into one glass. They are a great way to get in your daily fruit and veggie servings and they’re extremely versatile. If you need extra fiber, add a spoonful of psyllium powder or some chia seeds. If you need to really reduce your sugar, use water in place of juice or soy milk. You can also add stevia to add sweetness without calories. You can add fresh ginger, mint, or cilantro to any smoothie to help with digestion. And you can always make them dairy free by leaving out the yogurt.  If you need extra protein, add some walnuts or almond butter. You can also add some green powder (I use Amazing Grass Green Superfood) for even more vitamins and minerals.

Feel free to use whatever fruits and vegetables are fresh and in season or you can use frozen. Some of my favorites are raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, mangos, nectarines, dates, spinach, kale, and lettuce greens. So enjoy a refreshing smoothie today. Your body will thank you!

 

 

Mussels with White Wine, Garlic, and Fresh Tomatoes

I have always loved seafood. I was eating sushi by the age of 2 and haven’t looked back since. Seafood is light, healthy, and so delicious if it’s fresh and prepared correctly. Some important tips for buying it:

1) Choose sustainable options- such as wild salmon, harpooned swordfish, cod,flounder, lobster, and troll-caught tuna. Clams, mussels, US shrimp are also good picks. 

2) Stay away from previously frozen fish if you want the best texture and flavor (with the exception of shrimp, which are almost always previously frozen). 

3) When you are picking out fish at the store, look for a shiny, glossy flesh with no fishy smell. 

So this brings us to the mussels. You have probably eaten them at a restaurant and assumed that they were too complicated to prepare at home. Not the case, my friends! Mussels are an affordable, easy item to prepare. They are light, tasty, and a great source of protein, zinc, B12, vitamin C, and thiamin. And your friends will think you’re a gourmet chef!

Recipe:

2 lbs. mussels scrubbed and debearded (I soak mine in a bowl of water for 30 minutes, they will open up and release any sand that may be inside)

2-3 Tbs. olive oil

1 shallot, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 red pepper, diced

2 cups fresh diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. fennel seed (optional)

1 bay leaf

1 cup white wine

Diced fresh parley and chives

Fresh lemon wedges

First, saute your shallot and peppers in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add tomatoes and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, fennel, and red pepper flakes for a minute or two until fragrant.

Then add your wine and mussels and a bay leaf. Cover and steam for about 5 minutes or until all the mussels have opened up. Garnish with fresh parsley, chives, and lemon wedges. Serve over pasta or with a big hunk of bread to soak up all the delicious sauce!

So enjoy this healthy, easy, gourmet dinner sometime soon. I promise you, your family and friends will be impressed!

Yummy Flax Crackers

Eat fewer carbs. More fiber. Less processed stuff. Make sure you’re getting enough Omega 3′s. Reduce your sodium intake. Sound familiar?

Well here is an easy and delicious way to do all of these things at once! Flax crackers. So incredibly simple and really tasty. This is a snack you can really feel good about. These tasty little treats are gluten-free, grain free, high fiber, and loaded with heart healthy fats.

Here’s how you do it.

Ingredients:

2 cups ground flax seed

3/4 -1 cup water

3/4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Options- 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese; 1/2 tsp rosemary & 1/2 tsp. thyme; toasted sesame oil & soy sauce; poppy seeds & sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 400. Then what you do is mix the ground flax with the dry ingredients (you can be really flexible here and add whatever flavors you like best), then slowly add the water until a smooth dough forms. You don’t want it to be too watery. Take a baking sheet and cover with a Silpat or with parchment paper. Spread dough evenly to about 1/4 inch thickness, even thinner if you can.

Sprinkle with another pinch of sea salt and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Once they’ve cooled, you can break them apart for a rustic, homemade look. Store in an airtight container and they’ll last about a week.

I used a Tuscan seasoning blend that I happened to have on hand, but really you could flavor these any way you like. And they are perfect with hummus, guacamole, or even a nice cheese. Bon appetit!

Why Grow A Garden?

Is there anything better than fresh-picked produce? In my opinion, you can’t beat a crisp snap pea straight off the vine or a perfectly ripe tomato. I love summertime and one of my favorite things to do is go to the farmers market to get really fresh, local fruits and veggies. But this year, I wanted to try my hand at growing my own garden. So, I rented a spot at the local community garden (only $20 for the entire season!).

When it was time to get started, I looked at this 20′ X 20′ pile of dirt and felt completely overwhelmed. I had no clue how to get started. Luckily, with the help of a good friend who happens to be a garden pro, I learned that there is really not that much to it!

The soil was already tilled and ready to go, so we basically just bought all of our seeds, mapped out a plan for where we wanted to plant everything (some plants grow better together), and then put the seeds in the ground in rows. There were a few more steps later (like stakes for the tomato plants and a trellis for the snap peas), but for the most part, we just planted and waited.

