Lentils - Miracle Diet Food!

Lentils are my new miracle diet food. They are quick and easy to prepare compared to other legumes and contain many health benefits. They are so versatile, serve them as a side dish, add to soup, add cooked meat for a meal, or serve cold over a salad. 

Did you know? One cup of cooked lentils:

• contain (percentage of Recommended Daily Allowance) 89% folate, 62% fiber, 36% iron, 35% protein,  and only 220 calories.
• contain six important minerals plus two B-Vitamines
• have been shown to  reduce cholesterol levels
• help maintain blood sugar levels so you don’t crash and you feel full longer.
• can reduce your risk of Heart disease.
• prevent constipation
• help the flow of blood, oxygen, and nutrients throughout the body

Reference: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=52

Cooking Lentils are as easy as 1,2,3     1. Rinse Lentils
    2. Add to a pot of water (1 cup lentils to 2 cups water) Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook     

        for 20-30 minutes until plump and tender. 
    3. Enjoy. 

One of my favorite meals as a kid was franks and beans.  While beans are good for you, traditional franks and beans are full of fat and calories.  I love this alternative recipe from Biggest Loser.  I often make a giant batch and freeze for later. These are good with some turkey sausage, as a meal, or make a great side dish. 

BBQ Lentils - Inspired by Biggest Loser.  

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cup chopped red onion (aprox 1 whole red onion)

4 celery stalks chopped
4 carrots chopped 

2 tablespoon minced garlic 

4 teaspoons chili powder 

2 teaspoon mustard powder 

4 cups fat-free vegetable or chicken broth 

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

2 tablespoon Dijon Mustard 

4 tablespoons agave nectar  or honey **If you can't find this, you could try pure maple syrup 

3 cups dried (uncooked) brown lentils, rinsed 

2 cans 14oz tomato sauce 

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened and translucent (about 3 minutes.  Add celery, carrots, garlic, chili powder, and mustard powder and sauté until fragrant (about 1 minute); do not brown the garlic.

Add the broth, vinegar, mustard, agave nectar, and lentils; stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are tender, but intact (about 30 minutes). If necessary, add 1/4 cup water and simmer for 5 minutes longer if lentils are not tender.  Stir in tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves: 8 (1/2 cup) servings:  187 calories 12 gm protein 31 gm carb 2 gm fat 9 gm fiber 161 mg sodium

Add turkey sausage or hot dogs, serve on bread as a sloppy joe, Enjoy! 

Meal Planning Part 3 - Daily Lunches

One of my biggest weaknesses for eating healthy is remembering to bring a healthy lunch every day. I am always running late and it is so much easier to run out and pick up fast food for lunch than to spend time in the morning trying to remember to pack one.  One of our resolutions was to give up all fast food and to limit eating out in general so I had to come up with a plan.

I decided to use some Ziploc containers that I had in my cupboard. I love these containers because they come in 1 cup, 2 cup, and 4 cup sizes which greatly helps with portion control. I also love that the 2 and 4 cup use the same size lid so I don't have to go hunting for the right lid. They come in several other sizes but these work well for me.

Here is what I made
Five 1 cup containers of plain cottage cheese.
Four 1 cup containers of 0% fat Greek yogurt with a tablespoon of walnuts and dried fruit. (I didn't have enough for 5 cups)
Five Containers of spinach salad with hearts of palm and salsa for dressing.
Five 2 cup containers of BBQ Lentils (Stored in the freezer)
Five 2 cup containers of 15 Bean soup (Stored in the freezer)
I will supplement my lunches with spiced almonds and fruit.

I made enough of the yogurt and cottage cheese so I could use one as a snack or I could mix up my breakfast.  I will also mix up lunches with the lentils, soup, and left overs from dinner so I am not eating the same thing every day.

Another diet tip is that I will eat my salad first before my entree, and drink a 12oz glass of water or tea with each meal.

I love this idea of having pre-made lunches, it is one less thing for me to worry about in the morning and I just might be on time for work more often now!

Healthy Cocoa Protein Truffles

In my search for better nutrition and healthy snacks I cam across this recipe from Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe and thought I should give it a try. I did make a few modifications since I can never leave well enough alone.

Healthy Cocoa Protein Truffles  

• 4 tsp cocoa powder plus extra to coat finish truffles (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 tablespoon low fat Greek yogurt (I bet any yogurt would work though) 
• 5 tablespoons chocolate or vanilla protein powder (I used vanilla) 
• 2 egg yolks (to cut down calories, egg yolks have 80 calories each, I just used 1 whole egg. I also didn't want to left over egg parts in my fridge) 
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted. (do not substitute you need this to help the truffles firm up)
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar (you could also use honey)

1. Melt the butter in a small bowl then add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. 
2. Cover  the top of the mixture with plastic wrap so it doesn't form a skin and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. I left mine over night. 
3. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll in cocoa powder. Enjoy! Store remaining truffles in a sealed container in the fridge. 

Counting what I ate while making these I would save it makes about 10, 1 inch truffles.

Nutrition Information: this greatly depends on what brands you use but here is an proximate calculation. 

