Do you workout with an arm band or running belt? As I started to increase my mileage at my running group I realized how much I needed one. It was getting too cumbersome to hold my iphone in hand or deal with trying to stick in between layers of clothing.

The nice folks at the Flip Belt offered to send me one of their belts to try and I knew I’d like it. No zippers, no pouches, just a simple slip on belt that stretches to fit your body with a few simple slits in in to store your stuff.

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I obsessed a bit over what size to order. I fell into the extra-small and small sizing but decided I’d prefer to wear it lower on my hips (rather than my waste), therefore I went with the small. It fits perfect. I ran 4 miles with it on several occasions and there was absolutely no bouncing or sliding around whatsoever!

I also love that it’s machine washable and comes in such great colors. The funny thing about the color is that I tried to coordinate what would look best with my shoes and fitness attire, but I learned that since I don’t wear many form-fitting athletic tops, most of my shirts cover the belt anyway! Your choice though whether to wear it over or under your shirts. It will look great either way and does it’s job well- holds your stuff without bouncing.

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Not a runner? No problem! This belt can be worn to the gym, out for walks, hiking or anywhere you want to stash a few things. I easily fit my iphone, car key and snack. And yes, men can wear them too!

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I even made a video to show you a little more about how it works! The hard part if you win will be choosing the color of the belt!

P.S. Can you tell this is my first ever video? I didn’t even shoot it in the right direction, oops! Lessons learned.

Could you use a fitness/running belt? My friends at Flip Belt want to giveaway one of their belts to a lucky reader of Nutritious Eats!

If you can’t wait or want to purchase extra belts (they make great gifts for your fitness friends and family), enter the coupon code “NEA” for 10% off your order at Flip Belt.

The giveaway will start today Friday May 17th and ends Thursday May 23rd at 12:00pm CST. 

 TO ENTER

1. Follow Flip Belt on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you did.

FOR ADDITIONAL OPTIONAL ENTRIES  (leave a separate comment for each item, each comment will count as an entry): 

2. Follow Nutritious Eats on twitter and tweet about the giveaway (just hit the tweet button at the end of this post)

3. Subscribe to receive emails from Nutritious Eats (top right side bar) or follow via RSS

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

One winner will be chosen at random and will be notified by email and have 48 hours to claim prize or another winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: I received one Flip Belt to review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are 100% my own. 

The post My New Favorite Running Accessory- Flip Belt Review & Giveaway appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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Chicken salad is so personal- everyone makes their own favorite version. I have never loved a heavy-mayo based chicken salad until I had one at a wedding shower a long, long ago- it was made with fresh tarragon, celery and some other basic ingredients. Even though I have come around to mayo-based chicken salads (although I am still super picky about which ones I’ll eat) I have been obsessed with this version lately, pesto chicken salad.

It’s such a nice change from your typical chicken salad and if you are using homemade pesto, it’s even better. The great part about chicken salad recipes is you can adapt them so easily- want less of a pesto flavor? Just increase the amount of Greek yogurt or sour cream used. It doesn’t call for mayo at all, but you could certainly add a little if you prefer.

I’ve only met one store-bought pesto that I love and it’s from Coscto. It has no preservatives and tastes just like homemade (basically because it isn’t full of junk!). If you don’t have a Costco membership, find someone that does and have them pick this up for you! So good.

Luckily my kids love it too and we’ll put it on just about anything.

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Now that I’ve got more than one basil plants planted, I hope to start making my own again soon.

I love eating chicken salad wrapped in lettuce leaves but this is great with crackers, on bread or on top a big ol’ salad.

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so that’s all I’ve got for today- just an easy recipe for the middle of the week! Enjoy!

Question: Are you a chicken salad fan? What are your favorite additions to chicken salad?

The post Pesto Chicken Salad appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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Hope all you mothers had a wonderful relaxing Mother’s Day! Mine was perfect- the best gift you can give a mom is sleep so I got to sleep in for a change, then went to mass, followed by a homemade brunch and lots of relaxing down time. Just what I wanted to do!

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First thing my husband said when he saw this rainbow swiss chard I picked up at Pike’s Place market….”did they dye that?”. Shocking the the answer is no, right? Rainbow chard  is just a mix of the other colored varieties as opposed to being a variety unto itself.

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Swiss chard is a nutritional superstar with it’s antioxidant properties as well as it’s anti-infammatory effect. It’s an excellent source of vitamins K (more than 300% of the dailyvalue in a cup), A, and C, as well as a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, and dietary fiber. Of course like other leafy greens, it’s super low calorie. The perfect side!

