Diet Detox

I hate the term "detox."  You see plenty of products aimed at "detoxing the body" and getting rid of impurities.  They'd have you believe that our insides are cesspools filled with sludge and waste and (gag me now with this term) "toxins."  Truth?  Unless you just licked the inside of a nuclear silo, you don't have toxins.  And despite not having toxins, most of us have fully functioning livers just in case. 

Back from the tangent, I titled this entry "diet detox" because my version of this idea is "I've been eating way too much sugar/fat/crap in general and I need something healthy." 

Like on Saturday.  One of my college roommates and her husband bought us a cooking class at a local culinary store.  The class title was "Sweetshop Baking" and it lived up to its name.  Four hours of cream cheese danish, homemade doughnuts, caramel pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, and scones.  It was awesomely sugary. 

So how do you cure a sugar hangover?  For me it was an hour long nap followed by this easy dinner, adapted from Cooking Light magazine.

Veggie Noodle Hot Pot:
(serves 4)
3 cups cauliflower, chopped into 1" chunks
2 zucchini, sliced into short sticks
1 bell pepper, sliced into sticks
2 cans low sodium chicken or veggie broth
1/2 box whole wheat linguini
1 15-oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
Olive oil

1. On a rimmed baking sheet, spread out a layer of tin foil.  Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Toss veggies in a large bowl with 4 Tablespoons olive oil, season with pepper.  I added a bit of chili powder as well.
3. Roast until browned (may need to flip veggies to get even roasting).
4. Meanwhile heat up chicken/veggie stock to boiling in a large pot and add pasta.  Cook until soft, and add chickpeas.  Last step?  Add finished roasted veggies.  Season with pepper and hot sauce if you want.

Sugar-rush cured!

Nutrition facts: 330 calories, 60 g carbs, 3 g fat, 16 g protein

Lazy + Delicious

I live one block away from a grocery store.  This is awesome.  My husband likes it too because it's a grocery/liquor store.  Kidding- sort of.  This particular store (rhymes with schmainbow) often has deals where you buy one chuck roast and get a free bag of carrots, onions, and celery.  Buy a bag of potatoes, and you've got an easy crock pot dinner.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast (serves 8)
Ingredients:
-1 chuck roast (mine was about 3.5 pounds- you can go up to 5 pounds in a crock pot)
-8-10 large carrots, cut in half
-7-9 potatoes (gold or red are best, and really, just cram as many veggies as you can into the pot)
-5ish small (2-3") yellow onions, cut in half.  Or buy 1 large onion.  Your call.
-1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup
-1 packet McCormick pot roast seasoning

Directions:
-Trim the visible fat from the meat. 
-Dump soup in the crock pot, add 1 cup water and seasoning.  Stir well.  Place meat in the pot and cover.  -Cook on 3-4 hours on high, or 8-9 hours on low.  I like to add the veggies (plus one more cup of water) halfway through so that they don't get too cooked. 

Oh yeah- we use this holiday bowl year-round.  It's not that I am obsessed with Christmas (ok, I am), but it's just a nice shallow bowl. 
Nutrition (per serving): 400 calories, 43 g carbs, 15 g fat, 29 g protein

From pot roast to pot pie

It's been a busy few days and it's time to catch up on recipe-posting.  My husband has wrapped up his MBA program (yay!) and announced yesterday that he'd like to start doing more of the cooking (YAY!).

