Mint Iced Tea

Posted on May 17, 2012

Mint Iced Tea

A few weeks ago, I made some mint julips to enjoy while watching the Kentucky Derby. For the julips, I made a mint-flavored simple syrup to combine with the bourbon. The mint julips were delicious but I was left with almost a cup of simple syrup. So I decided to use it to flavor iced tea. I usually don’t add sugar to iced tea but just a teaspoon of simple syrup gave the tea a nice hint of sweetness as well as the refreshing taste of mint.

I wanted to share this idea for all of you who like sweet tea and other sweet drinks. Purchased sweet teas and drinks can be loaded with high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, colors and preservatives. While my simple syrup is certainly not nutritious, it’s a better sweetener choice than what you find in most bottled drinks. Plus, you can control the amount of simple syrup that you use. Start with just a teaspoon or two for a glass of iced tea. That may be all you need! If you really like the mint, garnish your drink with a few more fresh mint leaves.

If you don’t like mint, you could add another fresh herb to the simple syrup or some fresh, chopped ginger. You can add the syrup to any type of tea, but I liked it in freshly brewed green iced tea. (For the iced tea, I just make a super concentrated batch of green tea, then add cool water and ice to dilute it to the desired strength.) Ready to give it a try? Here’s the recipe.

Mint Syrup for Iced Tea
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1-2 cups fresh mint leaves

Put sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat on medium high, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. (Don’t heat beyond this point or the syrup will get too thick.) Put fresh mint in a small bowl. Use the back of a spoon to lightly crush the leaves (this releases the flavor). Or you can coarsely chop the leaves instead. Place leaves in syrup. Pour syrup into a container and refrigerate overnight. Strain out leaves using a fine mesh strainer and the syrup is ready to use. Syrup keeps in the fridge for several weeks.

Note: You can make simple syrup by stirring the sugar into the water until it dissolves, without heating it, but (1) it will take a little longer and (2) you’ll get a thinner syrup.

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Let the Healthy Family Challenge Begin!

Posted on May 15, 2012

The June issue of Family Circle magazine features the first month of the 2012 Healthy Family Challenge, in which two families compete in healthy challenges each month for 6 months. The families receive nutrition and fitness advice from various experts. On the nutrition side, I’ve been coaching the Lehman family, a family here in Des Moines, and a New York dietitian is working with a family in New Jersey.

I encourage you to follow the families through this 6-month journey, either at the Family Circle website or the magazine. I’ll be sharing lots of tips along with some recipes to help all families have a healthier lifestyle. You will also hear from each family (the Lehmans and the Avaglianos) and learn what obstacles they encounter with each challenge as well as how they overcame those obstacles. The moms of both families (Tiffany Lehman and Peggy Avagliano)  are keeping a blog at the Family Circle website so you can regularly check back and see how they’re doing. I’m also hosting a blog, which you can see here or if you’re on the main page, just look under “Team Lehman: Nutrition Advice from Stephanie Karpinske, RD.” Here you’ll find even more tips and advice about healthy cooking and nutrition.

The first challenge for each family is to eat more fruits and vegetables. Since almost nobody eats the recommended 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, this one is going to be tough. So how are they doing? Check out their blogs and follow along with the challenge. And if you’re feeling competitive, try the challenge yourself! Ask friends or family members to compete with you and by the end of 6 months, you, too, will be on your way to a healthier lifestyle.

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Toaster Oven Baked Ziti

Posted on May 10, 2012

 

Toaster Oven Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti

To celebrate the publication of my latest e-book, The Ultimate Toaster Oven Cookbook, I’m going to share a recipe from the book. The book includes some of my favorite super easy main dish, side dish and dessert recipes. One of the main dish recipes is the Baked Ziti recipe listed below. I like this recipe because you can make it ahead and then bake it when you get home from work. And it makes great leftovers!

When making this recipe, use whole wheat or multigrain pasta to boost the fiber. Look for pasta sauce that has no artificial additives or make your own if you like. If you want to make this vegetarian, omit the beef or use TVP or frozen soy crumbles instead. And finally, if you don’t have a toaster oven, you can make this in a regular oven but you may need to increase the cooking time a little.

