White Bean & Basil Soup

White Bean & Basil Soup:

6-8 servings

56 oz organic, low sodium, vegetable broth
30 oz organic, white northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup organic barley
1 organic medium yellow onion, chopped
3 organic garlic cloves, minced
1-2 cups of organic deseeded and chopped plum tomatoes
1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped organic fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons organic Italian seasoning
Ground organic black pepper to taste


First, set the barely to cook by adding it to a pan with 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for 35-40 minutes. I like to set a timer and check it around 30 minutes to make sure there is still enough moisture and none is sticking to the bottom of the pan. At this time I also usually reduce heat to medium-low for the remaining 5-10 minutes.

While barley is cooking, heat a large soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the olive oil is briefly heated, sauté the onions and garlic together for about 5 minutes, or until the onions begin to soften. Do not allow them, or the garlic, to brown, but do enjoy the beautiful aroma this will make in your kitchen!

While the onions and garlic are sautéing, it's time to chop your tomatoes. Make sure to remove all liquid and seeds. While the tomatoes cook in the soup, the skin will separate, and, if you're like me, and don't enjoy that in the soup, you can pick up 2 large cans of organic whole peeled tomatoes instead. If you do, open the can and strain out all of the liquid first, then gently chop each tomato until you're left with what you need!

Once the onions and garlic have softened, add in the vegetable broth, Italian seasoning, and ground pepper. If you've chopped fresh tomatoes, add those in as well, but if you've used the canned tomatoes, hold onto them a little longer! Either way, bring ingredients to a low boil for about 5-10 minutes.

While those ingredients are getting to know one another, it's time to chop your basil and check on your barley. Once the barley is softened, strain out any extra water and set aside with your basil and northern beans.

Finally, add your last ingredients (chopped basil, northern beans, and barley and possibly the chopped canned tomatoes) to your soup and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Then enjoy!!


Healthy Life Tip: When making soup, always try and make extra! Soup is great after a night in the fridge and even freezer! Save some to take for lunch the next day, or later in the week! Or freeze some for a quick dinner when you may be running late or don't have anything prepared!

Healthy Green Smoothie!

This smoothie is a fast, easy, and VERY tasty way to add 1.5 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fruit, and 8g fiber into your day! Perfect for getting kids to eat healthy!!

Find out how many vegetables and how much fruit you should be eating. 

Green Smoothie:

1/2 cup of water (or more, depending on your blender)
2 cups organic spinach
1/2 cup organic broccoli florets
1/2 cup organic green grapes
1/2 organic orange (peeled)
1/2 cup organic pineapple chunks
1/2 organic pear
5-6 ice cubes

If your blender is made to handle this amount of food, follow your normal instructions and if using a Vitamix, remember to build with the smallest items first (i.e. spinach on the bottom).

For other blenders, and for definitely for convenience, it helps to make spinach cubes or spinach and broccoli cubes (coming soon) ahead of time, and to also cut up the fruit into small pieces your blender can handle. It may help to blend 1/2 of the ingredients together first and then add the remaining half and finish blending.

Spinach Cube Instructions:

Nutrition Info:

168 cal, 0.5g fat, 0.1g sat fat, 0 cholesterol, 87mg sodium, 40.3g carbohydrates, 9g fiber, 32g sugar, 6g protein

Remember, the sugar is naturally occurring from fruit. It is important to meet your fruit requirements each day, and this smoothie will help do so, and for many, may meet the minimum requirements. This is where your sugar should be coming from, not artificial sources. 

BBQ Veggie Burger with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

BBQ Veggie Burger:

Makes 5 Burgers:

1 cup uncooked organic short grain brown rice

3/4 cup no salt added organic black beans

1 tbsp organic oat bran

1/2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped white mushroom

3-4 tbsp organic carrots shredded or minced 

1 organic yellow onion chopped, or minced depending on your preference

1 organic jalapeño chopped, or minced

1 organic garlic clove finely chopped

6-8 tbsp of your favorite organic BBQ sauce

Optional additions (about 1/4 cup or less each): peppers, yellow or blackened corn, diced tomatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes and your favorite green or salad (I love freshly steamed green beans with this recipe) are great side dishes to complement this burger. For the roasted sweet potatoes, you'll want to make sure you have 1 large potato for every 2 people you will be serving.

