Veggie Straws

Hello!  Do you remember the post I added so long ago, about the vegetable drink V8?  Well, a few days ago, I came up with a cool idea.  Many times, it is very hard to get children to eat right.  They only want to munch on the foods that are the most tasty, which are usually not that good for you.  But a lot of people’s suggestions are to get them to eat the healthy foods while still making it fun.  For example, on Tuesday, I realized that if you sip V8 with a Veggie Straw it is much more fun that just drinking it normally.  Although if you use one straw for too long, it sorta gets soggy.  But that’s okay, eat it, and get another one!  That is just one way to get a child to have a few servings of vegetables, and they’ll enjoy it, too!

These are the somewhat healthy chips that you can drink the amazingly healthy V8 with!...And this is the awesome drink!

...And this is the awesome drink!

Phenomenal Spinach & Mushroom Fettuccine

Hello!  First of all, I wanted to let you guys know that today (December 4th) is International Hug Day!  So be sure to deliver a big hug to someone you care about.  Sorry, that was way off topic.  Oh, well!   

Today, I’m going to share with you another recipe: Spinach & Mushroom Fettuccine.  It is a delicious pasta dish that gives you a big serving of vegetables and tons of fiber: 8 grams per serving!  It will quickly fill you up, and you will love it.  Last night, I ate it, and I was barely hungry for breakfast!  Anyway, here is the recipe for Phenomenal Spinach & Mushroom Fettuccine. 

This is a picture of the finished product…

Serves 6-8

 

Ingredients:

• 13.25 oz. whole grain fettuccine
• 16 oz. chopped frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 lemon
• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup shredded/grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup half-and-half
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cloves garlic

1. Grate 1/2 tsp lemon zest and squeeze 3 tsp lemon juice.
2. Cut butter into pieces.
3. In a blender or food processor, whir the spinach, garlic, lemon zest and juice, half-and-half, 1 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper until smooth.
4. Saute sliced mushrooms in oil for about 7 minutes.
5. Heat a large pot of water.
6. When the water comes to a boil, add the fettuccine.
7. Cook until the pasta is done.
8. Drain the pasta in a colander and put it back in the pot.
9. Stir in the spinach mixture, the mushrooms, and the cheese.
10. Toss until the pasta is coated.
11. Enjoy!

This pasta is a very good meal. It takes a very short time to make it, at the most 30 minutes.   As I said, it has a lot of fiber and it gives you at least a serving of veggies.  The original recipe had ham in it, but we substituted it with mushrooms to make it healthier.  With them, you won’t miss the meat.  You can also add green tobasco sauce if you want a little spice.  This pasta tastes wonderful.  I’m sure that you’ll love this dish!

Good Snacks

Hello!  Have you ever had the experience in which you are super hungry, but you don’t feel like eating anything healthy?  Well, I know how it feels.  You really want to stick to your diet, but your tastebuds are telling a different story.  Then, you somehow convince yourself that it will be okay, you can eat just one piece of that cake, and nothing will happen.  Just one small piece.  And before you know it, you have eaten three slices, you’re feeling extremely guilty, and you are wondering how you convinced yourself to eat that.  I understand that some healthy foods don’t taste that good, but most of them are pretty good!  Here are some helpful tips to choose the perfect snack…

• First of all, nothing is more healthy than vegetables, if you like them.  If you don’t, then ignore this tip.
• The next best thing is fruits.  Fruits are so juicy, flavorful, and sweet!  Grab an easy-to-eat fruit like a banana or a clementine.
• Plain or lightly seasoned nuts are healthy and delicious, too.  Almonds are especially good for you.  Peanuts, pistachios, and any other nut is fine, as long as you eat in moderation.  Remember, nuts are high in fat, so only eat the serving size.
• Some cereals are good snacks as well.  Any kind of Cheerios is very heart-healthy. 
• But do not, I repeat, DO NOT snack on cereal bars.  Although they may seem healthy, they are loaded with sugar and weird ingredients. 
• The foods with the least ingredients and no preservatives are the best.  Have you seen those wacky ingredients on some foods?  They contain things like Yellow 45, or Blue Lake.  Who would want to eat that?
• Finally, anything in strict moderation is fine.  Some snacks aren’t good for you, but they aren’t that bad, either.  (Like Goldfish.  Yum!  Whenever we have a carton at my house, I get ‘addicted’.  That also happens with Animal Crackers.  Don’t be like me… 🙂 )

Thanks for reading my tips!

Restaurants: How to Choose Your Next Meal…

Hello, everyone!  Today’s post will be about restaurants.  I probably just confused you, didn’t I?  I have recently written about buffets, and you might be thinking, well, what’s the difference?  These are both places where we gorge uncontrollably on delicious food.  But there is actually a big difference.  While in buffets, you can go back for more food whenever you want, in restaurants, you are limited to a few plates (appetizers, a salad, a main course, etc.)  In this way, restaurants are generally more safe than buffets.  But they still aren’t the healthiest places in the world.  There are many ways to limit yourself in restaurants.  Here are a few….

