Elisha's Recipe World

The Secret to Prevent Diabetes with Maple Syrup

2010-04-12T11:31:00.000+02:00

Did you know that your favorite maple syrup is effective in fighting cancer and diabetes? According to the studies conducted by US researchers, there are strong evidences showing that maple syrup can substantially slow down the growth of cancer cells and can effectively reduce the risk of diabetes.

The new research shows that your favorite maple syrup has thirteen active compounds that serve as antioxidants. These thirteen compounds were previously unknown. The discovery proved that maple syrup could be very effective in fighting bacterial infection, diabetes and cancer.

An Effective Solution for Diabetes Sufferers

Maple syrup contains high levels of phytohormone and abscisic acid. According to research, this type of acid is a natural defense in controlling diabetes and other metabolic syndromes.

The acid is effective because it has the potential to encourage the release of insulin through the pancreatic cells. It can also enhance the fat cell’s sensitivity to insulin. The studies on maple syrup and its effects on diabetes have been reviewed by experts. The results of these studies were revealed before the American Chemical Society in San Francisco.

Maple Syrup as Your Best Chance against Cancer

A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food showed that maple syrup can significantly inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. This study was conducted by Quebec scholars. It seeks to prove the impact of maple syrup against cancer cells.

Based on the Quebec research, the growth of cancer cells can be inhibited by maple syrup. Specifically, the syrup is very effective against brain, prostate, and lung cancer. Unfortunately, maple syrup has minimal impact against breast cancer growth.

Your Tasty Alternative to Fight Cancer and Diabetes

Maple syrup can serve as your tasty alternative in fighting cancer and diabetes. There are many anti cancer foods today like blueberries, tomatoes, broccoli, and carrots. However, recent studies have shown that maple syrup is more effective against cancer compared to other anti cancer foods. Laboratory testing results also show that the syrup is more potent compared to the maple sap.

It is also ideal to use the pure dark syrup rather than the lighter syrup. Dark syrup has high color oxidation. This is the reason why darker maple syrup should be preferred. So if you want a better alternative to fight cancer and diabetes, then your favorite maple syrup is a good option.

Reference: Journal of medicinal food. 01/02/2010; ISSN: 1557-7600, OI: 10.1089/jmf.2009.0029

About the Author

Sandy Harris writes for the diabetic appetizers blog, her personal hobby blog focused on tips to prevent, cure and manage diabetes using healthy snacks and recipes.

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More Easy Healthy Recipes And Diet Tips

2010-01-27T10:50:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone, let me apologize for not posting in ages but I'm busy with a big project that takes up most of my time now and doesn't leave time for blogging. I was very surprised when I checked my blog now and saw that the number of my followers has grown to a fantastic 8. Thank you so much for your interest, guys!

Now, there is something I feel I need to share with you. I just got an email from Matthew from FaveDietsBlog, letting me know he liked my blog and shared some of my cooking tips on his. I went to pay him a visit, and what I discovered was awesome.

FaveDietsBlog has its focus on diet and weight loss tips, healthy eating and mouthwatering healthy recipes. Here are just two posts that caught my eye:

Healthy Chicken Dinners in 30 Minutes Or Less
Chicken recipes are great if you are in a hurry, since this meat is quick to prepare, and it's very healthy because low in fat. Matthew has got two great recipes on his blog, and links to more on his website.

Healthier Cheese Cake Is Delicious
Don't know about you but I love cheese cake. Fortunately, I'm not one of those who have to worry about calories, but since I got my own family to look after I'm much more conscious of healthy eating. This cheese cake recipe is low in fat by using fat free sour cream and cream cheese, and also leaves the option of replacing sugar with sugar substitutes, making it even healthier. Sounds like a cheese cake even dieters and diabetics could enjoy without having to feel guilty.

There's much more great healthy recipes and diet tips out there, so if you got some time, go visit FaveDietsBlog!

Low Carb Recipes - Tastiest Low Carb Recipes

2009-09-22T15:55:00.000+02:00

By Jenny Banks

A low carbohydrate diet means taking fewer carbohydrates. In such a diet, the intake of proteins and certain fats is increased and foods that have high content of carbohydrates are excluded. Foods such as Pasta, Noodles, Rice, and Desserts are high in carbs. In the 1990s Dr. Atkins started the high-protein and low-carb diet.

Some recommended low-carb recipes are as follows:

Spinach with spices

Ingredients

2 pounds Spinach
2 cloves garlic
2 cloves
Half tablespoon white butter
A few fenugreek seeds
One stick cinnamon
Few seeds of crushed black pepper
Salt to taste

Method
Wash and finely chop spinach leaves. Add butter into a pan. Add fenugreek seeds, cloves, garlic, cinnamon, crushed pepper and stir for 2 minutes. Then add spinach and salt and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes.

Baked Fish

Ingredients

One pound fillet of fish
Salt to taste
Black Pepper
One teaspoon Olive Oil
One tablespoon lemon juice

Method
Marinate fish in olive oil and lemon juice. Add salt and black pepper. Take a baking dish and bake fish for 6 minutes.

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients

2 breasts of chicken
2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste
One teaspoon Tomato puree
One teaspoon lemon juice
One tablespoon olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Marinate chicken breasts in all the above ingredients. Take a baking dish and bake chicken for 10-15 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

The above recipes have low caloric value and are high in proteins. These can be accompanied with multi-grain or wheat bread and can be included as the main course of a meal. Caution should be taken not to be on extended duration of low-carb -diet as carbohydrates give energy. If people are in jobs that require high physical activity it is essential to have carbohydrates included in their meals. People with low physical activity can be on extended duration of low-carb diets.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jenny_Banks

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Low Calorie Meal Deals - 375 Calories Or Less

2009-09-22T15:50:00.000+02:00

By Mark Alexander P

When time is tight and your energy is shot, these grab-and-go meals fit the bill for quick, low-cal fuel.

#1. Chick-Fil-A. 8-count chicken nuggets with honey-mustard sauce, fruit cup, diet soda. 13 grams of fat, 28 grams of protein, 375 calories.

#2. McDonald's. Bacon Ranch Salad with grilled chicken and low-fat balsamic vinaigrette, iced tea. 12 grams of fat, 33 grams of protein, 300 calories.

#3. Taco John's. 2 crispy tacos, diet soda. 20 grams of fat, 18 grams of protein. 360 calories.

#4. Quiznos. Cantina Chicken Sammie, cup of chicken noodle soup, iced tea. 7 grams of fat, 17 grams of protein, 335 calories.

#5. Wendy's. Cheeseburger kids meals with mandarin orange cup and water. 11 grams of fat, 16 grams of protein.

#6. Panera Bread. You pick 2: Smoked turkey breast sandwich on sourdough with everything, Low-Fat Vegetarian Garden Vegetable soup, iced tea. 10 grams of fat, 19 grams of protein.

