I so often get the question as to what are my favorite foods or what I think are the healthiest choices.
And while there are SO many foods that I love and SO many foods that add health I thought I would give you some of my foods that I freak out over…inna good way.
#1 KALE
Not gonna lie. I. Love. Kale. If I had it my way I would eat it every day with every meal. We grow it ALMOST year round in our greenhouse and in the off months I buy from our local grocery store.
I love it in shakes. I love kale Cesar (see http://www.drtandacook.com/kale-caesar-salad/).
I love it with this honey mustard dressing.
Asian Honey Mustard Dressing
Ingredients
- ¼ c organic olive oil
- 1/4 c sesame oil
- 1/2 c apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 c tamari
- 1/4 c honey
- 1/2 c Dijon mustard
- 1/4 c sesame seeds
- 1/4 c mustard seeds
Instructions
- Add greens to a large salad bowl. Add all dressing ingredients to a pint jar (with lid) except seeds.
- Heat dry skillet to medium-high heat and add seeds. Occasionally toss seeds to avoid burning until seeds begin to popoff pan like popcorn.
- Last, add seeds to jar (they will sizzle when they hit the oil. My favorite part!). Close jar with a tight lid and shake until oil and vinegar are emulsified. Dress salad thoroughly before serving
- If you prefer the greens less raw dress salad 30-60 min before serving to allow the vinegar to wilt the kale.
It the bomb food to add health. Especially for your liver and kidneys.
Don’t be intimidated. I challenge you to try it if you haven’t. And I encourage you to continue eating it if you have jumped on the kale bandwagon.
#2 BRUSSEL SPROUTS
I was DISGUSTED with these mini cabbages when I was little. I would roll them across the table to my grandmother so she would have to suffer the mouth flavor torture. They made me gag.
And then something happened.
A monumental shift in my relationship with them. I fell head over heals in love.
Roast them. Steam them. Grill them. Slaw them. Eat them raw. Fry them.
You cant go wrong.
An easy way to try them is roast on a cookie sheet with olive oil salt and pepper and then put them in a bowl and toss with 3 TBS of mustard (good stuff not the yellow crap) and 3 TBS of a jam of your choice like raspberry or boysenberry. Its amazing.
The best brussel sprouts I have ever had are at Uchiko, a restaurant in Austin, Texas, if you ever have the chance to go to Austin (or live there) GO to Uchiko, get the brussel sprouts, I promise you’ll thank me.
#3 CITRUS OF ALL FLAVORS
The coolest thing about citrus is, well, one, they are beautiful. Two they come in all shapes, sizes, flavors and textures. And three they are SUPER good for your liver, they are high in vitamin C, and help the body detoxify.
I have a citrus stack on my counter, a two tiered serving display filled to the brim with all varieties of lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits and I juice them all daily to add to my water to flavor it so I’m assured to drink it (not gonna lie, not a huge fan of drinking plain water).
This helps get it down the hatch.
Add them to salads, squeeze them into salad dressings, over roasted veggies, use in place of vinegars, or just sit back, relax and enjoy one on its own.
#4 ORGANIC PASTURE PORK
I love this meat.
Especially slow roasted ribs.
And pork gets a bad wrap. And it really really makes a difference in how it was raised. Pigs raised commercially are put in confinement and are highly stressed. And eating that doesn’t add health to our bodies.
Pigs raised on pasture (as they should be) I think have lots of health benefits.
One in particular is that pork meat and fat is a great source of vitamin D.
Pigs, like us, synthesize vitamin D in their skin and when pigs are raised under the sun (as they should be) they are making bioavailable vitamin D for us humans to utilize.
We get our pork from our neighbor down the road.
If you want to find a source near you look here.
or
www.localharvest.org
#5 BUTTER
You’ve most likely heard me tote this guy before and in short…butter is the bomb, when it comes from healthy, pasture raised cows.
The cool thing about butter is that it’s a short chain fatty acid and doesn’t have to be acted on by the gall bladder to break it down, which means it is directly absorbed through the small intestine and used for energy, which means it’s the LEAST likely fat to cause weight gain, which means you should eat it.
Just sayin’.
It also is the source of the fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K.
But isn’t butter dairy? And aren’t you dairy free?
Yes and yes.
AND butter is mostly a what? Right, a fat. And it is SUPER unlikely that peoples immune systems will react to a fat. They are usually reacting to a sugar or protein.
And in the case of dairy, when you say milk, has a lot of those sugar (lactose) and protein (casein) molecules in it. And peoples immune systems are mounting a response to that and triggering symptoms in the human.
Butter has a TINY amount of lactose and casein so if a person is THAT reactive, they can use Ghee, which is clarified butter, which means that its been very gently heated so that the sugar and proteins rise to the surface, are scraped off so you are just left with the fat.
It’s used a lot in Indian cuisine and has more of a nutty flavor.
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