Stephanie Pedersen's Blog, page 4
March 4, 2017
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February 28, 2017
Kids Can Love Roots!
Root vegetables are nutrient dense foods. They’re economical. They store for a long time. They are found at almost every market around. And they are tremendously versatile. All good reasons to keep them in your kitchen. But, they are often shunned by kids—especially picky kids.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get your kids to eat root veggies daily. As I mentioned early, they are packed with nutrients, including fiber (something most American kids don’t get enough of), minerals and vitamins. But they also contain something else—something special called phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are the substances that give plants their color and they are powerful tools in keeping us healthy. Phytonutrients are natural inflammatory ingredients reduce the inflammation that can cause chronic disease, such as asthma, heart disease, joint disease and heart disease, as well as cancer. Phytonutrients also help keep the eyes healthy by protecting you from cataracts, macular degeneration, and other eye diseases. Plus, they help strengthen the immune system—important for school-age children who need strong immune systems to ward off the colds, flues and other viruses that seem to thrive in classrooms.
Note: Yes, white potatoes are root veggies. And yes, they are America’s favorite plant food. But when I say “root veggies,” I mean all roots BUT potatoes, which don’t have a lot of nutritive value and, sadly, contribute to high blood sugar. So think sweet potatoes. Think celeriac. Think turnips and rutabagas and burdock and beets. Just don’t think of Russet potatoes.
But back to your kids: How can you get your kids to eat root veggies? Yes, roots are sweet, but many kids think they taste like dirt. Or have a funny after taste. Or, strangely enough, are too sweet.
If you have one of these kids, don’t give up. A daily serving of root vegetables—any root, from carrot to beets to rutabaga—is so essential to your child’s short-term and long-term health, that it warrants your persistence. In other words, keep trying to find ways to get root veggies into your kid. Here are 5 tricks that work with my own kids:
* Serve them raw. Carrot sticks taste different than steamed carrots. Which taste different than roasted carrots. Which taste different than sautéed or braised or stir-fried carrots. One of my kids will grudgingly eat root veggies raw and yet won’t go near a cooked root. The crunchy texture and clean, uncomplicated taste of raw root veggies makes them an easier sell for kids who loathe cooked vegetables. A few raw roots to try: Jicama, young turnip (yummy raw!), carrots, and radish. Serve with a side of hummus, white bean dip, guacamole or salsa if that will entice your kid to finish his veggies.
* Cube them small and roast them until caramelized. Caramelized food is irresistible to both adults and children. Take advantage of this by cubing a variety of root veggies (I like beets, carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnips) into ¼-inch to 1/2-inch cubes. Preheat the oven to 425, dump the root cubes in a mixing bowl and toss with just barely enough extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil to glisten—as well as salt and pepper to taste—and lay in a single later on one or more baking sheets. Place in the oven and roast until well-carmelized (almost burnt). I don’t even turn them. I simply stick them in the oven and allow them to roast for 20 or so minutes.
* Puree them and sneak them into things. Each week I boil or bake (wrapped in foil and put in a 350 oven) a few root veggies. Once they are soft, I puree them in a food processor until they are a smooth, silky paste. I then add a tablespoon or so of root puree to my recipes. Meat loaf, chili, soups, pancakes, muffins, meatballs, salad dressing, smoothies—you name it, it’s probably a great place to sneak in a tablespoon or two of puree. It’s a great under-the-radar way to give your kid the phytonutrients his or her body can use to stay healthy, without blasting them with obvious root veggie taste. Note: If I can’t use all the puree within three days, I’ll freeze the remaining by spooning it into an ice cube tray and stashing it in the freezer. Anytime I have a dish that needs a bit of root puree, I just pop out an puree cube and add it to the recipe.
* Shred them. My kids and my husband are more likely to eat roots that are shredded than almost any other way. It’s a fact. Shred a carrot or beet or parsnip or rutabaga or anything else, then add the grated veggie to potato pancakes, raw salads or tuck it into a taco or slip it onto a sandwich. Or, give it a fast stir-fry in butter or walnut oil, or enjoy it tossed with a bit of vinaigrette for a fast side salad.
* Make them into fries. Who are we kidding? Fries made with a rutabaga or a carrot or a sweet potato will not taste the same as a fry made with a white potato. But that doesn’t mean kids aren’t more likely to eat a turnip fry than they are a boiled, mashed turnip. To make root fries, cut the roots into “fries”, toss with a bit of oil and salt, spread flat on a baking sheet, and cook at 425 for 15 minutes or so, until fork-tender and starting to caramelize. Serve with ketchup or any other favorite dip.
