Cancer Prevention

Healthy Eating – Day 8

Breakfast: Every once in a while I’m just not really hungry for breakfast. But knowing I was heading into several calls where I couldn’t eat (no one likes to hear you chew on the phone or whip out the Nutribullet to make a smoothie), I grabbed a LaraBar (they now have ones with extra protein) – today I tried the Peanut Butter Cookie Protein Bar. Honestly, I’m not a fan. I adore(!) the regular bars, but the nuts in this one seemed just “too” hard. I have two more higher protein ones in the cabinet and we’ll see how those are. 🙂

Lunch: By lunch I was starved and craving comfort food. With the busy call day, I needed something quick – Trader Joe’s Asparagus Risotto to the rescue. Had one in my freezer and it was 7 minutes from freezer to bowl. It was exactly what I was craving! 🙂

Dinner: Still pretty full from lunch, dinner was simply a few Late July Organic tortilla chips, Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese and a perfectly-ripe organic pear with a cup of Stash Peppermint Tea.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Comfort Food, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: LaraBar, Late July Organic Tortilla Chips, Nutribullet, Trader Joe’s Asparagus Risotto

Healthy Eating – Day 7

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Perfect day for a smoothie with organic spring mix, frozen wild blueberries, a pear, flax seeds, 4 walnut halves, vegan protein powder and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. There’s just something about the blueberries and pear that I love! YUM!

Lunch: In between client calls, I found myself craving Thai food for lunch and so whipped up a quick salad and added some peanut sauce! Perfection, although a little spicier than intended (may have been the red onion, scallions and peanut sauce combo) so I found myself drinking a lot of peppermint tea during afternoon calls. 🙂

Snack: I had a quick break between clients around 3pm and found myself both hungry and lagging a bit in energy so grabbed a banana and added almond butter. It hit the spot and gave me the burst of energy I needed to head into my late afternoon sessions.

Dinner:

Still craving something “salad-like”, but with a little more substance, I had fajitas for dinner. A low carb tortilla with Wholly Guacamole (love their 100 calorie cups, I get from the produce section of my grocery store), organic spring mix, red onions, red peppers, tomatoes, brown rice and pinto beans. Exactly what my taste buds wanted!

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Energy Foods, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Hot Water with Lemon. Thai Salad, Wholly Guacamole

Healthy Eating – Day 6

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Brrr…chilliest day yet so far this year and perfect to start with a Hot Water with Lemon. And followed soon after with a 20-oz mason jar filled with Hibiscus Tea and piece of gluten free toast with no sugar added SunButter, sliced bananas and a dash of cinnamon. Warm and comfy – just what was needed, along with warm slippers, on this chilly morning.

Lunch: Given how late I enjoyed breakfast combined with being heads down preparing a presentation for later this week, I wasn’t looking for lunch until around 3pm. Combine that with how chilly it still is (so much for warming up today!) and a piece of lasagna made its way to the oven. First up was a small salad (eaten while lasagna heated up and missed the pic on that one – sorry!) however and another big glass of Hibiscus Tea.

Dinner: While it was supposed to warm up some today, the chill never quite left — either outside or in me personally and I was craving more comfort food so went with a veggie soup (from Tabatchnik) and salad with oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Hot Water with Lemon

Healthy Eating – Day 5

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Woke up hungry this morning (it was probably the sauce simmering in the slow cooker overnight – the whole house smelled of it) and so jumped right into a bowl of Newman’s Own Vanilla Almond Cereal with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, defrosted organic blueberries, ground flax seeds and a dash of cinnamon. Just what the stomach ordered! Now off to make two pans of lasagna – one with homemade meatballs (using organic black angus beef) for the meatlovers in our family.

Lunch: Knowing we’re having an early dinner at my sister’s for her birthday, I went with a light lunch. . .a simple salad of spring mix, cherry tomatoes, red onion and cucumber with oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing and a big glass of water. Made a big batch of the salad for everyone else to enjoy before lasagna later this afternoon.

Dinner: Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna. Actually, I only had one smaller piece having spent so much time with it throughout the day and testing the sauce, testing the noodles, etc. We dug in before I had a chance to get a “nice” picture, so here’s after everyone had a serving. The one on the left has more cheese and veggies while the one on the right is more of a “meat lovers” lasagna.

The majority of lasagna leftovers went to my 21-year-old nephew and his roommate. 🙂

Dessert: We followed dinner up with a piece of cake: chocolate ice cream on the bottom with cookie dough ice cream and Oreo ice cream each making up half of the top of the cake. In the middle were Oreo cookies, Reese’s cup pieces and some fudge. I had a tiny piece and made sure there was only a little piece left for Sis to enjoy another time. The guys enjoyed it!

Evening: Once home, I was craving a little something so had a nice hot cup of Roasted Dandelion Root Tea. Perfect!

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Roasted Dandelion Root Tea

Healthy Eating – Day 4

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Putting together a birthday party for my sister tomorrow so wanted to get something quick and filling in me for breakfast. Today’s choice was a gluten free English Muffin with raw almond butter and organic strawberries (think peanut butter and jelly, only super healthy) with a cup of organic Roasted Dandelion Root tea. Heaven!

