Category: Nutrition

I whipped this up the other day and felt mighty accomplished.

Sauteed sea scallops served over a bed of green lentils mixed with tomatoes and wilted arugula.

So far so good, right?  🙂

I’m willing to pay a bit of premium for things that I consume (is there any more worthy investment than our health?), and I like my foods simply prepared, so that the taste and quality of the ingredients stand out.  If I’m making a salad and it’s summertime, I’m going to the farmer’s market and getting fresh greens, heirloom tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and maybe some fresh herbs.  Maybe I’ll even get all wild and crazy and toast some pine nuts to add to the mix.  Then I’m tossing it all together with nothing more than a bit of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper to pull all the flavors together and really make them pop.  I can’t imagine, say, dumping a bunch of ranch dressing on that salad.  If I did that, I might as well just be eating ranch dressing because it’s all I’d taste.

This dish was no exception to that general rule.  When I took my first bite, I tasted only the medley of the fresh ingredients that comprised it.  The spicy arugula.  The sweetness of the tomatoes.  The robust and slightly peppery flavor of the lentils.  The sweet and rich taste of the scallops.

Technique was also important. Scallops are on the pricey side, and there’s nothing worse than splurging on them only to end up with a gross, rubbery mess!  I’ve found that two tricks are key to making sure they turn out just right:

1. Placing them at room temperature 20-30 minutes before cooking to ensure even cooking.
2. Ensuring a nice sear by patting them dry with a paper towel before adding them to the saute pan and making sure the oil and pan are nice and hot.

And did I mention how super healthy this is?!  I especially recommend the dish for moms-to-be because it has a lot of the goodies that pregnant women need in larger quantities, including omega-3’s, protein, folate, and iron.

Now that I’ve (hopefully!) sold you, let’s eat!

Sauteed Scallops over Green Lentils

Serves 2

• 10 ounces sea scallops
• 1/2 cup dried green lentils
• 3 cups baby arugula
• 1 roma tomato, diced
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper

Place lentils in a small pot with 3 cups of water and set burner to high.  Reduce the heat when the water begins to boil and allow the lentils to simmer until desired tenderness, about 30-40 minutes.  Drain any remaining water.

Remove scallops from the refrigerator about ten minutes into cooking the lentils.  Set aside.

While the lentils cook, add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a saute pan placed over medium heat.  Add arugula and garlic and cook until just wilted, about 2 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, basil, and lemon juice.  Add to drained lentils and stir to combine.

Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a saute pan (more if surface is NOT nonstick) and place pan over medium-high to high heat, depending on your stovetop.  After pan is hot but not smoking, add scallops.   Allow to cook undisturbed until the scallops have a caramel-colored sear, about 2 minutes.  Gently turn scallops over and cook another 1-2 minutes on the other side.

Divide the lentil mixture evenly onto two plates and top with equal amounts of scallops.

Today’s post is going out to my longest standing client, Tracy.  During a recent training session, she told me she sometimes asks herself, “What would Chris think of this item?” while shopping at the Trader Joe’s.  She suggested I compile a list of my “go to” Trader Joe items in a WellMom post, and I’m here today to do just that!

Tracy also noted her tendency to pick up too many “snacky” products at the store and not enough “real food.”  I agree that the lure of packaged convenience foods is quite tempting, and by no means do I eat “real food” 100% of the time.  But I do my best to keep processed foods to a minimum, and most of the items below fall into the “real” – or at least “minimally-processed” – category.

I’m a girl who likes a deal, so you’ll notice that a lot of the options below are inexpensive relative to comparable items at other grocery stores.

