Its All About the Lifestyle

The biggest misconceptions I hear from people wanting to eat healthy are people simply trying to eliminate calories from their diets. Sure drinking diet pop may help you lose a bit of weight, but its not really the calories that are the problem, its the fact that you drink 4 cans of pop a day! Diet or not, its still not healthy. The other option is people who severely limit their calories, but what they do eat is garbage. Health isn't about losing weight (although this is often a byproduct) it is about learning to eat foods that are good for your body, and incorporating activity into your lifestyle. I recently read a really great book called "The Cure for Everything" by Timothy Caulfield. For me it was a lot of common sense, and things I already knew, but it changed my perspective on how the average person thinks about food. One take away I got from this book was about weight loss & dieting. His message was that being healthy is a lifestyle choice, not a diet. Anyone can lose weight short term by limiting caloric intake, however maintaining a weight is a completely different story. This is where lifestyle choices come in. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about healthy lifestyles. And at the risk of my mother-in-law being disappointed, I urge you to check it out from a library rather than buy it.

The first step is activity. A great YouTube video 23 and 1/2 Hours: What is the Single Best Thing we can do for our Health is a good place to start. If you haven't seen it, I'd say this video is worth the 9 minutes. It talks about just moving. Taking the stairs, walking to work, mowing the lawn. Healthy lifestyles are all about the numbers. In our fast-paced lives, we often get in our car in our garage, drive to a parkade, take an elevator up, sit at a desk all day, and do the same thing in reverse at the end of the day. Many of us spend our whole days not moving, and its super unhealthy. (I can attest to this, I've spent the last 4 weeks sitting on my couch recovering from surgery, and I feel unhealthy). Although not all of us have time to fit in an hour long workout every day, how about taking the stairs to the 5th floor two or three times a day? Or walking 20 minutes to school or work?

The second step is paying attention to what you eat. I mean really paying attention. I thought I was a relatively healthy eater, and once I started paying attention, I realized how much idle snacking I really did. A handful of candied nuts from someone desks, three candies while waiting in line at the bank, a cupcake from a fundraiser, some free samples of cookies at the grocery store, and the list goes on. Just because we don't really bring junk food into our home doesn't mean we aren't exposed to it. When I started tracking my food diligently, I was amazed at how often little things snuck into my diet (and by diet I just mean everything I eat, not some fancy pants no carb only berries thing).  I started using a free online webtool (with a handy iPhone app...no they don't pay me to say these things, I only wish). I found this to be a great way to think about what I was eating. For me it was as much about tracking calories as it was about becoming more cognizant about what I was eating. When you are tracking your food, you start to think about whether you really need to eat those little food spoilers that you find everywhere. 

Here are a few tips that I have come up with to add into your life to help create a healthy lifestyle:

• Take the stairs. I know it may sound cliche, but I never take the elevator unless I am going up more than 6 floors. This is just my rule of thumb. I've (non-scientifically) tested this, and up to about 6 floors, it takes about the same time whether you walk or ride. 
• Start tracking what you eat. Whether you use the webtool I recommended, or just write it down in a book, tracking what you eat allows you to be more aware of what you putting into your body. Write down everything including water intake, juice, samples etc.
• Put the fruits/veggies on your plate first. This way there is less room for grains, meats and fats. 
• Only have one plate. Unless you are STARVING (aka you just ran a marathon) most people don't need more than one plateful of food in a single sitting.
• Snack! This may sound counter-intuitive, but a million studies have shown that people who eat small portions often are in better shape than people who gorge three times a day. With snacking though, be conscious of what you are eating. 

Microwave Mug Cake

As I've said before, I have an undeniable sweet tooth. Recently, I've been trying to curb those cravings, but also letting myself splurge a little bit. I've come up with the PERFECT solution. Firstly, I find that if I bake something, I eat all of it, because I don't want to waste anything. And baking also takes time, so it doesn't really help if I'm craving something sweet right now. This perfect solution is the microwave mug cake!

The idea first came to me from Pinterest, and ever since I have been scheming to make the perfect mug cake, with a combination of both deliciousness and healthy content.

