Celebrate a World of Flavors with Wild Blueberries

Spring has officially sprung – well, sort of – and as we begin to acclimate to the time change and warmer weather, I’m sure you’re starting to feel the growing urge to get out and explore. While travel may be difficult for some at this time, you can still get the travel bug out of your system by cooking your way around the world. 

March marks the start of National Nutrition Month, and to celebrate, we want to share  some healthy, colorful foods all made with wild blueberries that come from various corners of the world. Wild blueberries are only native to Maine and Eastern parts of Canada, which makes them incredibly special – and the same can be said for native cuisines from around the globe. Join us as we travel around the world and explore some delicious global cuisines that have been slightly adapted to include wild blueberries as a garnish, sauce, or in the recipe itself. 

Come on a nutritious, flavorful journey with us to celebrate National Nutrition Month! 

Tandoori Chicken Sticks with Wild Blueberry Fig Sauce

Originating in British India, Tandoori Chicken has been a staple throughout South Asia and the Middle East as well as in Western countries. Asian Indian Cuisine often includes lean protein foods, such as seafood, and lean cuts of meat or poultry. Top this  off with a rich and delicious wild blueberry fig sauce, and you have the perfect mix of healthy protein and antioxidants.

Szechuan Crispy Duck with Chinese Wild Blueberry Sauce

Duck is particularly prominent within Chinese cuisine, commonly eaten with scallions and cucumbers. Chinese Cuisine often includes two things – carbohydrates or starches such as noodles, rice or buns, as well as an accompanying stir fry dish or veggies, fish, and meat. As for this Szechuan Crispy Duck, you can enjoy it with a side of wild blueberry sauce for some naturally added sweetness.

5 Minute Black Bean Tacos with Wild Blueberry Sauce

Latin Americans have always used freshly made, soft, flat corn tortillas and served them with fillings like fish. Nowadays, tacos are an extremely popular U.S. dish, and have taken on many adaptations (or as we call it “fusions”). Tacos are easy to put together – give it a try for yourself with these black bean tacos topped with some savory wild blueberry sauce.

Simple Summer Gazpacho with Wild Blueberries 

Gazpacho, a cold soup commonly found in Spanish cuisine, especially in parts of Andalusia, traditionally contains colorful veggies such as tomatoes and peppers. Usually consumed with bread and other tapas (small plates), gazpacho is a refreshing meal – especially when you add some wild blueberries into the mix! This summer gazpacho with wild blueberries only requires two hours in the fridge to chill and then it’s ready to serve!

Chicken Saté with Wild Blueberry Peanut Butter Sauce 

Chicken Saté (Satay) is a Southeast Asian dish made with seasoned, skewered, and grilled meat, served most commonly with a peanut sauce. Invented by street vendors, this dish is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries. Our recipe spins the classic Southeast Asian dish with some heart-and-brain-healthy wild blueberries, giving this dish a boost of sweet, tangy flavor and nutritional value.

If you decide to cook your way around the world in honor of National Nutrition Month, we want to see what you created! Take a picture, post on social media, and tag us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can see your delicious dishes from around the world.

Tempting Food Tweaks Help You “Put Your Best Fork Forward”

March is National Nutrition Month® in the U.S., and this year’s theme, “Put Your Best Fork Forward” is a great one because it reminds us all that taking steps to improve our nutrition through smart eating is possible. This year’s theme does not demand perfection. Instead, it prods us to take action to make our diets better, to start where we are right now, at this moment, and to acknowledge that every improvement is a step on the good eating journey.

