Thursday, January 21, 2016

Recipe ReDux Post # 42 Power Salad!



January’s  Recipe Redux is appropriately titled “A New Ingredient for the New Year," and it was all about choosing a novel ingredient and creating a recipe with it.  I didn’t have anything particular in mind so I decided to just take a trip to the store and see what jumped out at me.  I put three new ingredients in my basket- dried mulberries, avocado oil and celery salt, thinking I could probably figure out a recipe using at least one of them.  I started with a salad, throwing the mulberries atop a bed of spinach, walnuts and white beans.  Then I decided to take things a step further and actually use the celery salt and avocado oil in the dressing...which really worked!  All three ingredients really made the recipe stand out- the mulberries add a sweet and chewy texture which combos nicely with the fresh spinach, hearty beans and the crunchy walnuts.  The avocado oil has flavor set apart from olive oil and adding the celery salt, along with honey mustard gave it some zip.  This salad is a powerhouse of nutrition too- containing lean protein, healthy fat, antioxidants and fiber….plus it is very filling and delicious! I hope you will give it a try along with all these other new ingredient inspired recipes from the talented Recipe ReDux group.

Ingredients:

2-3 packed cups of spinach leaves (washed and dried well)
¼ cup dried mulberries
¼ cup canned white beans (rinsed well)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon honey mustard
¼ teaspoon celery salt

Directions:

Add the first 4 ingredients to a medium bowl.  In a small bowl whisk together the avocado oil, mustard and celery salt.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Refrigerate if not serving immediately.

Makes 2 servings


Serving size: ½ salad Calories 220 Protein 5 g  Carb 22 g  Fiber 6 g Sugars 8 g Fat 12 g Saturated fat 1.5 g Sodium 280 mg

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Monday, January 11, 2016

Avocado Crema: A New May To Liven Up Leftovers Using Chobani Greek Yogurt




The New Year is here and all the holiday goodies are now (hopefully!) replaced with tons of healthy foods in our fridges.....at least that's the case in our household!! Plenty of fresh veggies, fruits and lean proteins- like chicken, egg whites, low fat cheese/cottage cheese/yogurt, beans and tofu, are great staples to have on hand. One of my GO TO meals is grilled chicken with cooked veggies. I like to use the leftovers for salad the next day.  Chicken and veggies by themselves can be a bit boring so I always enjoy finding new ways to spice them up to keep them interesting.

I was excited to be contacted by Chobani recently to post about how their yummy yogurt can be used to liven up leftovers. This was certainly great timing and I wanted to use their yogurt to help give my chicken and veggies more flair, so I developed a super simple but really healthy and delicious avocado crema recipe! This is a nice sauce to serve with chicken or fish, on salads, in tacos, or even to dip veggies in, the possibilities are endless!! Plus, the healthy fat from the avocado and it's lean protein help make your meal more satisfying.  I hope you will give it a try and I thank Chobani for giving me the opportunity to post! Check out madewithchobani.com and Chobani's Greek yogurt recipe page for more great ideas!!

Ingredients:

1 large very ripe avocado (to yield 1 cup mashed)
1 six ounce container plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani!!)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 - ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
salt to taste

Directions:

Cut the avocado in half, remove skin and pit and add 1 cup mashed to a blender or food processor. Put in the yogurt, lemon juice and cumin and blend on high speed until smooth mixture is formed. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl, add salt to taste and serve.  Chill in the fridge if not eating immediately.


Makes 12 tablespoons


Serving size: 1 tablespoon Calories 35 Protein 2 g Carb 2 g Fiber 1 g Sugars 1 g Fat 2.5 g Saturated fat 0 g Sodium 5 mg

Disclaimer: Although this post is associated with a particular brand, the opinions are my own.

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Monday, January 4, 2016

Celebrating a New Year and My Blog Turns 7!!!

Happy 2016 everyone!  Another 365 days went by just like that and this blog has been up and running for 7 years now!!  Always so thankful for the support of my family, friends and readers. I hope you have been continuing to enjoy the posts.

Being that the New Year is often a time to reflect and also to look ahead, I thought I'd do just that in this post! 2015 was one of the busiest and best years that I have had professionally and creatively thus far. My blogging led way to some amazing opportunities. I continued to enjoy working with the National Cranberry Institute  and posting on their behalf and also took part in many more monthly Recipe ReDux challenges (creating recipes for that group always keeps me on my toes!) I also teamed up with Nuts.com, Chobani  and Quaker for some fun posts as well. Gabby and I kept up her Gabby's Eats segment , which included a lot of cooking together as a result of her multitude of ideas for recipes.  The two biggest developments of 2015 were creating an eBook with Gabby, containing all her recipes that she has developed so far with all proceeds going to the Food For the Hungry Charity and....publishing my own Diabetes Cookbook after being approached and given the amazing opportunity by Adams media.  All in all it was quite an eventful year and I feel blessed.

