Eat Z Good Stuff!

Instead of Ice Cream...

2010-04-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE ice cream and I can eat the 'no sugar added' stuff. But recently I have taken to freezing my homemade yogurt and it is delicious! It satisfies my sweet tooth and then I don't crave the ice cream.

The last batch I made had a hint of vanilla because the yogurt that I used as a starter for my batch was vanilla. Then I added some lemon juice and xylitol (you can add honey). It is so mild and yummy and I'm addicted to it!
It's really nice on a warm evening to sit outside and eat it...and there's no guilt at all :)

Another Yummy Treat

2010-04-17T11:38:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite things to eat!

Garden fresh green beans are the best, but in their absence you can use frozen.

Spray a cookie sheet with oil and cover with raw green beans. Spray the top of the grean beans with oil and sprinkle salt over the top. You can experiment with different seasonings, too. I know thyme is really good on them.
Bake at 350 until golden brown and the ends are crispy. Time will vary depending on if you use frozen or fresh. Just keep an eye on them. It can take up to an hour or more if frozen.

Green beans are a great source of vitamin C and are super good for you!

The Best Waffles Ever....Seriously

2010-04-17T11:25:00.001-07:00

The Best Waffles Ever!
2 Cups whole wheat flour
1/3 Cup teff (this makes it SO good!)
1/4 Cup sesame seeds
abt 1/3 Cup honey (I use some xylitol and stevia mixed)
4 tsp Rumford's baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 Cup applesauce (instead of oil)
2 eggs
2 cups lowfat milk
1 tsp vanilla
(You can add nuts, seeds, and fruit if you want, too!)

Heat waffle iron. Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until just moist. Spray waffle iron with oil and cook.
These are a weekend tradition at our house :)

Oh, and they are super good topped with this:
2 Cups homemade plain yogurt (recipe in a previous post)
1/2 Cup honey (I use xylitol and stevia)
1-2 tsp almond extract

Some Recipes

2010-04-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 Cup apple sauce (instead of butter)
1 1/2 Cups honey (I use xylitol because I can't eat honey)
abt 2 1/2 Cups Adam's peanut butter (I like a mix of creamy and crunchy)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
abt 1 Cup oats
1 tsp baking soda (I like Rumford's brand)
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Mix first 3 ingredients well. Add eggs and vanilla. Add the rest of the ingredients until combined. Spoon dough onto cookie sheet and press with a fork. Bake for abt 15 minutes or until light brown.

Zucchini Casserole:
abt 4 homemade bread slices
3 zucchini
some mushrooms
1 onion
any other veggies that sound good
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 Cup cooked beans of choice
Jar of pasta sauce
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
italian seasoning
garlic salt

Preheat oven to 350.
Butter one side of each slice of bread and place buttered side down in a casserole dish until the bottom is covered. Sprinkle mozzerella over the bread.
Saute onion, garlic, and zucchini until mostly cooked.
Mix veggies with pasta sauce, beans, and seasonings. Pour into the casserol dish.
sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake until bubbly (abt 30 min)

Tuna Casserole:
13 oz whole wheat pasta (cooked)
1/2 Cup cooked navy beans
1/3 Cup cooked grain of choice
2 Tablespoons butter
1 chopped onion
1 Cup sliced celery
1 chopped red bell pepper (or vegetable of choice)
4-5 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
1-2 Tablespoons seasoned salt or garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper (regular pepper will work)
3 Cups lowfat milk
2 cans tuna
3/4 Cup Parmesan cheese
sage
marjoram
dill

Preheat oven to 375. Spray casserole dish with oil.
Using a large saucepan, saute veggies in butter until mostly cooked. Add flour, salt and white pepper. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir until thickened.
Add pasta, beans, grains, tuna, sage, marjoram, and 1/4 Cup parmesan cheese and mix.
Pour into casserole dish and sprinkle with dill and remaining cheese. Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes.

Tuna Salad:
2 cans tuna
1/4 Cup cooked amaranth
1 green onion chopped
1 small celery stalk chopped
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 Cup lowfat Mayo
3 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish (I usually add some xylitol instead because the relish is too sweet for me)
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
tobasco sauce (optional)

Mix all ingredients and eat with whole wheat bread, lettuce, and tomato. This tuna salad tastes even better after it has sat in the fridge for a day. It's the best recipe I've ever tried!

Southwest Black Bean Soup:
abt 1 Cup natural chicken cooked and chopped
1 Cup brown rice uncooked
1 can diced tomatoes w/ green chiles undrained
1 can crushed tomatoes undrained
2 cans Swanson's chicken broth
3 cans black beans undrained
2 Tablespoons butter
2 bell peppers
1 onion
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Seasoned salt (I like garlic salt)
Southwest seasoning if you have it
Bay leaf
Tarragon
Oregano
Pinch of cinnamon

This can be either a crock pot soup or stove top. Saute all veggies in butter until partially cooked. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until rice is done, about an hour. If using a crock pot, don't worry about bringing it to a boil :) It's good served with cheese on top.