From my standpoint, the annual National Nutrition Month® theme commands more than a little respect. It’s not arrived at willy-nilly or by accident. Rather, the theme and its associated list of recommendations is deliberately arrived at each year by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , a professional organization made up of more than 100,000 credentialed dietitians and dietetic technicians from across the country. These professionals know what they’re talking about when it comes to nutrition. Here are some highlights:

  • Small tweaks can bring big nutrition benefits

Making positive changes to your diet doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing deal. Go big or go home doesn’t apply to healthy choices. In fact, “going big” when it comes to dietary modifications can lead to major feelings of deprivation, which can lead to giving up completely. According to Cornell University researchers, we make about 200 food-related choices every day! Having to give lots of thought to each and every one of those every day would be overwhelming. Doesn’t it make sense to make small switches that you can apply to just some of those decisions? A number of research studies have examined the effect of making small changes, and the studies indicate that this approach is successful for many people. Studies by the University of British Columbia show that focusing on quantity, quality, or frequency of food consumption—not all of them at once—might be the key to sustaining positive dietary changes that truly impact health. Another way to position small changes in your diet is to put the emphasis on adding things to your daily diet, as opposed to always focusing on what you need to eat less of or eliminate. Putting a positive spin on your healthful changes can make them more palatable.

  • What does putting your “best fork forward” look like for you?

Of course, choosing which small changes you want to work on depends on your health goal. Maybe you’re trying to drop a few pounds, or maybe you’re trying to increase your fruit and veggie intake, maybe you’re trying to establish a breakfast-eating habit in order to get more nutrients into your day. Once you’ve established your goal, researchers say it’s important to look at your eating behavior to pinpoint habits that can be tweaked for improved health. For example, if you realize that you tend to shun water in favor of other beverages because you crave flavor, you might want to add some refreshing flavor to plain water by infusing it with things like mint leaves, lemon slices, and frozen Wild Blueberries. No matter what your goal is, increasing the nutritional content of your diet is a smart move. The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans advises getting more nutrients into our diets, such as vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber, as well as iron for females. What small changes can you make that would better nourish your body?

  • Need ideas to help you “Put Your Best Fork Forward?”

Here are a couple ideas to get you started. Again, choose a goal, then find one or two small tweaks you can make in your eating plan or your approach to food that will support your goal.

Focus on fiber

Most Americans get far less fiber than is recommended. Women should aim for 25 grams per day and men should get 38 grams per day of fiber. Pack plenty of fruits and veggies into your day, along with whole grains and you can meet your fiber goals.

  • Switch out your regular cereal for one you enjoy that contains more fiber
  • Make a point to top hot or cold cereal, as well as yogurt or cottage cheese with a handful of frozen Wild Blueberries and a tablespoon of chia seeds or flaxseed meal. Wild Blueberries are a good source of fiber, with 1 cup providing 25% of the Daily Value for fiber.
  • Start a habit of swapping cooked whole grains like bulgur, barley, and faro for pasta. And when do you eat pasta, make it one of the higher fiber varieties such as whole wheat, multi-grain or fiber-enhanced pastas.
  • Bulk up your meals with lots of veggies, which are a good source of fiber and add color, texture, nutrients and flavor to your meals. Pretty much any dish is better with more veggies, so add more of them to casseroles, soups, scrambled eggs, stir-fry, and give yourself a good-sized, satisfying portion of food for fewer calories.
  • Add berries to your salads. There’s no rule that says salads must only contain vegetables. I love adding a handful of berries to the salad bowl—they’re beautiful and add fiber, color and an enticing sweet taste to your everyday salad.

Skimp on added sugar

Cutting back on sugar is a nutrition goal that will help you cut calories as well as retrain your taste buds to appreciate the natural sweetness in foods. Eating more whole foods and relying on fruit for sweetness in your meal plan is a good start.

  • Instead of a sugary-sweet dessert, make fruit your after-meal treat at least several nights a week. Frozen Wild Blueberries that have thawed just a little are a sorbet-swap in our house. Opt for a variety of fruits to increase the variety of nutrients you consume.
  • Give plain fruit a tasty topping with shredded, unsweetened coconut, a dollop of whole-milk Greek yogurt or a little drizzle of good-quality balsamic vinegar.
  • Skip the sugary soda and go for seltzer instead. Make it even more enticing by stirring in a little pureed or smashed fruit such as frozen berries or peaches. The fruit adds color, nutrients and sweet flavor.
  • When you bake, aim to make fruit-based sweets, such as cobblers, crisps, fruit pies or tarts, and fruit parfaits. Talk about versatile and delicious—fruit can star in all manner of sweet treats. Check out some of our desserts featuring Wild Blueberries for inspiration.

