Experience Nutrition

Tag: cookbook

A New View of Healthy Eating: How to Quickly Grill Wild Salmon
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Many people only eat salmon when eating out at restaurants. Once you learn how to very quickly and easily grill or broil salmon at home, I have a feeling you’ll enjoy it at home more often. Not only is salmon tasty, it’s a “great” healthy fat. In today’s blog, I’m sharing with you a really quick way to marinade salmon with a few ingredients and the benefits of eating omega-3 rich foods, like wild salmon.

Quick Wild Pacific King Salmon on the Grill
- Create a simple marinade with fresh lemon juice, dill, and green onions by mixing the ingredients together.
- Marinade the salmon in your refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Heat grill to medium high.
- Grill for about 3 minutes.
- Flip the salmon and grill for another 3 minutes.
- Let the salmon rest for a few minutes, as it will continue to cook.
- Enjoy!
Why We Must Eat Omega-3s

For optimal health, we must eat about 30% good fats every day, every meal. Omega-3 fatty acids are important for many areas of health, including:
- Reduce inflammation, which is often considered the root cause of many diseases, such as heart disease, many cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease
- Lower risk of heart disease: lower blood pressure, triglycerides (blood fat), and cholesterol
- Improve brain health, which positively influences memory
- Help depression and mental health, and may be beneficial for ADHD, autism, and dementia
- Reduce joint inflammation and pain
- Reduce risk of diabetes
- Benefit bone health
- Protect eye health
- Synthesize hormones
- Reduce risk of cancer
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in beef, eggs, and poultry, but are most abundant in the fat of cold-water, oily fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are also available in supplement form.

EPA and DHA Essential Fatty Acids in Cold-Water Fish

Cold-water fatty fish are a rich source of the two essential omega-3 fatty acids: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). These nutrients benefit long-term physical and mental health. EPA supports heart health, and DHA supports brain development and function.

Learn more about culinary techniques and a few additional ways to cook salmon at home, in my book, A New View of Healthy Eating.

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November 6, 2016
A New View of Healthy Eating: How to Stock a Healthy Pantry
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
So many people ask me how I am able to create such simple beautiful meals and that it always seems as though I have the “right” ingredients handy all the time. As a matter of fact, in my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating, I write about Success in the Healthy Kitchen, with essential staples in the refrigerator and pantry. This week I stocked up on a few items in my pantry, so I decided to share the staples in my pantry.

First, the foods that I stocked up on this week were red lentils, sunflower seeds, brown rice, and garbanzo beans, along with some of my favorite superfoods (since they were all on sale!)

Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating

Step 3: Pantry: Essentials in the Whole Food Pantry

Stock your pantry with essentials so that you are prepared to cook with seasonal food you bring home from the farmers’ market. With these essentials, you can intuitively create your own favorite dishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks.
- Whole grains. Use versatile whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, and steel-cut oats to quickly and simply cook breakfast with berries, nuts, and seeds, or a dinner side dish with raw, steamed, or roasted vegetables.
- Beans and legumes. Cook garbanzo beans for a quick hummus, lentils in a simple soup, adzuki beans for a simple rice and beans meal, and kidney beans in a veggie chili.
- Nuts and seeds. Enjoy a variety of nuts and seeds such as almonds, cashews, walnuts, hemp seeds, and sunflower seeds. Blend nut milk, add to smoothies, cook in a stir-fry, or make a raw pâté.
- Extra virgin olive oil. Buy organic, first press, cold press, estate grown, and with <.8 acidity for a high-quality olive oil. Olive oil is perfect for salad dressings, roasting veggies, finishing steamed vegetables, and dipping flatbread.
- Dried herbs and spices. Stock a few dried herbs (basil, oregano, marjoram, bay leaves) and spices (cumin seeds, coriander, cinnamon) in your pantry. Use a few different spices and herbs every week to intuitively add flavor and dimension to roasted roots, baked spaghetti squash, and hummus. P-039
- Vinegar and mustard. Keep a few acids, such as balsamic, red wine, or rice vinegar, and stone-ground mustard in your pantry for salad and vegetable dressings and marinades. There’s always an 18-year aged balsamic vinegar in my pantry that I love to drizzle on roasted veggies and that I use as a dipping sauce for my organic sprouted flatbread.
- Natural sweeteners. Use natural sweeteners such as fresh Medjool dates and local raw honey in your breakfast whole grains, salad dressings, smoothies, and desserts.
- Sea salt. Try a few types of unrefined sea salts such as Celtic or Himalayan salts and cook with those you like best. Sea salt brings out the natural flavor in food. For cooking at home and in my classes and workshops, I love whole crystal (coarse) unrefined salt that sometimes needs a little grinding.
- Green tea and coconut water. Use electrolyte-rich coconut water as a base for smoothies, and drink loose green tea and matcha tea as everyday beverages.
- A few extras for extra flavor. We all have a few special foods that we love to add to our meals. I often add olives and capers to veggie stir-fries and simple avocado salads.
- Superfoods. Stock a few nutrient-dense superfoods, such as goji berries, raw cacao nibs, and hemp seeds for quick snacks or smoothies.
I’ll also be sharing how to stock your refrigerator for healthy eating success.

