Skin superfoods: strawberries, dark chocolate, and walnuts
Skin health benefits: Strawberries are nature's gift to your skin and your palette. They're jam-packed with antioxidants, which help fight aging by ridding your body of free radicals. The fatty acids in walnuts help skin look smoother, plumper, and hydrated, says Giancoli. And last, but certainly not least, dark chocolate (70 percent cacao and above) is rich in flavanols, which improve skin texture and hydration and can even reduce redness in the skin.
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Recipe: Dark Chocolate-Dipped Trio: strawberries, black olives, and walnuts
SERVES 6 TO 12
Ingredients:
One 3 1/2 -ounce bar dark chocolate
12 strawberries, with stems on
1 teaspoon red peppercorns, crushed with a mortar and pestle or peppermill
12 walnut halves
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt or another flaky gourmet salt
12 Moroccan olives with pits 1. Line a baking sheet or serving tray with parchment paper.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a nonreactive heat-proof bowl
over a pot of simmering water. When the chocolate is completely melted,
stir thoroughly.
3. Holding onto the hull of the strawberry, dip each one into the melted
chocolate and place it on the baking sheet. Sprinkle crushed red
peppercorns on top.
4. Drop the walnut pieces into the chocolate and stir until coated with
chocolate. With a slotted spoon, transfer the walnuts to the baking sheet
and sprinkle them with the salt.
5. Put the olives in the chocolate and stir until coated. (It's important to do
the olives last because they tend to be salty.) Transfer them to the baking
sheet with a slotted spoon.
6. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and let the berries, nuts, and
olives set for at least 1 hour. Remove from the refrigerator at least
15 minutes before serving.
Whenever we thumb through recipes in a cookbook or magazine, we tend to run through the same mental routine, which looks something like this:
Will chowing down on this little number provide immense joy? Likely.
Is it worth the breakout that'll most definitely result from indulging? Hmmm.
Will it take all night to prepare, only to be consumed in less than six minutes of our favorite television programming? Quick, go get the stack of takeout menus and call "Hurry Curry."
Unfortunately, since we aren't preparing that seemingly healthy veggie stir-fry dish or any other "convenient" meal, we have no idea what's going into our bodies. That means we're most likely consuming loads of salt, sugars, and fats without even knowing. These ingredients, among others, cause all sorts of problems -- from wrinkles and bloating to cellulite and zits.
Truthfully, you'll be hard-pressed to find foods that are good for the skin and the waistline that come with a fortune cookie. But there is good news: We've been on the hunt for the most delicious recipes (seriously, they are "wow"-worthy) that are super easy to make, take little to no time to prepare, and are good for your skin and health. We found these gems in Anna Getty's "Easy Green Organic," and vetted them with Andrea N. Giancoli, MPH, RD, and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. This way you no longer have any excuses not to eat delicious, fast, and healthy food for your skin.