Baked Ziti
4 cups cooked ziti, rigatoni or penne pasta (equal to about 2 cups uncooked pasta)
2 cups jarred tomato-basil pasta sauce
½ pound lean ground beef, cooked and drained
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1-1/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese, divided

Combine cooked ziti with pasta sauce, cooked ground beef, 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Mix together and place in a casserole dish. Top with remaining Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until heated through. (If cheese browns too much, cover lightly with foil.) Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

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Super Simple Toaster Oven Recipes

Posted on May 7, 2012
The Ultimate Toaster Oven Cookbook

The Ultimate Toaster Oven Cookbook

For the past few years, I’ve used my toaster oven to make delicious meals, side dishes, and desserts. Although I have a regular oven that works great, it takes forever to heat up so is not convenient when you’re in a hurry. Plus, I don’t like wasting all that energy heating up a big oven just to cook a couple pieces of chicken or fish.

After cooking in my toaster oven for years, I decided to make a cookbook for other toaster oven enthusiasts. It’s an ebook so you can download it to your Kindle, laptop, cell phone, iPad, or other mobile device (click here for free e-book reading apps). This makes your recipes portable so you can take them to the grocery store and get the ingredients you need. (Note: You could also make these recipes in a regular oven but the cooking time might be slightly longer.)

Rather than make a huge cookbook with 200-300 recipes you’ll never use, I picked my favorite 50 recipes that you’ll make again and again. By the way, did you know that most people only make 1-2 recipes out of a typical cookbook?! I’m confident you’ll make way more than that with this cookbook because it’s full of family favorites, like baked ziti, chicken parmesan sandwiches, shortcut lasagna, BBQ pork chops, steak and peppers, meatloaf, pecan crusted salmon, tostadas, and pizza. There’s also a breakfast chapter that includes a variety of sweet and savory dishes, such as apple-streusel coffee cake, banana bread, cheesy hash brown bake and more!

The cookbook also includes a variety of side dishes, including sweet potato fries with Ranch dip, rosemary roasted carrots, and crispy-topped tomatoes. (I love to make side dishes in the toaster oven, especially when my regular oven is cooking something else at a different temperature.) This isn’t a diet cookbook, so you’ll find lots of tasty desserts such as blueberry-peach cobbler, chewy brownies, apple turnovers, peanut butter cookie bars, and oatmeal chocolate-chip bars.

If you don’t have a toaster oven, consider getting one. Spring and summer are ideal times to get a toaster oven because they don’t heat up the kitchen the way a regular oven does. And since they heat up and cook quickly, you’ll have more time to spend outdoors enjoying the warmer weather. You can get a good toaster oven for about $50. I recommend buying a space-saving one that has a lot of interior cooking space but is made to fit compactly under your counters. Also buy one with the convection feature. Convection is a cooking method that circulates hot air and cooks food faster at a lower temperature.

Whether you have a toaster oven, are planning to buy one, or know someone who has one, please give this e-book a try. I’ve tested every one of these recipes in this cookbook several times and they are all delicious!

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Lose Weight by Picking Your Splurges

Posted on April 27, 2012

When people ask me how to lose weight, I hesitate because there isn’t a simple answer. Weight loss is complex and different for each person. But one general tip that I tell people who are trying to lose, or just maintain their weight, is to pick their splurges. Specifically, pick 2-3 favorite food or drink-related splurges and then decide how much you’re willing to limit them. You may decide to have just one splurge a day or one a week depending on your weight loss goals.

If you’re not sure what to pick for your splurges, consider this. Many adults who are struggling with their weight tend to (1) eat out a lot, which often means big portions and high calorie meals, (2) enjoy too many sweets, and (3) drink a lot of calories in alcohol and/or sugary drinks. When you’re trying to lose weight, these habits are often the reason why the scale doesn’t budge (or even nudges upward). And yet many people go to a restaurant, order a few glasses of wine or beer, eat a big meal, and then have dessert. That’s all three splurges at one sitting! You could have easily polished off 3500 calories (the amount needed to gain a pound) in that one meal!

If this sounds like you, consider making eating out, desserts, and calorie-rich drinks your three splurges. Rather than indulge in all three splurges at once, choose just one. If you want to eat out, then that’s your splurge. But that means you won’t order alcohol, soda or other sugary drinks, and you won’t have dessert. If you really want dessert, than make that your splurge for the day, meaning no dining out and no calorie-containing drinks.

Picking your splurge lets you still indulge in your favorite foods/drinks, just not all at once. I use a similar technique in my book, Read Before Dieting, but I specifically focus on picking the changes you want to make on a diet. The idea is that you don’t have to follow diets exactly as written because chances are, they don’t fit your lifestyle. So you decide which of the diet’s changes you are willing to make. Doing this makes you more likely to stay on the diet and lose the weight.

