Big aim of the day is to start eating much healthier.  I am going to focus on foods that are nutrient dense.

Nutrient Density is used to measure how many nutrients are in a food compared to how many calories they contain.  Foods with a higher nutrient density value contain more nutrients for each calorie consumed than foods with a lower nutrient density value.  A site I often use to check the nutritional value of foods is The World’s Healthiest Foods.  They give a basic explanation of nutrient density here.

Wholefoods Market uses ANDI scores – “ANDI stands for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. An ANDI score shows the nutrient density of a food on a scale from 1 to 1000 based on nutrient content. ANDI scores are calculated by evaluating an extensive range of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidant capacities”.  You can look up the ANDI scores on the Wholefoods website here.  It is very interesting.  The highest scores are some of the green leaved plants: mustard, turnip and collard greens and kale and watercress.  So I am going to make sure I eat lots of those.  Where can I buy collard greens?

The ANDI score is very interesting but be aware that you must also eat some of the foods that have a lower score because they have calculated the score against calorie values.  Some of the lower scoring foods, such as healthy fats are essential for health.  Being mindful of that, I am going to try and add more of the higher scoring foods in to my diet on a daily basis and also ensure I include the healthy foods even though they have lower scores.

So, having said all that, how did I do today?

I began the day with a green smoothie.

A huge handful of spinach (especially good for vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin C, tryptophan, calcium and potassium).

4 dates (useful amounts of fibre, copper, calcium, potassium).

1 cup of cottage cheese (low fat source of protein and useful amounts of Riboflavin, Vitamin B12, calcium, phosphorus and selenium).

1 cup of hemp milk (good source of protein, essential fatty acids, iron, magnesium and zinc).

1 cup of frozen berries (excellent source of vitamin C plus vitamin K, manganese and fibre).

Le voila, a green smoothie, that came out brown again!

For lunch I made a black bean salad recipe from WH Foods and you can find their recipe here.

Black Bean Salad

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 shallots, very finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, finely pressed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp walnut oil
• juice from 1 lemon (approx 3 tbsp)
• 1 red pepper
• 2 large or 8 cherry tomatoes, diced
• kernels from 1 corn cob
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• salt and pepper

To make it you put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well and serve.

I served this with mixed lettuce leaves and some of the butternut squash I roasted the other day.

I completely enjoyed this lunch.  It was very tasty, colourful, good variety of textures and I knew it was packing in the nutrients.  This would be suitable for vegans.

The male members of the family had a small portion of black bean salad with a chicken and mushroom pie.  Left to their own devices, they would have been perfectly content with pie alone.  However, we negotiated.  I said they shouldn’t have pie at all as it is unhealthy so they had it with salad.  I thinks that’s a good compromise.  I was really pleased when James asked if he could have some more black bean salad 🙂

I bought some cranberries last week as several of the magazines I brought back from Florida had cranberry recipes in them.  Not just because it was Thanksgiving but because it is cranberry season.  I had noticed 2 recipes fro cranberries with pork chops and we were having pork chops.  I didn’t have the correct ingredients so I made up my own sauce and served it with the pork.

Cranberry and Orange Sauce

Ingredients

• 200 g cranberries
• pith and juice of 1 orange
• 1 star anise
•  ¼ cup of brown sugar

Method

• wash and drain cranberries and place in small saucepan
• add pith and juice of orange, star anise and brown sugar
• bring to the boil, simmer for 15 minutes with lid on, stirring occasionally
• turn off and leave with the lid on to cool

Cranberries and orange pith are so vibrant.  Cranberries are an excellent source of phytonutrients and antioxidants.

Star anise adds an interesting flavour.

Cranberry sauce – such a vibrant and jewel like colour.

Pork chop, cranberry sauce, Hasselback potatoes, green beans, carrots and broccoli.

Hasselback potatoes are made by thinly slicing the potato about 3/4 of the way down, basting with melted butter and oil.  They take about an hour to cook in a hot oven (200 ° C).  They are crispy on top and soft potato near the bottom.  Delicious.  High in fat for a healthy diet but as a little treat, delicious.

To be healthy we have to exercise and today was perfect walking weather.  The Autumn leaves were absolutely stunning.

This must surely be the most colourful time of year!

Don’t let the sunshine,  shorts and t-shirt fool you.  It was only 5 ° outside!

But someone can not resist jumping in puddles.

He nearly fell this time but managed to regain balance just in time.

We didn’t suddenly walk in to a low cloud – Harvey was steaming!

Walking in the forest today was incredibly beautiful.  The colours were so intense and the air was so clear.  It was stunning.  I ate really well, apart from the wine I am enjoying just now.  Cheers 🙂