Enter your e-mail address below to subscribe to Nourish Your Life's monthly newsletter.  You'll get great recipes and tips to NOURISH YOUR LIFE!  See the newsletter archives here.

Janet's
E-Zine

"Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice"
June 2007

Archive

Welcome to the June issue of “Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice.” Here you will find information you can use on a timely topic, healthy eating, recipes and more! I welcome your feedback and questions. Please send them to Janet@nourishyourlife.com Thank you!

June is the month for VACATIONS!

Where is your favorite place to vacation? Do you have a cottage? Go to the beach? A resort? Or maybe you love to stay home and just relax! Despite your location, how ‘bout taking a Media Vacation! According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans spend (in cumulative hours) about 65 days a year watching television! That is two months out of the year that we are glued to the screen!

How do we take a media vacation? Let’s keep track of how much time we spend watching TV, and then spend that same amount of time doing something else! Go for a walk; ride a bike; swing on a hammock; lay on the grass and watch the sky…what do the clouds look like? What do their shapes remind you of? Or, sit up against a tree and read a book…If giving up all of TV. is too mind-boggling, why not just give up half the time. How will YOU spend YOUR media vacation? Write to us at janet@nourishyourlife.com. We would LOVE to hear from you!

My challenge for you this month is to spend at least one hour a day (which means one hour less of television) completely involved in a relaxing or invigorating activity-whatever that means to you…After all, isn’t that what a vacation is all about?

Write to us at janet@nourishyourlife.com and tell us about your experience. We would be honored to hear about it.

Quote for the month:

“Vacation used to be a luxury, however, in today's world, it has become a necessity.” Author unknown

Healthy eating in June:

I couldn’t decide which fruit or vegetable to focus on this month, as they are all becoming abundant in June! Zonya Foco, R.D. has a wonderful article in her monthly newsletter about both fruits and vegetables which I can not improve upon (I can’t improve upon ANYTHING that Zonya does-she is soooo amazing…) Therefore, I am passing this along to you, with her blessing. Be sure to check out her website www.zonya.com and www.lemonwithwater.com

The Positive Power of Fruits & Vegetables - More Matters!

So, how does your plate rate? Americans in general average 2.1 servings per day of fruits and vegetables combined. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has recommended for years that we eat 5-9 servings per day. The American Institute for Cancer Research is so convinced of the cancer-fighting abilities of fruits and vegetables that they've been recommending 9-11 servings each day. The 2005 federal dietary guidelines call for as many as 13 half-cup servings of fruits and vegetables. (And you thought 5 a day was a lot!)

In order to better reach everyone where they currently are, the Produce for Better Health Foundation kicked off a new campaign in March 2007 that promotes, "Fruits & Veggies—More Matters." So even if you're already eating 8 a day—strive for more.

But even with all this support and encouragement for eating fruits and vegetables, we can still struggle in finding ways to actually consume all we need each and every day. It's actually not as hard as you may think with these easy and creative tips for getting more fruits and veggies on your plate. Just remember...more matters.

Simple Tips for Getting MORE Fruits and Veggies

• First of all, I always recommend to first aim for at least 5 a day WITHOUT counting juice servings since juice does not contain important fiber. If you can achieve 5 servings a day and then drink 8 ounces of juice each day (2 fruit servings), you'll be up to 7 servings before you know it.
    
• Double your "token" portion of vegetables at dinner and you're up again.
   
• Always plan to eat a fruit or vegetable at every snack and every meal. While it may seem tough at first, just take it one meal and one snack at a time.
   
• Begin by trading pre-dinner snacks of cheese and crackers for raw veggies and light dip. This daily 300-calorie savings will help you shed 31 pounds in a year, while shielding you from diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
   
• Add shredded or chopped carrots, zucchini, red and green peppers or spinach to spaghetti sauce.
   
• Add many more vegetables to tossed salad than what your mother did and use romaine, spinach or dark-leaf lettuce instead of iceberg. And trade in your small salad bowls for large salad bowls.
   
• Make a veggie salad using no lettuce, just chopped vegetables. Experiment with tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, green and red peppers, celery, etc.
   
• Bake or microwave butternut, buttercup or acorn squash.
   
• Make Sunshine Carrot-Raisin Salad and Crunchy Apple Salad frequently, using nonfat yogurt and Miracle Whip Light. (Both recipes can be found in my Lickety-Split Meals cookbook.)
   
• Don't wait for holidays to prepare a fresh veggie and dip platter. Make it a tradition to always have a fresh veggie tray in the fridge for snacking, and keep a favorite low-fat or fat-free salad dressing on hand for dipping.
   
• Shred cabbage and carrots frequently to use in slaw, stir-fry and soup.
   
• Declare one night a week as "stir-fry" night. This is a great way to consume a larger-than-normal portion of vegetables.
   
• When making dinner, steam a large batch of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots to provide "planned-over's" for tomorrow's lunch. (These are also delicious tossed in scrambled eggs for breakfast.)
   
• Keep a huge bowl full of fresh fruit in plain sight for easy grabbing. Just as candy in a visible candy dish seems to magically disappear, so will the fruit if it's in sight and easy to grab.
   
• Add berries, bananas and apples to yogurt and cold or hot cereal.
   
• Make blended fruit drinks with frozen or fresh fruit, nonfat yogurt, tofu or soy milk for a healthy "milkshake."
   
• Make Carrot Cake and Carrot Muffins often. Be sure to use low-fat recipes or smart substitutions. (Recipes are found in my Lickety-Split Meals cookbook.) 
   
• Fruit is truly nature's candy so complement your dinner with fruit slices, cubed melons, strawberries and pineapple. Frozen fruit like grapes, blueberries, strawberries and cherries and dried fruit like apricots, peaches and apples make excellent snacks.
   
• Put fruit in your dessert by making apple, peach and blueberry cobblers or crisps using reduced-fat recipes and by serving Angel Food cake mounded with fresh or frozen strawberries, blueberries or raspberries.

Thanks Zonya!!!

My challenge for you this month is to eat AT LEAST 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day! And…since you are not going to be watching so much television, you will have lots of time to prepare this great recipe!

Quinoa topped Gazpacho
Serves 8

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 48-oz bottle vegetable juice
1 tablespoon Worchester sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tomatoes, finely chopped (seed and peel, if preferred-but not necessary)
1 large cucumber, finely chopped (seed and peel, if preferred-but not necessary)
1 green pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 green onions, sliced (use the whole onion)
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse quinoa before cooking to remove the coating of a bitter substance called saponins.
2. Bring water to a boil.
3. Stir in quinoa, cover and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Chill
5. While quinoa is cooking, mix together all ingredients for the soup
6. Chill
7. Serve cold with the quinoa scooped on top of the gazpacho (I use an ice cream scoop)
8. ENJOY!

Nutrition facts: 141 calories: 24g carbs, 4g protein, 2g fat,(from olive oil)

Do you know of someone who would benefit from this information?
We welcome you to pass it on.