Superfoods Save Your Healthy Day

Superfoods Save Your Healthy Day: "The July/August 2009 issue of Health magazine features a list of nine superfoods for women that provide alternatives to common nutrient-rich foods like blueberries and broccoli. Check out these options:

1. Kiwifruit: Instead of oranges, try these fruits also packed with vitamin C.

2. Mushrooms: If your attitude toward broccoli is similar to the first President Bush’s, you can get nutritious phytochemicals from this meaty vegetable instead."

(Via Well Fed Network.)

I enjoyed that article in Health, as you don't hear sky-high praises for a lot of the foods mentioned all that often. That's not to imply they're unhealthy, just that they're neglected.

Incidentally, the article also mentioned three "superfood" spices:

1. Cayenne pepper: This seasoning not only adds a spicy kick to your food but also can help with an overactive bladder and increase your metabolism.

2. Cinnamon: This one I've heard about a lot in relation to diabetes. Apparently, it helps insulin work better, which keeps your blood sugar more stable. I've also heard it's good for helping you lose weight by suppressing appetite or something; I'm guessing that's related.

3. Turmeric: I've read before that this yellow spice is an anti-inflammatory, and Health confirms that it may fight inflammatory bowel disease and keep away pancreatic cancer. I like to add it to creamed corn to make the whole dish shockingly yellow.

America’s Test Kitchen Seeks Your Questions

America’s Test Kitchen Seeks Your Questions: "Fans of America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country, listen up: The staff of Cook's Illustrated's television franchises wants to hear from you.

The shows already feature questions from viewers sent in via mail or email, as well as the occasional visit by a local 'neighbor' on Cook's Country. Now, though, the shows are asking fans to call in their questions to a toll-free number, with the possibility of being featured on an upcoming episode."

(Via Edible TV.)

I watch all the shows put out by the Cook's Illustrated folks regularly, but I just don't ever have a question come up that I would think of sending in to them. As far as I'm concerned, there's no mystery in food that can't be solved through referring to my cookbooks or asking Google.

Of course, that probably misses the point these days. I'm guessing that really, no one honestly feels the need to ask a TV show or magazine a question that won't be answered for weeks. They just want the little thrill of getting their name out there to the world.

But even knowing that, I can't formulate any decent questions to submit. Good luck if you're more query-happy than I am.

Summer TV Gets Cooking

Summer TV Gets Cooking: "Here we are in June, with our favorite network series fading into memory as we stare down a summer largely full of reruns and bottom-of-the-barrel reality television. But it doesn’t have to be that way for TV cooking fans: Here’s a list of food-related shows set to premiere this summer that will keep your squawk box simmering through till September.

June Appetizers

Next Food Network Star: The competition is already under way, and at least one competitor has already slunk away in defeat. Will this year’s winner of Food Network’s popular show go on to rival Guy Fieri in popularity, or will we end up with another Amy Finley or Dan and Steve? Or will a runner-up again steal the spotlight, like Adam Gertler? Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on Food Network, premiered June 7."

(Via Well Fed Network.)

Incidentally, Food Network doesn't make it simple to discover what's new on their web site. I was going back and forth from a press release to each individual show's web page to determine premiere dates, and I only got Chopped included because I happened to be watching Food Network at the time and saw a promo for the season premiere.

What will I be watching this summer? We don't get IFC, so Food Party isn't going to happen for me. I could watch online, but having come of age in the slow Internet era, I still am prejudiced against Internet video. Truth be told, even with our fast cable connection, it still refuses to start or buffers and skips all lot half the time. I prefer the retro simplicity of the real TV.

I'm looking forward to more episodes of 5 Ingredient Fix. I continue to look out for occasional new episodes of Good Eats (Did you see the parsnips one this week? Now I want to try parsnips.) and America's Test Kitchen.