Most of all, remember to “Put Your Best Fork Forward” every day with joy and without judgment.

Savoring the Flavor of Eating Right with Mindful Eating

January has come and gone and March is here. Are you still on track with your resolutions? If not, don’t worry because this month is the perfect time to make another fresh start on eating well because it’s National Nutrition Month!

Cooking Together

“Savor the Flavor of Eating Right”


I'm Blogging National Nutrition Month The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has chosen “Savor the Flavor of Eating Right” to be the theme this year for National Nutrition Month. I especially love this theme because it not only stresses the importance of good nutrition , but also puts an emphasis on all facets of eating a healthy diet —like mindfulness, enjoying social aspects of mealtime, celebrating cultural foods, finding joy in cooking, and yes, savoring the good, healthful, delicious food you have on your plate each day. I’m thrilled to see the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics giving all these points the attention they deserve because eating is supposed to be pleasurable—not simply a means to get nutrients into one’s body.

Ways to “Savor the Flavor” at Home

There are lots of ways to bring the ideas behind this year’s National Nutrition Month into your own kitchen. Here are a few ideas I recommend:

  • Make meals a social event if possible — Cooking with a spouse, partner, kids or friends turns the task into a fun event. When you cook with someone (instead of just for someone) you have help, of course, but you also have time to share, teach, learn and relax with people you enjoy.
  • Take time for shared meals — Meals shared with others increase the enjoyment of the food, but also allow for catching up and bonding. Busy week? Schedule your family meals so that everyone knows which nights you plan to eat together around the table. Then turn off the TV, put away the phones and just savor your food and each other’s company.
  • Choose fruits and vegetables at their peak ripeness — you deserve tasty food, and that means selecting food that tastes good! Avoid purchasing produce that is obviously past its prime—it won’t deliver the goods taste-wise or nutritionally if it’s old. And when food is underripe the flavors and aromas will be undeveloped. Sometimes frozen fruits and vegetables are the best choice, especially if there are no fresh counterparts. For example, Wild Blueberries are picked when perfectly ripe and ready, then frozen quickly to preserve nutrients and quality of color and flavor. Once you have that beautiful produce on your plate, let your eyes linger on the colors, inhale its aromas and revel in its tempting tastes and textures.
colorful salad
  • Give your meals the time and setting they deserve — Eating in your car while driving down the highway or standing while inhaling breakfast over the sink certainly don’t make eating a pleasurable experience. To enhance your focus and mindfulness so that you can truly taste and enjoy your food, set aside enough time to eat at a relaxed (even slow) pace. A setting that’s somewhat quiet (no loud TV or loud music) can help you savor your food more, research indicates. Also, opt for eating at a table while sitting in a chair with an actual place setting and real cutlery (not at a desk cluttered with work and your computer.) This helps you to slow down, notice all the sensations presented by the food, and allows you to notice how your body feels in response to your meal.
  • Bump up the sensory impact of your food — The perception of flavor is actually a combination of sensory stimuli including texture, temperature, aroma and sound. Increasing your perception of these characteristics in your meal may enhance your enjoyment of the meal (even to the point of helping you feel more satisfied with less food, research indicates). A few little touches can make your plate and meal more appealing and therefore more enjoyable. Consider these ideas: mix up the colors on your plate (nobody likes a plate of all brown or all white foods), as well as textures and food temperatures. Add a garnish. It doesn’t have to be complicated or contrived (no special knife skills are necessary!). Try a sprinkle of scallions over scrambled eggs, a scattering of Wild Blueberries over a bowl of oatmeal, or a few crumbled bacon pieces on top of mashed potatoes or cauliflower puree, for example.
Wild Blueberries over cereal

Most of all, enjoy this National Nutrition Month (and a full year for that matter) of healthy, flavorful, mindful eating!

March is National Nutrition Month

Ready to Get Personal About Your Food Choices?