Nutritional and Low Fat Diet Guidelines
When selecting a low calorie or low fat plan, make sure you are consuming a balanced and complete diet. For best results when selecting a low calorie or low fat meal plan, consume a balanced diet that includes 4.-6 meals a day. If you're on a tight schedule, plan your meals ahead the night before so you are not running around before work to whip your meal or even worse, skipping it all together and resorting to fat drenched junk food. As someone who's battled weight loss myself, I know how challenging it can be.

These are very good portions of filling food. Since portions are often super sized these days, people's expectations of what a "real" plate of food looks like is often skewed.

To learn the secrets of Rapid Weight Loss and diet program that works for you, go to http://www.mydietsolution.net - a free diet evaluation site.
Mark P is a diet expert, and outdoor fitness enthusiast living in Southern California.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Alexander_P

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Quick Weight Loss Recipes

2009-09-17T10:36:00.000+02:00

The best weight loss diet is just simply eating healthy, and that not only for a month or two but continuously. If you can eat anything you want, as long as you don't overdo it, you won't get frustrated and get back to your old habits. If you enjoy what you eat, you will keep on doing it, and the effect is great: Not only will you lose your excess weight without too much of an effort, but you will also keep it off.

We all actually know more or less what it means to eat healthy. Eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grain products, little fat and lean meat, and not too much fast food, chips and sweet stuff.

But what if we just simply don't have the time to cook? Don't worry! There are lots of recipes that are healthy and quick to make that can help you lose weight.

Just some ideas...
Why don't you take some apples and oranges to work as a snack in between, instead of chocolate bars or biscuits? They are packed in just as quick. And grapes are also very nice to eat in between. You can just grab some whilst working. But remember: Always wash the fruit before you eat it!

For summertime, you can very quickly prepare a tasty salad for lunch or supper. Just mix lettuce with canned tuna (the one in water, not in oil, of course) and fruit, e.g. diced pineapple (preferably fresh because the canned has usually sugar added).

Brown toast or whole grain muffins with sugar-free jam are also great. Or mix low-fat cottage cheese with some spices to make a quick tasty cream. Low-fat yoghurt also gives you plenty of healthy snack opportunities.

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Easy Weight Loss Recipe - Start Your Day With This Superfood Smoothie

2009-09-17T10:30:00.000+02:00

By Joan Jones

Eating low calorie foods for maximum nutrition is a must for any weight loss program. This delicious blueberry smoothie will add superfoods to your breakfast with sweet, tangy blueberries which contain anti-inflammatory ingredients, plus Vitamin K and Folate, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

This Superfood Smoothie is a meal in a glass and also makes a great snack for increased energy-something that is very important when you're trying to lose weight.

Smoothie Weight Loss Secrets
The more slowly you eat or drink the better when you're trying to lose weight. Savor each mouthful by eating your smoothie with a tablespoon over the course of ten or 15 minutes. Eating slowly is great for your digestive system and this is good practice for eating slowly throughout the rest of the day too. Rinse out your glass and the blender with lots of warm water right away, and you won't have problems keeping your blender clean.

Ingredients

1 banana
½ c low fat vanilla soy milk or low fat milk
1 c vanilla fat-free yogurt
1 ½ tsp flax seed meal
1 ½ tsp honey
2/3 c fresh or frozen blueberries You can also add a tablespoon of high quality protein powder for added protein to start your day.

Directions

Put banana, yogurt, flax seed meal, soy milk and honey into your blender and mix on low until smooth.
Add blueberries and continue blending. Once the banana and blueberries are fully chopped, increase speed to medium.
Continue blending until you reach the consistency you want.
This blueberry smoothie recipe makes 2 servings of Superfood Smoothie.
Rinse your blender and glass and the blender right away with warm water and it makes clean-up much easier.

Nutritional Information per Serving - does not include protein powder if you added this ingredient
Calories 244
Fat 3g
Sodium 94mg
Carbohydrates 48.3g
Fiber 4.5g
Protein 9.4g

© Copyright 2008 by Joan Jones

Joan Jones is an award winning freelance journalist who writes feature articles on travel, home and garden, health and nutrition. Visit her new food and cooking blogs, where you'll find terrific recipes and food related articles at http://JoansCountryKitchen.com and http://DeliciousBlueberryRecipes.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joan_Jones

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Strawberry Cream Dessert

2009-09-15T11:56:00.000+02:00

Try out this fruity low-fat dessert that can do totally without sugar! It’s irresistible for all who love strawberries. If you like, you can try it with other berries as well, it will be great. It can be done in half an hour. Just take a couple of hours to have it standing in the fridge to get firm.

Ingredients

3 tsp. gelatine
250 g low-fat yoghurt (vanilla flavor, or plain yoghurt mixed with a tsp. of cinnamon)
400 g low-fat smooth cottage cheese
250 g strawberries, mashed
a few whole strawberries for decoration

Steps

Put 1 tbsp. of water into a small cup. Spread the gelatine on top and let it swell for 10 minutes. Then boil water in a small pot, put the cup with the gelatine in and stir until it has dissolved. Let it cool down a bit.
Mix yoghurt and cottage thoroughly , add gelatine and mix well.
Spoon half of the mixture into another bowl and mix it with the strawberries.
Spoon first the strawberry cream and afterwards the cheese-yoghurt cream into 4 high dessert glasses and put it into the fridge for a couple of hours until it is firm. Decorate it nicely with the strawberries you kept.

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Oriental Chicken With Curry Rice

2009-09-15T11:50:00.000+02:00

This is a stunning chicken and fruit recipe you don’t want to miss. It’s very easy to make, low in fat and only contains healthy fruit sugar but no other sugar added.

Ingredients

4 chicken filets
freshly ground black pepper, yellow curry
2 tbsp. rape-seed oil
200 g brown rice
2 tsp. yellow curry extra
1600 g fresh mixed fruit, cut into small pieces (e.g. peaches, pineapple, grapes, pears and cherries)
250 g water
1 tsp. cornflour

Steps

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet. When done, mix it with the curry.
Place the fruit with the water into a pot, cover and bring to boil. Allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes until the fruits are warm and soft. Mix the cornflour with a tbsp. of water, add to the fruits and boil for a short moment.
Wash and dry the chicken filets and season them with pepper and curry. Heat the oil in a pan and bake the chicken for about 5 minutes on moderate heat, then turn around, cover and bake for another 5 minutes. It is done, when it feels firm if you press on it.
Pour the fruit mixture over the chicken filets and serve with the curry rice.

Serves 4.

Tip
Alternately to fresh fruit, you can use 2 large cans of mixed fruit, or create your own special mix by choosing 4 small cans of your favorite fruits. This will go much quicker and enable you to prepare the whole dish in only half an hour. Just make sure that not too much sugar has been added to the fruit.