For starters, here's a recipe for awesome & easy chicken pot pie.  Who needs Marie Callendar?  A better person might use a homemade gravy, fresh vegetables, and made-from-scratch pie crust.  Not this dietitian.  Save yourself time, money, and calories by doing it this way:

Chicken Pot Pie:
Ingredients:
1/2 can peas & carrots, rinsed and drained (bonus points if you find low sodium)
1 can lowfat cream of chicken soup + 2 Tbsp skim milk
1 pre-made pie crust, thawed
2 medium-sized red potatoes, cut into 1/2-1" chunks (ok to keep skin on)
1/2 cup frozen corn
2 5-ounce chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)- amount is approximate
Pepper
1 egg, lightly scrambled (optional)

Directions:
1. You'll need 2 medium-sized pans- one for boiling the potatoes, the other for boiling the chicken.  Heat water to boil in both pans.  Add potatoes to one.  Cut up raw chicken breasts into chunks about 1/2-1 inch.  Boil both chicken and potatoes separately until fully cooked (potatoes will take much longer).  Drain.  Dump in a large bowl.
2. Add chicken soup and milk and stir well.  Add potatoes.  Add corn, peas, and carrots.  Season with pepper (and onion powder if you'd like).
3. Spray the bottom of a deep pie pan with nonstick cooking spray (mine is adorable- it has a recipe for pumpkin pie written in it).  Dump in your chicken mix.
4. Roll out the thawed crust and place over pan.  Crimp the edges firmly around the pan.  Slice 4 vents in the top of the crust.  Optional- brush crush with egg for shine and browning. 
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned.  *My oven cooks fast- I had to cover the edges of the pie with foil to prevent the crust from over-browning before the insides were fully heated.  Remove foil for last 10 minutes of baking if this happens to you.

Makes six servings. Nutrition: per slice, 275 calories, 35 g carbs, 6 g fat, 15 g protein.

Enough with the squash already

Can't...get...enough...squash!  I like it plain.  I like it in soups.  I wonder if I'd like it in lasagna-form?  I found a recipe for a turkey lasagna with butternut squash and knew this would be a good recipe to try.  Since our chest freezer has about 18 pounds of ground turkey just waiting to be used, all I need to buy was noodles, sauce, spinach, and ricotta. 

Turkey lasagna with butternut squash & spinach
1/2 pound lean ground turkey
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups cubed & cooked butternut squash (I was feeling lazy and bought frozen), thawed & smushed with a fork
1/2 package frozen spinach (go for leaf, not chopped), thawed (with "juice" squeezed out)
1 cup fat free ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 jar reduced fat Alfredo sauce

1. Cook ground turkey in a skillet; drain fat and season with Italian seasoning and pepper.
2. Meanwhile in a large pot, boil lasagna noodles until cooked.  I couldn't find whole wheat no-bake noodles.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg with ricotta.  Stir in the spinach.
4. Spray an 8x8 glass dish with olive oil nonstick spray.  Spread a few spoonfuls of sauce onto the bottom of the dish.  Lay your first three noodles down, cutting off any extra length. 
5. Spread ground turkey across noodles; ladel a few spoonfuls of sauce on top.
6. Add another layer of noodles and trim as needed.  Layer butternut squash, followed by spinach and ricotta mixture. 
7. Top with a final layer of noodles, add sauce, and sprinkle with cheese. 
8. Spray a piece of tin foil with olive oil cooking spray and cover the dish.  Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Take off the foil cover and cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until slightly browned and bubbly.  Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting and serving. 

This makes 9 servings.  Once the lasagna is completely cooled, it's easy to individually wrap the squares and freeze for later.  Nutrition facts: 240 calories, 27 g carbs, 6 g fat, 15 g protein. 

It's okay to veer away from the traditional lasagna.  Especially if you love squash. 

Flavor of the month

I realized today that I definitely have a favorite fall scent:

After a weekend of relying way too much on Lean Cuisines (and a bowl of chili from Keys Cafe...mmm...), tonight's menu includes steak fajitas with red & green peppers, onion, on whole wheat tortillas.  And maybe some caramel apples. 

Class Time: Nutrition 101

You’ve maybe seen by now that I really push fiber.  Why?  What exactly is it?  What does it do in the body?

Think of a puzzle: a child’s 4-piece puzzle is really easy to take apart and is done in seconds.  This is how our body views sugar and simple carbohydrates- white bread, white rice, white pasta, chips, pretzels, cookies, bagels, etc.

