10 Essential Ingredients for Quick and Healthy Meals

Healthy food fast is easy if you have the right ingredients in your arsenal and don’t let stress or time gum up your nutrition as a top priority. Here are 10 essential ingredients that will maximize your chances of success in today’s busy world. Having the right quick ingredients on hand will help you continue cloud surfing your way through health euphoria even on extra rushed and wild days. Always have on hand:

1. Organic Salad Greens. Salad doesn’t have to take hours of prep or your life savings to enjoy. Get a bunch of tasty, dark, salad greens, and enjoy them daily with nothing but low-fat dressing, or a tad of brown rice vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt. The greens can be pre-washed, but know that they often spoil faster.

2. Low-Fat Salad Dressing, or Olive Oil + Brown Rice Vinegar in a 2:1 ratio. Even the cutest of tushes need salad dressing on their greens. One of my favorite bottled dressings is Trader Joe’s Light Champagne Vinaigrette. But when it’s out of stock in my fridge, the olive oil/brown rice vinegar/sea salt combo or the following tahini dressing are perfect for dolling up the lettuce mountain.

Tahini Dressing for Veggies
Makes 1 cup (16 Tablespoons)
Prep time 3 minutes

1/3 cup tahini?(sesame seed butter)
1/3 cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
3/4 tsp salt

1 Blend ingredients together until smooth. Add additional water, 1 Tbsp at a time, for a thinner dressing.

2 Store dressing in the fridge for up to 5 days. Stir or re-blend if dressing separates.

NUTRITION SNAPSHOT
Per Tbsp: 35 calories, 3 g total fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 115.5 mg sodium, 1.5 g carbohydrates, 0.5 g fiber, 0 g sugar, 1 g protein, 0% vitamin A, 3% vitamin C, 2.5% calcium, 3% iron

Note: Alternatively, use unsalted almond butter in place of tahini for an equally delicious dressing.

Recipe from: Cooking with Trader Joe’s Cookbook: Skinny Dish! by Jennifer K. Reilly, RD.

3. Dried Beans or Lentils: On a slow Sunday, cook up a heap of dried beans (pinto and black are favorites) or lentils (which only take about 20 minutes) and then freeze them in 1-cup portions for quick access anytime. Just drain and toss them on a salad, into a stir-fry, burrito, or stirred into soup. Or blend cooked beans or lentils with 1 cup salsa for a fast bean dip or sandwich spread. To do a “quick soak” for beans, cover them with water in a large cooking pot and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for an hour. Drain water. Add new water. Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat to simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 1 more hour.

4. Quinoa: (“keen-wah”). When you’re rushed for dinner, brown rice–or even white rice for that matter–takes way too long to cook. Quinoa is not only a great rice substitute rich in fiber and protein (and a gluten-free food), but it only takes 15 minutes to cook. Get pre-rinsed quinoa if you can, or rinse the seeds vigorously in water before cooking to remove the saponins. Quinoa is a seed that’s eaten like a whole grain, and can even be mixed with fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and non-dairy milk for a fast breakfast the next morning.

5. Berries: Fresh or frozen. Raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries are so full of life-extending compounds while also being rich in fiber and low in calories, that you’re better off opting FOR these sweet little miracle makers at meal or snack time. Toss them into breakfast cereals or smoothies, atop salads, or eat them by the handful. Sure feels better than the sugar crash of a vending machine candy bar!

6. Non-Dairy Milk: Fortified almond, coconut, hemp, oat, or soy milk have all the calcium and vitamin D of dairy milk, less sugar, better taste, fewer calories, and don’t cause mucous production, inflammation, and weight gain the way dairy milk does. Enjoy unsweetened almond milk with 45 calories & 0 grams of sugar per cup or original coconut milk beverage–include it in smoothies, pour it onto a bowl of high-fiber breakfast cereal, or add it to tea. Mmm!