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Great news for all who want to lose weight

2009-09-10T22:25:00.000+02:00

If you have been visiting this blog before, then you might have noticed that there haven't been much cooking tips lately. I thought, maybe I should tell you why...

When I first started blogging, I created two blogs: Elisha's Recipe World was presenting quick healthy recipes, tips about healthy eating and cooking and quick cooking tips, whilst Exciting Weight Loss Recipes was very specificly about low-calorie recipes and diet tips.

But I soon noticed two things:

There where many posts that somehow fitted both blogs - because you can't lose weight effectively without eating healthy, and you can't speak about healthy eating without addressing weight loss.
Having two blogs that I had to build up from scratch and get noticed and known in the world wide web kept me from giving each of them the attention they deserved.

So, I decided to join them. Then I don't have to worry about duplicate content, and I can give everything to promote this one bigger blog.

At the moment, I'm busy transferring all posts from Exciting Weight Loss Recipes to Elisha's Recipe World. That's why you see so many weight loss recipes lately. Since I'm busy renovating I currently don't have much time to research and write articles.

I hope that you enjoy the new recipes that are coming in, and that the cooking and diet tips in my archive are keeping you busy enough for the moment. If you are desperate for cooking tips, you may want to download my new ebook Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash which gives you a lot of them. But don't worry, I will soon start writing again!

Awaiting email validation

2009-09-10T20:11:00.000+02:00

Thank you for your interest in Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash!

To prevent your email account being spammed, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your request of my ebook.

Please check for an email from elishasrecipeworld@yahoo.de with the following subject line "Please validate your acceptance of email from Elisha's Recipe World!" If you cannot see this email, please check in your spam folder.

After clicking the validation link, I will send you another email with the download link.

Sorry for making you wait!
Bettina Berlin

Spicy Veggie Pasta With Cashews

2009-09-10T10:27:00.000+02:00

This recipe is quick to make (approx. 30 minutes) and so delicious that your family will love it. It’s low in fat, sugar free, and packed with vegetables and whole grain.

Ingredients

200 g whole wheat pasta
4 tbsp. rape-seed oil
3 red chili, chopped (or 1 tsp. crushed chili)
1 small onion, chopped
80 g cashew nuts (plain or with chili flavor)
2 red and 1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
150 g green beans (fresh or canned), cut into 2 cm long pieces
1 tin sweet corn (240 g)

Steps

Cook the pasta in boiling water. Check the cooking instructions on the label, as cooking times may differ from “normal” pasta.
In the meantime, chop the onions and chili.
Heat the oil in a pan, fry the onions and chili for about 3 minutes, occasionally stirring. Then add the cashews and fry for another minute.
Add the pepper and beans and stir-fry for about 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Then add the corn, mix everything well and leave on the stove until the corn is hot.
Drain the pasta and serve it with the veggies.

Serves 4.

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Onion Cake – A German Favorite

2009-09-10T10:21:00.000+02:00

Onion cake is a traditional meal in Germany which has its peak time of popularity in late summer when the first wines of the year get onto the market. You’ll get it nearly everywhere then. Try it, then you’ll know why we love it so! Here’s how I make it.

Ingredients

For the dough

375 g flour
½ tsp. each salt and ground black pepper
1 packet instant yeast (for 500 g flour)
1 tbsp. sugar
¼ l lukewarm low-fat milk
60 g soft margarine (fat reduced), melted and slightly cooled down

For the filling

4 tbsp. olive oil
1 kg onions, sliced thinly
3 eggs
freshly ground black pepper, salt
1 tsp. ground caraway
4 tbsp. sour cream
150 g lean bacon, diced

Instructions

Firstly, prepare the dough:

Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix it with salt and pepper.
Press a hollow into the middle, put yeast and sugar in and mix them with a few spoons of milk to create a pre-dough. Cover the bowl with a wet cloth and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Then, add the remaining milk and margarine and work to a smooth dough that’s not sticky any more. Put it back into the bowl, cover it again and allow it to rise for another half an hour.
Cover a baking tray with baking paper, roll out the dough on flour and place it onto the tray. Push up the edges.

Whilst the dough rises, you can start preparing the filling:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or pan and stew the onions until tender. Allow them to cool down a bit.
Mix the eggs, spices and sour cream with a whisk until you get a smooth mixture.

Now put your onion cake together:

Preheat the oven on 190° C.
Spread the onions on the dough, pour the egg mixture over and sprinkle the bacon on top.
Allow the onion cake to rise for a couple of moments.
Bake it for about 30 minutes.

Serves 4.

Tips

You can replace the caraway with cumin. It gives the onion cake a different, very interesting flavor.
Onion cake tastes great hot and cold. You can prepare it a day or two in advance, keep it in the fridge and then warm it in the microwave.
It's also great as a starter, but then you will need only half the recipe (or simply feed twice as much people).

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Spicy Vegetable And Mince Curry

2009-09-08T10:38:00.000+02:00

This is a spicy low-fat, sugar-free curry recipe that can easily be done within an hour.

Ingredients

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 chili, chopped (or 1 tsp. crushed chili)
½ tsp. turmeric
2 tbsp. lemon juice
700 g lean minced meat
600 g butternut, diced
500 g carrots, thickly sliced
600 g potatoes, diced
500 g sweet potatoes, diced
a pinch of salt

Steps

Heat the oil in a pot. Fry cumin and coriander for approximately 1 minute, continuously stirring. Add turmeric, chili and lemon juice and mix well.
Add the minced meat and roast it briefly.
Add the vegetables, mix well, cover and roast for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir frequently to prevent burning.
Add the salt, mix well and serve.

Serves 4.

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Down Home Healthy Cooking: Recipes and Tips for Healthy Cooking

2009-09-08T10:31:00.000+02:00

Here is good news for all lovers of African American Cooking! The National Cancer Institute offers a 48 page booklet containing low-fat, high-fiber versions of traditional African American recipes:

Down Home Healthy Cooking: Recipes and Tips for Healthy Cooking

A word or two about this publication:
Experts found that African Americans are suffering more often from serious illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes 2 and cancer, and often die earlier of these diseases. The problem, as explained in the introduction of the booklet, is not that the African American diet is so totally unhealthy. In contrast, it contains plenty of healthy foods, but they are often prepared with too much fat which then causes the health problems.

What makes this booklet great:

offers healthier versions of favorite African American dishes to open up ways to a healthier lifestyle
tips for healthier cooking
advice which foods you should replace with other healthier ones
nutritional information for each recipe which makes it a great asset if you want to lose weight

Interested? You can:

view the booklet online, print the whole document or individual recipes by visiting http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/down-home-healthy-cooking
view and save the pdf-version on http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/down-home-healthy-cooking.pdf

Hope you will enjoy it! I think it sounds great, although it’s not a large recipe collection.

