5 Easy Steps to a Salad You’ll Love to Eat!

Here is a system for eating more salads. Create a salad bar in your fridge. It’s simple, easy and I guarantee you will eat more vegetables. Seriously.

You pick the salad components that you like, the more choices the better. Through out the week you will have a system in place to quickly and easily make a salad that will suite your taste, mood and hunger level, with little to no mess.

Follow the 5 easy steps to eating more salads below. Create the salad bar to your own taste and organize it your way. What’s great about this system is its flexibility. Challenge yourself to boost the variety of vegetables you add in each week. 

5 Easy Steps to Creating a Salad Bar in Your Fridge:

1. Make a list of your favorite vegetables, proteins and salad bar items. Add a variety of lettuces and dark leafy greens to the list. I like to have romaine, spinach, a farm fresh mesclun salad mix, leaf lettuce, and beet greens on hand as a base. Consider 5 add-ins for your salad to start. Such as carrots, cucumbers, olives, crisp green peas, snap peas, snow peas, red cabbage, raw beets, chick peas, a variety of radishes, sprouts, sliced hard boiled egg, goat feta, lentils, walnuts, salmon, chicken, shrimp…to name just a few potential additions to your salad. You don’t have to add all of them at one time. It’s so you have a variety to choose from.

2. Purchase these items with your weekly grocery or farmer’s market trip. Buy local, fresh vegetables and organic when you can. You will eat more veggies with this system, so plan accordingly. Shop for one to two weeks.

3. Prepare the items for storage and use. This only takes about 15-20 minutes a week to prepare. And you’ll have a variety of fresh salads to suit your hunger level and taste buds all week. Start with all the add-ins. Wash, chop/cut as needed. I put each item into its own glass Pyrex storage container. I prefer the glass containers and they stack nicely in the fridge. Being able to see each item is key to the salad bar system. I wash and spin-dry the greens. A salad spinner makes this easy, and I recommend you get one if you don’t already have it. I place the greens in either a large storage container or plastic bag with a few paper towels to absorb moisture. Change the paper towels when needed.

4. Clear a space in your fridge. I keep one side of a shelf in the fridge for my salad bar. You can stack the smaller containers in a larger container or on a tray, pulling it out of the fridge when you need it. Remember to keep it easily accessible. A random collection of storage containers hidden through out the fridge will not get used!

5. Prepare your salad. When it is time to make your salad, everything is ready to go. You can add in all your toppings or just a few. It takes only a few minutes and the salad is done, with no additional clean up.

This system isn’t just for summer. Use it year round, changing some of the vegetables with the seasons. In the fall you’ll love it for the ease of packing school snacks, a quick lunch, or a convenient dinner addition.

Follow the 5 easy steps and you’ll be on your way to feeling lighter, cooler and full of energy.

Let me know if you give it a try. Share your ideas and results with the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook. I’ve selected a few of my favorite salad bar tools, like the salad spinner and Pyrex containers, at the Mompreneur Wellness Store. Stop by and take a look.

Here’s to staying cool with fresh veggies this summer, cheers!

* Cydney Smith, is the Mompreneur Health Coach and founder of MompreneurWellness.com. She educates and coaches entrepreneur women, who are also moms, on how to use healthy, real food and lifestyle changes to fuel their success. To receive weekly tips to fuel your success with healthy foods sign-up for “The Edge” the Mompreneur Wellness Newsletter. Cydney, her husband and 2 daughters live in the southwestern New Hampshire.

If your success is not on your own terms,

if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart,

it is not success at all. - Anna Quindlen

It’s spring. It’s a time for renewal, rebirth, starting fresh. And if you’ve been to the grocery checkout line and read the woman’s magazine headlines you’ll know it is also time “For a New You,” “To lose 10 lbs Fast,” and time “To Get the Beach Body You Have Always Wanted!”

How do you feel when reading these headlines? Are you excited to grab the latest on losing 10 pounds fast? Sure that if you follow the “5 Easy Steps to a More Fit You,” that your abs will look like the celebrity fitness trainer pictured?

I used to feel rotten after looking at certain magazines. Instead of seeing helpful or inspiring articles and tips, I saw examples of all I wasn’t doing. I’d think, “Here I am again, not where I wanted to be”. Not thin enough, organized enough, successful enough. I was essentially comparing myself to some ideal and it would put me in a funk that affected all aspects of my life.

