My super star friends Tammy and Lyssie–aka The Nutrition Twins–shared this delicious veggie recipe from their new book, The Secret To Skinny. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

The Nutrition Twins Skinny Spinach … You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

One 10-ounce package frozen spinach or 1 bag raw spinach (9 to 10-ounce bag)
¾ cup Walnut Acres low-sodium Tomato and Basil Pasta sauce (or other low-sodium tomato sauce with less than 40 calories per serving)
1 shredded tablespoon nonfat mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese

Steam fresh spinach or prepare frozen spinach according to directions on package. Heat tomato sauce and then stir into spinach. Add cheese and stir. Divide spinach into two portions and sprinkle with parmesan.

Nutrition Facts Per Serving: Makes 2 servings; Calories 86, Total Fat 2.4 grams, Saturated Fat 0.9 gram, Carbohydrates 14 grams, Protein 5.5 grams, Fiber 5 grams, Sodium 169 milligrams

Avant-Garde Arugula Salad

Watermelon-Arugula Salad with Feta Cheese and Pine Nuts

Makes 4 servings: 3 cups each

From the middle of June until the end of August watermelon is at its peak. This inventive, sweet-n-savory salad recipe highlights the pretty pink melon and should be enjoyed often. It’s an entrée salad, so there’s no need to worry about what meat to eat. Pair it with a bean or other protein-rich side dish for a delightful, planet-friendly meal.     

3 pounds seedless watermelon with rind

Juice and zest of 1 small or 1/2 large lemon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups baby arugula leaves

2 cups mixed baby salad greens or watercress

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1/3 cup crumbled organic or locally-produced feta or fresh goat cheese

1/4 cup raw pine nuts or chopped pistachios

1. Scoop the flesh of the watermelon from the rind. (Save the rind for another purpose.) Cut the flesh into 1/2-inch cubes. (You should have about 6 cups.)
2. Whisk together the lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a large serving bowl until combined. Whisk in the oil.
3. Drain the watermelon and add to the dressing. Add the arugula, mixed greens, and mint; very gently toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
4. Sprinkle with the cheese and nuts. Serve immediately.

Per serving: 260 calories, 19g total fat, 3.5g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 10mg cholesterol, 440mg sodium, 21g total carbohydrate, 2g dietary fiber, 5g protein

Little Green Cooking Tip

Juice (by hand!) a lemon half or halves. Then, use the lemon peel-up (peel used as serving cup) to serve freshly cracked black pepper for each person to pinch and season their salad or other foods to taste. If any leftover, store the lemon “peel-up” with pepper in the refrigerator for later use as a lemon-pepper seasoning.

Use It, Don’t Lose It

What’s the easiest way to get 3 pounds of seedless watermelon with rind? It’s about half of one whole round baby seedless watermelon. Save the watermelon rind to use as a very green serving bowl for the salad. And don’t worry about the teeny white seeds you’ll likely find in seedless watermelon; they’re soft and edible. But whatever watermelon you use, add the excess liquid drained from the cubed watermelon to a beverage, like fresh watermelon-accented lemonade.

Reprinted with permission from Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent, RD (Wiley, 2009)

Despite the costly price tag of organically-produced foods, a 2009 study found that consumers were more likely to cut back on fitness, coffee, personal care, and clothing expenses all before spending less on organic or natural food products.

While this latest food trend will undoubtedly continue to boom, there still remains a lot of circulating misinformation about organic eating.  Let’s clear things up here. 

What is “organic”?    

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched the Organic Foods Production Act to set national guidelines for “organic” labeling. 

These standards define organic products as containing absolutely no:

• Artificial ingredients, colors, flavors
• Genetically modified foods
• Growth hormones
• Irradiation
• Antibiotics
• Synthetic or sewer sludge fertilizers/ pesticides

Learning the Labels:

100% Organic: You guessed it…100% of ingredients listed are organic.

Organic: 95% or more of the ingredients are organic.

Made with Organic Ingredients: 70% or more of the ingredients are organic.