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Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash – 16 Tricks How To Prepare Your Favorite Dish In Less Time

2009-09-03T10:50:00.000+02:00

There are few people who don’t love a tasty homemade meal, cooked with love and fresh ingredients. But sometimes, giving your loved ones the special healthy meals they deserve can be a challenge when time simply is against you. Does the following scenario sound familiar?

Friday afternoon 16.00. Work is finished, finally! On the way home, you quickly run into the supermarket because the fridge is empty. What for heaven’s sake are you going to have for supper?

The supermarket is packed, there’s no getting forward. You’re still thinking about supper whilst you rush through the aisles. You haven’t had risotto in ages…yeah, that would be nice! Fresh mushrooms are on special, and the ham really needs to be eaten soon. You grab a packet of beans and a red pepper too - and then you get stuck at the till. It’s getting late. Half past four already. The kids will be hungry, and your husband is leaving at seven for a work function.

Quarter past five you stumble through your door. Home at last! Traffic was hectic today.

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”
“I’m hungry! When are we going to eat?”
“Honey, did you iron my shirt?”

You give the hungry kids some yoghurt and quickly clear the kitchen. Chicken stock is finished, and the kids must have had some sandwiches which have left you with less ham than you expected. Great! Okay, you’ll use more cheese then. Quickly iron the shirt whilst the risotto is cooking.

Half past six dinner is ready. Just in time. You made it, but now you really need a holiday…

Ever had a day like that? If yes, then I got something for you! I used to have a lot of these days when I was still working as occupational therapist. And now that I’m working from home, my days still often are that hectic. I got my job, I got my housework, and I got my 2 ½ year-old daughter to look after. Not much time for cooking, although I love it.

So, I had to make a plan. I’m not fond of take-aways, at least not if I have to eat them every second day (besides the fact that we could never afford this). And frozen meals from the supermarket are not my thing either. I just love my homemade food, and my family does too.

I did make a plan. And some time ago, I decided to write down what I did to still be able to cook my own healthy meals despite the everyday rush, and I would like to share my secrets with you today! That’s what Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash is about. It shows you 16 tricks how to prepare healthy meals faster. Whether you want to simply cook an ultra quick dish, or you want to prepare your favorite dish in less time, this ebook will help you to do that!

Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash is not a quick list of cooking tips. It’s much more than that. It leads you through the whole process of cooking, from scratch to the finished meal, and even pays attention to your cooking surroundings. It’s a comprehensive quick cooking guide that shows you exactly

how you can cook faster by simply organizing your kitchen and pantry properly
how you can save cooking time every day by planning your meals ahead
which shortcuts you can take whilst cooking to get dinner on the table quicker
how to use the power of work sharing and bulk cooking to spend less time cooking and even have a nice homemade meal on days where you can’t cook at all
what you can do before hand to ensure that you won’t take long to prepare your meal

The tips and tricks I share with you in Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash are very simple and easy to follow, but they really make a difference. And at the end of each chapter, you will find a summary of the tricks presented, in form of an easy to grasp bulleted list, so that what you just read can “sink in” better. I also left you a note there pointing out the benefits of following these tricks. After all, you don’t just want someone to tell you: Do this! You want to know: What’s in it for me?

But that’s not all yet! I’ve included two bonus chapters that explain to you

how to save time on cutting onions by minimizing the crying pain
how you can use your oven to prepare quick meals, and how you can enjoy delicious oven-baked dishes even when you have little time

Still not done! Here are two more assets for you:

a quick list that shows all 16 quick cooking tips at a glance (print it and stick it to your fridge!)
a tools and resources list: where to find quick healthy recipes and information about meal planning, and links to some great online meal planning tools (which are absolutely free to use)

If you think that Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash will enable you to cook a complicated five course dinner in 30 minutes, then I must tell you honestly: it won’t. Because this is simply not possible. But I can promise you that if you apply these tricks in your cooking, then you will save a lot in many ways.

You will be able to prepare mouth-watering healthy meals in a short space of time.
You will be able to prepare certain meals in less time than before.
You will be more organized and less stressed.
You will have more money in your pocket because you don’t need the pizza service to bail you out when you’re home late.
Your family will be healthier because they eat healthy food.
You will spend less time cooking and have more time for the things you enjoy.

You can discover the way to all these in almost no time. Because of my book being an ebook, you can start reading Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash within the next few minutes. All you need to do is to download it. If you don’t have an Adobe Reader yet, you can download it here.

And don’t worry! Cooking Healthy Meals In A Flash is absolutely free. It’s my gift for you – from one busy mom to another. Enjoy!

Bettina Berlin

Low Fat Recipe - Vegetable and Tomato Risotto - 260 Calories

2009-09-03T10:41:00.000+02:00

By Bernice Eker

Low fat vegetable and tomato risotto is a quick, easy and delicious recipe for people on a weight loss diet and a budget. This delicious dish serves two people and only has 260 calories and 3.1g of fat per serving. It takes five minutes to prepare the ingredients and less than twenty minutes cooking time thereby giving you a delicious low fat, low calorie meal in under half an hour. It's ideal for those people who have limited time or who don't enjoy cooking.

Gather together your ingredients so that you are ready to mix everything into a pan quickly and easily.

Ingredients required:

100g risotto rice (uncooked)
100g concentrated tomato (either tinned tomato or use slightly less tomato puree)
100g cleaned fresh baby vegetables (you can buy these readily prepared these days)
One very small sliced red chili (not necessary if you don't like spicy food)
One clove of garlic
One finely chopped medium red onion
Vegetable stock cube dissolved in 750ml of warm water
Parmesan cheese to garnish
Salt and black pepper

Prepare your work surface and pre-heat a large non-stick frying pan.

Into the frying pan, dry fry the onion and garlic until soft in texture and almost transparent in color. Add in the uncooked rice and sliced chili and continually stir to soak up any juices from the onion for a few seconds.

Stir in the concentrated tomato.

Gradually add in the vegetable stock, allowing for the stock to be absorbed by the rice before adding more until all of the stock has been added to the pan.

Lastly, add to the pan the baby vegetables and allow to simmer but stir regularly until the vegetables are to your liking. If you prefer particularly well done soft vegetables, turn the heat down and cover the pan to trap in the steam and retain the goodness in the vegetables.

Divide between two dishes and serve piping hot with a fresh mixed salad. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese and salt and black pepper.

There are many good quality calorie counting recipes out there but few of them are quick and easy to prepare, cost very little and are low in fat. Vegetable and tomato risotto fulfils all of these requirements and is an excellent choice of meal for those people searching for weight loss recipes. Used weekly as part of your calorie controlled diet, this meal will satisfy your stomach and your taste buds.

