Carole Carson

Try Chilled Pumpkin-Carrot Soup on a Warm Day

When it comes to calories, soup is such a bargain that I hate to give it up when temperatures start to climb. But I must admit that a steaming bowl of soup loses its appeal when I feel hot and sticky. Rather than wait until cold weather returns, I developed a repertoire of filling soups that can be served either hot or cold.

My current favorite is Pumpkin-Carrot Soup, a recipe I created after experimenting with different ingredients. This recipe makes 8 to 10 generous servings, so I can easily keep a container or two in the freezer to use

when I’m rushed for time and I can’t figure out what to serve for supper.

Pumpkin-Carrot Soup

2 medium onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon water

1 1/2 pounds carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 1/2 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)

2 15-ounce cans pumpkin

1 1/2 cups white wine

2 14.5-ounce cans chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon sugar or sugar substitute

1 tablespoon lemon pepper

Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil and water in a heavy-bottomed pan until softened. Add carrots and stock. Cook carrots until they are soft. Add pumpkin and wine. Purée the mixture using a blender, food wand or mixer. Add chopped tomatoes, sugar and lemon pepper to the puréed soup. Stir and reheat thoroughly. Serve hot or chilled. For variations, add 1/2 teaspoon of chipotle if you prefer a spicier taste. For a creamier taste, replace the white wine with buttermilk.

I estimate that one cup of soup contains approximately 50 calories. Add a fresh salad and some hearty bread, and your meal is complete. Bon appétit.

Creative Baking To Cut Calories

If you love baking as much as I do, you'll appreciate these tips for cutting calories that I collected from various sources over time. Here are my favorites:

• Reduce sugar in the recipe by one-quarter to one-third. (You won't notice the taste difference.)

• Use unsweetened applesauce or nonfat yogurt in place of oil to reduce calories.

• Add flax seed or wheat germ to increase healthy fats.

• Stick with butter but reduce the amount by half and use egg whites in place of whole eggs.

• Experiment. Make Grandma's apple pie with a low-calorie crumb topping instead of two crusts.

Anyone who's eaten in my home knows that my baked goods have surprising ingredients. Get creative and play in your kitchen! You'll discover wonderful ways to bake for yourself and your family that are healthful and delicious.

 

Photo courtesy of Aneta Blaszczyk

Trivia Question

Meatless Monday is a national public health campaign encouraging individuals to eliminate meat one day of the week. The campaign is designed with a number of goals in mind:

• Improve health. Eating a diet lower in saturated fat, found mainly in meat and high-fat dairy products, helps prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, the four leading causes of death in America.

• Lose weight. By eating meatless meals rather than meat-based meals on Mondays, individuals typically consume fewer calories.

• Help the environment. Consuming vegetable-based meals helps conserve fresh water and better the environment by eating food raised in a sustainable manner. Participating in Meatless Monday also helps reduce, albeit modestly, the harmful environmental impact of cattle farming.
  

Who originated the Meatless Monday campaign?

1. Vegetarians who believe that the healthiest diet is one based on plants

2. The surgeon general, in an attempt to encourage Americans to tackle the expanding problem of obesity by cutting back on calorie-laden meat

3. A religious organization whose members believe that humanity is best served by giving up the practice of eating animals

4. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who encouraged patriotic citizens to forgo eating meat on Mondays to make more food available to troops overseas and to minimize worldwide food shortages

The correct answer is number 4. The tradition began with presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who were trying to conserve food for overseas troops during a time of worldwide food shortages. If you’d like ideas on what to serve for your Meatless Monday, check out some easy-to-prepare recipes here.

On the Road Again? Six Tips for Staying Fit

Although it’s easier today than it was 10 years ago, staying fit while traveling is still a challenge. At home, I don’t keep a small refrigerator stocked with liquor and snacks next to my bed. But my hotel room has one, and the Snickers candy bar calls out my name around ten o’clock each night.

And when I breakfast at home, I am not surrounded by glazed doughnuts or luscious pastries too beautiful to eat. Nor does my evening meal tempt me with two or three of my favorite foods in quantities that even a lumberjack would have trouble polishing off.

Since I prepare most of my food at home, I am aware of the caloric content of my meals. But how do I calculate the calories in a macaroni and cheese casserole where the steamed macaroni is first coated with bread crumbs and then deep-fried?

