making your salad exciting!

According to Dr.Joel Fuhrman, MD, a "nutritarian" doctor*, a good way to stay focused on eating lots and lots of vegetables is to consider your salad to be the "main course" of the meal. We are accustomed to putting just a handful of chopped lettuce on the side, next to our calorically-dense spaghetti with tomato sauce. Why not combine the two for a vegetable advantage? Here's what I mean:

1) Put a large serving of chopped-up lettuce on your plate.
2) Place a smaller amount of your calorically-dense "entree" on top.

So really, you will be eating both your salad and "entree" at the same time! This means that you no longer have to worry about a salad dressing (which are often full of oil, sugar, or artificial additives). The small amount of entree will spread farther- you will feel like you need less of it to be satisfied. Don't worry, it won't "ruin" your entree...you will come to love the crisp, water-dense contribution of the lettuce!

*(see http://www.doctorfuhrman.com/, or click on the link on the right-hand side of this page)

be keen and lean- eat greens!

In Dr. Joel's Fuhrman's book, "Eat to Live," we learn that dark green, leafy vegetables have the highest nutrient-per-calorie ratio. In other words, they are very good for us! Tired of all of the chewing from salad after salad? Dr.Fuhrman suggests blending these greens in with fruit or some of your other usual salad ingredients to make a "blended salad." Additionally, Victoria Boutenko's book, "Green for Life!" suggests including these dark leafy greens into your usual smoothie. I have found that although the greens change the color significantly, they don't really change the taste...as long as you get the greens-to-fruit ratio right. Eventually, I learned that the greens seem to "stabilize" the sugar load for me, and I just feel better when I'm eating more of them. My husband and I think that a green smoothie makes the perfect breakfast and I depend on them when I'm not feeling my best to "pick me up." Victoria's book has tons of recipes, but here's a simple pattern that I like to follow:

(For 1 person):
-1 orange, apple, or pear --putting this on the bottom helps your blender get started
-1 to 1 1/2 frozen bananas
-a hearty handful of frozen blueberries (or other frozen fruit)
-2 full collard leaves (or other green), stripped from the stem
-a little less than a handful of raw almonds *
-1 cup water (or enough to get your blender moving)

*makes the smoothie creamy...omit the nuts if you choose to use soymilk, ricemilk, or some kind of nutmilk instead of water

I like to incorporate frozen fruit because it makes the smoothie thick- like a special treat! In my opinion, the secret is frozen bananas. The idea is that you have a lot of them sitting on your counter, and they get ripe faster than you can eat them- they are too sweet and too mushy. At this point, many people revert to making banana bread, but I prefer to peel and freeze them (in a Ziploc type of bag). When they're frozen and used in smoothies, they thicken and sweeten things- and nobody knows they used to be mushy! (by the way, a Vita-Mix blender is the fastest way to make your smoothies)