Blueberries are a nutritional bonanza of health enhancing compounds ranging from antioxidants, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, to phenolic acids. Researchers at Tufts University recently conducted an analysis of 60 fruits and vegetables, and rated the brightly colored blueberry with the highest antioxidant capacity to destroy free radicals.

Concerned about health issues such as looking and feeling younger? The oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC), a new laboratory test developed exclusively by USDA researchers at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, rated the blueberry per 100 grams as having a whopping 2,400 point value.

In layman’s terms, that means that blueberries has one of the highest antioxidant capability to fight the oxidative stresses of everyday exposures to air pollutants, unhealthy food and drink, excessive sun exposure, and man made chemicals that are implicated in everything from wrinkling and aging of skin to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and others.

This oxidative stress that occurs to our bodies is under a constant, daily assault and can be compared to what happens to a piece of iron when left outside in the rain. This build up of rust that accumulates will gradually weaken, and eventually break down, the physical body making it vulnerable to developing diseases.

To help fight this damage naturally, one needs to give serious thought to eating, at least, 9 servings a day of fresh fruits and vegetables. Eating a handful of blueberries, along with a wide variety of other fresh plant food sources every day, helps enable people to lead physically healthier lives.

The health enhancing effects of eating blueberries have been well documented for several years now, in being able to help protect against the development of degenerative health conditions like cardiovascular diseases, macular degeneration, brain illnesses, gastrointestinal health problems, and cancer.

With so many different substances found in blueberries, researchers aren’t sure which ones have the most important health benefits. One thing they all pretty much agree on is, that eating the whole fruit is much better for your health than using certain extracts of the berry alone.

So, whether you pick them up at your local produce section at your favorite market, locally cultivated and grown, or find them growing wild, definitely select the deepest, darkest blue colored skin on the berries. They will also be covered in a light chalky white residue, this is normal.

If you wish to store your best find, rather than eat them right away, do not wash them before refrigeration. They will keep relatively well, unwashed, in the fridge for 7 to 10 days. Before eating them, stem and sort out the shriveled or moldy berries and wash.

Interested in long-term storage, by enjoying them through the winter? Blueberries freeze particularly well, due to their low water content, and will keep in the freezer for up to a year. They also retain much of their nutritional content when frozen. Simply lay a single layer of unwashed, dry blueberries out on a cookie sheet and freeze. Washing them before freezing will compromise the texture and toughen the skins. Transfer the frozen berries into dry pack freezer bags or cartons. Take out what you will be using, wash, and incorporate them into your favorite recipes.

With one of the lowest calorie content found anywhere in a fruit, at about 80 calories per cup, eating them liberally is not going to pack on the pounds. The sweet, luscious blueberry has a nutritional health profile fit for any health conscious dieter. A one cup serving of this fresh fruit also provides 5 grams of fiber and gives you you 15 percent of your daily intake value of vitamin C.

Blueberries are easily voted, no hands down, one of the the healthiest fruits in North America, with one of the highest antioxidant content of any known fruit. I don’t know about you, but this all sounds pretty good to me. I think I’ll through a pint of blueberries in my shopping cart tomorrow. Besides being so good for you, they are also quite pleasant to eat.

Find More Blueberries Health Articles

Now, at least, they have one less cause for concern: US military scientists have developed a sandwich that can stay moist and tasty without refrigeration for three years.

Apparently extending their intelligence-gathering to convenience stores, technologists at the army’s Soldier Services Command in Natick, Massachusetts, have perfected the “pouch bread” sandwich, created so far in pepperoni and barbecue chicken varieties.

“This bad boy will last a minimum of three years at 80F, six months at 100F,” Jerry Darsch, director of the Pentagon’s feeding programme, said this week, at the end of the four-year research project. “They will travel to the swampiest swamp, the highest mountain, the most arid desert.”

The sandwiches use a variety of natural and artificial chemical to lock in moisture and prevent mould from developing.

But the sandwich apparently most prized by the military – and famously most prized by the president – is proving a greater challenge.

The jam is straightforward enough – but the peanut butter sucks moisture from the bread, causing bacteria to multiply. So the new sandwiches may not make their debut in the field until 2006.

The army’s “meals ready to eat”, or MREs, used to be known as “meals rejected by everyone”, Mr Darsch said, because the requirement for them to be long-lasting tended to compromise their gourmet characteristics.