All-Natural: No added chemicals, colors/flavors or preservatives.  Important note: This definition applies to meat/poultry only! All other categories of food do not have strict regulations for the use of the term “natural.”

Be picky when choosing organic.

The good news for our bank accounts?  Not every food we eat needs to be organic!  Below is a compilation of fruits/veggies that contain the highest levels of chemicals and/or pesticides.  These Dirty Dozen should always be bought organic. 

Veggies

1. Bell peppers

2. Celery

3. Potatoes

4. Spinach

Fruits

5. Apples

6. Cherries

7. Grapes (imported)

8. Nectarines

9. Peaches

10. Pears

11. Raspberries

12. Strawberries

Other foods to consider buying organic are dairy and meat products which may contain harmful hormones/antibiotics if not raised following government organic guidelines. 

Buyer beware: There are no USDA regulation standards for organic labeling on seafood.  Your best bet is to buy wild-raised over farm-raised, as these contain less mercury and PCB’s (harmful chemicals).

Do you buy organic for you and your family?

NY-based author and dietitian Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN, shares another veggie recipe for us from her book Feed Your Family Right: How to Make Smart Food and Fitness Choices for a Healthy Lifestyle (Wiley, 2007) . . .

Zesty Three Bean Salad

This delicious side dish provides a perfect vehicle for protein, fiber, and vegetables.  It’s a simple dish that takes little time to prepare.
Total preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes.
Makes 9 1-cup servings
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories 170  
Fat 4.5g
Saturated fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 470mg
Carbohydrate 24g
Fiber 7g
Sugars 4g
Protein 8g

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons light teriyaki sauce
2 teaspoon lime zest
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 15-ounce can chickpeas
1 15-ounce can black beans
1 15-ounce can kidney beans
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
salt & pepper to taste

In a large bowl combine olive oil with lime juice, teriyaki, lime zest, and cilantro. Toss in chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, red onion, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. Serve.
 
Cook’s tip: This dish gets even better if made ahead and chilled for 30 minutes or longer before serving. It can also be consumed in a larger portion as a main meal.

—

Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN | Registered Dietitian, Speaker, Freelance Writer | New York, New York

Marinated Carrots
Serves 4
 
6 carrots, cut into ¼ inch by 2 inch julienne pieces
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
Pinch of sugar
Black pepper to taste
 
Place carrots, garlic and ¼ cup water in a 1 quart casserole dish; cover and microwave on high power for 5-7 minutes, stirring midway, or until crisp-tender.
Immediately drain the carrots and garlic; transfer to a medium-sized bowl.
Add vinegar, olive oil, thyme and sugar and toss well.
Let cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Discard the garlic cloves and season with pepper.
 
Serving Size: ½ cup
Calories: 69
Total fat: 2.5
 
Recipe from Passover the Healthy Way Cookbook: Light, Tasty and Easy Recipes Your Whole Family Will Enjoy
 

Thai a Soba Noodle

Cool Thai Peanut Soba Noodles

Makes 10 servings: 1 cup each  

Cooking large batches of foods can help you leave a smaller environmental footprint. That’s because you’re only cooking once, instead of two, three, or more times. You’ll want this busload of noodles to come home to; they keep deliciously well for two to three days in the refrigerator. Go ahead and make the whole peanutty batch. Or throw a party—you’ll have plenty of noodles for everyone.

1/3 cup rice vinegar (preferably brown rice)

1/4 cup smooth unsalted natural peanut butter

Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons local fruit spread or homemade jam or 1 tablespoon mild floral honey

2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce, or to taste

1 tablespoon grated scrubbed unpeeled gingerroot

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

16 ounces soba noodles

2 cups mixed raw vegetables, such as thinly sliced cucumber, coarsely grated scrubbed unpeeled carrots, or mung bean sprouts

2 scallions, green and white parts, minced (optional)

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup finely chopped raw peanuts

1. Whisk together the vinegar, peanut butter, lime juice, oil, fruit spread, gingerroot, garlic, and hot pepper sauce in a large serving bowl. Set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups fresh water to a boil over high heat. Add the noodles and return to a boil. Cover with lid and turn off the heat. Let “lid cook” (cook covered while the burner is off) until the noodles are just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Drain well. (Do not rinse.)

