Sneaky healthy food swaps

It's never a bad idea to do something healthy for yourself. You only get one body and one chance to enjoy it, so why not treat it well so you can enjoy it longer? There are infinite "diets" out there proposing to get you fitter, healthier, younger. Don't eat any carbs, only eat carbs, no meat, no dairy, grapefruit juice with every meal, cabbage soup as your only meal. These diets are usually all about limits. Limiting your calories, your carbohydrates, your fats. Why live a life with limits? It's more about changing the way you think, changing your normal. Far better to think of food as LIMITLESS and ABUNDANT and NOURISHING. 

Image from YouthCrash

Rather than saying "I can only eat 10 grams of carbs and 1200 calories per day" tell yourself "I will increase my daily intake of fruits and vegetables". It's far easier to add things to our routines than to take them away. Before you know it, broccoli will begin to taste good. You will reach for a peach after dinner instead of a cookie. A meal without meat doesn't seem strange. Your body tells you thank you for taking care of it by feelings of energy, happiness, balance. 

When you are beginning to make healthy changes, it is especially hard. You likely have years of habits built up. You probably have a daily routine that doesn't lend itself to healthy eating or nutrition. Your social behaviors are probably centered around food and drinks. Maybe your friends, family, kids, significant others, encourage unhealthy behaviors. Step one is to make a promise to yourself to get healthy. For yourself, of course, but also for those you love. They want you around as long as possible too, and to be able to enjoy life to the fullest with them. The second step is to ask them for help. Proclaim your new goals, adding veggies, drinking more water, moving more. Ask them to keep you accountable to your new habits. Even better, ask them to join you!

Image from StayHealthyLA

Now all you have to do is at least ONE thing per day that will take you closer to your goals! Drink one extra glass of water in the morning. Say no to the vending machine in the afternoon. Pack your own healthy, homemade lunch. Get only one drink at happy hour and then have water. Go for a walk after dinner. Cook more. COOK MORE. That is probably the single most important thing you can do for your health. When you go out to eat, you have little say over what ingredients go into the food, how much oil is used to cook it, where the food is sourced from, portion sizes... but when you cook it yourself, you don't use preservatives, you use fresher ingredients, you can choose your spices, etc.
 

Image from Huffington Post "7 Healthy Foods That Are Worth the Hype"

With that in mind, here are some sneaky healthy swaps from my own experience. Most of these you won't even notice a difference. For those that are different, it may be weird at first, but over time you will come to crave the healthier alternative to the original. Give one a try when you make dinner tomorrow!

Mashed potatoes

Substitute half of the potatoes for cauliflower. Boil the cauliflower in with the potato, it will mash right in. They are light and creamy, season as you would regular potatoes. You will add extra fiber and vitamins while cutting the total carbohydrates and calories. You may get to the point of enjoying mashed cauliflower alone.

Smoothies

Smoothies are so perfect for hiding healthy food! They are delicious, and basically already healthy if you make it yourself. Watch out for store-bought smoothies that use high-fat dairy and high-sugar additives. Just take some plain or flavored greek yogurt, juice (as close to 100% as you can get), and some fresh or frozen fruit and blend in a blender. Add ice if you like it cold. To give your smoothies a boost, toss in half an avocado, a handful of spinach, some cooked carrots, kale, flax powder, etc.

Sour cream

Instead of sour cream, try plain Greek yogurt on burritos, soups, and baked potatoes. It has the same consistency, but with fat less fat and more protein per serving. It may be a bit weird at first, but give it time and you will prefer it, I promise.

Wheat bread/flour (gluten)

If all you buy in your household is white, enriched flour products, start sneaking in some wheat products or flax. They even make "white" whole-wheat bread to fool picky kids and significant others. (Note: if you have a gluten allergy, obviously don't buy regular wheat bread. I'm sure you knew that.) But the more you can transition to whole-grain bread, rolls, pizza dough, brown rice, etc., the more fiber and beneficial vitamins you will pack into the same two slices of your turkey sandwich. Speaking of turkey...

Turkey instead of beef

As a veggie-lover who still cannot live without steak, I get it. Animals are delicious. All god's creatures have a place... right beside the mashed potatoes (and cauliflower)! But there's no denying that red meat isn't exactly your heart & arteries' bestie. So rather than swear off meat and go cold-turkey (see what I did there?!?) try subbing in ground turkey for half the ground beef in your next meatloaf or batch of lasagna. You may not even notice the difference, but your cholesterol sure will.

Baking

When whipping up a homemade batch of muffins or banana bread, try substituting applesauce (or pulp from juicing fruits) for part of the butter or egg. It can keep a baked good moist while making it vegan, or at least cutting down the amount of fat. Plus I think it counts as part of your daily servings of fruit.