There was “chicken a la king”, affectionately called chicken a la death,” Mr Darsch told the American Forces News Service. And “the smoky frankfurters the Marine Corps refers to as the four fingers of death”.

There was a clear strategic justification for feeding troops well, Mr Darsch added. “If you and I don’t like what we’re getting for dinner at home, we can run to the refrigerator and grab something different,” he said. “It’s not a good thing for a war fighter to pop up out of his or her foxhole and run to the local convenience store, if there is one.”

Eating with the seasons is not only one of the keys to long-term health in general but long-term heart health in particular. When you eat food in season and preferably local too it is fresher, tastes better, and usually contains more heart-healthy antioxidants which help prevent cholesterol from oxidizing. I believe one of the reasons the traditional people of the Mediterranean region (particularly the people of Crete) experienced a low incidence of heart disease had a lot to do with the fact that they ate food that was seasonally available and locally grown versus highly processed or shipped from afar.

One way to determine what foods are seasonal is to shop at a local farmer’s market, but what happens in late fall and winter? In my area, there are no farmer’s markets because the growing season is over. What foods help lower cholesterol and are in season during this time of year? Late fall and winter foods are the ones that are harvested (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds) or caught (fish) in the fall. For a list of the top 5 heart-healthy fall foods see below:

Apples have been shown to have a very positive cardiovascular effect due primarily to the water-soluble fiber (pectin) that they contain and their unusual mix of polyphenols. By eating just one apple a day it is possible to lower your total and LDL cholesterol. In addition, apples contain quercetin which has strong anti-inflammatory properties. Reducing inflammation in the body is necessary to help prevent cholesterol from oxidizing. Quercetin is found at its highest levels in the skin of the apple so be sure to buy organic.

Oranges contain limonin which is currently being researched to see if it has cholesterol- lowering effects when eaten. It appears that limonin reduces the production of a structural protein needed for LDL production. It is possible that higher levels of this structural protein may in fact lead to higher LDL levels and vice versa. In addition to limonin, special compounds in orange peels may also lower cholesterol, and they are thought to lower it as effectively as statin drugs. Buy organic oranges and grate some peel on cooked whole grain cereal in the morning or grate it over salad at lunch.

Pears are high in soluble fiber. Soluble fiber coats the intestinal lining so that the body absorbs less cholesterol into the body. In addition, soluble fiber has the added benefit of reducing the amount of cholesterol that the liver produces. The end result is lower cholesterol levels.

Almonds lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol due to the heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that they contain. Eating almonds on a daily basis in conjunction with an overall healthy eating plan magnifies the beneficial cholesterol-lowering effects of almonds. In addition to lowering cholesterol, almonds can reduce the risk of heart disease in general. This is possibly due to the antioxidant vitamin E as well as the heart-healthy minerals potassium and magnesium. Almonds also protect against diabetes because they help regulate blood sugar levels. Diabetics are at much greater risk of developing heart disease than the general public.

Lake trout is one of the fish with a relatively high amount of omega-3 fatty acids that is not talked about as often as wild Alaskan salmon. Omega-3 fatty acids are amazing in that they reduce blood pressure and the risk of blood clotting. In addition, they slow the build-up of plaques in the arteries and lower the risk of heart disease in general. It is true that eating more foods containing omega-3 fatty acids can raise the amount of cholesterol in LDL, but it lowers the amount of overall LDL particles circulating in the body. All in all, the heart-healthy benefits far outweigh any negative increase in the amount of cholesterol in LDL.

Weight is always a concern with backpacking food, since you’ll be carrying everything on your back. You should try to bring food that is lightweight, durable, and easy to cook out in the wild.

Some backpackers like to cook elaborate meals with fresh ingredients, particularly on short trips, while others carry the gear and take the time to catch fish or hunt small game for food. However, especially for long expeditions, most backpackers’ food criteria are more or less the same: high energy content (particularly protein), with long shelf life, and low mass and volume.

Ordinary household foods brought on backpacking trips include cheese, bread, sausage, fruit, peanut butter, and pasta. Popular foods for snacks include trail mix, easily prepared at home; convenient and nutritious energy bars; and chocolate and other forms of candy, which provide quick energy and flavor. Traditional outdoor food includes dried foods like jerky or pemmican, and also products like oatmeal (which can also be consumed raw in emergency situations).