I'll definitely tune in to see What Would Brian Boitano Make? at least once, if only for the funny title and for curiosity over a figure skater trying to morph into a TV chef. Still, the quirky sense of humor evident in that title is making me think this one will be a Canadian rather than American hit, like The Surreal Gourmet. Too bad if that's the case.

Next on Oprah: A Grain of Salt

Next on Oprah: A Grain of Salt: "The big cover story in this week’s Newsweek is a look at the health information — apparently in most cases, misinformation — propagated by Oprah Winfrey’s signature television talk show:

In January, Oprah Winfrey invited Suzanne Somers on her show to share her unusual secrets to staying young. Each morning, the 62-year-old actress and self-help author rubs a potent estrogen cream into the skin on her arm. . . . According to Somers, the hormones, which are synthesized from plants instead of the usual mare’s urine (disgusting but true), are all natural and, unlike conventional hormones, virtually risk-free (not even close to true, but we’ll get to that in a minute)."

(Via Well Fed Network.)

I don't watch Oprah much myself. I lose interest in daytime television talk shows pretty quickly as they cover lots of topics I'm just not interested in to fill the many, many hours. I have watched the show occasionally, though. It just takes the magical coincidence of me having actually seen a promo for the show during a program I normally watch AND that promo trumpeting a compelling topic.

Dr. Oz is a pretty interesting guest. I've read recaps of his appearances on Oprah's web site for the "embarrassing" medical questions he's answered. It's not always 100 percent in sync with what I've read elsewhere, but it's generally good and interest-grabbing.

While the article and my post to an extent are kind of down on Oprah, I do in fact have a lot of respect for her and what she's achieved. She is generous to charitable causes and she empowers women. Spirituality and alternative treatments are important and often neglected by conventional medicine, too, though Oprah sometimes seems to take them to an extreme.

In truth, I wish Oprah had taken the time to speak to Newsweek for this article. While it raises valid points, it seriously suffers from a lack of counterpoints from Oprah's side. Guests who appeared on her show and gave bogus info or stayed silent while hearing it are allowed to simply give statements that distance themselves from Oprah and sort of pin the blame for their actions on her in the article without any challenge.

Summer’s Here and the Grilling is Fine!

Summer’s Here and the Grilling is Fine!: "Summer is coming fast, and that fact hasn’t escaped the folks behind the networks’ morning talk shows. Check out some of the tasty outdoor cooking recipes that were shared this past month, most with accompanying video clips so you can see exactly how the cooking’s done."

Click through to the story for all the links to summertime outdoor-eating recipes. Most would be relatively healthy eats, as grilling is generally a low-fat cooking method. Plus, there's a number of cold salads to check out, which are either healthy as-is or can be lightened up with low-fat substitutions.

With the hot weather, I'm surprisingly getting into the idea of grilling. I still don't relish the idea of burnt, charred bits on my food (it tastes like charcoal, yuck), but I like how fast my electric countertop grill cooks food without overheating the apartment.

I'm eying some bone-in chicken breasts to cook via this method. I like bone-in chicken, so that might actually get me to eat more than a couple bites of meat at a meal. The grill is also great for cooking the rare steak and the boys' pork chops.

I might even find a way to move the grill outdoors. Still, considering how quickly it cooks, that might not be necessary.

(Via Well Fed Network.)

Come On Over, Cupcake!

Come On Over, Cupcake!: "A few weeks ago, the local supermarket put boxes of Pillsbury cake mix on sale, enticing shoppers with a price so low that even I, a girl with an avowed distaste for cakes from a box, couldn’t resist. I snapped up three boxes.

Two disappointing cupcake recipes later, I was ready to go in an entirely new direction with the remaining mix, one for devil’s food cake. I recalled a recipe I’d saved from a long-ago Hungry Girl newsletter for Yum Yum Brownie Muffins, a cupcake concoction that billowed high above the paper cup and yet had less than 200 calories."

(Via Well Fed Network.)

I forgot to mention it in the post that was published: Make sure you refrigerate these if you intend to keep them more than a week. They lasted about that long on the countertop here before going dotty. Two cupcakes were lost.