Mexican Lime Soup:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves minced
abt 1 Cup chicken
3 Cups brown rice or quinoa or a blend
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
9 Cups Swanson's chicken broth
1/3 Cup lime juice
3 chopped green onions (the green and white parts)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons seasoned salt

If using a crock pot, add all ingredients including the raw chicken and let cook for some hours. If cooking on the stove, then add all ingredients and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about an hour.
When soup is done, crush tortilla chips into soup. Top soup with fresh chopped avacados, tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro.

I will post more recipes as I think of them.

What We Eat

2010-04-17T10:00:00.001-07:00

So here's a break down of the things we do and do not eat. Our diets are mostly the same with a few differences that I will provide.

These are the things we avoid (there are always exceptions here and there):
sugar
high fructose corn syrup
hydrogenated oils/ trans fats
saturated fats (except those found in avacoados and such)
processed food like white flour and quick oats, etc.
high amounts of salt
* (because of my blood sugar issues, I also have to avoid fruit, honey, potatoes, and popcorn. But Dan eats these things in large quantities)

So this means that we do eat a lot of whole grains, fruits (for Daniel), vegetables, beans, nuts, and lowfat dairy. I am more willing to eat more fatty foods than Daniel, which means that I will eat full fat dairy products sometimes. We don't buy foods that come in packages or that have been pre-prepared (other than condiments).

A typical day involves eating oatmeal or homemade toast (bread recipe in previous post) with the butter/oil combination on it, and a glass of 1% milk.

Lunch is either leftovers from dinner the night before or something like tuna salad or chicken salad sandwiches, or Adams natural peanut butter sandwiches.

Dinner is often a casserole of some sort because I think they are easier to make and we like eating them as leftovers. I will provide some recipe examples later. I like casseroles because I can put beans and grains like amaranth or teff or quinoa or millet in them and it still tastes really good. It's also a way to get lots of good veggies.

Snack foods are a must for me. Our snack foods include bean and hummus dips (made from dry beans with no fats added), peanut butter oatmeal cookies (all healthy ingredients), and tuna salad.

I will post recipes in the next post :)

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2010-04-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

This is the first in a series of posts that I am going to do on some more specifics of the way Daniel and I eat. I wanted to start out by endorsing the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" because it summs up our core beliefs on the way we should eat.

So anyone seeking to follow the way we eat should read this book as a foundation to all that we say and do.

Michael Pollan takes four food chains and traces them from their beginnings all the way to a meal. He discusses the importance of knowing where your food comes from.

Yogurt and Carrots

2009-11-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

My sister in law just taught me how to make my own yogurt, and it is so yummy and is way cheaper!

1. Put 1/2 Gallon of milk (any %) in a crockpot and cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours.

2. turn crock pot off and let it sit for 3 hours.

3. take 2 cups of milk out of crock pot and mix with 1/2 cup of store-bought yogurt (with live active cultures)

4. Pour yogurt/milk mixture back into crockpot and mix well.

5. Cover crock pot with a thick towel and let it sit for 8 - 12 hours.

*The next time you make it, save 1/2 cup from the last batch to mix in...that's why it's so cheap!

I use whole milk because Joey LOVES it and we both eat it every day! He just likes it plain!

These are a few of the last carrots from the garden. I just liked how artistic they are.

This one looks like something off of Star Wars :)

Sugar-Free!

2009-11-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

So I know I hardly ever update this blog...I need to be better about that :)

My latest efforts have been with figuring out how to make desserts that I can eat. This not only means sugar-free, but also no refined flour (because that is just converted directly into sugar in our bodies). So, I've been getting creative with how to make crusts and cookies, etc.

My disclaimer is that many of my desserts do not taste normal! The ones that I've had the most success with are the pies.

The two that I have made recently are the Butter Pecan Pumpkin Pie and the Luscious Lemon Pie.

For the crust, I make whole-wheat cookies (with only half the sugar called for because pie crusts shouldn't be very sweet) and bake them in a pie pan, then make the pie. For sweeteners I use Stevia and Xylitol (I can't even have much honey or molasses!). I don't like Aspartame or Splenda, although I do end up using these sometimes when I don't have another option (like sugar-free ice cream, they still haven't put any on the market that are sweetened with anything else).

I also cut the butter in half and substitute apple sauce in all cookie recipes and they turn out fine.

