Our Healthy Must-Have of the Week: Kale Chips

When it comes to chips, potatoes pretty much have the market cornered. But what if I told you there's another chip-friendly veggie with the addiction factor of potato chips, but with far fewer calories and less sodium and fat? That's exactly what you'll get with kale chips. As a potato-chip lover, I can tell you these are the real deal.

I've always been a fan of kale, a green leafy vegetable with thick skin and curly-ended leaves. But since discovering that it can easily be made into crunchy chips (all you need are a few ingredients and an oven or toaster oven), it has definitely risen to my top five favorite vegetable list, right up there with spinach, tomato, cucumber, and Brussels sprouts. It's quite the nutrition superstar, too. Just 1 cup raw (it shrinks down considerably when cooked) is packed with more than 50 percent of your daily needs for vitamins A, C and K, and 10 percent of your daily iron needs. It also contains special compounds called sulforaphanes, which may protect against cancer.

The key to making delicious kale chips is to use the perfect temperature, amount of oil, and cook time. After some experimentation, here's the recipe for basic kale chips that I like best.

Sea Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips
Makes 2 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 large bunch curly kale
Olive oil cooking spray (the Misto works really well for spritzing on olive oil)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (optional)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash kale. Dry thoroughly in a salad spinner or with paper towels.

3. Cut kale leaves away from inner stem then tear into smaller pieces (about the size of a potato chip). Place kale in a large mixing bowl or ziptop bag. Coat with cooking spray and vinegar if desired and toss so that all leaves are lightly covered with oil.

4. Arrange kale pieces on a baking sheet in a single layer, making sure no pieces are on top of each other. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until kale is crispy and breaks apart when bent. The edges of the chips should be just starting to brown.

5. Remove from oven, place chips in a serving bowl and sprinkle with sea salt.

Note: You can use  other ingredients to add some more flavor, including Parmesan, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder and nutritional yeast flakes (which taste just like cheese!)

Nutritional Information
1 serving
Calories: 128
Protein: 4 g
Carbohydrate: 13 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Sugars: 0 g
Total Fat: 8 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Calcium: 182 mg
Sodium: 204 mg

Our Healthy Must-Have of the Week: Cut-Up Vegetables

You've probably heard us say before that small changes add up to big results. This week's must-have—cut-up veggies—falls into the category of a 'small change' that makes healthy eating easier, more enjoyable, and more doable, especially for the long-run! Here's how this simple trick helps you stay on track.
 
You'll save time. Washing and cutting vegetables for the entire week probably takes only about 20 minutes, but if you wait until during the week when things are crazy or right before you need them, you'll likely find that you just don't have the time to spare. Instead, wash and cut them right when you get them home from the grocery store—before you put them away. I'd heard this tip before, and I always knew it could save time, but until I actually started doing it, I never realized just how valuable it would be! After you cut your veggies, put them in air-tight containers and store them in the fridge front and center so you don't forget they're there.

You'll waste less. I make it a point to take inventory of all the produce in my refrigerator and use the first-in, first-out method as much as possible so nothing goes bad. But even still, the veggies that aren't already cleaned and cut tend to spoil before those that are ready to go. When I open the fridge and see the containers of prepared veggies just sitting there, I'm much more likely to use them.

You'll eat more veggies, guaranteed. Most people don't eat enough veggies each day—you need at least five servings (1/2 cup each)—so anything that makes it easier and more automatic is a good thing.

You'll be more creative with weeknight meals. One of the most time-consuming parts of making a meal is the prep work involved.  But if you have the slicing and dicing out of the way, you're more likely to be motivated to throw something together. And once you see the variety of vegetables you have ready to go in the fridge, you'll find yourself being more creative, adding them to dishes you never even knew were in your head! For example, if have baby bella (aka crimini) mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and bell peppers all cut up in the fridge, it's easy to add some garlic and white wine, and mix with whole wheat pasta and/or quinoa for a satisfying meal. Or, if you have leftover cooked chicken breast, chop it up and mix it with celery, onion, and light mayo to create a chicken salad to serve over a green salad for lunch or dinner. The possibilities are endless, but here are some of my favorites veggies (and what's currently in my fridge!) 

