20 Foods to Make Your Salad Sexy

July 1, 2013 By

 

20 sexy salad foods

For so many years we thought of green salads as being your basic lettuce, carrot, cucumber, tomato combo, with some store-bought dressing to top it off. Oh, and plenty of cheese. Now that we have expanded our foodie minds and opened our refrigerators to new ingredients, out salads have become far more nutritious and delicious! When you add nutrient-rich whole foods to your salad, you’re helping to increase energy, maintain a healthy weight, fight disease, get glowing skin, and feel more balanced and renewed. We’ve gone from so-so salad to SEXY SALAD, and it’s easy to do!

To start, let’s get away from the basic ice burg or even romaine lettuce. Try other lettuce varieties and add other greens, such as baby kale, collards, beet greens, arugula, watercress, spinach and mustard greens. You’ll get an abundance of nutrients from these greens, including calcium, iron, folic acid, magnesium, vitamin A, C, E and K – just to name a few!

Making your own dressing is easy: a little olive oil, water, lemon juice, sea salt, pepper, then add vinegar, garlic, pieces of avocado, ginger, etc., as desired. Be creative!

Here are 20 foods to add to your leafy greens. What do you like to add to your salad?

  1. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
  2. Marinated mushrooms
  3. Red or green cabbage
  4. Peas
  5. Hemp seeds
  6. Sunflower seeds
  7. Pecans
  8. Avocado
  9. Asparagus (raw or cooked)
  10. Radishes
  11. Pumpkin seeds
  12. Lentils
  13. Sauerkraut
  14. Peppers (raw or roasted)
  15. Berries
  16. Apple
  17. Fresh mango
  18. Chia seeds
  19. Brown rice
  20. Quinoa
Filed Under: cooking, Food Support, healthy choices, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Getting Krazy with Kale

July 12, 2012 By

You may be used to seeing kale as a garnish on your dish in a restaurant, but this leafy green veggie is much more beneficial when it IS your food, rather than simply decorating it. This nutrient powerhouse has been repeatedly shown to have powerful antioxidant capabilities as well as offer protection against certain types of cancer. Like broccoli and cabbage, kale has the ability to activate enzymes in the liver, which detoxify cancer causing substances, reducing their ability to damage cells. It’s also an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C as well as the carotenoids that are important for good vision and the prevention of cataracts. It’s also rich in calcium.

If you aren’t familiar with kale, it’s time to get friendly with it! It’s an easy veggie to add to any meal as a side dish (but make it a BIG side dish!) or tossed right in with other food. Kale can be steamed, sauteed with a little garlic, olive oil and sea salt, eaten raw in a salad, added to soups, rice or pasta dishes or baked into crispy chips. Once you begin eating kale and other leafy greens on a regular basis, you’ll begin to feel the difference and you’ll likely notice that you begin to crave not-so-healthy foods less.

Here is a tasty and easy kale recipe to try (from Integrative Nutrition):

Massaged Kale and Raisin Salad
Serves 4


1 bunch kale

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/3 cup raisins

3/4 cup diced apple (about 1/2 apple)

1/3 cup sunflower seeds, toasted

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider vinegar/red wine vinegar

  1. De-stem kale by pulling leaves away from stems. Wash leaves. Spin or pat dry. Stack leaves, roll up, and cut into thin ribbons. Put kale in a large mixing bowl. Add salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for 2 minutes.
  2. Stir onions, raisins, apple and sunflower seeds into kale. Dress with olive oil and vinegar.  Taste for salt and vinegar, adding more if necessary. This salad will keep for several days and improve with age.
Filed Under: Featured Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,