Archive for the 'Healthy Eating' Category
In professional cooking, portions matter. That is why it is important to make sure that you have the proper implements when you make cooking your career.
A cooking scale can help you measure your ingredients properly. It can also help you measure the finished product when you do your portioning. Keep one handy in your kitchen!
When I first started trying to monitor my diet and eat better food that would help me maintain my health, the first thing I noticed was how expensive all of this “healthy” food can be. Soy products are no exception, often costing far more than their less-than-healthy counterparts. My family and I love soy milk and our commitment to ethical farming as well as health has made it a staple of our diet.
Whether it’s tofu or any number of other soy products our family requires a good healthy dose of this unique food. With the Soybella Soymilk Maker we can finally enjoy improved health without breaking the bank. Thanks to Soy Milk Crossroads we can enjoy our health AND our money!
This combination may seem unusual—until you try it. The sweet-tartness of the apple, creaminess of the cheese and bite of the sauerkraut work together beautifully in this easy hot sandwich. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes or a green salad.
Makes 2 main-dish or 4 appetizer servings
ACTIVE TIME: 10 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes
EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy
1 cup sauerkraut, rinsed
1/2 cup water
2 9-to-10-inch (burrito-size) flour tortillas
1 1/3 cups grated reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
1 small Granny Smith or other tart, juicy apple, peeled and very thinly sliced
1. Put sauerkraut and water in a medium nonreactive skillet. Gently heat just until the liquid has evaporated but not so much that the sauerkraut begins to stick to the pan. Remove from the heat.
2. Gradually heat a large cast-iron over medium heat. Put one tortilla in the pan and immediately sprinkle 1/3 cup cheese over half of it. Quickly arrange about half the apple slices over the cheese, then top with half the sauerkraut, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle with another 1/3 cup cheese.
3. Fold the tortilla over the filled half and press gently on it with a spatula to seal. Heat the quesadilla until the bottom is golden, about 2 minutes, then carefully flip and lightly brown the other side. Slide the quesadilla onto a cutting board and cut it into halves or quarters. Prepare the second one in the same fashion.
Variation: If you like, a little chopped ham tastes wonderful layered in with the other ingredients.
NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per main-dish serving: 306 calories; 9 g fat (4 g sat, 2 g mono); 16 mg cholesterol; 34 g carbohydrate; 22 g protein; 3 g fiber; 951 mg sodium; 229 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Calcium (40% daily value), Iron (15% dv).
2 Carbohydrate Servings
I’ve decided to start a weight loss plan. How should I determine what weight I want to reach?
Remember that your weight is just a small part of the whole picture. Other, more valid, indicators of your fitness level are:
How do you feel–energetic or wiped out?
Do you have good muscle tone, or are you flabby?
Are you able to walk up a few flights of stairs without panting?
Are you able to accomplish the daily tasks that you want/need to do?
If you’ve been overweight since childhood or adolescence, you may not even know what a “good” weight for you would be. Setting a goal of a normal body fat percentage (see “Is using body fat percentage a good way to tell whether I’m overweight?”) or a certain clothing size is probably more realistic than aiming for a specific weight, but even here you should use your common sense. Most women would love to wear size 6 (or smaller) clothes, even those whose large frames make this a totally unrealistic and unhealthy goal for them.
Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that cannot be constructed within an organism from other components (generally all references are to humans) by any known chemical pathways; and therefore must be obtained from the diet. The term refers to those involved in biological processes, and not fatty acids which may just play a role as fuel. As many of the compounds created from essential fatty acids can be taken directly in the diet, it is possible that the amounts required in the diet (if any) are overestimated. It is also possible they can be underestimated as organisms can still survive in unideal, malnourished conditions.
There are two families of EFAs: ω-3 (or omega-3 or n-3) and ω-6 (omega-6, n-6.) Fats from each of these families are essential, as the body can convert one omega-3 to another omega-3, for example, but cannot create an omega-3 from scratch. They were originally designated as Vitamin F when they were discovered as essential nutrients in 1923. In 1930, work by Burr, Burr and Miller showed that they are better classified with the fats than with the vitamins.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup brown rice
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 pound salmon fillet
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a saucepan bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- In a large pan, add enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan. Lay the salmon fillet in the pan, pink side up. Place cooked rice around the outside of the fish. Sprinkle the orange juice over the fish and rice.
- In a small bowl, combine the dill weed, rosemary, basil, mustard, lemon pepper and sprinkle over the fish and rice. Cover with aluminum foil.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the salmon is tender and flaky.