Another common variety of special backpacking food is freeze-dried food, which can be quickly reconstituted by adding hot water. One kind of special food is Meal Ready-to-Eat (MRE), which originated from the United States military. They make excellent food for several reasons; they do not need to be rehydrated nor heated or cooked in any manner. They are very durably packaged. A single MRE contains a full meal, complete with snack and desert, and they offer a great deal of variety in each meal.

To make certain water is safe to drink you should filter it and add a water treatment to it. Iodine tablets are popular because they are easy to use, but they can result in the water having a weird taste. A solution to the taste problem is to add sugar free drink mix to the water. If you need to filter water due to debris it has in it, you can use cheesecloth. You could use a clean bandana for a makeshift filter.

You should always consider the nature of the trip when you choose your backpacking food. Hot meals are much more important in cold climates, for example. Food and water are your main energy source, and if you are not eating right and getting plenty to drink, it can have a severe negative effect on your backpacking adventures.

Visit us for more information on Portofino hiking trails, making a walking or hiking stick and backpack hiking tips.

Eating with the seasons is not only one of the keys to long-term health in general but long-term heart health in particular. When you eat food in season and preferably local too it is fresher, tastes better, and usually contains more heart-healthy antioxidants which help prevent cholesterol from oxidizing. I believe one of the reasons the traditional people of the Mediterranean region (particularly the people of Crete) experienced a low incidence of heart disease had a lot to do with the fact that they ate food that was seasonally available and locally grown versus highly processed or shipped from afar.

One way to determine what foods are seasonal is to shop at a local farmer’s market, but what happens in late fall and winter? In my area, there are no farmer’s markets because the growing season is over. What foods help lower cholesterol and are in season during this time of year? Late fall and winter foods are the ones that are harvested (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds) or caught (fish) in the fall. For a list of the top 5 heart-healthy fall foods see below:

Apples have been shown to have a very positive cardiovascular effect due primarily to the water-soluble fiber (pectin) that they contain and their unusual mix of polyphenols. By eating just one apple a day it is possible to lower your total and LDL cholesterol. In addition, apples contain quercetin which has strong anti-inflammatory properties. Reducing inflammation in the body is necessary to help prevent cholesterol from oxidizing. Quercetin is found at its highest levels in the skin of the apple so be sure to buy organic.

Oranges contain limonin which is currently being researched to see if it has cholesterol- lowering effects when eaten. It appears that limonin reduces the production of a structural protein needed for LDL production. It is possible that higher levels of this structural protein may in fact lead to higher LDL levels and vice versa. In addition to limonin, special compounds in orange peels may also lower cholesterol, and they are thought to lower it as effectively as statin drugs. Buy organic oranges and grate some peel on cooked whole grain cereal in the morning or grate it over salad at lunch.

Pears are high in soluble fiber. Soluble fiber coats the intestinal lining so that the body absorbs less cholesterol into the body. In addition, soluble fiber has the added benefit of reducing the amount of cholesterol that the liver produces. The end result is lower cholesterol levels.

Almonds lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol due to the heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that they contain. Eating almonds on a daily basis in conjunction with an overall healthy eating plan magnifies the beneficial cholesterol-lowering effects of almonds. In addition to lowering cholesterol, almonds can reduce the risk of heart disease in general. This is possibly due to the antioxidant vitamin E as well as the heart-healthy minerals potassium and magnesium. Almonds also protect against diabetes because they help regulate blood sugar levels. Diabetics are at much greater risk of developing heart disease than the general public.

Lake trout is one of the fish with a relatively high amount of omega-3 fatty acids that is not talked about as often as wild Alaskan salmon. Omega-3 fatty acids are amazing in that they reduce blood pressure and the risk of blood clotting. In addition, they slow the build-up of plaques in the arteries and lower the risk of heart disease in general. It is true that eating more foods containing omega-3 fatty acids can raise the amount of cholesterol in LDL, but it lowers the amount of overall LDL particles circulating in the body. All in all, the heart-healthy benefits far outweigh any negative increase in the amount of cholesterol in LDL.

There are many health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. Even better, for many lovers of tasty food, this is one heart health diet where your taste buds don’t have to die of boredom. A recent Mediterranean Diet heart health research study has shown that following the Mediterranean Diet for 3 months can drop a person’s risk for heart disease by as much as 15%. This equated to an average drop of 7.5% of total blood cholesterol in the 3 month interval.

The individuals who participated in this study were consuming red meat once a week, and fish four times weekly. Males were able to enjoy 2 glasses or red wine daily, and the females were allowed one. Sounding like your kind of diet? Read on for more information.