Side note to those that are prone to kidney stones you might want to skip this veggie, because it contains oxalates, which decrease the body’s absorption of calcium and can lead to kidney stones.

Swiss chard can be used similar to kale or spinach, but it has a more earthy, slightly bitter flavor. I love it! You will need to give it a good wash and cut off the stems, but I don’t worry about the stem running through the leaves. It’s not quite as tough a stem as kale.

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I use my salad spinner to get it nice and dry before sauteing

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I seriously just wanted to admire this bunch of chard, but decided I should cook it while it was fresh.

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I love a simple side like this that goes with a variety of meals and takes no time to prepare.

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Need some more ideas on how to prepare swiss chard? I turned to my trusty recipe site, Cooking Light and found these delicious recipes.

Fingerling Potato-Leek Hash with Swiss Chard and Egg

Goldren Raisins and Pine Nuts Swiss Chard

Tortilla Casserole with Swiss Chard

Pancetta with Swiss Chard and Soft Polenta

Winter Minestrone

And here is a rough meal plan for this week. As always I tend to make more mexican flavors than anything. With it getting closer to summer and our outside play hours getting longer, I put less energy into dinner since I am usually out watching the kids until later. It’s perfectly fine with me to have a few months where I get to be a little more relaxed about dinner time.

Meal Planning

Sunday

Grilled Chicken, Asparagus and Sliced Potatoes, Bruschetta

Monday

Crunchy Chicken Tacos, Salad, Guacamole

Tuesday

Slow Cooker Chicken and Potato Soup with Cilantro

Wednesday

Leftovers

Thursday

Tortilla Casserole Casserole with Swiss Chard (recipe link above)

Friday

Traveling

Question: How was your Mother’s Day? What are you cooking this week?

Don’t forget to enter my Sunglasses Shop giveaway!

The post Lemon & Garlic Rainbow Swiss Chard appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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I have always been a small person, petite, yet muscular. I was into gymnastics, cheerleading and running growing up and I had a muscular build to show for it. I am not going to lie, I always admired the toothpick skinny girls, you know the model types? Not so much anymore.

As I started running more as an adult (i.e. races and marathon training) I discovered how powerful it felt to be physically fit. After having kids and overcoming the struggle of the weight changes that come along with pregnancy, I had a new respect for my body. I didn’t care if I was skinny. I wanted to be fit and strong- so that I could hold and carry my children until they were big, so that I could have the energy to keep up with them, so that I could be a positive role model to them.

I grew to love my muscular build and now I put much more emphasis on my actual physical capabilities and strength versus my body or the number on the scale. Now I feel pride when I can lift a heavy box or load stuff in and out of the car without my husband’s help.

So when we think of beauty we tend to think of one’s appearance or body…..but beauty doesn’t have to be on the surface. It can pleasurably elate the mind or spirit too.

Being strong is beautiful. Having drive is beautiful. Determination is beautiful.

Through my partnership with FitFluential LLC I have joined forces with hundreds of other ambassadors to be a part of  the Under Armour What’s Beautiful Competition. It’s such a powerful movement that we are all so excited to be part of it. To see women motivate and support each other, as well as work together to meet similar goals, it’s just overwhelming and amazing!

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What’s Beautiful is a competition and a community to redefine the female athlete. It’s a place to motivate each other to push further, go faster, endure longer and become stronger than we ever thought possible.

In other words, it’s a competition to get fit.

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Here’s what you can do to join:

1. Sign up at the Under Amour What’s Beautiful website and set a goal. It can be anything you like- short term goal (ex: add 10 pounds to my deadlift) or long term (ex: train for a half-marathon).

2. Join my team, Team Summer Strong, and any other team that has a goal that matches yours (you can join more than one team!). My team’s goal is to exercise outside our comfort zone- try something new, run further, lift stronger. We will motivate each other and get in shape throughout the summer.

3. Post pictures, videos, challenges to your individual and team accounts. There are some awesome swag bags and the grand prize isn’t too shabby (read below).

4. Continue to strive to meet your goals as long as it takes. The contest officially ends Jun 21st but most of us are setting longer-term goals past that.

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For me, it has nothing to do with prizes, it’s just about the support and motivation to help me reach my goals. I can always use the extra motivation to push myself harder than usual.

