Taste Test - Amy's Brown Rice & Vegetable Bowl

It was one of those days when I had to work several hours straight on a
writing assignment and suddenly I realized (via the computer clock and the
growling stomach) that it was lunchtime. I went to the freezer in the garage
(always filled with eclectic food items) and found a new food product I had
been wanting to try AMY'S BROWN RICE & VEGETABLE BOWL (Light in Sodium).

I popped it into the microwave and 5 minutes later, I had a very vegetarian
looking (not that there is anything wrong with that) 250 calorie entree in
front of me. It looked good to me, but I wanted to add some cheddar cheese
to it (which would still work for lacto-vegetarians). I'm not sure what
inspired this, but the combination was delicious.

I don't know about you but I am always looking for an easy way to work in
those whole grains, vegetables, and soy products, and this product has all three! If you can't find Amy's in your supermarket, you can try Whole Foods or go to their website).

Here's the nutrition information (without the cheese):
1 bowl

Calories-250
Protein-9 g
Carbohydrate-36 g
Fat-8 g
Saturated fat-1 g
Trans fat-0 g
Cholesterol-0 mg
Fiber-5 g
Sodium-250 mg
Vitamin A-100%
Vitamin C-35%
Calcium-8%
Iron-10%

Let us all know if you've found a vegetarian product that you like too!

~Elaine

Related Topics: Part-Time Vegetarian, 10 Tips for Meatless Meals

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Do You Hate Making Pie Crust

Maybe it's the "cutting in" of the featured fat ingredient, maybe it's all that rolling that you have to do to get the pie crust dough just right...but for some reason I loathe making pie crust. I also hate doing anything culinary that involves a candy thermometer (but that's another blog). I've even bought already-made pie crust at certain times (knowing the trans fat and fat totals were probably shockingly high) just to get out of making it.

My mom used to make an awesome pie crust that uses oil instead of shortening, butter, or margarine, and I've been playing with her recipe over the months. Of course, I've been trying to use part whole wheat flour and take the amount of oil down as far as I can to make it as light in calories as it is flaky.

And by jove, I think I have finally got it! It actually tasted so good that I found myself eating the raw crust dough straight from the bowl...always a good sign. I thought I would share my recipe with you all---keep in mind though, that the crust is part whole wheat and lower in fat so it will be a pie crust that boasts a brown color and a slightly tougher texture than your typical pie crust. I really liked it though-I especially liked that I could pat the dough by hand straight into my pan (no rolling required).

LIGHT [NO ROLLING REQUIRED] CANOLA PIE CRUST (WITH FIBER)

Makes 1, 9-inch deep dish single pie crust

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lite pancake syrup
5 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons lowfat buttermilk

Preparation:
1. Add flours and salt to medium size bowl and blend well with electric mixer (on LOW).
2. Add the pancake syrup and canola oil to mixing bowl and beat on low speed until the mixture looks blended and crumbly. Pour in the buttermilk and mix on low speed just until the dough is moist and holds together well (about 15 seconds). Stir in a teaspoon or two more buttermilk if the dough seems a little too dry.
3. Using your hands, press dough evenly into your deep dish pie plate. If the dough is a little thicker around the pie plate rim, you can pinch the dough into scallops or make the rim double thickness and press it with a fork around the circle, as desired.
4. Proceed with your recipe for baking. If you need a prebaked pie crust, preheat the oven to 375-degrees, poke the crust several times with a fork, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Per serving (if 12 servings): 111 calories, 2 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (.5 g saturated fat, 3.5 g monounsaturated fat, 1.8 g polyunsaturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 151 mg sodium.

Mmmm Pie!

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Know What is Heart Healthy to Keep in Your Kitchen, Smart Substitutions

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Irritable About My IBS?

Not! I could have worse conditions handed to me by my ancestors. This one
happens to come to me courtesy of my mother's side of the family. She has
IBS and from the sound of it, her father had IBS too. I have the type of IBS
where constipation is NOT a word in my vocabulary - even when 9-months
pregnant. That's right, I have what they call "diarrhea predominant" IBS. I
call it "never far from a toilet" syndrome.

It used to be a real drag, but I learned rather quickly what works and
doesn't work when I'm in situations where I need a little over the
counter help (from my friend, Imodium AD), like when I'm traveling or going through an extra stressful time. One of my other vulnerable times is when I eat out at parties or restaurants and may be eating foods richer than my gastric constitution is used to. Even then, I've figured out what to order and avoid to keep myself on track.

Writing the book, TELL ME WHAT TO EAT IF I HAVE IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, helped a lot too. I wrote it for all three types of IBS (constipation predominant IBS, diarrhea predominant IBS and the type that has both constipation and diarrhea.)