Now a more complex 500-piece puzzle (the kind that my Grandma works on for weeks) would require a longer amount of time to take apart.  Same goes for complex carbohydrates: beans (legumes), “starchy” vegetables (corn, squash, carrots, etc), and whole grain breads and cereal products.  Part of what makes them “complex” is that they contain fiber.

A kernel of grain has three components: bran, wrapped around the outside, germ (nutrition nugget for the growing wheat seed itself), and endosperm.  Emily Levenson has a great diagram on her blog.  When typical flour is processed, the bran and germ are removed, and the plain endosperm is ground up.  You might have noticed that on your sack of flour at home it says “enriched”- it’s a red flag that so many nutrients are lost in the processing step that they have to add back vitamins such as niacin and riboflavin.  When you choose whole grain flour and whole grain products, they have all the parts of the grain ground up.

Back to fiber- fiber is amazing.  Constipated?  Try fiber.  Loose stools?  Try fiber.  Fiber acts in two ways: it’s very “grabby” and as it moved through your gut, it scrapes off all the dead gunk that accumulates in the lining of your intestines.  It also mixes with water in your gut to form a gel to keep things moving smoothly.  So not only does fiber make you a super pooper, but because it takes longer to digest, it keeps you feeling fuller for longer.  Win-win!

Busy in the kitchen

Another beautiful fall weekend in Minnesota.  I can legitimately say that I did help my husband with the yardwork.  We only have one rake, so I did the next best thing- mow over the leaves and shred 'em!  I was also feeling culinary creativity yesterday.

Seeing that we still have about 5 pounds of apples, I decided to make an apple cake for breakfast.  When I announced that, my husband said "will it have frosting?"  As much as I love frosting, I cannot bring myself to serve it at breakfast-time.  Here's the recipe I created:

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake:
Ingredients
4 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional- I went without)
2 teaspoons each cinnamon + sugar mixed in a small bowl
Directions:

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  In a larger bowl, beat eggs and sugar for 2 minutes.  Stir in applesauce and vanilla.  Gradually stir in dry ingredients.  Fold in apples and walnuts.  Pour in an 8" round pan.  Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top and bake for approximately 35 minutes at 350 degrees.  

Nutrition (makes 10 slices): 227 calories, 4 g protein, 3 g fiber.

Ta-da!  Delicious breakfast.  Now onto lunch.  On Sundays, our m.o. is to make a big batch of something, and then have the leftovers for lunch for the first half of the week.  I decided on white chili and whole wheat beer bread.  Easy comfort food.   

I think I might need a better quality camera- none of these pictures make the food look very good!

Tastes like fall in a crockpot

To state the obvious, crock pots (slow cookers) are a great invention.  One of our wedding gifts was a programmable crock pot, so no more ruined dinners when my workday runs late.  I've typically used my crock pot for making chicken, beef, stews, etc., but I came across an interesting recipe for pumpkin pudding.  This past weekend I tried it out and both my husband and I are loving it.  It tastes like crust-less pumpkin pie, and since it's made with less sugar and eggs, it's lower cal. 

• 1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie)
• 1 (12 ounce) can fat-free evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup biscuit/baking mix ( used Bisquick "Healthy Heart")
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp tub spread, like Brummel & Brown, melted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Transfer to a slow cooker coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or until a thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Serve warm or cold.

I'm a nerd and I like fitness, so I am loving...

Nerd Fitness.

Steve, the blogger, has great, funny, practical articles.  This one in particular is very appropriate for this time of year when most people have started moving their exercise indoors.

So there you have it- go to the gym, but don't suck at working out. 

The raisin + the bran

Recent story about my dad (as told to me by my mom): he’s been trying to lose some weight, and he thought Raisin Bran would be a healthful breakfast choice.  After a few weeks of not noticing any difference in his weight, or hunger level, or, ahem, GI function, he complained to my mom.  Mom then went into the cupboard to show him that he had not been eating raisin bran, but “Raisin Bran Crunch EXTRA!” with “honey nut clusters” and whatnot. 

