We are what we eat

Lately a number of people have asked me if I have diet tips on my blog. I know they are not asking about what to or not to eat, but rather how to loose weight. As a kid my weight was something I didn’t have to worry about as I always looked too skinny. However, ever since I reached my early 20’s my weight has been an increasing problem for me.

I wish there was an easy solution to weight loss – I’d be a very rich lady if I had one – but I’ve yet to find that easy solution. However, I will share the best tips I’ve collected over the years with you here:

Fad diets: what works for one person may or may not work for you. I can say that cutting back on carbohydrates (a variation of the Atkins diet) has worked well for me. Ayurveda, a natural system of medicine, states that there are three basic body types: vata, pitta, and kapha. What type of diet will work for you will depend upon your body type. Understand yourself and then see what will work best for you. I found the book by Deepak Chopra called “Perfect Health, The Complete Mind/Body Guide” to be very helpful to me.

Advice from Dr. Mason: Doc Mason advised me to put 10% less on my plate. He said that when dishing up food for my plate if I was reaching for one more scoop of something I should put it back. I’ve found that I don’t feel deprived, that I don’t go away from the table hungry, but that I’ve been able to keep my weight in check by following this very simple advice.

Advice from my sister, the exercise instructor: Find something that you enjoy, be it square dancing, line dancing, taking a walk in the park, anything that gets you moving. Exercise is the best thing for your body and the key is to move. I was in South Carolina recently and my hotel room was on the 4th floor. Whenever possible I took the stairs and I came home a few pounds lighter than when I left. I asked my sister what type of exercise is better and she said “whatever gets you moving.” When you go to the store, don’t look for the closest parking spot, part further out and walk in. Take the stairs instead of riding the elevator up a floor or two. Now that fall weather is upon us, take a stroll around where you live. Take a walk with friends or co-workers at lunch. Every little bit helps.

For myself, I’ve stopped thinking diet and started thinking about life-style. Weight-management is something I’ll always have to deal with and I’ve found that little changes here and there have worked the best for me. Hope they can help you too.

While this is a sure-fire way to get your kids to eat their vegetables, you can also use this as a take-along to a pot-luck lunch or dinner (holiday time will soon be here!). Another thing I like about this recipe is that it freezes well. I like to make up a batch and then freeze it in portion sized pieces for an easy heat-n-eat side item. It goes good with chicken, burgers, or fish.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, salt free
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can cream corn
3 eggs
7 oz corn muffin mix
4 oz sharp cheddar cheese (don’t use the extra sharp because it won’t melt right), grated
1/4 cup wheat bran

Seasonings (amount to your taste):
cayenne pepper
Mrs. Dash
turmeric (a good pinch adds nice flavor and a lovely yellow color to the dish)
ground coriander (I love the touch of sweetness this adds)
you don’t need to add salt as the canned vegetables, muffin mix, and cheese will add plenty

Sautee the green pepper and onion in the butter and olive oil. Crack the eggs in a small bowl, add the seasonings and mix. Combine all the ingredients, except the cheese in a casserole dish. Top with the grated cheddar cheese. Bake in your oven at 350 degrees for 55 to 65 minutes (total time will depend on your oven). Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing into portions.

Options:
Add some red pepper for extra color or use a can of fiesta corn instead of regular corn.

Enjoy!

Our modern, fast-paced life-style is robbing us of a critical ingredient in our quest for health: enough sleep. Personally, I’ve suffered with insomnia most of my life, so I know first-hand how bad an effect not getting enough sleep can have on your life. Your body needs sleep to regulate hormones, process daily events (sleep enhances memory), and many other restorative functions. Not getting enough sleep can have many adverse effects, including:

• Weight gain
• Slowed reaction times
• Mental confusion
• Irritability
• High blood pressure
• Weakened immune system

There are just so many things to do and worry about that it’s hard to get a full nights sleep (most adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night). We wake tired and consume caffeine to get us going. Bed time comes and we take pharmaceuticals or drink alcohol so we can sleep. It’s a dangerous cycle. The good news is that there are alternatives.

