HomeMadeHealthy Episode 6: It’s BACON!

Being a healthy eater sometimes means words like “salt,” “cream of” and “bacon” are eradicated from your vocabulary. Well not with HomeMade Healthy! For this episode we are delivering a loaded soup made to satisfy your taste buds in the coldest of winters. Enjoy!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Serving Size: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Calories: 295
Ingredients:

Baked Potatoes (12 oz), cut into 4ths
¼ Cup Chopped Onion
2 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 ½ cup 1% milk (organic or smart balance)
½ cup fat-free half and half
1 tablespoon Wondra
¼ cup low fat sour cream
4 slices low sodium bacon
1 cup reduced 2% Milk cheddar cheese
½ cup sliced scallions

Directions

In a medium pot, boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes.  Heat the olive oil in a pan; add onion and garlic, and sauté until soft.  Add in the half and half, milk gently stir and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add the Wondra flour and whisk to incorporate.  Mix in the cheddar cheese.  Chop the potatoes in cubes, mashing slightly.  Add them to the mixture and gently stir. While this simmers for about 15 minutes, cook the bacon.  Dice the scallions into medium-thin rounds.  Top the soup with sour cream, bacon, and scallions

Light Salad:

Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total Calories: 90
Ingredients:

1 bag field greens
1 pear
1 oz cup dried cranberries
8 Tablespoons fat-free vinaigrette

Place about 1 cup of field greens on a plate.  Top with three slices of pears and about ½ oz of dried cranberries.  Pour two tablespoons of fat-free vinaigrette, raspberry or red wine are recommended.

HomeMade Healthy Episode 5: Falling In Love with Food– A Valentine’s Day Special

Ah Valentine’s Day, such a fickle hallmark holiday. While some of us are basking in the glory of love and ready to shower their significant other in chocolate galore, others are planning to loose themselves to the bottom of the ice cream pint. Either way, we at THICKthin say halt! Here is a quick easy way to to delight your taste buds and fall in love with healthy food all over again! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Covered Clementines

Calories: 60 per two sqares of melted chocolate (about 5 pieces)
Ingredients:

2 clementines
Melting Chocolate

Directions:

Melt the chocolate and dip about half of a clementine slice in the chocolate.  Repeat.  Let cool on parchment or wax paper for about 1 hour.

Chicken Florentine

Serving Size: 2
Bake Time: 40 minutes
Oven Temp: 350
Calories: 200 per stuffed chicken
Ingredients:

2 Pieces Chicken, pounded thin
1 Bag Fresh Spinach
½ Cup Fat-Free Ricotta
½ tablespoon Garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon Shallots (minced)
Dash Spices (oregano, basil, parsley)
Dash Pepper

Directions:

Pound the chicken until very thin, using a metal meat pound (or a hammer if you don’t have one, but be careful not to tear the chicken).  Next, cook the spinach until  wilted, not overdone.  Mix ½ cup ricotta with the garlic, shallots, spices, and pepper.  In a medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta mixture with the spinach.  Place about half of the mixture on each chicken breast.  Roll the chicken breast up and secure with toothpicks. Take out the toothpicks and serve!

White sauce:
Serving Size: 2
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Calories: 50 per 1/4 of the sauce
Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup chicken broth (add more as needed)
3 tablespoons Wondra

Directions:

Make a rue by whisking wondra into the chicken broth slowly.  Add in the can of cream of mushroom soup very slowly.  Continually whisk until all of the soup is added and the mixture is smooth.  You will have extra sauce.

Sorta’ HomeMade Healthy…

Unfortunately, this week proved to be impossible for us to create the next episode of HomeMade Healthy due to personal reasons, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking of you all! Well you and my ever-hungry stomach…

My mix

I was thumbing through the  January 2011 issue of Family Circle when I came across a recipe on pg 137. It was a “healthy” chocolate chip cookie recipe loaded with nuts and tiny morsels. The idea was that using less chips and smaller-sized cookies counted for fewer calories whilst still being satisfying. I practically swung the kitchen door open and exulted in rapturous glory. You may not remember, but I once proclaimed myself a cookie-holic. The seven steps haven’t begun working for me yet.

I get artsy sometimes

So, in honor of Joe who feared that my dieting would cause me to never bake cookies again and in honor of my guilty pleasure I got myself the necessary ingredients to make these mini-delights.

I am not a huge fan of anything but chocolate in my cookies, to I nixed the nuts and poured less morsels in. I simply followed the directions on the Nestle mini-morsels packet, but instead of making full sized cookies I cooked tiny dollops up to cut calories and increase cookie amounts. I also cut out the salt, something us Gordons have always done come cookie baking time

Tiny dollup sized cookies ready to bake

I have a whole theory on the perfect amount cookies to consume in a sitting. Ever since I was a kid, I got 3 cookies at a time to dip in milk. When I was able to reach the cabinet I would open the package, pull out 3 and pop one really quickly as if it wouldn’t count. The pop-able amount increased, along with my waistline.

