Hi y'all....can you recommend some meal ideas using Super Foods? I want to try to have as many as possible a day, but am having trouble!!

Thanks in advance!

Here's a link to the superfood recipe thread

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90436

and there are some great recipes in the vegetarian forums:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=150

One meal we like is turkey burgers with sweet potato fries and spinach salad. For the burgers, you just mix lean ground turkey with any spices you like, a little bit of egg and breadcrumbs, and lots of diced onion and garlic (I sometimes add a little teriyaki, too). Form into patties and either bake, BBQ, or pan-fry until done. I serve them on homemade buns, topped with tomatoes and avocado slices.

For the sweet potato fries, you just peel and slice sweet potatoes into fries. Toss with a little olive oil, some cracked pepper and sea salt, a good squeeze of lime juice, a little cayenne, and some garlic powder. Give everything a good toss and spread on a foiled baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes - until the fries and soft and caramelized at the edges.

The spinach salad is just baby spinach leaves, tossed with a homemade vinaigrette.

It's a filling, healthy meal - and contains 7 superfoods! It really can be easy to eat this way when you get creative with food combinations. Another idea would be to start with a basic spinach salad, and get creative with additions - some sliced turkey or chicken breast, diced avocado, sliced red onion, a few nuts (walnuts, pinenuts, almonds, etc.), diced tomato....you get the idea! It's possible to get a tasty, filling, BIG salad that gets many superfoods in at one time.

Here is a repost from Synger on adding pumpkin and seafood to your diet: (This is from the original superfoods thread)

There have been many lists of "super foods" over the years. Most have many of the same families of things listed, though the specifics may change from list to list -- berries, greens, oats, nuts, tomatoes, broccoli, beans, citrus, deep water fish. Sometimes whole grains and soy are added to the list as well as a few other "regulars" like tea. It's a great way to focus on the healthiest of foods.

On the pumpkin discussion:

Pumpkin stews are really good. Some of them are "served in a pumpkin" which means you make the stew, then put it in a hollowed-out pumpkin, and then bake the whole thing together. As you serve up the stew, you scrape some of the pumpkin flesh into your stew. (much easier than trying to pare and cut up the pumpkin to add to the stew in the first place, though you can do that, too if you want). Here are some stew recipes
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-...n_stew,FF.html

For those who do smoothies, pumpkin is a good addition. I use pumpkin butter (like apple butter) instead of jam or jelly, though it's still rather sweet. Often, when I'm going to be baking anyway, I add pumpkin -- pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins.

And of course, one of my absolute favorites is curried pumpkin soup. Very easy to make, too, 'cause it uses canned pumpkin. Here are some pumpkin soup recipes.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search?q=pumpkin+soup

As to the Salmon/sidekick discussion:

Sardines are easy to add to salads. Just chop them up. Or mash a few of them into your dressing if you make your own dressing. I like kippered herring with thin slices of onion on Rykrisp crackers. I LOVE herring in sour cream. And of course, albacore tuna is easy to find in the store.

Snack ideas:
NF plain Yogurt with berries (I eat this most work days and some weekend days)

Raw veggies (bell peppers, carrots, sugar snap peas) with hummus

Dry roasted edamame

Whole wheat bread with natural peanut butter

Dinner ideas:
Steamed or sauteed veggies, brown rice, beans and a meat (poultry or fish) for dinner.

I really like a combo I discovered the other day. A can of drained/rinsed black beans, a can of drained/rinsed kidney beans and a can of diced tomatoes simmered together on the stove makes a great bean combination.

whole wheat pizza dough covered with sauce, skim mozarella cheese and veggies. You can even skip the cheese if you want. (I wouldn't though)

Veggie and tofu stirfry with brown rice

Breakfast ideas:
Oats with soymilk but you can also mix it up like the following:

Brown rice, soy milk, walnuts, raisins, and a dash of cinnamon. Put in enough soy milk to cover the rice. Put in the microwave for 1 minute. After that, sprinkle with some oats. This is my desert like treat once in a while but I also used to eat it for breakfast.

