Cooking Fish, Poultry and Veggies En Papillote

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Google 'en papillote'.  This is a wonderful technique of cooking fish, poultry and vegetables in parchment paper and baking until done.  It's fast, easy and quite nutritious!  All you need are some great ingredients, fresh herbs, spices or anything else you like to season with, some parchment paper and you're done!  Placing each dinner guest's papillote on a plate and allowing them to cut through it with a knife to release the steam and wonderful fragrances of the dish will make you the success of the evening!

Apples Can Be More Than Boring

Apples are boring, unless you do something fabulous with them.  Here's a nice recipe for Whole Wheat Apple Muffins that isn't too bad on the calories; while being tasty and satisfying.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
1c all-purpose flour
1c whole wheat flour
1/4c sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1c lowfat milk
1/4oil
1 egg beaten
1c chopped golden delicious apples
1/2 chopped nuts

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and allspice in a large bowl.  Add milk, oil and egg; stir only until ingredients are blended.   Fold in apples and nuts.  Preheat over to 440F.  Grease 12 muffin cups (or you can use PAM) and pour in batter until almost full.  Bake about 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Per Muffin:  157 calories, 4g protein, 6g fat (1g sat), 2g fiber, 24g carbs, 122mg sodium.
Special thanks to Energy Times Nov/Dec 2010

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  If you're looking for something quick, easy, delicious and a bit different from the ordinary breakfast, whip up a dozen of these muffins and treat yourself to something yummy.  Wrap the remaining muffins tightly and individually in saran wrap and freeze for another day!

Love Your Heart - Watch The Sugar

The holidays are approaching, therefore, get ready to be attacked by your relatives, every charity looking for donations, and the holiday goodies everyone decides to bake or buy.  Reuters recently reported on an Italian study that concluded the following:  there was a 25% increased risk of heart attack in women who ate high glycemic index foods (such as white bread, ice cream and foods made with white sugar) compared to women who didn't eat simple sugars.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  eat foods high in fibre.  Be judicious with the goodies.  It's better to have one decent portion of cake or pie than 10 lousy cookies.  Have a slice and enjoy it...then just say 'no' to more.  Heart attacks and other cardiac events are not fun and can ruin not only your party, but put a major damper on the people who are obliged to escort you to the hospital.  When you attend a holiday event, fill yourself first with raw veggies, salads and fruit.  Eat protein with vegetables for your main course.  By the time white potatoes,breads and desserts are served, you'll be fairly full.  A good rule of thumb:  if you have to taste everything at the table, just take a tablespoon of each item.  You'll be full and think of it this way:  that's all you'd get at a 5 star Zagat rated restaurant on a very expensive tasting menu.  It's also good manners to leave enough for everyone else to taste!