Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

3 Tips for Easy Meal Planning

Friday, January 16th, 2009
Thomas Andrew asked:


Where has the family dinner hour gone? There once was a time when we would all come home from a long day and sit down with our family for a nice home-cooked meal. In today’s fast paced world, we need more bonding time with the family. One might say that in today’s day where people pile way too much on the plate of life, that it is impossible to have a family dinner everyday. I disagree. Wouldn’t you like to get back to the way it used to be?

One way to make family dinners easier to prepare is by planning ahead. Often times I find myself going to the grocery store every other day to pick up needed items, and this is how family time gets lost. Spend a little time planning out dinner ideas for the coming week. Pick meals that are quick and easy for your dinners during the week and save the more time consuming recipes for the weekend. Did you know that software has been developed that makes meal planning a breeze? With a click of the mouse you can organize your recipe collection into daily meal plans complete with nutrition facts and shopping lists. With the computer generated shopping list you won’t have to worry about forgetting a needed item when you go grocery shopping.

Another great way to ensure that your family eats together most nights of the week is to share the responsibility of preparing dinner. It can be difficult for one family member to be responsible for cooking everyday. Each member of the family can take turns cooking each night. This is also a good way to add some new flavors to your meals since each member may have a different cooking technique. For those family members who don’t cook often, this can prove to be a great learning experience. Review each family member’s weekly schedule and delegate the meal preparation tasks such as grocery shopping, cooking, and clean up. Working as a team is a great way to build strength as a family.

“Not meatloaf again!” I’m sure everyone has heard the complaints from that same meal being served week after week. Keep your family dinners exciting by trying different variations of your favorite recipes. An even better idea would be to test out some new recipes. Surprise your family with a delicious new dinner tonight and they will be sure to come back to the dinner table tomorrow.

Nothing is more important than your family. It’s worth the effort to make sure that your family eats together daily. Besides the needed nutrition, this time spent together will help open the lines of communication and make your family bond stronger.

I recently discovered an online service that saves time and money while providing you with new dinner ideas daily. Get access to powerful recipe management software, daily meal plans, money saving coupons and more at SendMeRecipes.



Ted

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Healthy Minestrone Soup Recipe

Sunday, December 14th, 2008
Patricia Church asked:


What sounds more cozy and satisfying on a chilly day, or when the sun fades and it finally cools down in the evening, than a comforting bowl of flavorful soup? In addition to the warmth and comfort soup can offer, it’s also a “secret weapon” for both improved health AND weight loss!

A study was performed in a laboratory in which twenty-four lean women ate breakfast, lunch and dinner under supervision in the lab on one day a week for a total of four weeks. On three of the four days, these women ate one of three different types of “snacks” seventeen minutes before sitting down to the lunch meal. One type of pre-lunch “snack” was a measured portion of chicken and rice casserole. The second type was the same amount of chicken and rice casserole served with a glass of water. The third type was a bowl of chicken and rice soup, which contained the exact same measured amounts of both the casserole and the water that had previously been served separately.

The average amount of calories these women ate at lunch following the pre-lunch snack of soup was significantly lower than on the other days when either just the casserole or the casserole plus a glass of water was ingested prior to the meal. Also, these women did not compensate for the smaller calorie intake at lunch by eating a larger dinner later in the day.

The result of this study suggests that eating soup can help a person to feel full and satisfied while taking in fewer calories. This is just one reason soup is considered to be an essential component of the Tortoise Diet’s “Daily Seven for Success.” Regularly enjoying broth-based soups filled with colorful vegetables and heart-healthy legumes is an easy way to increase the intake of fiber, phytonutrients, vitamins and low-fat protein- all in one satisfying bowl. In addition, eating a hot liquidy concoction, one spoonful at a time, forces a person to slow down the act of eating. This allows the stomach to get the “I’m full” message sooner, so over-eating is less likely.

