Archive for February, 2010

Make it Simple

Do you ever feel like it’s too complicated or expensive to make healthy meals? I know the feeling, but I promise it doesn’t have to be that way. I made a simple, low-ingredient meal this week and wanted to share it with you. Sometimes, simple foods are really the best. My Curry Chicken and Eggplant recipe uses store-bought curry paste, which drastically cuts down on the ingredients you need. It also makes a big pot of food, so if there’s only one or two of you eating it, you’ll have plenty yummy leftovers for later.

Curry Chicken and Eggplant

3/4 cup onions
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 eggplant
2 chicken breasts (medium/small)
1/2 cup coconut milk, unsweetened
2 tbsp. curry paste

Heat the olive oil in a deep saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for and additional minute. Add the curry paste and stir together with garlic and onions. Pour in the coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes. Cut up the eggplant and chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan. Allow the chicken and eggplant to cook for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Serve immediately.

TIP 1: To make this a complete meal, you can serve it over some brown rice or other whole grain. If you prepare a big pot of plain whole grains over the weekend, you’ll have ready-to-eat grains to add to your meals all week. TIP 2: Here’s a picture of the curry paste I used in case you want to look for it at your local store.

Make it Simple is a post from: Laurel On Health Food

Ditalini with Pistachio Pesto

Cook pasta as package directs. While pasta is cooking, place all remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and creamy. When the pasta is done, quickly rinse under cold water, drain and toss with pesto or serve pasta hot with a large spoonful of pesto sauce on top.

Vegetable Shell Three Bean Salad

Cook pasta according to package directions. Combine remaining salad ingredients in a mixing bowl. When pasta is done, rinse, drain and add to the mixing bowl. Combine all dressing ingredients in a measuring cup and mix thoroughly. Pour dressing over the salad and gently toss to mix. Let stand for 1/2 hour before serving to allow the flavors to blend.

Black Eyed Pea & Pasta Salad

Cook pasta per package directions, rinse and drain. Place the pasta, tomatoes, corn, green and red peppers, green onion, red onion and cucumber in a medium-mixing bowl. To prepare the dressing, place all ingredients in a blender and pulse several seconds, or place in a sealed glass jar and shake vigorously to mix. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to mix. For the best flavor, chill 1 hour before serving or it can be serve at room temperature. Note: For a spicy flavor, add a very small pinch of cayenne pepper to each individual serving and toss to mix.

Quick Veggie Pizza

Some nights you just want a pizza, right? Monday was one of those nights at my place, so I made my own pie on the fly. By picking up a ready-made whole grain pizza crust, it was a very quick and easy meal to prepare. The crust came in a package at the store (looked like Boboli) and was made using several whole grain flours and seeds. You can check your local grocery store for any whole grain or whole wheat crust. Look for those that are free of trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. Sometimes you can find high-quality, natural doughs in the frozen section (but you’ll need to defrost them for at least 6 hours before baking). You’ll likely find the best selection at a health food store or Whole Foods. If you’re in the South, Publix usually sells their own pizza dough in the bakery (sometimes even whole wheat doughs!).

Here’s the recipe for my pizza. It really was a quick and easy dinner. As with many of my recipes, you don’t have to be a stickler on all the measurements (just use whatever looks good to you).

Quick Veggie Pizza

1 whole grain pizza crust
1 can organic tomato paste (small 6-oz can)
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbsp. fresh basil
1-2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow bell pepper
2 stalks of broccolini
1/2 cup fresh mozzarella
Salt & pepper

Prepare your pizza dough (either remove from package or roll it out if you’re working from scratch). Spread the tomato paste on top. Chop up your garlic and basil and sprinkle them on top of the tomato paste. Cut up the fresh mozzarella into thin slices and spread out across pizza. Chop up the bell pepper and broccolini and spread them out to complete your toppings (I cut the bell pepper into thin, 1-inch strips and remove the stalks from the broccolini to leave the leafy tops in small pieces). Drizzle olive oil on top of the pizza and season with a little salt and pepper. Bake in the oven according to directions for your dough. My pizza cooked at 350 degrees for 7-12 minutes.

That’s it! Looks tasty, right? If you try this one on your own, feel free to switch up the veggies to whatever you like. I served this pizza with avocado slices on the side.

Quick Veggie Pizza is a post from: Laurel On Health Food

Coming Soon, Coaching, and Marion Nestle

Hello LOHF friends! I hope your week is off to a happy and healthy start. I had a busy but exciting weekend and want to share a few things with you.

Coming Soon…I’m working on lots of new ideas for blog posts including more of my own healthy recipes, healthy travel foods, kid-friendly meals, superfoods, supplements, and much more. Plus, I’m planning to create a survey so I can find out what you, the LOHF readers, would like to read about on my blog. I aim to please! Stay tuned for lots of new content coming soon.

Coaching…As you may or may not know, I’m a certified health counselor and coach. In addition to my own clients, I’m counseling students at the nutrition school where I earned my certification, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I met six of my student clients this weekend and am so thankful to be a part of their exciting school year. Although I’ll be supporting them as their counselor and mentor for the coming months, I’m certain each of them will teach me new techniques, provide new insights, and help me grow as a health coach. I’m such a lucky ducky.

Marion Nestle…Last week I attended an awesome lecture hosted by the NY Academy of Sciences. Marion Nestle gave her “What to Eat” lecture downtown and I was so happy to get a seat. Her talk covered everything from confusing food labels to healthy school lunch programs. But my favorite part of the night was the half-hour long Q&A where she honestly and gracefully answered questions from fellow scientists, registered dietitians, health counselors (like me), and other inquiring minds.

One of the attendees asked her what young mothers and fathers can do to try to protect their kids from the powerful food marketing campaigns (for example, the sugar- and chemical-heavy cereals with cartoons on the front of the box). Marion said the two best things parents can do are: 1) talk to kids about food marketing from an early age and 2) turn off the TV commercials. It will always be a challenge, but you can make the decision to educate children and reduce the amount of exposure they have to the advertisements designed to draw them in.

Dr. Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Dept. of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at NYU. If you’re interested in food politics, check out Dr. Nestle’s awesome blog: www.foodpolitics.com. I even got her to autograph my book!

Wishing you a happy week,
Laurel

Coming Soon, Coaching, and Marion Nestle is a post from: Laurel On Health Food

Watermelon Smoothie

Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse several seconds. Pour into glasses and serve.

Unsweetened Flax Strawberry Peach Smoothie

Place the flax seed in a blender and grind several seconds. Add all remaining ingredients and pulse several seconds. Pour into glasses and serve. Flax provides extra fiber and beneficial essential fatty acids.

Three Fruit Smoothie

Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse several seconds. Pour into a glass and serve.

Raspberry Chocolate Smoothie

Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse several seconds. Pour into a glass and serve.