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.
Arugula: A Rock Star Green
Arugula isn't just delicious. It’s also brimming with health-protecting nutrients. In fact, arugula strengthens your bones and may make exercising easier. These rock star rockets may even help keep your brain sharp and smelling better.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
Spring Health Boost: Pineapple Upside Down
Encourage great skin, strong bones, a healthier immune system, better digestion, and happier taste buds by indulging in this naturally sweet, juicy treat.
The Humble but Mighty Cabbage
Common, inexpensive cabbage is chock-full of powerful nutrients that fight disease and promote health in dramatic ways. Below, I will share the best ways to prepare cabbage to maintain its many nutrients and preserve its great flavor.
Pomegranates: The Crown Jewel of Superfoods
Pomegranates are a part of many cultures around the world and are often symbolic of good fortune, abundance, and as in Persian wedding ceremonies, a joyous future. That seems fitting, since they contain so many powerful nutrients that improve health for a happier future.
Don't Miss a Beet!
Beets are the one root you can't beat! They are full of excellent nutrients and can improve liver health, blood pressure, and mental health. Try them roasted today!
Raspberries: Anthocyanin Power
Take advantage of the delicious fresh raspberries in season now, but don't hesitate to use frozen raspberries all year long, as they are frozen within just hours of being picked. Take July's Healthy Challenge and eat lots of nutrient-rich raspberries to improve your health!
Summer Squash Supreme
While summer squash may not be a "superfood" in terms of any one nutrient, it does contain many valuable nutrients, including some important phytonutrients. Zucchini in particular is taking on a new ribbon-look that changes the texture enough to convert the zucchini haters among us.
Great Garbanzos
Garbanzo beans, also called chickpeas, are great with regards to their amazing nutritional content, the potential for weight-control and chronic disease control, and culinary versatility. Incredibly high in fiber, only two cups of garbanzo beans provide the entire daily recommendation of fiber for women, and a little less than three cups for men! It gets better: in a recent study, two groups of participants received about 28 grams of fiber per day; one group received dietary fiber primarily from garbanzo beans, and the other group received their fiber from entirely different dietary sources.
Blackberry Benefits
Blackberries are bursting with flavor, nutrition, and antioxidants to help the body fight free radicals. They contain some of the highest amounts of fiber and lowest sugar quantity of any fruit. Blackberries are the perfect fruit to eat to help prevent cancer and other chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, while still enjoying scrumptious food.