Noodles

I'm gonna be honest, this one I haven't tried, but I have seen more than once and am dying to do this. For lasagna or ravioli, use thin slices of zucchini or eggplant as the noodles. Layer very thin strips with ground turkey (see above) and homemade sauce for lighter lasagna, or interlace strips for a fiberful ravioli with half the calories and no carbs. You can also bake a spaghetti squash and shred to use instead of regular pasta noodles to add vitamins and fiber and subtract carbs/calories without losing that strand feel.

Just start small, with one swap at a time, and work your way into healthy eating. Try a new fruit or vegetable each time you go to the store. Maybe starfruit or jicama will be your new favorite snack! Before you know it, you will feel better, and look better too. Your skin and hair and nails will benefit from a varied diet of fresh, nutrition fruits and vegetables, your inner workings will love extra fiber and vitamins. Don't forget to hydrate! Drink water every 15-30 minutes throughout the day to look & feel your best.

What' your best sneaky healthy cooking tip?

Simple sauteed power greens

One of the things I like best about growing up is changing tastes. When I was little, I had an on-off relationships with most vegetables, notably mushrooms. I loved them one week, and hated them the next. With growing up coming changing ideas of what tastes good, and I love it. I can be more creative, try different ingredients and recipes, cook things that are good for me at which I would have turned up my nose years ago. One of those things is kale. Since I worked on a CSA farm and tried Kale Chips for the first time, I have been looking for more ways to use this power green more often. One excellent option is in soup, like the Olive Garden copycat of Zuppa Toscana I made. Delicious and packed with healthy ingredients.

So as I had recently purchased more kale at Sprouts Farmers Market, along with some golden beets and fresh garlic heads, I decided to try another kale classic: Italian Sauteed Greens. I'm sure this is yet another popular side dish with a long and debated over past. But basically it's garlic and olive oil with various greens sauteed lightly, and usually a tangy dressing like vinegar or lemon juice added. Also it is sometimes spicy, but since I'm a wuss I did not add hot peppers or hot pepper flakes. Feel free to if you love heartburn.

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale, cut into small strips

1 bunch beet leaves, in small strips

3-4 cloves garlic, diced

2 tbsp good quality olive oil

1/4 cup tangy thing (I used banana pepper liquid and 3 tbsp lemon juice)

Sprinkle sea salt

3-4 banana pepper rings

Step 1: Dice up your garlic into bits. You can use a garlic press or chopper if you want.

Step 2: Saute the garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil 4-5 minutes, you should be able to smell it.

Step 3: Cut the greens into tiny strips. Add to the pan, and cover tightly. Let it steam in the garlic oil for 10-15 minutes, or until fully wilted.

These greens were so vibrant and lovely even before cooking! All that heart-healthy nutrient-packed deliciousnes...

Step 4: Add your sour notes, lemon juice and banana peppers. Stir, cover, and saute another 5-10 minutes.

Banana pepper rings are a new love of mine. I put them on tuna sandwiches, on pizza, into my greens... they're awesome. And lemon juice is a necessity for life.

Step 5: Once wilted and everything is combined, move to plate and garnish as you like.

I added a little sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese and some sea salt. It was the most perfect balance, and the tart juices too away a lot of the harsh bitterness most people don't like about greens.

I also had some cottage cheese on the side, to complete a whole, light lunch. It's filling without feeling stuffed, and ridiculously good for you.

Mmmmmm...

What's your favorite way to cook greens of any kind?

Vegan acorn squash & potato gnocchi

Acorn squash is a cheap, healthful, tasty, nutrient-packed way to get your fiber. It stores for pretty much forever on a shelf or in a cellar. The most common variety is deep green with an occasional orange spot on one side, though yellow, white, and variegated varieties have been bred. According to Wikipedia, though it is considered a winter squash it is in the same family of summer squash which includes zucchini and yellow squash. 

According to SELFNutritionData, one 4 inch squash has only 172 calories, a mere 4 of those are from fat. Zero cholesterol, and nearly no sodium as well. A single squash has a quarter of your daily recommended fiber, 30 percent of vitamin A, and nearly 80 percent of vitamin C. And as if that weren't enough, it is mildly anti-inflammatory, gluten-free, and extremely low glycemic index. If I haven't yet convinced you of what a super food acorn squash is, check out more Healthy Facts About Acorn Squash from the Healthy Eating website.

