A Side of Syrup Podcast - EP 002: How to Incorporate Summer Superfoods Into Your Meals

Summer is here. Let's eat like it. Or drink like it.

All too often we head into summer thinking - I’ve worked so hard for this, let’s enjoy it. And you should, I should, we all totally should. But just because it’s that time of the year to hit up BBQs and margarita machines, doesn’t mean we’ve got to set up a slippery slope towards endless s’mores (and there you go, I’ve just outlined all my weaknesses in one sentence).

One of the best parts about summer is the abundance of fresh produce that offers health benefits. This episode details four summer essentials and how to easily (and tastily, yep it’s a word) incorporate a bit of health into each and every BBQ spread. Or day after.

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Show Notes:

Summer is all about hydration. Water can get boring after a while. There are ways to keep it interesting, through super hydrating foods that deliver health benefits.

Strawberries, watermelon, celery, and spinach all are in seasonal abundance during summer.

Eating fruits and vegetables in season deliver high-quality and high potency vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your plate.

Resources:

Connect with Shannon:

Website: thisissyrup.com

Instagram: @syrupcoaching

Facebook: www.facebook.com/syrupcoaching

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/syrupcoaching

Syrup free resources: thisissyrup.com/resource-library

Full episode transcript:

Hi! My name is Shannon Pfeffer. I'm obsessed with understanding the how and the why behind feeling good and translating that knowledge into strategies that help you live better.

Each week we'll dive into conversations about food, fitness, stress, career, and family. We'll learn from each other, feel more connected, and we'll explore ways to design a life you love.

So what are you waiting for? Keep listening for tips, tricks, and fun facts about feeling good, looking good, and living better. And don't forget to bring a snack. This is the A Side of Syrup Podcast.

Summer is here. Let's eat like it. Or drink like it. If you could hear this. My background, my sparkling water is very effervescent and bubbling over... Welcome, welcome. It is incredibly hot here in Los Angeles, we have central air, but more air conditioners going, because this old house will not stay cool, and I am upstairs in my podcast closet, recording and baking. But this is the time in here that we love, love, love, because there's such good stuff for the farmers market and good stuff at the store. The past couple of weeks, I've been diving into four things that anybody can get anywhere the season, and going into what you can do with that stuff so you're not wasting like buying a wasted, having it sit on the bridge or in the counter, Sally, that happened to me was some peaches the other day, didn't realize they were super ripe, it was super hot, as I mentioned before, this house will not cool down, and overnight my delicious peaches turned into mush on the table... I'm not gonna let that happen to you.

And also not just diving into what seasonal, but also why is it good for you, how you can incorporate more of these things into your diet, your friends, gatherings that you're attending parties, barbecues, nights out on the back patio. And then also for your family, how do you do sneak in things that are really good and delicious and not telling your kids...

Anyway, so let's dive in, we're gonna dive into two of my family's absolute favorites and two that are a little bit of a stretch, but they all taste delicious and there's some really good stuff to go along with it. So first off is strawberries. I know it sounds so silly, but one of the most Googled questions about strawberries is our strawberry is good for you... I know. But yes, stabs are good for you. Our strawberries and season... Yes, they are here. State of California, we actually have two Stroman. The State of California, we actually have two strawberry seasons, which is pretty cool.

And what are the health benefits of eating strawberries?

There's so, so much... Scrubbers are my son's all-time favorite food for almost five years, had had strawberries in our fridge every single day... Trevor, that are free stride in our pantry as well. We don't even put them in any sort of list, if one of us is at the store and sees them, we just buy them or anything like strawberry flavored, maybe not the one to air on because those are the ones that are the Harry's berries of minimum 20 a pound. But they are very good. So maybe sometimes this goes in the car too, but anyway, let's bring it down. My strawberries are good for you. So first off, vitamin C serving of a strawberries is equivalent to a full day serving a vitamin C. This is important because Vince supplements, people tell you take those, so when you have a cold, slow down the duration and severity of a cold, but vitamin C, aides and immune function, and it's something that your body can't naturally produce. So also, if you have vitamin C in your diet as a supplement or in food at an iron absorption, so if you are anemic or don't meet a ton of red needs or other foods like spinach, high iron levels in the adding in Vyasa help the iron reserving your body...

So let's say you had some steam Spinach and you put some lemon just on top here, you had some limits us that you mixed in after you've cooked it, that will help your body absorb iron quicker. Vitamin C is also not only just like super vitamin, but it is an anti-accident that fights free radicals linked to heart disease and cancer, and as a topical thing, you might do see on a lot of facial menus or anti-aging products, because it really does sort of right in the skin and reduce aloof fine lines.

