Quinoa and Vegetables

This recipe here is as simple as it looks! Just add some quinoa in your slow cooker, some vegetable broth and whatever vegetables you desire. This recipe here has zucchini, squash, peppers, mushroom and onions! This is great if you are running short on time or if you are looking for something easy for dinner!

Broccoli Slaw

1 Pack Broccoli Slaw mix

1/2 Red onion

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

1/4 Sunflower seeds

Dressing

1T Olive Oil

1 tsp Dijon mustart

1/2 tsp lemon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Combine brocoli slaw mix, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and sunflower seeds.

Mix separately olive oil, dijon mustard, lemon, salt and pepper and poor over broccoli slaw mix. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Mexican Zucchini Burrito Boats

4 Large Zucchini

1 Can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 cup salsa (use your preferred level of spiciness)

1 red bell pepper, cored and diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 cup corn kernels

1 jalepeno (or poblano pepper) cored and diced

1 tablespoon+1 teaspoon olive oil

2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Garlic

Option-chop up and make in a casserole. Only use 1 zucchini.

1. Start by greasing a 9×13 casserole dish then set aside. Slice each zucchini in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller or metal teaspoon, hollow out the center of each zucchini. Lightly brush the tops with one teaspoon of olive oil then place them skin side down in casserole dish.

2. Next warm the tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and the peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the rice, corn, and beans along with the salsa, chili powder and cumin. Stir everything together and continue to cook for about 5 minutes then remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 F and then stir in 1/4 cup of the cilantro and salt to taste to the filling. Spoon the filling inside of each zucchini until they are all full. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes then remove the foil and set the oven to broil. Cook them for 5 more minutes.

4. Allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes then top with fresh cilantro and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Mixed Fruit 

Running short on time?  Try these pre-made fruit bowls you can purchase at any of your local grocery store.

Banana “Nice Cream”

Sweet tooth and Craving Ice Cream?

Try this alternative to your traditional ice cream, with just a couple of simple ingredients.

-5 to 6 bananas

-2 to 3 spoonfuls Peanut Butter or Almond Butter

-Minimal Almond Milk

-2 to 3 tablespoons cinnamon

Mix all ingredients into blender and blend well. Add almond milk as needed, be sure to not add too much or it will become soup rather than ice cream! 

Apple Pie Crumble

Filling:

5 apples (your choice)

2T Lemon Juice

2T Cinnamon

1/3C Coconut Sugar or your choice

1C Organic Oats

2T Almond Flour

1/4t All Spice

1/4t cloves

1/4t nutmeg

Crust:

Gluten Free Ready made (you can buy at Krogers/Whole Foods) or make your own.

Instructions:

Cut up apples and place in 4 cups of cold water with lemon juice. Drain, then mix all of above in same bowl with apples. Mix well, place in pie crust.

Topping: mix together oats, sugar, add all the same spices as above. Mix, add 2T of organic apple sauce, mix till it looks crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie and bake at 400 for 50 minutes. Cool, and serve.

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup almond butter (creamy)

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or sweetener of choice)

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions

1) Preheat your oven to 350F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, and mix until a thick batter is formed.

3) Note: because this batter egg-free, feel free to taste-test it at this point, and adjust the flavors to your preference.

4) Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, drop the batter onto the line baking sheet, and gently press each mound with a wet fork (to prevent sticking) to flatten.

5) Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are golden.

6) Allow to cool completely before using a spatula to remove from the baking sheet. Serve immediately, or for a firmer cookie, chill before serving.

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Summer Salad

Summer is the perfect time to add lots of raw veggies into your diet!  This summer salad has a variety of veggies, and it will last you 4-5 servings making it a perfect salad to use for a weekly food prep.  As far as finding produce, we always say that local is best, organic is next.  So check out your local farmers market this weekend and see what produce they have!

One of our suggestions for maintaining a healthy diet is to get into the routine of weekly food prep.  That way you always have healthy options, especially when you are busy!  This is a great salad to prepare before your week.  Keep it in the fridge, and add dressing as you are eating. 

Ingredients:

– 1 cup kale, chopped

– 1/2 cup leaf lettuce, chopped

– 1/2 cup romaine lettuce, chopped

– 1 small head broccoli, chopped (you can cut the stalk of the broccoli into very thin slices and it adds an awesome crunch to your salad)

– 1 handful of snap peas, chopped

– 1/2 spiralized squash, zucchini, and cucumber

– Top with 1 cup chickpeas

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and store in a large glass container.  Add dressing as you are eating, feel free to top with anything else you can think of!  This salad will go great with any of our oil-free dressings, click here for blog post of healthy dressings.

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Vegan Nachos

These veggie nachos are a HUGE crowd please here at our office.  All ingredients are dairy-free, gluten-free, and plant-based making them not only delicious but also packed with nutrients!

Ingredients

– 1 head of cabbage

– 1 can of Amy’s refried beans (Amy’s is an organic brand we love, they also have a great vegan chili)

– 1-2 tbsp. cilantro

– Nicole’s cheese sauce (click here for recipe)

– Handful of chopped bell peppers (yellow, red, or orange)

– 1 can pinto beans

Directions

– Peel leaves off of one head of cabbage and set aside.