This month, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics wants you to get personal about your food choices. Why? Because they say knowing and embracing your individual food style and preferences is one of the best ways to eat a healthy diet and make good food choices over the long term. In short, they think our favorite foods – foods we like and feel excited and satisfied by – should be a part of our life.

Can we can really be healthy and still celebrate our diverse food preferences? The experts behind National Nutrition Month® say we can. National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign created annually in March by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an organization of food and nutrition professionals. This year marks the 40th anniversary of National Nutrition Month®, and Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day is this year’s theme. The theme provides a positive platform to think about eating in terms of individual choices – our traditions, our lifestyle, and our likes and dislikes. While the emphasis of National Nutrition Month® is on portion size and moderation as part of a healthy eating plan, this year’s theme also focuses on the idea that eating healthily doesn’t mean giving up foods that we love, foods that we grew up with, or foods that are part of our culture or lifestyle.

For example, rather than making our traditional Italian pasta dishes or Southern specialties off-limits, modifying or moderating our portions of these beloved foods can put us on the road to a healthy diet, as long as we follow the principles of good eating outlined by the USDA’s MyPlate recommendations – filling half our plate with fruits and vegetables and understanding the food groups and portions that make up a healthy diet. Whether we are athletes or mothers, vegans or meat lovers, the idea behind Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day is that eating what suits us personally can help us eat well.

Learn more about principles of National Nutrition Month® and Build a Personalized Eating Plan, or visit EatRight.org for a variety of tips, games, and educational resources designed to spread the message of good nutrition.

Be Part of the Conversation About Healthy Eating

What are your personal eating habits?

We all balance our lifestyle, traditions, and health needs in different ways. Who we are and how we live dictates what we choose to put on our plates every day. Be part of the conversion about how you eat and live – write about it on your own food blog and be listed on the National Nutritional Month® Blogroll. Or, let us know by commenting or sending us an email. We want to hear your insights during the month of March. Then, we’ll share your answers or your posts with our readers.

Use these questions as a guide:

  • How is your family or cultural tradition part of your everyday eating?
  • What parts of your lifestyle dictate what you eat? Are you away from home a lot? Do you care for other family members?
  • What part of your food choices are dictated by what you love to eat?
  • What personal food choices do you feel good about? Not so good about?

Celebrate your individuality this month! Make your food choices healthy ones by putting something you love on your plate. Then share the love by being part of conversation about healthy eating.


Have You Entered to Win a Wild Taste Adventure?

You’ll have a chance to win Five Days of Food and Fun in the Land of Wild Blueberries, a getaway which includes transportation for two to Québec City, Canada, 4 nights lodging in the historic Château Frontenac, and a $1,000 Wild Taste dining allowance to enjoy the Wild Blueberry specialties in top restaurants around the city! Just enter for a chance win this Wild Taste Adventure!

The American Plate

Rethinking It Can Change Your Health & Your Life

Plate sizes 002 by Ronmerk, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License  by  Ronmerk


Why rethink the plate? Focusing on the plate means focusing on something concrete. Our health is not about abstractions like calories, pyramids, and nutritional labels, but about what is actually on that circular piece of pottery directly under our faces.Whether its paper, porcelain, or in the shape of a Chinese take-out container, the plate is essential to our eating. It holds our food, and in some cases, literally guides us. Through regular, realistic consideration of our plate, we can cut carbs, increase veggie intake, reduce calories, increase nutritional value and prevent and manage disease.

It’s time to think critically about your serving vessel. Actually looking down at the food you are eating can be an education in portion, color, and origin that can lead you down a road lined with nutritional gold. Here are four ways of rethinking, retooling and re-appreciating your plate.

plate
The Better Plate

For most of us, a better plate means understanding “portion distortion” traps. For example, to help keep portions in check, WebMD shows us that a serving of mashed potato should be the size of a light bulb and a tablespoon of mayo is the size of a poker chip, and such visual renderings can be a wake up call. That a muffin can be four serving sizes and a large soda can be at least two is something that goes unnoticed with mindless eating and eating on the run. There are plenty of ideas for helping to keep us honest when it comes to portions, like these ideas from MSNBC that include breaking down leftovers, or divvying up purchases of snack foods before the mindless eating hits that can turn bowls bottomless.