So what's in store for 2016? Well, I will certainly will be keeping up with the Cranberry and Recipe ReDux posts for sure. Gabby and I also plan to create and cook many more yummy recipes this year and I hope to team up with some great sponsors and organizations for a variety of fun posts too.  Beyond that I look forward to more surprises of what's to come in 2016 and I am glad you will be with me along for the ride!

Btw, before I forge ahead, here are my fav recipes from 2015!  Enjoy :)






























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Monday, December 28, 2015

New Year.....New Book! Announcing "The Big Book of Diabetic Recipes" coming out January 1 2016



So as we are about to wrap up 2015 and head into the new year, I thought I'd share some exciting news with you....I have published a diabetic cookbook and it is coming out January 1st!  I was very excited to be contacted by Adams Media this past summer to work on this project.  The result is a great collection of 500 diabetes-friendly recipes, including many gluten-free and vegetarian options.  Though this is a cookbook that focuses on recipes appropriate for diabetics, the recipes can also be followed by those without diabetes and are very applicable to anyone who loves eating healthy!  They are also very easy to prepare and include a great variety of meal options.

You can order the book on Amazon by clicking HERE or at Barnes and Noble HERE

Happy reading and eating to you!

:) Marie


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Monday, December 21, 2015

Recipe ReDux Post # 41 Honey Mustard Tofu


The Recipe ReDux for December is "Grab a book and cook". To celebrate the 54th month of Recipe ReDux's existence, we were asked to choose a recipe from a random cookbook and "redux" the recipe on page 54 or page 154.  I happened to have The Book of Tofu  (by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi ) handy, which is a very comprehensive book about tofu with a ton of recipes.  A section about deep fried tofu was on page 154.  Though delicious, deep fried tofu is QUITE high in calories so I decided to do a pressed, baked version instead. I also coated it in a simple honey mustard sauce to give it more flavor since I would be omitting most of oil that is used in deep frying.  The result was simply delicious and I enjoyed this tofu atop a bed of greens for a great source of healthy protein.  I hope you will give it a try and also check out all the awesome recipes submitted by the Recipe ReDux group.  Happy Holidays too!


Honey Mustard Baked Tofu

Yields 2 Cups; Serving Size: ½ Cup

12 ounces of extra firm tofu
cooking spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons honey mustard
½  teaspoon honey

Directions:

Remove the tofu from the package, rinse and pat dry. Place it on a plate in between two paper towels.  Top with another plate with a heavy object (such as a can) on top of that. Let it sit for 20-30 minutes to press out excess water. Then cut it into ½ “ cubes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Add the olive oil, mustard and honey to a medium size bowl and whisk together. Put the tofu in the bowl and gently stir with a spatula to coat the cubes with the sauce.Bake for 40 minutes, flipping the cubes over half way through the baking.

Makes 2 Cups, 4 servings

Serving size: ½ cup Calories 120  Protein 8 g  Carb  4 g  Fiber  1g Sugars    3 g Fat  7 g Saturated fat  1 g Sodium 50   mg

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

In The News: Recent Analysis Article Re-emphasizes The Need For Smaller Portion Sizes!!



It is no surprise that eating smaller portions helps us lose weight and/or at least avoid gaining weight. A large meta-analsis conducted earlier this year by a team of Cochrane reviewers found that eliminating larger-sized servings of foods and beverages would drastically reduce the average daily number of calories people consume...by as much as 22-29 % for American adults.

The authors at Cochrane just released a follow up analysis of this issue in a review published in the British Medical Journal and illustrate some important points namely the need for the Food Industry and Politicians to lead the way to help the public stop "super-sizing".

Check out this thoughtful article and the key recommendations  listed HERE

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Thursday, December 3, 2015

Recipe Round Up- Delicious Holiday Sides



We are deep in the heart of the holiday season now and while sweet treats and desserts are often a focus (along with main courses like turkey, ham and brisket) side dishes deserve some attention too, especially vegetables!  Indulgence is no stranger to most of us this time of year so a great way to add some balance is by making sure to eat plenty of non-starchy veggies!  They are powerhouses of vitamins, minerals and fiber, plus the non-starchy veggies are low in calories and can help fill you up to prevent over eating other high calorie foods. Below are some of the favorite veggie side dishes that I created over the years that should definitely win a place at your table!




























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