First of all, look at the menu carefully before making your decision.  First, look at the salads.  Decide whether you would enjoy any of them.  Remember, your home-made salads could be boring, but all items served at restaurants are top quality.  You can guarantee that all of the healthy foods will also be delicious.  After you have chosen one, look at the rest of the menu.  Pick out all the meals that look healthy.  Usually, soups, sandwiches, fish, and anything that has a lot of veggies is pretty good for you.  Finally, look at all your choices.  Choose the one that looks the best to you.  That’s what you should order.  Also, if you aren’t planning to bring any leftovers home, consider ordering a smaller version of your choice if there is one.  That way, you will be eating a healthy meal, while also not overeating. 

You should also watch out for the appetizers.  If you get to choose what they will be, be sure to choose something healthy.  If not, don’t eat too much of them.  Take a tiny bit of each.  Remember, this isn’t your main course, and you want to leave room for later.  After you have eaten a little bit, pretend that there isn’t anything else on the table.  Ignore the appetizers and hope that your entre will be coming fast.  If you are starving, drink some water.  At least it will be a little like eating!  Suck on an ice cube.  It will keep your mouth entertained.  But if you are simply starving, take a small amount more.  Then try to wait. 

Finally, if you have been to this restaurant before, and you stuff yourself every time, plan accordingly.  Try to eat less than you usually do.  If you start to eat more than this, remind your self of past experiences there.  You don’t want to have that guilty, bloated sensation again, do you?  A good example is with me and Mexican food.  Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, I always come out stuffed (like yesterday!)  I don’t have that many tortilla chips, but I do have a tortilla covered in melted cheese as an appetizer.  And the main meals are so humungous!  Also, my family went to Ted’s yesterday, and they served free sopapillas with honey for dessert!  So the next time I’m coming, I’m having everything I usually have, but I’ll take the Lite portion of the main course, which is half of the normal serving.  If this doesn’t work, I think I’ll cut out the main meal entirely and stick with the delicious tortillas and the carrots at the begining, and not feel guilty when I stuff myself with sopapillas.  (Aw, man!  Now I feel like eating Mexican food!)

Mmmmm....sopapillas..........

Anyway, try to follow these rules, and you probably won’t feel as bad next time.

Salad

There are many healthy foods that everyone should eat.  Salad is one of them.  But not many people like salad, which is a problem.  If you have more salad in your diet, you will be healthier and losing weight will be more easy.  Here are some tips to get those leaves down….

The most easy way to get salad into your daily life is to buy it ready-made.  You can find salads almost anywhere you can find food: grocery stores, at a restaurant, in parties, you name it.  Buy one for a meal.  Get a big one so it will fill you up.  And this way, you will have a perfect meal that is as delicious as any unhealthy grub.  Those professionaly-made salads come with so many different toppings, dressings, and are wonderfully flavorful.  There are so many different kinds that you won’t feel that you missed out on a great meal at a restaurant.  And speaking of restaurants, Panera Bread has the most amazing salads…  You will definitely enjoy the food. 

This is a salad you can get at Panera Bread.

Or, an even better way to enjoy salad is to make your own.  That way, you can choose your favorite toppings, any kind of dressing, and make it personalized.  If you don’t like an ingredient that is normally put in salad, you don’t have to add it.  It will be your own perfect meal.  When we buy our salad, we usually try new things to make it interesting.  We experiment with different types of leaves, and buy a different dressing every time the old one runs out.  We don’t put any other toppings on it, but there are many other ways you can make it.  Add nuts, fruits, cheeses, croutons, whatever you desire.  Try to eat this healthy food at least once a day.

Superb Spaghetti With Veggies

Today, I will be giving you another recipe.  Just like the mixed berry smoothie, this is one of my mom’s amazing creations.  It is very good for you.  One serving has 12 grams of fiber, and you also get at least two servings of vegetables, one in the sauce, and one from the actual veggie toppings.  It takes a very short time to make, and, as you can probably can already tell from the title of this post and the picture, it’s superb!  Here is the recipe…..

This is what the spaghetti looks like.

 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 16 oz whole grain spaghetti
• 1 tbs butter
• Newman’s Own Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 red bell pepper
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tsp dried oregano leaves
• ½ tsp dried basil leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbs oil
• parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Boil 4-6 quarts of water.
2. After it comes to a boil, add the salt and pasta.
3. Cook for 7 minutes.
4. Drain with a colander.
5. Add the butter.
6. For the sauce, heat the oil in the pan.
7. Saute the mushroom slices in the oil for 5 minutes.
8. Add the zucchini and bell pepper, and saute it for 1 minute.
9. Add the garlic, and saute that for 1 more minute.
10. Add salt, pepper, the sauce, and the oregano and basil.
11. Let that simmer for 10 minutes.
12. Put the sauce on the pasta, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, and serve while it’s warm.

