Category: diet

July 20, 2012

Living in Food Heaven

Lately, I’ve been trying lots of new foods. I go in spurts of being apathetic about what I eat and being very intentional. Right now, I’m feeling intentional and excited about my food choices. Especially since pondering/writing about making food more fun.

My husband was away for a week for work recently, and to get myself excited about him being gone, I planned a week’s worth of healthy meals for my son and me. Everything had tomatoes in it because Hubster’s allergic (this was my only chance!) and everything was super-healthy (something Hubster resists). Suddenly, a week without him sounded fun. Sure, I missed him, but planning something I couldn’t do with him around made the week fun.

For the majority of the week, I used recipes from Self’s Drop10 plan. It cut out all the work of making my own menus. They used a lot of the same ingredients in the easy-to-make meals, making preparation easy. Plus, they built the menus around superfoods that have loads of health benefits, something that really motivated me.

Penne Margherita: onion, garlic, olive oil, grape tomatoes, edamame and penne

Sausage and Potato Skillet: red potato, onion, yellow pepper, pre-cooked sausage.

I printed the meals that I wanted to use, cut them out, and pieced them together on a clipboard that I hung in the kitchen.

While motivation was high, I decided to try out a few more health foods purported to make my body a lean, mean, disease-fighting machine. Here’s what I ended up trying:

1. Edamame: I had never really tried these pea-pod like legumes. But I’ll be keeping a regular supply of them in my freezer from now on. Yum! They’re easy to add to just about anything. They were in the Drop10 quesedillas even.

2. Sushi: I should’ve known I wouldn’t care for this. I am not a fish eater. Maybe my taste buds are really different than anyone else’s, but I just don’t have a taste for fish. I know all the health benefits of fish, so I have given them a shot again and again. But I even tried a non-meat version of sushi and wasn’t enthused. Oh well. I am still proud that I gave it my best shot. And I had a great time spending time with some girlfriends in a neat little local hotspot.

3. Seaweed: However, the sushi joint served a really good seaweed salad! It wasn’t all for naught! I remember tasting seaweed in grade school and thinking it was terrible. I turned another one of my perceptions around, and I love that!

4. Protein Powder: Every fitness website I frequent mentions protein powder. To me, protein powder seems like something a beefy guy who hangs out at GNC would use. However, I’ve been reading a lot about the health benefits of whey protein powder, so I thought, why not? Target even offers their own version. Hey, guess what? It’s pretty darn good. Especially mixed in oatmeal, pancake batter or prepared as a breakfast cookie.

5. Beets: I may have tried these before, but I never intentionally buy them. However, Peanut and I have made a Saturday morning farmer’s market ritual. For $1, how could I not give them a shot? First batch of beet chips? Eww. Second batch? Not so bad. A friend clued me in that they taste better peeled. Duh! I also tried the canned version recently and I could take them or leave them. However, they’re super-healthy, so I wouldn’t be completely adverse to mixing them in with other things.

6. Avocado: This was another take-it-or-leave-it experience. I think I need to learn more about preparing avocado. I’m willing to give it another shot for all this healthfulness. I sliced it up and made some little finger sandwiches with crackers, sliced tomato and feta. I could barely taste it. Only the texture was noticeable.

7. Chia seeds: I finally purchased a batch when I noticed a local store sold them in bulk. Yippee! They’re ok, it just takes a little getting used to the gel-like consistency they take on. Given their benefits, I have gladly mixed these into pancake batter, oatmeal, yogurt, etc. Definitely keeping these on-hand. Especially with not eating fish, I need to find new ways of getting Omega 3s.

I hope this has inspired you to experiment with some new-to-you foods. What have you tried that you didn’t like? What have you tried and thought “how have I lived without this all this time”?

June 25, 2012

Good Eats: Chicken Salad for Lunch

I don’t normally get very excited about my work lunches. True confession, I’ve been known to bring a sodium-laden Lean Gourmet a time or two (per week, eek!) to work. Mostly I bring the previous night’s leftovers. Most days, it’s almost like a plug-your-nose-and-swallow type of reaction. Sad, I know. However, a few weeks ago, I prepared three days’ worth of chicken salad. And even though that is not very exciting, it was something I don’t normally prepare and I really liked it.

Here’s a picture of my lunch on my cubicle desk. This is what I like to call real life food photography. Ha!

The best part is, most of the ingredients for this entire plate came from Aldi’s, so the cost is literally pennies. I also think this would be a great way to take care of any leftover chicken or turkey you might have.

