Posted by Beth Sumrell-Ehrensberger on Tue, Jun 16, 2009
I'm a dietitian, which means it's practically required that I toss a couple scoops of whole grains from the bulk bin into my grocery cart each week. Truthfully, while I love to serve a variety of adventurous whole grains, sometimes I just need something that's fast to make (and of course, still nutritious).
That's why bulgur is my go-to grain on busy days. It's sold parboiled and dried, so it doesn't take much longer to cook than pasta. Best of all, it requires no pot! Just pour 1 cup of bulgur into a bowl and add 2 cups of boiling water. Let the water and grain sit covered for about 20 minutes while you do something else, like make the rest of dinner or lunch for the next day.
You can use bulgur as the base to a classic homemade tabouleh, add it to sautéed veggies, or combine it with your usual pasta salad ingredients for a new spin on something familiar. In cooler weather, a dry handful adds filling fiber to soup, chili and stew. And, if you're pinching pennies (and who isn't these days?), bulgur's hearty texture can help you stretch the reach of a small amount of meat in casseroles—which is good for your wallet as well as your waistline!
Posted by Bob Greene on Fri, May 08, 2009
I love having cereal for breakfast—even better, I like to mix various healthy cereals together to add a variety of tastes and textures to my bowl. Try this quick recipe below for a quick and healthy start:
Best Life Kashi GoLean Mix
Makes 1 serving
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
The Kashi GoLean and Wheat Chex offer fiber and some protein; the Honey Nut Cheerios make it delicious! To save time, you can make it in a bigger quantity and portion out 1 1/2 cups per serving.
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup Kashi Go Lean
1/3 cup Honey Nut Cheerios
1/3 cup Wheat Chex
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine cereals. Serve dry or with fat-free or one percent milk or soymilk.
NOTES: To make in bulk: Combine 10 2/3 cups Kashi Go Lean (the entire 14.1 ounce box), 4 2/3 cups Honey Nut Cheerios and 4 2/3 cups Wheat Chex. Each serving is 1 1/2 cups. Makes about 14 servings.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
1 Serving
Calories: 176
Protein: 6 g
Carbohydrate: 37 g
Fiber: 8 g
Fat: 2 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Calcium: 111 mg
Sodium: 283 mg
For more healthy recipes and quick breakfast ideas, join TheBestLife.com.
Posted by Sidra Forman on Wed, May 06, 2009
Asparagus season is at its peak right now and will continue for about the next six weeks. You can find it at farmers markets as well as grocery stores across the country. (To find a farmers market near you, check out Local Harvest.)
Just-picked asparagus is nothing like asparagus that has traveled from far away places. It's so delicious that it can be eaten raw. My favorite way to enjoy it is to have it just barely cooked. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat the asparagus with a vegetable oil cooking spray and sesaon with a bit of salt and pepper. Place the asparagus in the oven for 2 to 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the stalks. Eat as is or season with a squirt of lime.
In addition to the delicious taste, asparagus is low in calories, high in fiber and loaded with vitamins and minerals.
For more healthy-eating advice, join TheBestLife.com.
Posted by Heather Jones on Mon, Apr 27, 2009
Having trouble getting enough disease-fighting, low-calorie produce into your diet? It can be tough to get the recommended nine to 12 daily servings, whether you're a produce-phobe or you're doing your best but still falling short. Find where you on the produce lover spectrum below and then use these tips to increase your intake:
PRODUCE-PHOBE
If a Lays grab bag is the only thing you eat that resembles a vegetable...
• Try something you haven't eaten since you were a kid. As you get older, your taste buds change and who knows, you may find that you actually enjoy it now.
• Incorporate vegetables into baked goods. For example, whip up a batch of zucchini or banana bread, or try making some carrot-raisin bran muffins.
• Instead of having a meat-only sandwich, or one garnished with a piece or two of limp iceberg lettuce, toss on some tomatoes, leafy greens, roasted red peppers, grated carrots, and sliced cucumbers or zucchini.
• Try fruity desserts, like fresh berries or stone fruit topped with low-calorie whipped topping or parfaits made with low-calorie pudding and fresh fruit.
• Finely mince vegetables and add them to hamburger patties, turkey burgers, or meatloaf.