I’m not against tips and strategies from a professional or passionate person who has the ability to synthesize and simplify a lot of information and create some actionable steps. That’s awesome. Why reinvent the wheel? But if your mindset doesn’t change, the actions won’t stick. The change won’t stick.

Here’s the deal – you probably already know what to do to improve your health or to be more thin, get more clients, sell more products, interact more patiently with your kids, have a cleaner house, find more time for friends, or to be more available for your relationship. You’ve read the articles, so why don’t you do it?

Based on my own experience as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and from what I have observed with my clients, here’s my guess of what gets in the way of taking action:

All the seemingly competing interests – like parenting, owning a business, taking care of a house and self-care. Add in confusion about what to eat, sleep deprivation, and a general lack of clarity about our own sense of success and it becomes easier to just stay where we are. Taking “3 Steps To Be Healthy,” loses as a priority when there is a blog to write, emails to reply to, products to ship, calls to make, accounts to reconcile, laundry to do, and kids to carpool. Adding one more thing may seem impossible.

But what if there is a new way? A way to create a lifestyle that was uniquely your own? One in which being healthy and successful were the same thing? Where running a business and raising a family went hand-in-hand?

As a mompreneur that was your intention wasn’t it? To make money, follow your passions, be available for your kids – to have it all.

That was my intention, and when I began to see food and nutrition as tools to achieve the life I want I began to see real results. I began to eat for energy, clarity, and well-being – instead of just calories, fat grams, and fad diets with big promises.

A shift happened and I began thinking in terms of Total Wellness – a wellness that integrates all the aspects of my life, that embraces my imperfections, that allows a fresh vitality to run through me.  I began to let go off  a definition of success created by others and to create my own.

This is where Mompreneur Wellness came from, this desire for Total Wellness.

Below are the 7 components to the Mompreneur Wellness Program. I encourage you to create your own definition of success. Create a food, nutrition and lifestyle plan that is uniquely your own. Actually, make it less of a plan and more of a manifesto for living that evolves and strengthens over time. A way of living that gives you the energy and time to create your vision for a successful and healthy life.

The 7 components below are the backbone to Mompreneur Wellness. With these components, you can explore what Total Wellness means to you and begin to integrate that into all aspects of your life. Use the components as a guide for creating wellness and success in your life.

The 7 Components of Mompreneur Wellness:

• Personalize Everything – As a mompreneur, you dare to live your way. This approach will make a huge difference in your health.
• Real Life Application – Though I enjoy cooking, a 20-minute quick-n-healthy meal made with a few real food ingredients and eaten together as a family is far healthier for me than an intensely prepared gourmet meal that stressed me out (and created a ton of dishes). I keep it simple, elegant and applicable to real life.
• Eat Less Junk – Period. Understanding the transformational power of food, and how to use it, is like having a secret weapon.
• Upgrade Your Mindset – Underneath all of our food choices is a pattern of thinking that is driving you. Upgrade how you think and say goodbye to guilt- laden eating for a breakthrough in your wellness.
• Small Changes Create Big Results – You don’t have to turn your life upside down to become more energized, focused and on purpose. What’s actually much more sustainable is to make small changes that easily integrate into your life.
• Make it Pleasurable – Enjoy what you eat and the choices you make.
• It’s More Than the Food – As an ambitious, conscientious entrepreneur mom, you understand that health, energy, and vitality are assets to your success.  Focusing on wellbeing, and getting support when you need it is not a luxury; it’s a marker of successful living.

I’d love to support you in trying out any of the 7 components of Mompreneur Wellness. I’ll reply to any comments, or at http://twitter.com/cydneysmith or on facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/mompreneurwellness.

Mompreneur Wellness leads clients to create a total wellness plan through learn and implementing new health and nutrition strategies that make getting real food on the table a snap. Get support with creating total wellness with the Mompreneur Wellness e-zine at http://mompreneurwellness.com. There you will find more information about the 8 Weeks to Mompreneur Wellness Program, which begins in May.

Cydney Smith is a certified health coach and owner of Mompreneur Wellness. Her programs and coaching lead participants to discover, learn, and create a lifestyle of wellness and success. She lives in southwestern NH with her 2 daughters and husband.

Lunches and snacks for school.  They can be a hassle during a busy week.  Using leftovers and having a plan on the fridge allow me to think about this once, and spend 10-15 minutes packing them up daily.