This is how I made it: I mixed about 10 ounces of shredded chicken breast (leftover from a restaurant chicken dinner) with a few Tbsp of mayo. Some recipes call for relish, but I’m not a fan, so I chopped up three dill sandwich slices and mixed them in. Then I mixed in about 1Tbsp of sliced almonds for a nice crunch. I didn’t have any onions on-hand, but if I did, I would’ve thrown in a handful. The second time I made this, I threw in a handful of dried cranberries and snipped chives. Experiment! Makes around three servings.

And yes, that’s a hot dog bun. It was whole wheat and the last lone bun we had in the house, so I didn’t want it to go to waste. Trying to practice sustainability, ya know:)

Don’t quote me on this, but this is a rough estimate of the nutritional value of one serving of chicken salad on a wheat hot dog bun (according to the Sparkpeople nutrition tracker):

Calories: 270
Carbs: 23
Fat: 16 (note to self: use fat-free mayo next time)
Protein: 10

May 29, 2012

Good Eats: Easy Chicken Dinner

We had a few chicken breasts to grill up a few nights ago, but I wanted to make them a tad more interesting than just serving them alone. So, I served the chicken over a bed of spinach, topped with a serving of salsa. We had sweet potato fries as a side dish. What an easy, healthy, no-fuss dinner that tasted great. My favorite kind!

May 13, 2012

Good Healthy Eats: Better Banana Split

We eat bananas a lot at our house. And peanut butter. Our Peanut loves both, so we make extra certain to keep a regular supply of them. However, bananas get a little boring in their completely natural state, don’t they?

So, I decided to play with the banana a little bit. The results: mmmmmmm mmmm! You’ll never miss the ice cream! And I don’t say that lightly. I’m an ice cream fanatic. And let me tell you: this was sooo much better (and healthier) without the ice cream.

Set 1 banana on a plate. Microwave 1Tbsp peanut butter for 30 seconds. Drizzle over the top of the banana. Spray with cool-whip-in-a-can. Grate leftover Easter bunny chocolate over the top. Garnish with maraschino cherries to make it even tastier. Serve with a side of almonds.

Don’t tell anyone, but I totally had this for dinner one night. It was like eating only dessert for supper. It was sooooo good!

Again, all supplies can be found at Aldi’s, making this a cost- and health-friendly treat. Fruit for dessert anyone?

May 10, 2012

Good Healthy Eating: Summer Salad

I decided I wanted to start playing with my food and make it fun and exciting again. With a husband who regularly makes hot dogs with mac and cheese, a girl just needs something a little, um, better. However, I’m a 5-ingredients-or-less, 15-minutes-or-less, health-conscious type of non-cook. I had a few ingredients, you know, just lying around, so I threw together this beautiful tomato salad.

Tomato Cucumber Summer Salad

I chopped up 1 carton multi-colored cherry tomatoes and cubed 1c cucumbers. I mixed in 1Tbsp feta cheese, 1 good spritz of olive oil over the top, and 2 snipped chive stems. Mix in a little black pepper, sea salt and a splash of vinegar if desired. Garnish with mint for presentation.

Did I mention that this was a pretty low-cost side dish? Almost all the ingredients came from either Aldi’s or my backyard! And the taste was so light and summer fresh. Can’t wait to make this for our next barbecue.

See the mint growing in the cracks?

April 28, 2012

Fitness Vision Board

Olympic athletes do it. Stylists do it. Walt Disney did it. Martha Stewart employees do it. Seems everyone’s using “vision board” to direct their focus and achieve their goals. Using Pinterest to make a vision board is also a great way to get new fitness and healthy recipe ideas.

This USA Today article has some fantastic tips for using Pinterest to get new fitness ideas. Find inspirational quotes, workouts for each part of the body, full fitness routines, and motivational images. The best tip: categorize the workouts by weekday and build an entire workout routine. We should all try this, sitting down on Sunday to plot out the week’s workouts on Pinterest.

Notice how I don’t have too many image-related pictures on my vision board. My body type is pretty different than most and I don’t want to get caught up in the whole image thing. Mostly, this for me is about feeling, striving, being and looking healthy.

On my Pinboard:

1. Cookie cutter fruit “lollipops.” Play with your food, my friends.

2. Jenn Shelton. The book Born to Run really introduced me to this fabulous runner. She runs ultra marathons that are like 50 to 100 miles!!!?!? And from what I’ve seen, she’s super fast, humble and unpretentious. And she used to study poetry. Love!

3. When You Lose Fat Chart: shows all the statistics about your body and how you reduce the chances of getting a myriad of medical problems by losing weight. If that isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is!

4. Healthy Sandwiches, Six Ways. Makes you look at so-called “diet” food in a whole new way. PB&J isn’t your only option, folks.

5. How to Run Diagram: I like to be cognizant of how I’m running so I can keep getting better, so this poster is a fine reminder.

