Happy Fall everyone! Fall finally arrived in Nashville and the nip to the air feels amazing! Time to break out all the pumpkins, Fall candles, Fall recipes, and I just love how a new season can bring fresh ideas, goals, and focus! Inspired by New York Times Bestselling author and motivational speaker, Rachel Hollis, what if we treated the next 90 days like the 1st of the year making healthy choices on behalf of our body and mind!? Honestly, It all circles back to year around self care but usually what happens around this time of year is extra pounds, fatigue, and mindless eating with all the delicious festive and holiday food that floods our plate! Taking care of our body means balancing many aspects to our health like sleep, stress management, movement, and “Nourishing” our body is a very important form of self care! So lets make the most of the rest of this year and jumpstart the first of the year in 2020 “healthy” by staying ahead of the game and “SuperFood” the Fall with powerful super nutrients that nourish both the body and mind.
Let’s start with beverages because lets face the music, festive drinks can go down real fast and easy….. am I right?! Loads of empty calories add up fast from especially from alcoholic drinks so let’s drop the calories and elevate our beverage with some super nutrition. Yup, you can actually add nutrition to your cocktail or mocktail. Why not try a fun Mocktail, dropping the empty alcohol calories and adding nourishing vitamins and antioxidants from oranges and pomegranate. In this POM Orange Mocktail recipe I used 8 ounces of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice which provides 700 mg of polyphenol antioxidants in every 8 oz bottle. Antioxidants help fight free radicals that can do damage to our body’s cells and pomegranate is one of the most potent in antioxidants. In fact, a recent in vitro study at UCLA found that pomegranate juice has, on average, more antioxidant capacity than red wine, grape juice, or green tea, wow! Integrating pomegranate juice in our cocktails or mocktails is an easy way to super power your next spirit!
POM Orange Mocktail: Serves 2-3
8 ounces Wonderful 100% POM pomegranate juice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup sparkling water
Mix together well and garnish with orange peel ( optional)
Next, let’s chat snacking! Mindful Snacking absolutely has a place in a healthy diet plan but let’s take it a step further and “super food” our snack! What we want to avoid is over doing snack portions and snacking on foods that pack empty nutrition. When it comes to snacking, you can snack smart, tasty, and feel satisfied. Pre-planning healthy snacks is key to snacking mindfully and keeping that vending machine temptation at bay.
I always love to encourage pairing healthy snacks with a serving of healthy fat or protein plus a serving of healthy carbohydrate. This combination will help level out blood sugar levels, providing stable, even energy bridging the meal gap. Pairing colorful vegetables with dips like hummus is a snack that can be very nourishing and satisfying. This Beet Hummus Recipe is full of superfood ingredients with pistachios being the star ingredient that gives this hummus a superfood twist. Pistachios are a super food in that it’s nutrient packed and plant-based, a good source of plant-based protein and fiber, and also has healthy fats and antioxidants! In this specific recipe I use the brand Wonderful Pistachios which provides 6 grams of plant-based protein and 3 grams of fiber. Pistachios also offer healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats, in fact, nearly 90% of the fats found in pistachios are the heart-healthy! The protein-fiber-fat trio in pistachios can help keep you fuller longer while nourishing your body and mind.
More good news, pistachios are one of the lowest calorie, lowest fat snack nuts, offering more nuts per serving than most– about 49 pistachios, compared to 23 almonds, 18 cashews or 14 walnut halves. That’s right, pistachios give you more than twice as many nuts per serving as almonds and cashews, and more than three times as many pieces as walnuts. Wonderful Pistachios are truly a versatile option for use in delicious and healthy recipes and meal ideas or you can simply add them to easy trail mix or enjoy in their natural state.
Lemony Beet “Hummus” with Poached Pistachios:
Serves 10 | Serving Size: about a 1⁄4 cup
Move over traditional hummus! This new twist on the dip uses white beans to allow all flavors to shine through. It’s prettier thanks to beets! (Hint:
It’s okay to use the pre-packaged type to save time.) And it’s nutritiously intriguing thanks to poached pistachios, made simply by simmering shelled pistachios in water for 20 minutes. Pair with sliced cucumbers, jicama, or whole grain pita chips. Enjoy as a sandwich condiment, too.
Ingredients
3⁄4 cup Wonderful Pistachios No Salt
or Lightly Salted Shelled, divided
8 ounces cooked peeled beets, chopped 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added
cannellini beans, drained
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
(3 tablespoons juice)
Directions
2 large garlic cloves
1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
1⁄4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons roasted pistachio oil or extra-virgin olive oil
1 In a small saucepan, bring 1⁄2 cup of the pistachios and 3 cups cold water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer covered until the pistachios are softened (poached), about 20 minutes. Drain.