– Layer the bottom of your plate with cabbage leaves.  Spread on refried beans, and some pinto beans.  

– Repeat until you have stacked the entire plate with beans and cabbage leaves. 

– Top off with chopped peppers and cilantro.

– Add  our Grapefruit Guacamole, Cashew Sour Cream, or Lentil Nut Meat to the nachos for a refreshing twist!

Directions

– In a food processor combine cashews, vegetable broth, garlic, nutritional yeast, mustard, and juice of 1/2 lemon.  Blend until thin.  

This is an example of the nachos topped with cashew sour cream and lentil meat!

One of our members brought a version of this to our recipe potluck and it was a hit!

Before AND After!

When using canned beans it is important to buy organic, and nutritional yeast is one of our favorite cheese substitutes!

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15 Minute Zucchini Pesto (Dairy Free)

Who doesn’t love pasta?  Why not make a pasta that is delicious AND healthy!

Ingredients: 

– 1 cup basil

– 1 garlic clove

– 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast

– Juice 1/2 lemon

– 1 can navy beans/cannellini beans

– 1 tbsp water

– Sea salt to taste (optional)

– 5 zucchinis 

Want more great information about the foundations of a healthy life? Download the first installment of our NEW 7-part eBook series The 7 Habits of Highly Healthful People for FREE right now, right HERE!

Directions:

For Zucchini Noodles   

– Spiralize zucchinis

– If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can simply use a vegetable peeler (as we did) to create a wide “egg noodle”

– For a softer & warm noodle, place the zucchini “noodles” in hot water for 1-3 minutes before serving with pesto

For the pesto: 

– Combine basil, garlic, nutritional yeast, lemon, beans, water, and salt in a food processor (a blender would work also)

– Pulse in the food processor to desired texture

– Mix in with zucchini noodles, this dish can be enjoyed cold, or warmed up!

Enjoy!

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September 27, 2016

Very few people have ever decided that they are going to just throw up their hands, decide that whatever happens happens, and just choose to stay sick and broken down and headed for an early grave.

But at the same time, the evidence is there that a big chunk of our culture has done just that.

We eat terribly. We’re addicted to distraction. We spend enough of our lives not moving around to the point that movement becomes difficult—if not impossible—later in life.

And, any commercial break during any TV show at any time of day shows how much encouragement we are getting from the corporations intent on selling us more and more of this lifestyle that’s killing us quicker than we could ever hope to manage on our own.

So, how do we fix it? How can you, today, start making better nutritional choices to feel better, live better, and simply be better?

I’m glad you asked. It’s not nearly as hard as you might think.

1. Look at What You’re Eating

The best way to get as many calories (and toxic chemicals, empty carbs, and stuff that isn’t even food to begin with) through your mouth and down into your body is to just shovel it mindlessly in.

It’s like the old adage: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In this case, if all you’re eating is food from a bag or a box, then everything looks like food.

Which, of course, it isn’t.

Instead, if you choose your food mindfully—and then eat it in the same way—you are quickly going to become aware of what, exactly, it is that you’re eating.

And with everything you eat, ask yourself this question: Is this helping my body or hurting it? People know a Double Whopper with bacon-flavored cheese isn’t good for you. But, what if you thought about it in this way: If I continued to eat this, every day, would it help me or hurt me?

The answer is obvious. And if you keep that question in mind when both choosing and consuming food, you’ll be a lot more enlightened about what exactly is going into your body.

Just shovel it in. Seriously. Whatever it is, just eat it.

2. Eat Plants.

It’s really that simple. Plants are healthy. They have almost all the nutrition inside them that you will ever need. Vitamins. Minerals. Fiber. A whole array of nutrients.

And the best way to start introducing more plants into your diet is to do just that. Introduce them.

Don’t take anything else out of your diet. Eat what you’re eating now. But add in two servings of vegetables to every meal. For those of us who aren’t keen on counting, think about it this way: For every meal, half your plate should be vegetables. You like Twinkies? Fine. Keep eating Twinkies. But also add in some broccoli, or carrots, or (if you want to get fancy) a rutabaga. Whatever.

Just fill up half your plate with whatever vegetable you choose.

After a while of not feeling so horrid from dawn until dusk, you’re body is going to adapt. It’s going to want those vegetables. Like a truck you’ve been filling up with maple syrup for the past decade that now has a taste of what it feels like to run on premium gasoline, you’re going to be surprised at how much you won’t miss the garbage.

Don’t eat them. Don’t think about them. Don’t even look at them. Pretend they are all poisonous. (Because let’s face it… they are). 

3. Quit Frying things.

Seriously. Just stop it. No more frying your food.

Oil just adds calories. You can still use your frying pans, but use them for steaming or sautéing. Or, if the temptation is too much, take all your frying pans and make decorative planters out of them. Or give your cat a little treat in the form of a much wider, slightly shallower, and be-handled new watering dish. Or fill them up with soil and start growing sprouts for all the salads you are going to look forward to eating in the future once your veins de-grease themselves and your body is more animal than off-shore oil well.