The first cake I tried was a chocolate cake. I found that it was a bit dry, and lacked the richness that I associated with a good chocolate cake. I of course was substituting butter with apple sauce, but I found that as with all foods cooked in the microwave, they got dried out rather quickly. I didn't want to start adding in lots of fats (oils and butters) to keep the cake from being dry, nor did I want to put all of the sugar back in that I had so diligently taken out. My solution was to use either flavored and sweetened (with sucralose) yogourt (I found vanilla to be best, although I think cherry might mix well with the chocolate too) or apple sauce and fruit juice, as these contain natural sweeteners. The other part was to add a bit more liquid than I thought necessary.


Carrot Mug Cake

In a large mug combine and mix:

6 tbsp whole wheat bread flour
1 tbsp brown sugar, stevia or honey
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

To the dry mixture add:

3 tbsp apple juice (or pineapple juice)
3 tbsp grated carrot
2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix thoroughly and microwave for about 1.5 mins. I usually do it in 45 second intervals to make sure it doesn't get too dried out. Once the top is no longer gooey its ready to eat!

Super Healthy Butter Chicken

In 2008 I went to India for 3 weeks for my brother and sister in law's wedding. Prior to this trip I had little exposure to ethnic foods (I grew up in a small town and the diversity in foods consisted of about 5 pizza places and a Chinese restaurant). I was intrigued and delighted by the spices and herbs that were used to cook Indian food. I loved how each dish had a distinct smell and they were all good. Indian cuisine and I got along very well since I am a huge fan of spicy food (which is the exact opposite of how my father-in-law felt). Honestly; I put hot sauce or siracha on pretty much everything except cereal. At our favourite local hangout restaurant my favourite server has a box of hot sauces that she brings out the second I arrive in anticipation that I will request more spice on whatever I order. But I digress. What I'm getting at is that I fell in love with the curries and dips and varieties of rice that India had to offer. Once home we tried our best to replicate some of the amazing recipes we encountered. the first one was a simple rice dish with a hint of coconut and saffron. My favourite dish though had to be butter chicken. Now as the name implies, butter was a very common ingredient in many of the recipes I found. Most butter chicken recipes started with a base of 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of cream. As deliciously rich as that sounds, it wasn't something that I was interesting in putting in my body. I love butter chicken, but not enough to eat 1500 calories as my dinner! After much searching, and some substitutions I have come up with the perfect butter chicken recipe. This one is creamy and delicious, but lacks cream and most of the butter (although I have found that a little bit really is necessary). In the end this one is pretty healthy and will continue to find its way onto our dinner table!

Part of the problem with me starting a food blog is the fact that I don't really follow any recipes. Ever. The first time I make a dish I always try to follow a recipe, but I usually get bored and end up improvising very early on. The second piece is that I often try to "healthify" recipes on the fly; substituting butter with yogourt or sour cream, using vegetable stock in lieu of oil and whatever else I can do to reduce fat and calories from the delicious meals that we make. The problem with this really comes into play when I start trying to share the recipes I use with friends and family, since I don't really use a recipe. The last part is that I am crazy with spices. I often add things randomly and just test it to see if it tastes good. If not, I add something else to counter.

Below I have my best guess of my butter chicken recipe. Its healthy, high in protein and absolutely delicious!
We usually serve this over Coconut Rice and add vegetables such as steamed peas, corn, spinach, asparagus, green & wax beans on top.




Butter Chicken



Sauce
1/2 medium onion - diced fine
1/2 a container of fat free plain yogourt
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp honey
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cardamom
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp cayenne (or more if you like it spicy)
1/2 tsp cumin
1-2 tbsp ground ginger (put it in the freezer, and then grate away with a fine grater)


In a medium saucepan melt the butter on medium. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add lemon juice, honey and tomato paste; mix thoroughly. Add in yogourt and bring to a low boil. Add all spices and reduce heat to med-low. Cover and let simmer until chicken is done.





Chicken
5-6 chicken thighs or 3 chicken breasts (de-boned and without skin)
        - you could also use tofu to make this vegetarian, or a white fish would be tasty too!
1/3 red pepper - finely chopped
4 mushrooms - finely chopped
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp cumin
1/3 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp flour or corn starch.

