Refreshing, Crunchy, Nutritious! Have you ever tried jicama? Get ready to take a culinary adventure, south of the border. Especially if you are tired of nibbling on carrots and celery for your healthy snack! First grown in South and Central America, jicama (also known as the Mexican yam), is a delicious, sweet-tasting and crunchy root vegetable similar to a sweet potato or an apple. The skin is not edible and considered an organic toxin called retenone, so you definitely need to peel it. You ...
A Kale Pesto Even Fathers Will Love
Last week, we talked about how certain foods actually help to protect your skin from the sun. Two of those foods are kale and Brazil nuts. Kale has an abundant source of beta-carotene that converts in the body to retinol. Retinol is an active form of vitamin A, which protects against oxidative stress and UV damage. Brazil nuts contain selenium which helps to slow down the aging process caused by sun damage. Today, I am going to share a delicious Kale Pesto Dip created by a new ...
Best Foods to Protect Your Skin From Sun Damage
Summer is coming and boy, do I love to scoop up the sunshine! It is a definite mood-booster and a natural way to get the vital vitamin D for improving your immune system and bone health. However, we have to be careful with those golden rays. Too much UV exposure from the sun can cause accelerated aging, wrinkles and cancer. Who wants that? The key is to strike a balance. We can protect our skin with hats, sunscreen and eat the foods that have UV protective powers. I bet you didn’t know ...
Say Hello to Healthy Summer Shrimp!
Whether skewered on kabobs, tossed in salads or dipped in a cocktail sauce, shrimp is a quintessential summer food. It’s no wonder shrimp has become our most popular seafood, since it is easy to prepare and can be dressed up or down. Shrimp is great way to get in your weekly 8 ounces of seafood. A lean source of protein, shrimp has virtually no saturated fat. While shrimp is high in dietary cholesterol, nutritionists and scientists agree that unless dietary cholesterol intake is combined ...
Why You Should Give Mom Dark Chocolate
Earlier this week, I christened my new kitchen with an Energized Body Cinco De Mayo party. It was a fun event, combining all the things I love - bringing people together, noshing on fresh delicious food and sharing information. Traditional (not Americanized) Mexican fare was served. These were the favs: the Fresh Margaritas, the Jicama Salad with Watercress, Radishes and Chiles, and no surprise, the Dark Chocolate Pine Nut Torte. Now we have been hearing that dark chocolate is good for ...
Why I Eat Goji Berries
And Why You Should, Too! Ever wonder how I came up with my recipe for Dark Chocolate Goji Bark? As you may know, I don’t like to eat anything unless it is jammed with healing nutrients and delicious. Why waste the time and calories if it’s not going to benefit my body? At the time, I was trying to create a healthy sweet, just a little something for the end of a meal. Dark chocolate is a sweet you want to eat because it contains potent antioxidants called flavanols. These flavanols help to ...
FDA Defines Gluten-Free
This week is a great week for those with celiac or gluten-sensitivity! Why? Because the FDA has defined “gluten-free” and that will require food manufacturers to be consistent in what they call “gluten-free.” Excited? Confused? You aren’t alone. Read on to learn the key points. No more reading labels? Yahoo! Sadly, you will still need to read labels when you shop, and every time you shop. What it does mean is that any product labeled “gluten-free” after August, 2014, will have to ...
Think outside the Strawberry Short Cake!
Strawberries are still in abundance and I can’t stop eating them. So let’s do some culinary exploring! Most people use strawberries as a dessert or just sprinkled in their cereal. That’s all good, but with the health benefits that they offer and deliciousness, I like to find other creative ways of getting them into my day. Not to mention, they make anything beautiful with that pop of red! Here are some recipes to get you thinking about strawberries in a different way. And since both of ...
How to Use Your CSA box!
Got a CSA box? Shopping at the farmer’s market this weekend? Below are some recipes to help you use all those wonderful healing veggies. Let’s learn about some of the benefits we get from these veggies: Radishes: these are amazing! They are high in skin-beautifying sulfur, silicon and Vitamin C. They are said to be arguably the best mucus-dissolving food for the digestive tract, which helps cleanses our systems. The cleaner and more free of toxins our systems are, the more beautiful we ...
Why Grass-Fed Beef
I generally don’t eat a lot of beef. In fact, I limit it to once or twice a week. I prefer to get my protein from healthier sources with less saturated fat, like fish, beans, poultry and plants. However, on the occasion that I do eat meat, it is going to be the grass-fed variety and here’s why. Let’s start with our friend the cow The cow’s body was designed to digest and survive on grasses. Many ranchers have switched to feeding cattle corn and grain-based diets because the feed is cheap, ...