What are my goals? Well they are much different now than they were last month because I am still taking it easy until my foot is 100% better. So my short-term goal is to do strength (i.e. Crossfit exercises) two times a week. I’ve already noticed from all the running I was doing, I neglected my arms and lost some strength there. My long term goal is to run a sub 2:00 hr half marathon. Not sure when I will set this for as it depends again on the foot.

Still unsure about the competition?

Here’s some more info from the Under Armour What’s Beautiful site:

Declare a Goal, Then Show Us How It’s Done.

Together we’re redefining the female athlete by setting epic goals and pushing past where we’ve ever been and where we thought we could go. Join us. Set your own personal goal. Then document your journey by posting videos and photos that tell your story from start to victory.
We’ll continuously post challenges for you. But that’s just the beginning. Show us your journey. Show us what makes your story the one that stands out from the rest. If you meet your goal, set a new one. Make it even bigger. Prove to everyone, and yourself, that you have more than what it takes.

The Competition.

Every week we’ll give away Under Armour Swag Bags full of gear to women who are seriously getting it. We’ll also feature profiles on our home page and in the “Top Performers” section of women who are really setting an example for all of us.
After 8 weeks, we’ll announce the 10 finalists who’ve documented the most impressive, motivated, monumental stories.
Winners will be announced mid-July.

The Prize.

Three winners will be flown to Costa Rica to attend a four-day yoga and surf retreat. In addition to the lessons led by world-class instructors, winners will be treated to transformative massages, spa treatments and healthy, locally-sourced meals prepared by personal chefs. All while staying in plush accommodations looking out at the ocean. A retreat worthy of the women who earn it.

I set my first challenge on the team page yesterday. Go check it out. Feel free to add your own challenge for all the members to try (just set up your individual account first). It’s all about pushing each other!

Question: So tell me, what are your fitness goals? What’s beautiful to you?

The post What’s Beautiful? Strength and Determination appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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Remember these Oakley Radar Edge sunglasses I picked out from the  Sunglasses Shop? Well I am loving them. I use them for all my outdoor activities from running to hiking and walking. The Sunglasses shop carry many popular brands in addition to Oakley sunglasses.

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I was so pleased with my experience and even more excited when they offered to give away a pair of sunglasses to one lucky reader of Nutritious Eats (your choice of sunglasses up to £100 (or ~$155). Yay! Just in time for summer!

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

Follow the mandatory and optional ways to enter via the Rafflecopter. A quick note on making it easier when searching for available sunglasses in the price range parameters, when search by men or women there will be a price range sliding scale to the left. You can enter £0 for the low and £100 for the high so that it narrows down all the sunglasses you can chose from.

Ok go enter, take a look around the Sunglasses Shop and GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

See you back here at the end of the week!

Disclaimer: the Sunglasses shop will provide 1 pair of sunglasses to the winner of the giveaway. No other compensation was provided. 

The post Sunglasses Shop Giveaway! appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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I am sort of addicted to this salad. I was trying to come up with a side dish last week when I thought we were out of all vegetables. I found a few sweet peppers, tomatoes and shallots in the drawer of my fridge and I always have frozen corn in the freezer. I think most people have had some version of this salad and often you’ll see something similar in a salsa form. I haven’t made a corn salad since last summer and this one is a little different because I omitted the black beans and added the sweet peppers and shallots.

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It’s such an easy, super side that goes well with a variety of dishes- it can be served as a side dish along a protein, with a vegetarian meal, whenever you are making Mexican food. It’s even great as a dip/salsa for tortilla chips.

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I started craving it and made it three times over the last week (by the way, those big bags of mini sweet peppers go a long way!).  It will be great to make again once I get my hands on some fresh summer corn. Which by the way, summer weather is here in Washington. High 70s, low 80s, blue skies…I am ready to start my regular weekly farmer’s market shopping! Who has already started going?

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Meal Planning is going to be pretty simple for us this week. Again, I feel like we are always watching our spending so I can go crazy like I’d want to. We aren’t doing anything special to celebrate Cinco de Mayo but I’ve got to at least make some Mexican food. Being from San Antonio, Texas means I am (sort of, not really, but sure feels like) I am part Hispanic.

Sunday

Crunchy Chicken Tacos, Hot Beans & Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Guacamole

Monday

Breakfast tacos, Corn and Tomato Salad

Tuesday

Vegan Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday

Homemade Mac and Cheese, Tossed Green Salad (going to make this more of an entree salad with loads of stuff for the adults)

Thursday

Asparagus and Green Onion Tart, Salad

Friday

Tomato, Basil, Mozzarella Mini Pizzas, leftover veggies

Saturday

Out to eat!