Next time, I'm going to buy either Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines mix to make this recipe. My mom always has sworn by Duncan Hines, so maybe that's the way to go.

If nothing else, Duncan Hines mix should also work for recipes from the Cupcake Doctor book, unlike Pillsbury mix. Pillsbury mix (as well as Betty Crocker mix) has pudding added, and nearly every recipe in that cookbook specifies mixes without pudding. After forging ahead anyway with two recipes, I ended up with cupcakes with custardy middles, sadly sunken despite a lot of extra baking time.

I might use one less egg were I forced to make them again with pudding cake mix, but frankly, I think the author should have specified how to adjust recipes to accommodate the two types of commercial cake mix. Or accept a sponsorship from Duncan Hines, as they're the only "plain" cake mix in the supermarket. It's also the most expensive of the three big brands, so you can see why it makes me bitter.

However, my issues with the Cupcake Doctor are largely irrelevant here (now that you've read the whole rant . . .). I plan to play around with these low-fat cupcakes to try to create variations with different and stronger flavors. I'll keep you posted.

Health Incentives May Be Coming to a Workplace Near You

Health Incentives May Be Coming to a Workplace Near You: "Health care reform has been back in vogue since the last presidential election, and Congress is starting to pull together the legislation that could radically change medical coverage in America.

Or not. We all know how it went down last time there was a charge for universal health care. . ."

Here's hoping this time around Congress can pass a real universal health care plan. It's sad we're so far behind the rest of the Western world in recognizing that health care is not a privilege (or, if you prefer a more economically conservative perspective, that an ounce of regular prevention is worth a pound of catastrophic emergency care that we already shoulder the burden for).

Fit Fare - » Jell-O Offers a Guilt-Free Rice Pudding

Fit Fare - » Jell-O Offers a Guilt-Free Rice Pudding: "I participate in the Kraft First Taste program, getting the opportunity to try new products from the company in exchange for feedback. Of course, I’m sure the idea is also that I’ll share with my hundreds of close personal friends how much I adore Maxwell House coffee or Oscar Mayer sandwiches, but hey, it’s free food — who am I to say no? Besides, there’s always the chance to discover a new favorite.

Anyway, one recent sample might be of interest to Fit Fare readers: Jell-O Sugar-Free Rice Pudding Cups. You may be familiar with the other smooth, 60-calorie flavors in Jell-O’s waistline-friendly line. At 70 calories, the rice pudding cups are a tad richer, as might be expected with their chewy star ingredient, but still light as desserts go."

I've tried Oscar Mayer's newest sandwiches most recently (the ones they stock by the Lunchables, which, incidentally, have much less obnoxious packaging these days). The Tuscan Chicken was all right, though messy to put together with its shredded cheese. Scott wasn't too keen on the steak ciabatta sandwich he tried. I remember I liked the Steakhouse Cheddar mini sub last time I tried these sandwiches. I'd recommend going with that one if you seek these out.

I was supposed to try the Maxwell House coffee, but the coupon arrived one day before the expiration date. I tried to use it anyway, but my local grocer did not stock any non-instant Maxwell House. As I didn't feel like dashing over to another grocery store that day, I got no free coffee sample. Sadness . . .

Edible TV - » Jon and Kate Plus Recipes

Edible TV - » Jon and Kate Plus Recipes: "Good news for fans of massive-family TV: Jon & Kate Plus 8 returns for season five on May 25. As Kate Gosselin is a enthusiastic cook as well as mothering machine, why not celebrate the resolution of season four’s cliffhanger with some of her family’s favorite recipes?

Kate’s Hearty Meatloaf: This huge, beefy loaf, made with organic ingredients as Kate prefers, makes enough to feed a family as enormous as hers, with leftovers. Budget friendly and, with lots of chopped veggies snuck in, healthy, too. Click through to the Good Morning America site to see the accompanying video featuring Kate and kids."