First preheat oven to 350 degrees then cook rice according to directions on package. While rice is cooking, peel and cube sweet potato, place in a glass pan, and toss in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil making sure all potatoes have a coating on them then place pan in oven for 20 min. When 20 minutes is up, remove and flip the potatoes, adding only slightly more oil if potatoes are dry, and place back in the over for an additional 20 minutes or until soft or crispy, whichever you prefer. Remove potatoes when finished, cover, and set aside.

While rice and potatoes are cooking, prepare onion, garlic, jalapeño, and if adding corn and pepper them as well. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium heat and sauté vegetables until soft but not brown, then set aside in separate bowl to cool. 

Next, prepare remaining vegetables and ingredients and set aside while rice finishes cooking. Once rice is cooked, set it aside in a large mixing bowl to cool. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Once rice is cooled, add all ingredients to mixing bowl and mix together with your hands so that all ingredients are distributed evenly. I like to wear cooking gloves or use sandwich baggies to cover my hands to help prevent sticking. First add just 6 tbsp of bbq sauce to mixture and taste before adding more. 

Divide into 5 patties and place onto a nonstick cookie pan and cook for 8-12 minutes.

Enjoy on your favorite organic bun and top with lettuce, tomato, and your favorite healthy condiments. Freshly made mango salsa is an amazing addition to this veggie burger!

Nutrition Info per veggie burger:

237.4 calories, 3.5g fat, 0.2g sat fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 282mg sodium, 45g carbohydrates, 5g fiber, 9.4g sugar, 10g protein

Healthy Sweet Potato & Quinoa Soup!

Healthy Sweet Potato & Quinoa Soup:

Soup:
1 cup organic quinoa, cooked
4 cups organic sweet potato, cubed largely
2 organic carrots, diced
1 organic garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons, organic extra virgin olive oil
32oz organic, low sodium vegetable broth

Topping
1/2 cup organic panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tblsp organic extra virgin olive oil


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel the sweet potato and dice into large cubes. Place into large bowl and coat with 2 tblsp of olive oil then transfer into glass pan and roast for 10 minutes. At 10 minutes take out of oven and rotate pieces, then roast for an additional 10 minutes.

While potato is roasting, dice carrots and onion, and mince garlic. Add vegetables to medium soup pot and sauté in 1 tblsp of olive oil until onion is tender. Once potatoes are done and onions are tender, add broth and cooked potatoes to pot and simmer until carrots are completely tender. About 15-25 minutes.

While soup is simmering, cook quinoa according to directions on packaging.

Once vegetables are soft, blend mixture in blender, food processor, or Vitamix until combined to your desired texture, then return to pot over very low heat.

Finally, heat 1 1/2 tblsp olive oil in a small pan over medium-low head and add the panko breadcrumbs. Stir continuously until lightly browned.

Divide soup and top with 2-3 tablespoons of panko topping and serve immediately.

Makes 5 servings

Southwest Veggie Burgers!

Southwest Veggie Burgers:

1 cup no salt added organic black beans
1 cup cooked organic brown rice (I like short grain for this recipe)
1 - 1 1/4 cup mashed sweet potato
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup diced organic tomato
3 tblsp nutritional yeast
1 tblsp chili powder
1/3 tsp cumin (more if desired)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

First, set the rice to cook following the recipe on the package but without adding oil, butter, or salt. I use 365 organic short grain brown rice and cook with just water and it works perfectly. Once the rice is cooking, begin to boil the water to cook the sweet potato. Peel and cube the sweet potato and once the water is boiling, add potato, reduce heat to medium and cook until softened.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

While rice and potato cook, drain and rinse beans, and place them onto a paper towel and gently pat dry and set aside. Dice the tomato, shred the carrot, and add to a large mixing bowl along with the beans, spices, and nutritional yeast.

Once the potato is cooked, strain and mash thoroughly. Keep potato separate while the rice finishes cooking so that it will cool. Once the rice is finished, allow to cool slightly and add to mixture along with sweet potato.

