Since starting school and starting birth control pills in July, I have gained right around ten pounds. I think it may have been more like fifteen at once (aww, I gained my Freshman Fifteen… at age 30…) but I’ve lost about five of those. I really think it’s more the pill than the school… while I am busy, it does seem harder to lose weight now. But I have had only one period since July and no PMS, so… that’s worth it. I’ll learn to deal! Admittedly, I have been eating like a total hog. And now I have a sinus infection on top of that, but I’m trying to work through it.
So here’s the deal: I really must eat better! We’ve slipped into a habit of eating out way too often, and too many convenience foods- the take & bake pizzas from the grocery store deli, frozen packaged Chinese meals, etc. Which probably has a lot to do, also, with why I got sick. When I’m eating right, I never get sick.
No more. The unhealthy eating habit is done as of yesterday. I’ve got to get it together and start cooking again. And posting recipes again. I know I can find a balance where I can make healthy meals that are fairly quick/easy, and I’m going to share them with you. Starting tonight! I’m going to be making some soup, so stay tuned for that recipe later. It snowed last night, so today is a perfect soup day.
If anyone has any fairly easy and healthy recipes they’d like to share, please email them to me at rachelspangler at gmail dot com. I’d love to try your recipes out and share them here!
Remember the time my husband argued that Froot Loops was better for you than Raisin Bran? And then I made that big post comparing the nutrition information and proved that it really wasn’t? Well. I’m about to go all nutrition nerd on you again.
We’ve all heard it said, I’m sure:
“Salads from fast food places are worse for you than burgers. Just get the burger!”
Is this true?
I’m going to use McDonald’s as an example. Mainly b/c it’s the most popular fast food chain (I assume), and also because I go there a lot. Yep, I eat at McDonald’s on a fairly regular basis. I ate there for lunch today, in fact. I had a salad. So, place your bets now: which is the healthier choice: a salad or a hamburger?
First, let’s look at the nutritional value of a Big Mac. I’d say that’s their most popular burger, right? Being number one on their menu and all? In a Big Mac, you will find:
- Calories- 540
- Fat- 29 g
- Sodium- 1040 mg
- Fiber- 3 g
- Sugar- 9 g
- Protein- 25 g
- Vitamin A- 6% of your daily value
- Vitamin C- 2% of your daily value
And, honestly, who just eats a burger? Assume you’re going to give in and order medium fries (am I the only one that could just do the fries and skip the burger and be perfectly happy?), so with that you’re adding another 380 calories and 19 grams of fat.
So that puts your value meal calorie count at 920 and your fat count at 48 g- more calories if you order a soda that isn’t diet. If you’re averaging a 2000 calorie per day diet, that’s obviously almost half of what you should have for the whole day.
Next, let’s consider a southwest salad with grilled chicken. If you’ve ever ordered this, you may have noticed that it comes with some sort of sweetish clear glaze sauce on the chicken. For me personally, I find this plus a squeeze of lime to be enough dressing and I don’t use their southwest dressing- although that is a very delicious dressing. So, without the dressing, here’s what you find in your southwest salad with grilled chicken:
- Calories- 320
- Fat- 9 g
- Sodium- 960 mg
- Fiber- 6 g
- Sugar- 11 g
- Protein- 30 g
- Vitamin A- 130 % of your daily value
- Vitamin C- 50 % of your daily value
Clearly, the calorie and fat count is extremely different there. If you add your packet of dressing, you are adding 100 calories and 6 grams of fat. For a grilled chicken salad WITH the dressing, you’re only looking at 420 calories and 15 grams of fat- plus you’re getting a huge amount more vitamins, twice as much fiber, more protein, and a bit less sodium. You are, however, getting more sugar- likely from the combo of that sweet glaze and the corn that comes in this particular salad.
Choosing crispy chicken over grilled and putting the dressing on it results in 530 calories and 26 grams of fat. So a crispy chicken salad is almost on par with a Big Mac (and would be a higher fat and calorie choice than something like a cheeseburger- which at McDonald’s is 300 calories and 12 grams of fat). I suppose that’s where the whole idea comes from. However, even if you decide on a crispy chicken salad, you’re still getting the benefit of more fiber, more protein, and way more vitamins. Basically- your body is still going to use that salad in a better way than it’d use the hamburger.
So next time you bring a salad from McD’s back to the office for lunch and your co-worker looks over and goes “You know those salads are as bad for you as their burgers, right?” you just direct them right here. You’re welcome!
