4 Holiday Meals Using Fresh Produce

Traditional, holiday meals typically involve meat and carbohydrates. They're almost entirely missing the vegetable-and-fruit additions. It's time to mix up your cooking habits by adding some produce to those meals. Explore these top holiday meals that incorporate vegetables into the delicious ingredients.

Squash, Spinach and Bacon Salad Entree

Butternut squash is easy to find around the holidays. Chop it into small pieces, or use a peeler to create those curlicue shapes. Roast the squash until it has a golden appearance. Toss the squash with some fresh spinach and chopped bacon. You may want to drizzle some balsamic vinegar and oil on this dish, but it might not be necessary. The natural tastes from each food component makes this salad an entree for any holiday table.

Turkey Green Beans 

Saute green beans with some onions until everything is crispy. Pull out that leftover turkey, and add it to the vegetables. This quick-serve meal resembles a stir-fry creation, but it simply takes traditional green beans and modernizes them for future holidays.

Au Gratin Brussels Sprouts and Chicken

Get a nutritional blast from Brussels sprouts by serving them au-gratin style. Mix the vegetables with melted cheese, such as Gruyere or cream cheese, along with spices, heavy cream and bread crumbs. Make it a meal by adding cooked, chicken breast to the mixture. Bake it until everything is melted together with a golden color. No one will miss the steamed, Brussels sprouts at the corner of the table.

Cheesy Squash

Slice several, spaghetti squashes in half. Roast them with some olive oil for almost an hour. While this fresh produce is warming, create a roux with up to four cheeses. Pull the squash from the oven, remove half of the pulp from the boat and add this part to the warming roux. Use the roux and squash mixture to fill the boats. You're left with a cheesy delight that thrills everyone at the table. To complete this meal, add a meat of your choice to the roux. Chicken and turkey are popular choices.

Ask your loved ones if anyone is either vegetarian or vegan. Many of these holiday meals can be altered in order to accommodate a particular diet. Fresh produce is good for any age group, especially when you want to control some of those holiday calories before New Year's Day.

4 Food Safety Tips Everyone Should Know

If you take driving safety seriously, you should take food safety just as seriously. Unless you are a professional driver, you probably spend less time driving than eating on your average day.

In a typical year, roughly one out of every six Americans gets food poisoning. That's about 48 million people. 

In most cases, it will be minor and they will recover on their own. But, more than 100,000 Americans end up needing medical care every year due to food borne illnesses. Some of them will have permanent adverse health effects and about 3000 people die every year. About 88 percent of such deaths are caused by just five organisms.

1. Keep It Clean
Food safety begins with cleanliness. The culprit here is bacteria that can grow on your hands, kitchen surfaces and on the things you consume. You want to wash your hands both before and after handling items. You need to also wash cutting boards, knives and other utensils. Kitchen counters, sinks, pots and pots and pans also need to be kept clean. 

Anything that can come in contact with the things you eat needs to be kept as germ-free as possible. Otherwise, those germs will get consumed when you eat and you can get sick from them, potentially very sick. You should wash produce, in other words fruits and vegetables. You should not wash poultry, meat or eggs.

2. Handle With Care
Meat, poultry, seafood and eggs are the primary source of dangerous bacteria. They need be kept separate from produce and other items from the start. This means you need to keep them separate while shopping at the grocery store. It means you need to keep them separate in the refrigerator. It also means you should have separate cutting boards for meats and produce. 

Produce or ready-to-eat items, like bread or snacks, tend to not grow the bacteria in question, but they can become contaminated due to exposure at the store or at home. It is important that poultry, seafood, meat and eggs be kept separate from other edibles at all times.

3. Cook It Properly
The Danger Zone is above 40 degrees and below 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the range in which bacteria thrive and multiply. In cool weather, you can only keep items for up to two hours in this temperature range. In hot weather, above 90 degrees, you window of safety is a mere hour. In order to be safe to eat, things need to be cooked thoroughly and kept above 140 degrees until served. A thermometer is the best way to make sure items have been properly cooked. 

