Sunday 1 December 2013

A Salad a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

The best way to stay healthy and lose weight is by eating healthy foods. The only way to lose certain weight is through your diet. For example, many people believe that they can get abs from doing daily crunches, however, they will never achieve abs from this; It takes dieting to lose weight in your stomach.

This article is going to provide several salad recipes that will contribute to your health. But if you are looking to lose weight, this article will also benefit you, because dieting is about 80 percent of weight loss. I've searched and browsed through many different websites to find some of the best tasting, and healthy salads. I'm going to provide the recipes for the top 3 that I think would taste the best.

The first salad is the Fiesta Bowl Salad:
Fiesta Bowl Salad
Here are the ingredients you will need:

1/4 cup black beans
1/4 cup cubed avocados
1/4 cup corn
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 lime, juiced
2 cups romaine lettuce
Here's how you make it:

Combine 1/4 cup each canned black beans (rinsedand drained), chopped avocado, canned corn (drained), and chopped cherry tomatoes with the juice of 1/2 fresh lime and salt to taste. Serve on top of 2 cups of romaine lettuce.

The second salad is the Curried Quinoa Salad:

Curried Quinoa Salad

Here are the ingredients you will need:

1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup carrots, shredded
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1/4 cup chickpeas
salt & pepper
Here's how you make it:

Boil 1/2 cup water; add 1/4 cup quinoa and 1/2 teaspoon curry powder. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand for10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add 1/2 cup shredded carrots, 2 tablespoons dried cranberries, 1/4 cup canned chickpeas (rinsed and drained) and salt and pepper to taste.

The third sald is the Spicy Green Salad with Soy & Roasted Garlic Dressing:

Spicy Green Salad Soy Garlic Dressing

Here are the ingredients you will need:

 (Dressing)

1 head garlic
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 lime (juice)
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
(Salad)

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon plus pinch of salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 small clove garlic
2 cups baby mizuna, baby kale or Asian salad mix
2 cups baby red mustard greens, tatsoi or watercress (any tough stems removed)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
Here's how you make it:

1. To prepare dressing: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Rub excess papery skin off garlic head without separating cloves.Slice the tip off, exposing the ends of the cloves. Place the garlichead on a piece of foil, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and wrapinto a package. Put in a baking dish and bake until the garlic is verysoft, 40 minutes to 1 hour. Unwrap and let cool slightly. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees.

3. Squeeze the garlic pulp into a blender or food processor (discard the skins).Add the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, lime juice, vinegar, ginger, sesameoil, and soy sauce; blend or process until smooth. Season with pepper.

4. To prepare salad: Toss asparagus with 2 teaspoons oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt andpepper in a large bowl. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast,stirring once halfway through, until tender and browned, 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, season a wooden salad bowl by rubbing with 1/2 clove garlic and a pinch of salt. Chop the garlic and add to the bowl along with all the greens.(If leaves are large, tear them into bite-size pieces first.) Pour 1/4 cup ofthe dressing over the greens. (Cover and refrigerate the remaining 1/2 cup dressingfor up to 3 days.) Sprinkle the salad with sesame seeds and the asparagus; toss and serve.

The first two salads are pretty easy to make, but the last one is more difficult and takes much more time than the others. If you'd like to see the original post of the first salad, click here. The second was found at the same website as the first one, and then the last salad was found here.

There are different results that each one of these salads can give you. I chose these three salads, because they have much different ingredients, which means they will produce much different results.

1. The first salad contains black beans and corn as one of the ingredients. The black beans and corn are extremely good for your digestive tract and if you are having any problems with constipation or hemorrhoids, then this is a great salad for you to consume.

Avocados, another ingredient in this salad, is great for your heart. Supposedly, one cup has 23% of the recommended daily value of folate. And when you eat diets that are rich in folate, you have a much lower chance of heart disease.

2. The second salad contains quinoa, which is considered a whole grain, but it is actually a seed and can be prepared like whole grains such as rice or barley. Quinoa has several health benefits, such as brain health, digestive health, and bone health.

One cup of quinoa offers 15% of the daily recommendation of iron, which helps deliver oxygen to the blood, which boosts energy and brain power.

Quinoa is a source of complex carbohydrates and is rich in fiber, meaning it will aid in digestion.

Quinoa is a source of plant-derived calcium, meaning it builds calcium and maintains bones and teeth.

The next ingredient, curry, aids in cognition functioning and cancer prevention.
Last, there are many vegetables in this salad that also have tremendous health benefits. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots all maintain different body functions and maintain the health of our bodies.

3. The last salad is packed full of healthy ingredients. First of all, garlic is extremely good for you in that it contains an anti-cancer agent called Germanium, it helps regulate the body's blood pressure, and it helps the body's defenses against allergies.

The next ingredient, ginger, helps in colon and ovarian cancer prevention. There are also many temporary symptoms that ginger can treat, such as morning sickness, motion sickness, heartburn relief, migraine relief, and menstrual cramp relief.

The fact that this is a spicy salad gives it many health benefits as well. Spicy foods can aid in weight loss, heart health, cancer prevention, and it can lower blood pressure. If you're looking to lose weight, then you should most likely choose the last salad, because consuming spicy foods is one of the best ways to lose weight. Spicy foods aid in weight loss by speeding up your metabolism.

Overall, salads have incredible benefits that people do not even realize. Often, we just stick to the casual iceberg lettuce with a few tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe some lean turkey. But I hope this article made you inspired to step out of your comfort zone and try some yummy, healthy salads that will give your body tremendous health benefits. One last thing, if you are having a healthy week and you have not binged at all, feel free to reward yourself with this recipe. It does not hurt to binge one day out of the week, especially if it is considered a "reward".

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