Well, it’s winter… you know what that means! Cold and flu season… and cold and flu medicine. I recently read about a friend of mine making her own cough drops and went “WHOA! Why have I never thought to do this!?”
After all- what are cough drops, really? Hard candy. And I know how to make that! If you’ve never made hard candy, maybe this is a good place to start. You’ll see how easy it is!
 Cough drops and cough drop suckers! Homemade cough drops really appealed to me because you can add whatever herbal combo you want, and whatever flavor you want. I’ve got a box of Traditional Medicinals Seasonal Herb Tea Sampler. For this particular batch, I used one teabag each: Gypsy cold care, Throat Coat, and Breathe Easy. You can really use whatever you want, which is awesome. You can use teas or loose herbs- you just want to steep a nice, super strong tea. As for flavorings, you can just use the kind they sell at the supermarket by the spices & seasonings or you can use professional candy flavorings (like those available from Wilton).
First, a couple of notes: you’re gonna need one part sugar to one part liquid. This sounds like a lot, but it’s still less sugar than is in hard candy. As a result, your cough drops are going to come out just a little stickier than traditional hard candy. They’ll need to be coated in powdered sugar or cornstarch for storage so they don’t stick together.
Second, on the subject of sugar… when you make hard candy, you need a combo of a sugar syrup of some kind and regular granulated sugar. If you try to use all granulated sugar, you come out with something the consistency of wet sand. It’s really gross. Honey is a great one to use as it’s super soothing on a sore throat, but honey has its own distinct (and strong) flavor, so unless you really really like honey, you’ll probably only want to use a little bit. Corn syrup, of course, is a standard one to use and has really no flavor of its own. Brown rice syrup is also a great choice- a little more of its own flavor than corn syrup but not enough to really change the flavor of the drops much. Below, I am listing what I found to work the best.
Gather the necessary hardware:
- a candy thermometer
- a pan
- a wooden spoon
- either candy molds (sprayed with non-stick spray) or..
- a pie pan half full of powdered sugar that you’ve made dents in (the bottom of a vial of food coloring works!)
 It's messy.. but fun! Plus, the corn starch in the sugar repels the candy syrup. Very cool effect to watch it do that when you pour. Now, let’s get to it. This was the recipe I used today
Ingredients:
3 herbal teabags
a 1.5″ piece of fresh ginger, cut up into chunks
1 tsp dried orange peel
1 1/4 C boiling water
1/8 C honey
1/4 C corn syrup
1/2-3/4 C granulated sugar (I used somewhere in the middle)
1/4 tea peppermint flavoring
1/4 tea vanilla extract
To your boiling water, add teabags, ginger, and orange peel. Cover, lower heat, and simmer for 10 min. Turn off heat, leave lid on pan. Allow to steep for at least 30 minutes. Strain liquid. I always find that when I start with 1.25 cups of water, I come up with almost exactly 1 cup of tea.
In a 3 or 4 quart saucepan, combine the tea, honey, corn syrup, and granulated sugar. Heat on medium heat, stirring gently until the sugar is dissolved. Once it has totally dissolved and the mixture begins to boil, stop stirring.
Use a dampened rag or pastry brush to wash down the insides of the pan and continue doing this for about five minutes- you have to remove all the sugar crystals because if they get in your syrup, they’ll make the whole batch crystallize. Alternately, if you have a tight fitting lid, put that on right when the boiling starts and leave it on for three minutes, and then remove it. (This will allow the steam to wash down the inside of the pan for you.)
Put your candy thermometer in and just sit back and wait. Don’t stir it! This part takes about 10-15 minutes. When the heat reaches 300 degrees, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in your flavorings (DO NOT lean over the pan. especially if you use peppermint oil. Ask how I know…)
Working fairly quickly, pour the syrup into your molds. Let them sit til the candy cools & hardens (about half an hour or so). Toss in powdered sugar or corn starch before storing.
Ok, I’m declaring Soup Month officially over. We got soup burnout. Also, I have decided that it’s time to trim down the diet and lose a few pounds so we cracked out the The Biggest Loser Cookbook and Eating For Life and picked out a few recipes. These are two of my all-time favorite low-cal cookbooks, most of the recipes are delicious and you’d never know they’re low-fat. I’ve served some of them for company and they were none the wiser.