Check. Healthy school week lunches – done. I know what my girls are being served, that they like it, and that it’s nutritious. My girls are 8 and 9, and they can be picky. They want some of the flashy packaged foods. I give in occasionally, providing the organic, non- high fructose corn syrup, preservative-free version. We call it upgraded junk food. I don’t want my girls to ever think these food products are healthy. I also am really clear that life doesn’t end with the ingestion of junk food, or cake. It’s a delicate balance with girls.

Anyway, I try to make lunches the night before, or quickly put it together in the morning, by not thinking (thinking in the morning can add on another 15 minutes to getting out the door) and following my menu plan. The use of leftovers is key.

I see lunch as a very important part of my kids day. It effects their blood sugar, their learning and focusing ability and their energy levels. Perhaps a more important meal then dinner.

I’d love to know what you do for lunch. Please post any tips, comments below. And feel free to contact me  via email cydney@mompreneurwellness.com, twitter or facebook.

Once a week, after school, I stop by a local farm with my girls. We pick up a basket of local organic produce. It’s our CSA share.  It is this weekly endeavor that I believe has fostered an openness to eating vegetables within my daughters.  It certainly has increased the amount of vegetables found in our house.

A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is a relationship between a farmer (the producer) and the consumer. CSA’s are a pre-buy program, where the consumer pays for their “share” of the farmers produced goods for the season, or designated length of time. The consumer is given a rough idea of what they will receive based on what the farmer planted. What is not guaranteed is what will actually be available, the quantity and timing. Temperature, weather, and planting methods all have a influence the  harvest. There is no middle person. The relationship is direct producer to consumer. The pre-buy allows the farmer to cover costs up front. They also do not have to sell and price buy market value. A bad tomato year? Maybe a boon for cucumbers. The consumer and farmer share the burden and surplus.

Participating in a CSA does take some time. I go to the farm. I wash the dirt off the produce. I need to find ways to use what we bring home. Is it worth it? Because really, who needs more work?

Ever have cauliflower – fresh? Or ground cherries? Green beans that snap with succulence? Ever see your kids dig through a basket of produce as if it was a corporate holiday thank you gift basket filled with ‘goodies’? A CSA brings value to my life  and health. The ROI is excellent.

In this photo, my two girls are assisting Farmer Amanda Hopkins with packing our share for the week. We received potatoes, carrots and onions from the root cellar, put over from the fall harvest. We also received fresh spinach, some succulent greens (not even sure what they were, but we ate them like lettuce), beets and a jar of local honey. As we move through spring, we expect more greens from the greenhouse and an early harvest of hardy greens. As the season moves on, the CSA will include a wide range of fresh veggies, fruits, flowers and herbs each week. We also have the option of getting raw milk and local beef with each share. Farmer Amanda sends an email each week alerting members to what we will be taking home so we can plan meals. When the harvest is abundant, as in mid-summer, we have to get real creative on how to use it up. When we are on vacation, we donate our week basket to a local soup kitchen.

Joining a CSA is an adventure. It’s an opportunity to try new veggies and meet some great people in your community. It is a boost to your vegetable intake. The variety and quantity surpasses most peoples weekly grocery store purchases. Visiting the farm, and the educational value for my kids is a bonus. To find a CSA, or a Farmer’s Market in your area check out http://www.localharvest.org.

Cydney Smith, founder of Mompreneur Wellness, is a certified Holistic Health Coach offering private and group coaching to entrepreneur moms who want to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success. She is the mother of 2 daughters and lives in southwestern New Hampshire. Connect with Cydney and her work through social media. Stop by the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook and share your thoughts. Say hello on  twittter @Cydneysmith.

This week I’m sharing the menu planning strategies that I use to make my life easier and to eat healthy real food. In the past, I’d make a menu for the week, I would look through cookbooks, pick out recipes that looked delicious, or plan to make something I new we all loved, or some other vision of what a great dinner looks like. I was often derailed from that plan in a day or so. I often spent a ton of money at the grocery store, buying all sorts of ingredients. At the end of the week we would be left with a bunch of food in the fridge. I’d come home most nights from after school stuff, totally overwhelmed and angry that I had to cook the *amazing* dinner I planned. Or I’d just say F*** it! And grab some take-out.

No more. I keep it simple. And I make yummy, soul enriching food. I share a peaceful(ish) dinner with my family. I only say F*** it once or twice a month. In essence, I don’t think about my dinners that much anymore. I definitely don’t fill myself with a bunch of negative thoughts about the hassle of dinner, with the “what am I going to cook” energy drainer, or the “why-can’t-I-be-like-all-the-other-moms-who-are-perfect”crap. Nope, been there, done that, owned it, moved on.