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.In a bowl combine flour/corn starch with all spices. Mix thoroughly. Add chicken to spice mixture and coat evenly.

 In a large skillet or deep frying pan (the sauce will be added to the chicken later, so it should be a big pan) add the oil and heat on med-high. Once the pan is hot, add the peppers and mushrooms. Once the peppers start to soften, add the chicken and all of the spice mixture and saute until fully cooked. Turn heat down to medium. Once fully cooked add the sauce to the chicken pan. Mix thoroughly and let simmer.

Enjoy!

Coconut & Saffron Rice

Although I don't really eat a lot of rice, my husband love this recipe! I always have a little bit, but usually substitute steamed and mashed cauliflower for starches (rice, potatoes etc) for suppers.

Coconut & Saffron Rice
Enough for about 3 servings

2 cups light coconut milk
1 cup dry rice (any kind will do, if you use brown or wild rice you may need to add a bit of water)
1 pinch saffron threads, mulched so they are in tiny pieces (you can do this easily in the palm of your hand)
1 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes
15-20 oven roasted cashew nuts; chopped

1) Rinse rice under lukewarm water until the water runs clear. (I usually measure out 1 c, put it in the pot and the fill it up 3 or 4 times and stir and dump the water)
2) Add 2 cups light coconut milk to rice in pot. Cover and turn element to high. Watch closely. As soon as the pot starts to boil turn the element down to low and add in the saffron threads. . Let the rice simmer at a low boil until all of the liquid is gone. Once the liquid is gone, test the rice for texture. If using brown or wile rice (or your rice seems a bit crunchier that you would like) add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock. Let the rice cook a bit longer until it has the desired texture.
3) While your rice is cooking, take unsalted uncooked cashews and put on a cookie sheet. It is very important that they are unsalted. Cook at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes. Watch them VERY closely. As soon as they start to darken it is time to take them out. (It is very easy to over cook the nuts, so watching them is very important). Once the nuts are out of the over, dice them using either a large knife or you  can put them in a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin.
4) Once the rice is done, add the roasted cashews. Stir to incorporate the nuts.
5) To serve sprinkle the unsweetened coconut (you can toast this too with the cashews if you desire) on top of the rice.

Slow Week...& Snack Food

I had surgery on my right ankle this week. A Brostrom Procedure. Basically what this means is that I'm off of my feet for a while (read 8-10 weeks). Now this really sucks for someone who is used to being active. The first couple of days were fine, as I was taking percocet every 4 hours. This pretty much meant that I had an attention span long enough to watch Sesame Street. I tried watching real TV shows, but by the time I was watching an episode of the office for the third time and still not finding any of the jokes very funny, I thought it was time to move onto something less "brain intensive". So I spent a lot of time napping. On about day 5 I started weaning myself off of the percocet. I wanted to see how well I could manage without such a heavy duty drug, and also save what I had left for nighttime and sleeping. This mean that I was awake and coherent for many more hours of the day! Which is good, because I'm taking an Anatomy and Physiology course by correspondence at the moment and being awake is pretty key to studying.

As for the food part of this blog. I'm going crazy! I can't stand for any longer than about 5 to 10 minutes at a time or I am in extreme pain an my foot turns blue (I'm not even exaggerating). What this means is that nourishing myself has become rather difficult. I never realized how long food prep actually takes (even something "easy" like Kraft Dinner, takes a couple minutes;  stirring, checking the pot to see if its boiling, checking the noodles, walking from one side of the kitchen to the other with a pot of boiling water to strain into the sink, adding the milk & delicious cheese, more stirring...you get the point). So my options became very very limited. The other part of this, is that because I am limited in the exercise I can do while in recovery, I am trying to be very committed about healthy eating to make sure the 12 pounds I lost since Christmas don't jump right back onto my waistline; so microwave dinners are out. What my husband I decided was to prep a ton of healthy snacks so that I could easily grab something, and I wouldn't be tempted to say eat a whole box of crackers because that was easy to grab.

My husband ever so kindly moved our mini fridge into the living room for me, so now all I have to do is roll off the couch and all of my delicious snacks are at my fingertips!

