Do you need a few sizzling summer meal ideas? Then I have a treat for you today.
Joining me on my podcast this week is award-winning Chef Cliff Pleau. A graduate of the Culinary Institute, he was selected by Euro Disney to open the Disneyland Hotel in Paris and also played an integral role in the food and beverage development of other Disney concepts including Animal Kingdom, Boardwalk, and the Disney Cruiseline.
Now at the helm of the Seasons 52 culinary program, Chef Cliff believes in taking pure ingredients and preparing them in straightforward ways that are intense in flavor.
Want to grill your corn instead? Watch his short how-to video and you’ll be a grill master in no time. For additional cooking videos check out the Seasons 52 Facebook page.
Terrific Tip: One of my favorite tips from Chef Cliff is to keep two basic inexpensive spray bottles full of extra virgin olive oil and canola oil.
Spritz your pans and food with the oil instead of pouring from a bottle. At only one calorie per spritz, I control the amount of fat I use but keep the flavor that spritzing food at the very end imparts.
Try it yourself. You add flavor while you save money on oil and prevent extra calories from depositing in places you don’t want them to be.
Plastic baby bottles, plastic water bottles and plastic microwave containers…should you use them or not? What do you think? BPA is a hot button of controversy. Because consumer awareness of this potential health issue is growing, many manufacturers are producing BPA-free products.
If you want to reduce your exposure to BPA while the research and controversy continues, you can try these tips:
Use plastics marked BPA-free or opt for stainless steel, glass or porcelain. Remember, you can always email or call the manufacturer if in doubt.
To prevent BPA from seeping into food and liquids, wash plastics by hand instead of in the dishwasher even if the container says dishwasher safe.
Also, forget about using plastics in the microwave and go with glass or porcelain that’s made especially for a microwave.
This also includes plastic wrap for a cover…use glass, paper towel or wax paper as better alternatives.
Try to avoid those white clamshell take-out containers. Both plastic wrap and these containers may contain other plastics that could be problematic too.
Try to stay away from #7 on the bottom of containers in terms of recycling unless the items say BPA free.
Choose glass or BPA free infant formula bottles.
Select fresh or frozen foods over canned unless you find a manufacturer that uses an alternative. Also look for shelf stable cartons, pouches, bags and cups as alternatives to cans.
The chemical bisphenol-A or BPA is found in many reusable water bottles, some baby bottles, and clear plastic storage containers. Just to give you an idea, the lining of most canned food, pizza boxes, water pipes, eyeglasses, cell phones, shower curtains, DVDs, bicycle helmets, airplanes and even some dental sealants contain BPA.
BPA is a chemical used to make polycarbonate plastics which mimics or acts like the hormone estrogen and is referred to as an endocrine disrupting chemical. BPA can leach into food and drinks from cans, containers and bottles. A study published in Toxicology Letters (2008) found that hot liquids and food put into plastics containing BPA actually leached more of the chemical from the container into the food or liquid…up to 50 times more.
According to the American Chemistry Council, eleven regulatory bodies around the world have assessed the science on BPA and have determined that BPA is safe for use in food contact materials. However, use of BPA is definitely a controversial one. Animal studies have found that BPA is potentially linked to abnormal development of reproductive systems and precancerous lesions.
A report in the December 2009 issue of Consumer Reports Magazine found BPA in most all of 19 name-brand foods from canned soups and juice to tuna and green beans. BPA was even found in cans labeled “BPA-free”. The Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has taken the position that manufacturer and government agencies should act to eliminate the use of BPA in all materials that come into contact with food.
These results stoke the fire as to how much BPA is safe to ingest and should BPA come into contact with food. According to medpagetoday.com, at the end of 2009 the FDA reversed its position and will budget $30 million for short and long term studies on the health risks associated with BPA particularly in infant food containers.
