Blogging Light

amy March 20th, 2007

The blog Sweetnicks - Food and Life had a great article about keeping your pantry well stocked with staples that allow you to have meals on hand. The ability to prepare simple, healthy meals can be a key tool for weight loss. It is much easier to say “no” to the drive-through when you know you can go home and make a delicious, no-fuss “pantry” meal.

Here are Cate’s tips for keeping a well-stocked kitchen:

1. Put together a list of pantry essentials and make sure to keep them stocked at all times. See below for list examples, and custoimize it so it suits your own likes, dislikes, and dietary restrictions. It’s a starting point, but a good one.

2. As soon as you use something up, put it on your grocery list right away so you won’t be caught without it.

3. If there are favorite recipes that are heavy in your rotation, when you buy the ingredients, buy multiples; that way you’ll always have what you need on hand to make it a few times. If a tried-and-true recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes, for example, when I buy it, I’ll buy three or four; that way, I’m always ready.

4. If an ingredient is on sale, stock up and take advantage of the low pricing. Don’t just buy one. Skim your local grocery store circulars weekly and stock up on pantry essentials when they go on sale. Typically, you can buy 2 or more of the item at the sale price; take advantage of that.

She also gives a comprehensive list of Rachel Ray’s “Go-to Basics You Should Keep On Hand.”

I love this article because it is an excellent explanation of practices I have been following for a long time. I could have written these tips myself (in fact I wish I would have thought of it first!) I would make a list here of all of the items I try to keep stocked but it would be quite lengthy. Instead, I’ll share a couple of my own “pantry” recipes that I go to when I need a quick and healthy meal.

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon spicy brown mustard
2 Tablespoons honey

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. Place chicken breasts in baking dish. In a small bowl, mix both mustards and honey. (Microwave for a few seconds if necessary to melt the honey for easier mixing.) Brush the honey mustard mixture over the chicken breasts. Bake uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Ingredients
2 pounds red potatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix OR dry italian dressing mix
Salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Wash potatoes and cut into 1 inch dice. Place potatoes in baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with dressing mix. Stir until the potatoes are coated with oil and seasoning. Roast uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until potatoes are tender but not mushy. Season with salt and pepper.

• Cooking , Recipes
• Comments(0)

amy March 16th, 2007

My favorite source for recipes for many years now has been allrecipes.com. At least three quarters of the recipes I cook come from there. They have a few recipes that are available to subscribers only, but at least 9 out of 10 (over 40,000 of their recipes) are free, and I have gotten numerous great recipes without ever subscribing. My favorite feature is their rating and review system. Members can rate recipes from 1-5 stars, and these ratings are displayed on the search results. When a recipe has been reviewed by 50+ people and has an average rating of 4.5 or better, you can be almost certain that it is a good recipe. The member reviews are very helpful and usually offer good suggestions on how to change the base recipe to make it healthier or tastier.

• Cooking , Links , Recipes
• Comments(0)

amy March 16th, 2007

Here are some more good tips for healthier cooking from Well Fed Network. I’ve tried the pumpkin cake before and it is good. Try using spice cake mix to make pumpkin spice muffins or cupcakes (you can “frost” them with light or non-fat Coolwhip). The other two ideas are new to me, and I will definitely give them a shot.

• Cooking , Links
• Comments(0)

amy March 15th, 2007

When I first started trying to lose weight, I only cooked recipes that were labeled as “light,” “healthy” or “diet.” There are some decent diet cook books and recipe websites out there, but there are also a lot of ones that seem to think “healthy” has to equal “bland.”

I’ve since learned that you don’t have to cook “diet food” to eat healthy. There are endless “regular” recipes out there that either already have reasonably low Calorie and fat counts, or they can be easily adjusted to be healthy and still taste great. In fact, I have found that I can adapt nearly every “regular” recipe to a healthy lifestyle with very good results, aside from foods where the central ingredients are high Calorie or high fat. Cheesecake and alfredo sauce are examples of foods that you just shouldn’t mess with by trying to make them light!

Here are some of types of changes or substitutions you can easily make in recipes to lower fat and Calories or add nutritional value:

• Replace full fat dairy (milk, condensed milk, sour cream, cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, etc.) with light or fat free.

• Use healthy oils (such as olive, canola, safflower, walnut, sesame, peanut, sunflower) instead of butter, margarine, lard, shortening, or oil with less nutritional benefits like vegetable or coconut.

• Add more low energy-dense ingredients like vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean meats. Adding more low-Calorie foods will reduce the overall Calorie count of the recipe.

• Use less high energy-dense foods than the recipe calls for. Try reducing the amount of oil, nuts, cheese, sugar, high-fat meats, or high fat dairy by half.

• Substitute a more flavorful ingredient and use less to maintain taste while still reducing Calories. Use parmesan, feta, sharp cheddar, or a smoked cheese instead of milder varieties like mozzarella, mild cheddar, or monterey jack. Use dried cranberries instead of raisins in baked goods. Use flavorful kalamata olives instead of black. Use sesame oil instead of peanut in Asian-inspired dishes. Use toasted nuts instead of raw nuts.

• Substitute whole grains. Use brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, whole wheat couscous, barley, or corn tortillas. This adds fiber and other essential nutrients, and the added bulk means that a smaller serving will be more filling.

• Use leaner cuts of meat. Use chicken breasts instead of dark meat. Use lean beef (look for the words loin, strip, and round) instead of fattier cuts. Use ground meet that is 10% fat or less, and drain it well after browning (you can also rinse it with water to remove even more fat). Trim all visible fat from meat and remove the skin from poultry.

Don’t be afraid to modify recipes to make them healthier or fit better with your cooking style or you or your family’s tastes. Try to view recipes “guidelines” or as a source for ideas rather than being set-in-stone. Get creative! Not only can you come up with some recipes that are both healthy and tasty, but cooking is much more fun if you add your own twist.

• Cooking , Recipes
• Comments(1)