That's Fit

Healthy recipe: Apple halibut kabobs

Debra McDuffee — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

It's that time of year ... early Fall, when apples abound, but warm enough that you can still grill without a parka. So what's this all mean to you? Another fabulously delicious recipe to make, which includes apples on your grill: Apple Halibut Kabobs.

Grilling is a healthy coop all to itself because you use so much less fat than you would if pan-frying or even oven roasting. Yes, healthy fats are good for us in moderation, but you'll get those in the halibut -- so grill while you still can.

You want more healthy reasons to make this recipe? How about the loads of vitamin C in the apples and peppers? The onions and thyme lend their own healthy benefits as well.

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5 healthy crock pot meals

Debra McDuffee — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

The days are getting shorter ... and colder! You don't have to resort to canned cream of mushroom soup to prepare a hearty meal in your slow cooker. There are healthy recipes to be had and precious time to be saved.

You can't go wrong with Crock Pot Black Bean Chili -- beans for protein and fiber, peppers for vitamin C, and herbs and spices for all of their numerous health benefits.

Crockpot Chicken Curry is loaded with zesty flavors, from fresh gingerroot and mango chutney to crushed red pepper and cilantro. This one could be -- dare I say it? -- company food. Serve it over brown rice.

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All-in-one breakfast muffin saves you money

Debra McDuffee — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Hey, have you heard about the importance of a good breakfast? OK, I jest, because we all know that a healthy start to our day is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. From helping keep us slim to supplying our bodies with enough energy to tackle our busy day, a good breakfast does it all.

Tough to find time for a good breakfast, sometimes, isn't it? What if you could have a solution for a balanced breakfast that is full of nutrition, easy on the pocketbook (about 50 cents each) and a snap to prepare? If that sounds appealing, then you'll want to try this recipe for all-in-one breakfast muffins.

Loaded with protein like eggs, ham, and cheese, these muffins will stick to your ribs so you won't crave the sugary snacks come mid-morning. Plus, scallions and peppers add veggie nutrients.

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Healthy recipe: Curried tuna, carrot and hummus couscous

Debra McDuffee — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? Curried tuna, carrot and hummus couscous. The mouth waters just thinking about it.

But wait -- there's more. This healthy recipe's got a couple of sources of lean, complete protein: tuna and hummus. Its overflowing with nutrition from veggies too, like carrots, garlic, red pepper, onions and greens (rocket or arugala). And the health benefits of the turmeric in curry are plentiful.

The fun begins, though, when you start imagining all of the ingenious substitutions you could make to boost the nutrition and healthfulness of this recipe. Join me after the jump for some specifics.

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Healthy recipe: Green tomato rice

Debra McDuffee — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Fried green tomatoes, step aside: there's a healthier dish in town. Full of flavor and nutritious goodies, green tomato rice may become the new "in" side dish using the popular unripe fruit.

We don't want the trans fats that frying gives us, and bread crumbs have almost no nutritional value. And we certainly don't want the calories in fried green tomatoes -- 312 calories in just one tomato! Brown rice, on the other hand, supplies B vitamins and fiber, and garlic, thyme and jalepeno all have their heart-smart health benefits.

To get the most from green tomato rice, be sure to use brown rice (and increase the broth slightly) and nitrite-free turkey bacon; then enjoy your new green tomato staple side dish!

Gallery: Green tomato rice ingredients are healthy

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Quinoa and grilled zucchini recipe showdown

Debra McDuffee — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

What? What do you mean I've posted a quinoa and grilled zucchini recipe before? OK, I admit it, I did the deed. But since these two recipes are so radically different, I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of the two recipes; surely you'll choose a favorite.

The new quinoa and grilled zucchini recipe has eggs, pine nuts, goat cheese and a tantalizing yogurt avocado dressing, all providing protein and other nutrients. The original recipe I posted has garbanzo beans as added protein.

Most of the flavor in the original quinoa recipe is provided by curry spices, like cumin, paprika and turmeric. In this new recipe, fresh cilantro dominates for a very different flavor. Both recipes use healthy spices, so we're win-win here.

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Thyme for some healthy recipes

Debra McDuffee — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

When you think about the herb, thyme, what comes to mind? Probably rich, French country dishes, with so many calories and so much fat that it makes your hips bigger just thinking about it!

If you avoid cooking with this fragrant herb, though, you are missing out on thyme's amazing health benefits, like antioxidant power and antibacterial properties. Thyme is such a flavorful herb -- wouldn't it be nice to enjoy it in some healthy dishes?

Remember, you can substitute fresh thyme for dried in almost any recipe (just use a little less) to get more of the beneficial oils in the herb.

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2 fresh tomato sauce recipes

Debra McDuffee — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Vegetarian, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Our CSA Farm has begun to produce an abundance of tomatoes these past few weeks. Aside from eating them like apples, as my three-year-old often chooses to do, you can make fresh tomato salad, salsa, or fresh tomato sauce.