• Whip up some baked sweet potato fries instead of regular French fries.
• Incorporate chopped veggies into tuna, chicken or egg salad.
• Add diced tomatoes, chopped carrots and celery, or frozen peas to spaghetti sauce.
• Add jars of baby food (carrots, squash or peas) to foods like gravy, soup, tomato sauce and Mac 'n Cheese.
PRODUCE LOYALIST
If you eat just a few fruits and veggies and are stuck in a rut:
• Go beyond carrots and celery sticks for dippers. Try raw cauliflower, broccoli, green peppers, turnips, rutabaga, green beans, red peppers, zucchini, or sugar snap peas.
• Use mashed avocado as a sandwich spread.
• Toss a fresh fruit into (or atop) your pancakes, waffles, or French toast, or throw a handful of dried or fresh fruit into your hot or cold cereal.
• Freeze grapes, blueberries and melon balls and eat them straight from the freezer for a cool treat.
• Make a smoothie using low-fat or fat-free yogurt, 100 percent fruit juice and your favorite frozen or fresh fruit.
• Try an all-veggie sandwich, like a pita stuffed with hummus, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes and sprouts.
• Make salads count. Start with spinach, watercress, romaine, or other dark greens, and load on more veggies, like green pepper strips, turnip slices, cold cooked peas, corn, chickpeas, or beets.
• Whip up an omelet or scrambled eggs and toss in shredded zucchini, onions, spinach and mushrooms. Top it with fresh salsa.
• Combine fruit with your main meal courses. Raisins, apples and tangerine slices add sweet, crunchy variety to a salad. Apples complement pork, pineapple is great with fish, and orange slices are perfect with chicken.
• Add fruit to low-fat plain yogurt or cottage cheese.
• Use spinach in recipes like lasagna, quiche and manicotti, and toss fresh greens and frozen vegetables into canned or homemade soups and stews.
• Load up pizza with lots of veggies, such as mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, bell peppers and artichoke hearts.
• Use fresh fruit instead of jam in peanut butter sandwiches.
PRODUCE LOVER
If you try your hardest, but you still can't hit the mark:
• Roast a bunch of your favorite veggies and puree them in a food processor with low-fat cream cheese or yogurt and use it as a dip with your favorite veggies.
• Cook new combos. You can get ideas from the vegetable combos in the frozen food case at the grocery store. Think about contrasting colors, shapes, and textures.
• Experiment with an exotic fruit or two (like a lychee or starfruit). Many are now available in most large chain grocery stores and will give your taste buds a kick in the pants.
• Try to follow a vegetarian diet for one whole day each week.
• Plant a vegetable garden so you always have fresh produce on hand. (Check out Sidra's tips for gardening on this site.)
For more healthy-eating advice, check out TheBestLife.com.
Posted by Bob Greene on Fri, Apr 24, 2009
You may already know how good breakfast is for your health and for your weight-loss efforts. Research shows that amorning meal gets your metabolism going and gives you anenergy-boost. For these reasons, it's not surprising that breakfast eaters are often slimmer than breakfastskippers.
Not sure what to have to start your day? Try any of these dishes and you really will have a good morning.
Have a bowl. No, cereal is not just for kids. Aslong as you choose one that's 100 percent whole-grain and use fat-free orone-percent milk or calcium-enriched soy milk, you're getting aperfectly balanced and nutritious meal. My favorite trick: I mixcereals to give my bowl a variety of different tastes and textures.Want to add even more flavor? Try topping your bowl with fruit and/or atablespoon or two of nuts. Don't have time to sit and eat a bowl ofcereal? Take it to go. Mix a few of your favorite healthy cerealstogether, put them in a resealable plastic bag and you have a healthy,portable meal. Aim for a total of 160 to 190 calories of varioushigh-fiber cereals. Don't forget the fruit and nuts!
Get cooking.If you have a few minutes to whip up some oatmeal (made with fat-free orone percent milk or calcium-rich soy milk), I'd highly recommend it. Ilove McCann's Irish oatmeal; it has a rougher texture and takes longerto cook than standard oatmeal, but it's worth it.
