Monday, November 28, 2011

7 stress busters

Everybody has stress and with the holidays coming up more and more stress seems to be threatening to overwhelm us. Eat Well had 7 Stress Bsuters

1. Inhale lavender

2. Cut into a coconut - the scent of coconut may reduce your natural fight or flight response. It might help to slow your heart rate.

3. The smell of green apples is said to help alleviate headaches.

4. Drinking caffeinated black, green or oolong tea. It is suppose to improve attention and focus. They say five to six 8 oz. cups of tea daily.

5. Peppermint is suppose to stop the urge to overdo it. If you're like my friend Shelley and allergic to it...this one isn't for you. The article said that everyone who "wafted" (who uses that word anymore?) peppermint oil under their nose every two hours rated their hunger level lower, experienced fewer cravings and ate significantly less. Who has time to do this every two hours?!

6. Chocolate! Yep it's back. Eating dark chocolate can help reduce levels of cortisol and hormones associated with stress.

7. Eat carbs can stimulate the release of serotonin which is the feel good brain chemical. Woo hoo! I like carbs. Of course they want you to opt for whole grains (quinoa and oatmeal for instance) so that you get more fiber and nutrients.

Chocolate

In the current issue of Eating Well there is an article about "Is Chocoalte a Cure-All? I would say no because while I like chocoalte I'm not one of the women who go ga ga over it. Give me meat and/or potatoes over it any day.

They did have some cute facts though. According to them 60% of women ranked chocolate as the most smile-worthy experience edging out other people smiling and loved one. Men's top picks were a Sunday roast. YAY. I vote with men this time.

It is also suppose to help you see better. In fact if people have trouble seeing movement and direction of movement at night it might be improved with some dark chocolate (over time of course).

The third thing it said was that it's a diet food. Now mind you the "preliminary findings" were from Hershey (can we say a biased point of view?). Hershey research says that natural cocoa has more flavanols than dutch processed cocoa which may prevent some fats and starches in other foods from being absorbed.

So the recipe they give for making your own cocoa is:

Combine 1 tablespoon natural cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon sugar in a mug. Swril in 1 cup steaming low fat milk. Spice it up with an add in.

Possible add ins:

orange peel and ground coves
ground cardamon and vanilla
chili pwder and cinnamon

I might have to check it out. Not sure on the cardamon part but vanilla sounds good.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

left over site

Have problems thinking what to make with left overs or you have some ingredients on hand but don't know what to make with them? Check out this site....

http://www.bigoven.com/recipes/leftovers (thank you Connie for directing me there).

I put in three ingredients to test it out - fennel, carrots, potatoes. It came up with 52 recipes. The one that I will use for inspiration will be simple and basically just roasted veggies. I will use Mrs. Dash seasonings so that Tony can have some also.

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/43906/Roasted-Onions,-Potatoes,-Carrots-and-Fennel-%28r-T%29

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Roasted Fennel

Today's recipe comes from simplyrecipes.com. I bought some fennel at the grocery store this morning. I have eaten it before but never prepared it myself. This would be an attempt to branch out of my eating doldrums. About the only time I eat something different is when somebody else prepares it. LOL. So...this week I am going to make Roasted Fennel. I also bought some potatoes and carrots so I'm sure I will be roasting them also. It's such a good Autumn thing. Of course after I roast the potatoes and carrots (which I know I will like) I will have to limit myself so that I don't sit and eat them all in one setting. :)

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Roasted Fennel Recipe

Normally fennel tastes like a cross between celery, cabbage, and licorice. Roasting, however, brings out an entirely new flavor - as if pine nuts decided to join the party.

Ingredients

2 fennel bulbs (thick base of stalk), stalks cut off, bulbs halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise in 1-inch thick pieces
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.

2 Rub just enough olive oil over the fennel to coat. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar, also to coat. Line baking dish with Silpat or aluminum foil. Lay out the pieces of fennel and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until the fennel is cooked through and beginning to caramelize.
Yield: Serves 4.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

New and old stuff

Trying to relearn nutrition is not easy. I did manage to down a new (free) app for my android phone though. They also have a website called....

http://fatsecret.com/

It will help track my progress as well as give recipes, etc. Another fun app that I found called Calorie Counter. That app is fun also because it will allow me to scan in a bar code of a food item and it will bring up the nutiriotnals. Then it allows me to save it for future use and I can save it to my "eating plan" and it will apply it to the daily nutritionals/calories. It also has some recipes. One that caught my eye was:

Turkey Soft Tacos. Nothing especially surprising in it. Tortillas, taco seasoning, cooked ground turkey, shredded mozzarella cheese shredded or chopped lettuce, plum tomatoes and water. I will have to look for more recipes in it.

Time to get back to some work.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Abundant Harvest recipes

These recipes came from Hy-Vee's in house magazine - deliciousliving - November 2011

Tomorrow will be some Bison info and recipes. No more on this blog for today...I promise.

Recipe - Maple-Roasted Sweet Potatoes