Here are the top 4 reasons my menu plans failed (and sometimes still do).

1) Ambitious, unrealistic and idealized meal selections – To many ingredients, to much time, to many components = to many dishes! The thought of making the “amazing” dinner and cleaning up was enough to yell “Uncle” before the kids could even moan, “I’m hungry! What’s for dinner?”.

2) I took my “perfect mom” syndrome to the table when writing the menu. I imagined a fantasy life of cooking gourmet meals every night - Speaks for its self. Now my mantra is: Simple. Simple. Simple. Cook once, eat twice. Everything needs to take 20 minutes or less for prep. Save the big cooking to one or two days a week, and only if you enjoy cooking!

3) I did not match up the reality of my schedule with my meal plan - This seems so obvious to me now. I used to forget to budget my time (and energy) for the meal preparation/eating/dishes. I was more interested in  what I thought, or wanted, dinner to look like. Total recipe for failure.

4) I’d make a plan, buy the groceries, and forget to look at it – I wouldn’t think about what I was cooking until it was time to cook. And often I’d realize, at that moment, the recipe was going to take to long. Or to much prep. Then I’d cry (JK, kinda).

Here is this weeks dinner menu, based on my afternoon/evening schedule. I post it on the fridge. I glance at it while I’m cooking or cleaning up the kitchen the night before, and plan ahead. Everything on it is prepared in 20 minutes or less (cooking time may be longer, but I plan for other things during those times). And the crock pot meals are ready when we get home and on the table in 10 minutes.

I’d love to know if you plan your meals. What works for you? What hasn’t worked? Share a strategy or comment below.

Cydney Smith, founder of Mompreneur Wellness, is a certified Holistic Health Coach offering private and group coaching to entrepreneur moms who want to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success. She is the mother of 2 daughters and lives in southwestern New Hampshire. Connect with Cydney and her work through social media. Stop by the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook and share your thoughts. Say hello on  twittter @Cydneysmith.

Menu Plan Monday

This week my menu plan includes 2 dinner menus. One is the plan for the foods I will be eating while on a food-based cleanse. The italics are the foods I’ll prepare for my family. Most nights a portion of each plan overlaps. Leftovers will become my lunch the next day.

Monday Root Vegetable Soup (I made a large pot on Sunday afternoon), small piece of salmon. Kale.
Quinoa with Salmon and Kale

Tuesday Roasted Beets and Sweet Potato Fries, potassium broth
Spinach Frittata, Roasted Beets, Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday Pumpkin Soup and baked squash with a touch of maple
Brown Rice, Baked Tofu and squash or soup if they want.

Thursday Kale and Sweet Potato Soup, fermented daikon and carrots, broccoli
Venison Steak, Baked Potato, Broccoli

Friday Leftover salads from lunches, leftover soup
Rice Pasta with olive oil, garlic broccoli and parmesan

2 menus? Double cooking? I rarely cook a separate meal for the kids. I prefer that we eat family style, sharing the meal on the table. A few times a year though, I do a cleanse. During this time I prepare separate dishes for myself. Sometime the family eats them; sometimes the meals are take-out, or pasta-quick-type meals. I find that by creating a menu, going to the grocery store once, and preparing extra to use at other meals, makes the entire process manageable. All the meals here require less than 30 minutes of my time to prepare.

During the 2 week food cleanse, and I don’t worry much about the family meals. If a day gets to busy or ‘the plan’ doesn’t work out, they will get Annie’s Gluten Free boxed mac n’ cheese. I do not go off my cleanse.

I cleanse to let go of toxins, weight and stuck emotions. I try to be patient with my self this week. I also cleanse to revitalize my body’s life force, and promote cell rejuvenation. I cut out/back on caffeine, and no refined sugars, processed foods, gluten, or dairy.

If you would like to know more, the details can be found in my newsletter. As a busy mom of 2, I tell you how and why I do a food based cleanse so that you can give it a try. If you haven’t signed up for the Mompreneur Wellness newsletter and would like to, the opt-in is to the right of this post.

In addition to the information I share in the newsletter, I will be offering a supported mini-cleanse in late January and a longer spring cleanse in March or April. Stay connected to find out more.

