Fab Fit Squad

If your salads are becoming boring, you need to re-think the basics and spruce up those greens. Check out these fanciful salads that boost your enthusiasm for eating these healthy sides and enjoy the crunch of some good greens for the picnic months ahead.

Robust Salads Are Built On Protein

We all know how much I stress protein at all meals. Add a powerful punch to your salad is to include some protein, namely in the form of seafood, meats, beans, or hard boiled eggs.

Here are some ideas cooked shrimp, canned salmon or white albacore tuna on top of your bed of greens. Perhaps your salad would benefit from black or kidney beans for a Mexican twist. Juicy grilled chicken, thinly sliced into strips, could add a smoky barbecue flavor to a simple salad. If you choose different marinades, you’ll get different flavor influences. Think of marinading beef in Teriyaki before grilling.  Then those delicate, thin strips will blend well with ingredients borrowed from Asian cuisine.

Sweet Salads Are Meant To Surprise

A classic salad that always surprises is the Waldorf salad, made with a variety of fruits, including apples, cherries, dates, grapes, or even fresh pineapple. You’ll substitute the mayo with greek yogurt and some lemon juice.  I like to add in shredded coconut, YUM!!! Ambrosia salad is an explosion of fanciful delights, including bright colors and the sweet flavors of  mandarin oranges, blackberries, strawberries, grapes and coconut, but the name says it all, so don’t limit your choices.

Then there are big fruit salad bowls filled with everything from watermelon to berries, bananas, and grapes, apples, kiwi, mango, pineapple, cantaloupe and a host of other fruits in between.  Add crunch with nuts like walnuts, pecans, pistachios, or almonds.

Using a light vinaigrette dressing may sound odd with all that fruit, but the touch of savory brings out the sweet juices and makes the salad taste all the better. You can also toss the fruit salad with a mixture non-fat yogurt or cottage cheese to give your salad a little protein boost. The options are as varied as your taste buds.

Gourmet Salads Call For Clever Ingredients

For a truly unique salad creation, you have to go deeper into the range of greens you use in your salads. Look at food in a whole new way and choose combinations of flavors and textures that will light up the eyes of guests as they taste your best efforts.

Try mixing eclectic greens like endive, arugula, and watercress with avocado, crab meat, Greek olives, and grapefruit, along with hard-boiled eggs for a fresh take on a classic salad. Sprinkle a touch of nutmeg and cinnamon with golden raisins and chopped tart apples, and toss with shredded cooked chicken or turkey, and a touch of balsamic vinaigrette for a delightful new salad. Go tropical with mango, papaya, figs, or summer melons, adding the right compliment of spice like ginger, curry, or fresh mint. Top with toasted coconut for a truly fanciful salad.

Seeds and Sprouts Add the Finishing Touch

No matter what you put in your salads, you’ll always want to have an eye-catching topping that completes a gourmet creation you can be proud of. The best choices are often seeds and sprouts, since they add texture and depth to all types of salads for all types of meals. Seeds add color and dimension, almost a solid, formidable look, while sprouts are often heaped on in a big fluffy pile, providing a playful and unruly look to the salad.

For seeds, you could choose sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, milk thistle, or alfalfa seeds, just to name a few. With sprouts, you have mung bean sprouts, broccoli sprouts, and alfalfa sprouts. Then there are the lesser known choices like radish sprouts and clover sprouts. These types of ingredients go very well with most salads but especially with dishes that are made with quinoa, tofu, tempeh, and jicama.

With a little imagination, and time to seek out unique ingredients, you can walk away from conventional thinking and create wonderful, fanciful salads to enjoy.

Do you have a favorite salad you want to share, please leave me some comments below.

Admit we all look down at our tummy’s and wish they are a little flatter, more

define or hell just wasn’t a muffin top! Here a four ways to lose that muffin top.

1. Add protein to every meal. I always ask my clients to write their food journals and the one element that is missing from most meals is protein. This is help you repair your muscles after working out and helps you to feel full longer.
2. Log your meals. This helps you really visualize what your are putting in your mouth. I mean you log EVERYTHING the Peppermint Patty  you grabbed from the receptionist desk. Want me to review? Just send 3 days and I’ll give you feedback.
3. Avoid artificial sweeteners.Because they are “artificial” it’s sometimes hard for our bodies to process them. When your body can’t process it causes inflammation. Unfortunately you typically can’t control where the inflammation occurs, most times it will occur in your tummy. So its best to avoid foods high in sodium, carbonated beverages, and gum.
4. Fill up on veggies.  Veggies are low in calories and high in fiber. This combination helps you feel full longer. Be careful with broccoli it does cause a little bloating.

