Healthy Turkey Chili for Athletes

November 7, 2007

 

I stole this from an Article in Olympic Coach Magazine (the same one I referenced below)

I quote it in full:

Turkey Chili
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 Tbs Olive oil
16 oz Ground turkey (93% lean)
2 Tbs Garlic, minced
1 cup Diced onion
1 cup Diced bell pepper
1-12 oz Dark Beer or Broth
2-14oz cans Diced Tomatoes
1 can Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Celery Soup
1 can Low Sodium Black Beans
2 cups Frozen, shelled edamame
MRS DASH Southwest Chipotle Spice to taste

Preparation:

  1. In a large sauce pan, sauté ground turkey in olive oil until brown. Add MRS DASH spice blend and garlic and cook for 3 minutes.
  2. Add onions and peppers and cook until onions are soft (approx 5 min).
  3. Add dark beer or broth and simmer until 75% reduced.
  4. Add canned tomatoes, beans, and cream of celery soup. Stir well, cover, and simmer over low heat for 30-45 minutes.
  5. Add frozen edamame, cover, and simmer an additional 10 minutes.
  6. Feel free to spice it up at this point with your favorite hot sauce.

**Get creative and add more of your favorite vegetables like frozen corn, zucchini, mushrooms, and even jalapenos!

Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 420; Total fat: 16g Saturated fat: 4g; Protein: 29g; Carbohydrates: 36g; Fiber: 9g; Sodium: 570mg

Kitchen Tips:

  1. Ground turkey may have the same total fat as ground meat; but it is lower in saturated fat than lean ground beef!!!
  2. MRS DASH spice blends are a great way to season food without increasing the sodium. The blends are perfectly balanced and much more affordable than buying individual spices and blending them yourself!!!

Created by: Adam Korzun, MS, RD, LDN

Avocado Rice
Serves 6

Ingredients:
4 servings Instant Brown Rice
½ tsp Ground cumin
2 Tbs Scallions, chopped
1 ea Avocado, diced

Preparation:

  1. Follow the package instructions for 4 servings of rice.
  2. Cook according to package details.
  3. When cooked, add in cumin, scallions and diced avocado.
  4. Stir until well incorporated.

Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 165; Total fat: 5g Saturated fat: 1g; Protein: 3g; Carbohydrates: 27g; Fiber: 3g; Sodium: 50mg

Kitchen Tips:

  1. Brown rice has only its husk removed during milling, so it is richer in fiber, trace minerals, and those important B vitamins than more processed white rice.
  2. Instant Brown Rice has all of the benefits of traditional brown rice, but it cooks in one third of the time!

Created by: Adam Korzun, MS, RD, LDN

1 Comment | Fat Loss, Health, Nutrition, Recipes, Women's Health | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by saij

Goulash: Hungarian Health Food

March 8, 2007

Hungarian Goulash is a wonderful food, it tastes fantastic, and it also makes a great diet food.   Just leave out the traditionally accompanying carbs (dumplings, Bread, etc).

Here’s a Recipe I found for Hungarian Goulash:

Fiakergulasch (Beef goulash)*
(serves 4)

1 kg beef rump joint **
1 kg white onions
100 ml vegetable oil
4 tbsp tomato purée
6 tbsp smoked paprika powder (hot or mild, or a mix of the two)
500 ml water
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
salt, ground caraway seeds, marjoram, pepper
cider vinegar

To serve:
4 Wiener sausages (frankfurters)
4 large gherkins in vinegar
4 eggs
boiled potatoes or bread dumplings***

Trim the meat and cut into 3-4 cm cubes. Finely dice the onions and fry off in the vegetable oil, until browning and fragrant.
Add the paprika and stir in thoroughly. Deglaze with a generous dash of vinegar, before adding the water. Add the meat, garlic, tomato purée and season well. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer over a very low heat for at least 2 hours. You can do this in a pot on the stove or a casserole dish in your oven. Add water as required.
The end result you’re looking for is very tender meat that you can gently ease apart with a fork and a sauce that is thick and very dark in its colour. You will also notice tiny puddles of deeply red oil forming on the surface.
If your goulash is too spicy, you can add some sour cream to it, do this just before serving and don’t reheat after adding it, or it might curdle. If the sauce is too runny, thicken with some cornflour dissolved in a little water or use thickening granules.

This can be prepared up to three days in advance.

Cut 5 cm long incisions into the sausage ends, cutting all the way through to achieve 4 equal segments. (They need to stay attached to the body, though!). Fry or oven-bake until the sausages are browning and the ends are curling up.
Meanwhile, cut the gherkins fan-stile: cut in half lengthwise, then, keeping the one end intact, cut  the remaining body into thin slivers to create the impression of a fan.
Fry the eggs sunny-side up.

Serve the goulash with all the accompaniments, fried egg on top.

* Recipe based on Plachutta’s Rindsgulasch, “Die Gute Küche”, p. 294
** the traditional cut for this is from a hind leg

Comments Off | Recipes | Permalink
Posted by saij

Mango and Chicken Stir Fry

February 16, 2007

Mango and Chicken Stir Fry

Here’s a rockin recipe for a Mango and Chicken Stir Fry, from Food Network chef Ming Tsai.

