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While the season of celebrating with loved ones and treating yourself to your favorite festive treats is behind you, venturing away from your normal healthy diet may have left you feeling a little off the rails. An abundance of indulgences and foods with a series of unpronounceable ingredients likely snuck their way into your eating pattern during the holiday season. But don't fret! As long as you commit to resetting your diet now, you can easily get back on track to replenish all those much-needed nutrients.
And there's no better way to do that than to work more superfoods into your daily routine. So many of the meals and snacks you already prepare and eat on a regular basis are conducive to a hassle-free superfood upgrade, which can offer a boost of flavor and added nutrition.
So if you're in need of a little motivation to amp up your healthy lifestyle, here are 10 stealthy superfood add-ins that offer the nutritional firepower to help you get back in your groove.
1. When Making: Oatmeal
Add: Cacao Wafers
Chocolate for breakfast? Yes, please! Sliding a few of these 100% organic cacao wafers into a pot of simmering oatmeal will guarantee you’ll no longer be blasé about your morning porridge. If you want to add some sweetness, choose between our Semi-sweet Cacao Wafers and Bittersweet Cacao Wafers. And beyond the streaks of luscious chocolate flavor, your oatmeal will be upgraded with antioxidants and essential minerals including magnesium and iron.
2. When Making: Coffee
Add: Maca Powder
Maca powder has a pleasant caramel, malty flavor that works well with your daily brew (and is also great in a mug of steamy hot chocolate!). As an adaptogen, maca can help you better handle daily stressors. Bonus points: it’s also a source of potassium which is important for heart health.
3. When Making: Salads
Add: Hemp Seeds
Tasting like a lovechild of pine nuts and sunflower seeds, hemp seeds are an oh-so-simple upgrade for your salads or roasted veggies. The salubrious seeds not only taste amazing but are also a standout source of complete protein and omega-3s, as well as magnesium—an essential micronutrient that many Americans fail to get enough of in their diets. Pro tip: they are also great over soups, oatmeal and yogurt.
4. When Making: Tortillas
Add: Cauliflower Flour
Your fiesta-friendly tortillas can be a lot more nutritious when you swap or add in cauliflower flour. You’ll flip over the added fiber and important micronutrients that this ingredient provides. Spice them up with your favorite seasonings and you’ll never be the wiser that you're eating tortillas made with vegetables!
5. When Making: Salad Dressing
Add: Pomegranate Powder
Want an easy way to upgrade your vinaigrettes with a healthy dose of antioxidants? Then simply whisk in a couple spoonfuls of pomegranate juice powder. You’ll vivify your dressings with a sweet-tart flavor that will make salad greens way more enticing to eat.
6. When Making: Granola Bars
Add: Goldenberries
Homemade granola bars, energy bars and energy balls are usually much healthier than store-bought and you can up the ante even more by using dried goldenberries as a fruit component! You’ll be rewarded with an exciting pop of sweet-tart flavor that most other dried fruit can’t match. Not to mention a healthy snack that is well-endowed with antioxidants such as beta-carotene to help shield your body from oxidative damage.
7. When Making: Yogurt
Add: Elderberry
A simple bowl of yogurt can turn into an immune-boosting, photo-worthy delight by stirring in some elderberry powder. It adds natural sweetness, making it easier to enjoy a plain-flavored yogurt to side-step the high amounts of added sugar included in flavored versions. Sprinkle on some chia seeds for a boost of healthy fats and fiber and you’ll really have a power bowl.
8. When Making: Smoothies
Add: Cacao Powder
Instantly turn any breakfast or post-workout smoothie into a chocolate milkshake by blitzing in rich-tasting cacao powder. It’s also a great way to “hide” the flavor of any earthy ingredients like leafy greens that you might also be blending into your smoothie. In contrast to regular Dutch-processed cocoa, cacao powder retains its payload of naturally occurring body-benefiting antioxidants.
9. When Making: Muffins
Add: Goji Berries
The next time you're mixing up some muffin batter, consider tossing in a couple handfuls of dried goji berries for a baked good studded with sweet-tart flavor bombs. The reddish-orange berry that is indigenous to Asia is a significant source of beta-carotene, a compound that we can convert to vitamin A in our bodies to support immune health.
10. When Making: Pesto or Other Greens-based Sauces
Add: Superfood+ Greens Blend
Pesto gets a superfood twist by blending in about a tablespoon of Superfood+ Greens Blend— a vibrant, nutrient-dense mix of moringa, kale and wheatgrass powders. Just take your favorite pesto or other green sauce recipe and add in this power powder.