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Cookus Interruptus (www.cookusinterruptus.com) is hands down my favorite video blog, my favorite cooking show and source of foodie entertainment. I recommend you check them out. Their motto is “How to cook fresh, local, organic, whole foods despite life’s interruptions.” As a mompreneur, I love the “despite life’s interruptions part”.

The video’s are short (few minutes) cooking shows, with a cast of characters from an extended family. Different members cook, with the main character, cookbook author and mompreneur Cynthia Lair, (author of Feeding the Whole Family) doing most of the cooking.

Healthy cooking, entertaining and a great source of information for whole foods eating. Did I say I love this site?

View this video “What’s a Whole Food,” or check out the archives on their website. Let me know if you find it as entertaining and useful as I do.

If you want to learn more about leveraging food to fuel your success, sign up for my newsletter and/or teleclass in the boxes to the right.

Weekly Mompreneur Wellness Menu

I believe in creating a meal plan, doing so sets a time to focus on nourishing my family and myself in the week ahead. I keep my plan flexible, so I never feel locked in. It’s simple and realistic. I view it as an anchor to the family, part of a baseline system I need to not get overwhelmed. I know that if I get to busy or the schedule begins to crunch I still have meals covered. If I have more time, or a burst of creativity, I can always add to it.

Here’s a typical on-the-go meal plan for a busy week. I am officially launching my newly focused business Mompreneur Wellness, so there is a lot on my mind. My to-do list is intense and will require a couple of late nights to get done. I have a week that is a bit scrambled with “unexpected” events – a daughter on crutches with a fractured foot, who has to stay home Wednesday because of a class field trip; a plumber coming over today, and my other daughter with a cough and a cold that needs monitoring. At this point I know this is life with a family, and I have learned over the years to allow some space in my schedule, to have a baseline system that keeps things moving, and to not run myself ragged with expectations or guilt of not doing enough.

My dinner meal plan for the week:

Monday – Grilled Steak and potatoes, salad.

Tuesday – Homemade Fried Rice – made with leftover steak, and chopped broccoli, red pepper and brown rice from Sunday, a ½ bag of frozen peas and a few scrambled eggs. A quick video of one version of fried rice from Cookus Interruptus (love their site!) http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/index.php?video_id=59

Wednesday – Baked white fish with Lemon, quinoa with lemon and herbs, steamed broccoli with a little feta.

Thursday – Leftovers for kids and Indian Food for husband and I. My friend and mompreneur Meena, makes homemade Indian Food and delivers it to school for pick-up every Thursday. I add chopped veggies and a dollop of plain yogurt.

Friday – Homemade Soup made with veggies I will get from our winter CSA (community supported agriculture) farm share today. Probably some root veggies, and kale; I will add some lentils and grain. Since I am home this Friday I have the time to prepare it and have it available all weekend. Serve with salad, crackers and a few cheese slices.

These pumpkin cookies have been a hit with every group of kids I’ve served them to. My girls and I made 6 dozen of them yesterday afternoon for today’s Halloween party at school. I’m not a big fan of baking, so I like quick and easy projects and these cookies fit the bill. The girls, 7 and 9, did most of the work. My husband came home just in time to help with the cleaning (not a big fan of the cleaning either). I make them gluten free, because my youngest daughter and my husband are unable to eat gluten. So, in our household we go gluten free most of the time. The cookies can be made with any wheat flour as well.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

1 stick softened butter
1/2 c. brown sugar or other sweetener
1 can organic pumpkin
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour (I use a Gluten free flour mix)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs+ cinnamon (nutmeg, allspice or clove good too)
Pinch or 2 of salt
Optional toppings: sliced almonds or other nuts, raisins, cranberries….

1. Mix first 2 ingredients until creamy.
2. Add second two ingredients and blend well.
3. In a separate bowl mix the remaining 5 ingredients together.
4. Add slowly to the wet ingredients while mixing. I use a handheld electric mixer.
5. Place in approximately 2 tbs. size drops on a lightly oiled cookie sheet (or a non-stick one). Decorate with optional toppings if desired.
6. Bake 15-18 minutes. They are soft cookies, so 15 minutes is more of a bread/muffin texture; 18-20 is a little firmer.
Makes at least 24 cookies, more or less depending on the size.

Let cool a few minutes. They keep well covered, and stay very moist. Be sure they are cool before putting away, or they will get soggy.
Let me know how they come out! Happy Halloween little pretties

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