Lunch: Stopping home between errands, I heated up a duplicate of last evening’s roasted red pepper stuffed with roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and steamed broccoli. Quick, easy and filling. Then out to pick up my sister’s cake from her favorite place Peaceful Meadows – a local place that makes their own ice cream.

Dinner: Knowing there will be leftovers tomorrow, I wanted to clean out the fridge and so took the last of my roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and put a salad on top of it with a dash of oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing. Loved the “fresh” version of lunch. Then off to make semi-homemade sauce with zucchini and summer squash for the lasagna I’m making for my sister’s birthday tomorrow. The sauce will simmer overnight in the slow cooker.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Roasted Dandelion Root Tea

Healthy Eating – Day 3

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Some days I just don’t feel like breakfast. Today was one of those days. When they happen, I generally have a pre-made organic, gluten-free Svelte protein smoothie and a glass of tea (today was organic hibiscus). Both were absolutely delicious and the smoothie had enough protein to keep me going through morning appointments.

Lunch: Craving a simple and quick lunch, I went with a piece of organic, gluten-free banana bread (picked up at the Plimouth Plantation Farmer’s Market yesterday while still warm!) with raw almond butter and another big glass of hibiscus tea.

Dinner:

After several meetings and a busy day in the office, I wanted a simple “all-in-one” meal and opted for red pepper stuffed with roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and steamed broccoli. It was exactly what I was craving and as healthy as it was delicious.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Hibiscus Tea

Healthy Eating – Day 2

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Hot water with lemon and cayenne makes another appearance today. While I enjoy the taste of it, I can’t have it with breakfast – the flavors are too strong. I typically drink this and then have something to eat (or drink if a smoothie) about 30 minutes later.

Being the first real chilly season this morning, I was looking for comfort food for breakfast and went with gluten-free, low fat, low sugar Banana Nut Clusters with organic Blueberries (we had picked ourselves this season and froze), Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, a tablespoon of the Seed Mix and a dash of Cinnamon. It was just what my system was craving.

Lunch: Being used to smoothies in the morning, when I eat something heavier, I tend to have a later lunch and a lighter dinner. Today was no exception. Lunch was a repeat of last night’s dinner (love leftovers!): whole grain penne pasta with semi-homemade veggie sauce and a salad with oil free, sugar free balsamic vinaigrette. YUM!

Dinner: Still pretty full from lunch, I decided to keep things simple with an arugula, cherry tomato (we still have so many!), red pepper and walnut salad lightly dressed with the same Skinny Girl Balsamic Vinaigrette. With it, a cup of hibiscus tea.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Healthy Eating – Day 1

By Sandra Martini

Breakfast: Really enjoying fall weather so far. One thing I love about this time of year is having hot water with lemon (and a dash of cayenne pepper first thing in the morning). Other days it’s a cup of tea, but today I went with the lemon.

Followed that up with a Blueberry-Kiwi Green Smoothie.

Lunch: We still have plenty of cherry tomatoes from the garden so I whipped up a quick salad with spring mix, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red pepper and red onion and topped it off with a delicious sugar free, oil free balsamic vinaigrette. Then, I added a frozen Tabatchnik Veggie Soup (heated it on stovetop while making the salad) to round out lunch.

These are the best soups (delicious and very healthy) and I got them on sale for $1 each. Perfect to keep in the freezer for a quick meal.

Dinner: Lunch’s salad was so good I decided to have another along with some whole grain penne pasta and a fabulous semi-homemade sauce.

For the sauce, I used a Classico Tomato Basil sauce and added the following to a slow cooker set to 6 hours: 1 pound tomatoes diced, 2-3 zucchini diced, 2 summer squash diced, 1 carrot diced. Once it cooled, I stored in freezable mason jars in the freezer and now take out as I need. This is a quick whip-it-up, set-and-forget recipe for when zucchini are in season or on sale.

You could easily skip the raw tomatoes, use canned diced (no salt added) or simply use another jar of your sauce of choice if you wish.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Tabatchnik Soups

Blueberry-Kiwi Green Smoothie Recipe

By Sandra Martini

There are hundreds of types of smoothies — the key to any great smoothie is to include a mix of fruits, veggies, protein source (protein powders, nuts and seeds) and liquid.

If you’re new to green (meaning including green veggies) smoothies, consider using more blueberries, blackberries and/or raspberries. These berries have a strong flavor which tends to hide the taste of the greens.

½ cup Frozen Blueberries (if greens are new to your smoothies, use a few more blueberries)
1 Kiwi
2 cups organic Mixed Spring Greens (can be spinach, kale, etc. – if greens are new to your smoothies, use less)
1/2 cucumber (peeled if not organic)
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (or any non-dairy milk, or water)
1 scoop Vegan Protein Powder (Vega One brands are my favorite as they’re vegan (no animal products, including dairy), gluten-free, have no sugar added and come in several flavors. For this smoothie, I like the French Vanilla flavor.
1 tablespoon Flax-Chia Seed Mix
¼ teaspoon Turmeric (optional)

Place all in Bullet or high speed blender.* Blend to desired consistency and enjoy.

*Note: If using blender, it’s sometimes easier to mix everything except the frozen blueberries first and then add them to the blended liquid last.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Tagged With: Almond Milk, Blueberries, Chia Seeds, Flax Seeds, Kiwi, Turmeric

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