Be food smart!
Now that 2012 is upon us, “diets” and “weight loss” are the number one Googled item – no surprise there! Instead of going on a strict diet try eating cleaner and smarter.
This is why “diets” do not work. It is all about lifestyle changes – changes for life! I wanted to share some of my go-to ways to think healthy and eat healthy, and to cut out unwanted calories and change unhealthy techniques. These techniques are for everyone – meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans.
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1. Eat your protein during breakfast. Eggs, Greek style yogurt, tofu or beans will help your energy level and reduce your cravings during the day.
2. Changing the way you cook. Instead of sautéing or frying, try poaching, steaming or roasting.
3. Substitutions are a great alternative to cooking. Use plain Greek style yogurt instead of sour cream, mustard or hummus instead of mayo, and lean ham or turkey bacon instead of pork bacon.
4. Think before you drink. You can easily drink more calories than you know. Drink seltzer water with citrus (orange, lemon, lime), use non-fat milk in your coffee and lattes, STOP the soda, and if you must drink juice, make it be 100% juice with no added sugar.
5. Check your portion size! Eat on smaller plates to help cut down on over plating and portion out your plate with this ratio: 1/4 meat/protein 1/4 carb 1/2 vegetable. Also visualize your helpings: protein should be a deck of cards, starch should be a tennis ball and eat as much veggies/fruit as you like.
6. Measure your olive oil instead of “winging it”. You don’t need as much as you may think.
7. Reduce over all meat consumption by subbing with beans or tofu. Although you can buy lean meat, subbing 1-2 nights a week can help get more variety in your everyday diet.
8. Think ordering a salad is a “safe” choice? Salads can easily be just as unhealthy as a burger with fries! Order salads with dressing on the side, cut down on croutons and cheese. Use baby spinach instead of lettuce and add raw nuts for texture and healthy fat.
9. Add fat free flavor. Using a lot of herbs when cooking cuts down on the use of oils and sauces. Experiment by using basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, red pepper flakes or anything that catches your eye.
10. Fill up on fiber. Eat plenty of beans, legumes and whole grains throughout the day to maintain your energy levels and helps keep you full longer.
11. Snack a better snack. Avoid cookies and chips and replace them with carrot sticks with hummus, fruit, nuts and low fat cheese.
12. Smarten up your soup. Broth soups are generally lower in calories and a good choice when you are craving comfort food. Steer clear of the cream based soups as they are loaded with calories and fat.
13. Take time to eat. It can take up to 30 minutes before you realize your are getting full. Sit, relax and enjoy your meal for once.
14. Don’t ever deny yourself. If you want dessert, enjoy! Just keep your portion size in check. Try enjoying a few pieces of dark chocolate with fruit for a great ending to any meal.
Losing weight can be a struggle but the more tools you have, the easier it will be. Good luck and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Homemade Food Labels: Kitchen Tip
When making some homemade food gifts, particularly ones that you package in a glass jar such as a canning jar or spice jar, adding a neatly printed label can make it look extra special.
I have done this several times. I use Word to design my labels and then print them on a
After printing, I cut the label to size, remove the backing and apply it. The trickiest part is removing the backing. The full sheet label has one line going across the back where you can peel the baking off the label. When printing numerous small labels on one sheet, that line doesn’t fall on the back of every label.
I find it is easiest to use the edge of my scissors to score a corner of the label. You have to score it hard enough to cut through the backing, but not all the way through the label. I suggest you experiment a little first. Also, some brands might be easier to peel than others.
Myth Busting: Junk Food is Not Cheaper Than Healthy Food [Plus 4 More Health Food Myths]
One more excuse to eat poorly bit the dust as Mark Bittman of the New York Times took apart the oft-quoted adage that one reason why people don’t eat healthier is because junk food is more budget friendly. He writes, “In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home.” He then goes on to compare a McDonald’s meal for a family of 4 ($28) with a home-cooked dinner for 4 of roast chicken, salad, vegetables and milk ($14). Debunking the second part of the myth, that junk food provides more calories for the money than healthier fare, he points out that first of all few people in America need extra calories and second that it is still cheaper to add calories to home-cooked food.
I don’t know about you but I was surprised. I shouldn’t have been. Even though I’ve heard this rationale for years - and just accepted it to be true – in my personal life as the head budget maker for our home, I have proven month after month that it is always cheaper to eat at home than to go out. And no I don’t coupon. My friend Shellie taught me a couple of years ago how to plan a menu that would feed our family of 6 for $3-5/person/day. Considering the food stamp program allots $5/person/day, I figure that’s pretty awesome.