This is a good example of something I’d serve for company. This was amazing and so easy. The picture below is taken from the The Biggest Loser Cookbook because I forgot to take my own pictures last night, as we were busy nomming on this dinner. I’m posting it with my variations. We like things spicy (we made something else for the kids), so if you’re not a spice fan, just leave out the cayenne and hot sauce.
 Only 200 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving! New Orleans Grilled Chicken with Spicy Apricot Sauce
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tea olive oil
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 tea garlic powder
1 tea ground black pepper
1/4 – 1/2 tea cayenne or ground chipotle
1/4 tea salt
1/4 tea onion powder
1/3 c apricot preserves (I use the 100% fruit kind, so I also added 1 tea honey)
2 Tbsp spicy brown or dijon mustard
1 tea hot sauce or sriracha or chili garlic paste*
- In a small bowl, combine the spices. Rub the oil over the chicken breasts and coat them with the spice rub. Rub it in well. Cover and allow to sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes for the flavors to combine.
- Grill the chicken til it’s done through.
- Meanwhile, microwave the apricot preserves in 15 second intervals til melted. Stir in the honey if you’re using it, the mustard, and the hot sauce.
- Serve the chicken with the apricot sauce over the top.
*Sriracha and chili garlic paste can be found in the asian foods section of most grocery stores.
We served this with a greek salad- cut up English cucumbers, red/orange bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, basil, and a little reduced-fat feta cheese and toss with a dressing made from a couple Tbsp minced onion, a minced garlic clove, 4 minced Kalamata olives, 1/2 tea olive oil, the juice from one lemon, and a sprinkle of salt & pepper.
Organically Raised- Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers By Anni Daulter. 2010.
 Organically Raised teaches parents how to prepare delicious and healthy foods for their babies and children, using fresh, natural ingredients and diverse flavors. The author is a parent and a professional cook and has tested the recipes in the book.
Check out their website here. There are even a few recipes here, so you can ‘try it before you buy it’- trust me, you’re gonna love them.
The first thing I did when I received the book is sit down and read through it. I love reading through cookbooks anyway, and this one was a special treat. The first thing that strikes you when thumbing through are the beautiful photographs. Currently, the book is sitting beside me open to a close-up picture of “Poppy’s Three-Cheese Fancy Panini” and I am not exaggerating when I say it is making me drool.
 Tennie's Spanish Veggie Burger Bites With Flaxseed The book starts out with information on conscious cooking, information about organic food and shopping tips. There’s information on feeding newborns, mindfulness in the kitchen, and nutritional information for children and babies. All of the information in this section of the book should be require reading for expecting or new mothers. It’s all great information and there’s emphasis put on breastfeeding- we all know I’m totally down with that!
The recipe section starts with organic recipes for babies ages 6-9 months, then she moves into talking about expanding your baby’s palate and special diets. It moves into blends, cereals, and yogurt recipes for babies 8-12 months. After that, it goes into recipes geared toward toddlers and preschoolers.
What I love the most about this book is the huge variety of foods and flavors in it. We all know that kids can be so super picky sometimes and the recipes in this book are a great way to introduce different flavors.
 MacKenzie's Superstar Sweet Potato Pancakes With Sour Cream We tried a bunch of recipes out of Organically Raised and everything was a hit. I used my phone to take pictures of everything I made, but like I said last week, my phone totally crashed and I lost all my pictures. Anni was kind enough to supply me with some of the photos from the cookbook to use in this post, and I think you see what I mean about how beautiful this book is- her pictures are much prettier than my smartphone ones! The veggie burger bites and sweet potato pancakes pictured were some of our very favorites of the recipes we tried- especially the sweet potato pancakes. They were even good cold, from the fridge the next day! The other things we tried were: austin’s italian sun-dried tomato wheel pasta with fresh basil capers, and parmesan cheese; river’s greek falafel bites with pita and cucumber-dill dipping sauce; duke’s delicious mozzarella bruschetta; and piper’s teriyaki chicken sushi rolls- and out of all of those things, there wasn’t a single dish my kids wouldn’t eat. (In fact… I could go for some of that bruschetta right now!)
This is just an all-around excellent cookbook. If you are looking to improve the eating habits of your own family, or you’re looking for a gift for a new mother, I would highly recommend this book. And here’s a hint for you: the best deal is on Amazon! Click here to see for yourself: Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers
Now… all this talking about food’s made me hungry. I’m off to make some paninis!
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