6. Fruit Rainbow. Makes healthy food look fun, colorful, fresh, new and exciting. I think my Peanut would love these! (Hmmm, remind me about that on his birthday:)

7. Clear Your Mind. Go for a Run. This poster reminds me of how grrrrreat running makes me feel.

8. Fruit Smoothie in a Wine Glass: This picture got clipped off a bit. I just like that idea of serving a healthy “cocktail” of fruits in your finest glassware. Makes it seem like an indulgence rather than an obligation.

Check out this link from Shape Magazine about how Pinterest could change your life. I found this after I decided to do a post about vision boards, and it totally validates where I was going with this. Science is behind the “vision board” idea. Putting your goals in writing has always been a crucial step for actually accomplishing them. Putting your goals into concrete images takes you one step closer to fulfilling them. If you can actually visualize your goal, as in, know what they look like (taste like, feel like, etc), you’ll have a much clearer picture to work with and direct your attention toward.

The article even validates what I said above about not using too many image-related pictures. Adding images of perfect, tanned, airbrushed models is dangerous. Self-sabotage is not what we’re going for here.

What are you waiting for? Check out the Fitness eye-candy over on Pinterest. Or make an inspirational moodboard for other goals in your life with the same concepts in mind: financial, career-related, love-focused, food-minded, etc.

As they say over there, Happy Pinning!

April 27, 2012

Fitness On My Reading List

I picked up two health books on a recent trip to the library. Have I ever told you how much I love the library? Whenever I hear about a new book by Tracy Anderson or someone else of interest, I will often go reserve it online. It may take weeeeks, but hey, it’s free. And I’m ok with being a tad bit behind on the world’s reading pace.

This trip, I grabbed Naturally Thin by Bethenny Frankel and Fitness & Health by Brian Sharkey.

I have this fascination with becoming a certified personal trainer just so I know the science behind my workouts, not because I have a strong desire to start a new side business. When I found the Sharkey book, I knew that I had found what I was looking for. It looks like a textbook for an exercise physiology major. Yes, some of it is majorly boring, but I’m keying in on the stuff I really want to know about, like VO2 max and such. You’re never too old to learn stuff!

I also just made it through Frankel’s book (yes she has a prickly personality, but there’s just something about her inner drive and business savvy that’s admirable, am I right?), and here are my favorite quotes that stood out from her book:

“The simple fact is that you don’t function normally if you constantly have to measure, count, restrict, and obsess over food” (p.7). I love this! It really puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? ‘Nuff said.

“No food is fattening, in a small quantity” (p. 45). Nothing is off-limits. Yipee. Just don’t eat the whole cake in one sitting. I can do that!

“Talking about and thinking about food constantly can result in eating more than you really need or want, just because food is on the brain” (p.61). So true! That’s why it’s so important to not make food such an obsession. Distract and reward yourself with non-food activities to start training your brain away from that connection. Food shouldn’t be such a worrisome thing.

“Make food special…Taking a little extra time to make your meal special will help you to feel so much more satisfied and content with your food” (p. 59). This relates to my previous post about making memories around healthy food. Food should be meaningful, not just something we shove in our mouths in between typing emails at work (oops, guilty!). Growing your own ingredients, refining your own recipes, and “designing” your own meals makes food more friendly.

Let me narrow this all down: Make friends with food, but don’t follow it around like a stalker.

Ah, such sage advice from a former Desperate Housewife.

April 17, 2012

My Garden is My Diet

Some exciting delicious things are starting to pop up in the garden already. Namely, asparagus. Oh, and the chives and orange mint are completely ready for snipping. The asparagus stalks only shoot up a few at a time–just enough for mama to enjoy a delish egg scramble. And it took three long years of waiting to be able to snip any at all. The wait was long, so the gratification is so sweet.

I have vowed this year to put together some yummy recipes for all the vegetables we plan to grow. I hate to say it, but we end up wasting a lot of our fresh fare because, well, what do you do with all of that zucchini? We shredded a bunch of it and put it in the freezer. Left some in people’s cars, for real. But we could really do a better job eating from our yard. So, I’ve slowly been gathering tomato, zucchini and cucumber recipes so my toolbox is all ready come harvest time. No excuses!

Right now, I’m just enjoying the simple bounty of a few asparagus stalks here and there, mixed with Egg Beaters, snipped chives and whatever else is in the crisper. This time, it was mushrooms and yellow peppers. Then, I served myself with a side of turkey bacon and whole wheat toast. Oh yum!

