Shamrock Smoothie

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Spring time is here – hello Daylight Savings and St. Patrick’s Day! We enjoy this fun holiday, especially the annual parade in Delray Beach. Lots of cheers and celebrations – green beer, corned beef and cabbage too. All that fun and you may be feeling green the next day.

Feel better and get back to feeling like yourself or even better by adding in some minty greens after having a little too much fun. Spring is a great time of year to start eating lighter foods which you may already be craving with the warmer weather. Read more →

Black-Eyed Pea Hummus Collard Wraps

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Ring in the New Year with healthy!

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Ringing in the New Year with a bit of good luck and prosperity on the mind is a great way to kick off the New Year. In the South, that means black-eyed peas for good luck and collard greens for prosperity. Enjoy this super satisfying hummus wrapped in a blanched collard green loaded up with your favorite fillings. Before you head out on the town for New Year’s Eve be sure to place the peas in water to soak overnight so they’ll be ready to cook when you rise on New Year’s Day! Read more →

Healthy Baking Swaps for the Holidays

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Got a cookie exchange or holiday party to attend soon? December is practically cookie month with all of the cookie trays going around. I know members of my family love to bake tons of cookies to give away as gifts for the holidays. You know those delicious plates filled with several kinds of cookies. How can one resist!
 What if you could swap out ingredients to make your cookies and baked goods a little bit healthier without sacrificing taste? It IS possible. Check out my tips to clean up your cookies yet still taste decadent.

 

Healthy Baking Swaps:
  • Instead of 1 cup sugar use ¾ cup sugar, no one will even notice, that is 4 tablespoons less sugar right there!
  • Use less processed sugars like raw honey, maple syrup, turbinado sugar in place of refined white sugar. This is a 1:1 swap.
  • Use fresh or frozen berries in recipes instead of dried fruit to cut back on added sugars.
  • Instead of 1 whole egg, use 1 tablespoon ground flax plus 3 tablespoons water. Mix and set aside 5 minutes to allow flax egg to gel. This adds extra fiber and cuts down on fat.
  • Instead of 1 cup oil use ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce or mashed banana or cooked pumpkin.
  • Replace ½ cup of baking flour with rolled oats or quinoa flakes for extra nutrition, protein, and fiber.
  • Use gluten free all-purpose baking flour with 3 grams fiber per serving instead of all-purpose white flour.
  • Use ½ cup of mini chocolate chips instead of 1 cup of regular size chocolate chips to reduce sugar and fat.
What are your best baking swaps? I’d love to hear from you.

What’s On My Thanksgiving Table This Year

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Happy Thanksgiving this week! We will be celebrating with family and looking forward to some fun and relaxation.

I wanted to share with you what we’ll be enjoying this year.

Thanksgiving Menu:

*Greenwise Turkey (humanely raised without hormones or antibiotics, fed a vegetarian diet)

*Traditional dressing (Southern dish made with cornbread, breadcrumbs, eggs, butter, turkey broth)

*Sweet Potato Soufflé (you know the one made with sweet potato and marshmallows on top)

*Garlic Lime Broccoli (garlic and broccoli sautéed with a squeeze of fresh lime and pinch of salt)

*Roasted delicata squash (roasted whole, then sliced)

*Citrus Cranberry Sauce

*Wild Rice (healthy recipe below!!) Or you can make this other version of mine featured on Vitacost.com

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Sweet & Savory Wild Rice (proudly featured on SloBody.com/blog!)

Ingredients:

1 cup wild rice blend (or wild rice if you prefer) soak in water 30 min to 4 hours to remove phytic acid

2 medium carrots, diced

1 medium apple, diced (leave peel on)

1 organic zucchini, diced

1 organic yellow squash, diced

Spices:

1/2 tsp each cumin + coriander

1/4 tsp. each ground cinnamon, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Method:

1. Soak rice 30 minutes to 4 hours to remove phytic acid, rinse rice and set aside before cooking.

2. Wash apples and veggies well then dice.

3. Heat medium-sized sauté pan (4 quart) to medium heat, add apple and veggies to cook about 10 minutes. Stir often.

4. Measure out spices then add to sauté pan.

5. Add wild rice and 2 cups of filtered water to pan, bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer

6. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is done.

7. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

8. Serve warm or at room temp.

 

Yield: 5 cups

Dish can be prepared a day or 2 in advance.

 

What is going on your Thanksgiving table this year?

Healthy Food Swaps to Lighten Your Favorite Recipes

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Looking for some healthy food swaps? I’ve got a guest post for you from my friend Stu Lieberman – thanks Stu! I use these swaps and they make a big difference in my clean eating lifestyle. It’s all about eating well and feeling amazing without deprivation.

With some quick and easy modifications, you can turn just about any recipe into one that’s healthy and nutritious. Here are a few food swaps to trim the fat, cut calories, and make your favorite recipes even healthier.

If your recipe calls for…

Canola or Vegetable Oil: Swap out the oil for unsweetened applesauce to cut calories and fat. A ½ cup of vegetable oil carries 960 calories and 112 grams of fat. Compare that to natural, unsweetened applesauce, which delivers about 50 calories and 0 grams of fat per ½ cup serving. When you use applesauce in place of oil in baking, it’s a 1:1 ratio.

Sugar: Swap out the sugar for stevia. Stevia is a very sweet herb from the leaf of the stevia rebaudiana plant. This natural sweetener has a very low Glycemic Index and does not spike your blood sugar like regular sugar does. Stevia has also been found to support healthy blood pressure and dental health, and reduce incidences of candidiasis. The sweetener is calorie free. Compare that to one cup of refined sugar which contains over 770 calories. Due to stevia’s high sweetness (it’s actually sweeter than sugar), when you use powdered stevia in place of sugar, it’s a ¾:1 ratio. That means for every cup of sugar your recipe calls for, use ¾ of a cup of stevia.

Spaghetti: Swap out the spaghetti for spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash is a hard winter squash that ranges in color from pale yellow to orangey-yellow. The more orange the squash, the more beta carotene it contains. When you cook the squash, the flesh develops threads that resemble spaghetti. The taste is somewhat mild, so it’s perfect the perfect partner to a ragu sauce. If you’re looking for a low carb alternative to spaghetti, this is the way to go. 1 cup of spaghetti squash has just 7 grams of carbs, vs 43 grams for a cup of spaghetti. And, a cup of spaghetti squash delivers just 30 calories, whereas the spaghetti gives you 220.

Milk Chocolate: Swap out the milk variety for dark chocolate containing at least 70% cocoa. Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants and has been shown to support healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Dark chocolate also promotes satiety, so you feel fuller longer. When you use dark chocolate in place of milk chocolate, it is a 1:1 ratio.

One last tip. If you’re really craving ice cream, make your own ice cream with a banana. That’s right. Just one ripe, sweet banana. Peel the banana and cut it into evenly-sized slices. Put the slices in a freezer bag and freeze for at least 2 hours (overnight is better). Blend your frozen banana pieces until you have a creamy, custard-like texture. Eat the banana then, or re-freeze to firm it up. Enjoy the fat-free, sweet tasty treat with about a third the calories of premium ice cream.

This article is written by  + Stu Lieberman the writer for Nutri-Health.com, an online High Quality Supplements such as PQQ.  Assisting people and helping them find quality natural health supplements online is what Stu has been doing for over 3 years.  Nutri-Health.com carries Digestive Supplements to Probiotics to Joint Health.