Power Up With These Dishes + Fruit Shakes This Rainy Season

During this time of the coronavirus, you might need to double up your efforts on staying healthy. Our immune system needs to be strong to fight off any potential illness-causing bacteria, germs, and viruses that we come into contact with. One of the ways to do that is by eating better so our bodies are stronger. 

To help boost your immune system, this is the advice of Dr. Candy Drilon-Dalman, a Functional and Integrative Medicine physician and Medical Director of Centro Holistico:

• • Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, from nine to 13 servings a day.
• • Intake at least 28 to 35 grams of dietary fiber daily, preferably from whole foods.
• • Eat fermented vegetables and other probiotic foods to maintain gut health.
• • Avoid immune offenders like added sugars, high salt, processed food items, and excessive saturated fat.
• • Eat foods rich in antioxidants including, herbs and spices, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate, and vegetables. 

When it comes to eating fresh produce, her advice is to "eat according to the colors of the rainbow to get different micronutrients for each". 

It's a good thing we have an abundance of fruits and vegetables available at local shops for delivery! One of the best ways of getting all this nutrition is by eating it whole and fresh. For vegetables, learn to incorporate your favorite ones into your favorite dishes! From broccoli and cabbage to potatoes and zucchini, there is a vegetable that you can add to almost any dish.  

If you're not looking to cook anything, there are fresh ways of eating it without it being a boring meal. Make shakes and smoothies! Need recipes to help you make these so you can eat better? Take look at what fruit and vegetable combination we think would be super delicious for you to try:   

Photo by Miguel Nacianceno

1 Bananas + Peanut Butter + Milk Tea

Unless you're allergic to bananas, bananas are one of the most abundant of our native fruits. Mix this up with both peanut butter and the milk tea that you have been craving, and you can get this awesome drink to sip. 

  

Photo by Miguel Nacianceno

2 Banana + Papaya 

Did you know that papaya is one of 10 other fruits that actually has more Vitamin C than an orange? That's right! While an orange does have contain the powerful antioxidant, the papaya has significantly more. However, you may not want to eat the whole papaya just to get the benefit so instead, blitz it in a blender to create this power smoothie to drink. 

Photo by Patrick Martires

3 Spinach + Cucumber + Yogurt 

Spinach is a dark green leafy vegetable and that alone is a good sign that it's more nutritious than a pale lettuce leaf. Add to this the refreshing taste of cucumber and the creaminess as well as the probiotic benefits of the yogurt and you have a powerhouse of a drink that might make you change your mind about the green stuff. 

Photo by Michael Angelo Chua

4 Banana + Blueberries 

If you're wondering why bananas are popular in smoothies, the creaminess of the fruit plus its natural sweetness is just a fantastic base for a drink. Plus, it's loaded with potassium which we need, too. For this shake, blueberries dye the otherwise yellow shake into a pretty purple-blue. Just like other berries, blueberries are loaded with vitamins and minerals that make it a powerful ingredient in your healthy lifestyle.  

Photo by Michael Angelo Chua

5 Mixed Berry + Malunggay 

Are you familiar with all the great healthy benefits of the malunggay? Also known as moringa, it's not just for the pregnant and lactating moms who may benefit from its nutritious leaves! These leaves are more commonly seen in tinola, monggo, and even made into a pesto tossed with pasta. In this drink, this juice masks the green freshness of the leaves with a great combination of mixed berries: blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. You can find these berries frozen and available for delivery from ekadiwa.   

Photo by Majoy Siason

6 Dragon Fruit + Mangoes + Chia Seeds

If you want to jump-start your day with a powerfully nutritious bowl, smoothies in a bowl may be the answer. Smoothie bowls are basically just bowls of your favorite fruit and veggie mix with toppings. It can range from more fruits to nuts and seeds! It's all within the parameters of doctor's orders. 

For this bowl, you have a base made of the vibrant fuschia-hue of this variety of dragon fruit. It's low in calories but is still packed with nutrients. This is topped with chia seeds, a seed that surprisingly is loaded with omega 3 fatty acids just like salmon and tuna. Combined in one bowl with granola and mangoes, this is one bowl that's both super delicious and good for you, too!  

ALSO TRY: 

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Thinking about what to cook next? Join our Facebook group, Yummy Pinoy Cooking Club, to get more recipe ideas, share your own dishes, and find out what the rest of the community are making and eating!

Got your own version of the classic dishes? Pa-share naman! Get your recipe published on Yummy.ph by submitting your recipe here!