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Healthy Summer Recipes

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Healthy Summer Recipes

Summer is on its way – can you feel it? I certainly can. That warm breeze pouring in my windows has me on the edge of my seat for summer salsas, delicious salads and refreshing mocktails.

These are my favourite recipes right now!! I’ve personally created them and tested them with many family members, and they’re all a huge hit!

Here is your It’s-Almost-Summer-Let’s-Celebrate Recipe Compilation…

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I Feel Like I’m at the Beach Tropical Mocktail

To your high speed blender, add…

3 peeled oranges (leave them whole)
2 cups frozen pineapple chunks
5 large frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
1.5 cups water
6 ice cubes

Blend and serve!! Enjoy this kick of immune boosting vitamin C, fat busting bromelain and packed in nutrients from these superfoods!

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Sweet and Spicy Summer Salsa

To a medium sized bowl, add…

1 chopped mango
2 chopped roma tomatoes
1/2 red onion chopped tiny
1 chopped avocado
1/2 chopped jalapeño pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt sprinkled over it
Then add juice of 1 lime (which will disperse the salt throughout)

Stir well and enjoy as a side to barbecued chicken, with as-healthy-as-you-can-find-or-make nacho chips or as a dip for vegetables.

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Summer Spinach Raw Vegan Caesar Salad

To a large bowl, add…

1 bunch shredded organic baby spinach
1/2 head of red leaf lettuce (or romaine – choose your favourite! This adds texture and different green nutrients)
1 sweet pepper – choose your colour and chop
1 roma tomato – chopped
1/2 cucumber – chopped
1 bunch of grapes – sliced in half

Raw Vegan Caesar Dressing

(Ditch the store bough chemicalized, food-like dressing and make your own!! This literally tastes IDENTICAL to Caesar dressing, it’s SO delicious!)

To a high speed blender, add…

1/3 cup raw cashews
2/3 cup water
2.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
10 shakes sea salt
6 shakes pepper

Let this soak for 15 minutes before blending to allow cashews to soften and make the recipe creamy. Pour over your salad bowl, mix and enjoy!

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Favourite Healthy Recipes Volume 1

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I love experimenting with new recipes, finding ideas and changing them to make them my own, and experiencing new flavours and palettes that are exciting and delicious.

The most important things to think about when you are preparing are:

  • Will this meal provide me with a broad range of vitamins, nutrients and minerals?
  • Am I eating a wide variety of colours?

It’s hard to eat a lot of colours if you have only meat and potatoes on your plate.  So this is why eating fruit and vegetables is essential to reaching all of your daily nutrient requirements.

Here are a few of my most favourite recipes that have been in my family’s meal rotation lately.

Breakfast

Breakfast is your first opportunity of the day to start consuming as many nutrients as you can, to jump start your day.  Ideally, the very first thing you should do to start your day is moving out the toxins that have accumulated overnight.  So try and drink a tall glass of water with lemon.  Then, enjoy this smoothie at least 20 minutes later.

Funky Monkey Smoothie

  • 1 frozen banana
  • 10 large frozen strawberries
  • 1 large handful of spinach
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2-3 cups almond milk
  • 1 tbsp hemp seeds
  • 1 tbsp cocoa

Add all ingredients to a high speed blender.  Cover with almond milk, and blend until smooth.  Your children will love this smoothie and won’t even notice the greens hiding inside!  Love smoothies for breakfast??  Click here for our Breakfast On The Go – Mixed Berry Smoothie recipe.

Lunch

Lunch is best if it’s an easy salad or something that is pretty mobile.  I mean, who knows where life will take you by lunch time!!  So pack something that is easy to throw together and enjoy on the run.

Mango Salad

  • 1 ripe mango, diced
  • 1/2 head of romaine lettuce, washed and torn
  • 1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced1 roma tomato, diced
  • 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

Combine lettuce, vegetables and sunflower seeds.  Dice mango, being careful to save the juices.  Add the mango and juice from the mango to the salad and toss.  To learn more about why you should include mango’s in your diet click here for 10 Health Benefits of Mango’s.

Dinner

This is a great dinner option that you can enjoy at your home.  It replaces the empty nutrients in white or whole grain pasta with spaghetti squash!  Feel free to tweak the recipe with whatever vegetables you have on hand.  This recipe is also great as a left-over lunch option.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1 pound grass fed ground beef
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 zucchini, chopped
  • 1 jar tomato sauce (check label for no added sugar) or use your favourite homemade spaghetti sauce recipe

Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and place on a baking sheet face down.  Bake squash at 350 F until spaghetti-like consistency.  Scoop the flesh out of the skin with a fork.  Cook ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink.  Add garlic, green peppers, onion, zucchini and mushrooms and sauté until vegetables are tender.  Add tomato sauce and heat through. Cover spaghetti squash with sauce and enjoy!