Too Many Holiday Treats to Eat Dinner?!

With a day of baking sugar cookies and making holiday fudge and other treats, some people find themselves in the late afternoon having sampled too many of the goodies along the way. (My Mom used to call spatulas “child cheaters” since it left less in the bowl for us to lick.)

Come 5-6-7 pm, it is time for dinner and with having sampled ones way through the day we: a) don’t NEED any more calories, and b) just aren’t HUNGRY!

But before writing off dinner altogether, we have to have a strategy that will prevent us from venturing back to the kitchen to nibble on another “tiny” bite of fudge or just a small cookie before bed.

It’s a tough thing, and this tends go against some conventional dietitian wisdom, but we want to make sure things start out “right” tomorrow. We need to eat a balanced “dinner” or light snack tonight, and do it at a reasonable hour.

If you have eaten too much sugar today, you will likely not feel your best tomorrow to start out right. Tomorrow will be the day to start all over (not next week, or New Years Day, tomorrow), so to head off any sugar hangover or headache, we need to make sure it is balanced out today.

To help out, have some protein and whole grains for dinner. If your calories went too high from the snacking, definitely go with something “light,” but balanced – between 250 – 400 calories.

Remember too many calories today won’t lead to overall weight gain. It is too many calories over many days, consistently, that will lead to weight gain.

Even though this dinner or snack is going to put you over your daily calories some more, keep this in mind over the next couple of days, and don’t over sugar yourself again – and really watch the calories over the next several days. Keep the calories in line for you and a bit under (exercise helps here).

Here are some ideas for the light snack/dinner:

• Light or nonfat yogurt with a tablespoon each of wheat germ and chopped nuts (you can add fruit if you wish).


• Half to whole sandwich: peanut butter (1-2 Tb.) and jelly/honey or lean turkey (1 oz.) with mustard on whole wheat bread.


• Any kind of bean soup and toast – if you are lucky enough to have any leftover homemade have that! I do so love the classic Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup. However, there are so many soups out there now that is easy to keep in the pantry – any of them are good. I just recommend the bean soups since they are full of healthy protein. Choose the lower sodium versions when available (since sodium will aid in fluid retention).

These are a few small suggestions to balance the baking binges, should you find yourself a “victim” – whether they are light baking recipes or not…

Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well. And balance the unintentional sugar binges with light healthy foods too!

Holiday Baking at My House

For some of us it is part of the holiday tradition to bake. Fudge and sugar cookies and pies – which can easily add up to a LOT of calories if the baking is for just you and your family.

I have two rules when it comes to making my holiday treats:

1. I give my baking treats away as gifts, in small amounts (about 5 cookies per person).


2. I use mostly Cooking Light recipes for my cookies, bars, pies and cakes.

There are two exceptions to this rule: a family fudge recipe (which I have switched to non-fat evaporated milk) and sugar cookies. My family insists on them, and I love them too.

Using the Cooking Light recipes doesn’t mean we can get away with eating more cookies and treats, but it helps me ensure that the cookies are at least a bit healthier than their original counterparts, by being either lower in calories or lower in saturated fat from what the “traditional” recipe would be.

When it comes to making the recipes, another thing we must remember is the serving sizes! One (new) recipe I made yesterday was Chocolate, Cherry and Hazelnut Biscotti. The recipe made 2-dozen cookies/biscotto. When it can to cutting the dough into the 24 pieces the cookies come out smaller than what we are used to. Once they were all finished, I could tell why they needed to come out that size: they are rich and the small size is just right.

This years baking day I made four different cookies and a batch of bars! The above mentioned biscotti (94 calories), Chocolate Shortbread, Lemon Shortbread, Brown Sugar Shortbread (each of which are ~75 calories per cookie), and some Cranberry-Oatmeal Bars (135 calories). Each of these recipes made 24 pieces, and if I give my 10 friends/co-workers two pieces of each item (to share with her family), then really, there is very little left in my home!

This is how the baking at my house works – I bake it to go!

Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well and share!

Super Fast and Super Good Dinner Tonight: “Barbecued” Chicken-and-Black Bean Burritos

Tonight I had to make dinner super fast. I got home at 5:20 and my kiddo needed to be in bed, or heading to bed, by 6:00 – 6:30. He works for UPS loading the package cars, and is currently starting work at 3 am, meaning he is up at 2:30 so he can eat breakfast before work. Yes, he CAN make dinner on his own, but he had arrived home at only 5:15 himself, and we like to eat together at least a few times a week.

Anyhow, this dinner is one of my favorites, and in my mind, a Cooking Light Classic. I use Cooking Light recipes almost exclusively. I’m not creative enough to make my own recipes, so I trust Cooking Light to do the “work” for me. I’ve been a subscriber to the magazine for 10 years, and have the Annual Recipes cookbooks since 2000, along with a few others.