But after figuring out what my personal IBS triggers are and learning the "ins" and "outs" of IBS (pardon the pun), I have been doing great.

The good news is that IBS doesn't increase your risk of colon cancer and it
usually doesn't get worse as time goes on like many other conditions.
Knowledge is power and the more you know about IBS, the better off you'll
be. Check out this Eating With IBS video I did for WebMD and tell me what you think.

~~Elaine

Related Topics: IBS: Herbal Help?, Quiz: Could you have IBS?

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It's All About the Cheese

Not a day goes by that I don't enjoy a morsel or two of cheese. Maybe it's my 100% Dutch genetics kicking in (Holland is a big cheese producer); maybe it's my body craving calcium since I'm not a big milk drinker. Whatever the case, I ALWAYS have several types of cheese in my refrigerator. I always have reduced fat Jack cheese and reduced fat sharp cheddar in the cheese drawer of my fridge (because I make Mexican meals often). And I always have part-skim mozzarella and Parmesan cheese all shredded and ready to go (because I cook quick Italian cuisine more often than I do Mexican).

Yes, it's true; cheese is a source of fat, cholesterol and more importantly saturated fat. The biggest contributor of saturated fat and cholesterol in the American diet is the meat group (including beef, processed meats, eggs, poultry and other meats), with the milk group as the number two contributor (including cream and cheese).

But on the plus side, cheese is a great source of animal protein and calcium (two nutrients many of us need more of).

Just two ounces of a reduced fat cheese a day will give you about 40-50% of the daily value for calcium and around 15 grams of protein for an investment of only 160 to 180 calories.

Two ounces of regular cheese will give you about the same amount of calcium and protein but the calorie and fat price tag will be a bit steeper"
* 228 calories (compared to 160-180)
* 19 grams of fat (compared to 10 to 12 grams)
* 12 grams of saturated fat (compared to 8)
* 50 to 60 milligrams of cholesterol (compared to 30-40 milligrams)

So now that we've established that there is a place of honor for cheese in a healthy diet, how do we use cheese in recipes when we are trying to trim down and eat less fat and saturated fat? Well, you've got lots of choices here folks. Here are 6 Recipe Doctor Cheese Tips:

CHEESE TIP #1 - Two Ways To Cut The Fat & Calories
Way #1--You can cut the fat and calories from cheese in half by still using regular fat cheese but adding half the amount called for in the recipe. (But note that the protein and calcium will also be cut in half.)

Way #2 --Or you can use the same amount of cheese called for in recipes but switch to a reduced fat cheese that tastes good and melts well. The calories will decrease by 30%, the fat grams by about 40%, and the saturated fat by a third! But the calcium and protein will still be high.

CHEESE TIP #2 - When Real Cheese Counts!
There are situations certainly when a particular type of cheese is needed for the recipe and a reduced fat version is not available--like is the case with Parmesan cheese or Brie. In these types of recipes, I tend to use the real cheese, sometimes I might use less, and I will usually always cut back on fat and saturated fat in other steps and ingredients of the recipe.

CHEESE TIP #3 - High Flavor Cheese To The Rescue!
Switch to a high flavor cheese so you can use less. This is a technique I use when I can't use a reduced fat cheese in a particular recipe. Some high flavor cheeses that come to mind are:
--Parmesan and Romano cheeses
--Any smoked cheese
--Blue cheese or gorgonzola (or other pungent tasting cheese)
--Extra sharp cheddar
--Goat cheese or feta cheese

CHEESE TIP #4 - Sprinkle, Don't Smother.
There's no reason to smother your dish with blankets of cheese. Often recipes call for the final step in a casserole or mixed dish to be a blanket of cheese on top. A sprinkle can do the trick just as well...I'm talking about a cup and a half of shredded cheese to cover a 9 x 13-inch baking dish instead of 3 cups.

CHEESE TIP #5 - Pair Cheese With Healthy Food Partners.
Since cheese is a source of saturated fat, try to pair it with lower fat and higher fiber food partners such as pears, pasta, whole grains, beans, even vegetables instead of butter, high fat crackers or pastries, or high fat meats like salami or sausage.

CHEESE TIP #6 - Fat Free Cheese May Not Please
I've personally never tasted a fat free cheese that I've liked so if you are looking to find one, proceed with caution. It isn't going to melt like real cheese or taste like real cheese...it just isn't. The brands I've tasted are more on the order of...well...plastic. I've learned over the years that there is a line that manufacturers can cross, when taking the fat out of food ingredients, where they have gone too far. The fat free food has very little in common chemically and aesthetically with the original food ingredient. Fat free margarine any one?

After all this talk about cheese, I'm going to have one of my favorite afternoon snacks (Jarlsberg Lite cheese).

