Category: Food and Drink (Page 5 of 10)

10 Tips for Healthy Eating Motivation

June 8, 2021 / Chris Brown / 3 Comments

Episode 84

In episode 84 of the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast for the Becoming Elli community, Jill and Chris discuss motivation for healthy eating.

We all know that losing weight is hard, but many of us in the Becoming Elli community are committed to keeping the weight off means by maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle.

During this episode we discuss healthy eating motivation:

Set a Goal
Anticipate your weaknesses
Plan your food
Prepare and Prep ahead
Weigh and track progress
Swap out for healthier choices
Find a friend/community
Keep it simple
Make routines
Use a mantra

During other podcasts we’ve talked with nutritionists, dietitians and women who have lost weight and kept it off. Some people enjoy a keto lifestyle, or vegan, vegetarian, paleo, LCHF (Low Carb High Fat), or a Mediterranean diet. Others use intermittent fasting.

We don’t specifically talk about different foods, but more about the motivation to eat in a healthy way. We have found that having discipline will carry your through when your motivation is lacking.

In many episodes of our podcast we talk about motivation for exercise and many of the same tips work for keeping the healthy eating motivation. Remembering your WHY. Working with other people. Having a meal plan and “go to” options.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear from YOU! How do you maintain your motivation to eat healthy? Did we miss an important tip that really works for you? Let us know by leaving a comment below or leaving a voice mail at 330-970-6662.

Beyond Burger Review

April 24, 2021 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

I tried a new to me kind of veggie burger this week called Beyond Burger. Does this count as part of the veggie challenge? I’m not sure, because this sure felt like cheating!

Just to clarify, I am a meat eater but want to have something on hand when vegetarian family members are here for lunch. I’ve tried Boca Burgers and like the original version… and have had MorningStar but haven’t liked the taste of those. My husband picked these up at Costco.

The Beyond Burger is a frozen patty, packaged two to a container. I took mine from the freezer and defrosted it in the microwave. The red juices looked suspicious to me until I double checked the ingredients where I saw beet juice. That explained it.

I think if I did the entire burger thing with a bun, lettuce, tomato, pickle and condiments, it could almost pass as real beef. However in this taste test, I just had it as a patty, so I could focus on the flavor.

On a scale of 1-10, I’d say that I’d give it a 6 as just a patty. Not too bad. The consistency didn’t tempt me to break it up to use it like crumbled ground beef to use in a recipe, which was my first intention.

Also I found that it needed to be cooked low and slow, so it wouldn’t burn.
Maybe I should have added some olive oil to the pan to begin with, because the outside tended to get too cooked without doing the the middle, when I cooked it at my usual burger stove top setting of 7 on my cook stove. End result, the first part was cooked as a 7 and after I flipped it, I reset the temperature to a four and put on the lid to help heat the insides as well.

Next time, I may go wild and actually break it up to use in a recipe as pretend ground beef in chili or my inside out egg rolls with broccoli slaw.

Have you ever tried Beyond Burgers? How did you fix it and did you love it?

Making cabbage rolls with quinoa instead of rice.

First Quarter Healthy Eating

April 17, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

It’s been a little over halfway in April and, like Jill, I feel it’s time to evaluate my first quarter results.

First Quarter Healthy Eating
From January to March I definitely have been eating better. How can I tell? My heart rate. The results on the scale. Tracking my food. Adding more veggies. Planning my meals.

Healthy eating is always a goal, so I didn’t make it one of my words or a resolution for 2021. Now I kinda wished I did so I could legit say I nailed it.

I focused on what to have for lunch and dinner. The veggie challenge helped here. Buying lots of vegetables and healthy foods made it easier. Here are photos of a few of my first quarter healthy eating highlights. Among others I enjoyed making and eating eggplant lasagna,cabbage rolls, quinoa veggie salad and roasted vegetables.

I substituted one layer of noodles with roasted eggplant in lasagna.

For first quarter healthy eating I made cabbage rolls with quinoa instead of rice

Making cabbage rolls with quinoa instead of rice.

For first quarter healthy eating, I used the VitaMix to chop veggies the size of quinoa.