Here is a bonus — interval training — instead of just hoping on a piece of equipment and doing the same pace, try mixing it up with intervals.  Try this one.  Go hard for 30 sec and then rest for 30 sec try this for 30 minutes. After you try it leave me a comment about how you did.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of things I love most about fall is pumpkin.  I love anything with pumpkin, just the mention of pumpkin on a menu and I’m ordering it if there is a pumpkin product on the grocery shelf I’m buying it.

Pumpkin not only tastes great, but it’s a superfood.  It’s low in calories and contains fiber, magnesium and carotenoids.  Studies of carotenoids show that it can reduce the risk of heart disease, macular degeneration and certain cancers.  What pushes pumpkin to the top of the super food list is the alpha- carotene content.  Studies have shown that it can slow the signs of aging.  Yes, you read that correctly.

I hear all the time, that folks would like to add pumpkin to their diets but don’t know how.  Below find three ways you can add in some pumpkin.  There recipes can also be interchanged with acorn or butternut squash.

Here are three ways you can get a little more pumpkin into your diet.

Pumpkin Smoothie

• ¼ c pumpkin
• ¾ c All Whites egg whites
• 1 T coconut oil
• 1 chopped small apple
• ½-1c water (to taste)
• 1 t agave

Put all ingredients in blender.  Add a few ice cubes, the more ice cubes you add the thicker your shake. To thin out your shake add some more water to desired consistency.

Pumpkin Protein Pancake

• ¼ c Oatmeal
• ¼ c pumpkin
• ½ c cottage cheese
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 t vanilla extract (you could also use almond extract)
• 2 t nutmeg (you could also use cinnamon, cloves or pumpkin pie spice)

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth.  Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat.  Pour batter into pan and cook about 2 min a side.  You should get about 3 medium sized pancakes

Pumpkin Soup

• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 can chicken soup stock (can you veggie)
• 1 t sea salt (may add more for taste)
• 1 t chili powder (may add more for taste)
• 1 t garlic (may add more for taste)
• 1 T cilantro
• 1c soft tofu

Place all ingredients in a stock pot.  Simmer until hot.  Place ingredients in a blender or food processor.  You could also use an immersion blender.

To increase your protein content to this soup, you can add in some chicken or turkey.

For years we’ve heard that we need to add GOOD fat into our diets, but do you really know what that means? Did you even know that there were different variety’s of good fats? Well let me break it down for you.

• Omega 3 — we get them mainly from cold water fishes — salmon, blue fish, sardines, herring. You get the picture. Yes supplementation can help, but you really need to get it from the source.  When consuming these fish be sure that you are eating the wild version of these fishes vs. farm raised.  Farm raised tend to have less Omega 3 and less protein.  Go figure. For my vegetarian friends you can find good sources in flax and walnuts.  Sadly the average American isn’t getting nearly enough of this good fat. Why do we need omega 3s? They help reduce inflammation in the body, assist with mental health as well as heart health.  Omega 3s are also used to produce hormones in the body. For a complete listing of food that contains Omega 3.
• Omega 6 — can be found very easily in the typical American diet.  The average American consumes 10x the recommended amount of this essential fatty acid. You can find omega 6s in soybean oil, nuts and seeds. These types of oils are found in 20% of all processed foods. Omega 6s are used to make hormones as well, but these types of fats tend to cause inflammation if not taken in the correct balance with omega 3. To help balance out your omega 6s & omega 3s aim to reduce your dependence on processed foods including margarine, bottled salad dressings and mayonnaise. Sorry ladies this DOES include olive oil.  For a complete listing of foods that contain Omega 6.
• Omega 9 — plays a smaller role than 3 and 6 and small quantities of this acid can be produced by the body. Because our bodies can produce this, when we are deficient in either omega 3 or omega 6 our body will produce extra Omega 9 to compensate.  Omega 9 does have it place, but its not as powerful as omega 3 or omega 6.  Omega 9 does play a role in reducing cholesterol in the body as well as improve our immune systems.  For those of you with small children, you’ll do what ever you can do improve your immune system.  For a list of food that contain Omega 9.

I hope you found this helpful. I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave me some comments below.

It started out really simple, I was looking for a new mid morning snack. I feel into a rut and was looking to branch out.  Then we had a bit of a heat wave and I didn’t feel like cooking anything. It’s one of the few times a year that not having an air conditioner in New England is a bad thing.

