Canyon Ranch told my friend to do this, here’s what I suggested

My friend mentioned, in a text, that she had been to Canyon Ranch last weekend. I expressed my jealousy, she then asked “do I really need 30 grams of fiber every ding dong day?”

I told her what I’m about to tell you and that’s that normal people don’t count their food in grams. They don’t. I love fiber, fiber helps with digestion and satiety. Fiber feeds those good bacteria we’re so fascinated by. Fiber helps your weight loss efforts. Fiber and I have no issues. I just prefer a common sense, tedium-free approach.

SO here we go

Let’s say you had yogurt and raspberries or eggs with avocado this morning (or perhaps you followed Carolyn’s advice with Breggie).

Raspberries- the fruity, fiber queen give you 8 g of fiber per cup.

Eggs/avo 4.5 grams in ½ a Haas (better eat those avos before they’re taxed).

Hit up Sweetgreen for lunch and have everyone’s fave Rad Thai  salad (personally I adore the Omg salmon offering).

No fiber facts are listed on Sweetgreen’s website so I had to friggin’ count.

I’ll say 15 grams of fiber (even though 16.7 by my calculations)

Conservatively you’re over 20 grams at this point; it could be over 24.

In the afternoon, I’d suggest our Foodtrainers' nutcase (pictured above) fill it with almonds for another 4 grams of fiber.

Maybe for dinner you have some chicken and broccoli (I’m into roasting broccoli lately),

7.5 grams for the broccoli (Brussels and cauliflower also high in fiber).

Go wild and add in a sweet potato for 31 total fiber grams (lowballing).

So, the morals of the fiber story are:

You get a big fiber bang for your buck with a veggie-filled salad in your day.

OR if you’re not into salads have vegetables 2-3 time daily.
Consume nuts or seeds once a day in some form.
And any time an expert gives you annoying advice, ask them if they do what they’re suggesting.

Finally, life is too short to count fiber grams.

There's something about mayo

 I love mayo. I love tuna salad and egg salad and of course lobster salad (but even borderline mayo folks like lobster salad). I know there are people who shun anything creamy or mushy  but I say 'bring it". Mayo is one of those foods I feel I shouldn’t love as much as I do but I can't help it.  Of course we have Hellman’s “real” mayo in our fridge but I can’t completely ignore mayo’s truth.  It contains EDTA (pretty much poison), soybean oil- soy is sort of GMO’s mvp and don’t get me started on Unileaver who owns Hellman’s.  Oy, not so "real" after all.

So I’ve found a mayo substitute I really like (and usually I don’t like any sort of food substitute) Avocado Mayo (avocado oil, eggs, vinegar and salt). One of my favorite easy lunches is 2 hard-boiled eggs (I make these 6 at a time and usually have on hand) mashed with avocado mayo over greens. In this photo I used my boys’ fave pea shoots. The egg salad is satisfying and feels a little indulgent. And this is a mayo that’s ok to love.
Are you a closet (or open) mayo fan? Have you tried Avocado Mayo? What are your favorite, easy lunches?

#AKTSummer Healthy Lunch with Anna Kaiser

Another fun segment with Anna Kaiser of AKT #AKTsummer, here is one of our Foodtrainers favorite salads that you can make in 5 minutes or less.



What's your favorite summer salad?

Need to look better ASAP? Try this recipe

 

I don’t know about you but about this time every summer I start to feel like a before picture. You know what I mean, in all those fitness makeovers there’s the mushy, slouched “before” and then the lean and proud after? There are just so many restaurant meals and glasses of rose this rigid structured nutritionist can take before she cries uncle. If that makes me a killjoy, I'm sorry. But I’m guessing I’m not alone.

Where there are issues there are solutions and I have the answer to your debloating dreams. Carolyn and I posted a video featuring advice from the Little Book of Thin’s Drastic chapter.  So sad we couldn’t use the actual scary Jaws music but it’s still a fin watch.

In the video we featured this Drastic Salad with avocado dressing. It’s delicious enough to serve to houseguests but there is strategy at work with these ingredients. Try it and let's all be "afters" before Labor Day.
Do you find is easier or harder to eat well in the summer? What do you do when you want to feel better fast? Have you tried this salad?

Shiny, healthy hair if you eat this

This morning I was emailing with a writer about nutrients and foods for healthy hair.