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Vegetarian Taco Salad, Macaroni & Cheese

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Egg Salad Week

That's right, Egg Salad Week is April 17th-23rd (so I've been told). Wow...who knew!

Some of us are spring weather egg salad eaters (we only enjoy it around Easter, when hard boiled eggs abound) and some of use eat egg salad year round. I'm the former and I'm not sure why. I like egg salad but I guess it takes a little extra planning to boil those eggs.

There is a way to lighten egg salad in case you are interested. Do this and you cut the fat and cholesterol and saturated fat in more than HALF! You'll shave off over 100 calories (just on one serving of the egg salad). But it still tastes terrific. Here"s what the Recipe Doctor does:

I remove half of the yolks (there seems to still be plenty of yellow when you do this)

I use the higher omega-3 eggs

I use half light mayo and half fat free sour cream instead of real mayo

I add some crunch to the egg salad with finely chopped celery, red bell peppers and/or green onions

Enjoy your egg salad on something healthful like some whole wheat bread, or whole wheat crackers!

Now let's all start boiling some eggs - or raid the Easter baskets!

~~Elaine Magee

Related Topics: Eggs: Dietary Friend or Foe?, The Truth About Chocolate

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Spring Cleaning? NOT! More Like Spring Planting

I've been asked to blog about my personal spring cleaning experiences. Pardon me for laughing out loud but I'm not the sort of person who actually has spring cleaning experiences. I fantasize about calling up one of those cleaning services and ordering the "spring cleaning special" where they whip through your house like a fast moving tornado. Does that count as an experience?

I don't really clean on a schedule, I clean when I have to and that's when my husband complains loudly enough and/or I have guests visiting.

The one thing I do do in Spring though is make my annual pilgrimage to the plant store and buy an abundance of my favorite herbs. I then proceed to fill up my two beloved herb pots.

Basil is a big favorite. Basil always gets the place of honor on the top of the herb pot. Have you seen those herb pots that have the top open and then little pockets around the pot where you plant more herbs? They come in terra cotta and in all sorts of colors if you're lucky.

We also start our tomato plants in Spring. Garden tomatoes are a must at my house. We love Italian food and garden salads and sandwiches (all requiring tomatoes) and somehow the tomatoes you grow in your backyard totally rock compared to even the "vine ripened" tomatoes you buy in the supermarket.

Is there anything else you all do in Spring (besides spring cleaning?) Does anybody else plant herbs each spring?

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Table of Condiments, Give Your Pantry a Healthy Makeover

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Couch Potatoes

Can't live with it, can't live without it...I'm not talking about men (although the thought does occur to me at times). I'm talking about the darn TV. How did television become such a pivotal part of our entertainment and lives?

I have a few shows I look forward to each week and faithfully watch (Everwood, Gilmore Girls...to name two). I catch Grey's Anatomy every now and then and for some reason my girls and I are hooked on this season's American Idol (go Ace, Chris, and Catherine!) Okay, that's more than a few...but I'm guessing it's still less TV viewing than your average American.

The reason I bring this up is because TV viewing, when excessive, in my opinion can contribute to poor health. One of my favorite government researchers just released a study she did on "TV-viewing characteristics of Adults: Correlations to Eating Practices and Overweight and Health Status." As you might imagine, Dr. Shanthy A. Bowman, PhD, found that more than 2 hours of television viewing per day was associated with a high mean body mass index and overweight or obesity in both men and women alike. No gender is safe!

Other characteristics associated with watching more than 2 hours of television per day were being 50 years of age or older, having a high school education or less, living in a household with income below 131% of the federal poverty level, and not being employed.

Here's the part that related to my field...
***Adults who watched more than 2 hours of television per day had high intakes of energy and macronutrients and were more likely to be overweight.
***They also obtained more energy from snacks and supper.

Have you watched your 2 hours today?

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Couch Potato Kids Pack on the Pounds, Obesity Epidemic Balloons to New Girth

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Supporting Laurie's Weight Loss Challenge

One of our WebMD health professional bloggers, (Go Nurses Go!), is part of an inter-hospital weight loss challenge. She wants to do her part to help her team win-and can you blame her?

My advice to her is that she absolutely CAN enjoy her food and work toward weight loss and improved health! If late night eating is her trouble time for needless snacking then planning some late night alternative activities is the way to go.

Also...I invite her to check out my blog on liquid calories in case this gives her some new ways to trim needless calories off of her daily total.

Here's another incentive from one health professional to another...When you hit the 5 pound mark (for weight loss), let me know and I'll make sure you receive a copy of my latest cookbook, COMFORT FOOD MAKEOVERS...(healthful versions of all of our favorite comfort foods).

You can do it!

~Elaine

Related Topics: 10 Ways to Help a Loved One Lose Weight, Losing Weight for Good: Internet May Help

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