This recipe, "Barbecue" Chicken-and-Black Bean Burritos, which can be accessed from the Cooking Light website, makes four servings and has 460 calories per serving when made as directed. Add a serving fruit as a side and it is a perfect meal in my opinion. But then, any meal that is done in 30 minutes and is filling, healthy AND tastes good is “perfect” in my book.

It does call for four 10-inch flour tortillas; it is a burrito after all. Despite being from New Mexico, I choose the Mission brand 96% fat free “heart healthy” whole wheat tortillas. These have 140 calories per tortilla, 2 g fat, 0.5 g sat fat (compared to 210 calories, 5 g fat, and 2 g sat fat in their regular 10-inch flour tortillas). Any place that we can cut calories and fat and add some whole grain is great!

Sometimes we have just three burritos and have some leftover “barbecue” chicken-and-black beans. It’s a great lunch the next day without the tortilla too, and even more calorie savings.

Hope you enjoy the recipe and you Eat Well, Live Well, and Be Well.

Rinse and Drain – Please!

Of all the “talks” I had as a parent to a child, I though we had covered everything with our 18 year old son:

• No drinking and driving, it is illegal, and you are underage. Check.
• Don’t do drugs, they are illegal. Check.
• Don’t have unprotected sex, always use a condom. Check.
• Don’t get those credit cards at school, they could ruin your credit. Check.
  

What did I miss? It seems that Dad and I covered it all the "important" things in life.

Nope - missed one! And I discovered it tonight. For dinner tonight he made one of the perennial favorites of a first year college student: spaghetti with meat sauce. And he had started it before I left work and it was nearly ready upon my arrival home.

Unfortunately, as I check in at the kitchen I could tell right away I had failed miserably in one of my parenting-teaching-cooking tasks when I looked at the skillet that held the meat sauce. To my horror I could see the oil slick – the ever so slight layer of fat on the top of that otherwise healthy tomato sauce. And there was nothing I could do! I grabbed a paper towel in an attempt to blot the oil, but was just absorbing the lycopene and wasting paper towels!

Luckily, I had, as always, purchased the extra lean ground beef, the 93% kind. Some people believe that anything less is acceptable – 85%? 90%? Not in my house! At least not when I’m doing the shopping!

But still there was that 7% fat and I just couldn’t have that saturated fat invading my body or be responsible for it corrupting the body of my family! You see, I always drain the meat, place it in a colander and rinse it with hot water, and squeeze it dry with paper towels. I also wipe the skillet with another paper towel before returning the ground beef to the pan warming it back up and adding the sauce.

How much does this help our health? I don't know for sure, but it is less fat, and less saturated fat, and allows us to have a little more in other places another time. Or not.

The men in my household don’t see the point of this ritual. My husband will at least drain (at least when I’m around). Unfortunately my son has not been taught. My son cooks the meat (at least until there is no pink), and then adds the sauce! No draining! No rinsing! If he had at least drained! If he had skipped the rinsing, I could bear it, but definitely drain!

I must implore parents to teach their children, don’t drink, no drugs, use condoms, beware of the credit cards – and if you are going to eat ground beef, go with the lean stuff and please, please drain it! Buy your child a good colander for college!

Eat Well, Live Well and Be Well and drain well too...

Thanksgiving Tradeoffs…

On the fourth Thursday in November we in the United States do something that is so… American. We have a holiday set aside to celebrate the abundance of food. And while we are far from the 1600’s and a good percentage of us BUY our food for this holiday, and have done nothing to grow it ourselves (of course with a few exceptions), it is safe to say that most will be eating far more than what the Pilgrims and Indians ate at the first Thanksgiving celebrations.

So, while I try my best to not throw cold water on most celebrations, I offer up several tradeoffs on the Thanksgiving traditions and encourage families to adopt new ones.

1. If you have not already kicked off the eating season nearly a month ago with Halloween, you are surely about to start now. So, I always encourage people to “go easy” on Wednesday and Friday (and even Saturday and Sunday). This means, lighten up on your “normal” calorie intake on these 2-4 days to allow for the excess calories you will inevitably consume on Thursday.


2. Go for that Turkey Trot or any other activity on Thursday morning. Check out active.com and look for a local event and sign up for a 5K run or walk. Any little bit helps. Not in the mood to fork out $20-$30 for a run? Then do it on your own! I see so many people on the trails around my house on Thanksgiving morning, you would think there was an event in my own neighborhood.


3. Eat breakfast. So many people skip breakfast thinking that it will be a tradeoff for all the calories they will be eating later in the day. The problem is they are so hungry by mid-morning or noon, they have snacked through the appetizers, are snatching up the skin, and you definitely don’t want them carving the turkey! There won’t be any left for you. Eat breakfast, and you will feel just fine for the meal later in the day. If you have a late Thanksgiving dinner (4 pm or later) then think about a light lunch as well. A hungry person makes poor choices.