Tips courtesy of Roots: The Complete Guide to the Underground Superfood (Sterling).
Want to share a root veggie tip? Post below!
3 Tips For Choosing Root Vegetables
Compared to leafy greens and other above-ground veggies, root vegetables can hang around for a long time without becoming limp, slimy or moldy. Also unlike surface-dwelling vegetables, roots don’t lose nutrients when exposed to air for long periods. These two options—plus roots’ low price, high nutrient content and versatility— are reason enough to add carrots, sweet potatoes, radishes, jicama, and other root veggies to your weekly shopping list. But before filling up your cart, make sure you’re getting the freshest, highest-quality root veggies you can. Here are my three tips for purchasing the best root vegetables possible: 1. Firm. Whether it be celeriac or a sunchoke, a carrot or a blue potato, a high-quality root veggie is firm. Give it a squeeze. There should be absolutely no give. While you’re looking it over, keep an eye out for any shriveled patches. If you see any, find yourself another root. Shriveling is a sign a vegetable is past its prime.
2. Avoid moist roots—of any type. Weepiness, mold or slimy spots are signs of rot.
3. Check the color. If you’ve ever eaten a carrot, sweet potato or other root vegetable that was paler than usual, you probably remember how insipid it tasted. The best-tasting root vegetables are a deeply-saturated hue. If you do happen to get a lighter-colored (and lighter-tasting) root vegetable, pump up the flavor by increasing whatever herb or spice you’re cooking with and add a pinch of your favorite natural sweetener to create a bigger taste.
Tips courtesy of Roots: The Complete Guide to the Underground Superfood (Sterling).
Want to share a root veggie tip? Post below!
February 22, 2017
My 3 Favorite Ways to Prepare Root Veggies
My 3 Favorite Ways to Prepare Root Veggies
By Stephanie Pedersen
Root veggies are a diverse lot. A few, such as the radish and turnip, are known for their sharp edge. Some—think carrots, sweet potatoes and beets—are real sweethearts. Others taste a bit like dirt (I’m looking at you, parsnip and celeriac). But when it comes to enjoying them, they all have something in common: They taste great prepared in one of these easy, fast ways:
Roasted. If you’ve never made your own roasted root veggies, I bet you’ve had them in a restaurant or at a friend’s house. Roasted roots are one of the most popular veggie dishes of all time. Luckily for you, roasted roots are a cinch to make and can be prepared with a collection of different root vegetables, thus answering the questions: “What do I do with this lone parsnip?”. Preheat oven to 425 F. Scrub your veggies and pat dry. Cut into ¼-inch or ½ inch cubes. Dump the cubes in a large mixing bowl and drizzle on just enough extra virgin olive oil to moisten the veggies. Too much oil and the veggies will not develop that delicious caramelized finish we all love so much. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Using your clean hands, toss everything to combine and dump on one or two baking sheets (make sure the vegetables are not on top of each other). Slide in the oven and cook until caramelized, about 30 minutes.
Pickled. You’ve probably eaten pickled beets before, and maybe even pickled turnip. But what about jicama, sunchoke, celeriac, radishes and other roots? Earthy roots take well to puckery brine. Create a quick pickle by peeling two pounds of your favorite root and slicing into planks, batons or wheels. Divide between two clean 1-quart Mason jars. In a small saucepan, heat together 2 cusp water, 2 cups white wine, apple cider or rice vinegar and a 2 tablespoons kosher salt (optional is a ½ tablespoon of sugar, honey, coconut nectar or another natural sweetener). Bring to a boil until salt dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before pouring over veggies in each jar. Store jars in the fridge for a week.
Shredded. What you do after you shred them is up to you. Delicious ideas to try include tossing shredded roots with a bit of vinaigrette and perhaps a sprinkle of your favorite herb (cilantro or dill are especially nice), quickly sautéing shreds—just until barely limp—in a bit of butter or oil with salt and pepper, or piling raw shreds in a sandwich or a salad or using as a garnish for soup or grilled meats.
Superfood expert Stephanie Pedersen is a cookbook author, media host and nutritional consultant. Her latest book is Roots: The Complete Guide to the Underground Superfood (Sterling).
