|
|
Home »
Nutrition »
General »
Get Cookin' With Healthy fast food recipies|
|
Cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake. Do those words make you cringe at the thought of
all that fat? Or do they fill you with longing as you wave goodbye to junk food heaven
while boarding the better-health express? Well, for once you can have it both ways:
America’s favorite sandwich dripping with cheese and special sauce—wrapped around a
grilled portobello mushroom, instead of a greasy meat patty. Oven-fried potatoes, glazed
with balsamic vinegar rather than boiled in oil. A shake as rich as any chocoholic could ask
for, with a fat and calcium count that will warm a cardiologist’s heart. So here’s
a menu to prove that a little imagination can make any favorite food tow the line, fat and
calorie-wise.
|
Dinner and Dessert? |
|
Ordering a burger and shake always makes me wonder who thought up the idea of
putting ice cream and meat together. Instead of bucking the trend for health’s
sake, go ahead and have dinner and dessert on the same plate—but take advantage of
all the delicious healthy alternatives in the dairy case. |
|
Menu Nutrition Information:
Menu Per Serving Information:
|
Calories Per Serving |
723 |
|
Fat (gm) |
11.8 |
|
Fat (%) |
15 |
|
Protein (gm) |
32.8 |
|
Protein (%) |
18 |
|
Carbohydrates (gm) |
125.0 |
|
Carbohydrate (%) |
68 |
|
Saturated Fat (gm) |
5.8 |
|
Monounsaturated Fat (gm) |
3.0 |
|
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm) |
1.3 |
|
Sodium (mg) |
682.6 |
Portobello Cheeseburger
|
|
Tip |
|
You can make the special sauce in larger batches and use as a healthy, tangy
sandwich dressing or dip. |
|
When a 17th-century physician referred to a favorite mushroom as beefsteak, he must have
meant the portobello. Meaty and rich, it shines in pastas, salads and appetizers. Enjoy it
here in place of a delicious burger, and if you have a trencherman’s appetite, feel
free to make it a double.
- Vegetable or olive-oil spray
- 4 portobello mushroom caps, about 4 inches in diameter, wiped gently with a moistened
paper towel
- 2 red peppers, halved, with stems, seeds and membranes removed
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon honey mustard
- 1 tablespoon nonfat plain yogurt
- 4 whole-wheat hamburger rolls or equivalent (sliced ciabatta, focaccia, or other
whole-wheat bread)
- 4 ounces low-fat French yogurt cheese, or other favorite reduced-fat hard cheese,
sliced thin
- Sliced raw or grilled red onion
- 8–12 fresh basil leaves
- Coat the mushroom caps and peppers with a light film of vegetable or olive-oil spray.
Dust lightly with salt and pepper. Grill for 10 minutes, turn and coat with vegetable
spray again. Continue cooking for another 8–10 minutes until tender. Remove from the
heat. Lightly toast the buns.
- While the vegetables cook, blend the mayonnaise, mustard, and yogurt in a small bowl
and set aside. This can be made ahead, covered, and refrigerated.
- To assemble, spread a teaspoon of mayonnaise mixture on the mushrooms and another
teaspoon on each bun half. Layer the buns with the peppers, mushrooms, cheese, onion, and
basil. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
(Serves 4)
Menu Nutrition Information:
Menu Per Serving Information:
|
Calories Per Serving |
222 |
|
Fat (gm) |
7.4 |
|
Fat (%) |
29 |
|
Protein (gm) |
13.6 |
|
Protein (%) |
24 |
|
Carbohydrates (gm) |
26.6 |
|
Carbohydrate (%) |
47 |
|
Saturated Fat (gm) |
3.2 |
|
Monounsaturated Fat (gm) |
2.5 |
|
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm) |
1.1 |
|
Sodium (mg) |
327.0 |
Balsamic Oven-Fried Potatoes
|
|
Crispy Tip |
|
For crispy chips, slice very thin and reduce the cooking time. Watch carefully and
remove from the oven as soon as they turn golden. |
|
Robin Williams put the phrase, “Want fries with that?” on the map. Truth is, the
answer for most of us is, “Yes.” Oven fries mimic fried flavor but leave out the
guilt that coats those greasy spuds. And the deeper truth is this: Oven fries taste better.
Use flavor-packed fresh spring potatoes spritzed with your favorite oil and a rich balsamic
glaze for an order of fries any health nut can love. The thickness of the slices and the
variety of potato will determine the exact cooking time. Cook until they are
fork-tender.
|
|
Healthy Pantry |
|
Vegetable spray is the 3–1 oil of the kitchen. In addition to adding a minimum
of fat to a dish, a coating in a measuring cup helps honey slide out easily, while
a quick spritz on your grill makes for easy cleanup. Until now we were stuck with
the relatively tasteless oil served up by the manufacturer. But the future is here
in the form of the home oil pump or sprayer. Make it your next purchase if you don’t
have one. Keep the commercial product on hand for unsticking the barbecue, but
fill your own pump with olive oil. Pumps are inexpensive, easy to use, and they
produce a finer, more easily controlled spray than the supermarket brand. Purchase
two or three and fill with extra virgin olive oil, garlic oil, walnut oil, or your
own favorite to give your dishes a healthy, but flavorful, boost. |
|
- 4 medium red new potatoes, cut in 1/2-inch slices
- Vegetable spray
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, preferably
fig or other flavored balsamic, more if desired
- Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Cover a baking sheet with foil for easy cleanup. Arrange the potato slices on the foil
and coat with a light film of vegetable spray. Brush each side liberally with the balsamic
and season lightly with salt, heavily with pepper.