The first thing I did was whip up a batch of  No Bake Energy Bars. I doubled the recipe, used all natural peanut butter, and slightly less honey (I found them too sweet otherwise)  used wheat germ, added slivered almonds and added freshly grated ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. I also used dark chocolate chunks from a Santa I got in my stocking.

I also did a few of the "normal" snack type things. Made a veggie tray, complete with broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrot, red peppers and mushrooms. I've been dipping them into 95% fat-free herb & garlic cream cheese. Which is delicious and WAY healthier than ranch dips. I made up a meat & cheese tray with pita bread. I used a few different types of low fat cheese as well as Eating Right sausage meat. Though a bit high in salt, they are really low in fat and rather delicious. To prevent myself from overeating the meat & cheese, I put them in Ziploc containers in layers separated by wax paper. Each layer contains about 75g of meat (~ 100 cal & 3g of fat) and 1-2 ounces of low fat cheese (~ 100 cal & 2g of fat). Add to that some freshly made pita from the local market, and voila a 300 calorie high protein fairly healthy snack.

I've also made up some amazing fruit trays. Lots of berries (thank goodness I had surgery in the spring when they are all in season), as berries contain a lot of antioxidants, and many are high in potassium (which is excellent when your body needs this due to the side effects of narcotic pain killers), tons of pineapple (again rich in antioxidants, high in Vit C - great for healing,  prevents arthritis - excellent for someone who just had joint surgery and promoted a healthy digestive system - again a great counter for narcotics), grapes and the occasional banana. I quickly got bored of just eating massive amounts of fruit, and decided that perhaps if I could spice things up a little bit... so I invented a healthy fruit dip!

Other than that, I made some vegetarian chili in my crock pot (recipe to follow shortly), so I have bean eating an insane amount of beans and tomatoes this week. And hopefully as time permits I'll be able to slowly progress back to the kitchen and try out some new recipes! 

Fruit Dip

To help cope with fruit becoming monotonous I came up with this delicious fruit dip. Super high in protein and calcium, very low in fat and 100% delicious!

Its very non-specific, and I didn't measure anything. I used strawberry yogourt, although I'm sure any flavour would be good. 

Dip 1

1/2 container of low fat cottage cheese

1/2 container fat free strawberry yogourt ( I actually used 2-3 little cups, the fruit on the bottom ones since I had those in my house and I think they have better flavour)

If you want to make it extra fancy (and way less healthy)

4-6 tbsp cool whip, or dream whip (or whipped cream)

1tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Mix it all together and enjoy! 

Dip 2

This is one my mom used to make for us as kids. I'm pretty sure we thought it was better than ice cream! Again I didn't really measure anything, just guessed and kept tasting until it was good. This one I just ate as yogourt rather than a dip, and added raw oats and berries to.

To a mostly full (you need some room to stir) container of fat-free vanilla yogourt add 1-2 tsp lemon juice and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix & enjoy. 

In all honesty you may need WAY more lemon and cinnamon than I have suggested...just start with those volumes and increase until you can taste both the cinnamon and the lemon! This one also tasted AMAZING as a frozen yogourt. I've got my ice cream make in the freezer at this exact moment so I can have frozen yogourt with berries for breakfast! 

Baking Soda Biscuits

While scouring the internet for recipes ideas tonight I had a craving for some of the baking soda biscuits my mom used to make. They were warm, fluffy on the inside crunchy on the outside and tasted amazing smothered in homemade jam. Unfortunately they are also FULL of butter and sugar. Two things which I am trying to stave off. Fortunately I have discovered my magic butter replacement YOGOURT!

I was a bit skeptical that these would turn out quite a rich and fluffy as the original recipe, but they turned out amazingly! As I was mixing up the dough my husband popped his head in the kitchen and asked if I was making cinnamon buns...so I decided to dust my little dough bites with nutmeg, cinnamon and a little bit of Splenda. Let's just say they were splendid!