March 29, 2012

Eat Like a Kid

In one of my college writing classes, we read a narrative by Terry Tempest Williams about a boy sitting next to his mother peeling potatoes. The narrative was only one paragraph yet so exquisitely written. We were instructed to write our own narrative involving a poignant food memory. I still have mine:

My mother taught me how to eat grapefruit in our living room one balmy summer evening. She instructed me to cut the large fruit in half between the two ends so there were perfect triangular pockets to scoop from. She even let me use a special spoon with a serrated edge to scrape out the fleshy pulp. She laughed at my persistent efforts, swiping a blush across her brightening face, even though her stomach was always tied with anxiety from the pervasive stress of piling bills. She handed me sugar to sprinkle over the half I held in my sticky, dripping hand. Her face was beaming as I took a spoonful of the bitter fruit, sweetened to enjoyment by a simple touch of sugar.

Source

Coming across this again inspired me to start thinking about the way we approach food in our homes and how eating like a kid could really be healthy.

1. Make your best memories revolve around healthy food. Wouldn’t it be great if our kids had predispositions to eat berries because the family always went berry picking in the summer? Or cucumbers because they nurtured them from seed? Or veggie skewers because that’s what you always served at family picnics? Or spinach because that’s what turned their “Zombie” smoothies green? I’m so glad my memory revolved around a grapefruit and not a Snickers Bar. I admit, we occasionally ate Oreos by the row, but if you can make an equally poignant memory revolve around healthy food instead of junk food, then by all means try it!

2. Turn away your head when you’re full. Something happens between our first bites of food around 6 months of age and adulthood. We stop taking cues from our bodies somewhere along the way. Feeding an 8-month-old is easy. You just feed them until they turn away their heads. As we get older, we fight those natural signals and stuff ourselves until we’re uncomfortable. Stop eating when you feel sufficiently full or when you know you’ve eaten enough.

3. Make food fun. Did your mom ever plant “trees” (broccoli) on a hill (of mashed potatoes) for you? Did your dad ever drive your spoon around like it was a train headed for the depot (your mouth)? Food was fun when you were a kid. I encourage you to make food fun again! Make it a point to try a new food or healthy recipe each week. Toy around with the colors, textures, spices, pairings and presentation. Cut fruit out with cookie cutters. Lick the spoon. Become familiar with the playground. Food should not be your enemy, it should be your plaything.

4. Don’t think about food while you’re playing. When you’re not eating, don’t obsess or worry about food. You’ve never seen a child in the throes of a playground wondering if dinner will come soon enough. Let yourself get carried away with non-food activities. Believe me, when you’re busy with an involved project, you won’t be thinking about the Girl Scout cookies calling you from the cupboard. Don’t allow thoughts about food to control you. You get to control your thoughts!

5. Eat slow. Your toddler isn’t allowed to leave the table until he’s cleared his plates, and that usually comes about a half-hour after everyone else is finished. We may practice better manners as we get older, but we surely forget how to eat as mindfully as a child. Slow down. Taste, I mean really taste, every bite. Chew it. Put your fork down. Look away from that screen. And take a cue from Junior.

March 18, 2012

My Healthy Plate Lately

Here’s a look at a few healthy dinners I had this week, courtesy of Hubster. He made this wonderful, easy crockpot pork roast (seriously, just a pork roast and reduced fat cream of mushroom soup) that just fell apart at the touch of a fork. I roasted up some Brussels sprouts in olive oil and soy sauce, because I’ve had a huuuuge craving for them lately. Sprinkle a light dusting of Parmesan and sea salt over the top–Hea-ven! And fresh plain radishes, because I just like them.

Try not to worry too much about my whole grain intake (because I know you are…ha!) because I had plennn-ty much for breakfast and lunch.

The next night, Hubster made pancakes, from scratch, and blueberry syrup, from scratch. From scratch! He tried, he really did, to make the healthiest syrup he could find. He did some Internet scouring to try and find something especially diet-friendly for me. He ended up using real sugar instead of Splenda, because I refused the $8 price tag. But still, the recipe is pretty dang healthy anyhow. Look at all those antioxidants dripping over those perfectly-round, fluffy pancakes. He’s really the king of pancakes, didn’t you know?

Now, how come no one told me about the healthy-ness of sweet potato fries? Oh wait… I think someone probably did. But the fact that Hubster does the grocery shopping means that I don’t remember to remember them. We’re definitely skipping the crap-in-a-bag regular fries for these orange beauties. They were a nice accompaniment to our roast beef, Swiss, and piled-high spinach sandwiches, that’s for sure.

Just check out the stats on these puppies:

Funny story, I got up to photograph this last handful of crisp orange fries and Hubster actually tried to race me into the kitchen for them. Like I was threatening his food supply or something. Haha! I didn’t want any more, I just wanted to blog about them. Woah, my bad! But you realize what this means, don’t you? Hubster really really liked them! And what he really really likes, he will buy again. Victory!!!

He’s a keeper, isn’t he?