My pet peeve with nutrition articles (not the one I’m contributing to of course) is if they lead readers to believe adding 1 random food will produce a major effect. When I’m devising plans for Foodtrainees, if we’re looking to say boost omega 3’s I’ll suggest multiple sources. So if you’re like me with meh hair after a harsh winter (for me it’s likely just as much bleach as winter). Here’s the answer.

HH Salad (Hair salad sounds nasty)

Ingredients:

Brussels Sprouts (great if you can buy shredded, Trader Joes has) if not slice thin for salad base.

Red or yellow bell pepper

Hard boiled omega 3 eggs or salmon or both

Pumpkin Seeds

Walnut Oil

Apple Vinegar

Rationale:

• Brussels sprouts and peppers are high in Vitamin C that boosts collagen that surrounds hair and keeps it strong.
• Eggs and salmon are high in biotin. Biotin creases hair growth and overall scalp health. They’re also good sources of omega 3’s  the natural oils that keep your scalp and hair hydrated. The walnut oil is another omega 3 source.
• Pumpkin seeds have zinc, which regulates hormones in the body that affect hair growth and helps maintain production of oil-secreting glands on the scalp that help your hair grow.
• Eggs and Brussels also have iron. There’s a connection between iron levels and hair loss among women.

• And for a bonus? Wash the salad down with a shot of Sibu sea buckthorn

What do you do to keep your hair healthy? Do you notice a difference between your diet and hair health?

Salad in a Jar

vis Designworklife
I may have mentioned our office “snackqueenRD” Joanna Li before. Joanna runs the Foodtrainers store. She’s also our resident product taste, recipe taste and gets more excited about trying new things (a totally underrated great quality) than almost anyone I know. For todays post Joanna tackles a lunch concept that’s been taking Pinterest and the blogosphere by storm.

I love how versatile mason jars are and use them for many things from holding smoothies and juices to storing oatmeal and applesauce (I could go on forever). For some time, I’ve been eyeing “Salad in a Jar” photos on Pinterest and Instagram but those Pinterest people have skills that I often do not possess. Finally, I got up the cooking courage and decided to do a little bit of experimenting in the Foodtrainers test kitchen. After all, leafy greens and mason jars, how could I miss out?

I enjoy salad but not the soggy salad that often greets me at lunchtime. With Salad in a Jar your salad contents do not mingle and mush until you say it’s time. Here's what I did:

For my salad in a jar, I used a wide mouth quart sized mason jars (you can use a smaller size for side salads).

Our Mise en place (fancy French way of planning-it thin)

1.  For the first layer, I drizzled the dressing into the bottom of the jar (1/2 tablespoon walnut oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar) By adding this in first and leafy greens last, you keep your greens nice and crisp.
2. Next come your harder, heartier ingredients such as carrots, cucumbers or beets. I used carrots and beets for layers three and four.
3. After hard veggies comes protein. This could be a chopped hardboiled egg, turkey or poached salmon. I used 4 ounces of poached chicken poached in water with a little bit of salt, pepper, and a clove of garlic.
4. The fifth layer is for nuts or seeds, ideas include: sunflower seeds, quinoa, walnuts or almonds.  I sprinkled one of Foodtrainers’ favorite salad toppings, hemp hearts.
5. The sixth layer is for any other soft ingredients. I used roasted some butternut squash (made with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper), I have also used avocado.
6. By the time you reach the last layer, you should have at least 1 1/2 inches from the rim of jar for your leafy greens. This could be spinach, kale, arugula, or dandelion greens or microgreens. I chose kale. Be sure to leave a little bit of space in between your greens and the lid for pre-lunch salad shaking.

Here is our recipe, layer by layer from top to bottom,  for

Foodtrainers’ Kale Salad in A Jar

Room for shaking

Layer 7: fill with kale

Layer 6: 1/2 cup roasted butternut squash

Layer 5: 1/2 pack hemp hearts

Layer 4: 4 ounces poached organic chicken

Layer 3: 1/2 cup beets

Layer 2: 1/2 cup chopped carrots

Layer 1: Dressing: 1/2 tablespoon walnut oil, 1 Tablespoon maple syrup, 1 T apple cider vinegar

When ready to eat, shake the jar to toss all the ingredients together or pour onto a plate and dig in!

Salad in a jar is easy to assemble, can be made ahead of time, last for 4-5 days in the fridge and are easy to transport. As Lauren says in LBT “skinny starts Sunday” so prepare your jars on Sunday, and you won’t have to worry about getting off track once the week starts.