Took a bit of searching to find recipes that looked authentic to the Gosselins -- there's a lot of people out there looking for Kate's recipes after seeing her cook so much on the show. She ought to consider making her next book a cookbook.

Filthy as it was at first, the kitchen in her new house looks pretty sweet. I don't find my relatively small kitchen to be a hindrance most of the time, but there are occasions when I wish for that kind of storage space.

Well Fed Network - » Hungry Girl Feeds Good Morning America Hosts

Well Fed Network - » Hungry Girl Feeds Good Morning America Hosts: "If you’re a regular reader of Fit Fare as well as Edible TV, you might just be a fan of Hungry Girl, the daily newsletter featuring product reviews and drastically slimmed down recipes for favorite foods. Lisa Lillien, the Hungry Girl herself, appeared on Good Morning America Thursday to promote her new book, Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200.

As the title implies, it features 200 recipes that all have 200 calories or less per serving. Lillien and her team achieve these astounding nutritional stats through the use of certain Hungry Girl staples (sure to be familiar to readers of the newsletter), such as Tofu Shirataki noodles, Fiber Onecereal, and Vitalicious high-fiber muffins."

Spring Cleaning for Your Fridge

Spring Cleaning for Your Fridge: "The official start of the new year may be January, but it’s only when all this new life buds into being in spring that it feels like a true beginning.

Something about the warm breezes, invigorating showers, and green shoots of spring makes me (and so many others) want to spruce up the house to match the prettiness of the outdoors. It’s spring cleaning time!"

(Via Well Fed Network.)

Pie Baking and New Articles for Well Fed

Sorry there was no meal plan this week. I didn't cook this week during our spring break visit to California, though I did stretch my baking skills by whipping up a couple pies.

Ironically, I embarked on my pie-baking project to break my reliance on store-bought pie crusts (expensive and full of unnatural ingredients), but I ended up using store-bought cherry pie filling. Canned cherries cost $5 per 15-oz can, and my recipe called for four cans' worth . . . yeah, I don't think so.

My amped-up rollout-cookie skills helped significantly when it came time to roll pie crust. With chilling, patience, flour, and wax paper, I managed not to make a mess, although I think I developed the gluten too much. Still, I didn't have a food processor this time around; next time it might be easier to keep the pastry tender.

Does baking pies from scratch fit within a healthy diet plan as well as a frugal one? It does allow you to control the ingredients in your desserts, making your treats more wholesome or lower in fat and calories (or both).

I posted a couple of new articles on the Well Fed Network recently, too. Check these out:

Plan Ahead to Eat Smart on Fit Fare

Shhh! Food Network Infiltrates Social Networks with Food2 on Edible TV

Fill Those Empty Hours with More Food TV - Online

New post on Edible TV:

Do you hate how Food Network insists on going off the air every night between the hours of 4:30 and 9:30 a.m. Eastern?

Do those measly five hours feel like a poke in your faces, Food Network addicts of the world?

Then get your TV-lovin’ eyes over to FoodNetwork.com, where you can find full episodes of your favorite cooking shows online, free for streaming 24/7!

Unfortunately, Healthy Eating with Ellie Krieger and other, no longer airing shows with a healthy eating focus (Low Carb and Lovin' It, Calorie Commando, Weighing In, and even the old Sara Moulton shows and 30-Minute Meals) are not among the programs available online. So sad.

Still, if the programs available there do interest you, go ahead and take them in. If the demand is there, surely Food Network will meet it by offering more shows.

Holiday Programming Hits the Airwaves on Food Network

Is it temptation around the corner on Food Network?

Set your TiVos, fellow food TV lovers: Food Network’s annual Season’s Eatings slate in full swing, offering tips and recipes to get you ready for the holiday season.

Saturday night, tune in for the programs that get me in the Christmas spirit on Holiday Cookie Night. Following a Yuletide-themed episode of Paula’s Party at 7 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be treated to three hours of cookie-baking mania.