Some people swear by hot milk, but it can sour on the stomach and cause you to wake up in a couple of hours. A better use of milk is to have a small amount of cerial (a low-sugar variety, I use Grape Nuts) with milk one half-hour before going to bed. The combination of the grain in the cerial with the milk will prevent the souring effect of the milk and help relax you so that you can go to sleep.

A warm, relaxing bath before bed can help you go to sleep. A foot rub, back, or neck massage can also make you sleepy. A friend of mine, who lives alone, purchased an inexpensive ($99) back massager that fits in a chair that has helped her relax and get to sleep. There are also many natural herbs that are effective in helping you to both get to sleep and stay asleep, some of these are:

• Valerian
• Catnip
• Hops (beer may have hops, but the alcohol will wake you up after a couple of hours)
• Scullcap

Many health food stores sell melatonin which is the sleep hormone that our bodies naturally produce. Taking some one hour before bed will help you to go to sleep. However, you should not take more than 5 mg per day, and some people find that they have very vivid dreams when they take this. To treat my insomnia I found a homeopathic liquid that helps me to both go to sleep and stay asleep.

Here are some excellent resources for sleep information:

• Wikipedia – Sleep deprivation
• National Sleep Foundation
• SleepDeprivation.com
• Nebraska Rural Health and Safety Coalition  – Sleep deprivation

As always, you should check with your health practitioner to ensure that you do not have other, serious underlying health issues.

Here is another recipe from my forgotten recipe collection. This is one that my mom would make when she wanted to fix us a nice dinner but didn’t have a lot of time (or energy) for cooking. It is also very versatile because you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand or your own favorites as opposed to the ones my mom usually added. I’ve also tweaked it just a bit to make it healthier.

Ingredients:

• 6 cubed chuck or round steaks (approximately 4 oz each)
• 7 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups sliced zucchini (3/4 pound)
• 2 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms, portabella work great here (1/2 pound)
• 2 cups chopped broccoli (1/2 pound)
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium beef broth
• 1 1/2 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat bran

1. Brush both sides of the steaks with 7 (save that 1/2 tablespoon for later) tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, sprinkle on the Mrs. Dash and thyme, and let sit while you work on the vegetables.
2. In a large skillet (I prefer cast iron because of how well and evenly it heats) add 3 tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil and heat the pan over medium heat. Add the zucchini and the broccoli. Stir-fry for about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables, and keep them warm.
3. Add 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil to the skillet. Add the steaks and let them cook for at least 2 minutes on each side. How long you cook them will depend on how done you like your meat, and how thick the steaks are. I probably cook mine for longer than most folks because I prefer my steak well done.
4. Mix the beef broth, corn starch, salt, wheat bran, cayenne pepper, and Worcestershire sauce, blending together well. Add this to the skillet with the steaks and cook till sauce thickens (2 to 5 minutes). Add the vegetables, lower the heat on the skillet, and cook till everything is nice and warm.

Optional addition:
Brown about 1 1/2 cups of onions with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in the skillet until they have caramelized; server over the steaks.

Enjoy!

My sister, Leesa, has two wonderful (prejudiced you say, of course, I’m their aunt!) boys. She has battled food allergies and the ever present problem of trying to get kids to eat healthy foods and not just the yummy tasting junk that seems to be everywhere. Today I wanted to share some of her tips and tricks for getting her boys to eat healthy foods. In later posts she’s going to share some of the recipes that she developed to deal with their food allergies (this is a problem that many families have to battle).

Leesa’s kitchen is a veritable cornucopia of fresh fruits. To save money she goes to the local Costco and stocks up on apples, bananas, and other seasonal fruit. She keeps them readily available and whenever one of the boys is looking for something to snack on she offers fruit. Apples and bananas are a great starter fruit for kids and are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals that they need. If they still want chips or other ‘junk food’ she lets them have some of the fun food if they will have some of the fruit. Her husband often dresses the fruit up so that it looks like an animal to encourage the boys – he’s even made a banana look like a train! Here is one of his creations.

