Carrot Hummus with Turmeric--Bright and Flavorful!

Friday, April 27, 2018

Carrot Hummus


Eating healthy is a lot about the adventure of trying new combinations of foods or using a well known food in a different way. Someone gave me the idea to try out carrots as a way to make hummus. It struck me as fun and fresh as well as a great way to add in more veggies. Then I thought about the spices to use.

Turmeric is a great spice to use with carrots. It is also considered wonderful for our health. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a strong antioxidant. It is also linked to improved brain function and lowered risk of heart disease. And as if this wasn't enough, it can help with depression, arthritis, and delayed aging. What's not to like!?

This dish passes the Livliga test: healthy ingredients, visually appealing and tasty!


Ingredients for Carrot Hummus

Carrot Hummus with Turmeric


Ingredients


  • 2 cups carrots, peeled, cut into 1inch pieces

  • 1 clove garlic

  • 1 teaspoon turmeric (try fresh if you can find it…Whole Foods has it)
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • Zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)

  • ¼ cup water (or enough to process the carrots smooth)

  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and Pepper

  • ½  Tablespoon toasted sunflower seeds to garnish

  • ½ Tablespoon mint, thinly sliced to garnish

  • Paprika to garnish
 (optional)
  • Lemon zest to garnish


Directions


  1. Blanche/Steam carrots for 5 minutes.
  2. In a food processor add carrots, garlic, and turmeric with water and lemon juice and lemon zest.     Process until smooth. Add in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Serve in a small bowl, garnished with olive oil, mint, sunflower seeds, lemon zest and a dash of paprika.


Makes: 2 cups.
Serves: 16; serving size ⅛ cup.
Calories: 70 calories per serving.

Serve with cloud bread and/or crackers, cucumber and jicama. Great for backyard barbecues, picnics and potlucks.


Carrot Hummus is delicious!

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The Adventures of a Healthy Lifestyle Start Up -- Going for Awards

Friday, April 13, 2018
Livliga is fortunate to have been honored with awards. We now have three national awards recognizing different products we have developed.


Sammie and Sax Award Winning Children's Book


Our first award was given to our children’s adventure book, Sammie & Sax in the Land of Quinoa: The Search for a Balanced Meal. It received the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for health issues, 2013 Bronze Medal.


Aveq Wine Glass American Made Finalist


The second recognition we received was for our Aveq Wine Glass. It was acknowledged as a finalist for the 2014 Martha Stewart Made in America contest.


Award-winning LivSpoons


The third accolade Livliga was bestowed was for our LivSpoon® as the 2016 Editor’s Pick for Best New Product from The Gourmet Retailer.

People have asked how we got these awards. 

The reality is that awards don’t find you, you find them. We submitted our product for consideration and were fortunate that our product was picked for recognition.

Why did we decide to seek out awards?

It’s actually very simple. We believed awards could help us with credibility, brand awareness and exposure. When you are a new product that is innovative and paradigm shifting it provides a big boost to get recognized by established experts and institutions.

How important are awards?

In our experience awards have helped us tell our story. They also add a seal of approval. Because our product is science-based and uses psychology in the actual design, giving people a frame work for its credibility and authenticity is very important whether we are working directly with our customers or with the clinicians, dietitians, diabetes educators or bariatric coordinators who are often the gatekeepers of information for their clients.

What kind of awards should you go for?

This totally depends on what type of product you have. No doubt there is an award out there for your product. You just have to find it.

How do you find specific awards and categories?

We did it on the internet. We searched for awards related to children’s books, innovation, design and health. Timing and cost also factor in. Often you have to submit an application within a certain timeframe within which you have launched your product. Sometimes the fees for submitting your application can also seem expensive. Not all are so look for options. Most have nominal entry fees.

How has it helped us?

Each award has introduced us to new communities and new consumers who most likely will be interested in a product like ours. It provides a great way to have a conversation about our products because it adds depth to our company story and about a specific product. And it always helps when we are putting together presentations and proposals. It adds instant credibility and added interest, giving us a leg up and hopefully in to the group or company we want to work with.