If you want to lose a few pounds (or keep from gaining them), give this “pick your splurge” trick a try. Decide what your splurges are, then give yourself one splurge a day or 2-3 per week and you may see results from that simple switch alone.

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Caramelized Bananas with Greek Yogurt

Posted on April 24, 2012
Broiled Bananas with Greek Yogurt and Granola

Broiled Bananas with Yogurt and Granola

I was reading some food trend reports last week and one of the trends was that people are eating desserts for breakfast. That’s why you’ll see ads for chocolate-chip waffles topped with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. It’s not my idea of a breakfast, but it seems to be gaining in popularity.

So I came up with a sweet breakfast treat that is somewhat dessert-like but healthier and a lot lower in calories and sugar than those caramel syrup pancakes or cherry cheesecake crepes.

If you’re not into the sweets-for-breakfast trend, make this banana recipe for a snack or a (non-breakfast) dessert. Enjoy!

Caramelized Bananas with Greek Yogurt
2 small bananas, ripe but still firm
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons granola (homemade if possible, try this recipe for homemade granola)

Peel bananas and cut each one in half lengthwise. Place on foil-lined baking sheet. Divide honey among bananas and spread to coat. Top with brown sugar, lightly pressing sugar into honey to keep it from falling off. Broil in preheated 450 degree F oven for 5 minutes or until brown sugar topping just starts to caramelize. (Stay close to the oven as this can burn fast!) Remove from oven. If any of the honey/brown sugar has slid onto the tray, scoop it back on the bananas. Divide yogurt between two wide and shallow bowls. Top with bananas, cutting bananas if necessary to fit. Sprinkle with granola. Makes 2 servings.

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How Would You Grade Your Shopping Cart?

Posted on April 20, 2012

A few weeks ago I was at Costco buying groceries and a woman walked by my cart staring at its contents. She looked so amazed that I wondered if there was some strange object in my cart. But no, it was just the usual stuff: a bag of fresh broccoli, bag of sweet peppers, box of oranges, container of mushrooms, bag of pea pods, container of Roma tomatoes, box of salad greens, bananas and a big bag of baby carrots. What’s the big deal, I thought? The woman then started talking to her child and pointing at me, “Look at all the fruits and vegetables that lady has,” she says.

That’s what she’s staring at? I think. Fruits and vegetables? Is it such an oddity to buy a cartful of fruits and vegetables? I always buy this stuff, I’m thinking. This isn’t unusual. Not soon after this encounter, another woman is staring into my cart. “Look in her cart,” she tells her husband. “Doesn’t that broccoli look good? We should get some of that broccoli. Go find it.”

Both of these encounters occurred on the same trip. I thought I was on some hidden camera show. But then I started looking in other peoples’ carts and saw big packages of meat, frozen chicken nuggets, frozen French fries, frozen desserts, cases of soda, bags of chips, boxes of cookies and just one or two produce items – usually bananas or strawberries. I guess I am an oddity, I thought.

On the ride home, I wondered how many people really look at what’s in their cart? Seems like people just race through the store, tossing in the same foods they buy each week. Sound familiar? If so, next time you’re grocery shopping, take a look at your cart and see what it’s filled with. Do you see a cart filled with frozen chicken nuggets, French fries, pizzas and sugary cereals? If you had to grade your cart on healthfulness, what grade would you give it?

People always tell me that they eat cookies, ice cream, candy, chips, etc because it’s “all they have at home.” My answer to them: Stop buying those foods! Healthier choices begin at the grocery store. That doesn’t mean having a cartful of fruits and veggies. Start small. Add a few extra produce items in place of the chips and cookies. Look in your cart and take out the items with long ingredient lists or artificial additives. Who knows? In a few months, your cart may the one everyone is staring at!

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A Tastier Way to Cook Cauliflower

Posted on April 17, 2012

Roasted Cauliflower

As a dietitian, I’m always looking for tasty new ways to cook vegetables so that people will eat and enjoy them. Last week, my local store had cauliflower on sale so I decided to try a new way of making it. I usually steam cauliflower, as most people do, but steamed cauliflower doesn’t have much flavor. This is probably why so many people coat it with butter or cheese sauce, turning a low calorie vegetable into a calorie-dense side dish.