But are we eating tasteless gruel every day? Not hardly. It may take more planning and shopping – planning my menu and shopping list each month takes me a couple of hours and then buying everything several more – but eating healthy on a budget can be done. Here are 4 more healthy eating myths busted:
Myth 2. Farmer’s markets are the best place to buy healthy food. Perhaps in California, where food actually grows on trees, this works but up here in the hinterlands the only thing Minnesota grows nine months out of the year are sno cones. The farmer’s markets here, while fabulous when they’re open, are not cheap. Think outside the big box grocery stores and check out local Asian markets for cheap produce (and also weird stuff – just had my first taste of lychee nuts!), hispanic stores for cheaper meats and beans and discount stores for deals on frozen foods, bulk grains and seasonal items. Whole Foods, sadly, is almost never a good deal.
Myth 2b. Warehouse stores are bad for your waistline. People like to decry warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club pointing out that buying peanut-butter pretzels in bulk makes you eat more of them – which probably is true although preventable by portioning them out into individual servings at home – but the reverse can also work in your favor. Buying a 1 pound box of salad for the same price you’d pay for 5 ounces at a regular store might inspire you to eat more greens. In addition to lots of produce, you can often find lots of shelf-stable healthy staples (say that 5 times fast) like quinoa, brown rice, raw honey, oats and dark-chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds (hush, nobody tell me those aren’t healthy). I also buy my uncured meats at Costco; I can get nitrate-free organic breakfast sausage and Canadian bacon for cheaper than the crappy regular kind at the grocery store.
Myth 3. You have to be a great cook. I suppose it would probably be helpful if you were a great cook but if you’re closer to the Swedish Muppet Chef – skewer the berjdie! – than Alton Brown, don’t despair. I suck at cooking so if I can manage, you totally can. It doesn’t take much skill to learn how to boil beans (because eating them raw might kill you - whoops) and chop and sautee some vegetables. I cook pretty much everything I eat in a big cast iron skillet – and bonus, you have permission not to wash it afterwards because it “seasons” the pan! – so I have basically one cooking technique: hot.
Myth 4. You have to have specialty ingredients. Goat cheese. Chia seeds. Amaranth flour. Strawberries and cream hemp protein powder humanely squeegeed off dirty hippies. Us healthy types sometimes get caught up in some crazy food fads and while it can make you feel lame to be the only person not drizzling your shiitake mushrooms with white truffle oil, it doesn’t mean your simple dish of crap on a plate is less healthy. There’s a lot to be said for simple, whole, foods.
Myth 5. It’s time consuming. Like most hobbies, healthy cooking can be as time consuming as you’ll let it be but it doesn’t have to take any longer than hitting a drive through, especially if you’re okay with using your microwave. It really doesn’t get any faster than salad, especially if you have the forethought to pre-chop a bunch of veggies to keep in the fridge.
Some of my favorite cheap (about $1/serving), quick and healthy* meal ideas (that I totally am not the first to think of):
- Taco Salad: bowl of random greens topped with beans and/or meat, whatever veggies I can grab, sour cream and hot hot salsa.
- Yogurt parfaits: plain full-fat yogurt topped with all-fruit jam, nuts, frozen blueberries and raw oats
- Miso soup: microwave a bowl of water, a tablespoon of miso paste (another reason to hit up the Asian market!), chopped green onions and cubed tofu. My husband thinks this tastes like “dirty foot water” which cracks me up. I like dirty feet.
- Stir fry: meat, veggies, oil. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- Honey mustard chicken: whatever cut of chicken you want (I’m lucky enough to get my dead poultry cheap, straight from the farmer who just wrung their necks), mix equal parts of honey & mustard and spread on top. Sprinkle with a few herbs. Cook in pan. Tastes delish over rice.
- “McMuffins”: Top a whole wheat english muffin with 1 fried/poached/scrambled egg, a slice of cheese, a slice of Canadian bacon or ham and spinach leaves. If the muffin is too processed for you, just pile it all on top of the spinach leaves – still totally yummy!
* I realize that depending on what your personal food philosophy is, these may not be “healthy” per your definition. I’m not trying to make a definitive list – just saying these are examples of what works for me. I hope you’ll tell me what works for you in the comments!
What do you think about Mark Bittman’s assertion that healthy food is actually cheaper than junk food? Do you have a fave tip for eating healthy on the cheap? Do you have a $1/serving meal idea??
What’s Your Comfort Food When You’re Sick? [Is there such a thing as a healthy comfort food?]
Jell-O drink. That’s what my mom called the concoction of red Jell-O powder mixed with hot water and served in a mug that she gave us whenever we were sick. Looking back, I’m not sure if it was an actual recipe intended to soothe and heal rather than an attempt to stop the whining of a sick kid while using only what she could find in our depleted pantry. While it won’t win any health awards, it was so sugary delicious that no matter how sore our throats were she could still get liquids into us.