Make a wish list.

We still have a wish list. Because our product is unique in its category and is relevant internationally, we want to go for an international design award. As we introduce new product we also plan to explore ways to go for additional recognition. It is not our first priority but it is part of the plan.

We are now approaching our fifth year of selling our first product. Within that time we are proud to say we have received 3 utility patents and 3 national awards for our product. We are grateful and growing and geared up for more!

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8 Great Tips for Right Sizing Your Food Environment

Friday, April 6, 2018
Our eyes make all the decisions about the food we eat. That is why our food environment has such a profound effect on us, and the decisions we make about the food we eat. Brian Wansink, Ph.D., former director of the brand and food lab at Cornell University, has shown us the power of our food environment on our decision-making through his research. From his research we see there are ways we can be mindful in how we set up our environment for long-term success. Not surprisingly, much of what is recommended makes a lot of sense--common sense. Below are 8 great tips for right sizing your food environment to help you live a healthier lifestyle and sustain it long term.

1. Choose colors in your kitchen and where you eat that are calming and non-triggering. Think about color in the kitchen and where you eat. Color influences our mood. It is important that we pay attention to the colors we use in our lives, especially around food. Think blues and greens rather than reds and oranges.


Choose colors in your kitchen and where you eat that are calming and non-triggering.



2. Trim down your dinnerware. Assess the size of your tableware. Measure your bowls and plates. Dinner plates should not be larger than 10 inches. More importantly the well of the plate should not be larger that 7 inches. All plates should have rims. Bowls should hold no more than 14 ounces. Ideally you want a bowl just large enough to accommodate 1½ cups for servings of foods like soup, pasta and certain cereals with milk. (Check out Livliga dinnerware for what right-sized looks like.)


Trim Down Your Dinnerware


3. Make the first thing you see in your kitchen something healthy. Studies show we tend to pick the first thing we see so strategically placing a healthy food will help us choose better. A bowl of fruit is an easy visual that is also visually appealing. This is also true in your refrigerator…put the healthy foods in the front of each shelf.


Make the first thing you see in your kitchen something healthy


4. Drink out of glassware that makes measuring 8 ounces easy. If we drink out of a large glass we are going to drink large amounts of whatever beverage is in our glass. This might not be an issue if it is water but the problem is we use the same glass for everything we drink. Our eyes automatically adjust to whatever size we live with. If we use large glasses we will over serve ourselves every time. Right sizing our glassware allows us to right size what we consume and gives our eyes an ability to adjust to right-sized servings. (Click here to see what right-sized glassware looks like.)


Drink out of glassware that makes measuring 8 ounces easy


5. Hide trigger foods and make them difficult to get to. We make over 200 decisions a day about the food we eat. A lot of those decisions are about what we will or won’t eat. Most of the time it is about resisting tempting foods we see. Hide them from our visual field and you don’t have to keep looping that decision making to resist eating something we really don’t want to eat. “Out of sight, out of mind” is true.

6. Serve food away from the table where you eat. It is easier and psychologically helpful to serve up in the kitchen. Foods sitting on the table while you eat are too accessible and trigger us to think we want seconds. Put as much food as possible away as you are serving up, or portion it into storage containers, so it is ready for another meal for another time and not visible from your table.

7. Set an attractive table and sit down to eat. Attractiveness has a powerful affect on our sense of satisfaction. Placemats frame your plate allowing the plate and the food on it to look attractive and appealing. Setting the table and sitting down to eat both help us be mindful that we are eating a meal. We can enjoy the moment and process of eating which contributes to our sense of feeling full and satisfied at the end of a meal.


Set an attractive table and sit down to eat.


8. Scale down your food. Bring smaller amounts into your house and repackage your food into 1, 2 or 4 servings before putting it away so it fits with how your are preparing and serving your food.
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