3. Add the noodles to the serving bowl with the peanut sauce. Toss to coat. Let sit at room temperature to cool slightly, about 20 to 30 minutes. Toss occasionally to help prevent sticking. Then chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

4. Just before serving, splash with additional soy sauce, if desired. Toss or top the noodles with the vegetables, scallions (if using), cilantro, and peanuts. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Per serving: 250 calories, 8g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 0mg cholesterol, 550mg sodium, 39g total carbohydrate, 1g dietary fiber, 9g protein

Little Green Cooking Tip

Extra, extra! If a stovetop recipe stores well in the fridge for two or three days (or frozen for longer), make bigger batches so you don’t have to use the stove again to make additional batches.

Use It, Don’t Lose It

Don’t forget to recycle the little paper wrappers that usually hold together bundles of the soba noodles in their packages.

Reprinted with permission from Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent, RD (Wiley, 2009)

Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN, a NY-based dietitian and writer shares a recipe from her book, Feed Your Family Right: How to Make Smart Food and Fitness Choices for a Healthy Lifestyle (Wiley, 2007):

Cold Peanut Noodle & Vegetable Salad

This salad has a lot of crunch and provides a hearty and flavorful meal packed with protein and healthful monounsaturated fats.
Total preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information per serving:
Calories 330  
Fat 9g
Saturated fat 1g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 350mg
Carbohydrate 52g
Fiber 10g
Sugars 5g
Protein 13g
 
8 oz. whole wheat linguine noodles
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh scallion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup julienned cucumbers
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 cups shredded romaine lettuce
 
Cook noodles according to package directions, drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking and cool. While the noodles are cooking, in a large bowl whisk together ginger, garlic, peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and crushed red pepper (if desired) until well blended. Toss in noodles and then add scallion, cilantro, cucumbers, carrots and lettuce. Toss together until all the noodles and vegetables are coated. Garnish with additional chopped scallion and shredded carrots if desired. Serve cold.
 
Cook’s tip: You can substitute linguini for penne to provide added texture.

What do Popeye and Bugs Bunny have in common? 

They both loved their vegetables.  But even as kids, we weren’t fooled.  Spinach out of a can? …Raw carrots?  No, thanks. 

No wonder it has been so difficult to get children (and even adults) to meet the requirement of 3-5 servings a day.  Most of us know by now that we should be eating our vegetables, but the problem lies in that we’ve never been taught how to prepare these foods to make them burst with flavor! 

That’s why I’ve asked some dietitian colleagues to share their tips, and show how simple it can be to cook up some deliciously cruciferous (or non-cruciferous) dishes!

Roasted Veggies – Jessica Wegener, RD, LMNT

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash all veggies (your choice, from below) and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Place on a pan. Drizzle with olive oil; add pinch of salt and/or pepper to taste.  Shake pan to coat veggies.  Roast as determined below for different veggies:

Potatoes and onions 30 minutes

Asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, yellow/ green zucchini, bell peppers all colors 20 minutes

Sauteed Kale – Nancy Rogers, MS, RD

1 bunch of kale, wash and sort leaves, and loosely chop

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

~1 tbsp olive oil

¼ cup dry white wine

Heat olive oil in fry pan, add the garlic, then the kale, and toss until slightly wilted. Add the wine, cover and simmer on low heat until the kale is done to taste.

Sweet Potato Medallions – Casey Keane-Miller, RD

 3-4 medium sweet potatoes

Olive oil spray

Salt

Pepper

Red chile pepper flakes

Thinly slice sweet potatoes into medallions

Place in 11 x 13″ baking dish

Coat with olive oil spray

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste (a light dusting of all 3 usually works well)

Toss and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until soft

Fried Cabbage & Onions- Kim Fox, RD, LD, CDN

2-3 tsp butter

½ green cabbage

1 onion

Cut cabbage into ¼’s, clean and shred. Peel and cut onion. (I just slice. They pull apart as they cook.) Heat butter in fry pan. Add cabbage and onion. Occasionally stir until soft and light brown.

