I’ve been on a kick-sugar kick lately.  But you’ll know that, of course, from my two previous blog posts:

• Sliding Down a Sugary, Slippery Slope and
• Join me for my I’m Sweet Enough 7-Day No Sugar Added Challenge.

In fact, the recipes in this menu are from my I’m Sweet Enough 7-Day No Sugar Added Challenge (if you wish to join in, please sign up here before Friday April 30th).

By “no sugar”, I actually mean “no added sugar”.  Sugar that naturally occurs within whole foods is perfectly healthy.  And it often comes along with other healthy nutrients as well as fibre.  Berries are an excellent example.  They are brimming with health promoting phytonutrients, as well as fibre which slows their digestion and release of sugar into the blood.  But when we start mucking about by processing these foods and stripping out the fibre (in the case of fruit juice, in this example), we get into trouble.

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If there’s one thing that nutrition science agrees upon, it’s that vegetables and fruits are unequivocally good for our health.  Yet most of us still don’t eat enough of them each day.  And that’s why I chose to encourage you to gobble your greens for the March page of my 12 Healthy Habits Calendar.

Cooking with dark, leafy greens is one of my fave, fast ways to boost my daily veggie intake.  I use them in everything and anything (from salads and smoothies to soups, stir-fries, curries and more) and I’ll happily gobble them at every meal of the day.  If I’m short on time, pre-washed organic greens make things super-speedy.

Each recipe in this menu serves two and calls for the equivalent of a 142 gram /5 ounce container of pre-washed organic leafy greens (kale at breakfast, arugula at lunch and spinach at dinner).  Along with the other veggies in the recipes and adding in two fruits, you’ll consume roughly eight servings of fruits and veggies for the day.

Why gobble your greens?

Because greens are good for:

1. blood sugar balance,
2. digestion,
3. brain health and mood,
4. stress relief,
5. strong bones,
6. detoxification,
7. reducing inflammation,
8. your immune system,
9. glowing skin and
10. healthy aging!

Ten terrific reasons to gobble your greens, I’d say.  Scroll on down for more about a few of the phytonutrients responsible for some of these health-promoting effects.  And I hope this gives you the green light to go ahead and gobble your greens!

Sign up here to receive the recipes for my Gobble Your Greens Menu.

Gobble Your Greens Menu

Breakfast: Kale & Kimchi Scrambled Eggs (this protein, probiotic and plant filled breakfast will power up your morning)

Lunch: Warm Carrot, Sweet Potato & Arugula Salad (warm salads are a tasty way to transition from winter to spring eating)

Dinner: Seared Cod, Lemony Spinach & White Beans (this dish is simple, flavourful and satisfying; if you don’t have fresh cherry tomatoes, diced canned tomatoes work well too)

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive this month’s recipe collection today (as well as each month to come)!  

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February is upon us.  The groundhogs all agree that we are in for an early spring.  This is something to be grateful for.  And that is the focus for the February page of my 12 Healthy Habits Calendar.  A good way to bid farewell to the February Blahs is to focus each day on a few things that went well in your day.  And then reflect on what these tell you about your world.

One thing I am grateful for each day is being able to whip up a tasty and healthy dinner with a minimum of fuss or cleanup.  I am always on the lookout for quick one pan, one pot or tray bake style dinners.  Dinners like the Sausage & Apple Tray Bake from January’s Dishing it Up post, for example.  They are a cinch to assemble, generally quick to cook and super fast to clean up!

Of the three dinners here, the first requires a large tray and the other two need pots with tight-fitting lids.  For the Lemon Turkey Quinoa Skillet, I like to use my wide but deep Le Creuset 3.6L Sauté Pan, as the broader base and domed lid works well when adding a lot of leafy greens (in fact, I use this pan almost daily, it is so versatile).  Tight-fitting lids are important as these last two recipes feature quinoa.  I love quinoa for quick dinners as it is high in fibre like a whole grain but cooks in only fifteen minutes or so.

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