Be still my heart!

Read the full post, with details on Food Network's upcoming holiday cooking programming, on Edible TV or Well Fed, if you're interested in planning the next big party.

How do you cope when faced with an onslaught of recipes for rich, festive fare?

First, I look for healthier recipes I can incorporate into the menu. True, roasted vegetables slathered in olive oil aren't particularly low in calories, but the extra calories provide special occasion indulgence while still packing you full of vitamins, minerals, and heart-healthy fats.

Look for holiday recipes that feature healthy ingredients without being bland, compromised "diet food."

Second, I find ways to make heavy recipes a little lighter or more nutritious. This year, for example, I substituted some whole wheat into my stuffing and roll recipes, I used reduced-fat cream cheese in the gratin, and I blended turkey bacon into the cheese ball. I also sautéed using oil rather than butter where I thought the flavor wouldn't be missed to cut down on saturated fat.

Substitute healthier ingredients when it's possible to do so without affecting the integrity of the dish.

The last bit is key - fat-free cheese, for example, makes sacrifices too great in the texture department for my taste. And the taste of many others - a serious compromise may just lead to everyone neglecting that dish.

Third, I plan on putting out appetizers. I love a big tray of veggies and dip myself, but consider your personal tastes. Reduced-fat cheeses work well if you buy most of your cheese from the case dominated by Kraft anyway, and a flavorful jerky can replace cured sausages. Popcorn is plenty festive, too, and you can dress it up with strong flavors (grated parmesan, garlic salt, herbs, and so on). I tend to fill up on hors d'ouerves long before dinner, which helps me implement the most important strategy: Eat less dinner!

Plan to fill up before you hit the buffet.

Finally, don't forget it's the holidays. This time comes only once a year, so please, allow for some indulgence! As long as you don't eat yourself sick every night, you can maintain your healthy lifestyle even while enjoying some December cheer.

Healthy Thanksgiving Roundup

Ready to start planning for the big day? It's less than a week away . . .

Hungry Girl offers a list of must-have holiday ingredients to slim down your festivities. Some are the usual branded, processed goods, but you'll also find out the benefits of plain puréed pumpkin and natural butternut squash. One surprise for me: Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Celery soup has fewer calories than either the Mushroom or Chicken varieties.

Also on offer from Hungry Girl is today's holiday hit list - and I don't mean the Top 10 kind. She offers suggestions for cutting calories from the worst Thanksgiving table offenders. Sure to make hesitant holiday cooks sing with joy is the advice to go ahead and use gravy mix. You'll save loads of calories and fat while being guaranteed no lumps on the big day.

Health Magazine put together a collection of recipes for a healthier Thanksgiving. The cornbread stuffing, cipollini onions, and apple galette all look especially attractive to me. You can read more about the holiday fun at Health at my post on Fit Fare. Go try your hand at that Thanksgiving foods quiz and see if you fared any better than I did!

While you're at Fit Fare, you can keep on the lookout for more healthy holiday eating advice. Right now, you can find a recipe for vegan Pumpkin Tofu "Ricotta" to help you through the upcoming office parties. I know when I was teaching in Las Vegas that the mini-quiches were my downfall at our holiday teachers' lounge parties. At least I won't have the temptation this year!

Good Housekeeping also went the healthy route with its Thanksgiving recipes this year. Check out the healthy variations from the November issue using the links below.

• Roast Turkey with Roasted-Garlic Gravy (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)


• Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes


• Ginger and Pear Cranberry Sauce


• Whole-Grain Apple-Fennel Stuffing (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)


• Green Beans with Garlic (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)


• Squash Soup with Curried Pear (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)


• Ginger-Almond Sweet Potatoes (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)


• Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Chives (scroll to the bottom for healthy-variation instructions)

The New York Times' Recipes for Health series has focused on a classic holiday food, sweet potatoes, this week. You can check out recipes for Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup and Sweet Potato Purée with Apples, as well as an article on their nutritional wonders.