I was reminded of Jell-O drink recently when my kids came down with the flu. Yes, the influenza flu. And yes, I got a little panicky. I’ll admit it. My eldest had a fever of nearly 104 and his zombie stare was freaking me out. So I did what any good mother does when a child is sick and you feel completely powerless to help – I tried to feed him.
Remember the old adage of “feed a cold, starve a fever”? I never put much stock in that. How are you supposed to recover if you are starving? My poor feverish sons though were completely on board with that. The more they refused food, the more I tried to get them to eat. At last, when I went back to the store for the 4th time in 2 days to get more medicine, in my desperation to get them to ingest something, anything, I bought them all the things I think of as “sick food.” Popsicles, root beer, pudding, juice, ice cream, Cheez-its (um, what??) and of course Jell-O all went into my cart. (Side note: I was terrified I was going to see someone I knew and they would see all the crap in my cart and judge me.)
My kids thought the swine flu was the best thing that had ever happened to them. The last time we had soda pop in the house was when everyone had the stomach flu a year ago. You’d think they’d never seen white bread before from the way they devoured an entire loaf in an hour. Long story short, they ate nothing but cold and/or sugary confections for three days straight. My relief that they were taking in calories and the much-vaunted fluids was quickly usurped by the fact that everything they were eating was nutritionally void. The homemade chicken soup I made? Untouched. Yogurt berry smoothie? Left to rot (or become more yogurty because, you know, it’s already bacteria laden). Even my whole wheat pumpkin muffins – usually a five star favorite around here – were ignored.
Ah, mother guilt. Despite the fact that everyone healed up quite nicely, my shame persists. Surely if there is ever a time a body needs healthy food, it is when it is sick! Right? And yet when I get sick generally all I want to eat is plain Cheerios and hot Tang. Seriously, Tang is like crack to me. Especially the sugar free garbage; I love me some hot aspartame.
It got me thinking, what do you all eat when you are sick? Are you all about the brussells sprouts and salmon to bolster your weakened immune system? Or do you have a comfort food too? Is there such a thing as a healthy comfort food? Also – anyone else ever think that everyone is looking at what you buy at the grocery store and silently judging you??
The Marvelous Food Company Review & Giveaway
They produce two products:
Both products are free of major allergens. They have dedicated their mixing and baking facility to be completely free of: gluten, dairy, soy, all nuts, eggs, yeast, and corn.
Both products are moist and taste homemade. As you can see from the photo, the chocolate mini muffins are very small. They come in foil pouches with two muffins or cookies per pouch. Be sure to look for the notch along the bottom edge to tear open the pouches.
It is recommended that the products be refrigerated, and unlike many baked goods, these are actually better cold.
Both products have good flavor. They do contain garbanzo bean flour, which I am not a fan of. But with the flavorful ingredients in these products, no one noticed a bean flavor.
My kids found the look of the muffins and cookies to be unappealing. I agree, they don’t look particularly appetizing. However, I really enjoyed their taste and my youngest son, who is not gluten free, also enjoyed them. Once he got over the look of them and gave them a try, he really liked them and would ask if he could have some for snacks.
My oldest gluten free son tried them but did not care for the taste. He said they were bitter, but he’s not very good with flavors, and I think he didn’t care for the ginger that is in both products.
Both of these kids were shocked when I told them about the fruits and vegetables in the products. They didn’t think they tasted like vegetables at all.
While these cookies and muffins were created with kids in mind, I think they make great snacks for adults too.
The Giveaway: One winner will receive two packages of cookies and two packages of muffins. Each package contains 6 pouches, and each pouch contains two cookies or muffins. The giveaway is limited to US residents.
To enter you must leave a comment on this post, not on my Facebook page and not an email. If you receive my updates by email, click on the underlined title and it will take you to my blog page where you can leave a comment.
Leave a separate comment for each entry:
- Leave a comment on this post.
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The giveaway will end on Friday, October 2nd at 11:00 pm eastern time. The randomly chosen winner will be contacted by email and will have 24 hours to respond after being contacted.
Disclaimer: I was provided with samples of cookies and muffins to review. The opinions in this post are my own.