My favorites:
• Sliced bell peppers: Eat plain or dipped in hummus; or add to stirfries, fajitas, salads, wraps, pizza, pasta or veggie lasagna
• Sliced cucumbers: Eat plain with vinegar; add to salads; or layer on sandwiches
• Diced or sliced red onion: Add to salmon, tuna, or egg salad; or toss into omelets, stirfries or soups
• Celery sticks: Spread with peanut butter and top with dried fruit like raisins, dried cranberries, apricots; or dip in hummus or salsa
• Grape tomatoes: These don't really require any prep, but they're great to buy because they're ready to add to salads or pasta dishes; or to pop in your mouth as-is, or dipped in hummus or yogurt dip.
• Broccoli florets and cut stalks: Add to stirfries, pasta dishes, pizzas, cold salads like pasta salad; or steam and mix with a touch of olive oil and garlic
• Mushrooms (baby bellas or crimini): Add to pasta dishes, omelets, stirfries, or salads for a meaty texture
• Washed and dried arugula: Use as a base for salads, in sandwiches and wraps; or even cook in a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for a tasty side dish to serve with fish or poultry.

Our Healthy Must-Have of the Week: Balsamic Vinegar

You probably already have this week's healthy must-have in your kitchen, and if you're like most people, you use the fat-free, low-calorie, sweet liquid, along with a little oil, as a salad dressing. But if that's the only way you make use of it, then you're really missing out. I use balsamic vinegar everyday, and for more than just dressing my greens. Ready to experiment? Try one of the tasty tips below, some of my personal favorites.

1. Create a macerated fruit topping. Toss a cup of sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries—or ¼ cup of each—in 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar. Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally to coat with vinegar; the berries will soften. Spoon berry mixture over reduced-fat vanilla ice cream, nonfat plain Greek style yogurt, or pancakes and waffles instead of syrup.

2. Whip up a flavorful tuna/salmon salad. Mayo is a classic "binder" for tuna or salmon salad, but try balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil instead for a more flavorful spin. I like to chop up grape tomatoes, black olives, chives, and celery and toss them together with canned salmon, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil. This combination gives my salmon salad wraps and sandwiches a fresh, Mediterranean feel.

3. Make a whole-grain pilaf. When I have leftover quinoa, wheat berries, brown rice, or any other whole grain, I like to toss it with balsamic vinegar, Parmesan, chopped-up veggies (any that you have leftover will do!), dried fruit, and nuts or seeds. This pilaf is a great way to use leftovers and the balsamic vinegar lends a unique flavor to it, so even if you ate all of the ingredients in the pilaf the night before, it won't taste the same!

4. Cook up a sauce. When you boil balsamic vinegar for an extended period of time, its water content is reduced, leaving a syrupy glaze-like sauce that is delicious over chicken, fish, tofu, and veggies. I heat a cup of balsamic vinegar over medium-high heat until it boils. Then, I reduce it to a simmer and stir it constantly until about 1/2 cup (or a little less) of thicker sauce remains in the pan. This usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Drizzle over veggies. A little balsamic vinegar on veggies like eggplant, onions, butternut squash, or Brussels sprouts can make even the most veggie-averse devour entire bowls of plant-matter. When roasting veggies, drizzle with balsamic vinegar in the last five minutes of baking and stir to prevent sticking.

6. Mix up a spritzer. A friend told me that she'd read you can put a tablespoon of fruit-flavored balsamic vinegar (most stores carry pear, raspberry, and even cherry balsamic vinegar) into seltzer water for a non-alcoholic beverage. I'm not a big cocktail drinker, so I had to try this—and I'm glad I did. It's refreshing and delicious. You can sip it at parties (it looks like an alcoholic beverage, so you won't feel left out if everyone else is drinking), or enjoy one on a hot summer day to relax and rehydrate. Opt for a fruit-flavored balsamic vinegar with no more than 20 calories per tablespoon (regular balsamic vinegar has five calories per tablespoon).

The Rookie Diaries: The Recession Challenge—Eating on $60 a Week

I can't believe I'm admitting this in a public forum, but here goes: I was laid off last December. My company had to cut a huge percentage from their budget and because I was part-time, I got the heave-ho. I've landed on my feet, but the transition was rough. I'm sure many of you can relate—whether you've been let go or had your salary or benefits cut back, or are simply trying to save for the next economic dip, times are tough all around.