7. Broccoli: The florets are so full of antioxidants, cancer-fighters, and hormone regulators, and they’re not a particular threat to pests. So, conventionally grown broccoli isn’t riddled with pesticides, which means it’s OK if you can’t buy organic. Steam, roast, stir-fry, or curry it (cook with curry powder and light coconut milk, see below), or dip the florets in bean dip for a satisfying snack.

8. Canned Coconut Milk: Canned light or full-fat coconut milk (1/2 cup or more) and curry powder (2 tsp) can turn any veggie or veggie combo into a gourmet curry dish. Add beans for protein and serve over quinoa.

9. Kale: Rich in blood pressure busting chlorophyll, immune-boosting antioxidants, and calcium that is absorbed twice as well as dairy calcium, kale is a true powerhouse. Juice it, toss it into smoothies, stir-fries, or bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes with a touch of olive oil and salt (stir after 15 minutes and return to the oven) for a crunchy veggie side dish even kids will crave.

10: Dark Chocolate: A few squares will powerfully satisfy your sweet tooth and are loaded with antioxidants. Work from a large bar—a small piece at a time—so you aren’t tempted by other sweet foods in the office or at home.

For more quick and easy plant-powered recipes including a whole host of 8-minute meals, check out Cooking with Trader Joe’s Cookbook: Skinny Dish! by Jennifer K. Reilly, R.D., with foreword by Kris Carr which launches today!

Photo credit: Ula Nice

Tart Cherry Juice: Natural Lunesta

There’s not a soul out there who can argue against the need for sleep. Not only is it beautifully rejuvenating both physically and mentally, but it also boosts your metabolism, quiets any tendency toward the “F-its,” and helps you choose healthier foods during the day.

Without adequate rest (seven or more hours a night), your body is stressed and responds by making more cortisol. This gives you a quick burst of energy, which is perfect if you’re in the wild running from a hungry lion. But, chances are you’re not running from a hungry lion, so the extra cortisol simply stimulates hunger and disrupts your ability to metabolize carbohydrates, therefore increasing blood sugar levels, insulin production and body fat storage.

Without enough Zzz’s, leptin production also drops. Big deal? Absolutely. Leptin triggers fullness and helps you stay satisfied with the best food choices. Without it, you’ll crave sugary movie theater carbs, and you may not be able to resist.

Sleep also stimulates growth hormones, which regulate fat and muscle proportions in the body and promote graceful aging. So, without good lengthy slumbers, you may be exercising your little tush off, but you’re not building any muscle, and the wrinkles are piling on. No thank you!

But what if you can’t sleep? Food to the rescue! Certain foods are naturally rich in the antioxidant and sleep hormone melatonin, while other foods are rich in the amino acid and serotonin precursor tryptophan. Not only might these foods help you get a good night’s rest, but they also lack the groggy-foggy day-after side effects of over-the-counter or prescription sleep meds.

Foods Rich in Melatonin
Tart cherries
Bananas
Tomatoes
Oats
Rice bran
Sweet corn
Wheatgrass juice
Ginger

Foods Rich in Tryptophan
Almonds
Peanuts
Pumpkin seeds
Spirulina
Beans
Tofu

Both groups can be helpful for promoting restful sleep by quieting down your noisy brain when the lights turn out. But one food—tart cherries—seems to have a leg up when it comes to knocking you into a deep, refreshing sleep. I decided to do a little experiment: I wondered if it could work just as well as the peanut butter (tryptophan) or almond butter (tryptophan) and banana (melatonin) bedtime sandwich I’d come to love since my first pregnancy nearly seven years ago. And even though I generally have little trouble hitting REM after chasing three young kids and endless dirty dishes around from dawn till dusk, there are still plenty of random nights when my busy brain (on pillow) gets stuck recounting 4th-grade spelling bees.

I tried tart cherry juice for eight nights.

How I cherried: 4 ounces Very Cherre tart cherry juice 15 to 30 minutes before bed: 65 calories, 10.5 grams sugar. Bedtime was 10-10:30 p.m. (My kids are up at 5:30 a.m. sometimes!)