plate2

Another popular way to achieve potion control is putting the shrink on the crockery itself. Research indicates that smaller dinner plates actually translate into smaller meals without affecting satisfaction. It makes sense—calories saved when your plate goes from 12 to 9 inches can add up over time, and studies show we eat what’s in front of us regardless of our appetite. One portion control tip famously put into practice by the reputedly thin French is leaving food on the plate, something best practiced when dining out. “Cleaning the plate” is an antiquated maxim of misdirected moms, not for the nutritionally conscious that can see when their devotion to moderation is being compromised. Leave it – Mom won’t mind. A few bites can save 100 calories; leaving a quarter of your meal can save 500.
In a supersize world, understanding portions can be an important epiphany, but there are other ways to assess a plate that don’t involve portions. It has to do with the origins of the foods we are eating. What part of your plate has a local origin? What part is farm raised? What is organic and what is processed? How far did it travel and who prepared it? The What’s On Your Plate project addresses some of these critical questions through the eyes of two eleven-year-olds from New York City as they go on a quest to understand what’s on all of our plates. 

The Divided Plate 

We have the Swedes to thank for introducing us to The Plate Method, a simple eating system that was developed for the treatment and prevention of diabetes and also has weight loss benefits. Another method that focuses on serving sizes, it aims to simplify the eating life for those managing diabetes. By focusing only on sizes and categories of servings, originators of the Plate Method contend that healthy eating will follow.

The method works by dividing a 9-inch plate into sections that can be devoted to non-starch veggies (half), a section devoted to lean meat, fish or chicken (a fourth), and a section for bread, rice and noodles (a fourth). A half bowl of fruit and low-fat or skim milk can be added. Evidence shows it can help diabetes patients, and it can be a helpful, simple tool for those overwhelmed with a new diagnosis and need a plan but find it difficult to do it without help. 

stryro

The New American Plate

serving plate

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, the key to healthy eating is all about the plate, not about pyramids. They urge a fresh way of the thinking when it comes to the plate, one termed The New American Plate. The New American Plate is meant to begin an evolution of the old American plate. You know the one – it features an oversize piece of protein and a giant lump of starch with a satellite of tiny veggies. This old plate has been serving up sizes well beyond those recommended by the USDA, and the growing portions are ready for a makeover. By using these guidelines, the AICR maintains that we can lower our cancer risk and manage weight at the same time.
The New American Plate includes guidelines for what percentage is filled by what food, and allows foods that pack the best nutrition punch to take over. It’s all about recognizing and using standard portions, not oversize ones. Meals are made up of 2/3 (or more) vegetables, fruits whole grains or beans, and 1/3 (or less) is made up of animal protein.  Learn more about the New American Plate, at the AICR website.

The Colorful Plate

We know one of the tenets of nutrition is to put a rainbow on your plate. It seems that when it comes to a fashionable dinner plate, not-beige is the new black. Are the foods on your plate assuming a palette of beige and brown? That’s the color of meat and potatoes, and it could indicate your plate is out of style.

salad

Just in time to help you start thinking about plate aesthetics, March is National Nutrition Month®. The theme this year is “Eat Right With Color”, and it’s meant to spread the word about naturally occurring colors in fruits and veggies that are packed with nutrition. The goal is to be mindful of what is on your plate for every meal of the day, and challenge yourself to brighten it up. You know the color run-down if you read this blog: blue foods are colored by natural plant pigments called anthocyanins; leafy greens have beneficial lutein, folate and vitamin B; orange and yellow foods contain beta-carotene; and reds – consider the nutritious tomato – are full of valuable lycopene. The broader your rainbow, the more nutrition and disease prevention you are putting in your body. Find out more about Eat Right with Color.

Time to improve your plate quotient? Whether you prefer a portion makeover to being origin conscious or you’re leaning toward a color overhaul, knowing your plate means coming to grips with what you choose to fill your nutritional tank. Being conscious of your crockery is the first step to rethinking your personal plate in a way that will last you a long, healthy lifetime.