Healthy Meals In One Bowl Made From 8 Top Ingredients

Woman's Day Magazine columnist Sara Reistad-Long alerts us to 8 stress-reducing foods that we can put to effective use in fighting off overall accumulated stress. I think that eating these foods often might help to inoculate us against stress-related diseases and conditions. These foods are:

1. Oatmeal - also good for fiber and reducing cholesterol levels
2. Skim Milk - Vitamin D and Calcium are important (see National Office of Dietary Supplements), but skim milk seems to reduce stress if ingested in sufficient quantity.
3. Salmon- Omega-3 fatty acids can overcome and suppress the stress hormones cortisol and andrenalin.
4. Walnuts - Black or English walnuts can help lower blood pressure and substitute for some of the meat-protein in our diets. Walnuts also can lower blood pressure.
5. Sunflower Seeds- Delicious and a good source of folate, which increases dopamine production that increases a feeling of well being.
6. Blueberries - A nutraceutical that increases health (see the embedded link).
7. Spinach- Magnesium content fights stress and aging, including possible preventive effects against Alzheimer's disease.
8. Dark Chocolate- Flavonoid content can counterattack stress, PMS, and aging. Chocolate is also considered a drug by some, in its stimulating effects and production of feelings of well being.

Consumers may wonder how to add all of these foods into the daily diet and scramble to find recipes for doing so, but 5 of the ingredients can gather into a satisfying one-dish meal, which the remaining to make light lemon scone to go with it.

Try out my recipe for healthy foods below and enjoy your One Bowl meal with your favorite music and relax to enjoy the variety of textures and flavors you will experience. You'll find your digestion is eased into better effect as well. 

The following salad contains all of the above ingredients, except the milk and oatmeal, which are baked into luscious scones. The dark chocolate grated across the top of this salad is a perfect complement to the spinach and blueberries.

Salmon Blueberry Walnut Salad

© Patty Inglish March 23, 2010

INGREDIENTS for 4 to 6 Servings

Salad

• 1 Pound fresh spinach, washed and torn for salads
• 8 oz. Flaked salmon (canned or home-baked salmon)
• 3 Cups blueberries
• 1 Can (11 oz.) of mandarin oranges, drained (save the juice for another recipe)
• ½ Cup strawberries, washed and sliced
• 1/2 Cup Black or English walnuts
• ¼ Cup sunflower seeds
• Dark chocolate for grating over the top of each salad

Honey-Ginger Dressing (served on the side)

• 1/3 Cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or canola oil
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 3/4 tsp ginger, fresh grated or ground
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest

INSTRUCTIONS

• Arrange spinach into deep pasta bowls, dividing evenly
• Place salmon atop spinach, followed by blueberries on top and mandarin oranges around the salmon .
• Distribute sliced strawberries across surface of each dish, spring black walnuts on top and sprinkle sunflower seeds last.
• Grate dark chocolate over the center of each salad.
• Mix dressing ingredients well in a bowl or a shaker jar and serve in individual small cups at the side of each salad for drizzling.  

This is a lighter scone, made with skim milk instead of an egg.

INGREDIENTS for 8 Scones

• 3/4 Cup self-rising flour
• 3/4 Cup Oatmeal
• Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 2 tsp margarine (or unsalted butter or substitute [Promise is good])
• 1/2 Cup skim milk
• 1/3 Cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

• PreHeat oven to 425 degrees F or 220 Celsius
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour and sugar. Add oatmeal and mix well.
• Add lemon zest and sugar, mix and blend in the margarine with clean fingers.
• Add lemon juice and mix well. (If you add milk and lemon juice at the same time, the milk can curdle.)
• Add skim milk and mix all quickly to form a light dough. If too dry, add a little more milk.
• Roll the dough out on a floured bread board or clean counter top. Cut scones with a biscuit cutter on the rim of a drinking glass; or cut into triangles.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes and serve warm with the above meal, placing 1 or 2 scones in at the side of the salad in the bowl.

Select a bowl for your meal that will be pleasant to look upon and feel good in your hands/ You can pick it up during the meal, turn it around and look at its design. Veiw any illustrations along its edges and walls. Eat your way to the bottom where a lovely or funny picture awaits.

Several cutures pick up the bowl and eat from it, rather than to leave it on the table to move fork or chopsticks the longer distance back and forth form table to mouth.