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!