For me, the easiest place to trim expenses is in my food budget—my rent isn't flexible (Is that my landlord I hear cackling all the way to the bank?) and my health insurance premiums weren't negotiable. The fact was, I'd been spending WAY too much going out to eat, ordering takeout and buying groceries with good intentions, only to later watch the produce go bad before I got around to eating it. And though I've become thriftier, there's room for improvement. Here's the catch: I didn't want my health and diet to suffer. So this week, I challenged myself to spend no more than $60 on groceries and to keep my diet nutritious. [I arrived at the $60 figure based on the average percentage spent by a household on food, adjusted for a single person and for living in New York City, where prices are at least 20 percent higher than the rest of the country.] That meant no fast food, no boxed mac 'n cheese, no empty calories. I would try to include the foods that dietitians recommend most, such as fish, low-fat dairy, and lots of fruit and veggies…or, as we also know them, the most expensive items in the supermarket.

It has been an interesting week filled with, ups, downs, and cravings. I've stopped mindlessly snacking and I've even lost a pound. Here, my top 10 tips on how to eat healthfully without spending a lot of money. I'd love to hear your tips—please post!

1. I literally could not afford empty calories. I went to the store armed with a rough list of ingredients for my week's meal-plan:

Breakfast: Whole-grain cereal, fruit (two pears, bag of tangerines), eggs (half dozen), six-pack of whole-wheat English muffins.

Lunch: Salmon salad (salmon steak, head of greens, cucumber), Wasa toast snack (Wasa toast, ricotta, peanut butter, grapes), PB&J

Dinner: Salmon salad, pasta, Beans and Noodle Soup (four nights)

Sounds measly, right? I figured that if I shopped wisely, I'd have enough left over to buy a couple extras, like popcorn, a healthy frozen burrito, some canned chili, juice. I was wrong. I walked out of the supermarket for the first time in my life with no chocolate and zero snack items. It was going to be a rough week.

2. Every food has to multitask. Because I was on such a limited budget but still trying to meet my healthy-eating goals, I couldn't afford to buy something that only offered a single (or zero) benefit. Peanut butter? Check (protein and healthy fats). Ricotta? Check (calcium and protein). Eggs? Check (protein, lutein, folate, vitamin A). I also needed foods I could use in a number of ways. Just like those fashion magazine stories where you have five items and get 20 different outfits, I had to take my shrunken grocery list and cobble together 35 different meals. Eggs are great for this—you can scramble them for breakfast and hard-boil them for a luncheon salad. Ditto spinach: Great in soups, stir-fries and salad. And peanut butter is perfect for dipping, spreading and spoon-licking in moments of weakness.

3. Organic? Fuhgettaboutit. This was one of the hardest things for me to give up, but it's impossible to eat organic and save money. The two exceptions: Organic canned tomatoes and organic whole-grain cereal, both of which were as cheap or cheaper than their non-organic counterparts. From a taste standpoint, I didn't notice much of a difference—the conventional produce didn't taste chemical-y or pesticide-ridden. That said, in a few weeks I plan to purchase this exact grocery list but choose all organic ingredients to see how much more I end up spending…and if it tastes any better as well. (Stay tuned!).

4. Convenience foods? Not a chance. Most things in life are a time/money tradeoff, and food is no exception. I'm addicted to those pre-washed mixes of lettuce. But they are twice as expensive as buying a big ol' head of lettuce and washing it yourself. Diced canned tomatoes are more expensive because they've done the work of chopping for you (shortcut: Buy whole and grind them up in a food processor). And making a huge pot of bean soup (I used the Black Bean and Noodle Soup recipe on The Best Life site, substituting vegetable broth for the water and adding ¼ cup lemon juice to jazz it up) is way cheaper than buying it premade in cans. So yes, you'll have to block out an extra hour a day for food prep, but you will see the savings pile up.

5. Eat…and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. I didn't realize what a luxury a varied diet was until this week. The first four days were fine—I had enough to eat a different breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Days 5, 6 and 7 were like Groundhog Day. Another egg breakfast sandwich? Bean soup again?! I'm sure that if I kept this up, I'd get better at carving out a varied meal-plan, but if I see one more tangerine I'm going to fling it out the window.

