How Your Valentine's Breakfast Can Enhance Your Romantic Evening
Some people starve themselves during the day to “save calories” for their special meal. You're more vulnerable to overeat at dinner if you come incredibly hungry and food deprived. Feeling uncomfortably full can sabotage the rest of your romantic evening with your sweetie. You may not know that the type of breakfast you eat can help you from overindulging in the evening. Summary: eating breakfast on Valentine’s Day will help your romantic night out!
What You Don't Know About Omega-3 Fats
If you really understood how critical omega-3 fatty acids are to keeping your brain sharp, your heart healthy, and your mental health intact, you would make sure you and your family were eating more of them! Omega-3 fats have an important role in reducing inflammation, blood clots, and blood pressure, and are critical for learning, vision, and brain function; especially for the brain development of babies and children. Even childhood food allergies and postpartum depression are linked to a low intake of omega-3 fatty acids! We usually talk about omega-3s in conjunction with seafood, but I have a couple of non-fish suggestions that will help you get more of this incredible fatty acid in your diet. Furthermore, so you don’t get confused by tricky labels, I will clue you in on the omega-3 label language and the different kinds of omega-3s.
Oyster October
"Les Poisson, les poisson, 'ow I looove les poisson!" That Little Mermaid song is dang funny even if it is somewhat macabre... October is National Seafood Month! If you're new to Foods with Judes, you will soon find out I have a great love for our underwater friends, both to protect and to eat! Seafood has extremely positive effects on our health and brain function. You can learn more about why this is true, in addition to other clarifying mercury tidbits in a previous article, "Seafood Newsflash." I could go on for days about health benefits of different kinds of seafood, but this month's healthy challenge will focus particularly on oysters. Don't worry - you don't have to eat them raw.
Sunflower Seeds: Brain Boost
Sunflower seeds do more than give a satisfying crunch; they improve our health! They are totally delicious AND loaded with some heavy-hitting nutrients that are especially good for our brain power.
Seafood News Flash!
Contrary to previous recommendations, new government guidelines recommend that everyone, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women and children, consume seafood two to three times per week! Seafood contains nutrients that are difficult to find in other foods that most people aren't getting enough of.
Fabulous Flax
It’s surprising that before now, I haven’t chosen flax seed as one of my monthly Healthy Challenge foods since I started my blog more than six years ago. It’s oozing with valuable nutrients that we have a difficult time getting in our diet, but that truly make a difference to our health.
Southern Okra Fun
Okra is full of valuable phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals, and you don't need to fry it to make it delicious! Instead, try roasting it to create an appealing texture so you can enjoy this delicious southern vegetable.
Peanut Health Punch
Peanuts aren’t actually nuts, but they do have the heart benefits that nuts have, with some bonus value. Peanuts are most closely related to beans and lentils. They may even make you healthier, leaner, and smarter over a lifetime. Interestingly enough, it may be the peanut itself that prevents peanut allergies from developing.
Cottage Cheese: Secret Weapon
Cottage cheese is a secret weapon to increase protein and keep body fat down. For all the cottage cheese haters out there, I've got great news. You won't know it's even there! In fact, It makes recipes creamier and more delicious without you even recognizing its presence. So if you tolerate dairy, then take advantage of this protein-packed craving-stopper and muscle protector.
Build a Bowl: Easy Grain Bowl Formula
Are you in a rice, pasta, or potato rut, and searching for delicious, simple ways to eat more whole grains? Grain bowls, the west coast's healthy obsession, are a perfect solution! These aren’t too unfamiliar, given that Chipotle’s best-selling item, their burrito bowl, is just a Mexican version of a grain bowl. These bowls are the ideal way to make a fast, tasty DIY meal using leftovers and ancient whole grains, any time of the day. Cooked whole grains like farro, barley, brown or black rice, or quinoa keep for about five days in the refrigerator, so you can prepare them in advance in a rice cooker or on the stove top and use them throughout the week as the base ingredient of this tasty new trend, in various combinations.It's so easy for quick, causal restaurants to put together a burrito bowl or a rice bowl right in front of you – you tell them what you like, and they throw it in a bowl. It's not much harder to do this at home, and it may just become your go-to weeknight staple. Make variations using one or a mixture of whole grains as a base, and then top it with ingredients that combine different textures and a balance of flavors between salty, sweet, and acidic. In other words, use my simple Grain Bowl Formula below to build the best bowl ever!
