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Beets for Color and Added Nutrition

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:33:24 +0000

Beet roots and greens are healthy!

Colorful Roasted Beet Salad

3 to 4 medium roasted, diced beet roots (direction in audio)
A large bunch of mixed greens of your choice

Mix together and drizzle on top:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch of sugar

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional additions: feta cheese, chopped walnuts, sliced almonds

More on Healthy Smoothies

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:24:58 +0000

Healthy Smoothies

Making smoothies can be fast and fun. Easy smoothies are made with your favorite fruits, vegetables, add liquids and blend. Experimenting around with flavor combinations is the fun part. Here are more suggestions to help you enjoy your healthy smoothies.

On the go?
You can enjoy a delicious and healthy breakfast smoothie instead of grabbing something unhealthy or worse skipping meals. Make your smoothies ahead of time and freeze in individual containers. Be sure to allow headspace for expansion. Thaw out in the refrigerator overnight or while you’re getting ready for work.

Blending tips
Add liquids first, then fruits. This helps prevent gumming up at the bottom. Try using a stick blender. You can blend straight in the drinking container providing it is large and tall enough; saves on clean up time.

Freeze your own fruits
Buy fruits in season, cut up into chunks and freeze. If you put the fruit pieces in one layer they won’t stick together. I like to do mine this way – in a heavy freezer bag (one layer) then add more layers on top of that with different fruits. Then all goes in a flat container. When they are frozen you can remove the container.
Using frozen fruit chunks make blending easier, thicker and colder.
Be sure to use these frozen fruits within a moth. They tend to lose flavor with time.

Flavored ice cubes
Freeze juice, herbal tea, fruit nectar in ice trays it makes it more fun and helps keep your smoothie colder in the summer time.

For maximum health benefits

Use the freshest ingredients
Drink you smoothie right after blending
Add more protein with peanut butter, tofu, protein powder
To make low cal smoothies use low fat or fat free liquids, yogurt. Use natural sweetness from fruits rather than sugar. Experiment with different artificial sweeteners. Some has a bitter after taste.

Alternate making fruit smoothies and vegetable ones to give variety. Some people think making your own smoothie is a lot of trouble and they give up after a while. By doing a few things ahead you can enjoy the health benefits plus money saving from homemade smoothies.

Sample recipes: Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Healthy Smoothie Recipes for Busy People

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:34:47 +0000

Healthy Smoothies

Instead of grabbing a donut and coffee for breakfast why not blend up a healthy smoothie shake you can sip on the run. You can make as rich or lean in calories depending on chosen ingredients. There a lot of easy healthy smoothie recipes available on the web. Here are some basic tips to get you started.

A blender – dusts off that blender in the closet or buy one from the thrift store or borrow one for free. It’s a must have tool. The heavier the base the less shaking, and walking it will do during blending. Don’t over fill the blender!

Fruits of your choice – Healthy fruit smoothie recipes call for fresh ingredients to maximize the vitamins content. You can use frozen or canned fruits especially for the out of season ones or exotic fruits not available fresh. Make sure they are packed in their own juices or at least light syrup. Another option is dried fruits. You will need to cut in small pieces and rehydrated overnight. I use my dried Goji berries this way. Peel or not peel is a personal choice but best if cut up some to lessen the load on your blender.

Fruits choices – bananas, berries of all type, you may not like blackberries with a lot of seeds; melons, remove any fruits with large seed such as peaches, mango, papaya. Orange and grapefruits sections sometimes gum in the blender.

Vegetables of your choice – tomatoes, leafy greens, cut carrots are always good as a base; again cut in small chunks before blending. Celery unless cut up very small, the fiber get twisted around the blade. Make sure you wash all vegetables well and cut out bruise parts before blending. A small pinch of salt or spicy hot peppers can kick up the flavors.

Liquid base- water. Juice, Milk, yogurt, ice cream. Choose low fat and low sodium versions. lactose free products like soy, rice, and lactose free milk would work fine. Your liquid depends on your calorie budget and taste.

Extra protein source – add tofu, protein powder. Carnation Instant Breakfast powder is a good choice. It also comes in a variety of flavors and sugar free.

Extra nutrition and fiber– add nuts, ground flax seeds, wheat germ. oat and wheat bran.

Sweet sensations – Low calorie smoothie recipes won’t call for sweeteners and use fat free or low fat liquids. Otherwise you can add honey, molasses, maple syrup, Stevia powder or liquid.