Some other salad in a jar inspiration:

Thanksgiving in a jar, perfect for leftovers

Kale and Quinoa Salad in a jar

Have you ever tried making salad in a jar? What are some of your favorite combos?

I can get you to like sardines

Special Sardine Salad, see below

Three whopping years ago, I attempted to like sardines. I psyched myself up and tried them and even concluded, “I would give sardines a second date.” I must apologize to sardines because I didn’t revisit them. I felt I had faced a food fear and frankly fear and eating aren’t two things I enjoy at the same time. I have total respect for sardines, their impressive omega 3 content, low mercury and B vitamin offerings. Maybe the initial timing wasn't right. More recently, I got together with some friends to cook and one of the recipes was a sardine salad. It wasn’t just a run of the mill green salad with sardines but baby arugula with orange and fennel, other delicious additions and sardines. We were in good hands with chef and author Myra Kornfield who I have known and worshipped for years.

We all loved the special sardine salad but joked that we didn’t whip out the mandolin for our weekday lunches. Was there a way to enjoy sardines simply? Myra digested the challenge and then scurried around the kitchen. “Have you tried sardines mashed with avocado?” My fear was instantly extinguished, replaced with curiosity. “You can also do this with mackerel.” My food phobias were getting crossed off the list at rapid speed. Myra combined the sardines with avocado, juice from ½ lemon and some good quality salt. It wasn’t just fine; it was delicious.

Sardine Mash

1 tin of Vital Choice Sardines, no need to use oil that remains in can

½ ripe avocado, cubed

juice from ½ lemon

few pinches Himalayan or Celtic salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, mash with a fork. Eat as is or over greens.

I ordered both sardines and mackerel from Vital Choice. Full disclosure, when I made my own “mash” I wimped out and used only ½ tin with ½ avocado. Once I ate them in my own home, without sardine support and still liked them, ding dong sardine-o-phobia is gone. 

Have you tried sardines or mackerel? How do you prepare them? Any foods you want to like because of nutritional value but don't? 

The World's Healthiest Food, Are You Eating It?

Clients often mention in their sessions that they need “new foods”. I’m the first to suggest a new recipe, or interesting combination but remind them there aren’t necessarily new fruits and vegetables. Except when there are. Six months ago I didn’t know about microgreens, they were new to me and I was hearing about them everywhere. On one hand, I  was excited and wanted to try them immediately but then there's always that inner cynic wondering could they live up to the hype? Turns out they do.

Microgreens are harvested less than two weeks after germination. When it comes to greens, immaturity is a virtue as research (yes actual research, in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, take that)  has shown they are four to forty times more nutritious than mature greens.  Do not insult microgreens confusing them with sprouts, they are grown differently and taste differently. My CSA, Rustic Roots, started offering microgreens from Good Water Farms.  Good Water Farms is in East Hampton and is and operated by Brendan Davison, and Marsha and Nick LaTessa. I asked Emer from Rustic Root if she’d answer a few burning microgreen questions for me.

Where did micro greens come from/why are we suddenly hearing about them? 

Microgreeens are quickly becoming a go to food for many health conscious people. Because of the intense process of farming them, they are expensive but many higher-end food outlets have begun supplying them. The reason you are hearing about them is because they are a powerful source of nutrients with a tremendous amount of flavor.

Do all greens come "micro"?

You can grow all greens micro but some have more flavor than others. We are loving the Kale, Arugula, Purple Basil, Sunflower, Pea Tendril, Radish and Broccoli micros.

My son asked, "can you do a whole salad micro"? I had salmon burger with micro kale and avocado; the boys used them as their burger topping. They loved that they were the healthiest vegetable to eat.

Lauren, I let Brendan from Good Water Farms answer this question. He said “of course you can do a whole salad of micros, we do every night. You hardly need dressing, a little balsamic and a touch of feta makes an awesome salad that is tasty and super nutritious. Your boys using them on burgers is great. Try to see if they will take to them being added to their sandwiches too. Kids love them, and think they are "cool".  My daughter is like a little cow, she just grazes all day on them. Microgreens are the answer to get your kids to eat their veggies, period!"

Is it worth it to juice microgreens?

Some NYC juicing stores are using radish and kale in their microgreen elixirs.  They can also used best in smoothies.

Do they spoil faster/are they more perishable?

They have a solid 10-day shelf life once they are cut. Surprisingly, a small 4oz container will last you a few meals too.