If you follow the South Beach way of eating, Kalyn's Kitchen has an ever-expanding list of low-glycemic Thanksgiving recipes to keep you on track through the holidays.

Is it stress more than meal planning that gets you down during the holidays? The Beauty Eats blog by the people behind the Real Age site offers a top-five list of foods to keep you happy at this time of year.

Hungry Girl sneaks back into the roundup on her Yahoo! Food blog with a list of 7 Ways to Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain. Check out some of the recipes linked on this page to follow her advice and bring your own guilt-free contribution!

Finally, if you still can't find just what you were looking for, check out Cheap Healthy Good's exhaustive list of more than a hundred Thanksgiving links. It wears me out just looking at it!

Have a delicious holiday (prep) weekend!

Managing Cookies for Christmas

New today on Edible TV:

Holiday baking fans, start your mixers!

Food Network’s annual sweet-treat bonanza, the 12 Days of Cookies newsletter, comes out of the oven starting December 1. That’s less than two weeks away, cookie monsters!

I know, I know . . . cookies?! How can they be part of a healthy diet?!

I obsess over cookie baking during the holidays, so I need to find ways to incorporate them into my healthier diet. And you know what?

We can bake our cookies and eat them, too!

All in moderation, of course. Moderation, as always, is the key to a healthy diet. Moderation can mean many things -- for big trigger foods, it can mean only eating them outside of your home (so you are inherently limited in the amount you can consume); for unhealthy but not necessarily crave-able foods such as butter, it might mean finding ways to substitute at least some heart-healthy oil or nonstick spray in your recipes. Of course, it can just mean eating less.

You have to decide for yourself what route you need to take with cookies, but here are my tips for keeping the cookie monster under control:

1. Spread the wealth. I bake up to a dozen batches of cookies each holiday season, but I would never eat them all myself. Ugh, you'd be rolling me to the Christmas tree . . . Anyway, I utilize my love of baking to create gift boxes of homemade cookies.

It's a fairly frugal gift (that is, if I find good sales on butter and nuts!), so I can make certain to recognize everyone I care about at the holidays, plus since it's a homemade gift, everyone knows I put in plenty of time and effort to make it special.

The healthy eating bonus is that I get my bounty of baked goods out of the house so my family isn't so tempted to binge!

2. Use the freezer. Most cookies freeze superbly. Pop a well-wrapped dozen in the freezer, and you'll have fresh-tasting cookies at the ready throughout the holiday season for unexpected guests. I store my cookies for gift boxes this way, too.

It's an excellent strategy for batches you plan on eating yourself, too. The freezer keeps the cookies from going stale, so you don't feel the pressure to eat handfuls at a time so they won't go bad.

3. Try healthier recipes. I have King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking book, which offers a number of cookie recipes punched up with, as you would expect, whole grains. For Thanksgiving, I'm planning to make Sparkling Cranberry Gems, which offer the option of using white whole-wheat flour and are relatively low in fat. If you're not ready to make the leap into whole-grain desserts, consider classic healthier cookies like meringues, oatmeal cookies, and ground nut-based macaroons.

And remember, baking is light exercise. My shoulders feel the burn of lifting sheet pans after hours on my feet as surely as my fingers feel it if I forget the potholder.

Picture: Food Network 12 Days of Cookies Newsletter

Creating Comfort Without Food

A new post from Fit Fare, featuring advice from a show I caught only by happenstance:

A couple weeks ago, I was watching the Food Network as I fussed with some web site maintenance when Ellie Krieger started rattling off a list that caught my attention. I snatched my pocket notebook off the coffee table and started scrawling quickly, a throwback to my journalism days.

Then I remembered I have a TiVo, and I backed up the program to catch all I had missed in a more civilized manner.

Regardless.