Always something I'm looking for potassium.

When you hear potassium, often think of bananas, and because that's really what their Hallmark nutrient is, but potassium overall house balance electrolytes, again, bananas, running, exercising all that, potassium helps balance as elector relates, which give you a body hydrate imbalance in tune, aids and muscle contractions and keeps blood pressure at a healthy level, fully, different tonic acid, we can get into that in a later podcast when we talk about babies and such, but fully is a form of a B vitamin, there are so many bee items out there again and dive into a lot more in depth on another episode, but the Vine are so important to your overall health, the health bread blood cells and all cells function properly and tie back to your brain for strings have a ton of fiber in them, and they support both your heart and digestive health, because strawberries have a soluble and insoluble fiber, I'm gonna butch... Or how you say this, but Alicia, G-I-C acid as an antioxidant and protect cells and reduces inflammation in the body, another key ingredient in strawberries, and it's got flavonoids, you... Her red wine or grapes, dark chocolate, those are typical foods and drinks that have flavonoids in them, they reduce the risk of cancer.

Heart disease and cognitive decline. I know, crazy. Just a couple of strawberries a day is power house addition to your diet.

Other than slicing them, dicing them, putting him on... You played in your mouth in a kid's launch, there's some more growing up versions of what to do with a strawberry, just to kind of help you introduce it in new ways.

You're not sick of it. I've had so many just whole strawberries the past five years that I don't know if I can go back to them, you put there pretty much my favorite fruit, but... You might be in the same boat as me and you feel me here. So I've been to a couple of ideas for strawberries. Okay, first one, this one I got from a cooking class I took in Chicago on Ash 20 years ago, probably around that, but I still make it today, it's sliced strawberries with salted, pistachios, drizzle with Botanic vinegar, and then you just kinda mix it together and somehow the combo just works. I know it sounds totally weird, but it hits all the right notes... Sweet, salty brunch, all that. Okay, you can mash strawberries into a soft cheese

Like Maranatha almond butter, put it on top and then put dark roasted almond butter a little hard to find, but super worth it, dark roasted almond butter onto bread. And that is more of like a grown-up PJ, you can dice strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, a handful of sugar, dash of water and put it on a small pot and slow, so the so slow boil, let the leverages melt and now that is your own spin on homemade Berry syrup, and you can put it on anything from pancakes and waffles to a car tail, you can replace jam or jelly on a sandwich, if you are just sticking to a regular PJ for your kids, just replace that angel, total sugar bombs with fresh cut strawberries and adds a different texture to the sandwich, so probably for older kids, but it's really tasty, so you can do a nice cream, you haven't made a ice cream before, it's actually a 100 million times easier to make than ice cream itself, all you do is slice bananas and you slay strawberries and lay them flat in a plastic bag or a stash bag, put them in your freezer, make sure they're totally frozen, and then add that frozen fruit and splash non-dairy month depending on how thick you want your ice cream or not, put in a blender Benton, you could also take this blended ice cream and put it in single or containers or...

There's these cubes, I think Williams-Sonoma has them, but they were on Shark Tank, they're called Souper, and they're serving size portions of things, so you could do serving size portions of nice cream and they're going the freezer really easily and they pop out to... So you're not making a huge mess or just pulling out a tub of something to do though when you're only gonna have a bite, and then you could also dice strawberries into the tines, tiny pieces. My knife skills are not the greatest, but you can do that and then also do the same with rape avocado, take out a pops cold mold and add in a small air of vanilla, Gregor layer strawberries, a layer yogurt Lara avocado into each... Mold is totally filled to the top and you free them and enjoy them when they're frozen.

So a couple of strawberry summer treats there to get that super food in your belly. Temperatures are rising, Quadra ion station and no, I'm not talking about a beverage, I am talking about the summer route that signifies barbecue here, picnics are here, a slew of holidays and long weekends, to me, a summer holiday is not complete unless there is... Watermelon are full-stop, sweet, savory, spicy and Evan liquefied, it's the perfect balance of sweetness at every event in the summer, however, watermelon can taste terrible to me, mushy or land or in open, it's got a real weird color, so what makes a good... Wonder, men, let me tell you the ways, it's tricky to pick that watermelon, that's just right. But frankly, email and for that matter, here is the general of them to help you get something that is quite delicious every time. Okay, number one, find a watermelon, it's good and uniform in size, not one that's like a long or one that's just giant because it looks gonna look cool or be in college or have college age kids and wanna just fill it Ottawa or melon for that. For a summer bash, but generally, the water amount that you're going to eat, just make sure it's big enough and all...