Thank you Emer, other "micro" ideas I found, a microgreen pesto, a micro salad with a curry vinaigrette, I can see adding some microgreens to soup at the end of cooking or since the flavor is mild even baking with them. I'm excited to tell my clients about this new superfood. 
Have you heard of microgreens? Seen them in stores? Or on menus? If these are new to you are you excited to try or skeptical? What is your favorite "new" food or food you're enjoying more lately?

Cooking Crew and Sensational Salad

Trio of salads, recipe for one below

Last Friday, I got together with my Cooking Crew. Three to four times a year we get together and take a cooking class. This time, the class was with Myra Kornfield, cooking instructor, chef and the author of one of my favorite cookbooks The Healthy Hedonist. Myra sent over some menu options in advance; we all knew we were in for a treat.

We cooked for four hours, made seven recipes that I know I will make again. However, my favorite part about cooking with friends are those little information nuggets you know will stick with you.

Do you "dashi" I do now, first time making what is basically a fish stock.

Check your soy sauce ingredients- two of the recipes we made had Asian lavors and Myra advised us to use shoyu which is better quality than typical soy sauce.  I use a wheat free tamari but know condiments are where lots of preservatives, coloring and sugar can sneak into our diets.  Be sure any soy product is organic as most soybeans are GM. And while we’re talking ingredients, never use “cooking wine”. Use a wine that’s leftover and passed its prime instead.

Ginger Experience

Do you know the “ginger smash”? Ginger is one of those things that can turn into a mess when prepping it. Myra showed us ginger root could be smashed much like you do a garlic clove. You peel garlic and then turn your knife with the blade horizontal and smash, after give a quick chop whenever ginger is called for.

Kale Secret

Kale Massage

How many times have you burned kale chips? I hear this complaint all the time from clients. Myra says to check kale chips every 5 minutes and pull them out as they get done. Kale cooks unevenly and if you wait for all of the pieces to be done some will burn.

No More Kosher Salt

I think I own every kind of salt white, pink, black you name it. I do fall back on kosher salt while cooking just because I’m familiar with it. Myra’s not a fan of kosher salt and uses Celtic or Himalayan for everything because of the taste and mineral content. Now I have to figure out what to do with the gigundo box of kosher salt, exfoliation perhaps?

A Kitchen Essential

I have a "lime" version of this. Myra points out you only really need the lemon as it fits both lemons and limes. 


This salad is delicious, I made it sans feta with the salmon dish (pictured above) last night.

Turkish Chopped Romaine Salad with Dill and Scallions

6 cups shredded romaine

¾ cup chopped dill

½ cup thinly sliced scallions

Salt *see above and freshly ground black pepper

1 clove minced garlic

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Sprinkling feta cheese, optional

In a large bowl mix lettuce, dill and scallions (this can be done in advance and kept). Whisk garlic, lemon juice and olive oil together or shake in a small jar. Right before serving sprinkle greens liberally with salt and pepper, add dressing to greens and toss together. You'll use less salt if you salt the greens versus adding it to the dressing.

As we were leaving we thanked Myra and told her we couldn’t wait to attempt the recipes on our own. “Do it sooner than later so you remember what we did.” More great advice.

How often do you cook with friends? What's the best info nugget you've learned? And what is your essential kitchen gadget or gizmo?

orange blossom water, we used in a dressing

I am no longer intimidated by baby artichokes, for record different than baby carrots

poking the broccoli 

Is Kale Becoming A Kardashian?

Photo via EA Stewart, caption mine.

I am concerned for kale. It’s everywhere I look. It’s in recipes in so many magazines and not just the health oriented ones. We can’t keep the Kale Krackers in stock; Carolyn coined it “kale krack”. Clients who don’t even eat greens are chugging kale-containing green juices. Kale may very well be risking overexposure. It can’t be long before there’s a new green on the street- collards or beet greens, maybe even dandelions. Before we kale out, before chocolate covered kale and the inevitable creation of kale in a capsule, I thought I’d share my top kale moments.

Hail Kale Caesar I love this recipe from EA Stewart’s Spicy RD blog, I went crouton-less and cut the cheese (stop) a little and this was well received. It makes a lot and I topped with avocado one day, cooked shrimp another. Bookmark this recipe, it’s a keeper.

Kale Krackers the aforementioned “wack” snack. If you are someone who gets fixated on certain foods, I would advise you to not starting with these. Habit forming. Do you need another habit?