What is the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean Diet is the name given to a way of eating followed by many regions and countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. These folk could never be accused of having boring eating habits, yet have not fallen prey to many of the Western World self imposed health issues such as obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes type 2, and some forms of cancer.

Treating meals as a social event, and not something to be rushed or eaten in front of the television is another important part of all Mediterranean diets.

Physical exercise on a daily frequency is also part of the Mediterranean lifestyle. (Walking is a great place to start.)

What Can I Eat On The Mediterranean Diet?

A traditional Mediterranean Diet is brimming with whole grains including breads and pastas, seasonal fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, oily fish, eggs, poultry, and some dairy products but preferably made from goat’s milk, such as feta cheese and yogurt. Fish and poultry are eaten on a far more regular basis than red meat, which should really only be eaten about once a week.

Western style trans fats, such as those used for deep frying, and also including butter, lard, margarine, and corn and palm oils are not allowed. However, heart healthy monounsaturated fats are provided in plentiful amounts by the inclusion of olives, avocados, oily fish, nuts, and most importantly, virgin olive oil.

Nuts, seeds, and whole grains are eaten daily. If you are watching your calorie intake, you might like to limit the serving of nuts to a small handful daily.

Garlic is eaten freely

White sugars and processed sweets such as cookies, candies, doughnuts and ice cream are not eaten. Honey and fresh fruits are use as sweeteners.

Red Wine and Heart Health

For those who like a tipple, or are reluctant to cease drinking wine altogether, the Mediterranean Diet allows for red wine on a daily basis. Experts now acknowledge that there is a positive link between red wine and heart health. Red wine contains high amounts of powerful antioxidants from the skin and seeds of the red and purple grapes.

However, it is important to note that you should receive a medical clearance from your doctor concerning daily alcohol consumption. There are many people who should not drink red wine, including migraine sufferers, and those with certain medical conditions and family histories.

The Mediterranean Diet Foods List

You don’t have to live in the Mediterranean to benefit from a traditional Mediterranean diet. Eating 9-11 serves per day of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with unprocessed grains, seeds, nuts, legumes, breads and pastas is a great start. Cut back on the red meat and increase the amount of oily fish such as tuna, salmon, herring, and anchovies to reap the benefits of the Omega 3′s contained in these fish.

Most importantly, throw out all those animal fats, including the spreads and butter. Use extra virgin olive oil for all your salads, dressings, cooking and culinary needs.Mediterranean Diet.
Heart Healthy And Tasty.

6-8 glasses of water daily is also recommended on the Mediterranean Diet.

Conclusion

Experts have proven that there is indeed a link between heart health and nutrition. The Mediterranean Diet is not only great for your heart, weight loss and disease prevention but a tasty diet that will keep your taste buds happy as well.

Strawberry shortcakes are a dessert in the shortcake family of cakes. Below is a recipe showing how to make a delicious strawberry and lavender shortcake that can be enjoyed by friends and family at any time.

Ingredients

150 grams plain flour
25 grams of ground rice
125 grams of diced butter
50 grams of caster sugar
One tablespoon of lavender petals

To decorate:
250 grams of strawberries
150 millilitres of double cream
16 small lavender flowers
Sifted icing sugar

Place the ground rice and the flour into a mixing bowl or alternatively, use a food processor. Next, add the butter and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture starts to resemble fine breadcrumbs.

Next, stir in the lavender petals and sugar and squeeze the crumbs together to form a smooth ball. Knead the mixture lightly and then roll out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 5mm thick. Stamp out 7.5cm circles using a round biscuit cutter. Move the mixture to an ungreased baking sheet and reknead the trimmings, continuing to roll and stamp out until you have created 16 biscuits.

Prick with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees fahrenheit for around twelve minutes until it is a golden colour. Then, leave it to cool on the baking tray.

For serving, halve four of the strawberries, and slice the rest of them. Whip up the cream and spoon it over eight of the biscuits. Next, top with the sliced strawberries and then onto the remaining biscuits. Spoon the rest of the cream on top and decorate with the reserved halved strawberries and sprigs of lavender. Dust lightly with the icing sugar. They are best eaten on the same day that they are filled, but the plain biscuits can be stored for up to three days in an airtight tin.