What happened: Fell asleep within five minutes of my head hitting the pillow, except on the night I had the Dixie Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble” stuck in my head. That night it took five to 10 minutes to fall asleep. No trouble here!

So?: If falling asleep or staying asleep are potential problems, tart cherry juice is absolutely worth a try. Beyond my own personal n=1 pilot study, several of my nutrition patients, friends and family members have also experienced an easier time falling asleep and staying asleep with just 4 ounces of tart cherry juice at bedtime.

And as a bonus, tart cherry juice has a hearty dose of antioxidants, provides some potential arthritis and inflammation relief, and it supplies half your day’s need for vitamin C in a low-cal, 4-ounce glass. If 4 ounces at bedtime doesn’t work, Dr. Andrew Weil suggests having 8 ounces in the a.m. and the p.m.

Try this tart cherry smoothie nightcap to help neutralize the tart in the juice. This one includes soy milk, which is also naturally rich in the sleepy-time amino acid tryptophan. Heck, you might want to sip it in bed in case you dose off midway through. Cheers!

Sundowner Smoothie
Serves 1 Wired Individual

-4 ounces tart cherry juice
-4 ounces unsweetened soy milk
-1 organic orange, peeled
-1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
-4 ice cubes

Blend until smooth. Tastier than chamomile tea for sure!

Nutrition info: 172 calories, 2 grams fat, 60 milligrams sodium, 33 grams carbohydrates, 3.5 grams fiber, 18 grams sugar, 4.5 grams protein, 8% vitamin A, 117% vitamin C, 20% calcium (200 milligrams), 3% iron.

For more information on how to optimize your health, visit bitchindietitian.com.

Photo credit: Harold Walfish

Raw vs. Cooked: Which Is Better?

As a dietitian and cheerleader for all green and life-extending foods, there’s one food I absolutely can’t wrap my fork around: raw broccoli. I eat kale right from the stalk and down wheatgrass shots with an ear-to-ear smile. But when it comes to broccoli, it’s got to be steamed, roasted or sautéed. So the question arises, am I killing my broccoli, and is it even worth it if I can’t juice or chomp it in its raw form? What actually happens during the cooking process, and are foods better raw or cooked?

Cooking does have advantages. It reduces or kills toxins that would otherwise be problematic in our systems. For example, the toxicity of aflatoxins found in peanuts is reduced by 45 to 70 percent when they’re roasted (note that they never go away completely). Kidney beans and soybeans can’t be sprouted because they’re toxic raw. Cooked and chilled, however, these beans make a charming salad.

Cooking improves the digestibility of some veggies and legumes and, therefore, increases the wealth of healthy chow we can enjoy. The availability of sulfur-containing amino acids is increased in cooked soybeans. Cooked potatoes are easier to digest, taste better and are still full of plenty of cancer-fighting vitamin C. And thanks to cooking, we can easily benefit from an eggplant’s potent cancer-fighting antioxidants nasunin and chlorogenic acid, which not only scavenge free radicals and protect cell membranes from damage, but also aid in reducing “bad“ LDL cholesterol. Eggplant isn’t toxic in its raw form, it’s just incredibly fibrous and fairly challenging to eat.

Heat actually boosts the levels of beta-carotene and lycopene available in fruits and vegetables by breaking down cell walls and increasing the body’s ability to access the nutrients bound to the walls. Beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the body and is found in orange, yellow, red and green leafy vegetables. It plays a role in the prevention of cancer and heart disease, helps your immune system, reduces high blood pressure, and can even protect your skin against sunburn. Lycopene, which gives tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit and apricots their red color, is increased two and a half times in cooked foods. Lycopene is best known for its role in prostate cancer prevention, but it’s also helpful in reducing “bad” LDL cholesterol (just like eggplant … veggie ratatouille anyone?), and preventing osteoporosis, skin cancer and even breast cancer.