My smaller cookies and new attitude created a whole different cookie eating experience. The smaller bites at slower intervals helped me feel fuller faster as well satisfied for half the calories due to the cookies size.

Can you say "yum?"

Healthiest recipe ever? No. A sensible twist on a comforting old favorite? Hell yes.

Demonizing cookies won’t make my cravings any better, but eating them more intelligently will.

More Veggies, please

I have a huge issue with vegetables. I can only eat them, and certain ones at that, raw. The rest are on my “do not ever touch, ever, list.”

“Laur, want some peas?” my mother asks me at the dinner table. She can barely keep a straight face as she inches that bowl of disgusting green slop towards my plate.

“You’re hilarious,” I retort, scrunching my nose in disapproval.

“Well how about some cooked carrots…” she adds more seriously, picking up the plate to pass.

“C’mon Mom, you know I can only eat those raw! When they are cooked they are so mushy…” I am practically quivering at the thought of that texture in my mouth.

“Well these are honey glazed, try them,” she insists.

“No thank you, ” I kindly reply.

“Lauren, just try one,” evidently irritated by her tone of voice.

“Ma’ I said no thank you,” I say more firmly.

“Lauren just…” she begins

“NO!!!!” I whine/bellow.

“What are you, 5?!?! Try a damn carrot!!’

“UGH, FINE!” I finally spit back, reluctantly reaching to grab the tiniest taste. I brace myself and bite…”oh wow, this isn’t bad!”

My mom fittingly rolls her eyes.

I wish I could tell you this didn’t happen last week at dinner, but then I’d be a big liar. For a big girl, I can be very picky about what I eat. If it doesn’t look familiar in some way, I want nothing to do with it. Ever since starting HomeMade Healthy with Megan, my taste buds are slowly expanding, mostly do to her amazing skills as a cook. But sometimes for me, veggies are just not in the “doable” category.

The CDC actually has some unique tips on how to add more fruits and vegetables into your daily routine, subtly. Check out my favs:

Breakfast: Start the Day Right

• Substitute some spinach, onions, or mushrooms for one of the eggs or half of the cheese in your morning omelet. The vegetables will add volume and flavor to the dish with fewer calories than the egg or cheese.
• Cut back on the amount of cereal in your bowl to make room for some cut-up bananas, peaches, or strawberries. You can still eat a full bowl, but with fewer calories.

Lighten Up Your Lunch

• Substitute vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, or onions for 2 ounces of the cheese and 2 ounces of the meat in your sandwich, wrap, or burrito. The new version will fill you up with fewer calories than the original.
• Add a cup of chopped vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, beans, or red peppers, in place of 2 ounces of the meat or 1 cup of noodles in your favorite broth-based soup. The vegetables will help fill you up, so you won’t miss those extra calories.

Dinner

• Add in 1 cup of chopped vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes, squash, onions, or peppers, while removing 1 cup of the rice or pasta in your favorite dish. The dish with the vegetables will be just as satisfying but have fewer calories than the same amount of the original version.
• Take a good look at your dinner plate. Vegetables, fruit, and whole grains should take up the largest portion of your plate. If they do not, replace some of the meat, cheese, white pasta, or rice with legumes, steamed broccoli, asparagus, greens, or another favorite vegetable. This will reduce the total calories in your meal without reducing the amount of food you eat. BUT remember to use a normal- or small-size plate — not a platter. The total number of calories that you eat counts, even if a good proportion of them come from fruits and vegetables.

Weekly Losses

When dieting, you tend to focus on numbers more than ever. You develop a love/hate relationship with inanimate objects, like food and your scale. The calorie counting, the weight watching, you are constantly running numbers in your head, comparing with your work out buddy… it is absolutely consuming. Not to mention, it can be depressing at times, especially when you don’t loose the weight you want to in your weekly weigh in. “Only 2 lbs?!,” you gasp in shocked horror. You did everything right: you worked out, you didn’t even sneak 20 calories over your limit and you even skipped the recreational beer this weekend just to stay on track. You should have lost 5–no wait 7– lbs at the very least, right? Wrong.

According to several websites, including this one, it is completely normal– and healthy– to be loosing roughly 3 lbs a week. Multiply that by 4 weeks, and your inching off 12lbs a month! By the time June hits I could be down rough 50 lbs, just by eating right and staying realistic.This is something I can live with, though it took me a while to get to a more calm point.

Loosing up to 5 lbs in the first week doesn’t help when you see the number go down significantly the second week, but that is normal according to the article. The key is not to focus so much on the quantity of weight your loosing but the quality way you are loosing it. Eating less is certainly important, but no so much if you aren’t eating enough to the point where you are passing out and becoming emaciated. Deprivation is not the way to go, no matter what weight loss plan you’re on.

I am learning that slow and steady wins the race, and is certainly a more realistic way to reach a goal then panicking over numbers. The weight loss will come as long as I/we stick to the program! Happily, I’ve lost 3 lbs since my last weigh in, so instead of beating myself up, I am going to revel in that 3 lbs and keep on trucking.