4. Keep It Chill
If you aren't cooking it or eating it, you should be keeping it cold. This means it needs to be refrigerated or frozen. There are no exceptions. It isn't okay to marinate meats on the kitchen counter at room temperature, nor to defrost them this way.

If you are marinating meat, keep it in the refrigerator while doing so. Thaw items over night in the refrigerator or quick thaw in the microwave or in a Ziploc bag left in a bowl or sink of water. Warm water can thaw items rapidly for prompt cooking.

When you get home from grocery shopping, cold items need to be put away promptly. After a meal is done, leftovers also need to be put in the refrigerator within one to two hours, depending upon the ambient temperature. In hot summer months, you have less wiggle room on this.

You are what you eat, and if it contains high levels of infectious bacteria, what you can be is seriously ill. Make sure to keep it safe by keeping everything in the kitchen clean, keeping meat, fish, poultry and eggs separate from other produce and other items, cooking everything properly and chilling everything both properly and promptly.

4 Foods To Power Up Your Immune System

A healthy immune system is essential for preventing illness and disease. Eating foods with the right vitamins, minerals and other nutrients will boost your immune system so that it is better prepared to fight viruses, bacteria and other toxins.

A well-balanced diet is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system, which is critical for warding off disease. Several vitamins and minerals play an important role in boosting the body’s inherent defenses. Many of these nutrients like selenium aid in the manufacture of glutathione, which helps prevent illness and lowers the incidence of infection. Other crucial nutrients include vitamins A, C, D and E as well as B-complex vitamins and trace elements, such as magnesium and zinc. When creating a meal plan, you should include foods that are rich in antioxidants that also contain glutamate, glycine and cysteine, which are amino acids that serve as building blocks for glutathione. Incorporating the following foods is a great way to provide your immune system the nutrients it needs.

Beans

In addition to being low in fat and calories, beans or legumes are rich in B vitamins, potassium and dietary fiber. They are an excellent source of glutamate and glycine. Beans contain health-promoting substances known as saponins, which clinical trials show reduce cholesterol and the blood glucose response. They also lower the incidence of kidney stones. A good source of protein for building healthy cells, beans can be substituted for several servings of meat each week. In addition to boosting your immune system, navy, pinto, red and black beans have anti-inflammatory properties. Beans can be added to chili, soups and salads. Eating a cup of beans each week also supplies nutrients like copper.

Broccoli

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables like arugula, bok choy, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts are rich in vitamins A, C and E as well as dietary fiber. They also contain disease-fighting phytochemicals and numerous other minerals like selenium. Studies show that these vegetables protect against cancer and reduce oxidative stress by boosting your immune system. Cruciferous vegetables contain the important nutrient sulforaphane, which enhances the liver’s ability to flush out toxins that can damage cells in your body. Broccoli also has antibacterial and antiviral properties.

Cold Water Fish

Wild, cold-water fish like cod, herring, salmon and tuna are a rich source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. They are also low in saturated fat. Higher dietary intake of fish lowers the incidence of coronary artery disease, and cardiovascular mortality. Along with supplying glutamate and glycine, fish is also one of the few sources of vitamin D. Wild salmon contains astaxanthin, a potent antioxidant. Clinical studies have confirmed that the nutrient has a beneficial effect on the immune system. In addition to increasing strength and endurance, fish also improves cardiovascular health and eye health while lowering cholesterol.

Spinach

A popular superfood, spinach is packed with folic acid, beta-carotene and vitamin C, which improve the immune system. Along with antioxidants, spinach is also a good source of potassium and magnesium. These minerals help the body stay hydrated and manage energy levels. Spinach is also a good source of vitamins A and E. You can substitute kale and Swiss chard, which is high in beta-carotene and calcium as well as vitamins C and K.

Your diet should sustain the health and work of your immune system. Eating a healthy diet filled with a variety of foods that contain essential nutrients will improve your immune system and lower your risk of illness. Consuming nutritious food is a holistic way to protect your health. If fresh food is not available, frozen versions are a suitable substitute.