This dessert should feed up to eight people

Eating is one of life’s pleasures. But staying healthy requires a sensible eating plan that includes a varied diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat. Luckily, there is lots of room for choice and personal preference in a healthy eating plan.

A healthy diet doesn’t have to be bland or time-consuming to prepare. Take chicken, for example. According to the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid, a total of five to seven ounces a day of foods from the meat group (meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts) supplies protein for building and maintaining muscle, iron for healthy blood and other essential vitamins and minerals.

As one of the most versatile meats, chicken is easy to prepare and well-suited for a variety of tasty recipes. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs can go from refrigerator to table in about 15 minutes. In addition, the fat content of a three-ounce skinless portion of whole roasted chicken is less than half of beef and about one-third of pork, and most fat in chicken is unsaturated, which can actually help lower blood cholesterol.

Chicken breast fillets such as Gold’n Plump extra juicy boneless skinless split breasts are a good staple to have in your refrigerator. They are marinated to give consumers the most tender, juicy chicken possible. They are also simple and easy to prepare, and provide a good base for many recipes. Plus, they’re less than 100 calories each.

The options for adding excitement to dinner without adding fat are limited only by your imagination. Try enhancing the flavor of your chicken with herbs and spices, flavored vinegars, wines, soy sauce and citrus juices. Cooking methods such as boiling, roasting, grilling or poaching help avoid added fat. If you want to sauté your chicken, use a non-stick pan or non-stick cooking sprays to eliminate the need for oil or butter. You can also try sautéing in a small amount of chicken broth, which adds flavor.

Another way to add interest to dinner is with Gold’n Plump Marinades, seasoned boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs, marinated with fresh, unique flavors. Choose breasts in Cajun style, chili lime, lemon with cracked pepper and roasted garlic herb. Breasts and thighs are available in teriyaki flavor.

Here is an easy-to-prepare, healthy dinner entrée that uses roasted garlic herb marinated chicken breasts. Prep time is 10 minutes and completion time is 25 minutes, which means you can serve a delicious, healthy meal in just over half an hour.

Ingredients

10-ounce package of Gold’nPlump Marinades boneless skinless chicken breast fillets — roasted garlic herb flavor

1 15-ounce can chili beans in chili sauce

1 15-ounce can black beans

1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 11-ounce can mexicorn (corn, red and green bell peppers)

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

2 cups sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped green onion

8 flour tortillas

Directions

Heat non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.

Place small amount of oil in skillet; add chicken breasts and cook for 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 minutes per side, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Slice cooked chicken into half-inch cubes.

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, add cubed chicken, chili beans, black beans, diced tomatoes and mexicorn.

Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For more information about Gold’n Plump chicken, including additional easy, healthy recipes, visit www.goldnplump.com

A string of news stories this summer have combined to suggest that Iberian cuisine may affect your mind as much as your stomach. Whether it’s something in the air or something in the food, even high-powered guests are ending their meals with their wits dimmed, their ability to make difficult decisions destroyed. Whatever their intentions they seem to end up, tongues lolling, nodding feebly in agreement to whatever their hosts suggest. It is enough to make you wonder if they’ve changed their national drink from Rioja to Rohypnol.

This has already been a spectacular summer for football transfers to the country. Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and now Zlatan Ibrahimovic: one by one and day by day the continent’s most beloved talents are spurning all rivals and deciding to settle in Spain. And it seems that all of those deals, which have gone through often despite the most persistent protests of the selling clubs, have been crunched at lunch and decided at dinner.

Let us examine, for example, Kaka’s move to Madrid last month. On 1 June, the Brazilian midfielder insisted he was going nowhere: “I say it for the last time, I don’t want to leave Milan.” The following day Milan’s vice-president Adriano Galliani went to Madrid, in all innocence, “for the dinner inaugurating Florentino Pérez as the new Real Madrid president”. On 3 June the pair, said Galliani, “had lunch and spoke about Kaka”. Two meals was more than enough for Pérez to turn Galliani’s head; five days later, the player had signed.