1. Salted and roasted creamy almond butter.  I never understood the hype about almond butter until I tried this kind.  I now realize that roasting AND salting is key. The kind I find most often is raw without salt, which tastes stale to me.  And compared to other brands of roasted and salted almond butter, the Trader Joe’s variety wins out in texture too, which is rich and creamy.  It’s also a great value at $7.99 per 16 oz jar.  I’ve seen the same size jar cost twice as much other places!   I blend this into my daughter’s oatmeal, and I like it mixed into plain yogurt along with a bit of mashed banana and cinnamon.  Oh and on a spoon.  I like it on a spoon.  🙂

2. Organic avocados – 4-pack.  These are an awesome deal, coming in at just over a dollar per avocado!  My toddler, Siyona, and I eat avocado basically every day.  I typically dice it and add it to salads or omelets.  Siyona likes it as a stand-alone side dish with her lunch (it was actually her first solid food). The only drawback is that I have a hard time finding ripe ones, so I often have to buy them a few days before I want to eat them.

3. Frozen berries.  Frozen berries are GREAT for mixing into yogurt, smoothies, and oatmeal.  They’re especially nice at this time of the year when you can’t – or shouldn’t? – get fresh ones. One of my favorites are the organic frozen wild blueberries.  They’re smaller than regular blueberries, which I love.  At $3.99 for a 12 ounce bag, it’s hard to find a cheaper organic blueberry anywhere!

4. Grill pack of organic chicken.  The grill pack of organic chicken contains two bone-in chicken breasts and four drumsticks.  I typically don’t grill with these.  Instead I’ll bake the chicken breasts, shred them, then add the meat to a variety of different entrees.  What do I do with the drumsticks, you ask?  Well, a drumstick happens to be the perfect size for Siyona, so I’ll freeze them individually and use as needed.  Comes in handy on nights when my husband and I are going out and I need something to leave home for her.  Bone-in is admittedly more work than the boneless, but I happen to think it tastes a lot better, and I save the bones to make homemade chicken stock. Oh and did I mention it’s only $2.99/lb?  And that’s organic chicken!

5. Organic frozen chopped spinach.  This is such a versatile product.  I put it in everything from smoothies, to eggs, to pastas and stir frys. I’ve even been known to put it in my chicken enchiladas.  It’s a great way to up to veggie content of your favorite dishes!

6. Organic Power to the Greens.  This is Trader Joe’s blend of kale, spinach, and Swiss chard – three dark leafy greens rich in vitamins and minerals.  It’s the base for a lot of my salads.  $2.49.

7. Barbara’s Multigrain Spoonfuls.  Ok, ok.  So this one comes in a box.  Michael Pollen might be ashamed.  Cereal is a notable exception to my general tendency to abide by his mantra, “eat food, not food products.”  I guess you can call it my Achilles heel – I love starting my day with a bowl of it splashed with unsweetened almond milk.  And as far as I’m concerned, there are worse vices, especially when Barbara’s Multigrain Spoonfuls is one of my cereals of choice.  It’s pretty natural as boxed cereals go (read: no icky preservatives) and has only 5 grams of sugar per serving. If you enjoy Quaker Life cereal you will like this one, and your body will thank you for the omission of BHT, Yellow 5, Yellow 6…). And a HUGE 24-ounce box costs me a mere $3.99!

8. Canned salmon.  Some of you serious seafood eaters might balk at this one, but you’ll almost always find a can of TJ salmon in my pantry.  No, it’s not nearly as tasty as a fresh filet, but I really enjoy it as a salad where I combine the salmon with plain yogurt, kalamata olives, and capers.  If I have lemon on hand, I sometimes add that too.  Trader Joe’s also sells a nice kalamata olive tapenade spread that I sometimes substitute for the capers and olives.  Canned salmon is an economical way to get in those healthy omega-3’s! $2.49.

9. Brown rice and quinoa fusilli.  You’ve got me again.  This one also comes in a box.  Well, a bag actually.  But I’m giving it a pass because it has just two ingredients (I’ll let you guess what they are. Hint: they’re in the name of the product). And while no one in my family has a gluten problem, I happen to think we can all stand to eat a little less wheat.  I have no scientific basis for saying this, but I can’t help but wonder if the rise we’ve seen in gluten allergies is a result of the rise in gluten in our diets.  Someone should fund this study. $2.99.