February 18, 2017
Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
This is, hands-down, my clients’ favorite recipe. It’s the one I get emails about, the one that in every group weightloss or detox or hormone-balancing or emotional eating program I run, someone says “So-and-so tells me I need to ask for your Stuffed Sweet Potato recipe.” I’ve got several variations of it. This one features goji berries, which help ward off illnesses, are an anti-inflammatory ingredient and support a strong immune system, but this recipes is beautiful and tasty without them. Enjoy!
Smothered Sweet Potatoes
Makes 2 servings
Note: You’ll need to bake the sweet potatoes first, which can take up to 45 minutes if you use your conventional oven.
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed
1 medium tomato, diced
1/2 tablespoon coconut or extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
½ an avocado, diced
2 tablespoons hydrated goji berries
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork in several places, place in a baking dish and bake at until tender all the way to the center, about 1 hour. Or cook in the microwave on high for 8 to 10 minutes, or until moderately soft.
2. While the sweet potatoes cook, add beans, tomatoes, oil, cumin, coriander, cilantro, salt and pepper to a medium saucepot over medium heat. Cook for three minutes.
3. Turn off heat and allow bean mixture to cool slightly.
4. When the sweet potatoes are done and have cooled just enough so you can handle them, cut the top of each lengthwise. Pry each sweet potato open and create an indenture in each that is large enough to contain the bean mixture.
5. Divide the black bean mixture between the two potatoes. Top with the avocado, goji berries and seeds.
Want to share a healthy sweet potato recipe? Post below!
February 2, 2017
Why small works
Hello Gorgeous,
I have just come off a week-long cleanse and feel so good! We had a great time releasing weight, bloat, stored toxins and cravings. We look great! We’re sleeping fabulously! We’re full of energy! And we feel fantastic!
Lots of exclamation points there, isn’t there?
You’ll have to forgive me—it’s hard not to get excited about feeling better than you thought possible and looking even more gorgeous than you already do.
And what was really exciting for me and the other “cleansers” was how little it really took to create big changes in the way we felt. That’s because our bodies are always trying to heal themselves—even the smallest bit of healthful attention from you is met with grateful results.
So in the spirit of powerful small steps, I want to share one super-veggie that each of you should enjoy weekly. Perhaps the humblest of all veggies, it stays fresh for weeks. It’s easy to find. It’s economical. It’s tasty. And it is chock-full of fiber, minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. To find out what it is—and some surprising ways to enjoy it—go here.
I’ll be back soon with another easy way to get—and stay—healthy!
Enjoy your week!
Much love,
www.StephaniePedersen.com.
P.S. The Wellness Circle starts March 3 with all new lessons and an updated format, but with the same deep commitment to helping you become as healthy as possible—as well as teaching you how to harness wellness as a way to increase your personal power. Open by application only to women aged 40 and above. Go here and learn more.
January 26, 2017
Try this!
Hello Gorgeous!
Ah, Friday…
I am so excited for this day! For a few reasons. One, I just love Fridays. It’s a day where I get to relax by spending a few hours in the kitchen preparing food for the weekend, a time when all three (four, if you count my husband) of my boys are home.
One of the things I’ll be making this weekend is this spicy sweet potato salad, created by my friend Rebecca Katz, author of The Longevity Kitchen.
Go here to see her post on how the salad came about (it’s a funny story!), and for the recipe itself.
Another reason I am so excited for today is because it’s January 27! The day my 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse begins.
If you haven’t yet signed up and would like to join us, today is a great day for this: Today is a prep day, so you’ll have plenty of time to jump into the online classroom and get yourself settled before we rock and roll.
Go here if you’d like to join us. Don’t forget to check out our fun way of getting the cleanse for half-off! More here.
Happy weekend!
Much love,
P.S. If you are more of a listener than a reader, go here and listen to an audio that discuses about cleanses are great for jump starting a weight loss program and ditching cravings and how a cleanse works. As well as who should not do a cleanse. Again, that audio is here.
January 25, 2017
A Treat + The Cleanse Opens Tomorrow!
Hello Gorgeous,
Nearly every day for this week I’ve been visiting your inbox to give you a healthy tidbit and to share with you a bit about my 7-day cleanse, the 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse.
Today, here’s the tidbit: This superfood 7-Layer Dip is a healthy take on that game-day favorite and it’s so health that (shhhhh!) no one will know they are actually fighting inflammation, improving their skin, increasing immune system function and helping their cardiovascular and nervous systems as they indulge.