Look on the sunny side.Yes, you can have eggs! In fact, they're a great source of protein,which is more satiating than either carbs or fat. Serve one or two eggswith a slice of whole-grain toast, some fruit and a glass of low-fatmilk. Or, you can opt for liquid eggs like Better'n Eggs or AllWhitesto eliminate fat and cholesterol entirely.
Munch on a muffin.As long as you opt for a healthy size muffin (look for one with about 160to 200 calories and at least 5 g fiber), this can be a great on-the-gograb. Or, if you have some time on the weekend, make a batch and enjoy them all week long.
Get your fruit fix. Start your day with1/2 grapefruit to knock off one of your daily fruit servings. Add aslice or two of whole-grain toast or an English muffin topped with somepeanut butter, another nut butter, or even soy butter. Round out yourmeal with a glass of fat-free or one percent milk.
Sip your meal.Smoothies are a great option because there are so many differentingredients you can use. And don't be afraid to experiment. Combineyour favorite fruit with ½ cup fat-free milk or calcium-enriched soymilk, ½cup low-fat yogurt and even some wheat germ or ground flaxseed.
Grab your spoon.Yogurt is a great breakfast option—it's fast, portable, healthy anddelicious. Add extra flavor to plain yogurt by topping it with yourfavorite fruit, chopped nuts and even a little honey.
For more great breakfast ideas, join TheBestLife.com; you'll get access to hundreds of delicious recipes in the Best Life recipe database.
Posted by Janis Jibrin on Fri, Apr 17, 2009
Your daughter calls to let you know she won't be home for dinner. Your husband has been getting home late, and your son likes to eat early. Sound familiar? While life may make it nearly impossible to sit down to a nice family dinner every night, it's worth trying to get the gang together for a meal as often as possible. Research shows the old-fashioned tradition is good for your family's health.
The more dinners eaten at home, the healthier the family—it's a simple fact proven over and over again. In fact, one study from Harvard University in Boston found that children who ate at home most often consumed about 50 percent more fruit and vegetables, and less fried food and soda than those who ate at home less frequently. As a result, they had a lower intake of saturated and trans fats, and a higher intake of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Although more than half of the 9-year-olds surveyed ate family dinner daily, the rate dipped to only about a third for 14-year-olds.
Not surprisingly, it's a lack of time—for both parents and young adults—that seems to keep us out of the kitchen. In fact, a survey from the University of Minnesota found that men and women ages 18 to 23 complain they don't have the time or the cooking skills to prepare meals at home. That's not only bad for your wallet (takeout and restaurant meals are often more expensive than home-cooked), it's also bad for your health: Just like children who eat at home, young adults who eat in at least once a week took in substantially less fat and saturated fat, and consumed more fruit and vegetables and fiber than those who said they cooked just one to five times a year.
More fiber and less fat aren’t the only benefits. Home-cooked meals can also boost brain power. Children who frequently eat dinner with their parents get more A's and B's in school than children who have just two or three family dinners weekly, according to research from Columbia University in New York. This together-time can also keep your kids out of trouble: Some research indicates that teens who eat family meals are less likely to smoke, feel depressed or abuse alcohol and drugs.
Ready for the best part? You don't have to be Julia Child to pull off a family dinner. Try these easy tricks, and you'll have a delicious meal on the table in no time.
1. Rely on prepared foods. Pick up a rotisserie chicken, a bag of salad greens and some whole-wheat rolls. You now have all the fixings for healthy dinner.
2. Graduate to simple recipes. Once you feel a little more comfortable in the kitchen, test yourself out on some easy recipes. (TheBestLife.com has a great recipe database with hundreds of easy-to-made dishes.)
3. Enlist help. Have your children run the greens through the salad spinner and/or set the table. This will help you get things done, and get them used to working with food and being in the kitchen.
4. Turn off the TV. It's not only the food, but the conversation and bonding that make family dinners so important. So turn off the tube, sit back and enjoy the great company and tasty meal!
Posted by Luke Scott on Wed, Mar 25, 2009
Bob Greene offered tips on what foods you should eat to get enough fiber in your diet on Good Morning America today. Bob also annouced his MOVE Campaign, which highlights effective osteoarthritis pain management techniques. Click here to read about the high-fiber foods and watch the video with Bob Greene and Diane Sawyer.
Bob Greene on Good Morning America