This pasta is one of my favorite dinners.  It is filling, and the vegetables taste wonderful in it.  The zucchini becomes nice and firm, and the mushrooms add an interesting texture similar to meat, so you won’t miss it.  The sauce is very colorful.  You might think you are in an actual Italian restaurant!  I hope you enjoy our spaghetti!

What To Do At Buffets……

Buffets are one of the most difficult aspects of healthy eating.  You might be really happy, eating healthy and staying trim, but then, one day, your family decides to go to a buffet for dinner.  How can you resist coming along?  Once you get there, your eyes will be darting from here to there, your mouth watering tremendously.  There’s so many different types of food!  And then, if you’re like me, you will want to try every single thing in that place, piling your plate high with a little bit of everything.  You’ll eat like you haven’t eaten for months!  You’ll go back for seconds to get the delicious-looking morsels that didn’t fit on your plate, and also, the ones that you just tried and that your taste buds find especially spectacular.  And you’ll come back a third time for dessert, and will choose an amount way more than neccessary.  When you finally waddle out of that restaurant, you will feel almost pregnant with food and really, really guilty.  Now this is sorta okay if you don’t do this often, say, once in two to three months, but if this happens every weekend, you’ve just started dieting, and/or if you’ve been having a tough time keeping your weight down, something has to change.

When it comes to buffets, I'm like this guy.....

I know it might be a little hard to break all those habits, but at least try to use my suggestions so that you get better at ‘The Art of Buffeting’.

1. Take only 1 plate of food. 

This doesn’t include dessert :).  You might want to first go around and see what foods there are, and then decide which ones that you want to take, and which ones just aren’t worth it.  If you have come to the buffet before, try to remember which foods you liked and which ones you didn’t care for.  Also, this doesn’t mean piling two platefulls of food on one plate.  Your meal should be pretty flat.

2. 1 serving of grains = 1 handful. 

You have to be careful with this rule.  If you want to take some rice, take only a palmful.  If you also want bread, take smaller portions of each.

3. Take some veggies. 

Try to take at least one serving of vegetables.  There are usually very good cooked vegetable dishes at buffets.

4. Order water as your drink.

Sodas and other drinks are almost always bad for you.  Don’t drink them!

5. Finally, be careful with dessert.

Don’t take too much; if you know you’ll be coming back to the buffet and the menu doesn’t usually change, only try a few desserts.

 

I hope you will try my tips, and that they will work for you!

Vegetables…They’re Not That Bad!

I know, I know, I’m sure what you’re thinking:  Vegetables?!  No!  I don’t like this diet already!  But trust me, they’re not that bad!  Veggies should be very important in everyone’s eating life, and I will show you easy ways to incorporate them into your meals. 

One easy way to get vegetables into your diet is to buy a veggie tray.  You can usually find them in the fruits and vegetables aisle in the grocery store.  Buy the big tray, and keep it in your fridge in your home or office, or where ever you go when you are hungry.  Then, when you want a snack, pull out the tray and eat!  A good thing about vegetables is that you can eat them to your heart’s content.  Veggies are the most healthy food you will ever find.  You can gorge on them.  You can eat them when ever you want.  And you’ve probably heard that if you munch on celery, you will spend more energy than it will give you.  Yes, vegetables are great!  And veggie trays come with ranch dressing, too!  Ranch makes vegetables so much yummier!  But you should know that while you can eat as many vegetables as you want, go easy on the ranch.  It isn’t the healthiest thing in the world.  But some vegetables like cherry tomatoes don’t need that much dressing, so if you don’t need the ranch, don’t eat it.  But otherwise, veggie trays are amazing! 

This is the veggie tray that my family normaly buys.  We usually buy one once a week!

Another way to get more veggies is to buy V8.  V8 is a type of juice made out of 100% vegetables!  But it doesn’t taste like it, it’s just like tomato juice.  It has a lot of calcium, and many different essential vitamins like Vitamin C and A.   And one serving of this delicious juice (8 ounces) has 2 servings of vegetables in it!  That’s 1/5 of the daily requirement!  Here is the V8 website if you want to learn more…..

V8 Website

Finally, to get the required amount of vegetables, you can look up recipes with them in it, add them to desserts, (you usually can’t taste them at all that way), or just go crazy at the grocery store.  Just roam the aisles, looking for interesting vegetables.  Try new veggies!  Then you’ll never get bored!  And remember, there’s no limit to vegetables!