For more tips on losing weight and reviews on diet guides visit: http://www.WeightLoss2.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bernice_Eker

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Banana Strawberry Cream

2009-09-01T09:16:00.000+02:00

Here's a delicious low-fat dessert with almost no sugar but a lot of taste and nutrients... I just love the banana-strawberry-honey combination. And it's so quick to make!

Ingredients

2 large ripe bananas
150 g strawberries
1 tsp. honey
500 g low-fat yoghurt, vanilla flavor
unsweetened cocoa

Steps

Mash bananas and strawberries and mix with honey. Spoon the mixture into 4 dessert bowls.
Spread the yoghurt evenly on top.
Dust with a bit of cocoa and serve immediately.

Tips

You can prepare the cream some time in advance and keep it in the fridge. In that case, put the cocoa on only shortly before you serve it.
This dessert looks very nice in little glass bowls because it’s a layer dessert. But if you like, you can also mix all the ingredients together.
If you don’t like the vanilla flavor, use plain yoghurt and add a tsp. of cinnamon.

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Weight Loss Diet - 4 Foolproof Tips How To Eat Your Kilos Away

2009-09-01T09:03:00.000+02:00

In this article:

Did you also think that you can only really lose weight if you barely eat and spend two hours in the gym each day? Well, I can assure you there’s a much easier and healthier way. In fact, you can lose weight in as little as two weeks by simply changing your diet and eating habits. Of course, a bit more physical activity is going to help a lot, but as eating wrong was what made you fat in the first place, eating right can do a great job in solving the problem.

Adopt healthier eating habits
Besides us consuming way too much calories, there are three habits that contribute to us picking up weight:

too large portion sizes
irregular meal times
eating out of other reasons than hunger

Try to find out how much food you really need. Dish a bit less and eat more slowly to give your body a chance to notify you that it had enough food (that takes about 15-20 minutes). If you feel your plate looks empty, use a smaller one to make the portion look bigger. I want you to understand that reducing portion sizes is a gradual process that takes time. Your body is used to oversized portions and now needs to get used to eat less. But make sure you don’t overdo it. Effectively reducing the amount food you eat is not about starving, it’s merely about not eating too much.

Find a meal time schedule you can stick to every day. If you have chosen your meal times wisely, you won’t suffer hunger attacks and then overeat. Some people are fine with three meals per day and one or two snacks, whilst others do better with five to six smaller meals. Find out what works for you. Avoid eating when you are not hungry. Don’t eat just because you feel like, or because you are bored, sad or frustrated. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying food, but remember the primer purpose of eating is to give your body the nutrients it needs to function.

Reduce your calories, not your food
Our vision of a diet is to eat as little as possible. In fact, that’s totally the wrong approach. If you want to lose weight, you must make permanent changes in your lifestyle (eat healthier and be more active), and no one can follow a restrictive diet for long, as much as he wants to.

Instead of starving, it’s much better to change what you eat. Cutting down on calories does not necessarily mean you must eat less. Simply choose foods that contain little calories and lots of nutrients as your main foods: fruits, vegetables and whole grain products. Replace your dairies with their low-fat or fat free versions, and go for lean meat. Use as little additional fat and sugar when cooking as possible. And most importantly, reserve fatty and sugary foods for occasional treats.

Upgrade your carbohydrates
Processed starches, like the ones in white rice, white flour and everything made out of it (like our standard pasta), are not generally unhealthy. They are way healthier carbohydrates than plain sugar, as they are part of foods which also contain lots of nutrients. But unfortunately, they still have quite a high glycaemic response, meaning they push up your blood sugar level.

An excellent way of avoiding this problem is to replace your “simple” starches with complex ones: Eat more whole grain and whole wheat products instead.

replace your white bread or processed cereals with whole grain products
buy brown rice
have 100% whole wheat pasta

It will take some time to get used to their different taste, but they have many advantages. On the one hand, they fill you quicker, thus they prevent you from overeating. On the other hand, they are absorbed slower and over a longer period so that your blood sugar level is kept more constant. You won’t feel this, but what you will notice is that they keep you going for much longer.

Don’t be caught by cravings
One main reason why many fad diets fail is that they completely ban certain foods or even food groups. Unfortunately, these are often things we love, like chips, cookies, ice-cream and many others. You need to understand that although these foods are not really healthy, they won’t give you much trouble if you just have them occasionally and eat healthy in general. They only make you overweight when they drive healthy foods out of your main diet. So, allow yourself a small packet of chips once in a while, or some chocolate or a nice ice-cream. You just should keep it in moderation, then you’ll be fine.

If you long for these things, it can help to just have a bite or two and then move on. Don’t let the craving build up, for then you will end up eating a whole bucket of ice-cream instead one or two scoops, and that certainly won’t help you to lose weight.

I hope that by now you have gotten an idea of how you can comfortably lose weight with changing your diet. If you follow these tips, you can lose weight whilst enjoying tasty normal-sized meals that will never leave you feeling hungry and exhausted. And the greatest thing about the healthy diet approach is: Because it’s a lifetime concept, your overweight won’t likely come back.

Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks Giveaway

2009-08-29T12:46:00.000+02:00

MomCooks is running an awesome giveaway! The Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks Giveaway started 27 August 2009 and presents a great snack for health conscious people like you.

Do you also find it difficult to find a healthy snack for your children that can compete in their eyes with those tasty chips and sweets in beautiful packets? Then Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks are something you simply must try!

The fun way of serving fruit
These snacks are made of pure (organic!) fruit and only organic ingredients and they have NO added sugar, sweeteners, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. That’s just what you’ve been looking for, isn’t it? This is how they make these great and healthy snacks: Fresh fruit is sliced and freeze dried. This method locks in taste, smell and nutrients of the fresh fruit. As I said: It’s pure fruit.

We all know eating fruit is important for our health. Experts recommend two servings a day for children of two to six years, and four servings for older kids and us adults. One packet of Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks equals THREE servings of fresh fruit. So, if your child eats up that packet, it’s actually a reason to rejoice, not to feel bad.

These colorful packets will certainly catch your child’s eye, and they are just as convenient as the chips he or she used to eat. But unlike these, this snack is just as nutritional as fresh fruit. That makes it a great option for your child’s lunch box, and also a great snack for kids who don’t want to eat fresh fruit.

You can also use it like dried fruit: in muesli or yoghurt. The Funky Monkey Chef’s Corner will give you lots of recipe ideas, so go check it out!

The Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks come in four delicious flavors

Carnaval Mix (banana, pineapple, apple, papaya and raisins)
Bananamon (banana and cinnamon)
Jivealime (pineapple and lime juice)
Purple Funk (banana and acai)

Now, how does this giveaway work?

Your price: The winner of the giveaway will receive a variety pack of Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks.

