This month I am focusing on all things green and healthy! Many of us may have grown up with a negative view of mushy, soggy spinach. But banish it no longer! Spinach is delicious raw as a salad, grilled or sautéed as a side dish, or even served atop pasta. Spinach is one of my world’s favorite foods and one that everyone should add to their diets!
Not only is spinach high in iron, fiber, and thedisease fighting antioxidant alpha-lipoic acidbut it is also high in magnesium and has alow-glycemic load both of which are responsible for lowering the incidence of type-2 diabetes. Spinach is also low in calories and you can virtually eat bowl after bowl of spinach with no ill effects to your waistline!
Below are some of my family’s favorite recipes.
Spinach salad
Spinach
Grated carrots
Avocado
Soya Kaas cheese (optional)
Pecans
Dried cranberries
Olive oil
Lemon
Place grated carrots, then sliced avocado, and then a handful of dried cranberries and pecans on top of the spinach leaves. For a heartier lunch add cubes of the Soya Kaas cheese. Liberally douse with olive oil and lemon and enjoy!
Spinach “pie”
1 box or pre-washed bag of fresh spinach
1 cup grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese
Whole wheat breadcrumbs
Optional: grated parmesan or squirt of flax seed oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Steam the spinach on the stovetop until wilted. Place the spinach in a food processor along with 1 cup of cheese and blend.
Place the mixture into a casserole dish or small individual dishes (I love using small ones to make it fun for the kids!) Top with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese or flax seed if you desire and cook approximately 10 minutes. This makes healthy delicious side dishes at dinnertime or a fun winter lunch!
I was watching an episode of Dr. Oz’s show called “The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Getting Healthy” the other night. While I think the show generalized too much and I don’t entirely agree that making the changes he suggests will matter a whole hill of beans to the girls he was instructing, the title stuck with me and the general premise is sound. You don’t have to kill yourself making huge, sweeping changes to your diet to change your health for the better! 
In September, I wrote an article on carb loading with sweet root vegetables. Since you can reference the information on how root vegetables can be added to your diet while training, today I will solely focus on one of my favorites… beets!
Lunches are such a tricky thing…on one hand all of the children are comparing what they got in their lunchboxes (and do you really want them to be the ones with the lame lunch?). And, on the other hand, you want to send them off with something nutritious to fuel them through their day that you feel good about and that they will eat! If this is your conundrum, read on!
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