1 cup Raisin Bran Crunch + 1 cup 1% milk = 388 calories, 4 grams fiber, 11 grams protein 

-OR-

1 cup bran flakes + 1 Tbsp chopped walnuts + ½ banana, sliced + ½ skim milk = 270 calories, 8 grams fiber, 11 grams protein (and this is a “bigger” breakfast!)

Good luck dad.  May the force of label-reading be with you!

The "good" buffet?

I crave sushi more often than the average person, so fortunately there's a Japanese restaurant close to my work.  They happen to have a sushi buffet for $12.  Now, I am strongly anti-buffet because, really, I hate the mentality of "I-must-leave-here-uncomfortably-full-and-bloated-to-prove-to-myself-that-I-ate-my-money's-worth."  But for real- six pieces of sushi for $8, or for just four more bucks I can be adventurous and try some new types of sushi.  My husband has the day off today, so he picked me up and off we went.

The selection was great- probably 8 different kinds of sushi and 2 different types of sashimi.  There were no labels, so I have no idea what I actually ate (probably a good thing), but it was all tasty.  I ended up having 8 pieces along with 2 pieces of sashimi. 

Here's the approximate calorie breakdown of various types of sushi (8 pieces in 1 roll):
Bluefin tuna sashimi (4 oz)- 122 calories, 26 grams protein
Tuna roll- 184 calories, 24 grams protein
California roll- 255 calories, 9 grams protein
Philly roll- 360 calories, 16 grams protein (16 grams fat too)
Shrimp tempura roll- 508 calories, 20 grams protein (21 grams fat)

The buffet also had tempura vegetables- 350 calories for just 5 pieces of vegetable there.  Yiiiikes.  Take-home message: tempura = battered & deep fried.  If you're feeling adventurous, try making your own sushi at home!

Like wienerschnitzel, but better.

While cruising AllRecipes.com (my fave) last week, I came across a recipe for baked pork chops.  I realize that this is not an uncommon food for most people, but I've never had them before, so I was curious.  Rainbow happened to have pork on sale this week, so the porcine stars were aligned.  The recipe itself was very easy, but of course it wouldn't be my cooking if I didn't somehow tweak it:
-white flour was swapped for whole wheat flour, and
-whole wheat breadcrumbs were subbed for Italian (just add a little Italian seasoning)
-fat free cream of mushroom soup

I had baked a spaghetti squash in the morning and we had that along with a steamer bag of peas & carrots.

My husband loved it.  While in the Army, he lived in Germany for a few years and griped that wienerschnitzel (a similar pork recipe) was so bland, but that this had good flavor.
Nutrition Info: 325 calories (230 from pork chop), 24 grams carbs, 16 grams fat, 18 grams protein.

What to do with the leftover bottle of three-buck Chuck?  Only the finest of pinots for the Syverson household.

Nevermind the near-empty glass of wine.

Trying something new

You can probably relate to this- looking at something online, click on a link, see something you like, click on another link, repeat, repeat, and then you find something totally awesome.  Like the Peas and Thank You blog.  The author is a vegan, so the recipes are all free of animal-based products.  Veganism has never appealed to me, but I do appreciate the goal of having a plant-based diet.  I ended up printing off several of her recipe ideas and headed over to Fresh and Natural Foods for some shopping.

$66 later, here are some of my finds:

1. KeVita probiotic drink.  I am sick of yogurt, but still want to make sure I'm getting plenty of good gut bacteria, so I'll see if I like this drink.
2. Okay, so the name of this cereal is kind of cheesy, but the nutrition is impressive- 9 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein in a 200-calorie 1-cup serving.
3. Ground flaxseed.  I'll add this to my oatmeal, hot cereals, and muffins/breads.
4. Whole wheat pastry flour.  I love whole wheat flour, but the high gluten content can often produce overly tough, chewy muffins/breads.  Pastry flour has less gluten, and because this still has the outer shell of the wheat kernel (the bran), it has more fiber than its white/bleached counterpart.