On the downside, cooking does have certain disadvantages. Water-soluble vitamin C is highly unstable and is easily oxidized, destroyed by heat and dissolves in cooking water. This is why vitamin C levels drop by about 10 percent after two minutes of cooking.

Cooking also destroys digestive enzymes, which may be essential for optimal health. While we naturally make gobs of digestive enzymes, it can only help to get a few spares in the foods we eat. For example, when it comes to broccoli, raw is actually better than cooked (Nooo!) since heat damages myrosinase – an enzyme necessary for the production of sulforaphane, a precancerous cell ninja destroyer. And while heat may increase the beta-carotene availability in carrots, it also destroys their polyphenols, which are strong antioxidants that reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Looking to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight? Raw fruits and vegetables tend to be more advantageous when it comes to healthy weight control since they contain fewer digestible calories per pound than cooked veggies, and may increase your resting metabolism.

The verdict? A mix of raw and cooked foods is ideal. Some experts recommend at least one pound of each per day. Juice veggies that you may not enjoy raw so you can get the benefit of their life-giving and fully intact digestive enzymes and nutrient powerhouses. Mildly steam or sauté certain veggies from time to time to make them more palatable and richer in antioxidants like beta-carotene and lycopene. Avoid lengthy cooking times, heavy frying or deep-frying, and excessive boiling, which drastically decrease the vitamin C content of foods, and produces unsexy free radicals in the case of frying and deep-frying. And finally, shred that raw broccoli and add it to green salads and wrap sandwiches. It’s not so bad!

Photo credit: Darwin Bell, jacqueline-w

Veggie pHortification

Maintaining a slightly alkaline system is ideal for health and a properly running immune system. Your acid-alkaline balance is measured with pH, which is on a scale of 0-14. An alkaline pH is anything above 7 while an acidic pH is anything below 7. Optimally, you want to be a little alkaline, around 7.365. Certain foods make our blood and tissue more or less acidic, and I bet you can guess which ones are the acid trouble-makers and which ones are the alkaline love-makers! You got it – in general, veggies, green juices, raw foods, beans and unprocessed carbs are more alkaline while meats, dairy, eggs, sugary goods, highly processed foods, coffee and alcohol are more acidic.

In striving to be alkaline divine, downing green juices, veggies, nuts, quinoa and seaweed may come easily for some. But for partners, kids and neighbors who are still trudging up the learning curve, here are a couple ways to reach the 60 to 80 percent alkaline diet goal by veggie inception and misconception.

Shred or Purée Veggies and Put Them in Everything

Pancakes, pasta sauce, mashed potatoes, grain dishes and other baked goods are perfect vegetable vehicles. At my house, we dine every few days on confetti pancakes (recipe below), which include carrots, zucchini and collard greens. And if everyone is behaving, we may toss in a dark chocolate chip or two. All of a sudden we’ve got chocolate chip pancakes: “We’ve got the best mom!”

CONFETTI PANCAKES

Servings: 4

2 cups whole wheat or whole grain flour
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons unrefined vegetable oil
¼ cup shredded carrots
½ cup shredded zucchini
¼ cup finely diced collard greens

Mix all ingredients together, and add more almond milk as needed for thinner pancakes. Cook in a large skillet with a touch of oil. Add fruit, agave, stevia or nothing at all.

Sauce It Up

Marinara sauce can easily be injected with finely chopped kale or spinach and dried red lentils (more protein and fiber!), which dissolve almost completely if simmered in the sauce for about 15 minutes. Put the sauce atop quinoa or wild rice instead of pasta and your blood will love you. You want loving blood!

For the green averse, get cozy with steamed cauliflower and yellow squash. They mash well into potatoes, sweet potatoes and even pancakes.

