Tip #21 Choosing your calories wisely

This post may be a little preemptive.  It's about Halloween candy but applies to all holiday eating.  We're just about a week away from Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas loom ahead.  Soon, there will be parties and treats at work and plates of goodies from friends galore.  I advocate a pretty liberal approach to the holidays.  This time and foods come around once a year, it's ok to indulge in your favorites.  What I caution against is just eating something because it's 1) a tradition 2) a gift 3) just there 4) because you are socializing and feel like you should.  Eat your favorites in moderation and AVOID THE REST.  It's ok to taste a few things on a plate and throw things away that don't appeal to you.  It's ok to just take a couple of your favorite hors d'oeuvre at a party and not take the others.  You have to have a plan at work- those plates of goodies are always there just when you are hungry or bored.  Bring something else healthy to snack on so you can just take one off the plate and leave the rest.
In respect to Halloween candy, there are a couple of candies that I feel like make it "Halloween".  Twizzlers, tootsie rolls, smarties and a bubble yum bubble gum.  However, I am more than happy with just one of these candies and not a whole bag full.  I would rather "spend" my calories on a Snickers or Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.  So plan ahead:  think of your favorites for the holidays and commit to avoiding the rest.
~Here's to Healthy Eating

Q and A: Granola

I feel bad for neglecting this blog.  Unfortunately, more illness, a remodel of our computer room and about 3 bushels of apples have kept me from doing much above survival mode.
Meanwhile, I had a couple nutrition questions about granola from my sister in law that I thought I would post the answers to.

Q:  I love making granola.  My recipe calls for butter instead of oil though (1/2 c. butter to 6 c. oats).  What are the health trade offs butter for oil? Just saturated verses unsaturated fats?


A:  Yes, the trade-offs are mainly the saturated fat.  There are 56 grms of saturated fat in 1/2 cup of butter and 8 grms of saturated fat in 1/2 cup canola oil (these are according to the labels of the items I have on hand.)  You know the problems with saturated fat- raised bad (LDL) cholesterol equals higher risk of heart disease.  The only fat worse for you is trans fat- found in hydrogenated fats like shortening, margarine and many processed foods.  Butter tastes pretty good though, but in something like granola where you might not taste a difference and if you are eating it every day, I would recommend switching to oil.

Q:  I like to stretch my granola too so I add plain corn flakes and/or bran flakes to my finished granola.  I can get this cereal for under a dollar a box so I think I am saving money but am I compromising health?


A:  I stretch my granola by mixing it with cereal too!  Nothing wrong with that, especially if your cereal has the added vitamins and minerals that most cereals have.  What you are giving up is probably some fiber if you use corn flakes, but bran flakes will help with that- good fiber there.  


I have found some discount cereals I bought did not have as much vitamin and mineral percentages as other name brand cereals, so just watch that and if it's important to you, consider that.  With my young kids eating that cereal and needing those added vitamins, it's important to me- but for those of you who probably makes better health decisions throughout your day, it's probably not an issue.


In my research of this topic, I found an interesting article online.  The guy who answers the question is a little extreme, but has some good points.  Take this with a grain of salt.  Click HERE


ps- I always welcome questions and would love that to be a part of this blog!


~Here's to Healthy Eating

Food Science Sunday

Friday night I found something I fell in love with- a show called Top Secret Recipe on CMT (of all places) where this hilarious guy tries to crack the secret recipes of famous foods like Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and KFC fried chicken.  He has a food truck (lab) and 3 days and he will pretty much do anything like stealing some cinnamon while on tour of a factory to try and re-create the signature recipes.  So much food science and so much fun.  You can check his show out HERE.  That's my dream job.  I love food science.  Who knew that the original Cinna"mom" lives on Bainbridge Island which is a 30 minute ferry ride from here?  Not me.

On to my week- it was full of experiments.  Times like this when the budget is tight, I don't do a lot of menu planning from recipes like my favorite magazine,  Everyday Food.  Instead I buy meat and veggies on sale and play with what I have.  This week I had some leftover green salsa that needed to be used and some corn tortillas that were getting stale in the fridge.

 So I decided to improvise some green enchiladas.  I knew the fresh tomatillo salsa would not make a good sauce as it was, so I pureed it in the blender to get out the chunks and added it to a shallow pot with a cup of chicken broth.  I brought that to a simmer and added 1 TB of cornstarch mixed with a little cold water.  Now I had a cooked sauce with a little body to it that would not just soak into my tortillas. If my salsa hadn't been so flavorful, I might have needed to add some cumin or even coriander to the sauce.    For the filling I cooked about 1 chicken breast and diced it and then added 1 can of white beans.  Pinto would have been better, but I didn't have any.  I mixed in 1/2 cup of my sauce to the chicken/bean mixture.  I made sure it was nice and hot.  I heated my tortillas (cooking one at a time in a dry skillet and then keeping warm in a tortilla warmer is optimal).  I filled each tortilla with chicken/bean mix, placed it in a pan and after having several lined up, I drizzled the sauce across the middle and sprinkled some cheese across the top.  I broiled them with the rack in the middle- heats and crisps the cheese on the top a little slower.  I have found that enchiladas work best this way for me.  I have all parts of the enchilada hot- the sauce, the filling, the tortillas and then I quickly build them and broil in the oven instead of baking for any length of time.  This keeps my tortillas from getting soggy.
I had some Cojita cheese which is like Parmesan for Mexican food.  We put this on top and drizzled with my version of Mexican creme.  I mixed some light sour cream with a little cream, a spoonful of low fat plain yogurt and a little milk to make just the right consistency.  The enchiladas turned out decent and the best part was the kids ate them up and had seconds.  Sometimes when we have things that are a little different, that isn't the story.  This would be a good gluten free meal as long as your salsa were free of any gluten.

