Celeriac Salad with Orange Juice

This is a fantastic recipe from Switzerland. You will absolutely love it. Serve the salad with some steak or chicken. It will be great for summer picnics as well.

What you will need:

• 1/2 Celeriac
• 1 Juicing Orange
• couple of tbsp of home made mayo (or bought)
• sea salt
• garlic salt to taste
• Optional add some diced pineapple

The easiest way to do this is with a food processor. If you don’t have one, I really encourage you to invest about $160 into a good quality food processor for quick lunches and last minute dinners.

Here we go. Clean the celeriac first. The fastest way is to cut the tough stuff off with the knife and switch to a peeler after that. It takes some practice to wrestle with the celeriac root, but it’s so worth it.

Prepare the dressing first. Take 2-3 tbsp of the mayo and mix it with the orange juice. Cut the celeriac into manageable pieces. Grate them in the food processor or by hand (I do not recommend this, too dangerous). Immediately mix the celeriac with the dressing and season to taste with some garlic salt and finish off with sea salt.

Serve this delicious salad as is or with fresh whole grain bread. This is also great for kids lunches and for afternoon snacks. I love this recipe with some grilled salmon fillet or with grilled chicken. Talking about low carbs!

If you like this recipe and would like to get more suggestions like this, sign up with your email address. Share this with your friends if you enjoyed this post.

Monika Baechler

10 Secrets for a Healthy Weight

Were you wondering about the most important rules to stay healthy and fit?

This is a free list for you to keep on your fridge as a reminder. You can also refer to my Food Pyramid as guidance. My complete e-book for healthy lifestyle and positive habits is coming soon. Loosing weight is not easy and it certainly wasn’t easy for me. The rules on the list helped me get back in shape after having the kids. This ebook is free, just sign up to download, cheers.

If you are unsure about something please ask your doctor.

DOWNLOAD

“Sticking With It in 2010″ The New Years Resolution Help book

“Sticking With It in  2010″

How can you be successful and stick with your New Years Resolution past January?

8-week program to help you develop positive habits and sticking with them for life – starting today!

This is a FREE gift to you, no kidding, this 8-week program to help you with your resolutions this year is a FREE gift to you for the New Year, enjoy!

By Monika Baechler

Download for FREE

Here is a Method That is Helping the Swiss to stay Slim

Salad, comes from the Latin word herba salata and literally means salted vegetables. The Greek and Romans enjoyed salad often and ate the raw greens and vegetables with salt and herbs, hence the name salad – salted vegetables.

Growing up in Switzerland I never got the concept of eating your salad before your meal. It was just something my Hungarian family didn’t do. As a teen I started to understand why one should eat the salad first and follow it with soup and main course. You can cut calories by about 500. Another reason is, the vinegar in the salad dressing will get your stomach acid going so it can be ready to digest the main dish you are about to eat. Smart eh?

Raw salads should consist of:

• leafy greens
• raw root vegetables
• the fruit of the vegetable like tomato, zucchini and peppers
• as well as nuts and seeds

Switching your vegetables everyday is your best bet. You can switch also the colors and spices from spicy to sweet dressing and so forth.

Can you imagine how easy it would be for everybody to loose weight with eating a plate of raw veg salad everyday. Salads don’t have to be rabbit food. Salads are colorful, exciting, tasty, juicy and most importantly healthy and delicious. The crunch will satisfy your cravings and make your jaws work, the more you chew the more vitamins and minerals you get out of your food. It will also take you longer to eat your salad, since chewing raw vegetables is really hard work. Longer meals means less calories consumed and less calories consumed mean less pounds on the scale. Let me explain the last sentence, taking your time with eating means your stomach has the time it takes – about 20-30 min – to signal your brain that you are in fact full. Eating slowly also means that when your brain tells you that you are full you can actually stop eating before emptying the whole plate or bag of chips.

Salads as appetizers should always be on a vinaigrette base and not a cream, mayo or cheese base. Calories from the vinaigrette dressing is less than the mayo base and less will stick to your salad and vegetables as well to your thighs. Keep mayo and cream sauces to a minimum and replace them with a natural yogurt base.

How to put it all in action:

• eat fruit salads or fruit smoothies for breakfast
• serve freshly prepared salads as a appetizer
• introduce children to raw vegetables with hummus dips
• have a leaf and vegetable salad as dinner

Are you aware that raw vegetables are really inexpensive? Yes, I’m not kidding. In season vegetables and fruits are inexpensive and available in you grocery store as very fresh and delicious produce. Fresh and local produce is very high in vitamins and minerals. Always choose the local produce vs the imported ones, it’s healthier and the price is better. Buying a cart full of vegetables is less expensive than buying all the junk food and manufactured empty calories. Your body does not get any satisfaction from eating manufactured foods, so pile up your cart with lots of local veg and fruits the next time you go to the local market.

These days we love to start our main meals with some salad or have a raw salad as dinner. Even as a snack it’s great. Children particularly love the crunchy stuff with dips and sauces.

Stay Healthy!

Monika Baechler

Do you have Anemia – Iron- deficiency?

People who have anemia, which means “no blood” in Greek, do have plenty of blood. The problem is that the red blood cells are not carrying their usual capacity for energy-giving oxygen like in healthy people.

When you are not getting enough iron in your diet or you are loosing blood like women as a result of menstruation, the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood can drop suddenly.

You will feel the effects pretty rapidly. Anemia can bring on low energy, sluggish and weak feeling and brain fog or a feeling of cloudy brain. Oh, you will feel pretty cold all the time. The estimation in the US is about one-third of women have low iron stores and are at high risk to develop anemia.

Fortunately, it’s a very easy problem to correct. The antidote is a very delicious and easy to get – FOOD.