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Happy Cinco de Mayo and have a great week!

Question: What are you making this week? Are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

The post Corn and Tomato Salad & Meal Planning appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

If you’re not a blogger, you’ve probably never given this much though, but Pinterest is such a huge source of traffic for us bloggers. Seriously what did we do without it? Even though not all people passing through via Pinterest are going to stick around for good, all traffic is good in my eyes. To all you who have pinned my images, I thank you. I know you do it because it’s a great place to bookmark things that catch your eye, but it really does help others find our blogs so keep pinning.

The point of today’s link-up party from Lindsay is to share 5 of our posts that we would love to see on Pinterest and hopefully you will discover new content from the other participants as well. Hope you enjoy my picks!

Apple-Oat Muffins (egg-free)

I adapted this recipe to make these egg-free for my youngest who is allergic to eggs. They have quickly become one of our favorite muffin recipes. We always have oats and apples on hand so I can usually whip these up easily. Enjoy them for breakfast, offer them to your kid’s for snack or make them to accompany brunch. Easy and yummy!

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Chipotle Roasted Sweet Potato and Cabbage Salad

These spicy sweet potatoes combined with the crunchy slaw and tart lime dressing is such a perfect combo. This is an awesome vegan meal.

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Crostini with Whipped Feta and Tomatoes

Grab some tomatoes,basil and shallots from your farmers market and make this immediately. One of my all-time favorite appetizers and perfect for a light summer meal (with a crisp glass of white wine of course).

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Grilled Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa and Cilantro Crema

Fish tacos are perfect in the spring/summer. I experimented with cooking flour tortillas on the grill but actually prefer these in a corn tortilla- either way, fresh and delicious!

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Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Love a good vegetarian meal? This one fits the bill! You can roast the veggies ahead of time to make this even easier when it’s time to assemble.

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and since I don’t have near as many workouts as I do recipes, I have to throw in one extra for those pinning workouts! This one is my favorite:

The Dirty Dozen

One of the more favorite workouts I’ve done in awhile, your legs will definitely be sore the first time doing it!

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So there you have it, pin one, pin all, or anything else on the blog that suits your fancy. I just recommend you click on the original post before you pin so that it takes you back to the right post.

The more readers we all have, the more we can continue to bring you great content! Thanks as always for your support! XOXO

The post Pin It Party appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

I briefly searched restaurants the week prior and I found one amazing review after another. So many to chose from! Ultimately I went with places that were in walking distance to the hotel and I thought they were all great, Palace Kitchen, the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar and Lola. If you ever find yourself passing through Seattle, make sure to research restaurants- the food is fantastic!

Today I am sharing what I ate this month at home via iphone pics…only because I think it’s fun to share ideas of regular meals that don’t make it on the blog. I also love doing this feature because I can get all these food photos off my phone and don’t have to spend time editing nice photos!!

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A variety from breakfast, lunch and dinner!

1) Egg and spinach breakfast taco with fruit

2) Avocado on whole wheat toast with sliced hard boiled egg

3) Oatmeal with almond butter and bananas

4) Trader Joe’s Wheat berry and Spinach/Kale Salad

5) Cilantro Chicken and Potato Stew

6) Pre-dinner snack of crackers/cheese and raw veggies

7) Huge dinner salad bar

8) Italian halibut and avocado-lime slaw

9) Butternut Squash and Kale Lasagna

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10) Roasted veggies to go on top of pizza

11) Breakfast for dinner- Egg tacos on corn tortillas with homemade black beans

12) Turkey meatballs, roasted sweet potatoes and power slaw salad (clean out the fridge meal- delicious but random!)

13) Another assortment of leftovers- salad, pesto pasta, roasted potatoes and baked chicken

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14) Quinoa and Lentil Soup (from my Bestowed box- great to keep on hand for quick-fix meals- high fiber, low sodium, fat and calories!)

15) Open-faced Falafel burger with Creamy Dill Cucumber Salad

16) Cheesey-Caramel popcorn from G.H.Cretors (bought at Costco- so amazing and dangerous!)

17) Chobani Bites Fig and Orange zest flavor

Last week I asked my kids to each plan one meal for this week’s menu so I gave them a pile of cooking magazines and let them choose. This is a great way to get your kids involved in cooking and nutrition and will hopefully encourage them to be try new dishes. I quickly planned the rest today so I could get this post up, but might have to modify things after I go through and see what we have on hand.

