Spinach Salad with Orange Segments, Dried Cherries and Seitan

My lunch today was a salad with a little fruit and seitan. I used the spinach in place of lettuce for its superior nutrition. I was in the mood for citrus today and had an orange in the refrigerator. I included the dried cherries for a pop of color and sweetness. The seitan slices were added to get the calories and protein up on the salad. If you want a little more crunchiness a little thinly sliced cucumber would also be good in this salad. If fat is not a probably for you I would suggest you add a few slivered almonds or cashews to this salad.

Spinach Salad with Orange Segments, Dried Cherries and Seitan
Serves 1

Ingredients:

½ tablespoon of sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon of canola oil
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
3 cups of raw baby spinach, rinsed and spun dry
½ orange, segmented
2 servings of pressure cooked lunchmeat, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of dried cherries

Directions:

Combine the sherry vinegar, canola oil, sea salt and pepper. Whisk to thoroughly combine. Toss the spinach in the dressing. Add the orange, seitan and dry cherries and toss to coat everything.

Serve immediately on a chilled plate.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 278.88
Calories From Fat (12%) - 32.81

Total Fat - 3.75g
Saturated Fat - 0.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 88.2mg
Potassium - 676.78mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.86g
Fiber - 4.45g
Sugar - 6.82g
Protein - 38.83g

Comments:

I intentionally reduced the salad dressing I used today and wasn’t certain it would be enough to moisten all the leaves. I was surprised to find that today’s salad had enough dressing. I liked the combination of orange and dried cherries with the sherry vinegar. The seitan was included for protein and calories. Overall, this is a good salad that is filling and refreshing at the same time.

(This note is for Sue …… I know you were surprised to see the oranges had been supremed. I did save the membrane that is between the segments to add to a citrus salad dressing later today. I wouldn’t want to miss any opportunity to reduce cholesterol and fight cancer).

Peach, Cherry and Almond Smoothies

According to “the experts” most people eat the same 20 foods most of the time. I find this fact startling, and troubling at the same time. Don’t most people realize that you need to vary your food choices in order to maximize your nutrition? I intentionally vary the foods we eat to maximize the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients we consume. For a few years now I have tried to buy at least one new food every time I go grocery shopping. It is not as easy now to find new foods as it was I started this process. Once you have purchased horned melon and dragon fruit you are obviously running out of new foods to try. However, I still try to change what I buy so we don't get into a food rut.

Different foods contain different combinations of nutrients. When we eat the same foods every week, we are consuming the same nutrients and probably missing some micro nutrient that we are deficient in. When I first started trying to buy new foods each week it was difficult to know how to prepare and cook the foods. I took it as a challenge and bought the foods and researched their use when I got home. If you decide you want to give this a try both Wegman’s and Whole Foods carry unusual produce and dried foods.

If you are thinking that you don’t need to vary your food because you take a multivitamin and mineral I urge you to rethink this. According to scientists your body is better able to absorb nutrients in their natural form (food) than in supplement form. Also, there are so many micro nutrients that it would be impossible to include them all in a multivitamin. We do take a multivitamin at our house as insurance that we aren’t missing any major components. However, I believe that getting your nutrition from food should be the goal.

The fresh cherries in today's smoothie came from our CSA. I wasn’t certain how I was going to use them when I picked them up (nothing new there). Today I thought they would be good to add our smoothie. Cherries are a good source of anthocyanins (an powerful antioxidant) and are high on the ORAC scale. Most dark fruit (cherries, blueberries, raspberries) is a good source of nutrition. Whatever fruit you choose, try to change it each week to get as many phytonutrients into your diet as you can.

Peach, Cherry and Almond Smoothie
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 peaches, pitted and cut into chunks
20 cherries, pitted
2 tablespoons of golden flaxseeds, freshly ground
2 tablespoons of almond butter
2 cups of water
8 ice cubes

Directions:

Place everything in the blender and puree until completely smooth. Serve immediately in a chilled glass.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 273.17
Calories From Fat (44%) - 119.47

Total Fat - 14.11g
Saturated Fat - 1.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 83.33mg
Potassium - 604.06mg
Total Carbohydrates - 35.5g
Fiber - 7.67g
Sugar - 24.47g
Protein - 6.71g

Comments:

The flavor of this smoothie is a nice combination of flavors that don’t overpower each other. Sometimes when I combine flavors I am surprised that they blend together so well you can’t seem to detect the specific components. This was one of those combinations. The smoothie was light since the peaches are not a strong flavor, and since there were only a few cherries they didn't dominant the flavor either. The almond butter is a much more subtle flavor than peanut and also blended into the background. Overall, I think this was well rounded smoothie in terms of flavor.

I added the almond butter this morning by habit. It completely slipped my mind that I was going to test the protein theory again today. I will try to remember to leave the nut butter out of our smoothie tomorrow to continue the test.