4. Appetizers – a meal before the meal. What appetizers do you have? Chips and salsa/queso? Shrimp cocktail? Cheese and crackers? Veggies with dip? All of these are ok (the veggies are great, it’s the dip that can be calorie laden 2 Tb. = 120 calories!), but be careful in that you don’t consume 1,000 calories of snacks before you sit down to eat!


5. Alcohol is loaded with calories and can easily be overdone. Regular beer is 150 calories per 12-ounces (less in light beer, 110 calories). Wine is around 80-100 calories in a 4-ounce glass (that’s only ½ cup) and those mixed drinks can add up too. A shot of rum, vodka, whiskey, tequila, etc. is 100 calories (80 proof – higher proof will provide more calories). But keep in mind, if you have rum and Coke, add calories for the Coke, vodka and cranberry juice, add calories for the cranberry juice. Watch these calories, they are easy to lose track of, and very easy to desire, especially if you are the hostess/host.


6. Don’t drink? That’s ok – you can still load up on the calories. Punch, eggnog, cider and the soda standby will always have calories (except diet soda), so again watch the calories here. Just because you don’t consume the alcohol, don’t think you are “safe” from the drinkable calories.


7. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. It took me many years, but I finally just quit taking that spoonful of dressing/stuffing. Stuffing scares me (food poisoning) and I just don’t like it anyway, whether it’s been inside a bird or not.


8. Get over the guilt. In so many traditional families, some individuals will eat things to not hurt someone’s feelings, or someone give someone a guilt trip over not trying something. Don’t fall for it. It is just food. I hate asparagus, and my mother-in-law makes it for every holiday meal. Everyone loves it! I’m the only one who doesn’t. In the early years, I would take one or two spears and choke it down in order to not offend her. (Early years: if only we could do them over again, it would be easier.) Now, I know it isn’t a big deal. I just skip it.


9. Take a(nother) walk. After you have finished dinner, and have HELPED with the dishes and leftovers, this is a good time to take a family walk. I know, I know. There is football on T.V. So go for a walk anyway! One year, it was just the girls. Some of your crazy neighbors will very likely have his Christmas decorations up already.


10. After you have burned some calories, now you can have dessert. Not sure what you want? We always have two types of pies and can never decide. So, have one of each, but not a full piece. SAMPLE each one. Have a half slice or smaller. Remember the crust is the unhealthiest part, so if you leave a bit of that behind all the better. Pumpkin is fewer calories than pecan. And definitely have some whipped cream instead of ice cream.

Doing all of these tips will save you some calories, but please remember to enjoy the day. You don’t need to avoid your favorite foods, just watch the overload and balance the days and calories in other places. These tips can be applies to any eating holiday.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well!

Chocolate IS Good for You

Chocolate is good for you! I get people telling me this all the time. Unfortunately, most people just don’t know the details. Sometimes I ask those who “inform” me of this bit of health information "why exactly it is good for you"? They usually don't knnow.

Once I tell them the truth about what kind of chocolate they should be consuming and just how much is needed to be good, they often just roll their eyes at me, and go on eating their mini-Hershey’s or Reese’s peanut butter cups in the mistaken belief that they are doing something good for themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a box of Junior Mints or a Mounds Bar myself now and again, but I don’t delude myself into believing that I’m eating a “health” food because there is chocolate on it.

Here is the truth: Chocolate IS good for you, but it is a very specific kind, and in this case, more is not better. There is quite a bit of research out there on the benefits of chocolate. Don’t YOU wish you had been in just ONE of those studies? Dare to dream.

In 2001 I was part of a focus group for one of the major candy companies, however it did not involve actual chocolate, not even a SAMPLE, just pictures. It was asking us how to market a new product to consumers. That product was CocoaVia.

Back to chocolate and how it is good for you. The health benefits are only through DARK chocolate, and this is the important part: the darker the better. Dark chocolate contains flavonols. Flavonols are the compounds found in tea, cranberries, blueberries, and many other fruits and nuts (all plant foods). It is also the compound in chocolate that gives it the bitter taste. That’s why we want darker chocolate; the higher percentage on the label the better.

What exactly are the health benefits? Here are just a few things that research has shown to date:

• It helps keep blood vessels healthy by keeping blood flowing to your eyes, heart, head, fingers and toes, digestive system, muscles, and all the other places that need blood.
• It helps keep the blood from clotting when it shouldn’t as well as keeping inflammation down (chronic inflammation can lead to heart disease and perhaps Alzheimer’s).
• It helps reduce blood pressure when taken daily in small amounts (about 30 calories worth).
• Preliminary research is showing that might help control blood sugar levels (really, chocolate controlling blood sugar!)