Basically, for any sugar-free recipe, I just change out the sugar, all-purpose flour, and butter for these substitutes. Then I follow the recipe as it is listed.
I also use fat free or low fat dairy wherever possible (though it's not always possible).
I think that's all I do. I hope it's not too confusing! :)

Cream Sauces

2009-07-09T14:03:00.001-07:00

To make cream sauces healthier you can use half the cream sauce that it asks for and half 1% milk that has been thickened with Ultragel. You get Ultragel at a health food store and it is good because it thickens things that are cold or hot. It's great for things like potato salad that aren't cooked. It has tons of uses.

In this picture I used it for a pasta salad dressing and I just seasoned the milk-gel mixture with garlic salt, pepper, and seasonings and it was great! It works for alfredo and any other cream sauce.

Wonderful Grains

2009-07-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Grains make up about 80% of everything we eat; we love them! Mostly because with a blood-sugar problem, like I have, grains are very fulfilling. When I had all my food allergies a number of years ago I did a lot of research on the different types of grains. There are SO many that most people never use and some that they've never heard of.
When you can learn the ways to use all these amazing grains, you will find a whole new collection of tastes and textures. There are the more familiar grains, like wheat, oats, and barley. Most people know how to use these.

One grain that is familiar, but underutilized, is millet. It has great health benefits and is way cheap! You cook it just like rice and it is a good substitute for cous cous and is great in salads and in casseroles.

Then you have buckwheat, which is good as flour in pancakes and used in moderation in casseroles. It has an interesting flavor that some people don't really like.

Our personal favorite is quinoa. It cooks like rice and has hundreds of uses! It's amazing in soups, in waldorf salads, regular salads, in bread or pancakes (pre-cooked)...basically if we could afford it we would use it instead of rice in every instance. It's super healthy and tastes great. When cooked, it has these little 'tails', which is interesting.

Then there's Amaranth. It's smaller than Quinoa and just as good for you. Both are considered 'supergrains'. With amaranth you just have to make sure it's cooked, because it's not good for you if it's not completely cooked.

Teff is tied for favorite in my book. It's the smallest grain, not bigger than a grain of sand. I love this one because you can throw it uncooked in waffles and it is so small that it cooks along with the batter. It has a great, nutty flavor and adds to any dish. It can be easily hidden in any casserol or even taco meat.

The key with all these grains is to learn how to incorporate them into your established dishes and diet. You can keep some cooked in your fridge so they can be added to your normal dishes all week. Throw them in salads, stir fries, waffles, casseroles, etc. Grains will make any dish heartier and healthier. I have to eat this way to manage my bloodsugar, but even normal people say they like the taste of my food better :)

Beans!

2009-07-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

These are a staple around here. We use them in about everything. Dry beans are way cheap and so good for you.
I just cook them in the crock pot for about 6 or more hours and drain them and use them. I don't do all those extra soaking steps, and it works just fine for me. We use about every kind of bean...if you just buy a small bag each time you go to the store, you will have a good collection before long.
When the beans are done in the crock pot, I drain them and put them in the fridge. Then I use them all week in our salads, casseroles, quesadillas, etc. They add good protein and fiber.

Bread

2009-07-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Next Topic: Bread
We were blessed to get a sweet grain mill for our wedding along with the Kitchen Aid. This is how we make the flour that makes our bread. When you grind your own wheat, you lose none of the nutrients or virtues of the grain that are even lost in store-bought whole wheat flour. It's also a TON cheaper! We buy the bulk grain when it goes on sale at Wal-Mart and it lasts forever!
We got our bread maker at the local thrift store for $10 and it works perfectly. The key when buying a bread maker at a thrift store is to make sure the paddle is in there, and that it works when you plug it in.
We use molasses instead of sugar and use wheat gluten. The wheat gluten helps the bread to rise better because it strengthens the gluten bonds of the flour. Another key is to put the ingredients in the maker in the order that they are listed on my recipe. It's the best recipe I've used in all my years of making bread in a bread maker. (below)
It takes about 5 minutes at most to put all the ingredients in the maker, then 4 hours later we have beautiful, delicious bread! We seriously live on this stuff; we make 1 to 2 loaves a DAY! Our house always smells like baking bread, mmmm!

Butter, There Ain't No Other!

2009-06-30T12:48:00.001-07:00

Lesson Number One: Butter
How to find a compromise between eating butter on your toast and being healthy.... well, we just mix it with canola oil (olive oil would be better, but we are poor college students). We mix 1 part butter to 1 and a half parts oil. It is runny at room temperature, but when you keep it refrigerated it is nice and spreadable. (The better you mix it, the more oil you can use. An electric whisker would work great...I just use Dan!).
We actually like the taste of the combination better than straight butter! The oil helps to carry the flavor more or something. Anyway, we are hooked. And it is WAY better than eating Margarine, taste-wise and health-wise!

So, first we take a large chunk of butter and keep it at room temperature until it is soft.
Then add the oil and whisk it together. Then refrigerate it until is firms up, and Wa-La! You have a healthier butter!