Our very informal uncooked recipe goes something like this:

Chop a bunch of tomatoes and put them in a bowl.
Add enough balsamic vinegar and olive oil to cover them.
Stir fresh minced garlic and chopped fresh basil into the tomato mixture.
Season with seas salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Let marinate at room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving.

This is such a refreshing summer meal when served on pasta with a green salad, or a tasty snack as a bruschetta topping.

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Don't cha knoooow? Chocolate covered bacon is nasty!

Fitz K. — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Womens Health, Healthy Recipes, Celebrities and Entertainment, Healthy Kids, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Reviews & Products, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

Yuck! I just watched a little news bit about Minnesota on Fox News. They were featuring the state as it is hosting the Republican Convention in St. Paul. (That title is meant to be read with an adorable accent.)

Apparently all the folks in Minnesota aren't in "the know" about health. On display in this feature was an obnoxious amount of fried food being carried around on sticks. Mmmmm. Heart disease. Corn dogs, fried chips, fried meat and to top it off, chocolate covered bacon!

Would you ever even consider eating this? It looked pretty fowl to me, though I am fairly particular about what I put in my mouth. I can only imagine some guy sitting in a diner one day thinking, "how could I improve on this strip of pig fat? I know! Let's dip it in chocolate!"

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Fitz's Low Calorie Power Packed Potato Skin Recipe

Fitz K. — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Aging, Healthy Habits, Healthy Home, Womens Health, Healthy Recipes, Celebrities and Entertainment, Healthy Kids, Cellulite, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Reviews & Products, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

I'm so excited to share with you the recipe for my Protein Power Potato. It's something I've been eating several times a week, and it really has served me well. I insist that my food be: low cal, low fat, high fiber, often high in protein and overall nutritious. This Protein Power Potato fills me up, and gives me the energy to get through tough workouts or wild days with my kids. (It keeps me really trim too.)

I've included an option for making this a vegetarian or carnivorous option as well. Since I understand food, and know what I want out of it ... sometimes I just look in my fridge and concoct something that's going to give me what I need. That's how we got this meal. Did I mention this thing is delicious too? Mmmmm. I could eat it every day!

To give it a try, visit the Recipe section available at Fitzness.com, page 42.

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Healthy recipe: Mexican chopped salad

Debra McDuffee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

This weekend, our family went to a Mexican Fiesta party. I gotta say, not only were the food offerings delicious -- and plentiful! -- they were also healthy. From guacamole and veggies to slow-cooked beans with cilantro, there was something to satisfy every taste, and every nutritional need.

My favorite had to be the Mexican chopped salad with honey lime dressing. This salad had greens, chunks and color, color, color. Everything is fresh and the balanced ingredients are oozing nutrition.

Talk about a masterpiece: romaine, black beans, corn, tomato, avocado, jicama, radishes, red pepper, and a delectable dressing, complete with fresh garlic.

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Healthy sandwiches: an easy reality

Debra McDuffee — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:15:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

We've been told that sandwiches may not be the best meal choice. Often slathered in fatty condiments like mayonnaise, or piled with enough servings of salty deli meat, laden with nitrites, to feed your entire family, they just don't seem to make much sense in a health-conscious world.

You don't have to give up eating sandwiches if you want to eat healthily -- really! You can make your sandwich and eat it, too... with a few alterations.

Try sprouted grain bread, like Food for Life's Ezekiel Bread. The live grains make it a better source of protein and more digestible than most breads.
Choose your portions wisely. Your sandwich doesn't have to look like something Joey from Friends would eat; start by using 80% of the fillings you would normally use, and cut down from there depending on your hunger.
Use whole foods inside your sandwich: fresh veggies, naturally raised meats without preservatives (try Applegate Farms) and condiments like guacamole, salsa, mustard, even plain yogurt, in lieu of the mayonnaise.

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Fitz's Cool Tools: LesserEvil Snacks - Kettle Corn and Potato Sticks

Fitz K. — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Aging, Healthy Habits, Healthy Home, Vegetarian, Womens Health, HealthWatch, Healthy Recipes, Healthy Kids, Healthy Products and Reviews, Cellulite, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Reviews & Products, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

Remember how happy we all felt when Lay's introduced Baked Potato Chips? I do. It was a feeling of relief for me. I had given up chips in lieu of a hard fit body. Fair exchange I thought! But then, there was this company telling me that they weren't going to fry all of their chips anymore, and yes ... there would be a healthier version for people like me. Yahoo!

Once again, snack lovers get to rejoice. The LesserEvil brand snack company has created an amazing variety of popcorns and krinkle potato sticks to make just about everyone drool. Most single servings contain about 110 calories of which about 20 come from fat. Not bad!

The Classic Kettle Corn is the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and thank goodness my bag was a single serving. If it weren't, I could have devoured nine! It was better than any of the junky stuff they sell at carnivals for sure! The Black and White Kettle Corn made my children's "movie night" here at home an even more special event. Good news for me ... I didn't feel the slightest bit bad about giving it to them. The Zesty Pizza Krinkle Sticks were odd to my husband and I though. Why? Because we could not figure out how they made them taste exactly like pizza! It was both weird and wonderful at the same time.