Using the VitaMix to chop veggies into the size of quinoa. It’s hard to cut carrots, cucumbers, and cauliflower this small without the help of a machine!

first quarter healthy eating involved using parchment paper and spray olive oil for roasting veggies.

My trick for easy roasting is to use parchment paper and spray the olive oil on to make it easy. I probably roasting three times more veggies because it is easier for clean up.

I know I posted some of my veggie omelets and fritatta. Buying frozen precut vegetables is also a shortcut of mine.

First Quarter Activity
One of my words in 2021 is activity. If I count tracking and cooking as activity, I did pretty well in first quarter. But if I think of activity as exercise… well… I definitely left room for improvement there. I’ve definitely done better with healthy eating in first quarter than I have with the exercise. While I have been getting on my treadmill for some Zoom meetings where I don’t have to talk, I just wasn’t as physically active as I wanted to be.

Now that the weather has improved in NE Ohio, last week I was able to go bike riding twice. This is actually second quarter activity.

Snapshot of early April bike rides.

I’ve also done a couple of beautiful walks outside with friends. I will save this for for next quarter, but it’s been a recent highlight.

Here’s looking forward to improvement during second quarter 2021 on my activity, fit and strong 2021 3 words!

Green Goodness Salad Dressing

April 1, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

You’re going to like this Green Goodness Salad Dressing. I recently reviewed the Wild About Greens cookbook by Nava Atlas and thought I would try to make something out of the cookbook.

I chose to make the Green Goodness Salad Dressing. As you can see in the photograph, this dressing is a gorgeous green color. It’s just lovely.

Green Goodness Salad Dressing

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 good handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1/2 cup peeled seeded and chopped cucumber

1/2 cup firmly packed fresh parsley

Two tablespoons lemon juice

Two tablespoons white or red wine vinegar

One tablespoon chopped fresh dill or one teaspoon dried dill

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in the container of a food processor. Process until all that remains of the parsley is tiny flakes.
refrigerate the unused portion in an airtight container. Use within 2 days.

The cookbook says that this is a delicious dressing for grain or bean salads. It’s also tasty drizzled on lightly cooked or roasted vegetables.

Wild about greens, by Nava Atlas. Publisher is Sterling publishing,
Copyright 2012

This was about the easiest recipe to make. Just throw the ingredients in the food processor and turn it on. In seconds, you have a gorgeous salad dressing. It tastes good though I will confess that I added a bit of sea salt. I thought it needed it. That’s certainly personal preference though.

I continue to try to find new ways to prepare a variety of greens and this is a good addition to the repertoire. We’re still doing the 2021 Veggie Challenge and I think this recipe qualifies as a hit.

Chris posted a recipe for a Veggie Blender Dressing a while ago and this reminded me of that. I wonder how this compares to her dressing.

Veggies Inspired Omelette

March 27, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Love veggies? Love eggs?

Me too! I took a bag of frozen veggies, defrosted it and added it to some scrambled eggs.

My big mistake? Tough to flip.

Then I remembered, you can put it in the oven for a fritta. You have to have it in the right pan to start with (and the handle has to be able to “handle” the heat.)

This one had a non-baking handle, so I ended up flipping it, in three sections. Not a problem for me, but I had anticipated a more beautiful finished product. Still, it tasted GREAT!!

Delicious and my favorite way to add lots of vegetables into my meals!

Review of Wild about Greens by Nava Atlas

March 25, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

A friend gave me Wild about Greens by Nava Atlas a while ago. I looked through this cookbook and thought “what a nice gift” but then never really did anything with it. I do enjoy reading cookbooks though I don’t always feel compelled to actually make anything from them.

Since we’re doing the 2021 Veggie Challenge and I’m trying to introduce some vegetables into my diet that, while not necessarily new, are foods that I don’t normally eat. When it comes to greens, I’m comfortable with a variety of lettuce, spinach, and kale. I struggle with some of the other greens but I’m feeling compelled to improve my greens repertoire. That’s when I remembered Wild about Greens.

This cookbook has 125 recipes in it, all based on greens.

