6 Tricks to Choosing the Best Watermelon
Watermelons are a healthy and refreshing treat in the summertime! If you spend time and effort picking out a watermelon and slicing it up, you want it to be sweet and amazing! Here are five tricks to pay attention to when buying a watermelon, to ensure a delicious watermelon every time.
Best Way to Ripen, Cut, & Preserve an Avocado
Either in guacamole, as a replacement for mayo on a sandwich, or just plain with a little bit of salt, avocados are delicious and nutritious! Full of fiber, potassium, folate, vitamins K, C, B6, E, and monounsaturated fat, avocados are great for blood pressure and blood sugar control, as well as for keeping belly fat down. Do you need any more reasons to indulge?
Plum Surprise!
Jack Horner was on to something; plums are delicious any way you eat them, and are especially good for your bones, blood sugars, waist size, cronic disease risk, and even your memory.
Preparing Great Grains
I've spent so much time this month presenting to groups about the importance of whole and ancient grains that I think it's time to post a new healthy challenge to eat more whole grains! Don’t be afraid to prepare whole grains. Most of them can simply be boiled like rice until they’re tender.
Bare Organic Apple Chips
I found a new healthy product that I love and want to share with you! I'm very selective, so you know it's good if I feature it in my new blog series: "Judes' Market Highlights."
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.
Amazing Vegetable Avocado Soup
If you're busy and enjoy high-quality delicious food, you'll want to try this month's meal hack. You'll be surprised at how well a little salsa and avocado can enhance the flavor of purchased vegetable soup from the refrigerator section at Costco or your grocery store. A delicious, hearty soup that is quick and fun!
Blood Oranges: Winter Detox
Eat half of your meals and snacks in fruits and vegetables for your daily “detox cleanse” and don’t forget to eat a variety of colors, including bright and dark colors. Blood oranges are a perfect winter fruit full of these powerful phytonutrients and lots of vitamin C to boot. Take February’s Healthy Challenge and eat blood oranges while they’re still in season.
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.
Powerful Papaya
I’m so glad that I’ve given papaya another chance. Not only can I enjoy its delicious taste, but now I can take full advantage of the wonderful health benefits. With 144% of daily value of vitamin C in one cup of papaya, along with a good dose of folate, vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, copper, vitamin E, and choline, papaya can boost our immune system to help us fight sickness.
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!
Barley to the Rescue
Are you in a rice, pasta, and potato rut? Pull yourself out of it with barley! It is easy, delicious, and super nutritious. In fact, barley has great protective effects against heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and even gallstones. Ancient Greek and Roman athletes ate barley for strength. They were on to something! It's time to go out of your comfort zone and try some powerful barley.
Red Grapefruit Strength
You were probably thinking chocolate for Valentine’s Day, but since red grapefruits are so amazing for you, maybe you could throw some in the festivities. After all, it is national grapefruit month, and they are pretty red inside! Their powerful nutrients boost the immune system, fight cancers with gusto, decrease the risk of heart disease, and even give us an edge in the battle to lose weight. Named by how they grow in clusters like grapes, this deliciously tart yet sweet fruit may be a much-needed health reprieve for your body after gorging on Superbowl and Valentine goodies.
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.
Cinnamon: A Gift for a King
The widely used and loved spice, cinnamon, seems to be a major superhero in fighting disease and promoting our health. It's just the inner bark of a Cinnamomum tree, yet has been highly valued for centuries as both a medicine and a spice fit for kings. Only a half teaspoon of cinnamon per day can help fight disease, promote our health, and maybe even help us think better. It's an easy and delicious fix!
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.
Grape Greatness
We've all heard that red wine is beneficial to our health, but it’s actually the grapes used to make wine that provide such amazing health benefits. These delicious berries may even help us live longer.