Give in to your craving for Indian food with this nutritious recipe!

Spiced lentils with spinach and rhubarb, oh my! Here's Indian food with a very healthy twist!

I absolutely love Indian food. Palak paneer, butter chicken, aloo gobi, bhindi baji...you name it, I love it! However, it's a cuisine that I treat myself to only once in while. It always becomes a heavy meal with rich ingredients complimented (or loaded, I should say) with rice and naam bread.

Here's a healthy alternative that still has all the flavours of India but with the sweet, nutritious twist of rhubarb and the iron-rich addition of spinach:

Indian-Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb from the Vegetarian Times.

At only 250 calories per serving, it's a hearty dish that you can enjoy guilt-free! (Serves 6)

Recipe and image courtesy of the Vegetarian Times

Thai-style steamed fish with vegetables!

Try this low fat, low calorie and extremely flavourful recipe for dinner!

Mmm... I can't wait to try this recipe! It's easy and fast and packed with flavours of the far east! The recipe gives you the amounts to make a meal for two but I'm sure it can be easily adapted for more people. Serve with rice and you'll have a meal made from three food groups!

Without further ado, Thai-Style Steamed Fish with Pak-Choy and Jasmine Rice, courtesy of BBC Good Food.

Ingredients

• 2 trout fillets, each weighing about 140g/5oz
• a small knob of fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, chopped
• 1 small red chilli (not bird's eye), seeded and finely chopped
• grated zest and juice of 1 lime
• 3 baby pak choi, each quartered lengthways
• 2 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions

• Nestle the fish fillets side by side on a large square of foil and scatter the ginger, garlic, chilli and lime zest over them. Drizzle the lime juice on top and then scatter the pieces of pak choi around and on top of the fish. Pour the soy sauce over the pak choi and loosely seal the foil to make a package, making sure you leave space at the top for the steam to circulate as the fish cooks.
• Steam for 15 minutes. (If you haven't got a steamer, put the parcel on a heatproof plate over a pan of gently simmering water, cover with a lid and steam.)
• Try serving with Thai jasmine rice, and if you've got some sesame seeds, toast a handful and toss them into the rice just before serving.

Visit the BBC Good Foods Thai-Style Steamed Fish page for the nutritional facts for this recipe.

Image source: BBC Good Food

Welcome back to Dr. Quinn Hand's blog series on combating cold sores, the natural way!

Strategy #1: Balance and Boost Your Diet

The first step to general immune support is always to ensure you are eating a well-balanced, nutrient-rich diet. Aim for your 5-10 servings of fruits and veggies per day and good lean protein at about 0.8 to 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. Be aware, however, that arginine, an amino acid found in proteins, is known to aid in Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) replication.

Found in high amounts in sports and growth hormone boosting supplements, arginine is also high in foods like almonds, chocolate, peanuts, oat meal, peas, soy, seeds and whole wheat, all of which can trigger an outbreak. This is particularly true when arginine is present in greater amounts in the body than lysine, another amino acid.

Tune in tomorrow for Dr. Quinn Hand's second strategy on how to combat cold sores naturally.

Also Read:

• Introduction to Cold Sore Combat
• Cold Sore Combat: Strategy #2
• Cold Sore Combat: Strategy #3
• Cold Sore Combat: Strategy #4
• Cold Sore Combat: Strategy #5
• Cold Sore Combat: Strategy #6

Image source: http://medicaldietpills.blogspot.ca