Category: Healthy Eating

Posted in - Poultry, Healthy Eating

Wellness Wednesdays: The Pasta You Love

Posted on by Northerly Nosh

Why Not Eat The Pasta You Love?!

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Foods from this starch food group are a good source of energy, fiber and B vitamins. We should aim to make these foods the main part of meals. Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods like cereals are low in fat. It is what we add to them, such as butter on potatoes or creamy sauces on pasta, that makes a difference.

Fiber is helpful in controlling our weight because it fills us up quickly, but it has other health benefits too, such as preventing constipation, protecting us against some types of cancer and reducing our risk of heart disease.

Wholegrain varieties of bread, rice and pasta contain lots of fibre so try to include granary or multigrain breads and high fibre cereals such as Weetabix, Shredded Wheat or Ready Brek into your diet. Make a point of eating the skin on new potatoes and baked potatoes, and why not try brown rice or pasta for a change.

Remember, fiber is like a sponge and soaks up water so make sure you drink plenty of fluids throughout the day (8-10 cups/glasses) to allow it to pass through the body easily and to help keep you regular.

B vitamins are important for a range of different functions including the formation of red blood cells and helping the body to use fat, carbohydrate and protein from our food. Folate is an important B vitamin found in dark green, leafy vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, Brussels sprouts as well as fortified breakfast cereals.

Any woman who is trying to conceive or who could become pregnant should take a 400µg folic acid supplement from the time she could or is trying to become pregnant up until the end of the12th week of pregnancy. Folic acid has been shown to help prevent neural tube defects (NTDs) such as spina bifida in unborn babies. Any folic acid that is not needed by the body passes into the urine, so it is safe to continue to use folic acid supplements for long periods of time.

Resource: Public Health Agency

Chicken Cacciatore

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1 lb chicken breasts
1 (26 oz) jar of chunky vegetable-style spaghetti sauce
1 zucchini, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped

Prep Day: Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag and mix together. Freeze.

Serve Day: When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

Serve with cooked spaghetti noodles and garnish with olives and cheese. Also would be delicious with Cheesy Garlic Sticks.

Garnish: chopped black olives, shredded Parm cheese

Posted in Healthy Eating

Wellness Wednesdays: The Sour Cream You Love

Posted on by Northerly Nosh

Why Not Eat The Sour Cream You Love?!

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For years, you’ve been told to avoid sour cream or to eat the light version. That’s because 90 percent of its calories are derived from fat, at least half of which is saturated.

Sure, the percentage of fat is high, but the total amount isn’t. Consider that a serving of sour cream is 2 tablespoons. That provides just 52 calories—half the amount that’s in a single tablespoon of mayonnaise—and less saturated fat than you’d get from drinking a 12-ounce glass of 2 percent reduced-fat milk.

More importantly, sour cream is a close relative of butter, which means you’re eating natural animal fat, not dangerous trans fat. And besides, full-fat tastes far better than the light or fat-free products, which also have added carbohydrates.

Beef Stroganoff

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1 1/2 lbs sirloin steak (boneless), cut into thin strips
1/2 cup butter
2 small onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup dry white wine
pepper
salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream (for serve day)

Prep Day: Melt 1/4 cup of butter in skillet and brown steak strips. Set aside. Add remaining 1/4 cup butter to skillet, melt and add onions and garlic, frying until soft. Add mushrooms, wine, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add meat to freezer safe bags or containers and pour sauce over. Cool and freeze.

Serve Day: Thaw overnight in fridge or for 4-5 hours at room temperature. Add to saucepan and heat over medium heat for 25 minutes. Stir in sour cream before serving. You can serve over rice or noodles. Yum!

Posted in Healthy Eating

Wellness Wednesdays: The Coconut You Love

Posted on by Northerly Nosh

Why Not Eat the Coconut You Love?!

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Ounce for ounce, coconut contains even more saturated fat than butter does. As a result, health experts have warned that it will clog your arteries. But even though coconut is packed with saturated fat, it too appears to have a beneficial effect on heart-disease risk factors.

One reason: More than 50 percent of its saturated-fat content is lauric acid. A recent analysis of 60 studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that even though lauric acid raises LDL (bad) cholesterol, it boosts HDL (good) cholesterol even more. Overall, this means it decreases your risk of cardiovascular disease.

The rest of the saturated fat in a coconut is believed to have little or no effect on cholesterol levels.

We think coconut is highly underrated—if you like the taste, try it as snack, eating the unsweetened, shredded kind straight from the bag. (You’ll probably have to search the health food section of your grocery store to find it.)

Resources: Men’s Health

Coconut Cream Pie

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2/3 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
3 c. Cold Milk
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 T. butter, room temperature
2 tsp Vanilla
3/4 c. flaked coconut

Prep Day: Mix sugar, cornstarch & salt in a heavy 2 qt saucepan, stirring well, add in cold milk, whisking continually over medium heat.Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Boil for exactly 1 minute.

Remove from heat, pour approximately half of the mixture in the beaten eggs, mixing (fast!) and thoroughly. (This process is called Tempering) Pour the tempered egg/mix back into the saucepan.
Boil and stir 1 full minute. Remove from Heat, stir in butter, coconut and vanilla, mixing well.

Place on a cooling rack for 16-18 minutes. Do NOT cool for too long as a film will form on the top of the filling.

Carefully spoon into a freezer bag. (It’s quite helpful to fold down the top of the bag to prevent a mess from getting on the edge of the bag, preventing a good seal.)

Seal the Warm Filling, try to remove as many air bubbles as possible. Label, cool, & toss it into the freezer.

Serve Day: Remove it from the Freezer and place in the refrigerator. DO Not attempt to thaw this on the counter-top- for several reasons- it contains milk, butter and eggs (which can spoil), thawing on the counter will cause the filling to separate.

Thaw in the fridge- 1 full size package takes approximately 6 hours to thaw completely. (Of course, this is entirely dependent on the temperature of your fridge!)

Prepare your favorite pie shell (prepared pastry shell, phyllo shell, or crumb crust, as desired. Cut off the corner of the bag and pipe into the pie shell.

Smooth the top, Add Fresh Whipped Cream! Garnish with toasted coconut, if desired. Enjoy!