To fuel up for fitness, here are a couple of my favorite (and easy) breakfast/snack ideas courtesy of Family Circle magazine:
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal
½ cup rolled or quick oats made with 1 cup fat-free milk
1 tablespoon creamy natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
I’m a self-proclaimed chocoholic so even this small amount of chocolate chips satisfies me.
Apple & Nut Butter (snack)
1 medium apple, sliced and spread with two tablespoons almond butter
My breakfast version: I spread almond butter on whole grain toast, followed by the apple slices and a drizzle of honey. If you haven’t tried almond butter, it’s worth the extra expense as an alternative to peanut butter.
I hope spring is all around you…the weather is warming up, the birds are singing, and flowers are starting to bloom. I’m ready to take my workout…outdoors. How about you? I am a walker, especially on the weekends when I have more time to be outside.
For those of you who have listened to my podcast for a while, you know that Family Circle along with the American Heart Association sponsor the annual Start! Walking Challenge. You can find out more at familycircle.com/walk2010 or in the May issue. This month the focus is on walking and eating to lower cholesterol. You’ll find a very helpful mix-and-match meal plan.
Margit Ragland, Health Director at Family Circle joins me on the podcast this week to talk about the Walking Challenge with a focus on cutting your cholesterol level in three ways:
Keeping a cap on saturated fat that can raise your total and lousy LDL cholesterol levels while it shrinks your good cholesterol…HDL.
Focusing on fiber, a nutrient that works like a sponge to help rid your body of cholesterol.
Loading up on superstar foods that conquer cholesterol-like oats, nuts, beans, fish, soy, and even dark chocolate.
I look forward to my favorite comfort foods this special time of year. Don’t you? My top three are probably Southern pecan pie, homemade cornbread dressing and sweet potato casserole or maybe Christmas Stollen, the yeast bread I’ve talked about before. As you can tell, I have quite a few. Many of the most popular holiday foods are not only delicious but super healthy.
Among my list of super foods are cranberries, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and potatoes, baked apples, and pecans.
What makes cranberries carry the popular title of a super fruit? The United States Department of Agriculture or USDA has a list of common foods and their antioxidant rating. Cranberries have a high ranking in what is called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity score or ORAC score. They contain proanthocyanidins, a naturally occurring antioxidant that may help protect against urinary tract infections by preventing bacteria from sticking to cells in the urinary tract.
Here is a simple recipe for fresh cranberries that you’ll love and can make year around. Fresh cranberries will keep in the freezer for about a year so you can enjoy them anytime. I’m not a stickler about amounts in this recipe thus one reason it’s so easy. Basically, I wash a package of fresh cranberries and place them in a saucepan. Then I add the zest of an orange and a lemon. After you zest the fruit, cut it in half and squeeze the juice into the pan. Add an additional cup of orange juice and some sugar…about ½ cup or more. Remember that fresh cranberries are very tart so you need the sweetness of the sugar. The orange juice provides a little sweetness. Bring the mixture to a bubbling or rolling boil for 3 or 4 minutes until the berries begin to burst. Remove the cranberries from the heat and cool. That’s it. After 30 minutes or so, taste the mixture and see if it’s sweet enough. Remember, it’s a cranberry relish so you want it somewhat tart. It will jell slightly when cold and makes a great side to turkey or pork. I like it as a spread on my turkey sandwiches. And yes, this recipe is posted at the WDBO Nutrition & Health Center.
Next up on my list of powerful holiday super foods is pumpkin. When you have that slice of pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread pudding, remind yourself that the pumpkin you’ve just eaten is a valid source of vitamin A for healthy eyes and contains fiber which most of us need a lot more of. The bright orange color tells you that pumpkin naturally contains alpha and beta carotene and other carotenoids tied to good health plus iron and potassium.
Let’s not forget sweet potatoes, another super food. When you cut the sweet potato open, the bright orange color means vitamin A and beta carotene just like you find in pumpkin in chart topping amounts. Plus a medium sweet potato contains almost four grams of fiber. Fiber is like a chocolate chip cookie to your colon. Your colon loves fiber as it helps reduce the risk for some cancers plus it helps keep your colon healthy. By the way, it’s so easy to microwave a sweet potato. Prick it four or five times with a fork so it doesn’t explode, place it on a paper towel or microwave-safe dish and microwave on high for about four to five minutes.
