I throw this salad together every barbecue season and it never fails to please.

It’s easy and delicious, yet super healthy!

Forget all those white, mayo-drenched “salads” that usually take over the bbq buffet. 

This one’s da-bomb!

Even your unhealthy friends will love it!
 
And for those still trying to shed the last few pounds of your winter coat, it's perfect.

The healthy fats from the avocado and olive oil will keep you satiated, while the fiber and protein from the beans regulate your blood sugar level… keeping you from overdoing it on those other "salads"!
 
Black bean, avocado & corn salad with lime dressing

Ingredients:

3 cups canned black beans rinsed

2 cups or 10 oz. of frozen corn cooked

½ cup red onion diced

2 ripe avocados diced

1 red bell pepper diced

1/3 cup cilantro chopped (optional)

Dressing:

1 garlic clove minced

3 Tablespoons lime juice

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon chili powder

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Directions:

1. Mix together dressing in small bowl and set aside

2. In a large bowl add remaining ingredients

3. Pour dressing over salad and mix gently, making sure not to mash the avocado 

Serves 15-20 people

The quickest yummy granola you’ll ever make!

Serve with Cashew Cream Parfait for ultimate goodness.

Maple Pecan Quick-ola Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups of gluten-free rolled oats

1 cup roughly chopped pecans or nut of choice

½ cup unsalted sunflower or pumpkin seeds

3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

2 Tablespoons raw honey

4 Tablespoons coconut oil

pinch of salt

Optional: ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut 

1. Preheat oven to 300F .

2. Place all ingredients in large bowl and mix with your hands. Really need to get your hands dirty here to melt the coconut oil.

3. Spread mixture over two foil-lined cookie sheets and bake 15 minutes.

4. Stir the granola and bake for another 10 minutes. If stacking the pans in oven than switch the one that cooked on the bottom to the top rack and vise-versa.

5. Let completely cool and enjoy!

My first time at a raw vegan restaurant, I was expecting some seriously bland food.

Instead, I got the most delicious parfait I’d ever tasted.

The sweet cashew cream, layered with fresh local fruit and granola, was to die for.

I asked two different servers if it had dairy because I couldn’t believe it.

No refined sugar, no heavy cream?

It blew my limited idea of what health food could taste like.

Years later, I’m still amazed at how simple it is to create sinfully tasty treats without the toxic ingredients.

This Healthy Cashew Cream Parfait is one of my favorites.

It’s super easy….just six ingredients and one is water!

I make it for dessert but you can totally eat it for breakfast.

Healthy Cashew Cream Parfait(gluten-free, vegan)

Ingredients:

2 cups of raw cashews

1 cup water

Zest of ½ lemon

3 Tablespoons of raw honey (vegan option: 2 Tablespoons of agave)

1 ½  teaspoons vanilla

2 pinches of sea salt

Optional: chopped fruit and Maple Pecan Quick-ola Granola 

1. Soak cashews for two hours*.

2. Drain and place in blender or food processor with remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth.  If you have a high-speed blender, this part will go quick. Otherwise, pause to scrape sides until it’s smooth.

3. Taste and adjust with more sweatner or zest if needed. The cream will be a bit runny but will thicken in fridge.

4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. You can eat it after an hour but it’s best to wait.

5. Optional: Layer in glass with granola, cut up mangos and raspberries or fruit of choice.

Serves 5

*No time to soak? No problem. Boil the cashews for 15 minutes and let them cool. 

For so many of my parent friends the dinner table is a battlefield, where each bite is a negotiation.

There’s nothing that brings more joy to a parent (besides free babysitting) than watching their kids eat well. 

We're hooked the moment they slurp down that first bowl of pureed carrots.

So when our happy little eaters decide to live on bread and air, it’s like being flicked in the heart.

Luckily, my kids eat everything from fish to Indian food...actually, it's not luck. 

It's because we follow some simple food guidelines.

Hey, if you have a picky eater, it’s not your fault. Kids are finicky.

But you can totally turn it around! 

Here’s how to raise a good eater…without having to go to war.

Be a role model

Your greatest tool is showing your kids how to eat well.

If my kids saw me packing away a Powerbar and Diet Coke for lunch, I couldn’t blame them for wanting sugary snacks instead of meals or looking at a vegetable like an alien.

It doesn’t matter what you put on their plate, it’s always what’s on your plate they’re paying attention to.

Don’t reward with junk

Go pee on the potty: you get an M&M! Behave at mommy’s appointment: you get an M&M!

We’re not training our kids to be well behaved, we’re training them to have a sugar addiction.

Try rewarding with healthy snacks or small toys. I would always have mini toy cars and pills that turn into sponges on hand.

Be a parent not a slave

If your kids don’t like what’s for dinner, they don’t have to eat it. And if they say they’re hungry two minutes before bedtime, tough.

It’s not an all night buffet.

It sounds harsh but I promise they won’t starve.

If you’re really worried, say they can have a banana or a carrot. Make it a quick, no-frills snack. If they’re hungry, they will eat!

You wouldn’t let your child decide when bedtime is, so don’t let them decide when dinner is.

If holding out will get them something better like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, instead of the chicken and veggies you made, they will hold out way longer than you can!

“But my kid’s underweight!”

Even greater reason not to continue bad food habits.

Unless your child is sickly, the “Eating something is better than nothing” philosophy is not doing them any favors.

Giving them a jelly sandwich on white bread instead of a real nutritious meal only feeds their sugar addiction and makes it harder for their palate to adjust to real food that’s not highly processed.

