Welcome!  As a nutritionist who believes that REAL food can come to your rescue to fend off disease and enhance the quality of your life, here I highlight some of the finest real foods on the planet to help you add more nutrition into your day, excite your senses and create new culinary creations in your kitchen community.

Apples are on tap today!  We are all about apples as summer melds into fall.  There are dozens of varieties of apples with colors ranging from yellow to green to red to pink.  Apples are jammed packed with soluble fiber called pectin, which is great to keeping cholesterol levels in check, plus they fill you up faster. They are packed with water, too, as well as antioxidants like vitamin C for glowing, youthful skin, as well as intestinal and cell health. As well as quercetin, a flavonoid found in the pigment of the apple, that may be beneficial for fending off inflammation in your body.

Abundance of apples at Plum Market in Chicago.

We are highlighting Pink Lady® apples for their alluring sweetness, crisp texture and powerful fruity personality. I always loved the flavor of these pink beauties – and it turns out that their distinct pink hue contributes to their high quality taste (and popularity!).

Pink Lady® apples sitting pretty.

They are bred to be crunchy, firm, juicy and tasty.   To me, they have a clean, crisp taste that I adore.  As their name would imply, Pink Lady® apples are handled carefully and with the utmost respect; it takes 15 percent longer to harvest them versus other apple varieties and they are sorted 20 – 30 percent slower than others to ensure highest quality apples leave the orchard for us to enjoy.  Take a peek inside the Pink Lady® apple orchards here.

I brought some Pink Lady® apples home today and decided to play with them in the kitchen.

Slicing them into a salad sounded good to me. Here’s what I came up with for a feel-good, nutritious lunch.

Waldorf Salad with Arugula, Pink Lady® Apples, Roasted Eggplant & Walnuts 

What you need:

2 cups arugula, wash and spin

1 small Pink Lady® apple

1/2 cup eggplant, roasted (see how-to note)

1/4 cup raw walnuts

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Pinch of salt

In a bowl toss together arugula, eggplant, walnuts and top with apple slices.  In a small bowl make dressing by whisking together olive oil, vinegar and Dijon mustard and pinch of salt.  Drizzle dressing on top of salad.  Enjoy!

How-To Note: Roasted eggplant can be made a day or two ahead.  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Dice a medium eggplant and put into an oven safe bowl, drizzle with 1 – 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, add two diced cloves of garlic, a diced shallot, and sprinkle curry powder or Spanish paprika with a pinch of salt on top.  Toss and bake for 40 minutes.  Check and toss every 15 minutes and return to oven until eggplant is golden brown with soft flesh.  You can also puree after cooled for a delicious dip.  Refrigerate for up to a week.

After writing this post, I was compelled to spread pink around and joined the Pink Lady® Club!  Maybe you will, too…