By Melanie A. Albert, Intuitive Cooking Expert, Author and Speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Today was one of the most exciting days for me, as the first printing of my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating arrived.
The book has been a labor of love and I am so honored to share my philosophies, simple culinary techniques, and recipe guides to encourage you to enjoy shopping for, cooking and eating beautiful healthy food.
Today, I committed to create one of the recipes in the book every day and to post a blog for you. My goal is to inspire you to create a simple, healthy dish and share your creation on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
First, I am honored to share a few images of the book with you.
Now, my recipe today was a simple Avocado Salsa, inspired by a huge organic Reed avocado. Reed avocados only grow a few months out of the year and have more of the healthy monounsaturated fat in them, so they are really rich and creamy.
Today’s Avocado Salsa was intuitively created with:
1 organic Reed avocado
Peppers from Maya’s Farm in Phoenix
A few tomatoes from Abby’s Farm, about 4 miles from my home
Fresh lemon basil from Maya’s Farm, just a mile from my home
Garlic from the Community Exchange
Fresh lemon and sea salt
Ezekiel wrap
The intuitive Avocado Salsa, as salad and then as a wrap.
I’ll be placing the second order for A New View of Healthy Eating in about a week, after we review for any minor edits. Pre-order today if you’d like to order a copy and be one of the first to experiment with the culinary skills and recipes in the book. You’ll also receive my Top 5 Favorite Recipes & Culinary Tips.
Step 1: Buy the Book
Step 2: Join our list to receive the Top 5 Favorite Recipes & Culinary Tips
by Melanie Albert, Food and nutrition expert, author and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
For several years I’ve been guiding clients, from young golfers, to holistic practitioners, to former NFL players, to seniors to create a raw kale salad. The key is a simple-to-prepare salad dressing. In my next book to be released in April 2016, “A New View of Healthy Eating,” I share simple culinary techniques. Once you learn the techniques, you can intuitively create your own dishes.
How to make a basic salad dressing is one of those simple culinary techniques. I’m sharing the draft from the book around creating salad dressings and look forward your feedback when you experiment with your own salad dressings.
EXPERIENCE NUTRITION SIGNATURE RAW MASSAGED KALE SALAD
Make your own gourmet raw kale salad with your favorite fruit, berries, nuts and seeds. Learn how to make a simple salad dressing, massage your kale, and add-in your favorite seasonal fruit and berries, and nuts and seeds.
“The key to a tender kale salad is a simple dressing and massaging the kale. And, the fun is in creating a beautiful, tasty kale salad is the seasonal fruit and berries. One of my very favorite add-ins in a kale salad is local Arizona organic pomegranate seeds.”Melanie Albert
Basic Salad Dressing: 3 Ingredients. That’s It
Three key ingredients for a salad dressing include a fat, acid and salt. Optional add-ins include aromatics (such as garlic and onions), fresh herbs and sweeteners like raw local honey and fresh dates. To make your initial dressing for a kale salad, start with fresh lemon, organic extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and garlic. Once you have learned how to prepare a dressing with this technique, you can use this method to create your own unique salad dressings for a raw kale salad or other fresh salads.
Simple Ingredients
1 fresh lemon, squeezed, approximately ¼ cup
Organic extra virgin olive oil, twice as much as the lemon juice, approximately ½ cup
¼ tsp sea salt
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
Simple Steps
Squeeze a fresh organic lemon into a pint-size Mason jar
Pour in twice as much olive oil as the lemon
Sprinkle in sea salt and minced garlic
Shake the jar
Taste and notice if your dressing seems too oily, acidy or too little or too much salt. This is a great place to mindfully use your cooking intuition. Add-in ingredients until the dressing tastes great to you.
A New View of Healthy Eating: Basic Salad Dressing
Create Your Own Salad Dressing
Learn the simple salad dressing technique and then create your own with different fats, different acids, and add-ins, such as sweeteners or freshly minced herbs or sweeteners. Sweeteners such as honey, can be used to balance a dressing that seems too acid tasting.