I’m very excited that my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating, is now available. If you’d like a copy for yourself or for a gift (I’ll gift wrap), you can buy it right here:
October 24, 2016
A New View of Healthy Eating: 5 Phoenix Farmers’ Markets & 5 Ways to Shop for Real Whole Foods
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
The Fall is such an incredible time in Arizona as our local farmers’ bounty is growing and it’s so beautiful to enjoy local in-season produce at our farmers’ markets around town. At this time of year, we have many different farmers’ markets. In addition to purchasing real whole foods at farmers’ markets you can commit to a CSA, join a community garden, plant your own, and visit local farms. Enjoy shopping and enjoy your food!

5 Favorite Farmers’ Markets
- Downtown Phoenix Openair Market, Saturday, 8am-1pm, Central and Pierce Street
- Uptown Market, Saturday & Wednesday, 9am-apm, Central and Bethany Home
- Ahwatukee Market, Sunday, 9am-1pm, Warner & 48^th Street
- Mesa Community Market, Friday, 9am-1pm, 20 E. Main Street
- Old Towne Scottsdale Market, Saturday, 8am-1pm, 3806 N. Brown Avenue
EXCERPT from A New View of Healthy Eating

5 Best Ways to Shop for Real Whole Foods

1. Shop at Farmers’ Markets in Your Area

As demand for locally grown fruit and vegetables has increased, farmers’ markets have steadily grown in number throughout the last few decades. According to the USDA Farmers Market Directory, in June 2015 there were 8,260 registered farmers’ markets as compared to 1,744 in 1994—an increase of more than 6,000 in 21 years. In addition to the USDA Farmers Market Database, another source to find farmers’ markets in your area is www.localharvest.org.

2. Commit to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Share

Developed in the 1960’s in Japan, CSA programs are designed to build a relationship between the farmer and the community. At the beginning of each season, farmers sell CSA memberships to consumers. Each week, customers receive a sampling of produce that is available from one farmer or a group of local farmers. CSAs cost $25 to $35 per week for six to eight weeks and are perfect for those of us who wish to experiment with unique, interesting, locally grown food. Farmers distribute CSA’s at farms, farmers’ markets, and convenient pick-up locations, such as yoga studios. Some farms even deliver CSA’s right to your home.

For the winter 2016 season in Arizona, I committed to a 12-week CSA share from Maya’s Farm, just a mile from my home in Phoenix. I love knowing that the produce is fresh since it is harvested the day before I pick it up at The Farm at South Mountain. Each week the interesting variety of goodies in my CSA encourages me to create new, intuitive dishes with different combinations of food. While writing this week, I’m creating a stir-fry with cauliflower, fresh peas, white icicle radish, green garlic, onions, and dill. Fresh flowers are a nice bonus I receive in my CSA. I’m enjoying the incredible natural aromatherapy of chamomile in my home. I’m steeping sun-dried tea, and I will dehydrate some of the chamomile flowers for tea.

3. Join a Community Garden

The National Garden Association estimates that there are three million community gardens in the United States. Community gardens are fun, as you can learn from other do-it-yourself gardeners, enjoy friendships, and experience the mindful meditation of gardening in a beautiful, close-to-the-earth setting.

4. Grow Your Own

Gardening is a big trend. As more and more people eat real whole foods, they are taking their food literally into their hands. The National Garden Association estimates that 42 million households in the United States garden, an increase of 17 percent over 2008 numbers, and 37 million households are home gardening. Gardening takes us back to the basics of eating fresh whole foods.

5. Visit Local Farms

It’s a lot of fun to visit farms in your area to get to know the farmers and to see where your local produce grows. I am so fortunate that there are many outstanding farms in the Phoenix area, where I live. Farms today are reaching consumers in exciting ways: stores at farms, farmers’ markets at farms, pick-your-own produce, and even “honor system” farm stands.

Many of the recipes and culinary creations in my book, A New View of Heathy Eating are inspired by and created with local, in-season Arizona veggies. The book is now available to ship to you!
October 19, 2016