That day's episode of Healthy Appetite was devoted to comfort foods. While Ellie Krieger apparently developed the recipes to provide mood-lifting nutrition and homestyle pampering, she took a few minutes to remind the audience that to live a healthy lifestyle, don't turn immediately to food when in need of a pick-me-up.

I debated whether this post really belonged on Fit Fare or Edible TV, but in the end I decided that theme trumped form.

While I do watch a lot of Food Network's daytime instructional shows, Healthy Appetite is one I haven't caught much. It's not on every day, and I felt skeptical of her recipes when it premiered: No matter how many TV cooks try to pass off baked chicken fingers with an oil-laced breading as health food, I'm not buying it.

Still, considering how much my focus has shifted to healthy eating in recent years, it might be time to take a second look at this series. Ellie Krieger tells you the health benefits of each significant ingredient she uses, so you at least know why the white-meat chicken in those fingers is nutritious.

Here are direct links to the recipes featured in the episode "Feel Good Factor":

Wheat Berry Salad
Balsamic Strawberries with Ricotta Cream
Cracked Pepper Potato Chips with Onion Dip
Lettuce Cups with Tofu and Beef

Photo: Colleen Fischer

Technorati Tags:
Fit Fare, food, healthy eating, comfort food, stress reduction

Healthy Highlights from October’s “Good Housekeeping”

New on Fit Fare this week, a look at a healthy dose of Good Housekeeping:

Fruits and vegetables can be fun for kids, and changing the menu at school and in the community can make significant difference in children’s health.

This month’s issue of Good Housekeeping featured an article about the successful Somerville, Mass., program to reduce childhood obesity. “Shape Up Somerville” is a far-reaching initiative that not only replaced junk food in local schools with healthy fare but also encouraged the whole community to pitch in to make the town a healthier place to live.

And just for you who've followed the article to my very own web site, here's a look at the healthy recipes featured in this month's issue:

Healthy Makeover French Toast: Whole-wheat bread, egg whites, no sugar, and low-fat milk make this breakfast treat less indulgent.

Cranberry-Almond Granola: Granola might be a bit high in sugar and fat for cereal, but it's packed full of whole grains. A half-cup serving provides plenty of nutrition for only 190 calories. I find a bowl with milk to make a terrific dessert, actually.

Cheese and Salad Pizza: Bless the heart of whoever created this rendition of salad pizza and elected not to put lettuce on it. That's so wrong. This pizza, though, looks like it might make it into one of my upcoming meal plans -- but I'll replace the cherry tomatoes with cheaper romas and likely resort to subbing cheese from a can for pecorino, much as I love the real deal.

On an aside: Store-brand grated parmesan costs more than $6 a pound, and pecorino romano from Costco costs maybe $7.30 a pound. Normally, that would be close enough to convince me to upgrade to the real deal (like the butter I stock up on when it's on sale vs. margarine), but to switch here I'd need to buy like a two-pound block at once. That's an upfront cost of nearly $15! I know I can store it so it won't go bad, but still . . . is it worth it?

Rotini with Marinara, Broccoli, Carrots and Peppers: The picture looks so appetizing that it could get me over thinking that pasta with carrots sounds weird. I tend to think of carrots as a starchy vegetable, so the idea strikes me as odd, just like potato pizza. Maybe I'm overreacting.

Corkscrews with Cheese, Tomatoes, and Peas: Yeah, cheese sauce is kind of rich . . . but I love it. I'd sub in skim milk.

Turkey Picadillo Tacos: I've never had picadillo. I'd never even heard of it until a couple of years ago. Anyone else tried it? Do olives, cinnamon, cumin, and raisins really all meld?

BBQ Chicken Tacos: Life on a super-tight grocery budget at a time when food prices have shot through the roof has made me realize just how much the recipes in the upper middle class-skewing publications I've long read over-rely on gourmet and convenience products. You know, it's not actually any easier to get your chicken off a rotisserie bird from the deli, and at $7.99 for a three-pound whole bird, it sure isn't cheaper.