4. Understand Why You Eat What You Do

This is a big one.

A lot of why we eat isn’t from nutritional deficit, but instead because we feel a certain way.

Happy? Grab an Oreo.

Sad? Grab a Double-stuff Oreo.

The food we eat often has very little to do if we’re hungry or not. A lot of people (and I used to be this way, so don’t accuse me of getting preachy on you) just eat out of simple boredom.

An Oreo in our culture is legitimately just something to do.

Being mindful about WHY you eat, on the other hand, puts the nutritional factorial back into the equation. If you are upset and start reaching into the snack cabinet, take a breath, and ask yourself why your hand is currently wrapped around a Ho-Ho. Are you hungry, really? Or are you eating out of emotion?

Eating mindfully is one of those habits that can make a big difference very quickly. We have members that come into the program that have legitimately never once thought about WHY they eat what they eat. And once that lightbulb goes on above their heads, you can see the change almost visibly in their faces.

Once you get it, you get it. And then, combined with the other steps on this list, eating starts becoming something life-giving and rewarding, and not a mindless exercise in chewing.

What steps do you want to take to begin eating better? Let us know in the comment section below!

The post 4 Things You Can Do Nutritionally RIGHT NOW to Improve Your Life appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

September 19, 2016

Why should you eat plants?

Seems like kind of a dumb question, right? Our moms all told us to eat our vegetables, so it’s wired inside us to know that they are good for us.

Just knowing, though, doesn’t seem to be enough.

Without even including meat—in any form—into the equation, the American diet is at least 60% processed food.

That is a big number.

Here’s an excerpt from an article from Time:

In a study published in the journal BMJ Open, scientists led by Carlos Monteiro at University of Sao Paolo found that nearly 60% of an American’s daily calories come from “ultraprocessed” food, which Monteiro and his colleagues defined as food that contains ingredients such as flavors, colors, sweeteners and hydrogenated oils, emulsifiers and other additives that you wouldn’t cook with at home.

“Ultraprocessed” is now apparently a word.

And what’s interesting about all the things added into processed food is that, by definition, those things are even food!

Food is simply this: Anything that is consumed that repairs tissue and sustains growth. Yellow #5 does neither of those things. Artificial sweeteners DEFINITELY don’t do either of those things.

Which means that at least 60% of what we’re eating ISN’T EVEN FOOD.

The kid back in kindergarten eating horse glue in the back of the room was probably getting more sustenance from his snack than most of us are today.

So, if we aren’t eating food, what should we be eating?

The answer? Plants.

There are a lot of reasons why we should be eating plants. But life is short. So here are the two most important ones:

They Taste Good.

I have a theory. I’m not entirely sure that most Americans have ever eaten a GOOD salad. Most of the time, a “salad” for an American is a bowl of (artificial) Bacon Bits suspended in blue cheese dressing with a couple iceberg lettuce leaves floating on top, served at one of those steak houses with soggy peanut shells constantly underfoot.

That is not a salad.

And even if you go to the grocery store—and I’m looking at you too, Whole Foods—the vegetables there aren’t nearly as tasty as the ones from a farmers’ market, or ones you grow yourself.

I don’t think people know how good GOOD vegetables taste. And it’s not their fault… they CAN’T TASTE them because of all the processed food they are consuming.

This is not just a theory.

Good vegetables are delicious. And because our highly-processed diets have masked—or tainted—our actual sense of taste, a lot of people are missing out.

Want more great information about the foundations of a healthy life? Download the first installment of our NEW 7-part eBook series The 7 Habits of Highly Healthful People for FREE right now, right HERE!

They’re Good for You.

Just like mom said. She wasn’t lying.

The question is, however: Why?

Obviously, you know that vegetables contain vitamins, nutrients, fiber, protein, lipids, and tons of other stuff your body needs to keep being a body (as opposed to a corpse.)

But let’s take a more mathematical approach to this question.

Let’s talk about micronutrients.

Or, more specifically, let’s talk about nutrient density.

But first, let’s take a step back.

Let’s begin at the very beginning.

Why should you eat?

Answer: Because you’re hungry, right?

Well, then, why are you hungry?

Answer: Because your body needs nutrients and a host of other things to operate at even a minimal level, and hunger is just the word for the signal your body sends you when that nutritional deficit is getting too deep.

Which means that we eat to put nutrients and other good stuff back in our body. And when we have enough nutrients in there, our body tells us that by sending us a signal that we’re full.

This is why you can eat sugar or fat almost endlessly. Processed foods don’t contain enough nutrients, and so the body doesn’t send the “Cut it out!” signal.

So, the way we teach our Wellness Training Institute members to eat is to think about nutrient density. The more nutrients you can get per square inch of food you consume is important, because you can then eat less and actually get more nutrition into your body. And plants are very high in what are called micronutrients. There are a lot of them in a very small amount of food, so you get tons of bang for your buck.

When you think about food in this way, it changes your whole outlook on nutrition. And when you put it into practice, it will change your whole life!

So what nutritional changes are you looking to make in your health journey? What are your struggles? Comment and share below!

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