It also doesn’t benefit their brain development, creates inflammation in their body(allergies, skin irritation) and worsens behavioral problems.

Get in the kitchen

Get them involved with preparing food. More than anything, good eaters are created in the kitchen.

Give them a plastic knife and let them cut up avocados for dinner or place the ingredients in a bowl.

Let them graze on what they’re cutting up to spark their appetite.

My son loves pulling up a chair to the sink, filling it up with bubbles and doing dishes. He makes a soapy mess but he also loves mealtime, so it’s a fair tradeoff.

Don’t make the dinner table a battlefield

If they’re not eating the gorgeous asparagus you just roasted, keep your cool and ignore it or better yet, make a game out of eating their vegetables.

If they eat it, give them praise and tell them how much you love it when they’re adventurous.

Kids know what part of their routine to dread or look forward to, so make it fun!

Eat in color

Always throw in color.

Humans are drawn to colorful food, so throw in baby carrots, grape tomatoes and roasted broccoli.

No one wants to sit down to a plate of just white pasta or brown meat. 

Doing a detox can sound thrilling and totally exhausting at the same time.

Thoughts of radiant skin and more energy quickly give way to images of eating birdseed and hunger pains.

And if you’re like me, you don’t do deprivation well.

My first attempt at a juice cleanse was an epic fail.  

I was light-headed and even my kids’ blinking irritated me.

Rigid programs aren’t realistic for those of us who have kids, jobs and other humans we have to play nice with.

But more important, they don’t teach us how to eat for our normal, daily lives.

The good news is you can still detox while nourishing yourself with a variety of delicious food!

Here, I’ve laid out a free 3-Day Real Food Detox with lots of food options.

The best part, you can tailor it to any way you eat, whether it be grain-free, paleo, vegan or for a food intolerance. 

It’s even safe enough for nursing moms!

This is great if you’re feeling stuck, looking to have more energy or just want to feel better.

By eating real, unprocessed food, along with making better lifestyle choices, you'll improve your digestive system, hormone balance and stress level. 

It's three days but safe enough to follow for as long as you feel awesome!

The 3-Day Real Food Detox primer:

Water

Drink lots of filtered water throughout the day, primarily before meals. Shoot for eight cups a day.

This will give you a sense of fullness and make you less likely to overeat.  Overeating makes it harder to have a bowel movement and going to the bathroom regularly (At least once a day) is key to detoxing. If you’re constipated, you’re holding on to toxins.

Exercise

For at least 30 minutes a day. A run, brisk walk, swimming or yoga all work great.

Dandelion Tea

The ultimate natural detox drink. It supports your organs to get the toxins out, helps stabilize blood sugar and is used for the natural treatments of acne, weight loss, cancer and anemia. And it will make you pee, so get ready!

Foods to avoid

Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, bran), dairy, fried food, processed food, alcohol, soda, fruit juices and added sugars (small amounts of maple syrup, raw honey and agave are ok). A note on caffeine: No caffeine. If you really need it, try caffeinated tea or limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day.

What You’ll Eat

Think, what comes from nature and needs no or very little processing. You’ll be eating fruits, vegetables, gluten free grains(rice, quinoa, buckwheat), beans, seeds, nuts, organic eggs and moderate amounts of wild caught fish and organic grass-fed meat. Choose organic produce whenever possible.

Sleep 7-8 hours

This is the body’s time to heal. A detox is really a reboot of your digestive health. Without enough sleep it makes that reboot tough. Going to bed too late throws your hormones and metabolism off. So know your triggers for staying up too late (Facebook, Email, TV) and avoid them at night. Try not to get to bed any later than 10 pm.

Chill

Before you go to bed, get in a warm bath and de-stress. If you hate taking baths, set a timer for 15 minutes and sit with your feet up the wall with closed eyes and breath slow, long breaths. Limit screen time and turn off all gadgets one hour before bed.

The 3-Day Real Food Detox

Sample Day:

Wake up

On an empty stomach, take a good quality probiotic. Drink with tall glass of water with juice of ½ a lemon.

Breakfast

Option 1: Oatmeal (gluten-free) with cinnamon, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, nuts, berries of choice or blueberry sauce.

Option 2: Green smoothie with kale, spinach, celery, pear, apple, chia seeds/ground flax seed, and coconut water

Option 3: Egg omelet with spinach or vegetable of choice, cooked in extra virgin olive or coconut oil  

After-Breakfast

Dandelion root tea

Optional Snack

Apple, orange, grapes, strawberries, unsulfured dried apricots, melon, baby carrots, celery.

Before Lunch

Tall glass of water

Lunch

Option 1: A BIG green salad(Romaine, avocados, tomatoes, hardboiled eggs, seeds, cucumbers, peppers) with a olive oil and balsamic or other homemade dressing. You can also add a scoop of brown rice or quinoa.

Option 2:  2-egg spinach omelet with side of kimchi or other fermented vegetable.

Option 3: Hummus platter with bell peppers, broccoli, cucumbers and carrots.

Optional Snack

Unsalted toasted pumpkin seeds, hardboiled egg, avocado, bone broth, fruits or veggies

Before Dinner

Tall glass of water

Dinner

Option 1: Stir-fry vegetables and tempeh, season with Tamari. Stir in handful of spinach when heat is off so it only slightly wilts. Optional: Serve with quinoa or brown rice.

Option 2: A vegetable based soup, lentil or homemade chicken soup with kale salad

Option 3: Salad or roasted vegetables with wild salmon.  

After Dinner

Dandelion root tea 

Dessert

Dates, cherries, pineapple, mango, melon or chia seed pudding.