Belly-Flattening Foods Mushrooms are the only natural source of vitamin D in the produce aisle. Studies show that vitamin D deficiency actually could hinder weight loss, and provoke obesity and abdominal fat. Swap mushrooms for meat to get your vitamin D, and to cut calories! Also, mushrooms have ergothioneine, a powerful antioxidant with anti-tumor growth properties.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup Self magazine recommends this recipe for cold winter days to help boost your energy. Mushrooms are chocked full of B vitamins, which your body uses to convert food into energy.

Foods That Make You Feel Good Eat nutrient-rich, D-filled mushrooms to boost your mood this winter!  Vitamin D actually improves your cell membranes’ receptiveness to serotonin, a neurotransmitter essential for mood, appetite and other important regulatory functions.

Tasty Fungi: Creamy Mushroom Bisque Recipe Mushrooms are meaty and rich in flavor, and can be deliciously dynamic when different varieties are combined, as they are in this wonderful bisque. Mushrooms are low in calories yet still dense in nutrients, adding protein and fiber to every serving.

Mushrooms provide vitamin D during winter Nutrition expert and author, Keri Glassman, thrives on finding superfoods like mushrooms that carry extended benefits for health and happiness. “Eating the right foods does more than just make you healthier – they can help you feel better and look great too,” says Glassman. “Overcome sunless winter days by incorporating foods with natural vitamin D and high antioxidants into your diet – mushrooms are the only fruit or vegetable with vitamin D.”

I don’t know about you, but by mid-week? I’m usually pretty tired by the time I mosey into my tiny kitchen for mealtime.  That said, few things make me feel healthier or more productive than cooking.  Lucky that we live in times with such a plethora of simple but satisfying recipes at our fingertips!

This salad was introduced to me by a friend basing it loosely on a Giada De Laurentiis creation. It’s about as easy as it gets with 4 main ingredients plus seasoning and with no cooking required, it’s my perfect midweek mushroom fix!

• 1 pound white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 4 large celery stalks, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Juice of half a lemon

Directions

Place the mushrooms in a medium bowl and toss with 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Layer the mushrooms on the bottom of a straight-sided glass salad bowl. Place the celery in the same medium bowl used to toss the mushrooms. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Layer the celery on top of the mushrooms. Sprinkle the parsley over the celery. Squeeze lemon juice over the top. Serve.

The original recipe calls for sprinkled Romano as well but I find the vegan version seriously satisfying!

Winter vegetarian bean stew Savor the rich meaty texture of Portabellas in this awesome vegetarian stew – a hearty soup perfect for cold wintry days. Don’t let your soup get too soupy, though; be sure to remove the inner gills of your ports before they’re cooked!

Cremini Mushrooms Stuffed With A Caper And Crab Salad Savory.tv shares many of the health benefits of mushrooms alongside a delightful recipe for stuffed caps. Mushrooms’ copper and potassium content is noted, as is their energy-boosting B vitamins and immunity-strengthening antioxidants!

100 Ways to Cut 100 Calories To stop weight gain, most Americans only need to remember one thing: energy in must equal energy out. In other words, the calories you consume must be equivalent to those you burn and if you want to lose weight, the scale must be tipped toward energy out. These tips for cutting calories from Prevention can help you do just that! They’ve provided great suggestions for all food situations: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, beverages and even dining out. Check out the lunch/dinner tab for a great mushroom tip: slash calories by adding veggies, like mushrooms, to pasta sauces instead of meat!

Cutting Salt Intake Would Boost Nation’s Health Like the taste of salt? If Americans cut their salt intake by a mere half teaspoon per day, it would result in public health benefits on par with reducing high cholesterol, smoking and obesity. It could even reduce the number of heart attacks in the U.S. by up to 13 percent. All mushrooms are very low in sodium, so add them to your meals to get that great umami flavor to replace the desire for a salty taste!

Portobello Mushroom Marinara Sauce Get rid of meat in your pasta sauce and add the wonderful texture and flavor of Portabella mushrooms instead – cutting some calories, fat and sodium out of your meal. This sauce can be ready to serve in just 30 minutes or less, great for those late work nights.

It would seem that many of you have taken on January with a walk on the lighter side and I have to say that we’re finding it very inspirational.  With that in mind, this week we’re focusing on family meals with taste toward healthy living.

Red Quinoa and Almond Pilaf with Mixed Mushrooms. That’s one pretty plate and my guess is that leftovers make for happy next-day lunching.  Check out the recipe at The Wright Recipes.

If you follow us on Twitter, you may have noticed this call-out this morning. The combination sounded so good that it’s worth a second look.  Balsamic Roasted Mushroom Risotto.  Just let that sink in a moment with the thought that few things soak up flavor like a mushroom does.  So then you have that rich meaty texture soaked through with the sweet bite of vinegar and finished with fresh, herb-y rosemary.  I can’t wait to take this goodLife {eats} recipe back to my own kitchen!

A big pile of delicious…that’s what this is. Jenna from Food with Kid Appeal is big on including mushrooms in her family meal plan (more about that here).  “Mushrooms are one optimal life food I want my family eating.” We’re glad to hear it!