Fruit Smoothies and Popsicles

If green juices aren’t popular yet, try tossing raw spinach, kale, wheatgrass, or pretty much any other green veggie into a fruit smoothie. Be warned that keeping the fruit on the yellow/orange side will simply make the smoothie a beautiful shade of green. Fruit smoothies with berries or dark-colored fruits, however, will become an interesting shade of mud. Either way, these may need to be served in an opaque glass, with a lid and an opaque straw – or maybe a blindfold! – especially for the green-averse or “color-sensitive” spirits. Here’s one that feels, looks and tastes incredible.

GREEN GODDESS SMOOTHIE

Servings: 4

1 cup chopped mango (fresh or frozen)
½ cup chopped pineapple (fresh or frozen)
1 ripe pear, cored
1 cup green grapes
1 ½ cups (2 large handfuls) raw baby spinach
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
Ice cubes for a thicker smoothie/chilled water for a thinner smoothie

Blend until smooth. Now take the leftovers and freeze them in popsicle molds.

Who could pass up a popsicle?!

Got other tips on sneaking in the veggies? Please share!

Photo credit: halfgeek

Sayonara Cellulite: Another Reason to Detox Your Body

If you’ve ever tried on clothes in a dressing room, you may have noticed some not-so-pretty “lady lumps.” Even thin women and men can have cellulite. So rather than simply avoiding cellulite-accentuating mirrors, here are some tips on kicking it to the curb with regular detoxes.

Cellulite is formed from fluid retention and the accumulation of waste products and toxins in the body. Exercise, stretching and weight-lifting (all of which help get rid of fluid, waste and toxins) are essential for silencing cellulite. When it comes to diet, avoid processed foods and animal products that leave toxic wastes swimming laps in your circulatory system. Doing routine, mostly raw vegan detoxes will help keep your skin silky smooth and light on the lumps.

Choose to do a 7-day detox each month, a 3-day detox every other week, or a 1-day detox every week to rid your body of the crummies. Here are the detox guidelines:

-Start the day with a large glass of filtered water with lemon or cucumber slices. Add a dash of cayenne for an extra kick in the pants.
-Consume only liquids (green juices, non-dairy smoothies, herbal tea, filtered water) and raw fruits and veggies until noon every day.
-Drink tons of filtered water throughout the day, at least half your body weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, drink 75 ounces water. No sense in detoxing if the crud can’t ride the river out.
-Eat lots of raw fruits and veggies, preferably organic. The more the better.
-Have some raw nuts and seeds (about ½ cup each day) and cooked whole grains (about 2 cups total) spread out throughout the afternoon, but avoid wheat (gluten) completely.
-At least 80 percent of your diet should be comprised of raw foods, and 20 percent can be cooked grains, beans and vegetables.
-Include a daily multivitamin to ensure adequate vitamin B12 and vitamin D intake.
-Avoid all dairy products, meats, fish, sugar, gluten, alcohol and caffeine.
-Add more green juices and raw foods as needed for energy.

A detox day might look something like this:

7:00 a.m. – Large glass of filtered water with cucumber slices and a dash of cayenne.
8:00 a.m. – Green apple juice (recipe): Juice 1 collard green leaf, 1 kale leaf, handful spinach, 1 stalk celery, small handful parsley, 2 tart apples. Serve over ice.
10:00 a.m. – Herbal tea; 1 cup raspberries.
11:00 a.m. – Large glass of filtered water with cucumber slices.
Noon – Large green salad with: sliced veggies, ¼ cup raw cashews, olive oil and fresh lemon juice dressing; 1 cup brown rice.
2:00 p.m. – Large glass of filtered water with lemon wedge; hummus with sliced veggies.
4:00 p.m. – Herbal tea; 15 raw almonds.
6:00 p.m. – 3 cups mildly steamed broccoli, ½ cup quinoa, ½ cup lentils; filtered water to drink.
8:00 p.m. – Chamomile tea.

Now get your detoxed goodness over to the green boutique and try on something new! How does it look? Cellutight!

Photo Credit: Liz West