Recipe: Easy Cucumber Salad

When my friend invited me over for a night with the girls, I knew I wanted to make something healthy and fresh-tasting for the potluck, but I also didn’t want to spend much money and I was pretty strapped for time. This cold cucumber salad was the perfect balance of nutrition, ease, and taste, and cost me less than $4 to make. Best part? I didn’t have any leftovers to take home – I call that a successful recipe!

Makes 6-8 servings.

Ingredients:

·         1 ½ English cucumbers, chopped

·         3 ripe tomatoes, chopped

·         1 orange, red, or yellow bell pepper, chopped

·         ¼ cup light oil and vinegar salad dressing (try Ken’s Lite Italian)

·         2 Tbsp grated parmesan

·         A little black pepper and Italian seasoning, to taste

Directions:

·         Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl. Mix well.

·         Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, shaking occasionally.

Yep, that’s it. Simple, cheap, healthy, and delicious – this is the way food is supposed to be! It doesn't have to be complicated to taste great.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Anna

Product of the Week: Maple & Brown Sugar OatFit Instant Oatmeal

As an oatmeal enthusiast, I definitely understand that cooked oatmeal is not necessarily the easiest food on-the-go. For those times when you’re especially in a hurry, or while you’re at work, I would recommend trying OatFit Instant Oatmeal, made by BetterOats.

This oatmeal is a great mid-morning snack, and takes only 90 seconds in the microwave to cook. There are several similar products on the market, but the thing I like about this instant oatmeal (besides the taste) is that is has no added sugar and is only 100 calories a pouch. This makes it stand apart from similar products, which can have upwards of 12 grams of sugar a pouch (that’s a full tablespoon of sugar!) With 3 grams of fiber and added flaxseed, this whole grain product makes a filling snack with the health benefits of whole grains.

Any other lower sugar instant oatmeal products you've found? Please share with us!

As always, thanks for reading!

Anna

*Please note: I am not paid in any way for any product endorsement at this time. I just like to share!

How to Roast Asparagus

As the months turn warmer, the foods (and prices!) in the produce section at the grocery store begin to change. Asparagus is at its peak during spring, but is often overlooked simply because people don’t know what to do with it.

Many people think they don’t like a particular vegetable at all, only to find that they DO like it when it’s prepared in a way that brings out its greatest attributes. When I was little, I always thought I didn’t like green beans because we always had them canned. Then, my mom started buying fresh green beans, which taste amazing! (Just boil them until tender, drain them, slap them in a pot with some garlic and a little olive oil, and serve hot!)

Similarly, people may have an aversion to asparagus after having some that was overcooked until it was a slimy, limp mess, or maybe they had tried it canned before – after all, the appearance of canned asparagus alone is enough to turn off anybody! But just wait until you try it roasted! And this recipe is easy for even the most amateur of chefs, I promise.

My absolute favorite way to prepare asparagus is roasting it with a little olive oil, garlic, and parmesan. Honestly, this is my favorite way to prepare many vegetables, including summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Roasting is a great way to prepare vegetables since it keeps the nutrients in the asparagus. This is in contrast to boiling, where nutrients leach out into the water, which is later discarded. Additionally, it’s a no-mess, quick and easy preparation method that leaves vegetables tasting fresh, crisp, and flavorful.

Here’s what you do to roast asparagus:

1.     Preheat the oven to 400*F.

2.     Wash your asparagus - I use about half a bundle to make two servings. Snap off the hard, woody bottoms of each piece of asparagus and discard this part – the asparagus will just break where it needs to, around 2-3 inches from the bottom.

3.     Line a baking sheet with foil (optional step – this just decreases the clean-up time to practically nothing!)

4.     Drizzle a little virgin olive oil on the baking sheet. Place the asparagus on the sheet in a single layer and wiggle them around in the olive oil to distribute the olive oil all over the foil and the asparagus.

5.     Plop some minced garlic (fresh or bottled) on the asparagus – I use maybe two teaspoons of the bottled kind to make two servings. Sprinkle the asparagus with some grated parmesan cheese.

6.     Put the whole thing in the oven for about 7-12 minutes (closer to 7 minutes for thinner asparagus, closer to 12 minutes for thicker asparagus) until the asparagus is crisp, hot, and tender. Hint: I just snack on them intermittently during this range of time until they taste amazing. You can’t mess it up that way! Enjoy!

Asparagus is a nutrient powerhouse absolutely loaded with vitamin K, A, C, B1, iron, fiber, and folate, as well as many phytonutrients, giving it great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Research even suggests some pretty powerful cancer-fighting properties for this super-healthy veggie. If you aren’t currently an asparagus-lover, it is definitely time to give this vegetable another try.

Remember, eating your vegetables doesn’t have to be a chore – roasting is a great way to ensure your cooked veggies stay crisp and bursting with flavor. Try it out yourself and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Anna

The Power of Snacking

Who decided that Americans should only have 3 square meals a day? Definitely not a dietitian!

Including small, healthy snacks between meals can help you keep your energy at a maximum and your hunger levels at a minimum, meaning less of a chance of overeating later or crashing mid-afternoon.  

The idea is not to increase total daily calories consumed, but to spread the calories throughout the day. Many Americans pile all their calories to one side of the day (dinnertime), giving their bodies nothing to work with for the first part of the day and increasing their chances of binging later. (See my breakfast entry!)

If you want to do something good for your body and metabolism, try to regularly consume healthful foods and water throughout the day. The phrase most often used to describe this is "fueling the fire." You have to tend to the fire all day for it to stay flaming at its full potential.

Healthy, well-timed snacks help that fire burn its brightest all day long. This might mean one mid-morning snack as well as another mid-afternoon – generally, it’s a good idea to go no more than 3 or 4 hours without eating something. But what to eat?

For many people, a snack of around 150-200 calories is typically a good place to start. Make sure it contains some carbohydrates as well as some protein – a little fat is fine, too. Here are some good examples:

·         A small banana and a fat-free yogurt

·         Light string cheese and 5 whole grain crackers (like Triscuits)

·         1 slice of whole grain toast with peanut butter

·         Raw veggies (at least 1-2 handfuls) with hummus (around 3 Tablespoons)

·         A scrambled egg on ½ a whole grain English muffin

·         1 cup of skim milk and ½ cup of Cheerios and fresh berries

·         Ants on a log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins)

·         Oatmeal (if you’re in a hurry or at work, try BetterOats OatFit 100 calorie instant oatmeal –   so good!) and an orange

·         A lower sugar, higher protein and fiber granola bar (I love the Kashi TLC granola bars and the Nature Valley Protein Chewy Bars)

·         A half serving of almonds (around 12 almonds) or walnuts (about 8 halves) and a handful of grapes

·         Non-fat Greek yogurt sprinkled with some granola

·         Apple slices topped with almond butter

Including snacks in your daily routine can help stave off hunger and keep you from crashing mid-day. Remember, food is your body’s fuel, and calories are just a unit of energy. You deserve energy, so don’t deprive yourself if you are feeling hungry! Just be sure not to stifle that flame with too much firewood J

Any other good snack ideas? What role do snacks play in your lives? Leave comments and questions below!

As always, THANK YOU FOR READING!

Anna