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7 Instant Diet Boosters

7 Instant Diet Boosters

(I wrote this title using HBH’s tips)

  1. Eat in color. Your food should be as diverse in color as a rainbow – seriously. Colorful foods are appealing to the eye because they are good for us (not talking about food dye color here!). Brightly colored foods generally have more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Take the grapefruit for example – pink and red grapefruit both have lycopene (a heart-healthy antioxidant) while white grapefruit does not (lycopene is what gives the pink and red ones their color).

    (This picture is a colorful Italian open air market (in Venice).)

  2. Choose brown rice over white. Brown rice is not only more flavorful and satisfying, but it has 6 times the fiber of white rice, exponentially more nutrients, and it’s great for digestion.

  3. Choose rich leafy greens over watery lettuce. Lettuce is a healthy start, but leafy greens pack a powerful punch of calcium, iron, folate, and vitamins A, K, D, and E.

    4. (My favorite leafy green = KALE (click for recipe).)

  4. Choose whole grain bread and grains over white. Same logic as the brown rice – whole grain breads have more fiber, iron, and potassium than their white counterparts. (Beware of brown breads like pumpernickel – they’re not actually whole grain. I love pumpernickel, but I don’t kid myself by saying it’s whole grain. I just eat it cuz it’s good.)

    5. (This is one of my first recipes: Spiced Holiday Braid from 12/07.)

  5. Drink iced (or hot) tea instead of soda. Soda is very bad. Sweeten your iced tea a little (sugar, honey, etc…) and drink up. Green tea is supposedly very healthy (I think all tea is healthy).

    6. (This iced tea is from Slanted Door in San Francisco.)

  6. Pick nut milk over dairy. Nut milk has no cholesterol and no added hormones. Plus, a lot of people are sensitive to dairy and they don’t even know it.

    7. (Chocolate Almond Breeze is my favorite.)

  7. Try fruit sorbet for dessert. Fruit has lots of vitamin C and phytochemicals (color, remember!).

    8. (This is from San Fran too.)

You have any more diet boosting tips?

Exercise of the day: walking home from work (1.4 miles) + the first 25 minutes of Crunch: Fat Burning Pilates.

Here is a cool deal from FreshDirect (a very affordable grocery delivery service that I use a lot) for you – 20% off all local products with this code:

Go local!

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Scrambled Eggs Recipe | Gnocchi Recipe | Travel Food on a Budget | Fruit Yogurt Breakfast

Today’s post is dedicated to eating affordably while on vacation. My main suggestion: make your own food as often as possible. For breakfast I had fruit and yogurt; I also made eggs, some type of sausage, and bread for Bobby. So here is my scrambled eggs recipe, my Italian gnocchi recipe, a fruit and yogurt breakfast, and tips for travel food on a budget.

Quick and Easy Scrambled Eggs Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • chopped onions
  • a dash of olive oil

Directions

  1. Saute onions in olive oil for 1-2 minutes.
  2. Beat eggs in a bowl; add to sauteed onions.
  3. Use a spatula to mix the eggs slowly until finished.

Fruit salad with yogurt

Ingredients

  • Chopped apple
  • Chopped banana
  • Chopped orange
  • Flavored yogurt

Travel Food on  Budget – Dinner Ideas

For dinner we ate in again and I cooked pasta – gnocchi, to be exact. They came out a little bit mushy, but I think I can fix that by cooking for a bit less. We also had the same salad that we had last night (with grated Parmesan) and my Brussels sprouts, apples, and onions recipe.

How to Make Gnocchi

Ingredients

  • Gnocchi pasta
  • Spaghetti sauce
  • Olive oil

Directions

  1. Heat the spaghetti sauce in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Stir until warmed through.
  2. Boil water and add gnocchi. As soon as they float, remove them from the water. Don’t wait for all of them to float; remove the floating ones as soon as possible.
  3. Mix sauce and pasta together.

There were also fresh rolls from the supermercato. And for dessert: more fresh fruit.

Tomorrow we’re off to Venezia, where we will most likely have to spend exorbitant amounts of Euros for food. But I’m excited to visit some churches, maybe museums, markets, and shop.

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Fresh Italian Salad Recipe | Italia – giorno uno | Day One in Italy


Bobby and I are in Italy for two weeks, so I’m going to post about some of our culinary adventures. We’re staying near Venice in a piccola citta’ called Spinea.

Lunch today was delicious. Bobby got a pizza: “Prosciutto e Funghi” (Ham and Mushrooms).

I got Insalata Fantasia, a salad of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, corn, and shredded carrots. In Italy you make your own dressing from the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper that they set at every table.

This evening we managed to cook dinner because our hosts have allowed us to use their kitchen 🙂 We had…

Leftover pizza, bread (both toasted), plus fresh salad with sauteed onions:

Fresh Italian Salad

Ingredients

  • Chopped onions
  • Chopped tomatoes
  • Chopped red pepper
  • Lettuce

Directions

  1. Saute onions in a spoonful of olive oil.
  2. Mix together raw veggies and top with onions and the following dressing…

Simple Italian Dressing

  • Olive oil
  • Apple cider vinegar
  • Salt & pepper to taste

We went to a very quaint “supermercato” to get the ingredients. We also picked up some ingredients for tomorrow’s breakfast.

I also plan on posting pictures and critiques of food from restaurants that we go to. Maria (our host) suggested not eating in the city of Venice because it’s ridiculously expensive. Very sound advice, and hopefully it will encourage some imagination and produce new recipes, since I have access to a kitchen.

Bobby and I are going to try to act European by eating large lunches and light dinners. So far so good…