Fun fruit for your kids

At dinner time Leesa includes either a vegetable or more fruit for the kids. Sure, they love mac and cheese (heck, I still do too!), but she always includes some brocolli or another vegetable that they like for added nutrition and fiber.

Don’t expect kids to like something the first time they try it. Let them sample things you are eating, or try a different way of cooking the food. Brocolli is great, but you may have to cover it with some cheese to get your kids started eating it. Changing eating habits can be hard, but with persistance and gradual changes you too can get your kids to eat healthier.

Here’s another recipe that I found buried in my old recipe collection book — this one came from a co-worker of mine. The day before a holiday we would all contribute something to a pot-luck lunch to celebrate whatever holiday it was. The lemon bars were always a favorite of everyone and she was kind enough to share the recipe with anyone who wanted it. I know that I’ve fixed these bars as well because I’ve got notes on the recipe that she typed. So, here’s the recipe and my notes:

The first step is to make a crust, or cookie base. Start your oven heating to 375 degrees and mix the following:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (just a small pinch)
• 1 tablespoon oat bran (I like the slightly nutty flavor that it adds)
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Pat (not pack) this mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9″ x 13″ pan (I use a glass one and only heat my oven to 350 degrees). Bake for 15 to 20 minutes just until the crust is lightly brown. You definitely don’t want to over bake this.

While the crust is cooking mix the following:

• 2 cups sugar (I use light brown sugar)
• 4 lightly beaten eggs
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (I add this to give the cookies an extra lemon kick)
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Pour this over the crust and bake at 375 degrees (350 if you are using a glass pan) for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with some powdered sugar and cut into bars.

Enjoy!

In talking with a number of people about nutrition and the vitamins and minerals that they take I have found that very few are aware of the two main classifications of vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. This is an important distinction because the fat-soluble vitamins can become toxic if you take too much of them. You don’t have to worry about the water-soluble ones as they get flushed out of your system. Some of the water-soluble vitamins are the B complex of vitamins and vitamin C.

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are very important to human health, but they are fat-soluble so you must take care with the amount that you take and how frequently that you take these vitamins. All fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the liver for when they are needed. You should not take these vitamins on a daily basis unless you are under direct medical supervision.

Don’t worry though about taking a multi-vitamin on a daily basis as the amounts of the fat-soluble vitamins in them are very small and you would have to take a lot of your multi-vitamins on a daily basis to build to toxic levels. However, if you are taking individual doses of any of these fat-soluble vitamins you might want to skip a day to two to allow the excess to work its way out of your system.

In putting this blog together, I came across some excellent information from the Colorado State University and the Nutrition and Well-Being web sites. Check these out for additional information.

I had company over for the Labor Day holiday and needed something light that everyone could snack on; I also wanted something that everyone could just help themselves to without my intervention. So I dug out and old 3-ring binder full of recipes collected from friends and family that I had put together years ago. After dusting it off I found this yummy pineapple cookie recipe which was a big hit with my guests. Since they liked the cookies so much I thought I would share the recipe with you today — you may need some homemade cookies to share with family, friends, or guests too.

Cookie Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened (NOT melted)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (small pinch)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon oat bran
• 2/3 cup crushed pineapple, drained (save the juice for the cookie topping)

Start your oven heating to 375 degrees. Lightly coat a cookie sheet with some olive oil. Cream the sugar and butter together until they are light and fluffy (I suggest using a stand mixer). Add the vanilla, and then the eggs one at a time, beating the mix well. Slowly add some of the dry ingredients and then some of the pineapple, mixing well, until you’ve added all the dry ingredients and pineapple. Drop onto cookie sheet, I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons for each cookie. You should get about 2 dozen cookies out of this batch (I made a double batch for my visitors). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, and do not overbake these cookies! Allow to cool before frosting.

Frosting:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened, not melted
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (another small pinch)
• 1 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tablespoons pineapple juice

Cream the sugar, salt, and butter together till light and fluffy. Add the pineapple juice and mix well. Spread on the cooled cookies.

Enjoy!

Oh, I would have included a picture of the cookies, but I didn’t think of taking one when I made the cookies and my guests didn’t leave any for me to take a picture of when I did think of it.