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We all know that spinach is a super food loaded with nutritional benefits, so how can we add more to our daily meals?  Frozen spinach is available year round and works well in casseroles, soups, sauces and dips.  But spring brings fresh spinach, perfect for adding to wraps, salads, sandwiches, and smoothies.

A two-minute meal or snack (and one of my favorites) is to sauté fresh spinach in extra virgin olive oil with a minced clove of garlic.  Season the sautéed spinach with freshly ground black pepper and coarse salt; if you’re feeling extravagant, add freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

8 Easy Ways to Add Super Spring Spinach to Your Meals:

Breakfast:

• Blend a cup of fresh spinach into smoothies
• Sauté spinach in olive oil and serve with a fried egg on top
• Add chopped fresh or frozen spinach to frittatas
• Chicken, spinach and potato hash

Lunch or Dinner: 

• Creamy chicken and spinach casserole
• Spinach salad with strawberries, goat cheese, and balsamic dressing
• Add to sandwiches in place of lettuce
• Roll spinach leaves into fresh spring rolls

Stay Super!

Use the List to Buy the Best

Boy, my boys can eat.  I’m already surprised at how much food our family consumes in a week, and the boys are only eight and five years old.  The grocery bills are only going to increase.  Food matters a lot to me and I work hard to buy the best quality food to feed my family at the best prices I can find.  I am not a one-stop shopper.  I regularly shop my neighborhood national-chain grocery store for staples and sale items.  I drive to Whole Foods in a neighboring town for meats and organic ingredients, and I use the warehouse store, Costco, for a number of our weekly menu ingredients.

Making multiple shopping trips takes time and effort, so I’ve worked out a system to make it as efficient and cost-effective as possible:

Sharon’s Costco Shopping Tips:

• Make a weekly menu and corresponding shopping list, so that you get everything in one trip.
• Be sure to do price comparisons.  Not everything in a warehouse store is cheaper than conventional stores.
• Think about how much food you really need and will use before it goes bad.  Large quantities of food can lead to overeating and food waste.  Good options are to share large packages of food with a friend or buy only products that a portion can be frozen or saved for later if you can’t consume it before it will go bad.
• Buy the least processed foods, with the most natural and local ingredients as possible.  Warehouse stores are filled with highly processed packaged foods, but also offer many healthy items at great prices like: beans, rice, nuts, olive oil, canned tuna and salmon, cheeses, organic produce, frozen fruits, dried fruits, and more.
• Treat yourself to an easy meal (or two) with a rotisserie chicken.   I shred the meat to use in tostadas or chicken salad, and then I use the carcass to make a big pot of chicken stock for chicken noodle soup.
• Use the Table365 COSTCO SHOPPING LIST to find healthy, family-friendly ingredients.

Yes, the photo above is my car loaded up after a Costco run (complete with Seattle rain drops).

Happy Shopping!

Spring has sprung, and every week we have additional fresh foods to add to our meals – hooray!

Avocados, how do I love you?  Let me count the ways…  In addition to being a super food, avocado is a flexible ingredient that appeals to all ages.  Mash pure avocado for babies and toddlers; add it to sandwiches and salads; and use it as a topping on multiple dishes.

Since avocados are in season, you can find large, ripe ones for good a price.  Enjoy them abundantly in:

1. Guacamole
2. Black Bean, corn and avocado salad (add a chopped avocado to this recipe)
3. Tuna salad with avocado – serve the tuna salad in half an avocado, or add slices of avocado to a tuna salad sandwich
4. Avocado, orange and jicama salad (this won rave reviews at a dinner party recently)
5. Fresh spring rolls 
6. Tacos, Tostadas, Quesadillas, and Enchiladas
7. Chili topper
8. Serve with scrambled eggs or in an omelet
9. Add to breakfast smoothies
10. Slice in half, remove pit, eat with a spoon

In addition to the Table365 posts on fresh broccoli, and strawberries;  Food & Wine is another great resource for seasonal spring produce recipes.

Enjoy!

