Monday, January 18, 2010

SOUP Du JOUR


I am obsessed with soup. Love it. Can't get enough of it. Hopefully by the end of this entry you will be too. One of the sure ways to eat healthy is to cook for yourself. Duh, right? There is always a counter argument that usually sounds something like, "I suck at cooking," or "there isn't enough time to really cook a decent meal." Soup is the answer to all your troubled problems. IT's REALLY HARD to screw up soup and it doesn't take much time to make. And don't even THINK about reaching for that nasty canned crap. (WAY too much salt people...plus, unless it's Armageddon, it's just too gross to ingest.)

I'll let you in on what I do and have found it to work not only for me, but my husband digs it too. Here's the run-down:

1. Cook one vat of soupy goodness each week. Pick whatever day of the week you want and for consistency, make it soup day.
2. Cook enough for SEVERAL servings.
3. Eat your vat of soup the day you cook it and then put it in the fridge for later. It's always better day two anyway.
4. Use your soupy leftovers as a great and healthy snack. Whenever I am hungry and want to eat something crappy, I grab the yummy soup and it will fill me up long enough that I won't gorge on said crap.
5. What you don't eat on day 1 and 2, pour in a Ziploc freezer bag and save for later. It’s really easy to take the ice block of soup and thaw it out in a saucepan when you are exhausted or over cooking for the day. Just remember to add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water so that the soup doesn't reduce to a sauce.

Will this “health tip” work if your soup is clam chowder made with cream or broccoli cheese soup? Probably not. Remember, clam chowder was originally made to stick to the ribs of fisherman out at sea in cold weather. Most of us aren't putting in that kind of hard labor so shouldn't be having 3 servings a day of the stuff.

So does that just leave me with broth and floating veggies? Not necessarily. There are PLENTY of options to make starchy soups without adding cream, milk, cream cheese, cream of mushroom, etc etc. The answer is puree. If you are jonesing for a thick and creamy soup, cook up a vat of onions, garlic, new potatoes and puree the mixture in a blender. You can do this with sweet potatoes, yams, butternut squash and other starchy veggies. Then add your carrots, celery, and greens. I am still a fan of a chunky vegetable stew. The KEY to making a great soup is to NOT OVER COOK the vegetables. Mushy veggies are nasty, plus you want to avoid cooking all the nutrients out of the soup.

Here is one of my original recipes:


Turkey Kielbasa Vegetable Soup:

1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 celery stalks
1 leek
2 ears of corn (cut from the cob)
1 sweet potato
1 new potato
3 carrots
1 turkey kielbasa sausage (If you are a vegetarian you can substitute the turkey sausage for tofurky sausages to get a similar taste)
1 head of broccoli
2 tbsp olive or grape seed oil
2 tbsp of dry parsley
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp sea salt
Pepper to taste.
1 tbsp of Bragg 24 season sprinkle
1 Bay leaf
4 cups (32 oz) of chicken stock or vegetable stock
4 cups of water
In a large stock pot (I prefer the way cast iron cooks) sauté onions, garlic, and celery on medium heat for 3 mins. Add the Turkey Kielbasa (cut into small chucks) and brown. Add chopped sweet potato, new potato, and carrots with the chicken stock and water. Add seasonings. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down to Low heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broccoli, leeks and corn. Cook 5 mins longer. Remove from heat and let sit for 1-2 hours so seasonings can really absorb into the veggies.
Reheat and serve with a little balsamic vinegar if you like. Season to taste.
Hope you enjoy this.

Goals:
Challenge yourself to cook one healthy vat of soup this week.
Walk or run for 30 mins 3 days this week, or dance for an hour in class or at home to music. Also fit in one toning yoga or Pilate’s class or video. 
Best of luck! I did all the walking but didn’t quite get to the video. Baby came down with a flu bug of some kind. Here’s to this week. 

Saturday, January 9, 2010

New Resolutions--Enjoy the sweet-tooth the right way

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My New Years Resolution is write one health blog per week (52!) and supplement here and there with YouTube "How-to" style videos (dance exercises, cooking, etc). Should be a fun project for 2010. I will set 2 goals each week; one fitness, and one nutrition. Anyone can join in and I'd love to hear feedback. I am doing this for 2 reasons:

1. I really enjoy learning about health and nutrition and this is a motivating way for me to keep up on research.

2. I had a baby and need to lose some baby weight. I am not one to count calories (that is a sure way for me to end up in the crazy house), and I love crappy food as much as the next guy. SO this is a great way to keep me accountable to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle for both me and my new little baby.

Since its the end of the first FULL week of 2010, I made it just in time. It's been an interesting balance having a newborn and trying to keep the energy up to cook, clean, take care of a baby, and function somewhat normally but HERE WE ARE!

True to newly stay-at-home mom form, I have been watching umpteen TV talk shows all week about losing weight and dieting. (Happy New Years resolution!) From Dr. Oz to Bethany Frankel--most people say the same thing. Set goals that are obtainable. Eat whole foods. Change a sedentary lifestyle to one that is active and so on. Dr. Oz talked about getting rid of 5 toxic things out of the fridge. One that stuck in my memory was high fructose corn syrup. While I totally agree with him (I love me some Oz), I think it is nearly impossible for the average person to just walk to the fridge and get rid of everything with HFCS in it without replacing it immediately with a better substitute. (I am a sugar whores so I get it ;-)) This takes time to educate oneself on what is actually in food.


Nasty high fructose corn syrup in nearly all packaged foods, sodas, candy, etc. It's bad because it's been chemically changed from corn glucose into an engineered form of fructose which is sweeter, cheaper than sugar, and used as a preservative. Have you ever wondered how fruit juice can stay good for years??? Hmmm...weird. It is also thought to be a major contributing factor to obesity.

How do we actually get rid of HFCS (or at least move it to moderation)?

1. Make it a goal to have no HFCS (and we'll throw in refined white sugar as well for good measure) for 2 weeks. Just start with that. Simple. Don't bombard yourself with avoiding everything sweet, fatty, and carbolicious. Let's just focus on starting to eat more whole foods an cutting out refined white sugar and HFCS.

--HOW DO I DO THIS???

2. READ INGREDIENTS. This will be disturbing because you will find HFCS and refined white sugar in everything.

--DON'T PANIC, I have a solution:

3. Don't deprive yourself of all things sweet. You will want to give up if you do that so look for real sugar in the form of: evaporated cane juice, agave necter, honey, dates, turbinado sugar, and of course FRUIT!! For a zero calorie natural sweetner go for some stevia. Don't just switch to diet soda because I have a whole other bone to pick with artificial sweetners. Another entry for another day.

You will find these other sweetners to seem a little pricey, at least more than white sugar and cheap soda. THIS IS A GOOD THING. WHY???? Well, the more chemicals and fillers in food, the cheaper they are. (That will make you think twice about that fast food dollar menu). Also, if $$ is an issue, then go buy a small bag of turbinado sugar or evaporated cane juice and some stevia packets from the store (usually in most grocery store but will definitely be in health food stores) and use it sparingly. The idea is to have one treat, not 20. Make your brownies with REAL sugar. Sweeten your tea and coffee with stevia (just a little goes a LONG way b/c its 200 times sweeter than sugar.)

Eat slowly and enjoy the sweetness rather than wolfing down a pan of brownies before you have time to taste them. (speaking from experience).

So to recap:
1. No high fructose corn syrup or refined white sugar.
Fitness goal for this week is going to be a relatively easy one since I am still slowly getting back into shape with the wee one:
2. Walk for 30 mins 3 times a week. Try to do a pilates/yoga video or class once this week.

Pretty easy, right?

Report back soon. :)