Stock up on healthy food, ideas

Now is the time to get our­selves healthy. Stock up on veg­eta­bles and fruits and cer­tain nuts. When you need a snack dur­ing the day, reach for some. You can pre­cut car­rots, cel­ery, broc­coli, radishes, and cau­li­flower in a large Tup­per­ware bowl with a lid. My daugh­ter does this. When­ever she wants a snack she puts some in a small bowl.

You can dip them in fat free ranch dress­ing if you wish. I’d rather have reg­u­lar, but in time you will get used to the dif­fer­ence in the taste.

I’m back on track and going to my TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sen­si­bly) meet­ings. I need them as they truly help you in reach­ing your goal. My group is a won­der­ful bunch of ladies. They have been hav­ing some very good pro­grams. I know if you would come and join us, you would enjoy it also. I have tried to lose weight by myself, but I just couldn’t do it. Going to TOPS has moti­vated me in try­ing my best to lose the pounds that I want to lose. You need the sup­port of oth­ers to help you in reach­ing your goal.

There a few res­o­lu­tions for the year ahead. Resolve to reduce stress. Com­mon causes of stress are work, fam­ily, and per­sonal finances. Resolve to exer­cise more. The goal of daily exer­cise is to get health­ier. Resolve to eat bet­ter to improve over­all health. Resolve to quit smok­ing because it will make you a health­ier you. You will feel quite a dif­fer­ence when you do.

Plan your day with a light but healthy break­fast, like oat­meal, dry whole wheat or grain toast, orange juice or fruit, and your bev­er­age. Do a rou­tine of cer­tain exer­cises for 20 min­utes, three times a week. Over­do­ing your exer­cise will only stress your body. If you do want to exer­cise daily, only do it for 10 min­utes. You need to drink eight to 10 glasses of water every day. It’s good for you and helps cleanse your body. Plus, it has no calories.

I’ve tried many diet plans. But this time I’ve just been cut­ting down on my pro­tein sizes. Instead of two pork chops like I used to eat, I only eat one. I cut down on my pota­toes. I eat a lot of veg­eta­bles and fruit. I even cut down on my snacks. I’ve been eat­ing almonds which are very good for you. Plus a bowl of pop­corn at night. I do need to exer­cise more. Win­ter isn’t a good time for walk­ing unless there’s no snow or rainy days. You can go up to the town hall and walk the gym area daily. They even have music playing.

When we girls were in our teens, we would have our moms take us to New Lon­don in the morn­ing. Some­times our girl­friends were allowed to go. We had to be home by 8 p.m. We knew kids there who would bring us home, or we would walk home from there. The walk­ing was good exer­cise for us. Back then, you didn’t have to worry about all the crazy peo­ple like you do nowadays.

One week­end, we were hav­ing so much fun at the park there that we lost track of time. It was after 8 p.m. We found some local boys we knew and asked them to give us a ride home. When we were close to Welling­ton, we knew of a lonely barn in a secluded place. We stopped and were just talk­ing when we noticed head­lights com­ing toward us. I thought some­one was fol­low­ing us ear­lier, but didn’t think any­thing of it.

The car stopped and here comes my mom, and the other girls’ moms out of that car. When they got to our car, boy were we in trou­ble. We were told to get out of the car and into their car. The boys were given a lec­ture from all the mad moth­ers, and they left faster than they arrived.

When we all got home, we were pun­ished and grounded for a month. We weren’t allowed to go to New Lon­don any­more after that. I always won­dered what those boys thought after that. But we never saw them again. But when we had to walk from New Lon­don before that, we were tired by the time we got home. The exer­cise did us good. We walked at a slower pace and stopped to rest a cou­ple of times. We had water bot­tles to drink. We always had fun when we went to New Lon­don. We really missed going there after we got caught with these boys, but it was worth it.