Pretty much the same size and shape. The Melon is on the heavier side. It's generally sweeter, so always pick that melon up and do some dumbbell curls with it, if it's a real big one, make sure it's got some hate to it, and then... So this is one that I've been doing a ton because we go to a farm not too far away, and farmers markets often where they have so many means to choose from, look for the darker yellow, so more of the Melon, so many have white spots... No, no, no, no, no, you want the yellow, that's an indication it's been on the vine for longer and it's got more flavor too, if the spot is actually white, when you see a ton at grocery stores, the melon isn't right, it's been picked before its time. Also, this one is key because in the past, when I bought watermelon, I do it for a TEC reasons, it looks good and it's pretty, and there's no blemishes on it, the bigger, the webbing on the exterior of the main... Look for the big spider web, it's sort of like rough and it's like brown or a pale sandy color, that's what you want, because that's going to tell you that the melon is actually sweeter, the Dell and darker the skin is, the better it will be.

So it's kind of just even... We all envision this picture perfect and watermelon, but that's not what you want, you want something with character, with a little bit of soul to it, with some life on it.

Like I'm sure you want in a partner or me... Not something off the shelf and give me something good and interesting, so I look for that interesting watermelon, and I promise you it's gonna taste a million times better and do what you want for it. Do what you would like it to do. I like watermelon, as us can do so many things, but...

Did you know watermelon has a nickname?

It's got anything, not what you would first go to when you think of it, but when I kinda dive into the health benefits of watermelon, you'll totally see it.

Watermelon is known as the disease fighter...

Oh yeah. So eat up this summer. The number one best thing about watermelon is they've got like opened, and you have probably heard about like open and being in tomatoes, and it's a anti-oxidant link to decreased risk of cancer and heart disease and even age-related eye disorders, but watermelon has more like than any other fresh fruit or vegetable out there, even those tomatoes to eat your heart out. It's also got vitamin A, which is important for skin, and I healthy really have to do an episode on all the B vitamins, so b60 is something that helps your body break down the protein you eat, and it's important for immune and nerve function. Bonus, if you have been on birth control pill for a very long time, the chances are you are extremely deficient in the Minami, and deficiency in this vitamin can also impact female fertility. A lot to unpack there. Definitely reach out to me and we can go into a lot more details on this, but by B6 can cause a lot of stray for women, if you are deficient potassium, like strawberries, watermelon also has that potassium to keep your body balanced and then hydration since watermelons are being about 92% water.

They're the perfect snack. If you're feeling like you just can't drink no glass of water on a hot day.

Okay, other things to do with water mill on to then just eat it on the plate 'cause that gets boring and sort of like... Messy sticky in the summer.

Okay, take a cue from one of my favorite sandwich shops.

They serve dice watermelon, diced cucumber, sliced group tomatoes, little chopped, Tampa green onion and freshmen with a time integrate, you can just do some fish shows in lime juice and then mix it all up and serve it as a side

Delicious, you can grill watermelon and serve a side to a burger just like two minutes on each side, no oil or anything you could assault or tangent at the end, and then another very quick side is like Dice watermelon to a bull of Venable Chapel and mint together, masculine bruise, because then they'll get a little bit more flavor release at all, oil and salt, mix that up. You can also make Colonie, any tomato-based also recipe, you can just add some compiler mail into it, so it's a little bit of an unexpected sweetness that people can't really put their fingers on, you can start together watermelon tequila and lime juice at a gay... If you need it, but for that over ice top with plain seltzer, or even think you had the UN-flavored, the crowing that works too, at a pinch of sisal and some helping you feel like its Bay makes that together? It's really refreshing. Also can be totally made without the tequila and taste like an amazing mortal. And then last one is you combine 35 cops of cube watermelon for Cubs cockatoo-based red onion, half a cup of the ricotta salata, whatever he got on hand, Rasool Ivan lemon at a dash of salt and pepper and toss to start celery.

It's not just for juicing, it's time to talk a little, a little bit more about summer vegetables, ones that hydrate in parallel with meals and snacks and even cocktails, though the word celery can be cringe inducing for some, especially those who may have overdone it on the celery juice trend celery is a totally underrated food of the summer, and let's change it for everybody and make it a highlight.

So celery...