Let’s not forget potatoes. Just like bread, potatoes are popular and back in a big way. Why? Let’s peel back the truth. How about 110 calories for a medium size spud, naturally fat free, plus 45% of the vitamin C you need daily and more potassium than a banana when you eat the skin. Did I mention nearly five grams of fiber? From yellow Yukon golds to the ever popular Russet or the colorful blue and purple potatoes, there’s a choice for everyone and every dish. Running short on time? How about two quick-fix microwave recipes for Mashed Potatoes and Roasted-Style Potatoes from the United States Potato Board? We just posted the recipes at WDBO.com’s Nutrition & Health Center. Be sure and follow the easy directions as you are NOT going to poke holes in the potatoes before your microwave them for mashing. The steam stays inside the potato and prepares them for mashing.
Next up are apples. Granny smith, red delicious and other apples have significant antioxidant levels. You may have heard that apples are part of a cholesterol lowering diet. This is because apples are a source of soluble fiber that works in your body similar to a sponge to help mop up excess cholesterol. Baked apples never looked so good! Toss a few pecans with chopped dates and a little brown sugar into the center of the apple before baking it.
Nuts have received a lot of attention lately for their heart health benefits. Pecans, the staple in pecan pie, pecan squares and other foods like baked apples, contain both heart healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats along with antioxidants, vitamin E and fiber. Nuts are calorie dense so you do have to be aware of the amount you eat.
Thanks for stopping by for a little holiday cheer. Are you ready to start your ovens? The holidays are here and it’s time to cook. Let’s talk about easy tips for healthy holiday cooking that let you enjoy the feast and festivities and not increase your dress or pant size. I love to eat and I look forward to my favorite comfort foods this special time of year. Don’t you? My grandmother and my mother both made this festive yeast bread called Christmas Stollen. It’s a German recipe filled with pecans, cinnamon, dried cherries, apricots and raisins. I can almost smell it coming out of the oven. I’ve learned to make it with a few little tweaks of my own so I carry on their tradition of a spicy cinnamon, buttery yeast bread but with a healthier spin. Small changes in recipes yield big rewards when it comes to cutting calories and fat without sacrificing flavor.
So, tip number one to keep the flavor and perk up the health benefits in your holiday cooking:
1. Switch from candied fruit such as lemon, orange and cherries that are typically used in fruit cake to dried fruit such as plums, blueberries, apricots, and cherries. Easy switch… big flavor. I did this in my Mom’s Christmas Stollen recipe and it gives the bread an updated appeal with the health benefit of the antioxidants from the dried fruit.
2. Nutrition is about making smart choices, not about deprivation such as you feel when you’re on a diet. It’s about real, delicious food made with healthful ingredients. Kick up the nutrition in your recipes by adding vegetables, fruit and nuts. For example, add nuts to pumpkin, banana or zucchini breads; diced green pepper, carrots, onions and garlic to pasta sauce; your favorite chopped vegetables to omelets or scrambled eggs; dried plums or blueberries to yogurt, oatmeal or cereal. All of these efforts add up and make it easy to fit more fruit and vegetables into your busy day.
3. Mom’s Christmas Stollen recipe also called for 1 cup of whole milk. Replace whole milk with 1% or skim milk. For most recipes, you won’t notice a taste difference and you still get the protein, calcium and vitamin D but your hips and heart will notice the drop in total fat and saturated fat. Cut the fat and saturated fat with all your diary choices. For example, when I make dark chocolate fondue and the recipe calls for evaporated milk, I use skimmed evaporated milk. For a key lime pie, I use fat free sweetened condensed milk. For mac and cheese, try reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese (not fat free) and use part-skim ricotta for manicotti and lasagna. The reduction in total fat and saturated fat adds up quickly without you feeling deprived of anything.