6. Nothing went to waste. Speaking of flinging things out the window, you can't do this when you're on a budget. I've become a hoarder. I'm scared to throw anything away for fear of going hungry. My fridge is now home to a number of leftover containers harboring: ¼ cup of veggie broth; 10 grapes and a smidgen of ricotta for tonight's Wasa snack (this combo sounds weird but it's the best healthy snack I've had in years—I used peanut butter instead of almond butter because it's cheaper); half of an English muffin; and a sad, wilted bunch of spinach.

7. I lost a bit of weight. I wouldn't recommend this experiment for weight-loss purposes alone, but if you have trouble keeping a lid on your snacking, you will lose a couple pounds, because…there are no snacks in the house! Of course, you can get creative and desperate—I ate peanut butter straight from the jar on several occasions. But my trigger food is cheese, and I only had money to buy a five-ounce container of shredded Parmesan, the cheese called for in the bean soup recipe.

8. I had to shop at the least expensive store...and paid in the form of lower quality. This was perhaps the worst part of the experiment. There was no strolling through Whole Foods, no running to the convenient corner deli. I had to purchase everything all in one trip at my local, bottom-of-the-barrel grocery store. This was fine for packaged goods and dairy, but the produce was sad and limp. Poor-quality produce is a problem on two fronts: 1) It's not as tasty or nutritious; 2) It doesn't keep as long. My bean soup contained no carrots because they went bad before I got around to making it on Day 4.

9. I ate more fruit…but suffered on the veggie front. It's easier to buy cheap fruit in bulk and have it keep, but not so with the veggies. Also, the vegetables that I like to eat are expensive—asparagus, tomatoes (actually a fruit), sugar snap peas. I settled for salad greens and collards, but it wasn't enough to meet my daily quota.

10. You will end up breaking your budget by going out to eat. I was pretty strict when it came to eating at home, but I couldn't turn down a lunch with an editor (for work reasons, I promise!) or dinner with my brother and sister-in-law, whom I don't get to see too often. So I busted my budget by about $20—not bad considering how much I could have spent eating out. But I should have factored that in from the get-go—leaving me with $40 to spend on groceries, but two fewer meals to buy for.

All told, I survived, and I developed some smart habits I'll take with me into the coming weeks. But I'm going to allow myself some wiggle room when it comes to fresh veggies and a more varied diet of protein sources. And dark chocolate is going back on my list. Life is too short not to spend a little extra on something that makes me so happy.

In the Kitchen with Sidra: Broiling Basic

A quick cooking trick for giving foods a delicious charred, caramelized taste without having to use much fat: Broil it. Similar to grilling, broiling involves applying direct heat to food. (For this reason, it's key to keep a close eye on your food so you don't burn it.)

You can put lean cuts of meat, fish and poultry as well as vegetables, under the broiler. I find that thinly sliced vegetables, medium to thin slices of red meat, fillets of fish and individual pieces of chicken—as opposed to a whole chicken—are ideal for this method of cooking. (Fatty cuts of meat cooked under the broiler will splatter, making a big mess in the oven and leaving your kitchen very smoky.)  When broiling, be sure to leave your oven door slightly ajar—this will keep the thermostat from going too high and will prevent the broiler flame from cutting off.

Before broiling, set your oven to broil and preheat your pan. (If you're cooking meat or poultry, be sure to use a two-piece broiling pan, which allows the fat to drip off your food while cooking. For vegetables or fish, a regular sheet pan will work.) Once the pan is hot, remove from oven and place your food in the pan quickly, while it's still hot. This will give you better results because the food will sear immediately when it touches the hot pan, sealing in moisture and flavor. Turn the food over or stir smaller pieces about midway through the cooking process.

For red meat and poultry, use a thermometer to make sure your meat is finished cooking. And remember that even after you remove meat from the oven, it will continue to cook for at least a few minutes. Below is a rough guide to broiling times, which you can use as a starting place. Specific cooking times will be greatly affected by the thickness and density of the food you're cooking, the distance between your oven rack and the broiler and the intensity of your broiler.