Whenever Out And About All Day Long Try Eating An Organic Food Bar
Everyone knows that many of us often sit back and consume the usual three meals and also two dessert items every day. That may be useful in principle, however, not necessarily in reality for many of us. The lifestyle for a great number of people is extremely hectic and when we have a chance to eat it does not continually include the best possibilities. Lots of people eat meals at work while working or perhaps in their automobiles on the commute. They don’t simply wish to consume unhealthy foods or perhaps fast food, however it might occur because it is instant and simply available. Many who do prefer to eat much better have discovered one option that is effective for them. This is in the shape of raw bar recipe. They are cereal bars however produced from natural and organic items to make sure they are all nutritious. Those deliver the results beautifully for equally parents as well as for young kids. The reality is, numerous parents supply them as after school snacks. Additionally they keep them in the glove box for the kids after sports workout and prior to supper.
Many shops actually promote them independently in the exact same spot as fresh vegetables and fruit. They appear to be really retailing very well which explains why they continue to keep stocking them. So when you have to get something to nibble on from the convenient store because of time limits, see if they have any natural and organic food bars. It’s going to allow you to feel good and also to have vitality. At the same time, you might have just saved yourself from consuming something which truly is not a good choice for your health. Organic food bars are normally bought at the majority of the well known retail stores. Luckily, they are very inexpensive meaning that people buy them without having a second thought regarding it. If they’re going to purchase these kinds of products anyhow, it’s really a great idea they grab the ones that are much better for the body.
Organic food bars are available in a number of wonderful flavors as well and they also taste incredible. The more individuals who give them a go, the more demand from customers there ultimately ends up being for them available. You’ll see numerous distinct brand names of organic food bars available you can buy. It is best to obtain one containing fantastic reviews. When you cannot locate them locally, consider purchasing them on the net. Should you be eating huge amounts of these think about purchasing these raw food shopping list in big amounts. By doing this, you’ll save cash over buying them separately. If you don’t like the taste of your specific brand, please do not assume that all of organic food bars taste this way. Be prepared to test a number of different brand names before you decide to select one you actually like.
Related posts:
Ethical Dilemma: The Politics of Feeding the Poor [Ban on using food stamps to buy soda struck down]
Disappointed. That’s the only way to describe how I felt after my first month of volunteering every day at the battered women’s shelter. It started out all fun and spy games, with the coordinator telling me to meet her on the corner of a crowded intersection and to come alone. Once I got to the shelter, I had to be buzzed in through the razor-wire topped fence by a guard on duty 24 hours a day. The rules were: no men (no male children unless they were under 13), no unapproved visitors, no alcohol, no drugs. Everyone had to go to mandatory counseling and parenting classes. Clearly these people were serious.
I was excited because thanks to losing my daughter Faith and only part-time work teaching at the college, I suddenly had a lot of empty time on my hands. I could either sit at home and stare at my empty nursery or I could get out and Help! People! I’m not sure what I was envisioning (comforting a woman sobbing on my shoulder? Holding a young child while her mom defiantly cut all ties with her abusive husband? Having a walk-on role in the Lifetime movie of the week??) but the entire first week all I did was write thank-you cards to the people who’d contributed money to the shelter. The second week they trusted me enough to man the visitor’s sign-in book. By week 3 I’d moved up to being in charge of the vouchers. And that’s when things started to go from Happy Liberal Fantasy to Crazytown.
Vouchers were tickets for everything from free bus rides to meals at restaurants to groceries to diapers. We did not under any circumstances give out cash. If I did – even if it was from my own funds – I’d be “fired.” This, the coordinator explained, was for my own good. “You’re new and they’re going to try to play you like a fiddle. Just stick to the rules.” I soon saw the wisdom behind her warning. Most of the women who stayed in the shelter were regulars. This wasn’t an emergency crash pad where they could stay until they figured out the best way to move to another state and change all their identifying information. No, this was where they lived until they reached the maximum time and then they’d pack up their myriad tiny children and move on to another shelter (or another bad boyfriend) until they could come back here. This bouncing in and out was their full-time job.
And boy were they good at it. I’ll never forget the first time a resident asked me for two Greyhound bus and four grocery vouchers. I was confused. “Are you leaving already?” I asked her. “No,” she answered frankly, “I can trade those for two bottles of rum at the liquor store. We’re having a party in room 6 tonight if you want to come!” I eyed her barely clad kids staring vacantly into space and considered my answer. Surprisingly when I refused, she didn’t curse me out but just sighed and turned around and left. The party in room 6 happened anyhow, thanks to the policy of the local Lutheran church to give out a one-time handout of $200 to anyone who asked.
I asked the coordinator one day if any of the women here were actually abuse victims or if they were all just working the system. She gave me a very stern look and said, “They’re all abuse victims. Generations of it. They’re also working the system because it’s all they know to survive. And that’s the problem.” I finally realized just a small part of what she was up against and I was amazed all over again that she could come in every day and do this job. Don’t get me wrong, most of the women that I met there were kind and funny and loved their kids. But most of them also had serious substance-abuse and mental-health issues. They weren’t looking to change their lives. Why would they if they’d never known anything different?