By the way, do you have guests spending the night and want to impress them for breakfast? Mix up pumpkin pancakes. The recipe is posted at the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center along with others we’ll talk about today. You can make the pancake batter up the night before. Just make sure you have the ingredients on hand. If you’ve never made pancakes, they’re much easier than you think. The point to remember is to flip them only once on the griddle or skillet. Wait until you see bubbles around the edges and then flip and cook the other side. The recipe includes canned pumpkin, cinnamon and vanilla yogurt. Pumpkin is a source of vitamin A for healthy eyes and contains fiber which most of us need a lot more of. The bright orange color tells you that pumpkin naturally contains alpha and beta carotene and other carotenoids tied to good health. I use skim milk instead of 1% and add raisins to my batter instead of making the topping. These pancakes are a winner at my house.
4. Focus on the fat. Did you know that one tablespoon of regular butter contains 11 grams of fat with seven of them being saturated fat? Saturated fat is the least healthy type of fat and known for clogging arteries. Light butter with added oil such as olive or canola brings down the saturated fat content and is a better choice along with light spreads made from heart healthy oils such as soybean, canola, and olive. Light spreads are typically even lower in saturated fat than light butters. Both light spreads and light butter work well on toast, muffins, corn on the cob and vegetables but remember that light butter and light spreads are not the best choice for baking. The water content affects the outcome of the recipe.
5. Consider baking with a spread. There are many choices in the spread aisle and the lingo can be confusing. Be a label sleuth. Here’s the bottom line you need to know. You want a spread that is made with healthy oils such as canola, olive and soybean, contains no added trans fat (aka partially hydrogenated oil), and has the least amount of saturated fat. I’m talking 2 grams or less of saturated fat per tablespoon. That will cull down the selection pretty quickly. Yesterday I was doing an interview for a magazine and one of the questions asked was if you can substitute spreads for butter when baking. The writer had an apple crisp recipe that called for a stick of butter and she was concerned for her father had a heart attack recently. Yes, regular spreads bake cakes, cookies and fruit crumbles or crisps beautifully without all the artery-clogging saturated fat.
I’ve posted a number of recipes on the WDBO.com Nutrition & Health Center for you to try this holiday season that use spreads low in saturated fat and free of trans fat including Promise and I Can’t believe It’s Not Butter! Try the oven-baked harvest apples, banana, date & walnut muffins, honey & orange mini cakes, and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies (yes, I add chocolate chips to the batter). The parmesan-crusted sweet potato fries make a tasty side for your leftover turkey sandwiches. Let me know which recipes are your favorites and have fun in the kitchen with your family and friends.
Can drinking water be cool? You bet it can when it’s infused with fruit, vegetables and herbs to create extraordinary thirst-quenching beverages. How does Blueberry Twist sound or Honeydew-Mint Mist? My guest on this week’s podcast is Brian Preston-Campbell author of the new book Cool Waters, 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers. Brian is a professional food stylist and former chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He has brought his talent for food styling to ad campaigns for companies such a Starbucks and Godiva.
The photographs are delicious as are the recipes which are caffeine free with no added sugar. You can enjoy your refreshing beverage while keeping down the calories you consume. A terrific feature is that each recipe has food pairings listed at the bottom. Useful and fun, the food pairings help you put together quick menu ideas.
One of my favorite recipes is ‘Squirt of Citrus’ which is just as it sounds…the ingredients include the juice from a fresh orange, lime, lemon and grapefruit. Be sure and check out the Nutrition& Health Center at WDBO.com for a few of Brian’s recipes.
Do you need a few sizzling summer meal ideas? Then I have a treat for you today.
He shares the perfect summer recipe for roasted corn with a zesty red pepper sauce.
Spritz your pans and food with the oil instead of pouring from a bottle. At only one calorie per spritz, I control the amount of fat I use but keep the flavor that spritzing food at the very end imparts.
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