Summertime Grilled Veggies – Lisa Nelson, RD

2 cups chopped peppers (red, orange, yellow, and green)

1 cup chopped sweet potato

1/2 cup chopped white potato

1 Tbsp fresh garlic minced

1 Tbsp rosemary

1/2 Tbsp basil

Mix all ingredients in bowl and place in vegetable grilling tray. Grill until desired texture stirring occasionally. FYI – Adjust amount of basil, rosemay, and garlic to your taste preferences.

Easy Sweet Potato – Sandy Sfikas, RD, LDN

Microwave a sweet potato for about 4-5 minutes.

Melt one piece of Laughing Cow cheese (maybe microwave another 30 seconds).

Top with a little black pepper.

Fresh Spaghetti Sauce – Kathy Searles, MS, RD, LDN

Cut and saute an onion in olive oil.

Then add some chopped fresh tomatoes (whatever is available, but plum

tomatoes work especially well) and simmer. 

Then  add chopped fresh spinach and some (a generous amount) chopped fresh basil and simmer a few more minutes until the spinach is wilted and soft. 

Serve over favorite pasta with Parmesan cheese and some pepper.

Roasted Veggies – Jamie Futterman, RD, LD, CDE

My favorite is roasted broccoli and cauliflower with parmesan – using florets.

Line baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Spread out florets in single layer with some space between them.  Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and a tad of kosher salt.  Roast at 375 or 400 degrees, or until tender.  It also works well with chopped zucchini.

Sometimes, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Such was the case when I purchased a rather large container of firecracker red teardrop tomatoes. “I’ll eat them as a snack, “ I thought. And I did-for about a week. Funny, the level of tomatoes in the container never seemed to get much lower. Finally, I took a break from my lycopene filled treats. Fast forward a week later. My precious tomatoes had somehow made it to the back of the shelf and, oh my, they looked like they had stayed in the tub a bit too long. Wrinkled! I was horrified as I dislike greatly the act of throwing out food of any kind. After careful inspection and a quick taste test, they were deemed worthy to consume. But who would eat them looking so-so-so WRINKLED?

Out comes the baking sheet, a few yellow onions, a few cloves of garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. In less than 20 minutes, the tomatoes had transformed into a mouthwatering pizza topping for dinner that evening. There were plenty for leftovers for the week so they made appearances in pasta, fajitas, salad and soup. (just add stock of your choice and give it a whirl in the blender) It also makes for a killer bruschetta topping-add a little feta-or don’t-and you are good to go!

Easy Roasted Tomatoes and Onions

(note: there will not be any quantities listed as it is a quantity free recipe! Want more garlic than onions? Go for it! Mostly tomatoes and nothing else? Be my guest!)

Ingredients:

Tomatoes of any kind. If using small tomatoes such as teardrop or cherry, there is no need to slice them. If using Roma, Beefsteak or Heirloom, consider slicing into rounds
Yellow onions, roughly chopped into medium or large chunks
Garlic cloves, smashed
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450.  Using a baking sheet according to the amount of ingredients used, spread the tomatoes, onion chunks and smashed garlic cloves evenly. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan.  Lightly coat the vegetables with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Using your hands, gently toss the mixture to evenly distribute the oil, salt and pepper over the vegetables. Insert the pan into the oven and check it occasionally. You may need to toss or gently stir the mixture once while cooking.  Remove the pan once the vegetables are done to your likeness.

Using a whole wheat pizza crust, spread the mixture on the bottom of the crust. Alternately, you may use a jarred pizza or marinara sauce instead and add the mixture as a topping. Add other toppings as desired and top with mozzarella cheese. Cook according to directions.

——–
Robin Plotkin, RD, LD, is a Culinary and Nutrition Communications Consultant and a Registered and Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist in Texas.