How hard is it to get enough iron in food? Well, it’s not as hard for meat eater as for vegetarians. Meats contain a large amount of iron. For example, 3 ounces of blue mussels has 3 milligrams, and 3 ounces of roasted turkey has 1 milligram of iron. If you are a vegetarian you will have to pay extra attention to your iron intake. A 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin has 2 milligrams and kidney beans and lentils have 3 milligrams in a 1/2 cup. There is enough iron in these foods but the problem could be something called bioavailability.

Bioavailability means: how well our bodies absorb the nutrients we eat. Did you know, that there are two different levels of bioavailability. Iron which we get from meats it’s called heme iron (from hemoglobin – red blood cells) and it’s very easily absorbed by our bodies. The plant based iron found in plant foods is called nonheme, this iron is not so easy to absorb.

If you combine iron foods with vitamin C, you can boost the bioavailability of the iron in the food. You don’t have to worry how much iron food with how much of the vitamin C rich foods, it’s not very important.

How can you boost your iron stores?

Let’s see, if you like clams, meats, legumes and vegetables your in luck, they all contain a good source of iron. Just remember that vitamin C can boost your iron absorption by up to 50%, which is a huge amount. Great vitamin C amounts are in tomatoes, potatoes (eat with skin), lemon dressing on salad, orange juice, pinaplle juice.

NEVER eat iron foods with calcium foods (dairy). They kind of clash and calcium hinders you from absorbing the iron. Keep calcium and iron rich foods apart, at least 3-4 hours.

Vegetarian be ware! You have to watch out and make sure you put extra thought into iron rich foods. Good options are cream of wheat cereals, pumpkin seeds, lentils, kidney beans, pinto, black beans, and split peas. Make sure you supplement your diet with B12 Vitamins if you are a strict vegetarian. Low B12 Vitamins in the body could cause fatigue and tingling in your hands and feet.

Cheers

Monika

Scientific gibberish, How to read Food Labels

Identifying “funny” things that are added to your food is hard work. For many people all that gibberish on food labels sounds like a different language. Many people wonder if calcium propionate added to our bread is necessary or would potato chips be potato chips without BHA. If you never had to read or understand the food label, you probably never had reactions or allergies to food additives. Food additives are used in food manufacturing to make food saver for consumption, improve color and flavor as well as texture. Some individuals are sensitive or even allerigc to some of the additives, like my mom: She is sensitive to all preservatives and some colors in foods. (her skin on fingertips crack and peel off)

Did you know that some people are so sensitive to sulfites that the individual can get deadly asthmatic reactions to the food? Watch out for restaurant foods as well. Some restaurants prepare their potato dishes with soaking them first in a sulfite solution before cooking.

I’m including an additive list with its functions in foods and an example list where it would be used Download!

If you think you could be sensitive to some food additives please contact your medical professional.

Monika

Vitamin & Supplement Glossary

Amino Acids. The building blocks that make up proteins. Humans need 20 different amino acids to function properly. Some are made by the body. Others, called essential amino acids, must be obtained from foods.

Antioxidant. Substances, like vitamins A, C, E, and beta-carotene, that protect your body from the damage of oxidation caused by free radicals.

Botanicals. Substances obtained from plants and used in food supplements, personal care products, or pharmaceuticals.

Daily Value. Found on food and drink nutrition labels, this number tells you the percentage of the recommended dietary allowance provided by one serving of the food or drink in question.

Fat Soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K, are absorbed by the body with dietary fats. Your body stores excess fat-soluble vitamins in your liver and body fat, then uses them as needed. Ingesting more fat-soluble vitamins than you need can be toxic, causing side-effects like nausea, vomiting, and liver and heart problems.

Fortify. To increase a food or drink’s nutritional value by adding vitamins, minerals, or other substances. For example, milk is fortified with vitamins A and D.

Free Radicals. An atom or molecule with at least one unpaired electron, making it unstable and reactive. When free radicals react with certain chemicals in the body, they may interfere with the ability of cells to function normally. Antioxidants can stabilize free radicals.

Herb. Herbs are plants used as flavorings in cooking, but herbs can also be used as supplements for health or medicinal reasons.

Megadose. Supplements that provide more than 100% of the daily value of the body’s required vitamins and minerals.

Micronutrients. The name given to vitamins and minerals because your body needs them in small amounts. Micronutrients are vital to your body’s ability to process the “macronutrients:” fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Minerals. Nutrients found in the earth or water and absorbed by plants and animals for proper nutrition. Minerals are the main component of teeth and bones, and help build cells and support nerve impulses, among other things.

Multivitamin. A pill, beverage, or other substance containing more than one vitamin.

Oxidation. A chemical reaction in which oxygen combines with a substance, changing or destroying its normal function. Oxidation can damage cell membranes and interfere with a cell’s regulatory systems.

Phytochemicals. Health-protecting compounds found in fruits, vegetables, and other plants. Phytochemicals (sometimes called phytonutrients) include beta-carotene, lycopene, and resveratrol.

Prenatal Vitamins. Specially formulated multivitamins that ensure a pregnant woman gets enough essential micronutrients. Prenatal supplements generally contain more folic acid, iron, and calcium than standard adult supplements.

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). The amount of nutrients needed daily to maintain good health in most people.

Supplements. Vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other substances taken orally and meant to correct deficiencies in the diet.

Vitamins. Naturally found in plants and animals, vitamins are vital to growth, energy, and nerve function. There are two types of vitamins used by the body to support health: fat-soluble and water-soluble.

Water-Soluble. Water-soluble vitamins like B-6, C, and folic acid are easily absorbed by the body. Your body uses the vitamins it needs, then excretes excess water-soluble vitamins in urine. Because these vitamins are not stored in the body, there is less risk of toxicity than with fat-soluble vitamins.