I still put jam on mine

Fat-Free Baking Soda Biscuits

• 1 c plain fat free yogourt
• 2 c flour (any kind will do, I only had 80% ww on hand)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2-1 tsp baking soda
• cinnamon, nutmeg & sugar (to taste, if desired)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Add yogourt into dry mix. 
4. Get your hands messy! You'll need to knead (no pun intended) the dough to make sure everything is mixed properly. Add more yogourt if too dry or more flour if too wet. You can also add in a few tablespoons of milk if needed.
5. Split the dough into 2 pieces. Roll each of the pieces into logs, about 5cm in diameter (think about the size around as a Tim Bit).
6. Cut the log into bite sized pieces. Take each piece and roll into a Tim Bit sized ball.
7. If desired mix ~ 4 tbsp sugar/Splenda with enough cinnamon and nutmeg to taste in a small dish. Take each dough ball and roll into the sugar mixture and place on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake ~10 min or until tops start to brown. 
9. Enjoy!

Yield: Each little dough bite has about 50 calories (without sugar on top) and are virtually fat free! 

Baking the Healthy Way!

I'm a sucker for baking! I love cakes, and cookies and muffins and squares and pies and danishes and tarts. I could eat just baking for days on end and be very, very happy (and also be pleasantly plump!). Because of this love, both to bake and to eat said baking, I have been recently learning to modify a lot of recipes (and creating some new ones of my own).

The two biggest things that make baking so unhealthy (and fluffy & delicious) are butter/fats and refined sugars. I was under the impression for a very long time that these were completely necessary in order for baking to taste good. Otherwise, its just gross health-food, not sinful chocolate cake! What I have learned over the last little while, is that these are not necessary ingredients! There are plenty of other ways to add and maintain moisture (what butter does) and to make baking sweet (that's the sugar's job). The best butter substitutes are plain, unsweetened apple sauce and fat-free yogourt. I usually just replace butter with a 1:1 ratio of apple sauce or yogourt. Now won't these change the flavour you ask? I'm baking a chocolate cake, not an apple cake...well the great news is that they don't! Even in something where using apple sauce might seem counter-intuitive. For example, I sub it in for chocolate cake all the time, and it tastes just like normal chocolate cake, and with more moisture! Adding yogourt makes for a little bit denser cakes, but also a bit richer in my opinion. It gives brownies the melt in your mouth feeling!

All that being said, I prefer to use apple sauce as a butter substitute, because it ALSO serves as a sugar substitute! I find that 1c of apple cause replaces about 1/2 - 3/4c sugar (depending on the recipe). So you may still have to add a bit of sugar to your recipe (but not nearly as much as was originally called for). If you do need to add sugar, brown or raw sugars are best (they are less refined). You can also use Stevia (which is an all natural sugar substitute, and no it isn't aspartame or the likes and can be purchased at most health food stores and in some grocery stores.). If you are trying to cut out sugar for weight loss only reasons, and aren't completely health conscious you could also add in a few some artificial aspartame based sweeteners as required. Another good sugar substitute is other fruit purees. Which you can either buy, or make yourself. I caution against using jams, as they are usually FULL of sugar and the pectin in them can change the consistency of your baking. Apple or guava are the best purees since they add sweetness without adding too much flavour. Wheres most berries add a lot of flavour. Pear puree can work too, although the flavour is often recognizable. Pineapple juice and puree are also great to use, especially in spice cakes, or muffins, where the acetic acid in the pineapple actually helps to enhance the flavour of some of the spices. Yum! Another great way, as weird as it sounds is citrus rind. It doesn't add sweetness in the same way that sugar does, but it adds flavour and tartness and you don't even realize you're missing the sugar!

A great way to keep moisture in your baking is to add veggies to it. What? Veggies in my chocolate cake you say? Now i'm not suggesting that you throw a bunch of beats or lettuce in your muffins, but there are some veggies that work well! Well we've been making carrot spice loafs, pumpkin pies and chocolate zucchini cakes for ages and there is a reason for it! It helps to keep baking moist! Sweet potato or yams can also add moisture and sweetness too! Just bake them whole, scoop the insides out, mash them up and add them in place of some of the butter! Yummy!

Learning to bake in a healthy way sometimes requires a bit of trial and error, and I have found that many of the recipes I find on the internet need a bit of alteration or substitution to get them just right. Sometimes its baking at a higher or lower temperature, and sometimes it means adding more or less of a specific ingredient.  I will be posting a few of the healthy baking inspired recipes that I have made over the next few days!

Now baking can be (almost) guilt free!