Entry: Visit MomCooks before 3 September 2009 and leave a comment on the original post. (If you can’t click this link, here’s the URL: http://momcooks.net/2009/08/27/funky-monkey-giveaway. Just copy it and paste it into your browser). MomCooks will also give you bonus entries if you qualify for them (which is very easy).

I entered, and I’m taking all my bonus entries too. Go, check it out yourself! It’s really worth it. Good luck to all who enter!

Whether you enter the giveaway or not, I think Funky Monkeys Freeze Dried Fruit Snacks are a great product that you should definitely give a try. I will. What healthier snack could you give your child? Just think about it: a perfectly healthy snack that your child simply MUST love! Isn’t that too good to be true?

Spaghetti With Chicken And Garlic Sauce

2009-08-27T08:24:00.000+02:00

This is a tasty low-fat spaghetti recipe that you will certainly love. It’s very easy to prepare, and if you have some leftover chicken that you can use it’s also very quick to make.

Ingredients

300 g spaghetti (or 200 g whole wheat spaghetti)
4 small chicken filets, grilled and cut into thin stripes

For the garlic sauce

4 tbsp. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

For the salad

1 small lettuce, washed and torn into medium-size pieces
½ onion, chopped
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
4 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. low-fat yoghurt
¼ tsp. salt, ½ tsp. black pepper

Steps

For the garlic sauce, heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry the garlic until golden. Set aside.
Mix lettuce, onions and pepper in a bowl. For the dressing mix lemon juice, canola oil and spices. Pour over the salad and mix carefully.
Warm the chicken filet in the microwave or oven. Spread it over the spaghetti, pour the garlic sauce over it and serve with the salad.

Serves 4.

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Healthy Eating For Kids – 5 Tricks How To Make Your Children Eat Healthy Foods

2009-08-27T08:15:00.000+02:00

Does your child refuse to eat vegetables? Or fruit? That’s a common problem in our time where children are offered chips and chocolates everywhere, and fast food is “cool”. Everyone eats it, so they also want it. Because unfortunately, all these unhealthy foods do taste very nice. If we are honest, we need to admit that we too love them.

But we know how important it is to eat healthy food in general, especially for children because they are still growing. And since we love our kids, we want to give them the best food possible, of course. For us health conscious parents it can at times be a challenge to ensure our children eat healthy, and to prevent sweets and burgers from driving the healthy foods out of our children’s diet and become their main food.

It is actually in the nature of children that they like to eat healthy foods. They just love fruit, yoghurt, milk and cereals. If they grow up mainly eating these, they won’t want to miss them, and then it’s much easier to make them eat healthy in general and having sweets or chips as treats.

But if they now are craving for everything we don’t want them to eat, and at the same time rejecting the healthy foods we serve them, we need to be clever. With some simple tricks, you can easily make your children eat healthy foods, and sometimes they won’t even notice.

Here are five tricks to make your kids eat those healthy foods:

Hide the vegetables in foods your child loves
Serve the healthy foods with foods your child loves to make them more attractive
Serve foods in a way your child likes
Make desserts, sweets and chips a bonus treat for eating the healthy food
Allow your kids to help preparing the meal

Trick #1: Hide the vegetables in foods your child loves

Finely chop or even grate vegetables and mix them into minced meat before forming a meatloaf, meat balls or patties. Your kids won’t even notice that they are there. Especially mushrooms and aubergines can barely be seen because they take up a similar color like the meat when you cook them. Which child would reject a burger? Instead of denying it, simply make them a healthy one.
You can also hide grated vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes or marrows in tomato sauce which kids usually love with pasta. Even carrot cake or muffins with grated carrots and apples in are a good way of serving healthy foods without your child noticing.
If onions are a problem, grate them instead of chopping them and hide them in potato pancakes.
If your child likes milk and yoghurt but rejects fresh fruit, puree the fruit in secret and mix it into the yoghurt. If your child asks, you can say it is fruit yoghurt you bought just like that. Or make a smoothie or milk shake. Maybe add some honey to make it sweeter and tastier.

Trick #2: Serve the healthy foods with foods your child loves to make them more attractive

Serve her favorite ice cream with fruit or fruit puree.
Mix fruit into the chocolate or vanilla cream that you have as a dessert.
Serve a small portion of the vegetables that your child doesn’t like together with a larger portion of vegetables she eats and chips. Insist in eating it all, for example she can have a bit of the ones and then a bit of the others, or first eat the ones she doesn’t like and afterwards the nice ones. She then won’t be stuck with the taste of the rejected veggies. At the end of the meal, she’ll most likely think she just had nice food, and she’ll hopefully notice that it’s all not that bad.
Have vegetable puree with pasta, or make chutney to serve with bread, chips or crackers.

Trick #3: Serve foods in a way your child likes
It’s possible that your child doesn’t have a general problem with a certain food itself but rather with its texture.

If your child doesn’t want to eat tomatoes, try tomato sauce, canned tomatoes or tomato soup.
If he doesn’t like a certain fruit, prepare jam or jelly of it and put it on his sandwich for breakfast or mix it in his yoghurt as a snack. Homemade jelly still contains plenty of nutrients because you extract the juice from the whole fruit, peels and core included. You can also make low-sugar or even no-sugar jams to protect your child’s teeth.
Serve stewed or canned fruit instead of fresh fruit. Prefer buying canned fruit in fruit juice, not the ones in syrup, as the first ones don’t have sugar added.
Make your child’s plate look interesting and irresistible. Cut the fruit or vegetables and arrange the pieces as a nice picture, maybe a funny face or an animal. Some butchers also sell special polony for kids in the shape of a funny face or a teddy bear.

Trick #4: Make desserts, sweets and chips a bonus treat for eating the healthy food
This strategy requires quite some determination from your side and it might well result in some tantrums, but it should be fairly effective after a while. Don’t ever give in! Eventually your child will give up if he notices that this is the only way to get the things he wants.

If your child refuses a certain type of healthy food, tell him he will only get dessert once he has finished his lunch.
Chips and sweets will only be given after having eaten the whole dinner.
But make certain that you don’t overload your child’s plate, because in that case you might be punishing him for not overeating, and that would certainly be wrong and little helpful in establishing healthy eating habits.

Trick #5: Allow your kids to help preparing the meal
Children are usually much more willing to eat a meal that they have helped to prepare.

Give your child any task he can perform, for example peeling the fruit, cutting vegetables, stirring the food. The more you can get him involved in the cooking process, the better.
Allow your child to lay the table. Show him very clearly how much you appreciate this help, and give him the feeling this is a very important task.
Let your child dish for him or maybe for all family members. Allow him to choose his own plate and to arrange the food according to his liking as long as he takes from everything. If your child can’t dish yet, ask him how you should dish for him. Let him show you what he wants to give him the feeling of being in control over the situation.