What is celery exactly? That is an ever question that comes up often on the internet, so celery has that by NetEase, and even if you've had celery, Sona, at least, it's not the tart refreshing like a lemon or like a SAR, it's so much more of a very flavorful bite, which sense. Because celery is actually part of the parsley family, so I for... I'm not a huge fan of parsley at all, which is why I think sometimes celery on its own is a little much in the flavor profile, but when you're thinking about celery and how I use it, just think of it being part of that parsley family, so also in that family, the sibling retable are carrots and fetal, so again, can be strong flavors on their own, but when you cook with them and season them or have different sauces on them, they kind of take on that different personality, and there's lots of different kinds of celery not just the green stocks, their seller. So I wrote and Nobel ARY, which are... None of these are even green, but they are still considered part of that family, so it's a pretty all-encompassing vegetable that no matter what variety is, has a bite and that crunch and then a POW of flavor.

So celeries, not considering as super food, but like watermelon, it's 92% water, and only 14 calories is serving, not a calorie counter over here, but you could just eat your weasel Ary and be totally fine, no matter how you place it, there's some pretty great health benefits to eating celery, especially in the summer when it's bright green and a plump and sort of overflowing on the store shelves. So a couple of things, Mike, is really abundant summary, and that is invited and crucial for blood clotting and bone health in general, fiber, another great thing for her digesting, especially if you're getting really having meals or out of barbecue celery contains me soluble and insoluble fiber, like Oh, me, make an ideal for helping maintain... Got held. And heart health too. And something that you may not know, if you're like a label reader, you flipping the label over, let's say there's like a yogurt, and do you see the protein count, which is usually in the middle, and then you see a sugar or if it's a flavored yogurt and it is so high. I mean, I think there are me cheese cake-style yogurts out there that have 24 grams of sugar, which not alone is it's better needed that...

I promise you it's better for you tendon, the sugar bomber.

But check it.

If you do have fiber in something, let's say a granular, where it's also got a high sugar count, but it's also got fiber in there, they hire the fiber, the more it's going to balance out your sugar consumption overall, I'm not gonna worry with the math behind it. But generally, that's a good rule of thumb, like look for open better granola bar where it's got protein in there, there will be sugar, but although some of that sugar will be remnants of the peanut butter itself, naturally occurring sugar, but it will have a fiber in there and that will kind of balance that out, so that's a great thing about adding something like celery into your diet because it will give you that boost of fiber to sort of balance on everything else you're eating, celery has something pretty unique in it. Again, you'll learn... Not great pronouncing things. I'm going to say it is a Newell, spell it a lap, H-T-A-L-I-D-E. And that's a compound that's proven to have beneficial facts on blood pressure, and then intercalary actually has a ton of my anti-oxidants. I love these because help with everything, anti-aging, making your skin look better, and I'm really boosting your brain health, so celery has been a carotene, something off and founding carrots incredibly available in tons of summer fruits and veggies.

In fact, acid C-A-F-F-E-I-C-assed, and having all of this antioxidants together, really fight off something that I'm passionate about, which is oxidative stress to all distress that you carry on your body, verte nal things actually ages you on the inside Carbonite bad stuff for you. So the anti-accidents in solar help combat that.

You would win. Right. Okay.

So stop juicing your celery or to home, personal preference here, but there are a lot of ways to incorporate celery into your repertoire, cellar, smoothie, celery. Snacks, I resist goes on. Okay, so first off, super-duper duper, easy butter, full grass-fed butter into a salt pan, much as you want, and eight-ish stocks of chop celeries the pan and cooked for five minutes, add in some Beaton broth, salt and pepper. Started to combine, let the bone broth warm up and then absorb into the celery, it's really flavorful and delicious side that's super easy to put together, really good at for you. Another one is sort of a twist on a crunchy side, salad, you in leisure in Apple, if you have a mandolin great, if not at... Or if you have one like me but are terrified to use it because too many fingers likes, don't worry about it, you can just... Henshall, as you can go, is white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, spacey, regular Greene doesn't really matter. People, syrups and olive oil, and then toss with the celery topless and parmesan cheese shaming, you can also make a really delicious smoothie or you completely mask the celery taste at incertae apple, banana, ginger spinach and lemon juice lemons as little extra pop of lemon flavor.

Throw in a protein punter that's vanilla or un-flavored, this would not be great with chocolate, and then on your liquid of choice, whether it's no gummer blended together, you would also make a really great boss for celery, that's something that we definitely do with soups or for making bone brought at home, it was something to kind of caught all the heavy meals and we often... In the summer. So if you are feeling like you're too many barbecue out, then you get time for some healing veggie, bro, a carrot celery on you in garlic, salt, pepper and E her, he got into a pot, no need to peel or chop anything, just add it in and you can take it all out later than ad, 10 cups of filtered water in and let it sit simmering on the stove for at least two hours, you can literally leave it all day too, depending on how much flavor you want and that the last mental will cover today. Is for poppy and friends, what is more summer then? Two things, the salad filled with Chris Rob veggies or a smoothie. On fact, they are both. Me better? By adding spinach, say What? That bitter sometimes hard to incorporate.