Fats: Olive oil, grape seed oil, nut oils, such as walnut oil
Acid: Citrus (Lemon, limes, oranges); Vinegars (Balsamic, rice red or white wine), stone-ground mustard
Salt:Your choice of sea salt or Himalayan salt
Optional Sweeteners:Raw honey or dates
Optional Aromatics: Garlic, green onions, shallots, red onions
Our new “A New View of Healthy Eating, A 55-Card Deck” is NOW available to purchase. Get inspirational shopping, culinary, mindful eating, self care messages to add to your life! CLICK to PURCHASE
By Melanie Albert, Nutrition and food expert, author and speaker. Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
A New View of Healthy Eating: Broil Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon
Today’s “A New View of Healthy Eating, 55-Card Deck”Broil Wild Sockeye Salmon was influenced by the memory of teaching former NFL player, Arizona Cardinal, John Bronson, to cook wild Alaskan salmon, and shooting a video with him 3 years ago at The Legacy Golf Resort.
“Often people ask me what kind of eater I am: Melanie are you vegan? Are you vegetarian? I respond that I’m a pescatarian, that I primarily eat plant-based vegetarian, with the addition of fish, primarily wild salmon. I love the mild flavor of wild Alaskan salmon and it’s so simple to very quickly prepare salmon by broiling or grilling it with organic extra virgin olive oil and a blend of dried herbs.” Melanie Albert
Wild Alaskan Salmon on the Grill (or Broiled) Recipe
In 2011, as an Official Health & Wellness Partner of the NFL Alumni Association, my organization Experience Nutrition, had the honor to serve this simple Wild Alaskan Salmon Recipe at several Super Bowl XLV weekend events in Dallas. The former NFL players keep coming back for more salmon, so it was obvious that they enjoyed it. The recipe is very easy to prepare. Grill or broil the salmon with a few spices and olive oil to easily create for a restaurant-quality meal in your home.
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Ingredients
4 Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon filets (4-6 ounces per person), sliced into 1/2” strips
1/4 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
3 TBSP dried herbs and spices: garlic granules, onion granules, dried dill, lemon peel, fennel, black pepper and sea salt
Simple Steps
1. Defrost salmon filets in refrigerator for a few hours or under cold running water
2. Slice wild salmon into thin strips, about 1/2 inch wide and 1-2 inches long
3. Prepare salmon marinate by mixing olive oil and spices and herbs
4. Marinate salmon with spices and herbs in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, or even overnight
5. Pre-heat broiler or grill on medium high for 15 minutes before you are ready to cook your salmon
6. Place filets on a flat tray with parchment paper for broiling or directly on grill
7. Cook each side about 3-5 minutes
8. Remove salmon from grill right before salmon is completely cooked, as it will continue to cook when taken off grill
9. Let salmon sit for about 5 minutes
10. Enjoy with a veggie stir-fry, steamed veggies or a raw kale salad, with a whole grain, such as quinoa
by Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Food Expert, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Holistic Nutrition & Whole Food Cooking Instructor Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition.
Gluten-free tabouli. For those of us who are sensitive to gluten or have Celiac disease, hemp seeds are a great alternative to the typical bulgur wheat in tabouli.
Experience Nutrition: 9 Ways 90 Days: Top 10 Super Bowl Healthy Recipes: 5: Hemp Seed Tabouli
Ingredients
2 bunches of parsley
¼ cup fresh mint
½ cup hemp seeds
1 large tomato, diced
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
2 TBSP onions, chopped
1 tsp sea salt Simple Steps
Place parsley and mint in food processor and pulse several times until well chopped
Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the hemp seeds, tomato, lemon juice, olive oil, onion, and salt
Toss and serve Enjoy!
Post your Hemp Seed Tabouli recipes on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days Top 10 photos will win free e-book, “Enjoy Food & Life,” featuring nutrition tips and recipes by former NFL players.
by Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Food Expert, Author, Speaker; Integrative Nutrition Health Coach; Instructor Holistic Nutrition & Whole Food Cooking, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts
Our 4th healthy Super Bowl Recipe is wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon on the grill. Full of the good-fat, omega-3 fatty acids, we served this at several Super Bowl XLV weekend events in Dallas with the NFL Alumni Association. This salmon is so delicious, it will melt in your mouth.