The book is broken into five chapters:

One is about the basic preparations of greens. It includes wonderful descriptions of the different types of greens and the best way to prepare them.
Two focuses on greens with beans, grains, pasta, and other vegetables.
Three covers salad dressings and dips.
Four provides recipes for using greens in soups and stews.
Five is green juices and smoothies.

One thing I like about the recipes is that at the end of each recipe it lists what other greens would be best used to replace what is used in the recipe.

There’s lots of good introductory material about how to buy and store your greens. It also covers basic ways to prepare them and explain some of the differences between the different greens. If you’re at all intimidated by the thought of cooking collard greens or of using dandelion weeds, this is a helpful resource. The recipes cover a wide range of dishes and she provides lots of great advice about how best to use the various sauces and dressings.

The book is visually pleasing with lots of great photos and lots of white space. I used the index and found it to be well done. I hate cookbooks that don’t have a good index and this has passed the test.

The Author

Nava Atlas, the author of Wild about Greens, has written a number of other vegan cookbooks. She also has many recipes on her website, The Vegan Atlas. You might want to check out Wild about Greens and some of her other books.

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Outdoors

March 19, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

This year we were Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Outdoors. It was a great way to spend the day.

Last year at St. Patrick’s Day, we were in shutdown here in Ohio. Most everywhere was in shutdown. I remember that my friend bought my a corned beef sandwich as takeout and left it on my front porch for me to enjoy. I sat at home by myself, ate my sandwich and drank a beer. It was an odd day, for sure.

This year that same friend and I went to a local restaurant to have that corned beef. The day was so beautiful and warm that we were able to sit outside, have a sandwich, and a beer, and enjoy each other’s company. What a nice way to spend some time with a friend.

Later in the day, I took Penny, my now 10-month-old puppy, for a hike in the nearby national park. It was a glorious day for a hike. Lots of sun and it was warm enough not to have to be bundled up. Penny loved that hike. She sniffed everything she could and hopped around on that trail like she’d done it many times before. It was a rather rough trail in places but we managed to make it around the loop without problem. I think the total hike was probably around two miles so certainly not too long but we both enjoyed it. I told Penny that it was her holiday since she’s an Irish Doodle.

The hike with Penny made me realize that I now have a great hiking companion. I’m hoping that one day she’ll be able to run with me but if nothing else, having a dog to take on the many trails around me is wonderful.

The day was so much more enjoyable than last year. I suspect I might not have enjoyed the day so much if I didn’t remember how I spent it during the shutdown.

It was wonderful celebrating St. Patrick’s Day outside. How are you enjoying being able to get outside and maybe spend time with others?

A Variation on the Frittata

March 4, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I decided to provide you with a variation on the frittata. Chris posted her pepper frittata recipe the other day and she motivated me to cook one for my lunch. I took the opportunity to capture my version of the frittata and thought I’d share it here.

Because I used a pan that could go into the oven, I decided to go ahead and throw the frittata under the broiler. I didn’t have to do that but it gave everything a nicely browned topping.

One of the things I love about making a frittata is that you can save the leftovers and enjoy them the next day. It keeps and reheats well.

Another great thing about frittatas is that you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand. It’s a great way to use up some of those vegetables sitting in your refrigerator.

My Variation on the Frittata Ingredients

Avocado oil or butter or olive oil. Go with what you prefer.

Eggs. The more eggs you use, the larger your frittata is. I used six eggs but probably could have added a couple more.

One clove of garlic, minced.

Chopped vegetables. I used onion, orange and green peppers, kale, and zucchini.

Parmesan Cheese. That’s the only cheese I available and it worked well. You can use other cheeses if that’s what you have. I think Cheddar or mozzarella would work well. Next time I’ll try goat cheese.

My Variation on the Frittata Directions

Pre-heat the broiler.

Heat the oil in a medium to large frying pan that can also go into the oven.

Add all of the vegetables except for the zucchini and saute until soft. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or so.

Move the cooked vegetables into a bowl to keep.

Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl.

Reduce the temperature of your stove.

Add a bit more oil to your if needed and pour in the whisked eggs. Let them sit so the bottom begins to set.

Gently add the cooked vegetables over the top of the eggs.

