Hello loves,

Someone suggested I do a “Healthy Eating 101″ post, it will include tips on how you can easily maintain a cleaner and healthier diet.  I thought it was an awesome idea, as the New Year is upon us and it is a perfect time to make healthier choices with our diet. It is time to bring out notepads and jot down resolutions, it is also essential to reflect on the past year’s successes and failures. This year one thing that has helped me in maintaing a healthy lifestyle is always having portions of cooked grains (brown rice, quinoa, couscous) and prepped vegetables in my fridge. This way you can avoid the temptation of ordering take out, because you know you can easily rustle up a healthy meal in no time  at all.

This recipe is an example of how you can utilise those cooked grains. I’ve always been a salad person. Growing up, I was the “salad girl” in a family of picky eaters. In fact when we hosted Owambes (A typical Nigerian Party: think unlimited food, loud music, crowds of people spraying money), my mum would designate the salad making to me and I happily obliged. I’d get cans of beans, jars of mayo, lots of boiled eggs and toss in a few vegetables. This is the typical Nigerian salad. It wasn’t until I started paying more attention to my diet that I realised I was doing salads all wrong. A Nigerian salad is the furtherest thing from healthy. You’re better off building your own salad with a portion of whole grains or tubers for substance, leafy greens that are packed with vitamins, healthy seeds and nuts for some crunch, lean proteins for iron and fruits as sweeteners. With this rough guide you can create a plethora of salads, with a little bit of everything. This is actually quite a fun thing to do.

Here I made a salad with caramelised peaches. Peaches are out of season, so at this time of the year I like to  to soften and sweeten them before adding them to my salad. To do this, I simply cut 3 peaches in wedges, toss them in some coconut oil and half a teaspoon of sugar, then I grill for 1-2 mins on each side. They taste ahh-mazing.

Ingredients (Serves 3)

1 cup cooked red quinoa

2 cups baby spinach

1 cup caramelised peach

1/2 cup cucumber (sliced)

1/2 cup tomatoes (sliced)

1/2 cup carrots

A handful of sliced radish

A handful of sliced red onion

1/2 cup cottage cheese

Dressing

Mix desired portions of olive oil, lemon juice, whole grain mustard salt & black pepper.

Directions

Simply toss all the ingredients together, dress, serve and enjoy.