So I decided to try roasting cauliflower with some olive oil and Italian seasonings and then topping it with a little Parmesan cheese. The olive oil does add calories but not a lot per serving. Plus the oil provides healthy fats. After tasting the final dish, I found that roasting gave the cauliflower a tender, but not too soft, texture (a plus, since steaming can sometimes turn cauliflower into mush). And the roasted cauliflower had a ton of flavor. In fact, Jeff hates cauliflower, but when he taste this roasted version, he said “Not bad. I could actually eat this!” I declared this recipe a winner.

Italian-Seasoned Roasted Cauliflower
1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, crushed
¼ teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Cut and discard leaves and core from cauliflower. Break off or cut florets from cauliflower and place them in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, Italian seasoning and salt. Toss with a spoon or clean hands until coated. Roast in preheated 450 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until desired tenderness, stirring cauliflower with a spoon every 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

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Why does it take so long to lose weight?

Posted on April 12, 2012

Whenever I talk to dieters, they ask why their weight loss is so slow. If they’re losing 1 pound a week, they’re mad because they didn’t lose 3. If they lost 3 lbs, they’re mad because they didn’t lose 7! Even if it took the person 6 months to gain 20 lbs, they think they should lose that 20 lbs in 2 or 3 weeks!

Shows like NBC’s Biggest Loser have made dieters even more impatient. They say, “If those people on the Biggest Loser can drop 20 lbs in a week, why can’t I?” Here’s why! The show contestants eat a low calorie diet AND exercise at a high intensity for several hours per day. This is not realistic for most people. Plus, most of the contestants are 100+ pounds overweight and it’s easier for them to quickly lose large amounts of weight than it is for someone who is 15-20 pounds overweight. For example, if a 400 pound person is used to eating 5000 calories a day and suddenly eats just 1200 calories/day, they will lose a lot of weight fast. On the other hand, if a 160 pound woman normally eats 2000 calories, then follows a 1500 calorie diet, it will take her far longer to lose weight.

To lose a pound of body weight, you have to cut out about 3500 calories from your diet (or burn off those calories with physical activity). So if you maintain your weight with 2000 calories a day and cut your intake to 1500 calories per day, it will take 7 days to lose just 1 pound!

Then why do so many diets say you’ll lose 10 pounds in the first week? Because those diets are designed to make you lose WATER weight. Most of these diets have a “quick-start” week that is very low in calories and carbohydrates (bread, fruit, starchy veggies). Since carbohydrates cause your body to hold onto water, and water is heavy, when you lose the carbs, you lose the (water) weight.

The early weeks of most diets are specifically set up for fast weight loss (which is usually water weight loss) so you’ll be motivated to continue the diet. You’ll also tell all your friends about the diet, helping the diet’s creator and/or author sells more books, supplements, DVDs, etc.

If you truly want to lose weight—real weight, not water weight—you need to be patient. A couple pounds a week is more likely to be real weight loss, not water loss. And real weight loss is what you want.

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Quinoa, Almond and Blueberry Breakfast Cereal

Posted on April 10, 2012

Quinoa, Almond & Blueberry Hot Cereal

Last week, I had some leftover cooked quinoa sitting in the fridge so I decided to try making it into a breakfast cereal. After all, why limit myself to oatmeal in the mornings? Like oatmeal, quinoa has many health benefits. And it contains more protein than oatmeal.

For this recipe, I gave the option to use either fresh or frozen blueberries. Since fresh blueberries aren’t in season now, I used frozen wild blueberries, which worked well once they were rinsed and drained. The recipe makes two servings because I wanted leftovers for another morning. But when Jeff tried it, he wanted the remaining serving, (which is a sign that the recipe is a success!).
Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Quinoa, Almond, and Blueberry Breakfast Cereal
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/4 cup original almond milk
1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 cup fresh blueberries or 1 cup frozen blueberries, defrosted and drained
¼ cup chopped almonds, divided

Combine cooked quinoa, almond milk, almond extract, brown sugar, blueberries and 2 tablespoons of the almonds in a large bowl. Mix well to combine. Place in a small microwave-safe casserole dish. Microwave until heated through. Top with chopped almonds.

Alternate Method. To use the oven, rather than microwave, place the mixture in an oven-safe dish and bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until heated through. If desired, top with a little brown sugar and the remaining chopped almonds. Return to oven for a few more minutes to brown the nuts. Makes 2-3 servings.

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