Just in case you have the rest of dinner sorted out but need a stellar side dish, look no further than Recipe Girl‘s easy peezy Green Beans with Mushrooms and Shallots.  Three items that add a lot of flavor without a lot of fat…you can find the recipe and the nutrition information here.

The fascinating world of mushrooms The Huffington Post flaunts mushrooms for their immunity-boosting power and other nutritional benefits, including their potassium and fiber content. Mushrooms are so versatile; you can serve them as the “meat” of the dish, or as the complement on the side. We couldn’t word it better: “From portobello to shiitake to crimini, the possibilities are endless!”

Mushroom Love The News-Herald lets readers know that mushrooms are the key ingredient for livening up winter meals. Rich in antioxidants and vitamin D (perfect for cold and flu season), mushrooms can easily be added to many types of dishes. Give the Mushroom Strudel recipe a whirl, too!

Boost your immune system with healthy meals Mushrooms increase the production of white blood cells, our immunity bodyguards, making them the perfect low calorie choice for illness-ridden winter months. Jae Berman, MS, RD, also recommends eating chicken noodle soup, as the chicken releases an immunity-boosting amino acid as it cooks. Other protein sources are great for immunity as well – try fish and shellfish for the omega 3 fatty acids, or beef for its zinc content.

Hey y’all, it’s Rachel visiting from A Southern Fairytale! It’s the New Year and like so many others, I’m working towards a better, healthier me.  One of the ways that I’m doing this is by trying to incorporate some of my favorite healthy power packed foods into my meal plan, more frequently.  I’m doing this by trying to use veggies more and meat less, as a bonus, it’s also less expensive!

I love to play with foods and textures and flavors and while I’m actually fairly easy to please in the kitchen, my husband is another story.  He loves savory, full flavors and he wants to feel like he’s eaten a meal.  He is a Texas guy after all.

So I decided to make something easy, yet delicious and tempting and something that would leave me happy and feeling sated, but not full and heavy, while at the same time, would leave him feeling like he’d eaten a real meal, one that would get him from lunch to dinner while working.

I turned to a few of my favorite ingredients:  Mushrooms, Garlic, Spinach, Cucumber, Red Onion and Whole Grain Pitas to create a delicious and soon to be frequently repeated Sauteed Garlic Mushroom Stuffed Pita, I made my husband’s a little fuller than mine and with the first bite his eyebrows raised, his dark eyes lit up and he gave me that look, the one that said that he was willing to admit it; I’d done it again.  I’d taken him by surprise and he was not just liking, but loving something he wasn’t too sure about to begin with.

Sauteed Garlic Mushroom Stuffed Pitas

6 oz sliced mushrooms (I use the 100% Vitamin D enriched Mushrooms)
1/4 medium red onion, sliced or chopped
1/4 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 whole grain pita pockets
Handful of fresh spinach leaves
1 Tbsp olive oil

Drizzle your olive oil in a cold skillet and heat it to medium, saute the garlic for about a minute, then toss in the mushrooms.  Saute them until soft and brown, about 8 minutes

The smell will be unbelievable.*

Take your whole grain pita and open it up gently, stuff in some of your spinach leaves (*you can gently wilt the spinach with the mushrooms and garlic if you’d like… I chose not too because I love raw spinach)
layer in some of your cucumber slices and then spoon in  your mushrooms and garlic, top with chopped red onions

** some other delicious options, drizzle with your favorite vinaigrette or top with chipotle mayo (like i did with my husband’s)

Giving your body a boost The Spokesman-Review offers immunity-boosting tips for the winter months. Mushrooms are noted as a food that maintains the immune system, as are pomegranate kernels, kale, garlic, ginger and onions. Get your immunity boost by adding versatile mushrooms to hearty soups and stir-fries!

Illness Fighting Foods This “Today Show” segment features Fitness magazine’s executive editor, Pam O’Brien, to discuss foods that can cure and prevent an array of illnesses:

• Fend off colds and boost immunity with mushrooms, salmon, yogurt and sunflower seeds
• Stop stress with curry, milk, shrimp, red sweet peppers and pistachios
• Eliminate headaches with snapper, quinoa, black beans and cayenne pepper
• Soothe stomach pain with ginger, peppermint oil, yogurt, fennel and fiber

Healthy ways to beat the blues Kick the post-holiday blues with a diet full of nutrients. It is recommended to eat smart carbs (like whole grains) and vitamin-D rich foods (like mushrooms) to calm nerves. Both carbohydrates and vitamin D help to boost moods and reduce anxiety because they aid in raising levels of serotonin in the brain. The Times-Gazette also suggests eating foods that are high in protein to boost alertness. Protein-rich foods contain the amino acid tyrosine that boosts levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, making it easier to concentrate.

There’s something that feels right about posting great mushroom videos on The Mushroom Channel.  I came across this demonstration earlier in the week and think  Food Wishes does a beautiful job on this recipe for a delicious mushroom soup.  I get warm just watching those little buttons caramalizing and this recipe is perfect for those of us in the midst of a snowball fight with Mother Nature!  You can find the ingredients at the bottom of his post here.