- Place in the upper third of the oven for 10 minutes. Coat with additional balsamic,
turn the slices and coat again with the balsamic. Continue cooking until the potatoes are
very tender and golden brown. Serve hot.
(Serves 4)
|
|
A Word About Cooking |
|
Broiling and grilling. What’s the difference? Used to be that one was performed
outside and the other under the flame in the bottom of your oven. But with
stove-top grills and electric grills for apartment kitchens, location is no longer
the benchmark. Both cooking methods provide high, direct heat which produces the
desirable, juicy browning effect we all love. However, the coals or chips used in
grilling add a distinctive flavor to food. Broiled foods depend on marinades or
coating to enhance the flavor and the method gives little leeway for controlling
the heat. Quick-cooking recipes for fish and chicken breasts can be prepared on a
grill or under a broiler. However, for longer cooking, such as whole salmon, use a
grill that allows you to move the food away from hot coals as necessary. |
|
Menu Nutrition Information:
Menu Per Serving Information:
|
Calories Per Serving |
98 |
|
Fat (gm) |
0.2 |
|
Fat (%) |
2 |
|
Protein (gm) |
2.8 |
|
Protein (%) |
11 |
|
Carbohydrates (gm) |
20.9 |
|
Carbohydrate (%) |
87 |
|
Saturated Fat (gm) |
0 |
|
Monounsaturated Fat (gm) |
0 |
|
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm) |
0 |
|
Sodium (mg) |
78.3 |
Calcium-Packed Chocolate Coconut Shake
No, this isn’t one of those shakes that will make your eyes bug out if you try to drink
it through a straw. Thick as foam rubber, those concoctions consist of 95 percent whipped
high-fat ice cream, with just a whiff of milk used as sparingly as vermouth in one of James
Bond’s martinis. Our toothsome shake bows to no fast food joint when it comes to deep,
rich flavor and old-fashioned soda fountain satisfaction. The secret is to use chocolate
sorbet over frozen yogurt, ice milk, or even low-fat ice cream. You can double this recipe
to make a shake for two. But for larger groups, make it in batches.
|
|
Blending Tip |
|
Some shake recipes call for adding ice cubes, but I prefer to leave them out. For
my taste, home blenders don’t aerate enough to prevent the crushed ice from turning
the shake watery. |
|
- 1/2 cup nonfat coconut cream pie yogurt (use vanilla or other flavor if you prefer)
- 1/2 cup 1% milk
- 1/2 cup frozen chocolate sorbet
- 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
- 2–3 teaspoons nonfat chocolate syrup
- Place all the ingredients in a blender jar. Blend on high speed for 15–20 seconds
until the shake is thick and creamy.
- Serve immediately in a tall, chilled glass.
(Serves 4)
|
|
Health Notes |
|
Calcium is scarce, the experts tell us, at least in our diets. Emergency room
statistics confirm the news as evidenced by an alarmingly higher rate of broken
bones among the young. The finger points to an increase in the popularity of juice
drinks and soft drinks replacing milk during the growing years. So look for ways to
add dry milk powder to your drinks and shakes, as well as baking recipes. It adds
bulk and richness, but also a necessary shot of calcium. |
|
Menu Nutrition Information:
Menu Per Serving Information:
|
Calories Per Serving |
402 |
|
Fat (gm) |
4.2 |
|
Fat (%) |
9 |
|
Protein (gm) |
16.4 |
|
Protein (%) |
16 |
|
Carbohydrates (gm) |
77.5 |
|
Carbohydrate (%) |
75 |
|
Saturated Fat (gm) |
2.6 |
|
Monounsaturated Fat (gm) |
0.5 |
|
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm) |
0.1 |
|
Sodium (mg) |
287.3 |
|
| More Articles & Tips: |
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Although slow exercise burns a higher percentage of fat compared to carbohydrates, more intense exercise burns more total fat and calories in the same amount of time, leading to greater weight loss.
|
Do High Protein Diets Work?
Is a High Protein Diet the key to weight loss? No Way, it's bad for athletes, and bad for just about eveyone else too.
|
Snacks for Your Training?
|
Look Ma, no Cavities!
|
Electrolytes
|
Food and Mood
What we eat and when we eat it can affect our moods, our minds, and our ability to work productively all day and sleep soundly at night. In turn, moods can affect our appetites and our food selection.
|
Get Cookin: Simple Spinach Lasagna
For a hearty, crowd-pleasing meal in a jiffy, simple recipe for spinach lasagna.
|
From Flintstones to Geritol
Vitamins and minerals are the most common supplements. Here's what you need to know.
|
Healthy Grilling
Tips on how to avoid carcinogens when grilling meat.
|
Premium Produce
An eye-opening comparison of the nutritional value of fresh versus canned or frozen produce.
|
Lose Fat While Sleeping
|
Clif Luna Bars
For an afternoon energy boost, a lift during the last mile of a hike, or a relatively low-cal dessert...
|
Snooze away Calories!
|
Don't Reward Yourself with Calories!
|
Color Me Healthy
A number of foods have been shown to have disease fighting benefits. It makes sense to eat these foods rather than to pop pills.
|
Stay Hydrated with Sports Drinks
|
Don't Skip Breakfast
|
Sports Drinks Beat H2O
|
Perk Up!
Nutritionist discusses the pros, cons and potentially dangerous effects of coffee on physical activity.
|
Get Cookin' With Sole Food
|
|
|