Broiling Times
• Beef (1¼-inch-thick cut or thinner) — 1½ to 4 minutes per side
• Chicken breast — 3 to 5 minutes per side
• Fish fillet — 1 to 3 minutes per side  
• Vegetables — 1 to 5 minutes per side

Our Must-Have of the Week: A Potato Ricer

This week's must-have is one I didn't even know I needed until recently. I was cooking dinner with a friend a few days ago when she mentioned that she had a potato ricer that she needed to start using more. (A potato ricer is a kitchen gadget that looks like a giant garlic press; you squeeze cooked potatoes and other fruits and veggies through tiny holes to create food that resembles grains of rice.) My memories of potato ricers date back to childhood, when my grandmother used to serve riced potatoes with almost every meal. I hadn't seen a potato ricer—or eaten riced potatoes—since.

But the very next day, that same friend and I were in the kitchen again trying our hand at sweet potato gnocchi when I noticed that the recipe suggested ricing the boiled sweet potato before combining it with the flour. I took this as a sign from the kitchen apparatus gods that it was time to reintroduce myself to the potato ricer, and so we riced away. Guess what? It worked like a charm!  Our potatoes easily incorporated into the flour to form dough, and it didn't get gummy.

My one hesitation with purchasing a potato ricer for myself was that I wouldn't use it enough to merit the cost or the storage space. But, there are uses for them beyond simply a riced potato side dish.  Riced potatoes can be mixed with milk, butter, and seasonings to produce very smooth, creamy mashed potatoes; the riced potatoes allow the mixture to be creamy without turning gummy. You can also put cooked cauliflower through a ricer and then mix it with Parmesan, chives, and pepper for a delicious cauliflower mash. In fact, you can put cooked squash, carrots, turnips, and more through a ricer to create a delicate veggie mash. You can also put hardboiled eggs through a ricer before mixing it with veggies and reduced-fat mayo to create egg salad, or put cooked fruit through to make fresh fruit puree to top whole-grain waffles or nonfat plain yogurt!

After considering all the things I could do with a ricer, I decided to invest the $20. And I'm glad I did because it has allowed me to be a little more creative with veggies and fruit! If you want to try your hand at using a ricer, look for one with longer handles, which provide more leverage—OXO makes a version with easy to grip handles. You can find it (as well as other brands) at Amazon.com and national retail stores. Happy ricing!

Instant Nutrition Boosters

Got a minute? Then you have time to make a major difference in your diet. These five quick and easy adjustments will help slim you down and infuse your diet with more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients.

1. Say buh-bye to butter. Replace regular butter with peanut or almond butter. Nut butters contain the same amount of calories as margarine or butter, but they keep you feeling full longer. That may be because the creamy spread is high in protein; there is 4 g of the satiating nutrient per tablespoon. Plus, the healthy monounsaturated fats help protect your ticker. If you're in the mood for a butter-like spread, be sure to choose one that contains no partially hydrogenated oil, such as Smart Balance Buttery Spread, which carries the Best Life seal.

2. Choose whole over white. Opting for whole-grain products, such as bread, cereal and rice, over white will help you get your fiber fix for the day. Hitting the 25- to 35-grams-per-day goal for fiber will help keep you satisfied and reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease, constipation, and obesity.

3. Drink your vegetables. Don't have time to wash and chop? Six ounces of vegetable juice counts as one of your three or more daily vegetable servings. Ideally, you should use juice to fill just one of your veggie servings because the whole vegetable is much more filling for the calories.

4. Select a smarter cup. Coffee can weaken your bones, but drinking fat-free milk can help offset the risk, according to a study from the University of California at San Diego. So add some calcium to your cup by turning your coffee into café au lait or your espresso into a latte. Calcium- and vitamin D-enriched soymilk is also an excellent choice—soy has been linked to protection against heart disease. (Many flavors of Silk soymilk have the Best Life seal.)

5. Go for real fruit, not fruit juice. Fruit juice can cost you up to about 150 calories per 8-ounce cup. The real deal—a piece of whole fruit—will set you back only 60 calories. Plus, whole fruit contains fiber (there's 3 to 4 g in a medium orange or apple), whereas fruit juice has none. Note: Veggie juice, though lower in fiber than whole veggies, is still OK for one of your daily veggie servings because it's low in calories. In fact, it has half the calories of most fruit juices.