By the time I quit 6 months later – because I was pregnant again and the combination of my haywire hormones and seeing all the neglected and abused children was making me cry every night – I was seriously jaded. I don’t want to be uncharitable. Even now, writing about this, I feel as if I’m betraying a vulnerable sisterhood. I kind of want you to comment and tell me that my experience was a bizarre aberration and other shelters aren’t like the one I worked at. And yet, this is what I think of when I read about the argument over what people should be allowed to buy with food stamps. Because I handed out a lot of things like food stamps and I saw them used to buy everything from boxes of Twinkies to cigarettes. The only apples that ever came in the building were in the bowl on the front table and they were fake.
On Friday the federal government struck down Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to forbid people in New York City from using food stamps to buy soda saying it was “because of the logistical difficulty of sorting out which beverages could or could not be purchased with food stamps and because it would be hard to gauge how effective the step was in reducing obesity.” Bloomberg responded to the U.S.D.A.’s decision saying, ““We think our innovative pilot [program] would have done more to protect people from the crippling effects of preventable illnesses like diabetes and obesity than anything else being proposed elsewhere in this country — and at little or no cost to taxpayers.”
On Friday I also read this opinion piece by Marion Nestle (thanks to Hey Joob for the tip!) about whether or not it is ethical to give unhealthy food like the popular free-meal McDonald’s coupons to the homeless or if we should only give what we would eat, even if that isn’t what they want. The comments are even more enlightening than Nestle’s perspective, especially in regards to what a polarizing and class-dividing feature food has become in America.
The bottom line is that the number one predictor of obesity in this country is not genetics, gender, race, or age – it’s income. The poorer you are the more likely you are to be obese. That’s the problem. So what is the solution? Honestly I’m not sure – a variety of programs from education to farmer’s markets in inner cities to gardens in schools are having promising results – but I do think that not allowing food stamps to be used for soda is a good place to start. There is never soda in my house and I don’t think my standard of living is hampered by it. But then again who am I to tell someone else how to live their life?
What do you think – should the government stay out of (further) legislating what food stamps can and cannot be used to buy? What about giving food to the homeless – should we focus on giving them calorie-dense meals like Big Macs or healthy fare like produce? Anyone else ever have a volunteer job that didn’t turn out quite like you’d expected?
Atlanta Oriental Food Recalls Cut Napa Kimchi Because Of Possible Listeria Monocytogenes
Atlanta Oriental Food Wholesale Company of Atlanta, GA, is recalling its 1 gallon plastic containers of Cut Napa Kimchi and 5 gallon buckets of Cut Napa Kimchi because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
The recalled Kimchi was distributed at Buford Highway Farmers Market in Doraville, Georgia as well as in five gallon buckets to companies in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
The product comes in a 1 gallon, clear plastic package and a 5 gallon bucket marked with lot # 56090959 on the side of the containers.
The potential for contamination was noted after routine testing by the company revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in 1 gallon containers of Cut Napa Kimchi
The production of the product has been suspended while FDA and the company continue to investigate the source of the problem.
Consumers who have purchased 1 gallon containers and 5 gallon buckets of Cut Napa Kimchi with lot # 56090959 are urged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact Tristan Thompson, Monday thru Friday from 10 am to 6 pm at 404-379-3333.
Angel Food Cake
However, that question got my mind rolling, and I knew I had to give it another try. I think the problem was that I didn’t know enough about making angel food cake. It was a dessert I enjoyed before I went gluten free, but I don’t think I ever made one of the cakes myself.
I looked at numerous recipes online and in cookbooks and determined that the ingredients were almost identical in every recipe. And those ingredients only included one cup of flour, so how hard could it be to convert the recipe to gluten free?
There were a few variations in how the ingredients were combined. I went with what made sense to me.
You need a tube pan (not a bundt pan) to make angel food cake. One with “legs” sticking out the top of the pan is nice because the cake cools inverted in the pan. If it doesn’t have legs, you can invert the pan onto a bottle.
It’s also nice to have a two-piece pan where the metal tube and pan bottom fit into the round part of the pan. Because the cake sticks to the pan, this allows you to loosen the sides after it cools, remove the tube part, then run a knife along the bottom to loosen that.
I completely expected that I would not be perfectly happy with the results of my first trial. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! The cake rose beautifully, and the taste and texture were just as they should be. I think this is going to be my new favorite dessert for serving to company.
My husband was wishing for some
Recipe: Angel Food Cake
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