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16 ways to make blueberry muffins healthier

Debra McDuffee — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

The blueberry muffin: an eternal favorite, bursting with moist flavor, sabotaging diets everywhere. Your love of blueberry muffins doesn't have to translate to bigger hips; you can have your muffin and your slim figure.

The trick is this: adding more nutritious ingredients while cutting out the excess bad fats and calories. In a past post, Jessica has rehabbed blueberry muffins into a pretty decent healthy breakfast treat. Let's take it several steps further.

Add more nutrition
Blueberries are one of the top antioxidants, but you can add more goodies to your muffins to make them even more nutritious:

sunflower seeds, which also add a nice crunch, about 1/4 cup
lemon peel and/or juice, zest and juice of one lemon
whole oats, about 1/2 cup
chunks of other fruits, like apple, pear or other berries
nuts of your choice, 1/2 cup
ground flax seeds, about 1/4 cup

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Healthy recipe: Chick pea and black bean salad

Debra McDuffee — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Yes, I'm still trying to increase the amount of beans we eat, as I had mentioned when I posted the polenta and butter bean recipe earlier this month. We love beans, don't get me wrong. What we are finding hard is summertime bean dishes.

It's easy in the wintertime to do a one-pot hearty bean stew or something of the sort, but when we crave grilled food, it isn't as easy to serve up beans with no meat.

This recipe for Chick pea and black bean salad is summery enough to steer us away from our grill once in a while (although I'm sure tempted to serve it alongside a medium-rare grass-fed beef burger). It calls for tomatoes, red and green peppers, onions and other bounty we are getting from our CSA Farm share right now, so that makes it a fresh and nutritious choice.

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Healthy recipe: Red pepper and fennel bulb salad

Debra McDuffee — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Crisp, sweet, refreshing... that's how I describe raw fennel bulbs. I love using raw fennel in salads, and paired with red pepper, the crunchy veggie feast is delectable.

What's so healthy about a Red Pepper and Fennel Bulb Salad? First off, it is rich in vitamin C and minerals. Add low calorie, high fiber, and B vitamins to the mix and you're on your way to a Super Food lunch.

This particular recipe also has loads of calcium, from the fennel and sesame seeds. The only dressing is a little soy sauce and vegetable oil (I'd choose extra virgin olive oil, maybe even some flax oil, with a titch of sesame oil for flavor), so you've got no empty calories coming from the dressing.

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Brown rice salads can be kid pleasers, too

Debra McDuffee — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Healthy Recipes, Healthy Kids, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

My little guy loves brown rice salads. He cannot wait to see what "chunks" I have included in my latest recipe. If your kids (or significant others!) are plain rice eaters, why not help them branch out a bit by adding some nutritious "chunks" to their rice.

You may be dealing with picky eaters, so start slowly, adding things you know they'll love. Some pretty safe bets:

corn kernels
sweet peas
steamed carrots
raisins
slivered almonds

Now you've been successful, so push the envelope a bit and try:

chick peas
chopped spinach
zucchini
broccoli
butternut squash

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3 broccoli recipes: easy, cool, and stealthy

Debra McDuffee — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Vegetarian, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Broccoli is so nutritionally awesome, I dare say I am not going out on a limb by declaring broccoli the Supreme Ruler of the Veggieverse. Clearly you all are realizing right about now that I spend far too much time with my super-hero-obsessed son.

Pardon my digression, but I'm right, aren't I? If broccoli can be death-defying, cancer-fighting, calcium-rich and just plain yummy, then why shouldn't we put it on a well-deserved pedestal?

Try putting it on a plate instead -- with these three recipes: one easy, one cool, and one stealthy.

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Healthy recipe: Garden greens with tomatoes and peaches

Debra McDuffee — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Habits, Vegetarian, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Have you jumped on board the "eat local" bandwagon yet? We sure have, and we are loving our CSA Farm for the second season this summer.

One thing I look forward to is getting a variety of salad greens throughout the season: Bibb, Boston, Romaine, and Red Leaf lettuces, and my bitter favorite: arugula.

This easy recipe, Garden Greens with Yellow Tomatoes and Peaches -- and I mean easy! -- combines your favorite greens with arugula, tomatoes and peaches, all in a balsamic shallot dressing.

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The perfect drink

Chris Sparling — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Healthy Aging, Womens Health, HealthWatch, Healthy Recipes, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

A growing body of research suggests that drinking hot tea has numerous health benefits. From reduced risk of heart disease, to improving spatial cognition and mental acuity, tea is a liquid powerhouse for your health.

Most recently, a study published in the International Journal of Cancer revealed that hot tea can lower your risk of kidney cancer by as much as 15 percent. Men's Health magazine suggest trying pu-erh tea, a lesser known kind that is more effective at preventing DNA damage than black or green tea.

Whatever variety of tea you choose, there's a good chance you'll be doing your body a great favor by drinking it. And, as former British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone once said, tea is the perfect drink. In his words, "If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you."

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