Meal Plan 

Sunday

Chicken, Bean, Cheese and Guacamole Burritos, Cilantro-Jalapeno Slaw

Monday

Chicken Pot Pie Soup (chosen by my son)

Tuesday

Grilled Ribeye, Chimichurri, Smashed Garlic Potatoes, Fresh Artichokes (steak chosen by my daughter)

Wednesday

Salmon Cakes, Rainbow Swiss Chard

Thursday

Leftovers, plus roasted sweet potatoes

Friday

Out for pizza

Have a great week everyone!

Question: How was your weekend- what did you do? What’s on your meal plan?  

The post What I Ate This Month & Meal Planning appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

I realized I haven’t given you an update on my injured foot and I am sure you are all dying to know how it’s feeling. Right? Right. So I took a good 2 weeks off from running after I went to the Doctor. I bought new running shoes that are good for high arches, such as mine. I took ibuprofen daily. I waited patiently for the pain to magically disappear. Um yeah, that didn’t happen. I couldn’t wait any longer so I decided to test it out.

Since my rest period ended I have done about 4 runs, at no more than 3-4 miles per run. I am so frustrated that the pain is still there, but the good news (I guess?) is that it doesn’t bother me when I run. Weird right?  I imagine it might start bothering me if I run any longer though. When I massage it afterwards, I feel several spots where it is so tender and painful. Looking on the bright side though, it is better than it was when I first hurt it so maybe it’s just going to take a lot longer than I expected.  I am going to make an appointment with a podiatrist for next week anyway because I am not so sure it was a sprain and now I am just curious what the heck is wrong with it!

Anyway, I am still exercising in between the shorter runs and thought I’d share two of the workouts I did this week.

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If you aren’t familiar with the exercises, you will find plenty of video demos on youtube or just google it! Enjoy your sweat session!

I am going to keep today’s post short because later today I will be heading into Seattle for the weekend and hanging out with one of my besties for a girls weekend. She is flying in from Austin and I can’t wait to see her. We are leaving behind our husbands and children to fend for themselves for the weekend. It should be interesting! It is my second time away from the kids (ever) and I SO need the girl time (and the ME time). I still haven’t explored a whole lot of Seattle, but we’ll only be there a short time. My priorities are just catching up with her and eating at some great restaurants. I heard there are a ton so I am EXCITED!

Hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

Question: Do you have any fun plans this weekend? What have you been doing for workouts lately?

The post Fitness Friday appeared first on Nutritious Eats.

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Have I ever mentioned I am a magazine junkie? Well it’s true. Over the last couple years I was good and cut back to two cooking magazines. Then I don’t know what happened- actually I do. This crazy discount magazine site sent me emails about all the sales they were having I picked up a couple of subscriptions for $3.99 (for a whole year!). I could pass up those deals. Another discount site offered  5 magazine subscriptions for the year for only $19.95. Seriously? I couldn’t even buy those magazines at the full retail price one time for that value! I take stuff to our local consignment shop on post so I figured I could always sell them there instead of wasting them.

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So my point, I am up to my ears in magazines, I will probably never get through them all, but now my mission is to try at least one recipe per week from my cooking magazines. I saw this cucumber salad recipe from Taste of Home and let me just say this isn’t really something that wouldn’t normally appeal to me. Although I like dill, it’s not my favorite herb and I typically don’t make a lot of creamy based salads. So I don’t know what it was about this salad- it just looked refreshing. Plus cucumber salad just screams Spring.

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I am so glad I made it! Not only was it easy, but it would go great with a variety of dishes. I served it with our grilled salmon which was a great combo (you could even put it directly on top of the fish like a sauce), I also piled it on a leftover falafel burger (from my freezer)- yum, yum!

Now before you go giving the cucumber a hard time because of it’s nutritional profile, know that like all other fruits and vegetables, it does have health benefits:

• low in calories
• good for digestion
• acts as a cleansing agent for the body
• high water content
• high in a compound called sterols which keep cholesterol low (highest concentration found in the skin)

So you see there, it does offer nutritional benefits and combined with some onion and garlic you are getting some antioxidants from those components. Not bad for less than a hundred calories per serving.

I will definitely make this again. It’s always good to try something new!

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Questions: Do you collect magazines too? What’s your favorite herb? Are you having spring weather? Are you ready for lots of salad recipes? I’ve got another coming up!

The post Creamy Dill Cucumber Salad appeared first on Nutritious Eats.