Quick tip: Invest in a probe thermometer. It's a metal probe attached to a long, insulated wire that plugs into a digital display with an alarm that sounds when the temperature of your food hits a certain number. Not only will it save you uncertainty in telling when your roasts (like that Thanksgiving turkey) are done, it's a great for cooking chicken unattended (poached or baked) for recipes.

Photo: Colleen Fischer

Technorati Tags:
Fit Fare, food, healthy eating, links, magazines, recipe sources

Food Network Unveils Snazzy New Site Design

I produced a slightly tongue-in-cheek review of the new Food Network web site for Edible TV last week:

If you’ve been surfing the net lately, surely you’ve noted that Food Network’s web site is sporting a fresh look. Gone are the days of lime green and tiny type; say hello to splashy crimson.

Literally . . . the header seems to be depicting something wet and red. Blood? Perhaps the head rolling of the old site designer?

I kid, I kid. I did detest the old Food Network site, though; I’d swear a blood oath to . . . never mind.

Hey, it’s almost Halloween, isn’t it?

I don't think the review quite captures my joy at the Food Network finally redesigning the old beast. I didn't want to dig too deeply into my pet peeves on Edible TV, but honestly, the sort of design inconsistency that marked the previous site incarnation makes me want to tear my hair out. And we all know that food and hair just don't mix.

Remind me to tell you the brownie story sometime when you're in the mood for seeing me embarrassed.

But now an example! A while back, Food Network did a small revamp of their site, jazzing it up but keeping the same general shape and color scheme. They added a new search box at the top of the page that had some fancy coding -- it might have been Flash or something.

Looked great, for sure.

But I couldn't type in the thing.

Some browsers worked with it, others didn't. As I used one that did not, I had to click through to a different page every time I wanted to search for a recipe.

Someone at Food Network must have had the same problem because not long afterward, the legacy search box in the left-hand column made a reappearance on the home page.

Great! Now I could type a search request right off the bat. Except . . .

They left the other search box there! Now, every single page had two search boxes right at the top. It was ugly.

And it was eventually fixed, by the way, before the current redesign, but it was emblematic of the problems that have plagued this site. Lately, I had been bugged more by the way that different shows had different home page designs (with the more "advanced" designs being sometimes buggy, on top of that).

Now, though, all is well in Food Network.com-land. At least as long as I am quick to hit the pause button.

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Getting Out From Under the Weather

As fall falls, people's minds turn to chicken soup:

Whether it’s the now drizzly, chilly weather or a common malaise, chicken soup can cure what ails you.

I often whip up a batch whenever my husband catches the rare cold. It’s one of his favorite meals in general, one he made himself probably once a week when he was a bachelor living in Seattle.

My husband, incidentally, lived on about four dishes during his first couple years of grad school before we were married: chicken soup, tofu stir-fry, salad, and pizza from the Domino’s across the street. If not for all those sausage pizzas and a weakness for Red Vines, he would have had the healthiest diet of anyone I knew.

True story about my sweetie. He's a chicken soup fiend.

Rachael Ray inspired me to try my hand at chicken soup years ago, and I taught Scott my version of her recipe. We've both tweaked from there over the years; Scott likes to throw in his grandma's homemade egg noodles whereas I prefer whole-wheat pasta. I use more veggies and less chicken, and I save money by seasoning out of my spice cabinet instead of buying fresh herbs.

I use chicken breast in part because it's convenient and in part because it's the leanest part of the chicken. Dark meat tastes unpleasantly greasy to me, though if you prefer its fuller chicken flavor and don't mind a few extra grams of fat, it does take a smaller chunk of your change.

Rachael Ray, incidentally, makes her chicken soup with tenders. If you cut the tenderloins of the back of your boneless, skinless breasts to ensure more even cooking, throw them in the freezer so you can make a pretty economical batch of soup down the line.

Fit Fare has lots of soup recipes should you be looking for more bowls to warm you up as the weather cools down.

Photo: Colleen Fischer

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