I had picked several squash a few months back at a local farm where for $30 you get to keep anything you can fit in a little red wagon. With some creative pyramid skills, I and some friends split quite a haul. I still had three acorns left, so I was trying to come up with something to do with it besides oven roasted with butter and brown sugar. Not that I don't love it like that, I do, but I'd had that twice already in the past month. My mom suggested a recipe out of the blue for acorn squash gnocchi. As a good Slovak/Polish girl, I had grown up loving all types of pasta, gnocchi especially. The chewy, thick texture is completely unique.

She didn't remember where the recipe came from so rather than try to remember it all, she told me to just Google it. My favorite current verb, "to Google". I wish I could invent something so widely famous that the name becomes a verb. Anywho... The most intriguing recipe I found came from the blog the Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. This is someone who thinks like me, working in a very tiny place, using what she's learned and instinct and creativity to come up with new and inventive recipes. Based mostly on that but with my own spin (mostly since I'm out of eggs currently), I present to you my Vegan Acorn Squash and Potato Gnocchi recipe.

Vegan Acorn Squash and Potato Gnocchi 

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
3 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cup flour (plus extra)
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp salt

Sauce:
1 jar pasta sauce
1 can chickpeas
2 carrots
1/2 bunch celery

1. Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. If you like, you can rinse the seeds and save them for roasting at 350 for 15 minutes as a light snack.

2. Put the squash in the microwave cut side up with some water in the hole, microwave 5 minutes. Pour out the water, place cut side down and microwave another 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes for 15 minutes total. Squash should be soft when poked with a fork. Remove and set aside to cool.

3. Rinse three potatoes and stick on all sides with a fork. Microwave in 3 minute bursts for a total of 9 minutes.

4. Peel the squash and mash the insides in a large bowl. The peel should slip right off using your fingers, you can use a fork to help lift the squash out.

5. Peel the potatoes as well. If you grab it in both hands and twist, the peel should slide off easily if fully cooked. Mash them into the squash. Get a large pot of salted water to boiling.

6. In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp baking powder and 1 tbsp oil. This replaces one egg, so you can use one egg instead. But this is what makes the dough vegan. It should bubble a bit. Add to the squash/potato mixture, as well as the flour (which, if you're gluten intolerant, you should use gluten-free flour), and mix well. Your hands work best, dough will be slightly sticky.

7. Flour your work surface and take a handful of dough. Roll it with your hands into a 1-2 inch thick log.

8. Cut the log into small, 1 inch cubes. You can try to shape them with a fork but I just tossed them in the pot like so.

9. Boil the pasta for 3-5 minutes. They should begin floating to the top of the water when fully cooked. Boil in batches. Don't leave them in longer than about ten minutes or they will become mush. Remove to a strainer to let drain. Meanwhile you can start the sauce.

10. Open the chickpeas and drain. Add to blender along with the pasta sauce and puree until completely liquid, adding some water to thin if needed. If you have a juicer, juice the carrots and celery to add. If not you can simply omit them, or boil them for 20 minutes then add to the blender. I also added in a dash of Italian seasonings.

The gnocchi are chewy and salty, just how I like it. This pasta dough could probably be used to create any kind of pasta, with varying degrees of success. I ended up adding quite a bit more flour to help it stay together and be less sticky. It still ended up a little slimier than I would like, but I will try again.

My boyfriend is a hard-core carnivore, so I added some ground beef to the sauce. I didn't tell him what it was before he tried it (bless his heart he will try anything once if I made it), and he said he actually liked it and would eat it again! Trust me, that's a stellar review! These have all the taste and texture of traditional gnocchi with an added dose of fiber and vitamins. Why not?

Nutrition Information

For the gnocchi alone, SparkRecipes nutrition info:

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 345.1

• Total Fat: 2.9 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 2,017.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 72.8 g
• Dietary Fiber: 6.7 g
• Protein: 8.4 g

For the pasta sauce (minus ground beef), SparkPeople nutrition info:

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 90.5

• Total Fat: 0.6 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 357.0 mg
• Total Carbs: 18.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.9 g
• Protein: 3.5 g

Therefore a 1-cup serving of pasta with 1 cup of sauce is only 435 calories and yet 10.6 grams of fiber and nearly 12 grams of protein!

Do you have a favorite way to cook squash?

True Stories of Juicing

Raw Juice: what's fact and what's hype?
 
For several years now I've been dabbling in "healthy stuff" like juicing. As most things do, it began as just a curiosity, what's it all about. I read articles and books and opinions of people who have tried juicing in various ways and for various amounts of time. There are some super-intense proponents of juicing, like this guy. His name is Joe Cross, and he claims juicing saved his life. He has a documentary on Netflix and free online called "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" as well as a blog. Before you think "ok, crazy extremists who make these claims just want us to buy their juicer", let me say that recognized sources like WebMD and even Dr. Oz tout the benefits of juicing while giving adequate attention to the possible drawbacks.