You’ll find several excellent recipes for delicious, nutrient-dense soups in my book, The Tortoise Diet. The following is just one of the many “How Low Can You Go?” recipes you’ll find located in Appendix C. All of these recipes are intended not only to be nutritious, but to be quick and easy enough for anyone to be able to regularly whip up in their own kitchen. Making this recipe for Minestrone Soup, for example, requires just a few minutes to gather the ingredients, clean and chop the vegetables, open a few cans, and toss everything into a pot.

Once the soup has simmered for an hour or so, you’ll have a week’s worth of individual servings to place into serving-sized containers and pop into the refrigerator or freezer. Throughout the week, it will be a snap to toss one of these containers into a lunch bag, to take with you when you leave the house. The frozen container will help to keep the contents of your lunch bag chilled until you are ready to pop it into the microwave to heat and eat.

So, for your health and for your weight loss … EAT LOTS OF SOUP!

THE TORTOISE DIET RECIPE FOR MINESTRONE SOUP

Place all of the following ingredients into a large stockpot:

1 can fat-free chicken broth plus 32 ounces of water ( may delete the broth and instead use three chicken, vegetable or beef bullion cubes, if desired) 2 cans stewed tomatoes, including liquid 1 can great northern beans, garbanzo beans, or cannellini beans, including liquid 1 can kidney beans, including liquid 2 cans cut green beans, including liquid 1 can (12 ounces) vegetable juice (like V-8) 2 stalks celery, diced 3 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces 1 small onion, diced 1 whole bay leaf 2 cloves garlic, cut into fourths and placed into the broth 1 teaspoon oregano 1½ teaspoons dried thyme 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes Salt and pepper, to taste

Add salt only after the soup has been simmering for 30 minutes or so, after you’ve tasted it, as the liquids already added contain salt.

Simmer for 1 to 2 hours until vegetables are tender.

During the last ½ hour or so of simmering, add 1/4 cup (dry) tiny elbow pasta. During the last 5 minutes of simmering, add 2/3 cup green peas.

Entire recipe = approximately 1,500 calories.

Sprinkle each serving with 2 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese, if desired (adds 50 calories).



Todd

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Healthy Recipes Anyone Will Enjoy

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Jim Mackey asked:


Weight Watchers is infamous for being one of the only proven, tried-and-true weight loss programs on the market. Many overweight men and women have used Weight Watchers through the years to lose a little or even a lot of weight, improve their health, and learn how to live a better life. Weight Watchers promotes healthy diet and exercise and provides a plethora of information on how to fit a healthy diet into a busy lifestyle.

Weight Watchers has not only published many cookbooks but has also made available an entire line of frozen food entrees that are inexpensive, affordable, healthy, and fast. Many people are under the misconception that Weight Watchers is only for people concerned about their weight; however Weight Watchers can be for everybody. Anyone can enjoy Weight Watchers’ recipes everyday.

WHEN COOKING, REMEMBER THE F WORD!

In December 2007, a special on BBC America’s ‘Chef Gordon Ramsay’s: The F Word’ was featured about the notion of eating Christmas dinner every night. The special highlighted the points that if families made a home cooked meal every night for dinner the results would be a healthier diet (since everything is cooked from scratch), less money spent on eating out, and a tighter family bond from eating at the table together. Clearly, not everyone has the time or energy to cook an entire Christmas dinner every night, however with a little planning and resourcefulness it can be very easy to cook at home more often. Online and in print, Weight Watchers has published thousands of recipes that are not only healthy and tasty, but also cost-effective and fast. Most Weight Watchers meals can be prepared and cooked in less than 30 minutes and use common, inexpensive ingredients.

SO MANY CHOICES…SO LITTLE TIME

Planning a home cooked meal every day can be a daunting task for most people, however it really doesn’t need to be. Many Weight Watchers recipes incorporate several of the same ingredients such as Orange Balsamic Chicken, Crusty Chicken Pot Pie, and Italian Stuffed Chicken. Choosing recipes that are similar then saves you time and money at the grocery store since you do not need to remember to buy many extra ingredients that you wouldn’t normally use every day. Weight Watchers recipes also teach you how to use healthier ingredients in every day life, such as olive oil instead of butter, grains instead of starches, and leaner proteins like chicken, turkey and fish instead of red meats. The best part of Weight Watchers recipes is that most of them are available for free online. Clearly, Weight Watchers has mastered the art of combining healthy living with simplicity.