I love a good one-dish dinner, especially on a weeknight when we have multiple family obligations. This recipe for Shrimp Creole and Rice meets my criteria:

Fast, Healthy, and Satisfying

• The entire dinner comes together in about 30 minutes
• The entree is loaded with vegetables so that I don’t need to add them as side dishes
• Ingredients are easy to get, or better yet, already in my pantry / freezer
• It will appeal to the entire family (everyone will eat it)
• Bonus – if I can cook it all in one or two pots!

Frozen shrimp is a good staple to keep in the freezer (almost all shrimp in the market has been previously frozen, so it’s just as fresh, or fresher as thawed shrimp).  Get a bag of shrimp out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to slowly defrost, the night before you want to make this recipe.

Sharon’s Weeknight Shrimp Creole

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup diced organic bell peppers (any color)
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder*
• 1/2 tablespoon red Tabasco*
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper*
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
• Lemon wedges
• Chopped green onions for garnish

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan until warm.  Add diced peppers, celery, and onions and sauté until softened, about 8 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes (with juice), chili powder, Tabasco, Worcestershire, pepper, and salt.  Cook on medium heat so that it is bubbling and thickening for 10 minutes, break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.  Once sauce has reduced, add the shrimp and cook until pink, about 2-3 minutes.  Take off the heat, squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top (about 1 tablespoon) and serve on rice** with additional lemon wedges and chopped green onions.

*This makes a mild creole, add more spice for a medium or spicy sauce.

**I use Basmati rice, which takes 15 minutes to cook, so once I get the vegetables sautéing, I start the rice and then both dishes are finished at the same time.  This is also delicious on brown rice or polenta.

Have a great week!

If you’re anything like my friend Sean, you find the idea of Meatless Monday dinners a real chore.  Last year when Kimberly and I wrote about Meatless Mondays and the benefits of meatless meals (health, budget, variation) Sean told me that he found the idea intriguing, but not really appealing, and certainly difficult to implement.

So in honor of my honest friend Sean, and his dedicated efforts to feed his family well, I give you 7 Meatless Monday Meals to get you through spring and into summer grilling and salad season.

Seven Spectacular Spring Meatless Monday Meals

1. Comfort food:  Homemade mac and cheese, roasted broccoli, fruit salad
2. One dish dinner:  Tofu fried rice
3. Soup supper:  Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
4. Mediterranean platter:   hummus, dolmas, olives, raita, pita and Greek salad
5. Tex-Mex:  Black bean and cheese enchiladas and hearty green salad
6. Breakfast for dinner: Scrambled eggs, roasted asparagus, hash browns, fresh fruit
7. Light and healthy:  Edamame tofu salad with soba noodles (pictured)

Edamame Tofu Salad from Feeding the Young Athlete by Cynthia Lair with Scott Murdoch
Prep time: 40 minutes (plus time to marinate)  Makes 4 servings.  Vegetarian, nut-free, GF option

For team meals, we like to serve a variety of foods on a big platter and allow players to make their own plates.  This Asian-inspired salad is a beautiful platter of delicious and nutritious choices.  Soba noodles are Japanese noodles made from gluten-free buckwheat flour.  Get a head start by boiling two pots of water – a larger for the soba noodles and a smaller one for the edamame.  Marinating tofu for a couple of hours deepens the flavors but is not necessary.  Use gluten-free tamari (instead of soy sauce) to make this recipe gluten-free.

• 2 tablespoons tamari (naturally brewed soy sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 pound firm tofu, cubed
• 4 ounces soba noodles
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or other high heat vegetable oil
• 1 cup shelled edamame, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup cabbage, shredded
• 1 carrot, grated

1. Mix tamari, ginger, garlic and water in large bowl.  Add tofu and marinate.
2. Cook soba noodles in boiling water about 7 minutes.  Drain noodles and mix in 2 tablespoons dressing (recipe below) and sesame seeds.  Set aside.
3. Pat tofu dry with paper towel.
4. Add oil to skillet over high heat.  Carefully add the tofu in and fry a few seconds on each side until browned.  Drain on paper towel.
5. Cook edamame in boiling water for 3 minutes.  Strain and run cold water over it until cool.  Set aside.
6. Arrange noodles, tofu, edamame, cabbage and carrots in separate piles on a large serving platter.  Put dressing in a small pitcher.  Dig in!