And I have to say… the results have been incredible! I am in awe every time I see it.

For months, I have been bringing home all kinds of fresh lettuce. And more recently, the swiss chard has been abundant, there are chives, beets, carrots, radishes, zucchini, and tons of sugar snap peas. The tomatoes are just about ready to be picked as are the peppers and the green beans. I’ve saved a ton of money on vegetables and they are really much better than anything you can buy in the store. But don’t get me wrong, I still love a good farmers market!

Growing your own garden is an amazing experience and I encourage anyone to try it, even just a small one to start. There is something really special about watching a tiny little seed evolve into a strong, thriving, and vibrant plant and knowing that you are responsible for it. You can feel good about doing something for your own health and for the health of the planet. And yes, it is work, but not that much and it’s totally worth it. For me the weeding and the watering helps me to feel really calm, grounded, and connected to the earth. And there’s no better meditation than that.

If you’re ready to test out your green thumb, try starting with an herb garden, like the one that I have in the backyard. You can buy the seedlings, put them in large pots with some soil, give them some sun (but not too much) and water. And that’s it! And if you’re really ambitious and are ready to do a vegetable garden, there are tons of great resources online to get you started. Good luck!

Kale Chips

It’s Farmer’s Market season and I went to my first one of the year yesterday. I truly love seeing the abundant vegetables, fruits, and homemade goods and I always feel good about buying local. There were lots of options, but I decided to try some organic “hydroponic kale.” It looked much more delicate than the usual stuff. The farmer who grew it told me that it was “sweet and tender and utterly delicious.” And he was right. If you see it at your Farmer’s Market, it is  absolutely worth a try.

I normally cook kale with olive oil and garlic, but today I wanted to do something different. I was in the mood for something salty and crunchy and I wanted to have something I could feel good about. So…I made kale chips! Low in calories, high in nutrition, salty, crispy, and crunchy. Really simple to make too.

Simply tear the leaves off of the stems, discard stems, rinse, and dry. Spread kale on a sheet pan and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes or until dry and crispy. You will have to watch it carefully, because it goes from being perfectly crisp and golden brown to burnt in no time. Let cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy! Store in an air tight container.

Admittedly, they are not the most photogenic snack, but trust me they are definitely worth making!

 

Chocolate Covered Everything

I have always had a pretty big appetite. As a kid, I always ate every bite on my plate and usually had seconds or thirds. When all the other kids left the table to go play, I was concentrating on finishing every last morsel. It didn’t matter if it was Lucky Charms or Lobster, I ate it and I liked it. And boy did I have a sweet tooth. Some of my favorites were Swedish Fish, Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and Tollhouse cookies (which sometimes didn’t make it past the cookie dough stage).

I’ve always enjoyed everything, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to be more conscious about what I put into my mouth. I eat a ton of vegetables, lots of fruit, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, and I try to go easy on the meat. But I have to say, I still do crave those sweets. So I try to come up with healthy and satisfying ways to satisfy my sugar cravings, without the guilt. Here is one of them.

Chocolate Covered Everything and Anything.

Ingredients:

6 ounces high quality bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

Nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios)

Dried Fruit (apricots, raisins, cranberries, coconut)

Simply toast the nuts over medium-low heat in a pan or in the toaster oven until fragrant.

Then melt chocolate over low heat on a double boiler.

Then, on cookie sheet lined with non-stick paper, drop chocolate by teaspoonfuls and then sprinkle with whatever nuts and dried fruit you like. I also add a little sea salt for a salty/sweet flavor. Refrigerate for about an hour to let them firm up and there you have it! A sweet, gluten-free, grain-free treat that is low in calories and high in antioxidants. Plus you can freeze them and pull them out one at a time when you need a chocolate fix!

If you have leftover chocolate, you can use it to cover strawberries, bananas, graham crackers, saltines, pretzels… Let’s be real, what doesn’t taste better with chocolate?!

Simple Pasta with Swiss Chard

As most of you know, I LOVE to cook. It’s hands down one of my favorite things to do. I find it to be calming, relaxing and almost meditative. And there’s something about transforming simple ingredients into an amazing meal that is quite magical. But still, there are those nights when even I don’t feel like cooking an elaborate meal.

For those nights, this simple pasta dish is one of my go-to options. Simple, low-cost ingredients, quick prep, and easy clean-up- this is a meal that just about anyone can whip up in no time.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbs. olive oil

3/4 pound pasta (I used gluten-free brown rice spaghetti)

3 cloves garlic

1 bunch of swiss chard, chopped, bottom of stems removed

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

salt & fresh ground black pepper

juice of half a lemon

parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Heat olive oil in a medium to medium-high skillet. Add swiss chard and cook for a few minutes until tender, add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add  red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste, and then add the lemon juice. Toss in cooked pasta and toss to coat. Serve with freshly shaved parmesan if desired.

And there you have it. Simple, healthy, and so tasty!