2 Add the poached pistachios, beets, beans, lemon juice and zest, garlic, salt, and cumin to a blender. Cover and puree until velvety smooth, at least 3 minutes on high speed, scraping down sides as needed. Adjust seasoning.
3 Transfer to a serving platter or bowl, drizzle with the oil, sprinkle with the remaining 1⁄4 cup pistachios, and serve
•Wonderful Pistachios No Shells provide consumers with the perfect quick and easy, convenient, better-for-you way to snack or meal prep – complete with a satisfying crunch, creamy texture and rich flavor.
• Wonderful Pistachios No Shells’ new flavors (Chili Roasted and Honey Roasted) are brand new options from Wonderful Pistachios – bold new flavors to keep better-for-you snacking interesting.
Third, lets look at salads! Salads are always a good idea and a great way to fit in many diverse nutrients, loads of nutrition, and superfoods but what we dress our salads with really matters! Why not “super” up our dressing by adding even more nutrition! Instead of adding a store bought dressing that usually will pack preservatives, artificial colors air flavors, extra sugar or sodium, making your own healthy dressing can be an easy way to super charge your salad without all the fake fluff! Adding ingredients like pomegranate juice again can pack more antioxidants plus each 8 oz bottle of POM contains the juice of two whole pomegranates, and nothing else — no added sugar, fillers or preservatives, YES!!!!
Give this wholesome dressing a try for your next salad!
Pom Soy Ginger Dressing:
POM SOY-GINGER DRESSING
TIME TO TABLE: 5 MINUTES
Makes: about 1 cup
juice from 2 POM Wonderful Pomegranates,* or ½ cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
1. Prepare fresh pomegranate juice.*
2. Mix all of the dressing ingredients with a whisk or in a blender.
Last, let’s tackle meals! How can we “superfood” our meals?
When we look at our plate we always want to strive for 50% of our plate to have lots of color filled with vegetables and fruits. The other half needs to have one quarter healthy protein, and the other quarter healthy starch like a whole grain. What we cook our food in matters and can make a huge difference in the wellness of our meal. I love to encourage and inspire taking your favorite meals and making them as healthy possible. A common weeknight meal example is Teriyaki Chicken which typically can have added sugar and up to 1000mg if added sodium. Not this super food version thanks to the chicken cooked in wholesome POM juice, Add kale and a whole grain brown rice or drop the carbohydrates and add cauliflower rice to the meal.
POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice is a good source of potassium — each 8 oz bottle has as much as a medium banana. Every pomegranate has a variety of polyphenol antioxidants. The deep red arils have anthocyanins, while the rind and white pith surrounding the arils have ellagitannins. To maximize the polyphenol level, POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice is made by pressing the entire pomegranate, so you get the fighting power of both, that is what makes this Teriyaki dish on the healthy side verses using bottles Teriyaki sauces full of sugar, salt, and preservatives.
POM Wonderful Teriyaki Chicken & Greens Bowl
INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup POM Wonderful juice
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, raised without antibiotics
1 tablespoon avocado oil or grapeseed oil
10 ounces fresh organic chopped kale
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
100% pomegranate juice
• 3 tablespoons naturally- brewed tamari
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons unrefined sesame oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated
gingerroot
INSTRUCTIONS
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1. In a large liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the pomegranate juice, tamari, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger. Set aside.
2. Cut the chicken into thin bite-size pieces. Heat the avocado oil in a wok or large cast-iron skillet over medium-high. Add the chicken and cook while stirring until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken to a rimmed plate. (Note: Chicken will not be fully cooked at this point.)
3. Add the pomegranate juice mixture to the wok and cook for 5 minutes. Add back in the chicken with any residual juice and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and coats the chicken, about 5 minutes more. Add the kale and toss until lightly wilted, about 2 minutes.
4. Sprinkle teriyaki chicken and kale with the sesame seeds and serve.
Makes: 4 servings Serving size: about 2 cups
Per serving: 280 calories, 13g total fat, 2g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 65mg cholesterol, 840mg sodium, 14g total carbohydrate, 3g dietary fiber, 8g sugars includes 0g added sugars, 28g protein
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Teriyaki chicken traditionally has added sugar and can provide over 1,000mg sodium a serving. Not this “superfood” version, thanks mostly to the unique inclusion of pomegranate juice! For crunch and extra sweetness, sprinkle your teriyaki chicken and greens bowl with pomegranate arils. For spiciness, drizzle with sriracha.
I hope this is inspiring to “Superfood Your Fall” and end the year like you start the beginning of the year….super healthy! Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be complicated, it just takes some pre-planning, little creativity, motivation, and focus. Cheers to ending 2019 super healthy and starting 2020 feeling really great!
Xoxo, Jenny Beth