Which chocolate to choose? Brand does not matter; it is personal preference. I choose to go to Cost Plus World Market, or the natural foods stores and pick up a few bars of various percentages from several countries. Don’t choose 85%, as that is completely bitter chocolate – unless you want this. I choose something in the 70’s%, but no lower. Remember, the darker the better, so the higher percentage, the better.

How much? You must remember, as with any food, even the ones that are good for you, calories do count. One of the large bars that I get at Cost Plus is 100 grams = 3.5 ounces. That entire bar is 525-575 calories depending on the cocoa percentage. These generally are about 8-10 squares per bar, or 50-75 calories. Make sure you give yourself only one of these squares per day. If you eat the entire bar, you are NOT doing yourself any favors.

The Book pictured above: Chocolate A Healthy Passion by Shara Aaron, MS RD and Monica Bearden, RD is a book about the history and health benefits of chocolate with references. Recipes are included.

This was an item I received free at the ADA FNCE in Chicago in late October. There we DID get lots of free samples of DARK chocolate.

Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well - with a bit of DARK chocolate.

Sweet Product - Sweet Potatoes

Earlier this week, October 25-28, I was among thousands of other nutrition professionals in Chicago at the American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE). It is a fantastic time of networking with peers and colleagues and getting together with friends.

One of the best parts of FNCE, and I make my co-workers jealous, is the Expo, where we learn about new products and foods that are or will soon be available to the public. We do get to sample and take home some of these products. I thought I would tell you about some of them over the next several entries.

Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Sweet Potatoes (found in the freezer section)

I just love sweet potatoes and I make baked or mashed sweet potatoes year round. Sweet potatoes are one of the most nutritious vegetables you can get your hands on. They are an excellent source of potassium; a great source of Vitamins A, C and E, and fiber is bountiful in them. Also, as with most vegetables, they have no fat and are not too bad in the calorie department.

But, whenever I want mashed sweet potatoes, I generally have to plan ahead by an hour to allot for peeling, cutting and boiling them so they will be done in time to have with the rest of dinner.

This product does the peeling and cutting for us. You can pop the bag in the microwave for 10 minutes, and they are done! You can eat them as is (in the chunks), or mash them up and dress as you normally would. Just remember when you add things to it, you add calories! I’m going to look for them on my next trip to the grocery store.

Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well - today!

Fasting - Pros and Cons?

I was recently interviewed about the pros and cons of “fasting” and unfortunately I find that many people do it so I thought I would put in my 6 cents about the topic.

First, I want to clarify: What is fasting?

There are several variations of fasting, but here are three general categories as I define them:

1. Water only, no nutrients or calories of any kind for a period of time.



2. Juice fasts. This includes drinking fruit and/or vegetable juice for a period of time. This category I would also include other “liquid” fasts including the maple syrup/cayenne pepper concoction or the “cleansing teas” and similar variations – there are many.



3. Fasting by abstaining from certain types of food for a period of time – such as alcohol, caffeine, sugar, red meat, etc.

When I refer to fasting I’m referring to no food – looking at categories 1 and 2 above. Most often people choose to do this for the purpose of weight loss or “detox.”

I acknowledge fasting is appropriate in the following two instances: medically necessary prior to a blood test or surgery and religious purposes/observances as directed by certain religions for various holidays (ex. Ramadan, Lent, Yom Kippur).

For all other reasons I strongly urge people to NOT engage in fasting for several reasons. Here is my top five.

1. Your brain needs fuel and it needs it regularly and often. It will go through the glycogen it needs within a day and, if not replenished, it won’t be able to function properly.
   



2. Your body needs fuel. Basal metabolism, which is the basic amount of energy our body needs just to function daily, is still quite a lot of calories (mine is about 1200 calories). You add calories to that to support movement, like if you plan to get out of bed to take a walk to the fridge or take a shower. Feed your body regularly with GOOD healthy food, just not too much.
   



3. Weight loss (most people really want FAT loss rather than WEIGHT loss) will not happen during a fast, and really if you want a “jump start” – then quit eating unhealthy foods and start eating healthy foods. That is a good start.
   



4. “Detox” isn’t going to happen during a fast. Choose to not consume toxic substances anymore if you are concerned about toxins. Most toxins are filtered out through the liver. That is the job of the liver.
   



5. Finally, the biggest one, you want to keep your family and friend from hating you. If you plan to have any human contact during your fast, especially during the first 4-5 days, please have your family, friends, and co-workers sign waivers that they will not hold anything against you during this time. You are going to be one cranky S.O.B. and should not be held responsible for your actions. If you are already a cranky person, some people may not notice a difference. But if you get in a really bad mood when you go without eating for about 6-8 hours, this is going to be a really bad idea.

Truly, a fast of any kind is just silly, and a waste of some great days of healthy eating.

Don’t deprive yourself. You could miss out on some great food opportunities.

Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well – every day.