Leafy kale is loaded with anti-inflammatory

 and anti-cancer phy-tonutrients, and it's 

an excellent source of vitamins K, A and C. 

By many accounts, the top New Year's resolutions we make are to eat more healthfully and to exercise more. Here we are in the middle of January. How is that eating-better resolution working for you?

There are many things we can do to eat more healthfully. Whether you have some good eating habits and want to add to them, or you have a terrible diet and don't know where to start, it's important not to get stressed out making too many changes at once. Feeling overwhelmed often leads to giving up, and then you're right back where you started.

There are some basic tenets to eating better, which can be a good beginning to changing your habits for good. Eat leaner cuts of meat, and not so much of it. Have some days or meals where you don't eat meat at all; instead, include some plant-based protein like beans. Don't often fry your foods. Decrease the amount of processed foods in your diet. Cook a little more — you don't have to be a chef, and your food doesn't have to be fancy to be healthy.

Work on squeezing out the refined sugars in your diet. Sweet treats don't have to be eliminated, but healthier diets don't include large amounts of them, and they don't include them every day. If you are overweight, experiment with eating a little less. Be honest with yourself about when you feel satisfied and stop eating at that point — don't wait until you are stuffed or your plate is empty to put down your fork.

Finally, if you want to eat healthier, include more fruits and vegetables in your diet. The My Plate guideline, the United States Department of Agriculture's most current tool to help guide dietary choices, suggests we fill half of our plate with fruit and vegetables, leaving the remaining half to be divided between grains (preferably whole grain) and protein.

Fruits and vegetables have an abundance of the nutrients we need, and they also include phytochemicals that enhance our overall health. Right now, we don't have guidelines that tell us how much of these various phytochemicals we need daily, like we do for vitamins and minerals. However, many scientific studies provide strong evidence that including regular doses of phytochemicals improves our health.

By the way, that word, "phytochemicals," is just a fancy name meaning plant chemicals. These occur naturally in plant foods and offer many benefits to our bodies, including helping vitamins work better, protecting our body's cells from damage and dismantling cancer-causing substances.

Today's recipe will definitely help you increase your vegetable intake. Combining kale and butternut squash packs tons of nutrients, including phytochemicals, into each serving.

Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. It's loaded with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer phytonutrients, plus it is an excellent source of vitamins K, A and C, as well as fiber and the trace minerals manganese and copper. Butternut squash is no nutritional slouch either, providing high amounts of vitamin A and beta carotene.

I never would have thought to combine the two, but the result tasted good, and the colors were so vibrant together. The mustard gives just a little bit of a tang to the dish, and it, along with the natural sweetness of the squash, balances the slight bitterness of the kale. If you don't have mustard around, a splash of vinegar would work as well. Even my husband, normally not a fan of either of these vegetables, gave the dish a thumbs-up.

The hardest part was cutting off the outside rind of the squash. It's not difficult, but you do need a sharp knife and a good cutting board. Once that is done, the rest of the prep and cooking is very easy and doesn't take much time at all.

With recipes like this one, it's easy to keep your New Year's resolution to eat better.

MUSTARDY KALE AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH

Makes 4 servings, about 1 cup each.

INGREDIENTS

1 small-medium butternut squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium bunch kale

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1 Peel squash and remove seeds and strings from center. Cut the squash flesh into ¾-inch cubes.

2 Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat, add squash and cook, turning occasionally, until squash begins to brown, about 10-12 minutes.

3 While squash cooks, remove and discard center stems from kale leaves, then roughly chop kale.

4 Add kale to the pot with the browned squash, along with the chicken broth, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 8-10 minutes more or until kale is tender.

Per serving: 141 calories, 8 gm fat, 1 gm saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 26 gm carbohydrates, 5 gm fiber, 6 gm protein, 387 mg sodium.