Any who.. I started making smoothies and I can’t stop! My smoothies have taken on a life of their own.  My latest creation.

1 T powdered greens
1/2 c greek yogurt
1 kiwi peeled
1 t Udo’s oil
4 oz sweet potato (yes a sweet potato) — previously roasted
1/2 c water
handful ice cubes

Take all of this mix in a blender and blend until smooth.  The shake will be green, but will taste great.  If you feel that you need it, you make add 1/2 t honey to add some sweetness.

We all have those mornings where we are running out the door and can’t quite cook a meal or now that the summer has finally arrived and its too hot and you just don’t want to cook give this smoothie a try.

• 1/2 mango
• 1/2 banana
• 4 strawberries — frozen
• 1 scoop of protein powder (any flavor)
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 and 1/4 cup cold water

Put all in your blender and blend until desired smoothness and thickness.  Want this to be a little more satiating add in some good fat give 1 t coconut oil, flax or udos.

Source: Sweet on Veg

Quinoa is pronounced keen-wah and has a rice-like appearance with a crunchy texture and slightly nutty flavor. It’s a staple in my cupboards because it takes great warm as well as cold. Here are a few other reasons why you should think about giving quinoa a try.

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For those of you who don’t play golf, a mulligan is a do over. You hit a bad shot and then you get to do it over again.  Well here we are coming off a long weekend filled with fun activities that may have included lots of food and alcohol.

You wake up today look in the mirror reflect on your weekend. You say to yourself,  I’m going to the gym and hit the weights the little harder, do a little more cardio or skip a meal or to to make up for all this past weekend’s bad behavior.

Do you think it will help?  Sorry to inform you, but no. I tell my clients that you need to live the 80/20 rule. Eat cleanly 80% of the time and have some treats 20% of the time.  If you go over that limit then there is no make-up.  You need to step up and take responsibility for your actions. If you eat you own it!

The lesson is before you eat or drink it. Think about it. Are your actions moving you toward your goals or away from you goals.

It’s the first big weekend of the summer, you’re staring at the invitation thinking how can I do this AND keep to my lifestyle. Guess what YOU CAN! Offer to bring side dishes or part of the main course. With a grill there are so may choices grilled veggies, lean meats and great salads.

Here are a few dishes you can give a try.

Roasted chick peas – (2) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and dry with papertowel. Put in a bowl and season with 1T chili powder, 1t kosher salt 1T olive oil. Place on cookie sheet coated with non-stick cooking spray. Cook for 30-40 min keep you eye on the for the last 10 min to make sure they don’t burn.

Grilled citrus shrimp –1 to 1 1/2 pounds of uncooked medium shrimp peeled. Squeeze 2 medium oranges and 1 lime in a mixing bowl. Now add 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 t kosher salt. Like it a little spicy add in crushed red pepper flakes. Put shrimp and marinade in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for  at least 30 minutes.  Grill about 2 min/side or until shrimp turns pink.

Hummus cucumber cups — Cut 4 cucumbers into thick 1 inch slices. Using a melon baller, scoop at the seeds (careful don’t break through bottom) and add in hummus. You can use store bought. I like the garlic lovers.

Here’s a marinade to give a shot.

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, 1/2 c parsley, 1/2 c olive oil, 2 limes squeezed, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t crushed red pepper and 2 T red wine vinegar . Mix together using a food processor or hand mixer.

Feeling exhausted?  Pop a handful of blueberries in your mouth and enjoy a little energy boost, along with a ton of nutrients. Blueberries contain anthocyanins and other pigments high in antioxidant properties possibly having a role in reducing risks of inflammatory diseases and certain cancers. Let me put on my big brain and tell you that blueberries contain pterostilbene, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and resveratrol (yes that stuff that stops wrinkles), all which inhibit the cell development of cancers.

Blueberries are also a good source of vitamin C, manganese, fiber, and vitamin E , and are low in calories! Many studies have found that blueberry consumption lowers cholesterol and total blood lipid levels, possibly reducing the risks of heart disease and high blood pressure. Even more studies have found that a diet rich in blueberries may enhance short-term memory in older adults while reducing symptoms of depression.

Fresh blueberries keep very well and can be packaged and stored easily. Blueberries usually hit the peak of their season, depending on the region, sometime between May and October.

I love heading to Farmer’s Markets this time of year and get fresh blueberries and putting them on my oatmeal, cottage cheese, plain yogurt or just eating them out of the container.

If you have any recipes you’d like to share leave the comments below.