The Balanced Platter

Get FREE Greens at the Farmer’s Market & Strawberry Lemonade Green Smoothie

Tess Masters — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:49 +0000

Back in October of last year, I posted my top 7 Tips For Boosting Immunity With Green Smoothies.

Tip #5 was: Get Affordable or FREE Greens at your local Farmer’s Market

I want to talk about this again, as I receive countless emails every month from readers who want to include more fresh organic vegetables and leafy greens into their diet but find the cost a challenge.

To recap on tip #5: Most people ask to have the greens cut off of their beets, turnips, and carrots, etc. at market stalls. Ask your local vendor for any tops they have cut off for other customers. These greens are absolutely loaded with nutrients, and very often you can pick them up for free (they are just going to throw them away) or for a couple of bucks.

Another top tip for getting affordable produce is to make friends with the stall owners, and at the end of the day you can pick up large boxes of surplus produce for a song! This can include leafy greens, as well as other seasonal fruits and veggies. You can then create all kinds of smoothies, juices, salads, and other delicious creations for a fraction of the cost.

A nutrient-dense green smoothie is a quick, easy, delicious way to get your daily dose of greens and other fruits and vegetables in one hit. It is also a fabulous way to help inspire confidence in novice cooks and children. Picking up seasonal produce boxes at the market keeps things interesting and diverse, and expands the family’s gustatory repertoire and experiences.
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Picking Wild Edibles and a Recipe for Garlicky Fiddleheads

Danielle Rouse — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:43 +0000

source: Danielle Rouse

My family has been picking fiddleheads each spring for as long as I can remember. My Dad would take us every year to our *Top Secret* family spot. With his passing in 2005 (from colon cancer), I hold this tradition close to my heart and share it with my children each year.

source: Danielle Rouse

Fiddleheads actually hold a very significant meaning for mean. So much so, that I use them in my logo on Fresh4five. They are green (my favorite color). They bring me and my family to the outdoors (where I am meant to be) and they honor my amazing father.

Fiddleheads are actually the Ostrich Fern, still coiled up emerging from the ground. They are found along the sides of creeks and rivers in the spring time.

My kids love the family adventure through the forest. They pack little backpacks with magnifying glasses and binoculars so they can explore and investigate nature. They also usually end up a little wet! Those rubber boots are never high enough

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Plan to Eat – Free 30 Day Trial & Meal Planning Giveaway

Amy Green — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:00:56 +0000

I’m excited to share with you a new meal planning solution and an awesome family-based company today!

I rely on meal planning. It not only makes my day go smoother because I don’t have to think about what’s for dinner that night, but it creates an opportunity for our family to gather at the table and share a meal once a day. It’s a tradition that Joe and I love.

Whenever I talk about meal planning, people tell me that they want to meal plan but it’s too difficult or it takes too much time.

Well, I’ve at an awesome, no-fuss solution for you – Plan to Eat!

There are a lot of neat things about Plan to Eat.

One of my favorite things is that everyone can try Plan to Eat for 30 days at no charge. Sign up here for your free trial.

Some of my favorite features include:

Import your favorite recipes from any website with the click of a button using Plan to Eat’s bookmarklet. Here, I imported my Berry Lemonade Green Smoothie.

Drag & drop meal planner – simply drag a recipe to the day and meal you’re planning on using it.

Recipe ingredients are automatically exported to an editable shopping list divided by category, including amounts needed for each item

You can also add friends on Plan to Eat so that you can use their recipes, too. It makes establishing your recipe database much quicker.

When you sign up for your free trial, you can add me to your friends with the username “Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free.”

Ready for an annual membership? Get 30% off!

Plan to Eat is giving all Balanced Platter readers 30% off of an annual membership through July 31 with the coupon code: FabulousFood2013

The Giveaway:

Plan to Eat is giving threee (1-year) memberships valued at $39 each to Balanced Platter readers. Enter to win before May 25th!

To enter, fill out the form below. You can earn additional entries by:

Liking Plan to Eat on Facebook.
Signing up for a free Plan to Eat 30-day trial.

Contest guidelines: Contest runs until 11:59pm CST on Saturday, May 25, 2013. Winners will be notified via email and their names will be updated on this page.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Sheet Cake

Alta Mantsch — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:08 +0000

source: Alta Mantsch

Chocolate. Sheet. Cake. Now those, my friends, are three words that invoke comfort. And this cake definitely fits the bill – a fudgy, moist cake, topped with a decadent, rich, sweet chocolate frosting. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a crowd-pleaser. That’s my favorite kind of cake.

But what if I told you that this cake is actually a tad healthier than your typical chocolate sheet cake? That aside from the fact that there is no gluten, dairy, or refined sugar, that there is also a secret ingredient thrown into the cake batter – something that provides a boost of vitamins K and C, fiber, and folate, and even helps keep the cake nice and moist?

What if I told you that secret ingredient is…
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Meal Planning at the Farmer’s Market

Heather Graffam — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:00:53 +0000

source: Heather Graffam

Whether you are a parent, a spouse, a student, or a professional, meal planning is essential to a healthy week of eating. Traditionally, you’ve started the meal-planning process by gathering recipes for the week and making shopping lists. But when you shop at the Farmer’s Market, you never know what you’re going to find. Once you embrace the excitement of the unknown, you will be surprised at how delightful the experience can be.

How to Meal Plan at the Farmer’s Market:

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