Sesame chili dressing:

• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons mirin (or sake)
• 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
• 2 teaspoons Thai chili sauce
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Mix ingredients, except oils, in small bowl.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and sesame oil, whisking well to emulsify.

Happy Monday!

It’s time!  Strawberry season peaks April to June.   You’ve probably noticed that the strawberries in the market are looking much better – darker red, softer, and sweeter than the berries available all winter.  This is the time to delight in these highly nutritious treats.  Strawberries are delicate, do not store well, and retain the most of their nutrients when fresh, so plan to eat them as soon as possible.

*An important note about strawberries – it is always worth the additional expense to only buy organic strawberries.  Consumer Reports magazine, in the May 2015 issue, ranks strawberries as one of only five fruits to “always buy organic”.  The same article, “Eat Clean and Live Healthy”, cites that children are more vulnerable to the effects of pesticides and that their health risks are significant from ingesting pesticides while in the critical stages of development.

10 Terrific Ways to use Spring Strawberries:

1. Strawberry breakfast smoothies with orange juice and yogurt
2. Spinach strawberry salad with goat cheese and balsamic dressing
3. Cut in half and pack in a lunch
4. Slice for dessert (extra decadent: serve with angel food cake, shortcake, or ice cream)
5. Strawberry basil iced tea
6. Fruit salad with kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, and fresh mint
7. Top waffles or pancakes with sliced strawberries and powdered sugar or cinnamon
8. Granola, yogurt, berry parfaits
9. Chicken salad with strawberries
10. Strawberry lemonade

What’s your favorite way to use strawberries?

Enjoy!

Spring is finally here and we can all enjoy the expanding options of fresh fruits and vegetables. Broccoli is  a versatile super food that can be added to meals and snacks from breakfast to dinner.  Select broccoli that feels heavy and has firm stalks and tight heads.  Unwashed broccoli can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week.  Happy spring!

 5 Great Ways to Enjoy Spring Broccoli:

1. Add chopped broccoli to an egg and cheese frittata for breakfast or lunch
2. Roast broccoli in olive oil and coarse salt for a side dish or snack (this is a consistent winner with all ages!)
3. Top a baked potato with steamed or roasted broccoli
4. Serve broccoli with sausage on polenta
5. Dip raw broccoli in hummus for lunch or snack

Stay super!

The right food + the right timing creates optimal performance.

Spring in my household means ballet, karate, soccer, and T-ball (in addition to school and our other activities). Busy schedules and keeping growing bodies satisfied increases the complexity and importance of providing healthy meals and snacks. What great luck that last week I saw a presentation by Cynthia Lair, author of Feeding the Whole Family cookbook, and now an expanded second edition of Feeding the Young Athlete.  She has provided the answers to the challenge in this fantastic book.

Feeding the Young Athlete by Cynthia Lair and Scott Murdock, Ph.D., RD, promises, “Essential eating guidelines for superb performance” and “What to eat, When to eat, How to shop.”  It does not disappoint.  This guide to feeding (and hydrating) your young athlete is loaded with helpful information, recipes, and lessons on nutrition.  Feeding the Young Athlete is a must-read for all parents because these nutrition guidelines enhance all performance: athletic, arts, academic, emotional, and social.  The contents are attractively, and most importantly, graphically organized to make the large amount of science and information approachable and digestible.  What a find!     

In addition to carrying Cynthia’s book in my bag and showing it to everyone I meet, I’ve also been drinking her recipe for lime sports water.  It’s delicious, and much healthier and cheaper than bottled sports drinks.   

Lime Boost by Cynthia Lair from Feeing the Young Athlete

• 2 cups lime juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Combine lime juice and sugar in saucepan over low heat.  Stir until sugar dissolves.  Let cool.  Pour into glass jar.  Store in refrigerator.  To make sports drink, add 2 tablespoons of Lime Boost to 1 quart water.

*Sharon’s variations:  add a few slices of cucumber and/or and some fresh mint sprigs.    

As Cynthia says, “Eat better to play your best”!
Cheers,