10. Bagged nuts.  I have four go-to types of nuts at the TJ: roasted and half salted peanuts, roasted and half salted cashews, raw almonds, and raw pine nuts.  Nuts are a great “real food” snack, and we eat the peanuts, cashews, and almonds for that purpose.  I find the half salt a nice compromise – no salt is so bland, but full salt is so salty!  I toast the raw almonds in my toaster oven and eat them warm.  You have to try this!  They’re done when they start to crackle.  They don’t need salt!  I like the pine nuts for my homemade pesto.  I’m including my recipe for that below, just for good measure.  🙂

Basic Pesto

• 2 cups basil, packed
• 1.5 T minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
• ½ cup pine nuts
• 1 t crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 t salt
• ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ⅔ cup Pecorino Romano cheese,* grated

Combine basil through salt in a large food processor.  While blending the dry ingredients, drizzle in the olive oil until smooth.  Then stir in the cheese.

*Frugal tip: Traditionally pesto is made with Parmesan cheese, but Pecorino Romano is WAAAY cheaper.  The flavors aren’t identical, but with all the other strong flavors in the pesto, my palate can’t detect a difference.

I am very much a warm weather person.  There is basically nothing I like about the winter.  I’m pretty sure my blood is about the consistency of water.  I am always cold!

One coping mechanism that gets me through the long, cold winters is soup.  I used to find them intimidating to make until I realized that there’s really no wrong way to make a soup.  It’s kind of like making a salad.  There really aren’t any rules.

Recently I whipped up this recipe for hearty chicken sausage soup.  I like it for many reasons.  First, I love the in-house sausage sold at the Whole Foods.  I tend to steer clear of most packaged sausages because of the junk that comes along with them (nitrates/nitrates, MSG, propyl gallate — say what?).  But the Whole Foods sausage I buy contains none of these mysterious items.

Second, the recipe contains only “good carbs,” by which I mean beans, legumes, whole grains, and starchy vegetables.  Both the barley and the chickpeas in this recipe are loaded with fiber – important for digestive health and also good for fat loss – and vitamins and minerals.  In fact, I find soups are a great way to experiment with all those good carbs you can find in the bulk bins at the grocery store.  Ever try cooking with wheatberries?  You should!  You could easily swap out the barley for them in this recipe.

Oh and here’s a cook’s tip:  barley and a lot of other whole grains can take a LONG time to cook.  Make a huge batch and then freeze leftovers in smaller portions for future use.  I find that it helps to freeze them in zip-top plastic bags in a thin layer, as the increased surface area makes for faster thawing.

The third thing I like about this recipe is the rainbow chard.  I think I read recently that “chard is the new kale.”  When you look at all it has to offer, the reputation is warranted.  One cup of cooked chard has four grams of dietary fiber (15% DV) and is also a good source of vitamins A, C, and K, among others.  Pregnant women – who need about 50% more iron in their diets than non-pregnant women – should know that a one cup cooked serving offers four milligrams of iron, or 15 percent of their DV (22 percent for non-pregnant women).

Now, I always make my own chicken stock, but I appreciate that I’m a bit of an odd duck when it comes to this sort of thing.  🙂  I really do think it tastes way better than what you buy in a can or carton, but I appreciate the time and effort that goes into making it.  This may spell F-U-N for me, but it won’t for everyone!  So feel free to use what makes most sense for you!

And if you have little ones and you’re worried they won’t eat it, here’s a picture that begs you to reconsider. 🙂

Hearty Chicken Sausage Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 links Whole Foods made in-house spicy Italian chicken sausage (about 1 – 1 ¼ lb)
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 bunch rainbow chard, roughly chopped
• 6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups barley, cooked
• 2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a stainless steel dutch oven over medium heat.  Slice the sausage into rings, then cut the rings in half.  Add the sausage to the pan and saute until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.  Remove the sausage from the pain but leave any remnants behind.