And here’s the share: Tomorrow the 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse’s online classroom officially opens! Yay! My gorgeous detoxers and I will have the opportunity to dive into the classroom, take a look at what we’ll be playing with, jump on a phone call and get to know each other. There will also be plenty of entertaining extras to keep us amused. Yay!.
If you’re on the fence about whether now is a good time to join us in the 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse. Or if you wonder if a cleanse is something you want to do, go here to learn more.
If you’d like to join us, today is the day to dive in! To do that, go here.
Much love to each of you!
P.S. Can’t wait to spend next week with you! Feel free to email me here if you have questions. xoxo
January 24, 2017
True or False: You can’t have lunch on a cleanse?
Dear Gorgeous,
If you’re like me, you struggle to find healthy options to take to work. Whatever you bring has to be easy to make, easy to carry, affordable, but also “fun” enough to keep you from ditching it altogether for takeout pizza or vending machine fare. (Lunch is a bright spot for most of us worker bees, so you want it to be tantalizing enough to feel like a treat.)
For some of my favorite workday lunch tips, go here.
And for those of you who are wondering why I am even talking about lunch, here’s the scoop: “But what can I eat for lunch?” is one of the most common questions I get from people who are interested in doing a cleanse.
What would-be detoxers are really asking with that question is: “If I do a cleanse, can I still have a yummy, treat-like lunch so I don’t feel deprived as I watch my co-workers eating their lunch-time takeout.”
The answer is yes. Absolutely you can have a yummy, treat-like lunch. At least if you’re detoxing with me in the 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse.
Much love and many delicious lunches,
Stephanie Pedersen
P.S. Looking for fresh info on getting and staying healthy? Listen in to the Mind, Body & Spirit Wellness Summit where you can sample the wisdom of 21 of today’s cutting edge wellness practitioners (me included). Go here to listen in.
3 Steps to Getting Rid of My Sugar Cravings
Hello Gorgeous,
I’ve been listening to a lot of you talk about sugar.
It seems to be a scourge of our times. Diabetes, heart disease, metabolic disease, dental decay, attention disorders, mood disorders—all of these are exacerbated (or even caused) by sugar.
It breaks my heart when I think of you not being able to make brownies for your kid because you finish off the pan before he or she gets even one. Not being able to ignore the candy promintely placed at a store checkout without adding a few bars to your shopping basket. Or, passing up the candy on your receptionist’s desk or at the bank teller’s window, but then thinking so obsessively about it that you end up devouring the cookies you bought for your kid’s lunch the moment you get home.
I make sugar sound like an addiction, don’t I?
That’s because it is. Researchers at Princeton University studying bingeing and dependency in rats have found that when the animals ingest large amounts of sugar, their brains undergo changes similar to the changes in the brains of people who abuse illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin.
That doesn’t mean you can’t break up with the stuff. Oh, I know plenty of you have broken up with sugar before, only to go running back to it during times of stress or loneliness. But I am here to tell you that you can ditch your love affair with sugar.
It is a multi-prong process. When I decided to break up with sugar, I started with a cleanse. This did wonders for erasing that aggressively strong biochemical sugar addiction that makes sweeteners so hard to give up.
But I learned that while ridding myself of the biochemical addiction to sugar was an essential first step, it was not the only step. Trial and error taught me that if I wanted to avoid a sugar binging relapse, I needed to create a sugar-smart maintenance plan as well as to plan for the emotional issues that often caused me to run back to the sweet stuff. I will deal with these last two pieces in a program I plan to run this spring…
…But right now, I’d like to share that important first step: A cleanse. Specifically my 7-day 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse starting on Friday, the 27th and going through February 4th. (The first two days are prep and shopping and mindset days; I like to ease people into things!)
This nourishing whole food and drink cleanse is made for winter cleansing and features warming, nutrient-dense foods that will help you kill the sugar cravings, flush toxins, lose weight (three to seven pounds on average), let go of the bloat that makes your face and arms and middle puffy, clear up your skin and more. (You can go here to read more about all the things a safe, nutrient-dense cleanse can do for you. Or, you can listen to the audio!)
We will be diving deep and talking A LOT about sugar during the 2017 Deep Change Reset Cleanse, so jump in with us if tackling your sugar cravings is something you vowed to work on in 2017. For an easy recipe that can also help squash cravings, go here.
You have a couple of days to sign up and join us!
I look forward to “cleansing” with you!
Much love,
Stephanie Pedersen
P.S. Want to get $99 off the cleanse? Go here and find out how!