INGREDIENTS

● 2 pounds boneless, skinless
chicken thighs, cut into
1-inch pieces
● 1 tablespoon sesame oil
● 1 tablespoon cornstarch
● 1 tablespoon naturally
brewed soy sauce
● 1 pound snap peas,
blanched in salted water,
refreshed in ice water
and drained
● 2 cups Spicy Mango Salsa*
½ cup reserved for garnish
● 4 cups cooked white rice

1 In a large bowl, mix chicken with sesame oil, cornstarch
and naturally brewed soy sauce and let stand for 10 minutes.
2 Heat a wok or heavy saute pan over high heat. Add oil,
add chicken and stir-fry until just cooked through, about
6-8 minutes.

3 Add snap peas and Spicy Mango Salsa. Season with salt
and pepper and check for fl avor.

4 Servings with white rice.

No Comments » | Fat Loss, Health, Recipes | Permalink
Posted by saij

Lose weight the Sumo Way, with Chanko Nabe

February 2, 2007

Sumo_restaurant

What did I just say? I said, lose weight the sumo way. Sounds crazy I know, but in reality, it isn’t. Sumo may be known for their shear size and bulging bellies, but the food they eat is actually amazingly healthy.

Their diet is based around lean meat, fish, vegetables, tea, and rice. Not bad, eh? The fact of the matter, is that most young Sumo aren’t fat at all. They only become that way through eating an excess amount of calories over the course of a number of years. But, if they ate what they ate in normal portion sizes, they’d never get big. The food is just too healthy.

Sumo don’t eat deep fried twinkies, hoho’s, potato chips, cotton candy, corn dogs, nacho’s with all that fake cheese, or any other kind of fair ground food.

So what do they eat?

Chanko Nabe

Chanko Nabe Sumo Stew

Chanko Nabe is a large soup or stew filled with all the FORMER ingredients (certainly not the latter ones, ick!). And is often made in a base of both white and red miso. It’s relatively easy to make, and packs a big punch of protein and vegetables. Eaten by itself, it is the perfect diet food. If you need more carbs (trying to bulk up), you can add in rice.

And it is infinately variable depending upon what you decide to put into the pot.

Here’s one from Banzuke:

Sumo_pork_nabe

Chanko-Nabe Miso-Aji (Sumo-Style Pork and Miso Hot Pot)
SERVES 4

This is the recipe used by junior wrestler Kotofubuki at the Sadogatake sumo stable, just outside Tokyo. Like other nabes, this one may be cooked in the kitchen at home and served at the table.

2 1/2 tsp. instant dashi flakes
1 lb. thinly sliced pork belly
3 tbsp. sake
2 tbsp. mirin (sweet rice wine)
3 tbsp. red miso
3 tbsp. white miso
1 medium carrot, trimmed, peeled, sliced crosswise on the bias, and blanched
2″ piece daikon, peeled, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise, and blanched
1 medium waxy potato, peeled, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise and blanched
1 medium yellow onion, peeled, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise, and blanched
10 oz. firm tofu, Cut into 2″ cubes
8 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps halved
2 oz. enoki mushrooms, trimmed
1 2.8-oz. package abura-age (deep-fried tofu), cut into 1 1/2″ pieces
1/4 head napa cabbage, cored and cut into large pieces
16 bunch nira (flat Chinese chives)
4 cups steamed Japanese short-grain rice or 1 lb. udon noodles (optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten (optional)

1. Bring 10 cups cold water to a boil in a wide medium pot over high heat. Add dashi flakes, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring until flakes completely dissolve, about 1 minute. Add pork, sake, and mirin to dashi and simmer, skimming any foam that rises to surface, until pork is tender, 15-30 minutes. Dissolve red and white misos in 1 cup broth from pot in a small bowl, then stir back into pot.

2. At the table, set pot of pork with broth on a portable stove in center of table and bring to a simmer over medium heat (you could just do this on your home stove, of course). Add carrots, daikon, potatoes, onions, firm tofu, mushrooms, fried tofu, cabbage, and chives, in that order, and simmer until vegetables are just soft, about 5 minutes. The hot pot is now ready to be eaten “self-serve” style in medium bowls.

3. Once all the pork, vegetables, and tofu have been eaten, use a small sieve to pick out scraps. Bring remaining broth in pot back to a simmer, then add rice or noodles, if using, and stir in eggs, if using. Simmer until broth is absorbed by rice, about 5 minutes, or until noodles are cooked through, 6-8 minutes. Divide between bowls.

2 Comments | Fat Loss, Health, Recipes, Sumo | Permalink
Posted by saij

Sloppy Turkey Christmas

December 23, 2006


Most of the time, Turkey is dry, and absolutely worthless without that gravy. Now, don’t get me wrong … I love gravy. But, I’d like it if my Turkey tasted as Juicy as it always looks on TV.
Turkey is a great meat. It’s lean and just a versatile as chicken. I’m surprised people don’t eat it during other parts of the year.