Fruit and vegetable juices retain most of the chemicals which make them so good for us in the first place, like chlorophyll, anthocyanins, antioxidants and flavonoids. It is important to note that although adding juice to a well rounded, healthy diet is an excellent idea, beware falling into thinking that juicing is the only or best way to be healthy, or that only juices are good for you and you should avoid whole foods. That is not at all what I'm saying. Juicing also takes out all the fiber from these wonder foods, fiber that your body needs for its normal digestive process. For a list of nearly 50 more fascinating raw food juice facts, check this out.

Now, before you rush out and buy a $300 juicer, consider your needs. Are you just beginning to dabble in this juicing craze? Do you just want a healthy beverage now and then, as well as pulp to put into soup and muffins? Are you already a hard-core health nut ready to begin adding daily juices to your diet? There are two types of juicers, a centrifugal juicer or a masticating juicer. Centrifugal machines work by chopping the food into tiny pieces and spinning it to separate the juices. They are typically smaller and less expensive. You won't get as much of the nutrients, but they do the job. Masticating juicers work by mashing and grinding the food, producing a thicker, pulpier juice with the majority of the nutrients. They are typically larger and more expensive. You can check out a wide array on Amazon (not an affiliate link. I will get no benefit if you look or buy). 

Funny story, my juicer was actually free. I'm a member of an online community called SparkPeople which has nutrition and exercise trackers, recipes, articles, community boards and much more. I highly recommend it if you want a simple, informative website to keep track of your health stats. Anyways, there was a forum about juicing, and I posted in it that I was curious about juicing. It lead to several conversations about types of juicers, uses, etc. A fellow member sent me a personal message saying that she had just gotten a newer, larger juicer as a gift and had an old one she didn't need anymore. Of course I was skeptical, but sure enough two weeks later a gorgeous little blue and white juicer showed up! 

My gorgeous gift, courtesy of a kind fellow Spark-er!

I was thrilled, and thanked her profusely. Since then I've dabbled on and off with various types of fruits and vegetables and recipes, and learned a little along the way. Following is a list of rules I've determined for myself. They may not all work for you, but enjoy learning from my experience.


Jen's Five Juicing Rules: 

1. Take the time to cut off the peels. Seriously, juicing the peels too gives the final juice a bitter, sour taste that is not really pleasant, regardless of what other goodies are in there.Of course, mine is a centrifugal juicer, not meant for large pieces of whole fruit. If you have a masticating one, it might be ok.

2. Know the limits of your machine. If you have one of the huge, fancy juicers you can pretty much throw a whole watermelon into, good for you! Most likely you do not, so know how large of a piece of food your machine can handle at a time, and if you're doing a large batch clean it a few times throughout to keep it from clogging up.

3. Wash your juicer immediately once finished. Dried on fruit and vegetable bits are gross, start to smell, and are much harder to scrape off the inside of a fruit chute than fresh.  I promise the chlorophyll and phytochemicals won't fall apart in the time it takes to give it a quick rinse.

4. Always throw in a little something sweet. Even the most hard-core purist who drinks three glasses of green juice a day has to admit kale, spinach and carrots alone don't taste super great. Especially if you're just starting out with juicing, give yourself some slack and add some apple juice or berries to everything.  

5. Don't be afraid to try new things. I juiced anything I could get my hands on for a while. Sure I made some mistakes (see the list at the end of things that are HORRIBLE juiced) but I also found a lot of new fruits and veggies I didn't know I liked. 

Prepping for juicing: lots of fresh fruits and veggies

This will become many tasty beverages for the week.

Mmmm green juice, that's the best way to start the day.

Things that are seriously gross when juiced:
Cabbage
Potatoes
Mushrooms
Garlic - maybe for cooking, but holy cow this stuff is strong! Gag-inducing, even in small amounts.


Things that will overwhelm the taste (use small amounts only):
Grapefruit
Ginger
Lemons
Limes

Best things for juicing:
Apples
Carrots
Celery
Cucumber
Spinach
Oranges
Pears
Berries (most of them)
Pineapple
Lemon/lime/grapefruit


Now that you know the facts, go ahead and find yourself a juicer (Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, Christmas present, Craigslist...) and get to creating!

Some recipes to get you started:

Citrus Refresher
~2 oranges, peels cut off
~2 apples
~2 large carrots
~1 lemon and/or lime

Green Machine
~1 large handful spinach or kale
~4 stalks celery
~1 large cucumber
~1 apple
~1 lime

Cold Crusher
~2 oranges
~1/2 a grapefruit
~1 apple
~1" chunk ginger
~1 lemon

If you have any juicing stories, advice or recipes, please share!