5. Shiritaki noodles, in both "spaghetti" and "spinach fettucini."  These noodles originated in Japan and are made out of a fibrous substance called konjac root fiber.  One serving is only 25 calories and have 5 grams of carbs, 3 grams fiber.  I've heard they're a bit tricky to work with- you can't heat them because they'll break down, and you have to be sure to soak all the liquid from them first.  I'll let you know how they go...

6. Think Thin bars.  Don't love the name, but do love the taste.  The only other place I've found these is Byerly's.  They're a good meal replacement bar (at around 240 calories) because they keep the sugar in check while providing 20 grams of protein.  I'm excited to try the chocolate espresso one.

7. My most mysterious find: dehydrated peanut butter.  A friend had told me about this product (different brand) a few months ago and she swears by it.  The deal is you add water to make it back into peanut "butter," thereby eliminating the oils that accompany a regular peanut butter.  I'm thinking that even in powder form it could be good to add to chocolate or vanilla protein shakes, oatmeal, or muffins.  45 calories in 2 Tablespoons, compared with 190 in typical peanut butter. 

8. Dark chocolate almond butter.  My dietary splurge.  I've never had this before, but chocolate + almonds = what's not to love?  I'm thinking this would go well on a Kashi cracker.  Too bad it's got 200 calories per 2 Tbsp.  If only they could find a way to dehydrate this...

Mystery Ingredient: Cake edition

I love sweets.  A lot.  Especially chocolate.  But obviously sweets tend to have a great deal of calories and very little nutrients.  I like the challenge of modifying dessert recipes to be lower sugar and lower fat, without resorting to artificial sweeteners and fake-y ingredients.  I found this one on Eating Well's website.  Here's a picture of the finished product (okay, admittedly I could've done without the mini chips on top, but they're just so cute!):

So what's the mystery ingredient?  Here are a few hints: adding it allows for way decreased oil, it provides some fiber and a big dose of Vitamin A...

Pumpkin!  I know what you're thinking- "gross!"- but the flavor of the cocoa overtakes any pumpkin taste, and allows for a moist, dense cake.  Bonus points to this recipe for using some whole wheat flour.  Here's a link to the recipe.  So far it gotten the approval of my husband and my coworkers:
Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake
P.S. You can swap out the 1 egg + 1 egg white for 3 egg whites (lower fat!  lower cholesterol!) and cut back the sugars by 25% and it'll still turn out the same. 

An apple a day...

Every fall one of my favorite traditions is going to the apple orchard.  Now that I'm living smack in the middle of the suburbs, it's a bit of a drive out to the country, but one well worth it.  On Saturday it was 70 degrees and perfectly sunny.  Stating the obvious, fall colors in Minnesota are beautiful.  The orchard we went to is pretty bare-bones- no cider, no fudge, aaaaaand no hordes of kids running around.  It is strictly an apple-picking orchard.  We met up with another couple and set off.  It wasn't before long that I'd filled my tote completely with 10 pounds of Haralsons.  Now around here, Honeycrisp are the most desired apple, but I prefer the baking variety, both for baking and eating.  Here are some pictures from the orchard:

Later on for dinner my husband was craving Chinese food, so we went to our neighborhood place, House of Wong.  It can be a nutrition nightmare to sort through the high calorie items on the menu, but your best pick tends to be either chicken & broccoli, or beef & broccoli (both about 600 calories for a 2-cup serving).  Watch out for the cream cheese wontons- full-fat cream cheese deep-fried ends up giving you 200 calories per one little wonton.  Sesame chicken, or other breaded & fried chicken entrees pack at least 1000 calories into a 2-cup serving!  Be a nutrition nerd like me- always find the nutrition facts before you go to the restaurant- have a plan!