Once you follow a recipe (or look at several versions) and get a feel for what ingredients are needed for a desired result, you can make any changes you need to make.  I wanted to make a creamed corn casserole Friday night for a dinner party, but didn't have the corn bread mix it called for or the bread crumbs.  I know corn bread mix has cornmeal, flour and things like salt and maybe baking powder in it.  I was able to add those things and the consistency turned out right.  The bread crumbs were for both the casserole body and a crunchy topping on top.  I melted a little butter in my cast iron skillet and added panko when it got hot.  I browned the panko so it would have flavor and color and used that in place of the bread crumbs.  We all enjoyed it and my guests didn't know that I didn't follow a recipe.
~Here's to Healthy Eating (and improvising)

Tip #20 Lunches

Sorry I have been out of commission for a week- been pretty sick.  I have been trying to make lunches at home a little more exciting for my 4 yr old who is missing her older sister who is at all day kindergarten.  A local store had some frozen items on sale, so I compared a couple for lunch options.  The corn dogs had 180 calories, 9 grams of fat and 7 grams of protein.  That was little too high on the fat for me, so I looked at the cheese bagel bites.  190 calories, 5 grams of fat and 7 grams of protein.  The protein was important to me because it's important to keep my kids satisfied.  The bagel bites had 2 grams of fiber as well.  So I opted for the bagel bites.

The next evening, I realized I had some ingredients that needed to be used and would make mini pizzas of our own.  I toasted whole wheat English muffins on both sides using the broiler.  Then I spread on pizza sauce, microwaved pepperoni (click HERE), slices of green pepper and mozzarella cheese on top.  I broiled them until bubbly and the result is the picture above- a delicious addition to our leftover pasta.
If you use frozen foods for lunches, check nutrition labels and ingredient lists.  I can't say how much fat is too much fat or what kinds of foods you should always feed your kids or yourself, but I do try and get more wholesome or natural ingredient items when I can afford them.  And even better- making your own.   I recently had a discussion about frozen meals and the consensus among many was that Healthy Choice was a tasty option for adults.
~Here's to Healthy Eating

Tip #19 Meatballs

I didn't grow up eating meatballs too often, but I have discovered how much I enjoy them.  I have also found how much I enjoy using frozen meatballs for a quick dinner.  When Franklin was born I got a Costco sized bag of Italian meatballs.  He's 5 months old and we are still using it.  One reason being that it contains about 140 meatballs. 5 meatballs is a serving, but I think 3 is plenty.  I cut them in half or even quarters to eat, they are so big.  Eating only 3 instead of 5 will also save you 8 grams of fat and 108 calories.  I know there are turkey meatballs out there with less fat and probably every bit as good, I just haven't tried any.  Today I discovered another trick to lower the fat of the ones I have.  Here's the backstory (there's always a backstory with me).  The last time I made meatballs with spaghetti sauce, I heated the meatballs in the sauce and thought the flavor of the meat totally overpowered the sauce.  So today I microwaved the meatballs on a plate by themselves and once I saw the pool of grease, I knew why heating them in the sauce is a bad idea.  I put the meatballs on a layer of paper towels and blotted the tops of them (further decreasing the fat) and served them as they should be:  Noodles on plate, meatballs in the middle and sauce on top (or as my 4 yr old would say:  boulders with lava flowing over the tops).

~Here's to Healthy Eating

Tip #18 Oatmeal

The mornings are getting colder here in Seattle, and I find myself making more hot breakfasts.  This morning we had oatmeal.  It was way too hot to serve to the kids, so I went to the fridge for some milk.  Here is one thing I don't like about oatmeal- when it's runny with milk.  So I saw the plain lowfat yogurt and pulled that out instead.  Perfect.  One dallop made our bowls of oatmeal the right temp without adding a lot of moisture.  We had enough flavorings in there that the yogurt taste didn't show through at all, plus it was creamier (oohhh- imagine Greek yogurt- yum!).  I prefer brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and sometimes some raisins in my oatmeal.  It's not good for you- but I put 1 tsp of butter in the girl's oatmeal- yum!
Oatmeal is so good for you, but I have a hard time with it.  If I have the time, I would rather make steel cut oats.  Growing up, I liked the cracked wheat my mom would make.  Not to be confused with cream of wheat.
Here is the BEST way to eat oatmeal.  My friend makes her kids a hot breakfast EVERY morning because her kids eat breakfast foods really well and they love this recipe- I got it from her.

Baked Oatmeal
3 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (ok, it calls for 1 cup, but you can totally use way less!!)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted (you could use canola oil)
3/4 cup chopped, peeled apple
1/3 cup fresh or frozen peaches
1/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

(the fruit part is all up to you- put in whatever fresh, frozen and dried fruit you have on hand or want to try.  I saw another version of this that had 2 tsp vanilla extract and dried cranberries instead of the fruit listed here.  I would highly recommend the vanilla, it doesn't add calories and makes pretty much everything taste better!)

Combine oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.  Combine eggs, milk and butter (or oil)- add to dry ingredients.  Stir in fruit selections.  Bake in a 8 x 8 baking dish coated with cooking spray and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
I know my friend doubles this recipe and I am sure it re-heats very well.

PS- I am going to try making this recipe with rolled oats instead of quick cooking and I will let you know how it turns out.  My guess is just a little chewier- hopefully nuttier- yummm, just the way I like it.  Nuttier! (this is me having an epiphany)  You could add walnuts to this recipe- awesome.

PSS- If you make sure your oats are from a gluten free source, this would be a great gluten free breakfast.

~Here's to Healthy Eating