Lay green?

Yep. Okay, cares. How to add it? Generally, everything for nutrient dense, seasonal punch.

What are the health benefits of spinach?

It is nutrient dense, because pinch point honestly is incredibly... It's actually hard to have everything written down to tell you about it because spinach is not to go for you, so let's pause and briefly discuss it...

Okay, a three-cap portion of spinach, which I think all of you know by now, you've seen the memes, you've seen the New Yorker cartoon, you could have a mountain of Spinach, one of those giant containers from the store, but it all kind of goes away once you cook it. So a three-cup portion, probably enough for myself, but you just keep in mind that it's a three top clicked portion here. Anyway, the three apportion of Spinach provides over 300% of the daily need for bold supporting vitamin K, and spinach also provides over 160% of the daily goal for vitamin A, and about 40% for Vince, Spinach is not only a winner in the vitamins and minerals and super food department. It is something just amazing to include as much as you can in whatever you care.

So how to do that? I don't know about you, but I feel like I try to not be wasteful with food, but... The lattices are always the first to go. I don't get to them to get in the back of the fridge, and I sort of like the weird froze, any consistency, and by the time the mouth, they're all like water in, I'm terrified of Salmonella or whatever bacteria you can get, so then it gets tossed. So what I have been doing, unless I bought something and plan to use it in the next day or two, is taking a spinach and phrasing it in individual plastic baruah bags and then adding heavy handfuls of that two fruit or free protein smoothies. Anteater Nigra has been these belies all the time, and he has no idea. There's vegetables in them. I will say there's a hispaniola mix, which rule has a little bit of a harder case to high in smoothie. So go to Spinach if you're phrasing it.

You can also make something really delicious, there's a fresh Greek, your spot here. And it's called Go Green. Oh gosh.

It's so good.

But they have a yogurt bar at their locations and they have the general sweet combos or 10 comes, you can put on top, but what they do have is a menu of savor things with recent incredibly good... And there's one that I'm totally addicted to, where there's finally chopping mango, avocado surround chili peppers, hemp seeds, and that poured over the plane home of Greek yogurt and then they squeeze some fresh lemon juice... Really good olive oil and salt and pepper on top, you kinda mix it all together, and it's like the best lunch on a hot day, there is huge Google lemony turkey soup with greens and New York Times recipe will pop up and... Let me say that I don't love soup a drink Brodie don't ever really order soup, but this is to I have now made a couple of times, 'cause it's that good, it doesn't matter for the summer, 'cause you can actually have a cold and it'd still be fine winter, spring, fall like this soup is awesome. We made it with various screens, like member Anand, kale and all that, but it's really delicious with spinach, and you can add a ton in there for that boost, and then if you want just a really yummy delicious, quick dish, going back to the ME, get a lot of spinach, because this will all look down and you're gonna want a ton of it with your meal, maybe like midnight snack after he...

Malevolent had spinach will turn into a little... And then it went then at a half a cup of dry white wine for those Andrei, the widest cook off, but the recipe still works if you don't add that in there, the dad and some... Carly confused all oil instead. But if you're adding in the wine, make sure it's a dry white wine, like open anorexia, and when you would drink, not something, they would taste gross 'cause it's gonna make your food to his gross at in a dash of Verlag, fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper and coca until you don't smell the line anymore, just like a couple of minutes, it's quite quite delicious and the easy side for summer... Thank you so much for joining today. It was awesome to talk through, not only all you can do with these particular items that are in a button a summer season, but why they're good for you, why you should go and go to the farmers market or the farm, or that grocery sort... The Masan produce and take that extra step to make sure these vitamins are incorporated in your diet and your family's diet, now friends, Diet, it's all so good for you and it's really easy to do.

If you have any more questions or ideas, I'm so... So curious what you think, how you already use these ingredients, any sort of like amazing recipes you have that I can make and share with everybody. Reach out, I would love to hear more. And thanks for joining us today. Stay tuned for next week. I hope you enjoyed this episode of a side of syrup. If you love this upset as much as I did, head on over and Reiner IE and subscribe so you never miss the next one. Also, if you move someone who would love this episode or podcast in general, send it to them to thank you. Your opposites go up on Tuesdays. Thanks. Return in, I can't lead to. Hang out with you again soon.