We’re starting a NEW feature today called YOUR HEALTHY TABLE!  Through the coming weeks and months I’ll post menus for your days with added attention to including ingredients that are at hand and in season.   They won’t always be as elaborate as this one, but I thought it would be nice to kick off this feature with a special day’s worth of menus!

#1 Breakfast

For breakfast I had a green smoothie.  I put these items into the Vitamix, in the following order, and my smoothie was gorgeous and delicious and nutritious!

1 small banana

1 small apple, peeled and cored

2 cups fresh baby spinach, rinsed and dried

1/2 cup almond milk

1 tablespoon chia seeds

6-8 ice cubes

Blend the ingredients on the highest setting for up to 60 seconds, and then drink it up!

******************************************************************************

#2 Lunch

Saturday lunches have always been a special family affair in our home.  Here’s what was on the table yesterday:

chicken wings and breasts, roasted with turmeric, mustard, paprika, and onions

spinach salad tossed with olive oil, oregano, thyme, and salt

asparagus spears roasted with olive oil and salt

guacamole (3 avocadoes, 1 large tomato, juice of 1 lemon, a lot of hot sauce, generous shakes of garlic powder, and pinch of salt)

[whole grain] rye bread

sweet corn on the cob, served cold

homemade cucumber pickles

and cherries!

*******************************************************************************

#3 Dinner

For dinner we ate leftover asparagus, guacamole, and most of the cherries, along with a glass of red wine.

————————————————————————————-

If you’ve never been on “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, and you’re not sure where to start, visit Lets Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart on preventing diabetes and obesity in yourself and the ones you love!!

—————————————————————————————————————-

Then, scroll down and check out “A Milestone Celebration — Your Favorite Posts” to find a list of great blog entries!

—————————————————————————————————————-

Follow Dr Sukol on Twitter @RoxanneSukolMD.  

To comment on this post, follow Dr Sukol on Facebook at Roxanne Breines Sukol.

My friend Shoshi made this up!  She says that the longer you let it marinate, the better it gets.  It was delicious on day one, and tasted better on day two, and even better on day three.  I don’t think there was any left after that.

Our friend made orange roughy for dinner last Friday night (which we all ate along with a terrific red cabbage salad, quinoa, fresh fruit, blueberry muffins, and white wine) and it was so good that I got the recipe to share with you.  I ate very, very slowly to make the flavor last for a long time.

Lay 4 filets of orange roughy on a cookie sheet.

Brush with olive oil and minced garlic.

Season the filets with sea salt, paprika, and fresh ground pepper. 

Cook on medium high heat on one side only until the filets are white and flaky but still moist. Sprinkle with fresh parsley just before serving. 

A friend recently said that once you taste grilled pineapple, you will never again eat it any other way!  Peel it, slice it, and core it.  Then grill it, one side at a time, until you see grill marks.  This is an amazing invention.  

Learned an awesome trick from the folks at Vitamix this week:

Into your Vitamix place 1 cup of almonds and 3 cups of water, and then “spin it for a minute!”  That’s all there is to it.

On the other hand:
If you want it warm, spin it longer. 
If you want it vanilla, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
If you want it ginger, add approx. 1 teaspoon raw ginger root.
If you want it sweet, add 1 tablespoon honey.
If you want it strained, then pour it through a few layers of cheesecloth.

Like I said, that’s all there is to it.  Thank you, Vitamix.
——————————————————————————————–

My folks came for a long visit this past weekend, and we were thrilled when my father, otherwise known as Chef Ira, agreed to cook Friday dinner while the rest of us spent the day at work.  The menu was so great: roasted chicken with diced potatoes, pan-fried Brussels sprouts with caramelized onions, grilled asparagus, and chopped salad.  His chopped salad is “to die for!”  I posted a recipe for it once before on this website, but this is a slightly different version, and worth learning how to make.

When I arrived home from work, Dad had already chopped up 2 tomatoes, 1 vidalia onion, and 2 red peppers into small pieces, and they were sitting in a bowl in the refrigerator.  I broke apart one head of romaine lettuce, rinsed it thoroughly, shook off the excess water, and set it aside.  I did not dry it thoroughly; Dad says you want that little bit of water on the leaves to fall to the bottom of the bowl to become dressing.  I broke apart the lettuce leaves into small, bite-size pieces and put them into the salad bowl along with the tomatoes, onion and red pepper.  

Then I poured 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons kosher salt, a generous sprinkle of garlic powder, and the juice of 2 lemons onto the salad and tossed it thoroughly.  

As usual, it was amaaaaa-zing.  Thanks, Chef Ira!

Like many great discoveries, this one was an accident.  And, boy, was I happy to have made it. This is one of the best smoothies I’ve tasted.  You can use cocoa powder instead of the carob powder if you choose, but don’t substitute “hot cocoa mix.”