Serving size 2 truffles, 90 calories, Fat 4 gm, Protein 11 gm. This is also packed with several vitamins  iron, and calcium but those totals also depend on the brands you use so I have not included them. 

Now before you go crazy about the amount of calories and fat remember I used low fat yogurt because it is what I had on hand. You can reduce the fat by using non fat yogurt. You can reduce the calories by using plain (unflavored/unsweetened protein powder). You might even be able to substitute the butter with cream cheese. This is also meant as a treat to provide extra protein and not a meal. While this is good it is also rich so 2 truffles should be plenty. 

Now lets talk about the calories. One of the things I like is that this uses agave nectar (or honey) instead of sugar. Agave is low on the glycemic index (GI) rating, which means it won't cause a spike in your blood sugar levels the way sugar does. High-GI foods like white sugar tend to make us feel hungry sooner since they are digested quickly. So foods made with agave nectar may keep you feeling fuller longer than foods made with the white stuff, which translates to eating less.  Interestingly Agave  has a very low glycemic index, ranging between 10 and 19, while the glycemic index of honey is also low, ranging between 35 and 58. 

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/435109-is-agave-healthier-than-honey/#ixzz2H2xZguHj

Notes from Jule:

• My dough was a bit soft so I think I would add an extra tablespoon of protein powder next time.
• I thought these tasted better after sitting overnight than after just 30 minutes. 
• Because there are raw eggs I would not double the batch. If you want to avoid the use of raw eggs I bet you could use more yogurt, water, or apple sauce. Just add about a tablespoon to make up for the egg. This will also help reduce the calories but will also reduce the protein content.  
• If you want vanilla or another flavor just substitute the cocoa with flavored protein powder or try with flavored yogurt. 
• Roll in crushed nuts or mix the nuts in the dough to provide more texture. 
• Add ground flax seeds for added fiber.
• Use natural peanut or almond butter in place of the yogurt. 
• Add ground oatmeal to replace some protein powder.  
• The possibilities of the recipe are endless, in fact just Google protein truffles and you will come up with a ton of variations. 

Please share your variations and ideas 

in the comments section below. 

Healthy Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Pepper Soup

It has been very cold here in California, in fact on some nights it actually is getting below 40 around here. I know all my Wisconsin relatives are laughing and saying that's shorts weather but for us in Cali that is freaking cold. Nothing is better on a cold winter day than a bowl of delicious hot soup so that is what I decided to make.  This recipe is inspired by Sarah at Frugal by Choice, Cheep by Necessity. 

What I love about making soup is how forgiving it is, you don't really need to follow exact measurements and that's exactly what I did. I just put in a little of this and a little of that till the soup tasted good to me.

First buy a boat load of tomatoes, I happened to use roma tomatoes because those tend to be more meaty and less seady and who wants  a seady tomoato?  This soup would be a great way to use up all those tomatoes from your summer garden or perhaps from your neighbors garden.

Roasted Garlic, Tomato, and Pepper Soup 
(all amounts are approximate, please season to your taste)
A boatload of tomatoes (about 5 pounds)
4 heads of garlic
4 red peppers
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (add 1 tsp at a time and season to your taste.
1 tablespoon dried basil.

1. Wash, de-stem, and cut the tomatoes, I cut mine into fourths. Throw them into a roasting pan. Mauviel M'Cook Roasting Pan with Rack & Bonus Kitchen Towel (Google Affiliate Ad)
2. Wash, de-seed, and slice some red bell peppers. I prefer red since they are sweeter than the green ones. I used 4 peppers. Throw them in the pan with the tomatoes so they can get to know each other. 
3. Take some garlic and throw that in the pan. I used for heads and didn't want to spend the time pealing all the cloves since I am also a lazy cook, so I just cut off the tops and nestled them in with the peppers and tomatoes. 
4. Drizzle some olive oil, salt, and pepper over the veggies and mix. You just need enough oil to lightly coat everything. I used about a tablespoon. 
5. Roast at 400 for about an 1-1 and 1/2 hours. Sarah recommended 1 hour but I did mine longer for 90 minutes. 
6. Let cool. When cool squeeze the garlic cloves out, if you were lazy like me and didn't peel them in advance. They should just pop right out. 
7. Transfer everything to a blender and blend until smooth.  You can run through a sieve if you want to remove the extra skin and seeds.  I transferred mine to a pot and  just used an immersion blender  Cuisinart SmartStick Hand Blender CSB-77 (Google Affiliate Ad)  so that I didn't have to pull out my blender. I also wanted the fiber that is provided by the seeds and skins and I like a chunkier soup. You can also use a food mill if you have one.  
8. Heat the soup and enjoy.  

The soup was very good as is but I couldn't leave well enough alone so I had to add to it. The soup was very thick so I added some chicken stock as I was running my immersion blender.  I then started to channel Emril and started yelling Bam! as I added about a tablespoon of red pepper flakes and a tablespoon of dried basil. I found about a coup of cooked yams left over in my fridge and added them so I could use them up.  I let everything simmer for 30 minutes and topped with some Parmesan cheese. This was a tasty sipping soup. Hubby and I enjoyed it for the rest of the day.  The remainder of the soup we placed in containers and froze so we can have some healthy lunches when we head back to work.