Eat Healthier in 2016

Bok choy (chinese cabbage)The new year is here and your list of resolutions is most likely full and a little daunting. Surely one of your top goals for the year is to eat healthier! That’s a New Year’s resolution to keep for this year and every year! And Stewart’s is your local source for the freshest, healthiest foods, making it easy for you to eat healthy. Here is a list of easy and high on nutrition “super foods” that you need to add to your diet.

Kale
No surprise here. This nutritional powerhouse is in fact the most nutrient rich natural food source on earth! Packed with antioxidants vitamin C, beta-carotene, kaempferol and quercetin, this cabbage variant  should be your new leafy salad ingredient. From vitamin A, K, C and B6 to calcium, magnesium and potassium, you name it and Kale has it and then some! Best of all, Kale helps you lose weight! 100 grams of raw kale only has about 40 calories in total while giving all these nutrients! Just drizzle kale leaves with some olive oil, sprinkle some salt on them and bake to make your own kale chips. Good substitutes for kale in recipes: rapini, collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, napa cabbage, kohlrabi leaves and spinach.
Avocado
Not only full of delicious flavor, Avocados offer so many health benefits. Recent prominent studies prove that avocado increases cognitive function, improves blood pressure, lowers blood sugar, and improves cardiovascular health. They are high in the good fat that helps lower bad cholesterol. But in the case of Avocado, which is high in calories, eating too much may not be the best thing so best to enjoy in moderation, just like most great things! They call Avocado nature’s butter so use accordingly – as a healthy sub for butter.
Bok Choy
Another leafy powerhouse vegetable to enjoy more of this year is Bok Choy or Chinese Cabbage.  Bok Choy’s small leaves pack big amount of nutrients. Bok choy provides over 70 antioxidants, as well as high levels of Vitamin A, which promotes better eyesight. The antioxidant nutrients also give anti-inflammatory benefits and reducing the risk of persistent inflammation. The healthiest and simplest way to enjoy bok choy is making a soup out of it with vegetable stock or  subbing it in salads and stir-frys. Once you try it, Bok Choy will fast become a staple of your diet.
These 3 super foods are a great start but are just the tip of the iceberg!
A healthy fresh curly kale
Slices of fresh ripe avocado on a dark wooden table

Sources: Healwithfood.org, Womansera.com, Healthy Living.

Jeanette’s Breakfast Smashed Avocado Tomato Toast

Jeanette Chen from Jeanette’s Healthy Living recently had relative’s come to stay from Taiwan. In Taiwan, avocado is often served as a sweet drink, a smoothie of sorts. So, she decided to make this savory breakfast with avocado, which was new and different to her guests. She simply smashed some avocado with a little lemon juice and sea salt, spread it on toast, topped it with a lightly fried or poached egg, and then added a few slices of tomatoes on top. The local tomato crop is abundant at the store right now along with fresh organic avocados! Great breakfast option.

Breakfast Smashed Avocado Tomato Toast with Fried Poached Egg
I lightly fried Sous Vide Poached Eggs but you can just use regular poached eggs or fried eggs. Broil the tomato on top if you like.
Ingredients
2 slices gluten-free or whole grain toast
1 avocado
1 wedge lemon
sea salt
2 fried eggs
1 tomato, sliced
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Directions
1. Mash avocado with juice from lemon wedge and sea salt to taste. Spread on top of toast. Top
with fried egg and fresh tomato slices. Season with a little salt and fresh ground pepper.

Click here to enjoy this recipe