Add the zucchini over the eggs and cooked vegetables.

Sprinkle the cheese over the top and let cook just a bit longer. When the bottom seems cooked and the top is starting to set, move the pan to your broiler.

Let the dish sit under the broiler for a few minutes. Keep a close eye on it to avoid burning the frittata. Remove it when the top is nicely browned and the cheese is melted.

Leave the frittata in the pan for a few minutes to cool and then slide onto a cutting board or serving dish. Let it cool a bit more and then cut into generous slices.

You can enjoy your frittata warm or at room temperature.

Frittata with Pepper Stir Fry Veggie Challenge

Frittata with Pepper Stir Fry Isn’t Cheating on the Challenge

February 27, 2021 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

In one of the recent podcasts I was thinking about my Frittata with Pepper Stir Fry breakfast when I said that I was cheating on the 2021 Veggie Challenge. We are all trying to add vegetables to our meals.

The challenge for me is to eat more vegetables in my diet. The way I’ve been cheating is buying frozen vegetable packs and using them instead of cleaning, cutting and preparing fresh veggies. Jill replied that she doesn’t think it is cheating, so I’ve decided to share this “recipe” with all of you.

It’s very easy and delicious too. Some people cook the eggs in an oven ready pan so they can bake the veggies into the frittata, but I take the easy stove top way instead.

Pop the frozen veggies into the microwave to thaw a bit.
Put a little olive oil in the pan and add the veggies.
Saute them until slightly brown and warm. Set aside.
Wipe out the pan and pour in two eggs, scrambled.
Cook them like you’re going to make an omelette.
Don’t stir or flip the eggs.
When they are almost done, add the veggies on top.
Put a lid over the eggs/veggies as the eggs finish cooking.
After the eggs are done and the veggies rewarmed, sprinkle a little mozzarella or cheddar cheese on top.

Slide the frittata from the pan to the plate and voila! Yummy and easy!

Veggie challenge: 5 servings of vegetables before noon. Boom!! Not bad!!

What are you doing to add more veggies to your meals? Have any easy and delicious “cheats?” Please share!

Quick and Easy Vegetable Ramen Soup

February 25, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

When I’m talking about quick and easy vegetable ramen soup, I don’t mean the cheap packets of ramen I used to buy for a very cheap meal. Though I suppose you could certainly use those noodles to make this soup and they would work just as well. I don’t know about those packets of seasonings though. They may be a bit suspect.

I bought a large package of gluten-free organic millet and brown rice ramen noodles at Costco. They’re quick and easy to make and here’s my take on a quick and easy soup.

In one of our recent podcast episodes, Chris and I discussed this year’s veggie challenge. Chris said she was cheating because she was using large bags of frozen vegetables to get in those extra servings of vegetables. I said making something easy isn’t cheating. So, this recipe is one of those. I bought a giant bag of stir-fry vegetables (also from Costco) and used that in this recipe.

I also bought a box of broth called Ramen broth. It’s very good. I did not buy it at Costco but at a regular grocery store.

You could add some hot sauce to the broth or a bit of sesame oil. The Ramen broth was good so you don’t have to add anything unless you want.

I added some cooked chicken to the soup as a protein source but you wouldn’t have to do that. You could probably add some cubed tofu if you wanted a vegetarian option or just omit the protein all together.

Quick and Easy Vegetable Ramen Soup

Feel free to make any changes you want to this. It’s basically a quick, throw-together kind of soup.

Ingredients

2 cups Ramen Broth

1 brick of Millet and Brown Rice Ramen

2-3 large handfuls of frozen stir-fry vegetables

1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken

Directions

Heat the broth in a medium saucepan.

Add the frozen stir-fry vegetables and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the cooked chicken.

In a separate pan, bring water to a boil. Add the brick of ramen noodles. Cook for about four minutes. Follow the directions on the package. Drain noodles and place in a serving bowl.

Ladle the broth and vegetables over the noodles and mix.

Enjoy the soup! If you haven’t achieved the perfect ratio of broth to noodles, feel free to add some more broth and vegetables to the remaining ramen noodles.

This is a very quick and easy vegetable ramen soup. If you try it, let me know what you think.