Ten Holiday Healthy Eating Strategies

Holidays are always a challenge to healthy eating.

Here are some of my personal strategies:

1. Pre-eating!..this learned from my ever slim girlfriends..eat a meal or a good sized snack with a bit of fat and protein at about 5-6..then you are not so hungry when those hi cal low food value hors d'oeuvres are being passed around and you can pick and choose which you want being already a bit full 2 sticks of celery with a really high quality sugar free tablespoon of peanut butter is great for this as it is very filling and while fatty the fat is "good" fat 
2. Make your first cocktail Water!..yes and the second and third too if you can..wine is fine in moderation but it is harder to be moderate after we imbibe
3. Always cook a bit more of anything you cook than you need. Save the rest for later either to make another thing out of it or for another meal later. I am still eating the turkey stew I made after thanksgiving that is frozen in one person portions and ready to go when I am casting about for something to eat
4. Portion Control everything! but especially treat foods. Stick to your healthy eating plan as much as you can and drink more water!
5. Savour tiny amounts of treat foods. Denying yourself all these treats all the time will build up too much pent up demand. 
6. Use smaller plates and teaspoons instead of soup spoons
7. Focus on what you are eating..it counts if you are talking, standing walking, it all counts. If you look at, chew or drink slowly and smell the food, your body will register much better the whole experience. If you gobble it and ignore that you are actually eating you won't have experienced the fullness of the experience, nor will you feel full..try a food meditation!
8. front load the carbs..have your carbs for breakfast, lunch..that's it! Never..or almost never for dinner. My favorite comfort dinner? Pasta and red wine!!! could anything ruin a diet more??? So its a once a month or less treat
9. Eat early when possible..It may be socially difficult but when it is not its the best plan..
10. Dance! Vigorously! It uses calories!

Pepper Onion and Ricotta Omelette

Follow the instructions from the 3/17/2010 post for making a fluffy egg white omelette . Fill with the cooked peppers and onions posted on  11/22/2010 post..add dollops of part-skim ricotta and salt and pepper. Serve alone or with a slice of canadian bacon or turkey bacon.

Haven't been posting..here we go again!

I am as you may know blogging to keep to a good healthy plan of eating..and while I have  not been blogging much lately I have continued to stay on the plan and now intend to add all the things I have been cooking and eating..Happily I have lost 10 pounds on my diet and lowered my blood pressure considerably!
So dear readers..Thanks for your patience and I look forward to your comments and ideas in the coming months!

An Informative Article on Inflammatory and Anti-inflammatory Effects of Foods

The day after Thanksgiving my tiny bit of arthritis in my thumb joint was painful for the first time in months. Could it have been the inflammatory nature of the foods? Maybe..but either way this article was quite informative.

http://nutrition.about.com/od/dietsformedicaldisorders/a/antiinflamfood.htm

Turkey Stew from Leftovers

If you have a lot of things in the frig and some meat or poultry this is a method to re-use all those leftovers.
Seasoning it depends on what you have and is often best as a trial and error process.

Here is what I started with. Left overs in my refrigerator were: carrot and celery sticks from an open house at the shop. a small amount of sauteed onions, sauteed leeks and sauteed bell peppers, turkey. So here is what I did. Chopped the carrots and celery and added chopped onion, added salt and pepper. Sauteed all in a bit of olive oil. When softened I added a chopped red bell pepper. (if I had some mushrooms I would have added them too) Then I added in the leeks, onions and red peppers that were previously sauteed. As it browned a bit I tossed in some WhiteVermouth to deglaze the pot, ( could have used water wine or chicken broth). Next I added the turkey that I had cut into cubes, then a small amount of tomato paste from the refrigerator and a can of peeled italian plum tomatoes, crushed. I put in some parsley from the terrace and a bit of tarragon. After tasting and thinking it needed something I added a bit of ground cloves. Finally at the end I added a bag of frozen peas from the freezer. At this point It is a turkey stew, which could be covered with an number of crusts or bisquit dough. I made a corn bread to accompany and took it to a pot luck supper with my high school friends. There was enough left over to package into individual tupperware containers that I froze for future meals. If you have left over steak or pot roast this can work too. I dont thicken with flour as it is less fattening to use a bit of tomato paste or nothing at all and just reduce the liquid a bit. You could also add cubed potatoes or cooked dried beans to this and even some wilted dark leafy greens for a different version.

Chicoria or Dandelion Greens

Cicoria is found throughout Italy. It is sometimes dandelion greens and sometimes a type of chickory I can't seem to source here in New York. It is Delicious!! It is also good for you loaded with vitamin A.  Best of all it is simple to cook. I buy it at whole foods.

Plunge in a sink of cold water pumping up and down to rid it of sand. Then boil two large bunches of dandelion greens and when softened..maybe 5 or 10 minutes dump into a colander and spray with a bit of cold water to stop it from cooking.

When it is handleable take small hand fulls at a time and squeeze out all the water you can.

Take the little lumps of greens and chop roughly. Dress with tasty olive oil and sprinkle with lemon. Salt and pepper, I like red pepper flakes instead of black pepper with this. Serve

..Should yield about 4 or 5 good servings.

Here is the link to its nutrional content:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2442/2


Another version of cooked dandelion greens can be found at the following link http://italicious.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/cicoria-saltata-in-padella/

Sauteed Peppers and Sauteed Onions for Strategic Cooking

While you are finishing your morning coffee in the am you can prepare some sauteed vegetables for later use. This prepping will speed up your cooking during the week. In the next few posts I will show what I did with these.

Sauteed Peppers
Slice one red, one green, one yellow pepper.

Heat over medium high heat a T of olive oil in a large cast iron pan and toss in  the peppers. Mix occasionally and after it begins to soften, lower heat, cover and cook till softened. If it starts to dry drizzle in a little water and toss. Cool then place in containers in the frig for later use.

Follow the above recipe for onions. Take four medium or two large..slice thinly.. cook til golden but not burned..keep heat a bit higher than for the peppers and cook uncovered adding water if needed to keep it from sticking. Keep in frig for future use.

If I am making braised leeks I always use the greens. I clean the leeks as Julia Child instructs..you make a vertical slice through the greens down to the white, turn the leek a quarter turn and slice again..then under running water, hold the leek parallel to the floor of the sink not vertical to the running water which would press the sand further into the leek. Carefully open the slice, leaf by leaf, and sift out the sand under the water, turn and do again til all the grit is gone.
Then I cut across the leek a little into the green part near where it meets the white. What remains is the white with a small amount of green at the end and the green.

Simply cut the green into pieces and saute as you did the peppers and onions.

I can use this in soups or as a part of something else. I used the leek greens in egg white omelettes as a quick filling. With the rest of the leek I made braised leeks.

Store each sauteed vegetable for use later on in covered containers in the refrigerator.

nutritional content of peppers:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2537/2

nutritional content of onions:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2502/2

nutrional content of leeks:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2471/2