©iStockphoto.com - SharonDay

For a quick healthy meal, try this delicious spinach salad with figs and walnuts.

Spinach is a green leafy vegetable with abundant vitamins. It offers many health benefits with its rich nutrients like iron and fiber. It also contains very good amounts of magnesium, potassium, iron and calcium. Copper, phosphorous, zinc are all found in good amounts in spinach. (continue reading…)

ⓒ iStockPhoto - kcline

What’s a backyard barbecue without potato salad? If your normal recipe calls for hard-boiled eggs or other ingredients you don’t have prepared and ready, tossing a side dish together could be a two-day chore. Instead, try this simple recipe. It’s kid-friendly, fast, and delicious!

Use waxy potatoes with the skins left on; the potatoes won’t break apart and the skin adds extra fiber and protein. If you want a little more excitement, it’s easy to dress up this salad with diced bill pepper, scallions, roasted corn kernels, or even some grilled veggies. For a vegan version, use non-dairy sour cream. (continue reading…)

After a long winter of eating root vegetables the first greens of spring are a breath of fresh air. Dark leafy greens are also one of the most nutritionally sound foods that people can add to their diets. Just one cup of kale provides 6% of the recommended daily value of iron, 9% calcium, 134% Vitamin C, and 206% of your daily dose of Vitamin A!

Kale is a hearty plant; it can be found in most regions from June through November, can withstand cold temperatures (even frost) and is easy to grow in a home garden. Whether you grow your own or buy kale from the grocery store or farmer’s market, it’s an amazing food to incorporate into your meals. It’s great sauteed, braised, made into chips, or stirred into soups. One of my favorite ways to prepare it is raw in a salad. Take it to a potluck or barbecue and improve the health of your family and friends one salad at a time! (continue reading…)

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A small amount of sugar is necessary in quick breads to ensure a moist loaf, but this whole grain quick bread gets most of its sweetness from raisins. For the moistest bread and the richest banana flavor, use bananas that have turned brown.

Make this recipe vegan by increasing the mashed banana to 2 1/4 cups and omitting the egg and yogurt, while using a vegan granulated sweetener like beet sugar, date sugar or maple sugar instead of the raw sugar.

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ⓒ iStockPhoto - Hatman12

While strawberry season is almost over in California and Florida, most of the country is just getting ready for these delicious signs of sunshine and long-awaited warmer weather. Strawberries have very thin skin, and conventionally grown berries absorb those chemicals when sprayed with pesticides. Always opt for organic berries when possible and try to find a local source for the easily-bruised fruit since they have a short shelf life.

My favorite place to find juicy, ripe berries is at a pick-you-own berry farm. Bring your own containers and pay by the pound for the best sun-ripened strawberries. Fresh berries don’t last long at our house. However, if I have some left I love to make chocolate-covered strawberries. Those expensive ones for sale at high-end chocolate shops are conventional berries ripened with gas, not sunshine, and coated in chocolate mixed with wax! A little time and a piece of waxed paper can give you your own organic gourmet dessert with no added sugar. While I provide temperatures for the process, I have never used a thermometer for this method and it has worked every time.

Don’t be scared by the length of the directions! The process is quite simple, though I explain in detail to avoid problems. (continue reading…)

These two recipes call for frozen spinach, but you can just as easily use fresh, cooked spinach in either one.

Special Mushroom Spinach

If you are a mushroom lover, you will surely like this combination of spinach and mushroom with cheese, pepper and broth. This recipe can easily be made in large portions for parties and potlucks. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Fertnig

Tn addition to the peas, and pods of edible-podded pea varieties, the leaves and stems of garden peas, snap peas and snow peas (but not ornamental sweet peas) are edible. If you’re looking for a unique leafy green, consider pea tendrils. The flavor is, unsurprisingly, similar to the flavor of snow pea pods.

Pea tendrils aren’t your standard supermarket fare. Some specialty Asian grocers sell them, sometimes marketed as pea shoots. You can also grow them yourself in a container. Any pea seed from the garden center will work. If you want 100% organic sprouts, use the certified organic seeds and organic potting mix. Sow the seed thickly in a pot, water and wait. When the sprouts are 3-4 inches tall, cut the leaves and tendrils and use raw in salads or cooked in stir-fries or dishes like the citrus-glazed pea shoots over rice, below. (continue reading…)