Well, I’m here to tell you that Turkey doesn’t have to be bland. And this way, you won’t have to slather it with so much of that high fat gravy.

I’m talkin’ about a Brine. It ain’t a 30-minute meal, but it’ll be worth it, I promise. (I adapted this recipe from Alton Brown … that brother knows food).

A brine is basically a solution of water, salt, and possibly sugar and spices that you drown your bird in. The water on the outside of the bird has a large amount of sodium (salt) in it. The bird itself doesn’t. When the bird has been sitting in the solution for long enough, the salt, and along with it, the other spices and sugar move down the sodium’s concentration gradient into the Turkey’s meat.

And voila! Flavor.

Here’s the basics.

take
~1 gallon of water (or better, 1 gallon of Vegetable Stock)
1 cup of Kosher Salt (or sea salt … don’t use Iodized)

1/2 cup brown sugar

and then add in some spices, example:

1 Tbsp black pepper corns

1/2 Tbsp alspice berries

1/2 Tbsp candied ginger

(you can try all kinds of flavors … so long as the salt and sugar are right, you can experiment with the rest).

Take all of the above and place in a large pot. Boil. Stir to dissolve solids. Remove from heat, and let cool. Refrigerate overnight. There’s your brine.

Next day:

Place Turkey into a 5-gallon Bucket (sterile of course)

Combine Brine and 1 gallon of iced water and pour over Turkey

Store either in the fridge (if by some miracle you have the space) or in the Garage or some other cold place. (Hint: A cooler works great. Set 5 gallon bucket in the cooler, fill rest of the cooler with ice. Bingo bango … instant Fridge)

Let sit for 5 hours.

Take the Bird out, and let drip dry for a bit. Paper towel dry the rest.

Set Turkey into Roasting pan.

Preheat Oven to 500 degrees

Meanwhile, cut up

-1/2 onion

-1 apple

-a few sprigs of Rosemary

-a few Sage leaves

-and some parsley

stuff them into the cavity along with

-1 Cinnamon stick

cover Turkey liberally with Smart Balance Oil

Here’s what Alton says to do next:

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven,

reducing temperature to 350 degrees F.

Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting.

Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

And there you have it. Good for you, tasty, yummi-ness.

No Comments » | Nutrition, Recipes | Permalink
Posted by saij

More Cheesecake for the Holidays

December 20, 2006

We all Need more cheesecake. Here’s one from the net.

Ingredients:

    Basic Cheesecake:
    8 oz 97% fat free ricotta (296 cals, 8g carbs, 21.5g protein, 5.5g fat)
    16 oz creamed cottage cheese (477 cals, 4g carbs, 87.5g protein, 12g fat)
    9 egg whites (108 cals, 28g protein)    Then, you decide what flavor you want. For example:

    Black Forest:
    7-8 oz fat-free, sugar free yoghurt (80 cals, 11g carbs, 8.5g protein, 0.2g fat)
    50g chocolate protein powder (192 cal, 7.4g carbs, 35.8g protein, 2.2g fat)
    50g chopped cherries (28 cals, 7g carbs)
    1 tsp rosewater
    1 tsp chocolate essence

OR

    Blueberry Vanilla:
    8 oz blueberry yoghurt (80 cals, 11g carbs, 8.5g protein, 0.2g fat)
    50g Vanilla protein powder (192 cal, 7.4g carbs, 35.8g protein, 2.2g fat)
    50g blueberries (28cal, 7g carbs)
    1 tsp vanilla extract (5 cals, 1g carb)
    1 tsp rosewater

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to about 200 degree Celsius and line a round baking tin/pan/dish with paper.
  2. Beat together the yogurt, cheeses, powder and flavorings. Whip the egg whites and fold it through the mix with the fruit then pour into your baking tin/dish/pan.
  3. Put in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes then turn down to 160 for another 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and let it sit in the heat for another 30 minutes then take it out and put it in the freezer.

Nutrition Facts:

    Roughly:
    Calories - 1200
    Carbs - 37
    Protein - 181
    Fats - 20

And serves 8 with:

    150 cals, 4.7g carbs, 22g protein, 2.5g fat

     

    4 Comments | Recipes | Permalink
    Posted by saij

    Cheese Cake … it’s good for you!

    December 20, 2006

    Well, not traditionally.  But here is a recipe from “Breaking the Vicious Cycle“ by Elaine Gottschall, that is not only tasty, but won’t have you crying cause your waist is growin’.

    Ingredients:

      2 cups dry curd pressed cottage cheese (fat percentage optional)
      3 eggs
      1/2 cup yogurt (any percentage of fat)
      1/3 cup honey
      1 tsp. grated lemon peel
      1-2 tsp. vanilla

    Ingredients:

    1. Preheat oven to 350.
    2. Combine ingredients and process until satin smooth.
    3. Pour into loaf pan and bake 30 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.
    4. Cool and refrigerate for several hours.
    5. Top with fresh or cooked drained berries or fruit of choice.

    Nutrition Facts:

      Serves 8.
      148 calories per serving
      12.65 g of protein
      20.5 g of carbs
      2.5 g of fat

    No Comments » | Recipes | Permalink
    Posted by saij