Add Some High-Powered Herbs, Spices, and Vegetables to Your Menu

4 Herbs for a High-Powered Salad

Fresh herbs add extra cell-protecting phenols to salads. To boost the nutrition in your bowl – and your belly – add sage, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. In a recent study, these herbs added the most antioxidants to a salad (fresh marjoram leaves more than doubled the antioxidant value).

For spices, cumin soared up the salad chart. Second to cumin was fresh ginger. 

Which vegetables pack the strongest antioxidant punch? Artichoke, beetroot, broccoli, garlic, a variety of leek, a type of radish, and spinach were top produce picks in a recent study. Adding onions also upped the antioxidant ante.

Dressing gives you another opportunity to increase the antioxidant quotient of your salad. Extra-virgin olive oil shines brightest. For a healthful and low-fat alternative, try apple or wine vinegars.

What about the leaves? Try some crunchy (and slightly bitter) red chicory with your romaine. Its pigments contain antioxidant flavonoids. 

Citrus-Cumin Splash

Bursting with big, bold flavors of sweet orange, tangy lime and warm spices, this dressing tastes terrific splashed over spinach, bean or grain salads. It also spruces up salads containing grilled poultry and fresh fruit, such as peaches and grapes.

Citrus-Cumin Splash is a low calorie, low cholesterol dressing with fresh fruit flavors of orange and lime.

1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 teaspoon Watkins Ground Cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly Watkins Ground Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth. Makes about 1 cup.

Recipe from EatingWell.com

Rosemary, a Cancer-Fighting Spice

A Sprinkle of Cancer-Fighting Spice

Whether you steep it, saute it, or soak it, savory rosemary can elevate both your culinary skills and your health.

Why? Because not only is it one of the trendiest cooking spices, but the fragrant needle-leaved herb is also showing early promise as a cancer fighter.

Antioxidant Action
Human studies are needed to confirm the effects, but in cell studies, rosemary extract has given both breast cancer and leukemia cells a real fight. That’s good news about an herb we already know is chock-full of antioxidants, those free-radical killers that help protect you from cell-level damage. 

4 Ways to Get More Rosemary into Your Life

1. Stick a fresh sprig in your lemonade, or steep it in hot tea.
2. Add chopped rosemary to your tossed salads
3. Use fresh or dried rosemary in marinades for meats or vegetables (olive oil, fresh or dried rosemary, and soy sauce make a nice, simple one).
4. Try this delicious rosemary-infused recipe from EatingWell.com - Garlic-Rosemary Mushrooms.

These simple sautéed mushrooms work as a quick, weeknight side dish. To turn them into a main course, toss with cooked pasta and a generous handful of Parmesan cheese or fold into an omelet with Gruyère, fontina or Swiss cheese.

Makes 4 servings, about 3/4 cup each

1 ounce bacon (about 11/2 slices), chopped
1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms, such as cremini, shiitake (stemmed) and portobello, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon Watkins Dried Rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
Watkins Ground Pepper to taste
1/4 cup dry white wine

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until just beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost dry, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour in wine and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

 Recipe from EatingWell Magazine

Super-Size It, Please!

America seems to have a larger percentage of over-weight people now than ever before. With the “super-size it” slogan of fast food restaurants we are slowly loosing site of the size of a healthy portion of food.  We’ve become so used to eating larger portions of food that when we see a regular-sized meal, we feel cheated.

Do you stop on the way to work in the morning for a coffee, latte or mocha cappuccino and a muffin? Have you seen the size of today’s bakery muffins?  And those multi-layered burgers and sandwiches?

I have to admit that I occasionally eat a super-size portion of french fries, one of my weaknesses. I know I shouldn’t eat all those fries, but I eat them anyway! It’s so easy to overindulge.  

By understanding the average portion size of different foods, you can avoid overeating. The following are general estimates for one portion of a variety of foods.

Protein (fish, meat, poultry)
One serving is no larger than the size of your palm, approximately 3 ounces.

Starchy Side Dishes
The size of a tennis ball.

Medium Piece of Fruit
Tennis-ball size.

One Ounce of Cheese
The size of 4 dice.

Cabbage Family
1 cup raw, 1/2 cup cooked

Dark Leafy Greens
1 cup raw.

Water
6 to 8 8 ounce glasses a day.

Beans and Legumes
One-half cup cooked.

Whole Grains
1 slice whole-wheat bread, 1/2 cup cooked grains, cereal or pasta, 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal.

If you feel the urge to overeat, munch on vegetables and fruits.