You might be thinking anything classified as a diet recipe is going to be bland, unsatisfying, leaving you hungry and missing out on your favorite foods. Not a chance! Weight Watchers has recipes in every category imaginable, like Asian or Mexican , breads, soups, Crock Pot dinners, grilled, salads and of course dessert.



Joann

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Great Tasting Low Carb Recipe

Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Greg Haehl asked:


The liver is an amazing organ. Tasked with removing toxins from the body, the liver acts as a natural filter. However, with today’s poor, overly processed dietary habits and overindulgence, it is easy for your liver to become overwhelmed and “clogged”.

Many people are beginning diets that encourage low carb recipes these days. But, what are low carb recipes? What things can and cannot be made into a low carb recipe? Following your diets strict guidelines is important, but using the Internet as a tool will help you. For instance, you may do a search for quick recipes and come up with many low carb options. There are many different diets to choose from that have low carb rules.

But, many recipes may also be able to be changed into low carb by making simple changes. Meat recipes are probably the most oblivious choice including chicken as it is such a healthy option in most cases. But, what about other choices? Cookie recipes may be the most difficult to find, but choices for sweets will be found. What about a special occasion? Yes, you can easily find easy gourmet recipes as well. Make in advance crockpot recipes? Yes, those too will be found with a little devoted looking.

The best option in finding these hard to find recipes would be too look on your low carb diet’s website. You can also do a search for the exact thing or just a category using the Internet. Whatever means you choose, you will find many options to low carb recipes out there. Low carb recipes need to be healthy as well as follow the guidelines specified in your diet’s plan. So, it is safe to say, that you will need to research what items you may and may not eat when following these diets by looking through the materials you have purchased or visiting the websites sponsored by those diets. Questions to asked and get answered include knowing the difference between good carbs and bad carbs. Dietitians recommend eating complex carbs because these are full of fiber, phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals. Other carbs are ones, usually the ones to avoid are simple carbs which contain lots of sugar! There are more things to ask about your diet as well such as the different phases or just how to live a low carb life.

So what is detoxification (detox)? To put it very simply it’s “getting the garbage (toxins) out of your body without putting any more in”. Toxins can be heavy metals, pesticides, too much vitamin A or chemical residues from the polluted air we breathe or the junk food we eat, which contains sugar salt, artificial colors and flavors. All these are stored mainly in the fatty tissues of the body and can play havoc with your health if they build up to excess or if you have a sensitivity.

Once you know the information you need to choose which low carb recipes you are allowed or those that you are restricted from, changing your favorite recipes into low carb gets easier. Chicken and other meat recipes will be the easiest to switch maybe with very little effort. In certain diets, you are allowed to eat more vegetables, but are restricted on which ones. So instead of having a baked potato with your dinner, you have a baked sweet potato instead. The sweet potato has less of the “bad carbs” then the sweet potato. Maybe instead of fries at your favorite restaurant, you get a salad. When it comes to making things at home, you need recipes that contain good carbs in the correct amounts for your diet.

A crock pot meal may contain a meat choice and fresh veggies, but leave out the potatoes or noodles. There are many choice you will need to make when looking for low carb recipes, but overall, it will be easy to find ones that will fit your taste buds. The most important things to understand are the rules of your low carb diet or lifestyle. Knowing which carbs you can and cannot eat, is the entire battle! Detox diets are used to refer to diets, herbs, and other methods of removing environmental and dietary toxins from the body for general health.

To detoxify one must assist the body in its natural cleansing process, or accelerate it. By following a healthy diet thus enabling the body’s organs to flush out the toxins more effectively, taking exercise and particularly long saunas to sweat out the toxins then the process is greatly effective.



Andrea

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