It is a familiar turn of events. Zinedine Zidane’s transfer to Real Madrid in 2001 was agreed after he bumped into Pérez at another dinner, the Spaniard winning him over with the gift of a napkin on which he had written, in his most alluring handwriting: “Do you want to play for Real Madrid?” This summer, Benzema spurned Manchester United and Internazionale after the president turned up at his house and, at the family dinner table, revealed his brilliant blend of charisma, charm and, I’m guessing, some kind of hypnosis. Put a knife and fork in his hands and he makes others bend to his bidding like no one I’ve seen since Jedi warrior Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And it is not just Madrid who have the meal-time magic. On Thursday night Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta had dinner with Inter’s Massimo Moratti. The star of Moratti’s team is Ibrahimovic, the brilliant if not always bothered Swedish striker. By the time they reached the petits fours a deal had been reached to send the Swede to Catalonia in exchange for Samuel Eto’o. “This doesn’t mean we’ll sell him,” Moratti insisted yesterday, but the die now seems cast.

To be fair to Moratti, he didn’t put out on the first date. A couple of weeks ago the pair shared a meal, described by the Italian as “only a dinner between friends”, which ended with no agreement over a transfer. Indeed, Inter’s website insisted at that stage that reports of a deal were “remote from any logic” and “groundless”. Perhaps Laporta, whose own abortive attempts to sign Benzema included taking his Lyon counterpart Jean Michel Aulas to the French city’s most exclusive three-starred restaurant, is not quite so strong as his principal rival when it comes to supper-time sorcery.

A restaurant would seem an unlikely location for Pérez’s most meaningful machinations, given that he detests food. They say he has eggs and chips for almost every meal, and even that he doesn’t really like. “I have not known how to enjoy eating,” he has said. “I have friends who enjoy it a lot and I see them and think, ‘Wow, look at these guys!’ Me? No, decidedly not.” Yet despite that, or maybe even because of it, the man can eat with such seductive style and beguiling grace that three courses with him is enough to leave anyone entranced.

Maybe there is nothing sinister about the way the Spanish conclude deals over dinner. Perhaps they conduct all of their meetings, from the most important to the most trivial, in restaurants rather than boardrooms. Perhaps what modern footballers find most attractive about the country, the reason why they now choose it over anywhere else, is that it is the one place whose people share their own habit of making a meal out of even the slightest contact.

Americans are becoming more health conscious and are increasingly demanding healthy, organic foods. In fact, one industry source says organic food sales in the United States reached $7.8 billion last year. This has translated into more products that are readily available to bridge the perceived gap between what’s good and what’s good for you.

Organic soups and broths provide a great base for recipes that are fancy enough for holiday entertaining, or quick and easy enough to allow you to eat healthfully and still dash out to do that last-minute shopping. Imagine Natural Organic Broths and Soups provide convenience, fresh taste and all the benefits you expect from natural foods: they are kosher and contain no dairy products, no preservatives, no MSG and no genetically-modified ingredients.

“The world is too busy a place, especially at holiday time, so we take the same care in making these soups as people would if they started from scratch in their own kitchens,” says Robert Nissenbaum, president and company founder. “They’re 100 percent natural, certified organic, heat and serve, and are made with fresh vegetables, organic herbs and spices, and the most simple, yet delicious recipes,” he added.

Imagine Natural soups come in flavors including Creamy Tomato, Creamy Sweet Corn, Creamy Broccoli, Creamy Portobello Mushroom, Creamy Butternut Squash and Creamy Potato Leek. Vegetable, Free-Range Chicken and No-Chicken broths also are available. The soups and broths come in family-sized or single-serving sized containers.

These quick and delicious recipes are wonderful for guests or for an evening when you want to eat healthy but are pressed for time.

CREAMY TOMATO PASTA SAUCE WITH BASIL

1 onion, chopped coarsely

3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound tomatoes, diced or a 16-ounce can, drained

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

3 cups Imagine Natural Creamy Tomato Soup

5 tablespoons fresh chopped basil

3 to 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and garlic with a little salt over medium heat to soften. Add tomatoes and cook over high heat to wilt the tomatoes. Add remaining ingredients and heat until bubbling. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve over hot pasta and garnish with grated parmesan and fresh basil leaves.

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups of sauce, enough for 8 to 12 ounces of dry pasta.

WILD RICE SOUP

This soup is naturally low in calories and fat so it’s the perfect starter to a healthy, hearty meal, or a delicious stand-alone light lunch.

1 quart Imagine Natural Organic Free Range Chicken Broth

2 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup frozen corn

2 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper

2 tablespoons chopped yellow bell pepper

2 tablespoons chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1 small carrot, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Combine all ingredients in stock pot and simmer for 10 minutes. Serves 6

For more information on Imagine Natural Soups, Broths and other natural food products, or for additional recipes, visit www.imaginefoods.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content