Posted at: 05/01/2012 5:00 PM

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Boost Your Nutrients and Grow What You Love

Jen Haugen represents Hy-Vee as a nutrition expert promoting healthy eating throughout the community.  Jen is a registered dietitian and a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Want to get the most bang for your buck?  Look for potent vegetable plants that offer up to 500% more nutrients than other home garden varieties.

Chicken Caesar Pizza
Serves 4.

All you need
1/4 cup light Caesar dressing
1 (10 oz) whole wheat thin crust pizza crust
1 cup chopped grilled chicken breast
1/4 cup Hy-Vee shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
2 small Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

All you do
1. Spread dressing on pizza crust. Sprinkle with chicken and Parmesan.

2. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 5 minutes before sprinkling with lettuce and tomatoes.

Nutrition facts per serving: 300 calories, 8g fat, 3.5g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 35mg cholesterol, 600mg sodium, 37g carbohydrate, 7g fiber, 4g sugar, 21g protein.

Daily values: 25% vitamin A, 10% vitamin C, 15% calcium, 10% iron.
Key Messages

 

  1. One rule for gardening is “grow what you love to eat”.  Most people love cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce.
  2. On a quest for higher nutritional impact?  Look for Burpee Boost – a new line of vegetable plants you can plant into your garden to enhance your antioxidant intake by up to 500%.
  3. Options include:
  • Healing Hands Salad Mix:  
  1. 20% more lutein, 30% more carotenoids, 70% more anthocyanins
  2. Harvest every three weeks (down to 2 inches) throughout the season; different colors, flavors and textures.  Harvest in the morning as leaves are crisp, sweet and full of moisture.
  3. Great cold-season variety, perfect for a container, water frequently
  • Sweet Heat Sweet-to-Spicy Pepper
  1. 65% higher vitamin C content
  2. Bushy style plants work well in gardens and planters, delicious raw or cooked, stake plants with a rubber band to stabilize once producing peppers
  3. Scoville rating of 300 – equivalent to a banana pepper or pepperoncini  (bell peppers 0, jalepenos 3,500.)
  • Cherry Punch Small-fruited Tomato
  1. 30% more vitamin C and 40% more lycopene
  2. High yielding early tomato, indeterminate (produces all season long)
  3. Perfect for the garden or patio

 



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