I hope you try to eat health­ier and watch your weight. I know I feel bet­ter. Come and join the TOPS group here in town on Thurs­days at the Welling­ton Aux­il­iary Police build­ing. You won’t regret it. And you will become a bet­ter you.

Until next time, please enjoy these recipes.

South­ern Crab Cakes/Dipping Sauce

10 oz. fresh lump crab meat

1-1/2 cups fresh white or sour­dough bread crumbs, divided

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup non­fat or reduced fat may­on­naise, divided

2 tbs.. coarse grain or spicy brown mus­tard, divided

3/4 tsp. hot pep­per sauce, divided

1 egg white, lightly beaten

2 tsp.. olive oil, divided

Lemon wedges

Pre­heat the oven to 200 degrees. Com­bine crab meat, 3/4 cup bread crumbs, and green onions in medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup may­on­naise, 1 tbs.. mus­tard, 1/2 tsp. hot sauce, and egg white; mix well, using 1/4 cup mix­ture per cake, shape eight 1/2-inch thick cakes. Roll crab cakes lightly in remain­ing 3/4 cup bread crumbs.

Heat large non­stick skil­let over medium heat until hot; add 1 tsp. oil. Add 4 crab cakes; cook 4-5 min­utes per side or until golden brown. Trans­fer to serv­ing plat­ter; keep warm in oven. Repeat with remain­ing 1 tsp. oil and crab cakes.

To pre­pare dip­ping sauce: Com­bine remain­ing 1/4 cup may­on­naise, 1 tbs.. mus­tard, and 1/4 tsp. hot pep­per sauce in small bowl; mix well.

Serve warm crab cakes with lemon wedges and dip­ping sauce. Yield: 8 serv­ings. Calo­ries: 81.

Potato Latkes

2/3 cup Egg Beat­ers Healthy Real Egg substitute

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup grated onion

1/4 tsp. black pepper

4 large pota­toes, peeled and shred­ded (about 4 cups)

3 tbsps. Fleischmann’s 70 per­cent corn oil spread, divided

1-1/2 cups sweet­ened applesauce

Fresh chives, for garnish

In large bowl, com­bine Egg Beat­ers, flour, onion, and pep­per; set aside. Pat shred­ded pota­toes dry with paper tow­els. Stir into egg mix­ture. In large non-stick skil­let, over medium-high heat, melt 1-1/2 tbsps. spread. For each pan­cake, spoon about 1/3 cup potato mix­ture into skil­let, spread­ing into a 4-inch cir­cle. Cook for 3 min­utes on each side or until golden; remove and keep warm. Repeat with remain­ing mix­ture, using remain­ing spread as needed to make 12 pan­cakes. Serve hot with apple­sauce. Gar­nish with chives. Makes 4 serv­ings. Calo­ries: 460.

Mocha Cap­puc­cino Pud­ding Cake

Cake:

1-1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsps. unsweet­ened cocoa

1 tbs.. instant espresso powder

1-1/2 tsp.. bak­ing powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup skim milk

2 tbs.. mar­garine or but­ter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

Pud­ding:

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps. unsweet­ened cocoa

1 tsp. instant espresso powder

1-1/2 cups skim milk heated to 120 to 130 degrees

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In medium bowl, com­bine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbs.. cocoa, 1 tbs.. espresso pow­der, bak­ing pow­der, and salt; mix well. Add all remain­ing cake ingre­di­ents; mix until well blended. Spread in ungreased 9-inch square pan.

In small bowl, com­bine all pud­ding ingre­di­ents except milk; mix well. Sprin­kle evenly over cake bat­ter. Pour hot milk over sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 min­utes or until cen­ter is set and firm to the touch. If desired, place foil or cookie sheet on lower oven rack under cake to catch any spills. To serve, spoon cake into dessert dishes. Yield: 9 serv­ings. Calo­ries: 270. Note: You can spoon some whipped top­ping on each serving.

Posted by Kathleen Willbond on Feb 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.