With these simple tricks, you can get your child to eventually eat at least some of the healthy foods. It’s a good idea to focus on one food at a time, and once your child accepts this food, then you can move on to the next one. Remember that your child has developed his eating habits over quite some time and will only gradually be able to change them.

When you are really desperate, it’s a good option to hide the foods your child refuses to eat in other meals. But it’s always better to rather make the unloved foods interesting by mixing them with foods that find your child’s favor. After all, you don’t want to be hiding carrots in muffins for the next fifteen years. Your goal is to get your child to eventually eat these foods without tricks and fights.

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Helpful links

KookyCulinary gives you plenty of healthy meal ideas for your child’s lunch box (watch it, the list is continuously growing)

Fruit Sauces

2009-08-25T10:37:00.000+02:00

Fruit sauces are something that goes really quick and they will transform simple ice-cream into a fantastic dessert. Check out these recipes. Just put all the ingredients together in the blender and mix until the sauce is smooth. They all make 250 ml of sauce, just the mango puree is 350 ml.

Mango puree

2 small mangos, cut into pieces
3 tbsp. orange juice
1 tbsp. Amaretto

Raspberry puree

250 g fresh raspberries
2 tbsp. of honey
1 tbsp. of lemon juice
1 tbsp. Grand Marnier or Amaretto

Berry mix

300 g different berries (strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)
2 tbsp. honey

You will need to put it through a strainer to get the seeds out.

Exotic fruit puree
This one is a little bit more work. Mix 125 ml fresh granadilla pulp, 125 ml mango or apricot juice and 2 tbsp. of honey. Bring it to boil slowly, frequently stirring, and then allow it to boil for about 5 minutes.

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Baked Semolina Pudding With Cherries And Almonds

2009-08-25T10:29:00.000+02:00

This delicious, fruity and sweet recipe can be both a main course and a dessert. You can make it with any type of fruit, fresh or canned. It takes its time in the oven to bake but it’s fairly quick to prepare, making it perfect for days when you’re at home and still too busy to cook.

Ingredients

1 l low-fat milk
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla essence
200 g semolina
50 g soft margarine
75 g brown sugar
4 eggs, separated
50 g raisins
30 g almond flakes or chopped almonds
800 g pitted cherries in fruit juice
20 g margarine, extra

Steps

Preheat the oven for 200°C.
Add salt and vanilla essence to the milk and bring it to boil. Stir in the semolina, reduce the heat and allow swelling for about 10 minutes, continuously stirring to avoid burning. Then remove the pudding from the stove and allow cooling down a bit.
Slightly grease an ovenproof dish with margarine.
Mix margarine, sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl until the mixture is creamy. Then stir it under the semolina pudding. Add raisins and almond flakes as well and mix thoroughly. Beat the egg whites until firm and mix it in the pudding.
Fill half of the pudding into the ovenproof dish, spread the cherries on top and cover with the rest of the pudding. Distribute small pieces of the extra margarine over the pudding.
Bake for 40 minutes until the pudding is slightly brown. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 when used as main dish. Makes 8 portions for a dessert.

Tips

Use any other fruit instead of the cherries. You can also mix fruits. I like fruit in fruit juice because it contains less sugar, but canned fruit in syrup works just as well for the recipe.
Replace the raisins with other dried fruit if you feel that would match better with the fresh fruit you are using, or simply because you prefer apricots, for example.
You can also use hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans instead of the almonds.

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Enjoying A Healthy Diet - 3 Easy Ways To Create A Delicious Healthy Dessert

2009-08-25T10:20:00.000+02:00

For most of us, desserts are THE symbol of calorie bombs – meals high to extremely high in sugar and fat. But have you ever given the dream of a healthy dessert a serious thought? A dessert that you don’t need to feel bad about when eating it? Sure, even a high calorie dessert is perfectly okay if you just have it every now and then. But wouldn’t it be great if you could create desserts that are so healthy that you could enjoy them almost whenever you feel like?

In fact, there are quite some types of desserts that are already fairly healthy, for example everything that contains lots of fruit, little fat (like cream or mascarpone) and sugar. And there are many ways to make the not so healthy ones healthier.

For the not yet healthy recipes that you don’t want to miss, try the following tips!

Add some fruit
Reduce fat
Reduce sugar

Tip #1: Add some fruit
Fruit is one of the healthiest food groups we have. Experts advise us to eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables every day. But that does not mean that you need to eat five plain and simple fruits every day. You can use them creatively.

Option 1: Fruit salad
For example, make a fruit salad. Choose fruits of different colors to get a nice colorful mix. Then add a bit of pure fruit juice (the non-sweetened, 100% one) as a dressing, and maybe a few raisins. Arrange the salad in a pretty dessert plate and sprinkle some chopped nuts or almond flakes over it. This doesn’t take you long to prepare and it’s one of the healthiest desserts possible. The variety of fruit gives you fiber and many important vitamins. Because many fruits are sweet, you don’t need to add sugar, meaning all calories you eat are fructose, which is still a healthier sugar than table sugar. And because of the fiber, the fruit fills you quicker than any sweets. It’s not so easy to overeat on fruit.

Option 2: Pudding with fruit
Serve fruit with a homemade vanilla or chocolate cream or sauce. If you use low-fat or fat-free milk and a minimum of sugar (or no sugar at all), then you get all the health benefits of milk (without the calories in the fat) in addition to the ones of the fruit. Did you know that milk contains almost all nutrients in perfect balance?

Option 3: Yoghurt with fruit
Make your own fruit yoghurt. It tastes much nicer than the fruit yoghurts you buy (because you are actually using fruit) and is much healthier. In Germany, we have a wide variety of nice fruit yoghurts, but here in South Africa, I don’t like to buy fruit yoghurt because they are all sweetened and full of preservatives. It’s much better to buy plain yoghurt and mix it with fresh fruit. If you don’t like the pieces in there, put everything in an electric blender until smooth. Yoghurt mixed with home made jam also makes a nice dessert. You can add treats like dried fruit, chopped nuts or grated chocolate to make it even tastier (dark chocolate doesn’t contain so many calories, so this should be your preferred choice).

Option 4: Ice cream with fruit of fruit puree
We all love ice cream. Serve a scoop or two together with a handful of grapes or berries, or make a fruit puree to pour over it. Fruit purees are very easy to make and only take you a couple of minutes to prepare. You can even stew fruit and thicken the liquid with a bit of corn flour and serve the hot fruit with your ice cream. Vanilla ice cream for example goes very nice with hot cherries or raspberry puree. If you stew fruit, adding some spices like vanilla pod or cinnamon can give it a very irresistible taste.

Tip #2: Reduce fat
Many desserts unfortunately contain quite a bit of fat, using cream or high fat cheese types like mascarpone. Never mind! You can solve that problem very easily.