There you have it! Try only 2-3 ingredients at a time first, add more to taste. It’s a nutritious and delicious decision for a healthy breakfast or at any meal!

Sample recipes: Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Salt Substitute and Sea Salt for Low Sodium Diet

admin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:07:11 +0000

SeaSalt, Salt Substitute

When you are on sodium (salt restriction diet) you have the following choices:

Lower your total salt intake – This is the preferred and healthy way to reduce sodium in your diet.

Reduce your intake of high sodium foods such as in processed foods.
Add less salt during cooking and at the table.
Get used to the less salty taste and get more out of the natural flavors from foods and added herbs/spices.

Salt substitute
Most are a potassium chloride source. Some are part sodium chloride and part potassium. Many clients of mine reported a bitter after tastes that they eventually get somewhat used to it. The caution you must take is to talk to you doctor and pharmacist about potassium chloride salt substitutes. Too much potassium in your diet can be very harmful and not suited for everyone. It all depends on what medical conditions you have and what medications you are taking. As far as salt substitute brands AlsoSalt has been mentioned having the best taste.

Sea Salt
There are a lot of discussions about sea salt having less sodium. I am not a chemist but from what I read there is very little difference when it comes to sodium content. The perceived difference is like comparing whole coffee beans verses ground coffee. Sea salt is available in larger crystals than table salt. So when you compare one teaspoon of one with the other, one teaspoon of sea salt would have less sodium than one teaspoon of table salt. But when compared in gram per gram they contain about the same amount of sodium ~380 mg of sodium per gram.

Many people prefer sea salt over table salt. Table salt has additives to prevent caking and is a refined product with trace minerals removed. It does have iodine added and some iodine is necessary for healthy thyroid function. Most of us get enough iodine from eating meat, dairy products or seafood regularly. Many chefs and gourmet cooks prefer using sea salt for the cleaner flavor. Sea salt can offer a range of flavors depending on where it was harvested.

Conclusion: Getting used to the less salty flavor naturally is best in the long run. If you elect to use a salt substitute be sure to check with your doctor. You can try natural sea salt to add variety of flavors but know that sea salt sodium content is about the same as table salt.

See natural herbs/spices salt substitute recipes

Tips for Low Sodium Diet Plan

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:04:02 +0000

Fresh Grilled Vegetables

Vegetables – eat fresh, frozen and canned with “no added salt” or with no added sauces. Meats – cook fresh lean meat, poultry and fish, avoid canned or processed meat such as corned beef, sausages, and deli meats.
Cook and eat rice, pasta, cereals in their plain form without added salt. The instant varieties with flavorings most of the time have high sodium. Buy unprocessed grains when available.
When using canned goods – you can drain the liquids and rinse or soak canned vegetables in cold water to reduce sodium content.
Seasonings – Substitute for salt- free spices, spice blends, fresh herbs during cooking. Don’t keep the salt shaker handy at the eating area. Try different salt substitutes from the supermarkets and inform your doctor and pharmacist first. Salt substitutes are not appropriate for everyone.
Be careful what you drink - Softened water, vegetable juices, sports drinks can have high sodium.
Eat low sodium snacks – Avoid or limit high salt snacks such as nuts, seeds, pretzels, chips, crackers and other snacks. Buy the unsalted kind. Opt for fresh fruits and cut up vegetables for healthy snacks.
Always read nutrition label for sodium content of all foods, drinks and over the counter medicines you take. Buy low sodium foods labeled no-salt-added, low- or reduced-sodium for canned, packaged and bottled foods.
Keep a food record and add up your sodium intake when you first get started on your low sodium diet. It will give you an idea of you’re your over all eating habits and where your high sodium food sources are. You will be surprised how fast that sodium number goes up.
When eating out – choose plain foods without sauces or gravy on top, plain vegetables, fresh salads without salad dressing. Avoid ordering foods that are pickled, marinated, smoked, or barbequed. Flavor your food with a dash of pepper, fresh lemon juice, cut up fresh parsley or chives. Bring your own salt free seasonings!
Home cooked meals are the best. You know how much salt is added by the ingredients used. After you have been on a low salt diet for a while you will find that many foods eaten outside your home will taste too salty.

Resources:

Easy Low Sodium Recipes 156 pages

Low Sodium Diet – Food List

Zero milligrams of sodium per serving!