Ingredients
• 4 Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon filets (4-6 ounces per person)
• 1/4 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons salmon marinade, made with garlic granules, onion granules, dried dill, lemon peel, fennel, black pepper and sea salt
For the best salmon (after Super Bowl Week), try the salmon from our friends at Vital Choice Seafood.
Simple Steps
1. Defrost salmon filets in refrigerator for a few hours or under cold running water
2. Make salmon marinate by mixing olive oil and salmon marinade
3. Pre-heat grill on medium high for 15 minutes before you are ready to grill your salmon
4. Place filets on grill
5. Cook each side about 5 minutes
6. Take off grill right before salmon is completely cooked, as it will continue to cook when taken off grill
7. Let salmon sit for about 5 minutes
8. Enjoy with steamed veggies or a raw kale salad, with a whole grain, such as quinoa
Post photos of your grilled salmon on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days. Top 10 photos will win a free e-book, “Enjoy Food & Life,”featuring nutrition tips and recipes by former NFL players and their wives.
By Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Food Expert, Author and Speaker, Certified Health Coach
Kale is the rage with raw salads, kale chips and smoothies. But, what about collard greens? I’m taking a Professional Plant-based Culinary Certification Course with Rouxbe, where we experimented with different ways to prepare kale. As an option, I decided to use some of the same techniques with collard greens.
On top of that, Reed avocados were available at Whole Foods Market this week, so I decided to try one. About 90% of the avocados are grown in California and about 90% of those are Hass avocados. The Reed avocado variety generally grows later in the season, are larger and rounder than Hass avocados, have a thick skin, and contain more monounsaturated fat and thus are creamier than Hass avocados.
Scroll down for the 9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Collard Greens with Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers
Organic Collard Greens with Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers Recipe This recipe was inspired by the lemon cucumbers from this week’s farmers market in Ahwatukee Arizona, the Reed avocado and collard greens.
Ingredients • 3-4 large collard greens leaves, chopped • 1 Reed avocado • 1 lemon cucumber • 4 small heirloom tomatoes • ½ red pepper • 3-4 green onions • 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice • 1 garlic clove, finely minced • Fresh lemon basil, to taste • Fresh lemon thyme, to taste • Sea salt
Simple Steps • Chop all the vegetables • Squeeze the avocado into a bowl • Add collard greens, lemon juice and sea salt to the avocado • Massage the collard greens for about 3 minutes • Add the fresh garlic, lemon cucumber, red pepper, green onions and gently toss • Add the fresh lemon basil and lemon thyme and gently toss • Enjoy this delicious & refreshing salad
Come on over to our Facebook page, and post your avocado & collard greens creations: www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days
By Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Wellness Expert, Author, Speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition
Chia seeds are the rage today! But some of us remember when they were the green hair that grew on our Chia Pets when we were kids. Who knew that decades later we’d be eating them!
Chia seeds come from a flowering plant in the mint family that’s native to Mexico and Guatemala, and history suggests it was a very important food crop for the Aztecs.
Benefits of Chia Seeds
Good fats. Chia seeds, like hemp seeds and flax seeds are a great ALA omega-3 healthy-fat rich seed, which is important for brain health and reduction of inflammation in the body.
High in protein. Great source of protein for vegetarians and vegans
Stabilize blood sugar. Important for diabetics
Improve heart health. According to the Cleveland Clinic, chia seeds have been shown to improve blood pressure in diabetics, and may also increase healthy cholesterol, while lowering total, bad LDL and triglyceride cholesterol
Good source of calcium. 18% or the recommended daily intake for calcium.
9 Ways 90 Days Organic Chia Pudding Recipe
9 Ways 90 Days Chia Seed Pudding
Ingredients
1/3 cup chia seeds
1 cup soy milk
2 chopped bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 Medjool date, if you desire more sweetness
Berries, nuts and seeds for toppings
Simple Steps
Mix chia seeds, vanilla and date into the soy milk
Fold in the bananas
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or overnight)
Enjoy for breakfast, snack, or dessert with your favorite berries, nuts and seeds