Option 1: Use low-fat or fat-free dairy products
As I mentioned above, use low-fat or fat free milk instead of full cream milk for your chocolate or vanilla sauce or cream. Replace the high-fat cheese in your cheese cake, trifle or brownies with a smooth low-fat cottage cheese or ricotta. It will still taste great.

Buy low-fat yoghurt instead of the full cream version. It’s also nice, and especially if you top it up with fruit or nuts, you won’t really miss the extra fat.
A great basis for smoothies and fruit shakes is buttermilk which is very low in fat compared to other products (only 1%). You can even use it for baking cakes or muffins.

Option 2: Choose healthier fats
Coconut milk is a great alternative for cream in many recipes. It contains significantly less fat, especially if you buy a low-fat version (12-14% fat, whilst cream has 30%). Check the label, as the fat content of different products can vary greatly.

In many baking recipes you can use margarine instead of butter. It still does contain quite a bit of fat, but it’s made of vegetable fats which are healthier than animal fats and don’t have such a negative impact on your cholesterol level. Check on the label if the margarine is suitable for baking, as not every product is.

Tip #3: Reduce sugar
Our taste buds have gotten very used to us adding a lot of sugar to almost everything that is sweet. We often add sugar to things that are already sweet, like fruit salad. But just as we got used to extreme sweetness, we can also get used to eating less sugar. And as time goes by, you will notice how deliciously sweet some foods actually are just the way nature produced them.

Option 1: Use less added sugar
As long as the sugar is not an essential part of the recipe, you can simply reduce the amount. In cakes, muffins, creams, sauces and puddings this is generally not a problem.

Option 2: Use alternatives with lower sugar content
A good alternative is using natural sweeteners like fructose, honey or maple syrup. They are not very nutritious but they some of them still contain a few more nutrients than table sugar which is nothing but “empty calories”.

Option 3: Use naturally sweet foods
The best way to reduce sugar is certainly adding dried fruit like raisins or apricots, or even fresh fruit, to your dessert. Many fruits are naturally sweet and negate the need to add extra sugar. Note that dried fruit has much higher sugar content then the same amount of fresh fruit, so you will need less. If you want a lot of fruit and sweetness, it’s a good idea to combine a larger portion of fresh fruit with a smaller portion of dried fruit.

Conclusion
It’s really easy to create healthy desserts! The possibilities are endless. Eating healthy does not mean that you must sacrifice the delight of a tempting dessert. Not at all. If you have a portion of mascarpone trifle or a piece of cheese cake every now and then for a special occasion, that most definitely won’t harm your health. So there is no need to stress too much about it unless you must closely watch your calorie intake because you got a weight problem, are diabetic or suffer from high cholesterol. But if you can make your dessert healthy, why should you not?

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Useful links
Little Lady Cakes provides a list of substitutes that can help you to make your favorite cake recipes healthier and lower in calories.

Effective Weight Loss – How Muscle Building And Eating The Right Foods Can Help You To Lose Weight

2009-08-20T19:40:00.000+02:00

Every weight loss program that is worth its money will tell you that if you want to effectively lose weight, and if you want to prevent that you gain all the weight back that you lose, you need to make two lasting changes in your lifestyle: You need to eat healthier, and you need to be more physically active.

Healthy eating means to consume fewer calories and especially to ensure that the calories you eat don’t exceed the calories you burn during your daily activities. Physical activity can be anything from taking your dog for a walk, riding your bicycle to work, climbing stairs, play soccer with your kids, go to the gym or enroll in team sports.

The most important thing is that you are physically active. It doesn’t really matter what kind of activity you do. Any additional activity in your life will help you to lose weight. Nevertheless, different activities or levels and duration of activities will have different effects on your energy consumption.

Muscle building and weight loss
An excellent activity to assist in weight loss is muscle building training. This can either be a pure muscle building training at the gym, or a sport that requires lots of muscle work. Riding a bike, for example, will build your leg muscles.

The great thing about building muscle is that one the one hand you burn calories whilst doing it, and on the other hand muscle is an excellent energy burner. Meaning that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn when they come to work. And the more calories you burn, the easier it is to lose weight.

But it takes more to build muscle than just exercising them. You also need to feed them properly. You need to eat the right things at the right time.

How to support muscle building by eating right
Your muscles need energy to grow, and this energy they draw from carbohydrates. If you eat the right carbohydrates at the right time, then this will help your muscles to grow:
Eat complex carbohydrates before a workout
Eat simple carbohydrates after a workout

1. Complex carbohydrates before the workout
Complex carbohydrates are absorbed and metabolized slower than simple carbohydrates. Therefore, they provide a steady stream of energy for a longer period, giving you the energy to do your workout. They are stored in your body and converted to energy during your workout. So, you should eat more complex carbohydrate foods in general and especially before the workout.

Besides helping you to build muscle, eating foods rich in complex carbohydrates also prevents you from overeating, since most of these foods are also high in fiber, meaning they fill you quicker and for longer. Many also contain proteins but (in contrary to animal products) are low in fat. These are additional benefits for your weight loss. These foods should anyways be a main food group in your new healthy diet.

Foods rich in complex carbohydrates are:

grains (wheat, barley, buckwheat, rye)
whole grain products (whole grain bread/ pasta/ cereals)
legumes (dried beans, lentils)
potatoes
rice
corn
bananas

2. Simple carbohydrates
Simple carbohydrates are excellent for giving you a quick energy boost, since they are absorbed and metabolized quickly. But they can’t be a steady source of energy. If you draw your energy mainly from simple carbohydrate foods, then you need to eat these fairly often and you could easily eat more than you should. And if you do, then all calories you don’t burn will be stored as extra fat. Not quite what you want when you’re trying to lose weight.

Yet, simple carbohydrates do play their role in our diet. After sports, for example, or in our case after your muscle building workout, your body needs energy quickly to replenish its glycogen level quickly. This will lead to an increased insulin level, and insulin is at that moment important to ensure a good absorption of nutrients by your body cells, which will feed your muscles and help them to build new tissue and grow.

So, eating simple carbohydrate foods after sports is a good thing. But you should then choose healthy foods like fruit which also contain fiber and many other nutrients, not chocolate or cookies.

Healthy foods rich in simple carbohydrates are:

apples
black-, cran-, rasp- and strawberries
citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, lemon)
cherries
kiwis
melons
peaches
pears
plums

Conclusion
For faster and easier weight loss and weight maintenance without much worries, include some muscle building activities in your exercise program - specific training or simply a sport or activity that makes your muscles work a lot (most sports will do that). Feed your muscles the right things: mainly complex carbohydrates for lasting energy and endurance, and right after your sports or training some healthy simple carbohydrate foods to restore your glycogen level and increase the absorption of nutrients so that your muscles get all they need to grow. This way, you can burn more calories (thus lose more weight) and bring your body into shape at the same time.

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