Smoothies - you can put anything in them you like. Yogurt? Tofu? Berries? Peanut butter? other fruits?


Other ideas:

Read labels of things you buy (ensure that ingredients are whole ingredients)
Avoid buying stuff that has labels (ok some items come with labels like yogurt, grains and canned beans/veggies)

I usually have cereal for breakfast, oatmeal or other, as well as some berries.

Lunch is either more fruit and yogurt, or a salad with as many superfoods as I can cram in there! If not that, a turkey sandwich with romaine. I usually have iced tea (unsweetened) with my lunch.

Snacks are edamame (fresh) or nuts or fruit or veggies.

Dinners are usually meat (chicken or fish) with steamed vegetables and brown rice. If we don't have that, I'll throw together a huge salad with chicken slices on it and again, as many superfoods as I can cram into it. The more flavor, the better.

These are all great suggestions! I think I need to finish the book and just start putting together menus for myself.

Thanks!

Asian type sticky rice as a staple for a meal is easy if you have an electric rice cooker or electric pressure cooker.

I buy the short grained brown and white rice. Then mix it together.. you can add so many things to it and cook it together.. millet, quinoa, edamame, black beans, red beans, yellow mung beans, black eyed peas, slivers of kombu (seaweed aka dashima), etc..

I usually mix 3 different grains and one or two types of beans. And in the cooker I've never burned it once.

The rice goes well with a soup and side dishes.

Jayde, I love Asian sticky rice, and while brown rice is good, it just doesn't measure up So if you mix them together is it still sticky? And what about cooking time? Brown rice takes so much longer.

Nelie, I love the sound of your rice pudding breakfast. I'm assuming that the brown rice is already cooked?

There is short grained brown rice (sticky rice) and long grained (not sticky) mixing short brown and short white rice still makes it sticky. Cooking time though is different so if you are cooking them together say on the stove or in a regular rice cooker, its better to soak the brown rice a bit first. I couldn't advise you on the cooking time as I just push the right buttons on the electric pressure cooker and Whallah.. I have fresh sticky rice in no time.

The pressure cooker is so convenient because I don't have to even soak the brown rice beforehand..I even add a handful of dried beans and they cook up just fine with the rice. It also has a stay warm feature so once it is done, I just stir.. close the lid and I've got warm sticky rice for whenever I want it.

I have some in the rice cooker now... want some?

Ah, I didn't know that short grain = sticky! Usually I buy the Cal-Rose which is labeled Asian or sticky or soemthing. If I bought a rice cooker my DH would have a fit - says I have too many "gadgets" as it is (a Kitchenaid mixer, cuisinart, blender, hand blender, and bread machine).

Pat, I've heard Cal-Rose is good.. we might have eaten it once upon a time. We usually buy Nishiki as it is convenient and economical for us to buy at the commissary. I would absolutely not be able to cook dinner without my rice cooker. I would run away from home without it! Heck.. we'd probably all starve without it.

I love the fact that in Korea I can buy bgs of stuff to mix in with rice that are grains. I would love to add beans. Do you have to soak the beans before adding them to the rice cooker?

Also how do you measure your rice in the cooker? Do you follow the cups and lines in the cooker or do you do the hand thing with water? If you use your hand as a measurer where do you go on the hand?

BF says the rice is better if you measure it Korean style. (hand)

I don't know what the foods are. I am using ones from the fat flush super foods book

Lemon in your water, berries as snacks or in smoothies, Cranberry juice in the morning, Boiled eggs on your salads, egg salad sandwhich (with a bit of ff mayo and paprika), beef (on my list) stirfry, broccoli (I eat everynight with my dinner if I'm having a meal with sides), Cabbage Soup, Tomatoes (eat cherry/grape tomatoes as snack, diced tomatoes in any mexican dish or soup), apples (buy the small ones and have a mini snack), Cayanne pepper (use whenever possible in chilli and mex dishes), Cinnamon (use on grapefruit or oranges).

They are posted here