BE STRONG TO THE FINISH!!!

Ahh, summer!  One of the best parts of this season is the abundance of available veggies to help supplement your food intake, whatever shape that may be.  I'll be trying to highlight some of the main veggies included in most "diets" thoughout the rest of this season.  If you have questions about any, drop me a line!

 What is Spinach? Spinach is very popular in European and Middle Eastern cuisine, yet is eaten all over the world. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is an edible flowering plant of the Amaranthaceae family. It is native to central and southwestern Asia, and grows to a height of up to 30cm.

Nutrition: Both spinach and its cousin Swiss Chard, AKA Silverbeet, are rich in vitamins A, K and C, fiber, folate, iron, calcium and potassium.

Types of Spinach: English Spinach has long leaves with the roots still attached. It is best served lightly cooked or steamed, depending on personal preference. Baby spinach, on the other hand, has flat, soft leaves, and is milder in flavor. Baby spinach is more commonly served in salads.

Selecting: Steer well clear of spinach with limp and/or yellowing leaves. When buying English spinach look for thin stems - this indicates youth and tastiness.

If you are after Chard then look for produce with smaller leaves and firmer stems. Spinach is often confused with Chard, and subsequently interchangeable in many recipes. Chard, however, has harder stems and takes longer to cook.

How about some soup flavoring tips?

Soups often need a little something extra to bring them to life, however, with many sauces and stock flavorings rendering themselves non-paleo, people often struggle for ideas.

Here are 6 flavorsome tips for enhancing the flavor of your soups without stock!

1. The Best Vegetables To achieve a similar level of flavoring to that of stock, use onion, celery or carrot as one or more core parts of your soup ingredients. These aromatizing vegetables provide big, natural flavors.

2. Go Easy On The Water Perhaps the most common mistake people make with homemade soup is going overboard on the water content. Don't end up diluting your flavors with too much water. Pace the water as you go; it is better to end up with a thicker soup you can thin out rather than a thin soup that lacks flavor.

3. Add Pepper and if NECESSARY, Some Salt An under-seasoned soup will taste bland, yet an over-seasoned soup can taste bitter. Add salt and pepper as you go, testing the flavor after each addition to ensure you don't overpower the taste by being too generous. Take baby steps with salt until you realize the delicate balance of flavors you are looking for (always use salt sparingly as it should not be consumed regularly on the paleo diet).

4. Tamari (Wheat Free Soy Sauce) With normal soy sauce out of the paleo equation, add a tablespoon of tamari to your soup dish. This can be done during or after the cooking process, depending on how integrated you want the flavor to be.

5. Get Spicy Chili brings to life almost any soup lacking in flavor. Cumin, coriander and paleo-friendly curry powders are also excellent additions, bringing your soup to life and exciting the taste buds. These spices also make for a pretty top sprinkling, adding to the aesthetics of your dish.

6. Lemon & Vinegar A splash of lemon or squirt of vinegar can be just the ingredient needed to take a soup from average to great. Lemon works particularly well with mushroom soup, and carrot soup benefits from a touch of lemon or vinegar, taking it from bland to boisterous.

For more great, natural food flavoring tips, and a plethora of paleo-friendly recipes, make sure you have a copy of the Paleo Cookbooks:

=> www.paleocookbook.com

Storing Vegetables 101

Hey everyone, it's been quite a busy summer so far, but I'm back to provide you with as much good info I can find to help you make quality decisions about your nutritional intake!

First off, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL YOU FOLKS WHO DID THE 30-DAY PALEO CHALLENGE at CROSSFIT SEVEN CITIES!

I hope that as you progressed through the "challenge"(I just can't see how eating MORE and BETTER food can be a challenge!), you learned important points and helped yourself to increase in physical and mental ability.

My goal was succeeded, I "balanced out" at 14.5 pounds lighter and improved my 8K (@5.3 miles) run time from 52:50 to 45:37.  Now I can't wait to hit some big rocks to climb around on!

Apart from the measured results, I am commited to NOT eating many things that I now know have no place in my cupboard, such as processed sugar, salts and foods.  This will be with me for THE REST OF MY LIFE, and I hope that you all have taken something positive from this experience.

That being said, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and I will continue to provide interesting and useful(I hope!) stuff for all of you readers out there.  Let's GET IT ON!

I got this little helper from Nikki Young, editor of many paleo cookbooks, and with the PLETHORA of veggies out there this season, I thought this would help:

Vegetables make up a staple part of the paleo diet, therefore, it is vitally important that you know the best way to store your vegetables to promote long life and optimum taste!

1. Treat Vegetables With CareBruises and cuts damage cell walls and expose the vegetables to spoilage by microbes. Worst thing is, one piece of rotten vegetable can start to contaminate others around it. If you do see a rotten piece, get rid of it quickly.

2. Don't Cut UnnecessarilyMany people have a tendency to cut pumpkins, squash and other vegetables down to a manageable size when they get them home. Thing is, a cut vegetable goes bad twice as quick as an uncut one. Where possible leave vegetables whole.

3. Keep Vegetables Out of Sunlight Vegetables, once picked, need to be kept out of the sun and ideally stored in the dark. This will promote longevity
4. Know Your TemperatureVegetables are seasonal, although you might not know it looking around a supermarket. Do your homework and find out the optimum temperature to store each vegetable you buy. For example, avocados will ripen faster in the fridge.