Stir in the onion, celery, carrots, and a bit of salt to the pan, scraping the bottom of the pan to free up any sausage remnants. Saute until the vegetables are tender, about 5-10 minutes.  And the rainbow chard and saute until wilted, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.  And the chicken stock, barley, and chickpeas.  Stir.  Bring to a low simmer.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.  Feel warm and happy.

I love salads.  In part because there are no rules.  A salad is the perfect thing to make when you need to clean out your pantry or produce drawer.

Salads are also great if you’re an expectant mom suffering from food aversions because of their flexibility.  Distasteful ingredients can be easily swapped out for others that you find more palatable, if not dropped altogether.  Can’t stomach garbanzo beans?  No worries.  How about cannellini beans or maybe some green lentils?  Mushrooms make your face turn green?  Perhaps some roasted squash is in order instead.

And you know, I actually like to think of food aversions as food opportunities.  When your formerly A-list foods drop to the D-list, pick up something completely new (to you) the next time you’re at the grocery store, and start experimenting with it.  You can even start your experimentation with this recipe!

Speaking of that recipe, the one I’m providing today happens to be vegan, which is perfect for breastfeeding moms with a baby who suffers from a cow’s milk protein intolerance, a common allergy in babies and children.  I actually whipped up this recipe when my own daughter suffered from this allergy, which she (thankfully!) outgrew (See photo to right.  I miss the hair).

And this salad is so nutritious!  It’s packed with kale, which has been hailed as a pregnancy “superfood.”  One cup of it contains over 100% of the recommended daily value of three key antioxidants: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K.  Expectant moms suffering from constipation may find relief from its five grams of fiber.  Kale also provides 15 percent of your daily value of calcium per cup.

This dish is also quite high in protein, despite being vegan.  This is especially important for pregnant or breastfeeding moms who struggle to get enough protein in their diets, either because they can’t eat meat or dairy or because they prefer to avoid it.  Owing in large part to the garbanzo beans and quinoa, the dish has 19 total grams of protein, which is 27 percent of the recommended intake for pregnant women and 42 percent of the recommended intake for non-pregnant women.

Shortcuts:  If all the chopping below sounds too arduous, don’t forget you can typically find your veggies pre-diced in the grocery store.  I’m a bit of an odd duck – I find the chopping kind of therapeutic.  🙂  And frozen chopped kale works equally well as fresh.

Quinoa Salad (Vegan)

• 1 cup cucumber, diced (about 1/2 large or 1 small cucumber)
• 1 cup red bell pepper, diced (about 1 bell pepper)
• 3/4 cup green onion, chopped  (about 3 green onions)
• 3 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry)
• 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 4 cups crimini mushrooms, diced (1  1/3 cooked)
• 2 T olive oil, divided
• 1 t salt, divided
• 9 cups kale, chopped
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 teaspoons of garlic,divided
• 1 lemon, juiced and grated
• 2 T olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine cucumber, bell pepper, green onions, cilantro, garbanzo beans, and cooked quinoa in a large bowl.  Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and half teaspoon of salt and saute for about 10 minutes, until mushrooms shrink to 1/3 their original size.  Add 2 teaspoons of garlic and immediately turn off the heat.  Stir 1 additional minute.  Add to the salad bowl.

Saute kale in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/4 cup water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt over medium high heat for five minutes, or until desired doneness.  Add 2 teaspoons of garlic and immediately turn off the heat.  Stir 1 additional minute.  Add to the salad bowl.

Stir salad ingredients.  Add lemon juice, lemon zest, and two tablespoons of olive oil.  Stir to combine.  Add additional salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold.

Nutritional Information (per serving)*

• Energy (calories): 372
• Total Fat: 4 grams (5% DV)
• Saturated Fat: 0 grams (0% DV)
• Carbohydrates: 69 grams (22% DV)
• Dietary Fiber: 11 grams (52% DV)
• Protein: 19 grams

*Daily values (DV) are for the general population.  Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding need additional energy, particularly in the form of protein, than non-pregnant, non-breastfeeding women.