Once all ingredients are in the mixing bowl, gently mix them so that they are spread evenly throughout and then begin to form tight patties. If the mixture is warm, allow to sit until it cools or briefly place it in the refrigerator. The cooler it is, the more tightly the patties will form.

This mixture makes 4 large patties, or 6-8 smaller sliders. Place each patty on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and cook on each side for 15-20 min, or until top is a light brown.

Serve on an organic whole wheat bun with your favorite burger toppings. For this recipe, I love to top with with guacamole, some sliced tomato, and lettuce. Goes great with a small mixed greens salad!

Healthy Life Tip: Save the extra patties or double the recipe for an easy meal at a later date by freezing patties once they have been cooked and cooled off!

Nutrition Info per patty when made into 4 patties:

225 cal, 2.1g fat, 0.06g sat fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 72mg sodium, 46g carbohydrates, 9.3g fiber, 6.8g sugar, 9.7g protein.

For an added 16g protein, add 2 tablespoons of this Cookable Protein Powder.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie:

3 scoops Shaklee 180 Strawberry Smoothee Mix

1 cup frozen organic strawberries

1 medium organic banana 

4-6 ice cubes

Add all ingredients to blender, blend, and enjoy! Remember, it tastes great, but take your time, you are eating an entire meal!!

Nutrition Info:

415 calories, 4.9g fat, 0.1g sat fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 361.2mg sodium, 67g carbs, 21.1g fiber, 35.4g sugar, 26.3g protein

Linguini with Rainbow Swiss Chard and Cannellini Beans

Linguini with Rainbow Swiss Chard and Cannellini Beans:

4 servings 365 organic whole wheat linguini 

2 bunches (about 6-8 large leaves) organic rainbow Swiss chard 

4 servings 365 organic cannellini beans packed in water

1 1/2 pints organic cherry tomatoes, quartered 

1 organic garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 tsp organic olive oil

1/2 tsp organic red pepper flakes

Set pot of water to boil for pasta and cook as directed without adding any salt or oil to water. Rinse Swiss chard then separate, by slicing, leaves from their stems. Cut leaves crosswise into about 2 inch cubes, chop stems, and set aside. Drain beans, rinse thoroughly, and set aside. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat then add the garlic, stirring for about 1 minute. Do not let the garlic turn brown. Add the tomatoes and sauté for about 3 minutes or until they begin to release their juices. Next, add in just the chard stems and continue to stir until they begin to soften but still have a slight crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Finally, add the chard leaves, red pepper flakes, and beans, and stir until leaves become tender, about 3-5 minutes. Divide pasta onto plates, and top generously with chard mixture. 

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving:

390 calories, 3.15g fat, 0.35g sat fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 497mg sodium, 75.6g carbohydrates, 19g fiber, 8.3g sugar, 20g protein

Mixed Berry and Spinach Smoothie!

Finding an easy, complete, and healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner can be quite the challenge. Here's another one of my favorite go-to shakes when I need a complete meal packed with nutrition. 

Mixed Berry Spinach Smoothie:

8 oz water
2 1/2 scoops Shaklee 180 Vanilla Smoothie
1 cup 365 organic frozen berry mix
1 cups organic spinach via spinach cubes

Add all ingredients to the blender, blend, and enjoy. Remember, it tastes great, but take your time, you are eating an entire meal!

Nutrition Info:

299 calories, 3.9g fat, 0g sat fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 324mg sodium, 31.6g carbohydrates, 13.2g fiber, 22.6g sugar, 21g protein

A Healthy Balance.

Every year weight loss remains at the top of the list of New Years resolutions, and every year again beings the conversation of calorie reduction, special diets, detoxing, super foods, quick solutions and much more. What your body actually needs is not a mystery, it's a science, but quickly becomes muted in all of the hype. Depending on your goals and calorie intake level, here are some simple guidelines to make sure your "diet" is a balanced one. This is an adaptation that can be applied to the general population and some diets may have special consideration. For more details and explanations, visit the source at the Mayo Clinic.

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