Crispy Coconut Kale from a blog called Holy Kale and the authors name is Lauren. I wonder what will happen to her site if people turn on kale.

Green Pineapple Smoothie-I’m a believer in “greening” every meal; however if you want to add kale to smoothies you will probably need a Vitamix.

Eggs over Kale Hash  who says Rachael Ray doesn't have healthy-ish recipes?

Kale Hazelnut Salad  if you haven't checked out Food52, I highly suggest it.

Green Juice try kale, cucumber, parsnips, pear, lemon and ginger, so good.

Unlike the Kardashians, kale is worth the hype but so are most superfoods, remember acai?

Do you kale? If so, when did you join the kale club? What are your favorite kale concoctions?

Is Your Weight Stuck? It May Be Your Salad.

Salads are the quintessential weight loss food.  However, grouping all salads together and assuming they are healthy is like presuming all siblings are alike because they’re in the same family (and that’s complete nonsense). In February’s Allure I was interviewed for a fun story called “Eating Amnesia”. It’s all about the calories that sneak into our mouths that we forget about or never even realize. One section of the article discusses salads, “a bed of lettuce isn’t a magic wand that turns anything low calorie. 

There are the obscene salads at chain restaurants across the country with “crispy” aka fried chicken and noodles that I have to think everyone knows aren’t a nutritious choice. Chili’s Quesadilla Explosion salad with 1300 calories over 2000mg of sodium and Applebee’s Chicken Bruschetta Salad also almost a day’s worth of calories and a day and half of sodium are not uncommon on chain restaurant menus. Salads with Steak, Mexican and Asian salads tend to be high calorie. Aside from the flagrantly unhealthy salads, there are the salads that I find more deceptively damaging. These are salads that seem OK but are just a little too interesting. The popular Cosi Signature Salad has chicken and cranberries and vinaigrette. It seems like a decent option but has 623 calories. Le Pain Quotidien, a place I love, has a shrimp salad that’s over 500 calories.  These are the salad traps more of my clients fall into.

A salad doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be too much. Dried fruit is going to run you at least 100 calories and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.  Cheese in your salad will be 150-200 calories and can be, in case of feta, up to 800 mg of sodium. In terms of dressing- most condiment cups hold 2 to 2.5 ounces. For various establishments this is 200-350 calories from dressing alone. Restaurants and salad bars sometimes use more than a condiment cup’s worth. And that piece of bread that’s so small and free with your salad is 100ish calories but I know, you never have the bread (wink, wink). So you can easily be at 500+ calories before the lettuce, veggies or protein.

Sometimes, what I call an “entrée” lunch is a cleaner choice:

Grilled Chicken, 2 cups of broccoli and a little olive oil = 345 calories

Poached Salmon, 2 cups of asparagus and some oil for cooking is 400 calories.

These calculations use a Blackberry-sized (no iPhone for me) piece of protein or 5oz. Many restaurants will give you a gross amount of protein- ½ to ¾ pound is “normal” ick. And a sandwich on 1-2 pieces of sprouted bread with lean protein and veggies can be a nice lunch option too.

If you’re a salad enthusiast or saladophile my suggestions are:

• Choose a good green as your base. I love dinosaur or lacinato kale, butter lettuce (Gotham Greens are fantastic in NYC) or escarole.
• Add a minimum of three other veggies.
• Keep “treat” ingredients: nuts, seeds, avocados, dried fruit, avocado, chickpeas to 1 per salad. You can have walnuts and dried cherries and goat cheese but not on the same day.
• Protein should be Blackberry not laptop sized.
• Don’t eat ingredients in your salad you don’t generally eat (chips, croutons-greasy white bread, bacon).
• For dressing, use olive oil and lemon or olive oil and vinegar with 1 tbs of oil.
• Your whole salad shouldn’t be the size of your head or in a bowl you would use for a family of 4.

One of our Foodtrainers’ favorite salads is Gotham Greens butter lettuce, jarred tuna, red onion, jicama and cabbage, 1/3 avocado sliced, olive oil, lemon juice and of course hot sauce, salt and pepper.

If you’re looking to loose weight keep salads at around 400 calories give or take. If you watch size and “treats” they can be a healthy choice, as long as you don’t have eating amnesia.

What’s your favorite salad green? Overall salad? Favorite “treat” ingredient? How similar are you to your siblings?