What Do 5 Holistic Nutritionistas (aka Healthy Foodies) Eat for Dinner?

Common scenario: I’m out at a social gathering and when I meet new people and tell them I’m a holistic nutritionist they assume all I eat is rabbit food. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I consider myself a foodie, well hang on… a “healthy” foodie! Now if you looked at my diet 10+ years ago when I was obsessed about being a size two, slurping back my artificial sweeteners and a fat-phobic freak with no sex drive, thinning hair and dry skin, then yes, I was eating only rabbit food. Which brings me to the reason for my post today…

I asked some of my top nutritionista friends in Canada what they eat for dinner to show you that HEALTH and DELISH can marry together in the same meal with love and I think their answers might pleasantly surprise you. Furthermore, we are all healthy and don’t resort to restricting and dieting, ever.

I will start with my own meal. I am a “flexitarian” (I enjoy mainly a plant-based diet (at least 85%) with only the highest quality foods. I eat some fish, turkey, yogurt, some red meat once in a while). The other night I had salmon with pumpkin dijon maple syrup crust (as per photo), along with brown rice flavoured with garlic and organic butter and then I had dessert, which consisted of chocolate avocado pudding.Can you say delicious (and nutritious)!

Rachelle Wood, Nutritionista and CEO of  SeeResults from Charlottetown, PEI whipped up this meal after several hours of cross country travel. She says “The entire flight back home to beautiful Prince Edward Island, food was on my mind. I was craving my own kitchen but had been gone so long I completely forgot what I had in stock. I opened up my cupboards and saw a can of organic black beans.  Next was the freezer for a bag of Cooking Greens Designer Mix,  a heavenly combination of frozen spinach, collards, rapini, yellow beans and onion.   I recently picked up some spinach vermicelli in Toronto’s bustling China Town. Sounds like a heavenly combination to me”.  Check out Rachelle’s recipe here:

Speedy Black Beans and Greens

• 1 can of organic black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 bag of frozen Cooking Greens Designer Mix
• ½ small package of Spinach vermicelli, cooked
• 1 TBSP organic coconut oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• Juice of a fresh lemon
• Salt Free Moroccan Spice Mixture

In a stir fry pan, heated to medium high, add coconut oil till melted. Then add garlic and stir fry 2 minutes. Next add the bag of greens and a huge squirt of fresh lemon juice. Stir fry for 4 minutes then add black beans, more lemon juice and some Moroccan spice mixture. Cook another 2 minutes and serve over cooked spinach vermicelli.  Note- vermicelli cooks instantly when boiling water is poured over it. This is almost a one pot meal, less dishes = a happier cook/nutritionist/distance traveler. Check out Rachelle’s blog blog for more quick healthy recipes, http://blog.rachellewood.ca

You probably already know the famed nutritionista Meghan Telpner and her blog Making Love In The Kitchen. She is a real food lover and all her recipes are drool-worthy. Here’s what she had for dinner the other night and her little story to go along with it:

Meghan says: “How I love Mondays in May. The Sorauren market in my neighbourhood comes outside and the freshest of the fresh is fresh for the picking. A nutritionista’s dream of course. On this fine sunny Monday afternoon, I picked up some free run eggs, kale, wild leeks and shiitake mushrooms. I poached the eggs and those yolks were glowingly orange. The kale chips I tossed in olive oil, lemon and sea salt and threw in to my dehydrator- ready in time for dinner. I sauteed the shiitakes and wild leeks in olive oil. To finish the meal off, I added in a heritage mix of sprouts. This meal served as the perfect Spring time multi-vitamin with all the good fats and proteins, loads of quercitin to ward off allergies, sprouts for the active enzymes and the mushrooms to give the immune system a boost.”

Next up is the lovely Sarah Maughan, another nutritionista from Toronto and her website is:  Empower with Food. Here’s what she had for dinner the other night, in her words:

“went out with a bunch of former nutrition classmates to Grindhouse Burger Bar – always a hilarious time and brings nerd chatter “oh my god they have (insert amazing food item) which is so good for (insert amazing food property). I chose the Bison burger (they had GF buns – woot!) and the house salad, which was made with greens, radish, goose and goji berries with beet gastrique – YUM. And no, I didn’t just pick the salad because it’s veggies and jammed with antioxidants, it was because it sounded delicious! What you can’t see is the most important part – it was tasty AND all meat is naturally raised, antibiotic/hormone free, grass fed (leaner), and sourced from local farms. Their produce is also local and/or organic. Fully satisfied, but my belly hurt from laughing.”

Last but certainly not least is nutritionista Marni Wasserman of http://www.marniwasserman.com/. I have made many of her recipes myself and can attest to the delicious factor.

Here’s what Marni had to say about her latest meal:

“If this isn’t a balanced plate of food, I don’t know what is. There are at least four types of vegetables – leaf lettuce, tomatoes, snow peas and spinach, three types of complex carbohydrates  – quinoa, brown rice pasta and yams. It’s actually okay to eat more than one carb per meal! And it may not be appear that there is protein on my plate to but there is – quinoa is loaded with protein, there is a veggie burger hiding under there with sunflower seeds and the vegan “caesar” dressing has hemp seeds. My healthy fats are also in there – avocado on the burger, coconut oil on the “fries” and olive oil in all three salad dressings. There you have it, a fully loaded plate…I think I will go back for seconds.”

If you are interested in getting healthier one tweet at a time, I highly recommend you follow each of these lovely ladies on twitter:

• @meghantelpner
• @nutritionistPEI
• @holistic_gal
  
• @marniwasserman
• @joyoushealth

Joy McCarthy, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Health Coach of Joyous Health, loves to inspire others to eat well, live well and be happy.

Joy has clients from all over the world and consults via phone and Skype. Contact Joy today and take the first step to achieving joyous health. REASONS TO HIRE A HOLISTIC NUTRITIONIST.