Addictive Snack, Take Two!

This is a healthier variation of Perfectly Addicting Snack! Enter quinoa!  

QUINOA is:

~ A very healthy WHOLE GRAIN, so it's rich in many nutrients, phytochemicals, and fiber!

~ High in protein from a plant!

~ Easy and FAST to prepare ...just like rice.  In particular, it cooks faster than brown rice, done in about 15 minutes!

Quinoa is moist like cottage cheese, and sort of has a similar texture, with none of the saturated fat! 

It tastes like pasta, similar to those tiny Italian pasta stars, pastini!...only it's a whole grain!

Quinoa prepared (Costco sells a big bag!)

Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper with attached grinder

Hemp seeds

Chick peas (optional)

COMMENTS: What are you doing this weekend?  Buying hemp seeds!  You can get them in the bulk food section of Whole Foods, or get organic from www.amazon.com!

4-Ingredient Simple Super Smoothie

We have been enjoying this FAST drink very often -- it's super nutritious!

SOME Key Benefits You'll Super Charge with:

1. Omega-3 fats (in walnuts or hemp seeds)

Chia and flax may also be added to boost omega-3!

2. Probiotics -- TONS if you stick with PLAIN regular yogurt!

3. Fiber -- from the bananas, nuts, AND cocoa!

(Here are 3 Reasons I Love Chocolate for My Health and Mood!)

This is what we do!  Blend the following in this order:

3 c PLAIN yogurt

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa (roughly!)

1 c nuts (any kind! walnuts, hemp seeds, pecans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cashews)

3 bananas

I use my Blendtec.  It turns all these nutritious foods into a delicious drink in a matter of seconds.  This recipe makes about 40 ounces and tastes great immediately.  Alternatively, drink or serve this chocolate smoothie chilled.

I love it for it's simplicity, nutrient density, tastiness, and even value!  My hubby, a previously non-yogurt-eater, even enjoys this drink!  

The kids ALL love it!  And we hope you will too!

You may also love the 3-Ingredient Super Shake!  I guess if you're getting a super nutrient dense drink, the word SUPER must be the title!

COMMENTS: Does this remind anyone of Chocolatey Goodness?  It's pretty similar, only with slightly different proportions, as well as the addition of nuts, blended to a completely smooth drink! You can consume a lot more of this, and more quickly too, compared to sitting down and eating a big bowl of Chocolatey Goodness.  SO if you're after weight loss, you may want to choose Chocolatey Goodness!  Though either way, all the great nutrients included will help boost anyone's metabolism!

10 Simple Ways to Share Your Kindness

I am SO excited to make a day of this, with my kids, soon, soon, soon!

How good does it feel to perform a RANDOM ACT of KINDNESS?  My heart is pounding -- and I want to shout out -- AWESOME!

Just think about how fun it is to find money, whether it's a quarter or a twenty!

Now imagine getting a good parking space because someone let you in, or someone asking you to go ahead of them in line at a grocery store or the license bureau!

Random Acts of Kindness for your health!

YOU can make these things happen, without a lot effort.  The pay back is a wonderful MOOD and an amazing sense of well being, as well as awesome health benefits!

Random Acts of Kindness can make the giver AND the "getter" feel that there is goodness in the world, and that everything is going to be alright.

I can think of amazing times when a stranger has paid for my meal, a cashier or fellow shopper has helped me save money during check-out with an extra coupon, and generally things have happened that surprised me for the better!

Here are some suggestions to get started, and really the possibilities are endless!

#1 Hand out stamps to people in line at the post office.

#2 Take a neighbor's trash cans back up their driveway on garbage day.

#3 Leave a package of baby wipes at a fold-out changing table in a public restroom.

#4 Slip dollar bills in random places on the shelves at a dollar store.

#5 Send a card/letter to a friend or relative telling them why they mean so much to you.

#6 Pick up litter anywhere!

#7 When a UPS or FedEx package arrives, trade the delivery person your package for a packaged snack, like a Larabar!  You don't want to freak out a stranger with homemade goods.

#8 Deliver homemade cookies, like peanut butter cookies or LARABALLS, to a relative or a neighbor.

#9 Visit a nursing home.  There is always someone there who would love company :)

#10 Hand out stickers to kids on a playground.  To avoid worrying anyone about kids talking to strangers. have your kids do this, or offer them directly to parents to share with their kids.

Here is one family who knows all about Random Acts of Kindness -- what an awesome family tradition!

COMMENTS: What kind things have people done for you?  Have you seen Pay it Forward?  Cool movie!  Watch it free if you have Amazon Prime!

Healthy High Anyone?

Would you like to feel a heightened sense of EXHILARATION or euphoria?

Perhaps, you want to be more OPTIMISTIC or have a more positive outlook on life?

