Most of us have heard about adding more vegetables to our diet. When we eat salads, drink vegetable juices, and consume cooked vegetables we are adding fiber, vitamins and minerals to our diet. However, depending on where and how your vegetables were grown and how the soil has been cared for, we may still not be getting all of the minerals that we expect from land grown vegetables. Knowing this fact, we have always tried to incorporate sea vegetables like kombu and wakame in our homemade soups and broths. We have loved having sheets of Nori in the pantry to experiment with making homemade sushi rolls. However, we really weren't eating seaweed as often as we wanted to. That is, until we saw a woman named Maangchi on Youtube making amazing recipes and prepping cold seaweed salads and homemade nori chips. After watching her videos we were inspired to visit our local international grocery store in search of seaweed. Fortunately for us we didn’t have to travel far, we found one in Merritt Island named Thrifty Produce and Meat and we bought several huge bags of dried seaweed to take home.

Following Maangchi’s directions, we converted dried stringy masses of seaweed into luscious, soft, and vibrant green seaweed strands that looked like they had just been floating off our shores! We've managed to prep a weekly batch of seaweed and eat it pretty much every day now. We eat it as a stand alone salad or mix it into our traditional land grown salad! The sea veggies meet the land veggies and it’s a wonderful blend for our lunch hour. We also add it to our broths and even mix it with sardines and sauerkraut for a savory treat. For a tasty crispy snack, we've also learned to make our own toasted nori chips with sesame oil, ghee and sea salt, which fulfills that craving for crunch and a little salt that we sometimes have in the mid afternoons.

As for the benefits, we have definitely noticed a change in how we feel! It has helped with regulating our energy throughout the day and we feel less hungry and more satisfied after a meal. In addition to its tasty factor, we've also noticed that it acts as a nice gentle fiber supplement! We’re always trying to up our fiber consumption and this has been a nice way to do so. And finally to our surprise, it’s been very easy to make and adopt seaweed into our daily life. We bought a few seaweed cookbooks but noticed that we are pretty content with these three simple ways of using seaweed. In soups, in a cold salad, and crispy chips. We hope to try out more ways soon, maybe even adding to some fermented veggie mixes.

Consuming sufficient minerals is a challenge in today’s world, with more and more depleted soils, and people's busy lives that don't always allow them to eat 5-7 cups of vegetables per day. If you grow your own vegetables you have a better chance of upping your content of minerals because you will be able to control how you care and tend for the soil and water that you provide your plants. But if you are unable to grow your own vegetables, seaweed is an easy way to provide your body with all 56 necessary minerals and trace elements that your body requires to function at optimal levels. Hope you try prepping some seaweed at home and please let us know if you discover yummy ways to eat it regularly.

Adding Seaweed to Your Diet for Better Health