Maple drizzled fig and feta lettuce boats

What’s sweet and salty and crunchy all over? Maple drizzled fig and feta lettuce boats! If you are thinking that this sounds like the most amazing combination of ingredients ever, let me tell you something, it is! Before I share this super simple recipe with you let’s talk some more. We all know that we should be incorporating more fruits and vegetables in our diet and what better time to start than now! With a variety of fresh produce available to us, we can incorporate some seasonal favourites and even be adventurous and try something new.

I have always enjoyed eating figs and I’m constantly looking for ways to incorporate food that I’ve always loved into simple everyday recipes. I do this on a daily basis and to be honest, I wasn’t in blog mode when I came up with this. It really happened out of a necessity to use the last couple of figs I had left sitting in my refrigerator. I personally love figs so much that I eat them as a fruit but I wanted to try something different today. I wanted to put together a snack that was sweet and salty and had a nice crunch. That is when all the different ingredients came into play. The figs were the main event but the combination of the salty feta, crunchy lettuce leaves and sweet maple syrup sealed the deal. A healthy and simple snack that takes only minutes to put together.

Too often we get sidetracked and forget what healthy eating really looks like. We look through grocery store shelves looking for the hottest new snack food that claims to have all the “nutrition” we need. What we need to do as consumers is to shop smart! I’m not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy some of these foods once in a while, but why not keep things super simple and save a whole lot of time by not having to figure out if a certain bag or box of (insert snack food) is actually a healthy choice for us and our families. Let’s use fresh ingredients like the ones I’m using today and spend less time reading packages and more time having fun and experimenting in the kitchen!

Okay, so some of you read that last sentence and you’re super hyped and ready to go. The rest of you, well, maybe you’re thinking that this is absolutely not you! I understand that spending time in the kitchen and playing around with different recipes and ingredients may not necessarily be your cup of tea. And that’s okay! That’s why I’m here. Not only do I want to inspire and motivate you to eat healthy by getting more involved with the food you eat, but I also want to make your life easier. I want to do all the brainstorming and experimenting so that you don’t have to. Does that sound better? I hope so because I’ll be getting to the recipe really soon now and I want to make sure you learn a little more about why you should start eating figs, nutritionally speaking, before you jump into the recipe.

Figs- Nutrition Spotlight

Figs have been around for a very long time. I’m talking tens of thousands of years! Didn’t know that did you? Did you also know that figs are not really a fruit, they are actually a cluster of flowers! Okay, so that doesn’t say much about the nutrition of these delightful treats but the fact that they are a good source of fibre as well as other vitamins and minerals is a good start, right?

Figs are crunchy and high in fibre thanks to the tiny seeds found on the inside of the fruit. We know that fibre can help manage diabetes, help in weight management as well as promote regular bowel movements. Other than fibre, figs contain vitamins and minerals including: calcium, iron, magnesium, folate, thiamin, niacin and vitamin B6. Even if figs contain small amounts of some of these nutrients, remember that every bit counts!