Want to have more ENERGY?  Feel less lonely, depressed, helpless?

Have less pain, SLEEP better, get sick less?

The list literally goes on and on and on!

These are among the many BENEFITS of kindness!

It helps to do several acts of kindness in a day and do them deliberately in order to feel the mental benefits of your kindness.  I've mentioned Sonya Lyobumirsky's book before, and she discusses this topic quite a bit in How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.

Here is a great article by another author, David Hamilton, clearly describing 5 benefits of kindness, along with the scientific studies and explanations for the benefits!

The Australia Kindness Movement provides another great resource for the topic!

There is the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (they have some awesome "kindness research") and www.giftofkindness.com!

COMING SOON: What to do! 10 Simple Random Acts of Kindness to Share!  Plus, sugar/butter/flour free Girl Scout Samoas!  A great breakfast drink!  And a yummy way to eat quinoa!

COMMENTS: Did you LOVE the pretend spring we had this weekend?!  Did you get outside?  What did you do?

Delightfully Sweet, Fruity, Chewy Goodness!

That describes Trader Joe's Unsweetened and Unsulfured Dried Pineapple Rings perfectly!

These are a wonderful TREAT of a snack!

Chewy TAFFY-like texture,

WHOLESOME and rich fruity taste, 

Sweet SMELL that wafts from the bag!

Eating a ring really reminds me of chewing up a piece of taffy!

Only without the yucky taste in my mouth and feel in my belly afterward!

Trader Joe's Dried Pineapple Rings

Trader Joe's also sells frozen pineapple - YUM! and many other delicious things!

Calorie per calorie, there is twice the fiber in dried fruit compared to canned.

Looking for ways to eat this fruit?  Try homemade Popsicles or No-Bake Carrot Cake!

COMMENTS:  Did you eat Laffy Taffy as a kid?  What was your favorite flavor?  Have a new years resolution to share?  How is it going?

Perfectly Addicting Snack!

COTTAGE CHEESE is a great way to get protein to jump start your day OR eat before bed to make sure you don't get hungry in the middle of the night. How about some chick peas in there instead? Yes, please!

I have been adding Trader Joe's LEMON PEPPER with a built in GRINDER -- it is SO fabulous!!   I just love those pepper corns and lemon peels and garlic!!!

HEMP seed is also a great addition -- it blends right in with the yummy spices, and ADDS a BIG NUTRITIONAL punch! There is protein, fiber, and it's another plant source of OMEGA-3 fat (others include chia, flaxseed, and walnuts)! Dr Oz recommends these little seeds too!

Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper, shelled hemp seed!
Edit: please use chick peas instead of cottage cheese.

Chick peas + lemon pepper + hemp seed is all I add for a snack/small meal that I want to lick the bowl clean!  I hope you enjoy too!

COMMENTS: How do you enjoy your hemp seeds?

Best Bites from 2012!

Best Bites Round-up!

Sharing nutrition, wellness, and fitness information has been such a pleasure for the past year or so!  I am amazed and grateful at how many readers have tuned in!  Fresh-you pages have been viewed nearly 30,000 times, and Fresh-you's 500th fan recently joined :)  THANK YOU everyone for reading, trying new things, and telling a friend about fresh-you!

This is a quick round-up of some of my FAVORITE and most VALUABLE (nutrition/health-wise) foods!

#1 CHIA an amazing source of sturdy nutrients. Chia can be added to just about anything. When I consume it regularly, I feel fewer cravings and even feel hungry much less often!

#2 BROCCOLI has been shown to actually reverse CANCER! There is a ton of reliable research with promising conclusions! Actually, the entire class of cruciferous veggies are responsible for such cancer protection :)

Veggie artwork by Saxton Freymann

#3 POMEGRANATE is a recently covered superstar which my family thoroughly enjoys and a few of us even find addicting!

#4 WALNUTS the queen of all nuts! All nuts are fantastic nutritional source, and the more you have from a handful a week to a handful a day, instead of unhealthy fats, improves your health in a variety of measurable ways, from heart health to inflammation and cancer protection!

#5 AVOCADO is another healthy fat source that is simple to use and oh so savory to taste!

#6 SWEET POTATOES / Pumpkin haven't been specifically highlighted that I can recall, but they fit so well with these other spectacular foods, so I wanted them to be included here anyway! High fiber, healthy carbs, sweet flavor, loads of vitamins and phytochemicals, and super convenient!  

QUICK TIP: Simplest/fastest way to prepare: pierce a potato a few times with a fork, pop it into the microwave for 5-8 min (depending on size), cut open, and enjoy!

#7 BEANS

#8 PLANT-BASED PLAIN YOGURT or KEFIR for a super-sized portion of probiotics!

#9 GREEN TEA!

#10 CHOCOLATE!