Sorghum: The Next Quinoa
I know that sorghum probably isn't the kind of meal you were planning on having for dinner tonight, but FYI, it's the next quinoa, so keep your eyes, ears, and mouth open to it. Some of you gluten-free readers already know it in its ground flour form, but it's also available as a grain that looks similar to pearled couscous once cooked. It's a tasty, nutrient-loaded, whole-grain, gluten-free swap for rice and quinoa that rivals the most nutritious foods. Unlike quinoa, it's easily grown in the US, even in drought conditions, so this nutritious ancient grain is inexpensive and as it becomes increasingly popular, it will be easy to access.
2016 Pulse Pledge
Do you really want to improve your health this year? If the answer is YES, then take the Pulse Pledge! Pulses, defined as dry peas, lentils, and beans (including chickpeas) are the focus of the recently-launched United Nations International Year of Pulses. Why? Because they are a nutritious, sustainable, inexpensive, versatile, and tasty source of food for people around the world.
Colorful Carrots
Carrots aren't only orange. In fact, purple, red, and yellow carrots are commonly eaten around the world. We have been a little slow in America to take advantage of these inviting, rainbow-colored carrots. It's not too late to join the fun and cash in on all the different phytonutrients that these various colors offer.
Plant-Based Protein Boost: Hemp Seeds
This high-protein seed is commonly confused with marijuana, but it's actually from a different plant in the same family. Although it doesn't contain the psychoactive substance found in marijuana, it is loaded with impressive nutrients.
From Garnish to Superfood: Watercress
Watercress was used by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, to treat his patients. It also was a staple in Roman soldiers’ diets and is loaded with nutrients to boost your health, trim your waistline, and improve your workouts.
Simplified Stir-Fry Formula
Stir-fry is a tasty way to eat more vegetables, but I am often asked how to make the stir-fry sauce. The trick is knowing a few key sauce ingredients, and then learning how to tweak the basic recipe to make your favorite type of stir-fry sauce like sesame, sweet & sour, or my favorite, lemon. Then you have the flexibility to combine your sauce with a variety of vegetables and protein choices. You make it easily, because I've broken it down into a few simple formulas.
Edamame: Whole Food Fun
Edamame, as a whole food without processing, is the best choice to take advantage of soy's large amount of quality, plant-based protein. It's also loaded with nutrition from vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients, all of which boost our health. It’s a nearly perfect food and an excellent way to start moving to a more plant-based diet. Any past fears about soy's effects have now been eliminated with further research.
The Breakfast To Sharpen Our Brains and Slim Our Bodies
A protein-rich breakfast can reduce hunger and keep us satisfied throughout the day and into the evening, according to several studies from the University of Missouri. Some of these studies used brain scanning techniques and found that a high-protein breakfast impacts different parts of the brain than a low-protein breakfast.
Egg Yolks: The Good Guys
Eggs – including the yolks – are the good guys, not the bad guys! Truly a superfood (for those not sensitive or allergic to eggs) if there ever was one, they are packed full of nutrients that are not as prevalent in other foods. Don't worry, the charges have been dropped and egg yolks have been been cleared of previous accusations that they cause heart disease. Eggs are not all equal in nutritional content, but they all provide an inexpensive, quick, high quality protein that can enhance your health and appearance!
Begging For Buckwheat
Buckwheat isn't a wheat at all. In fact, it's a gluten-free nutritional powerhouse seed that acts like a grain while promoting healthy blood sugars and heart health.