For more quick and easy healthy-eating tips, check out TheBestLife.com. 

Sidra's Fall Garden Update

Although there's still another two weeks until fall officially arrives, the cooler weather we've been having is giving us a preview of the coming season. Ironically, many of my summer crops are just beginning to bear fruit, thanks in large part to the cool start to summer. It looks like there will be more tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash over the next two months than I got all summer.

Over the last week, I started replacing some of the early summer crops, such as shelling beans, French beans and heat-loving lettuces with fall crops. I planted cabbage and sorrel, both of which I started in small containers about a month ago when I had no room to put them in the ground. From seed this week, I started beets, carrots, arugula, spinach (I'm hoping it's cool enough for germination; spinach does not like the heat), mixed greens, kale and a new batch of chard. All winter greens do great if you plant them from seed in the next week or so. Other plants that thrive with early fall sowing are peas, radishes and bunching onions. Most of the seeds we planted today came from Johnny's Seeds.

Start planting now and you should be able to enjoy your garden through November. In fact, last year we enjoyed fall vegetables as well as tomatoes from my garden on Thanksgiving. There is still a lot of farming left this year—and hopefully a healthy harvest to enjoy.

For more on healthy-eating, check out TheBestLife.com.

Color Me Healthy

On my last trip to the grocery store, I was amazed by all the colors in the produce section. Nearly every hue imaginable was represented. It got me thinking how amazing fruit and veggies are—they're delicious, healthy, packed with vitamins, and yes, even beautiful. In fact, I often use different colored fruit and veggies to make dishes visually appealing, more interesting and even holiday-themed. For instance, pumpkins spice up the fall holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving, nothing says love like some ruby red strawberries (dipped in a little dark chocolate) on Valentine's Day, and an American flag cake topped with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries is always a hit on the 4th of July. Indeed, the holidays just wouldn't be the same without the help of some colorful fruits and veggies. 

Of course, fruit and veggies are so much more than just eye-candy—they're good for you and they're simple to prepare. Sure, you can get fancy and make a colorful fruit mosaic on top of a cake, but you can also dice up appropriately-colored fruit for a fuss-free festive fruit salad. Or, slice holiday-hued veggies and serve with garnished hummus. With so many fruits and veggies running the spectrum of the rainbow, a simple, healthy, themed dish is never more than a quick grocery store (or farmers market) trip away! 

The added bonus: Making dishes fun, festive and color-coordinated can make eating fruit and veggies more fun for kids (and adults) who might be produce-phobes.

For more fun healthy-eating ideas, check out TheBestLife.com.

Produce Perks

Looking to peel off some pounds? Try this "Skinny Tip" from my Ebook, The Grocery Cart Makeover:

It has been said that diamonds are a girl's best friend—but fruit and veggies should be, too. In fact, the best way to lose weight is simply to move from eating high-calorie, sugar-laden, fatty, low-fiber fare to low-calorie, nutrient-rich, high-fiber foods, such as—you guessed it—fruits and vegetables. Here's why:

They fill you up. Fiber-rich fruit and veggies make you feel full; when you feel full, you eat less; when you eat less, you lose weight. And if you fill up on produce, you won't be reaching for the cookie jar, the candy dish, the pizza box, or anything else.

You can eat more for fewer calories. If you're tired of eating teensy-weensy portions to try to stay slim, then turn to produce. Fruit and vegetables are primarily water (and water has zero calories), so adding them to your diet allows you to eat much bigger portions while still controlling your calories. So for just 100 calories, you could have either one tiny cookie—or two big cups of strawberries. In this case, more is definitely better.

There are a ton of tasty options to choose from. HELLO—can you think of a better reason to start eating more produce? Naturally delicious, they add crunch, sweetness, and intense flavor to any meal or snack. And we're not just talking run-of-the-mill bananas, broccoli, or apples—these days, supermarkets are packed with a wide assortment of exotic fruits and vegetables, so there's no good reason not to grab a few new varieties on every single trip to the store.

For more healthy-eating tips, check out TheBestLife.com.