Since I’m determined to eat healthfully and exercise while traveling, I’ve been forced to develop ways to cope. What I’ve discovered through trial and error is the importance of planning. Here are six strategies that I’ve found useful:

1. Travel: If I am leaving from home, I pack my own lunch and include extra fruit to snack on during the day.

2. Accommodations: I check to see if the hotel has a swimming pool or fitness center, and I pack the appropriate sports clothes and shoes.

3. Meals: At restaurants, I choose seafood or lighter-fare entrées that are prepared simply and without sauce. I ask the waiter to double the vegetables and skip the french fries. If I am eating with someone, I’ll share an order because I know that most restaurants serve twice the amount of food I need.

4. Exercise: I use the time waiting for a flight departure to walk around the terminal. I also check with the hotel staff to learn local (and safe) walking routes nearby. If I’m stuck in meetings all day, I walk during the lunch break. If I’m traveling by car, I stretch and move around at rest stops.

5. Water: After I clear security at the airport, I fill my water bottle so I don’t mistake thirst for hunger.

6. Popcorn: If my hotel room has a microwave, I bring packages of microwaveable popcorn so I can enjoy a healthful snack during the late afternoon hours when my energy declines and my craving for sugar rises.

Traveling is always an adventure. Sometimes everything works out beautifully, and my schedule matches the printed itinerary. Other times weather conditions interfere, flights are canceled and airplanes (and sometimes automobiles) require unexpected repairs. Having a plan for coping, however, minimizes the stress when dealing with the unexpected and keeps me walking straight ahead on my path to fitness.

Foods That Won’t Go to Waist: The Healthiest 11

What’s in your cupboard and refrigerator? Are you regularly preparing and enjoying foods that can reduce your cholesterol along with the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer? Some of these superfoods can help you manage your appetite by stabilizing your blood-sugar level and can even lift your spirit. All of these benefits are critical to those of us seeking to keep our weight in check.

Here are 11 of the 150 healthiest foods, according to Dr. Jonny Bowden, a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition and author of The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What You Should Eat and Why. Dr. Bowden promises us that if we make a place for these foods on our table, we’ll instantly upgrade our health—without a prescription:

1. Beets

2. Cabbage

3. Swiss chard

4. Cinnamon

5. Pomegranate juice

6. Dried plums (otherwise known as prunes)

7. Pumpkin seeds

8. Sardines

9. Turmeric

10.Blueberries (frozen or fresh)

11.Pumpkin (canned or fresh)

How many do you eat regularly? I enjoy 8 of the 11.

I keep canned beets chilled and ready to toss on a green salad. Cabbage makes a great salad, especially when combined with grapes, nuts and a citrus-based dressing. I toss cinnamon on my cereal and add an extra teaspoon to baked goods. Dried plums are great for midafternoon snacks. I keep sardines in the refrigerator for a high-protein, calcium-rich lunch. Turmeric is a wonderful spice to add to any egg dish. I enjoy blueberries many different ways—by themselves, with yogurt or in muffins. Until recently, I used canned pumpkin only to make holiday pies. Now I serve it as a side dish instead of sweet potatoes.

But I’ve missed out on three of Dr. Bowden’s superfoods. So next week, when I go grocery shopping, I’ll add swiss chard, pomegranate juice and pumpkin seeds to my grocery cart.

You can be confident that these 11 superfoods won’t go to waist. As I discovered from my own weight-loss journey, eating for enjoyment and health rather than dieting is the way to successfully achieve and maintain a peak level of fitness.

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet"                    Fran Lebowitch

Got Soup? It’s a Souper Way to Weigh Less

To Size Down, Wise Up—on Serving Sizes

Are you the kind of person who calculates each serving you eat? Do you weigh each ounce of nourishment on a food scale? Most of us aren’t that precise about our eating habits, and perhaps it is just as well. Food is meant not only to nourish our bodies but to be enjoyed.

Still, to manage your weight, you need to have an accurate idea of what constitutes a serving. If you don’t pay attention to the amount of food you eat, you can easily consume 20 to 30 percent more calories each day than you realize. One study, reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that the larger the meal, the greater the underestimation of the total calories consumed—sometimes by as much as 38 percent. Another study estimates 40 percent. These researchers found that the more people eat, the more they underestimate their caloric consumption.

Labeling of food products is helpful, but the federal government requires that the caloric content be within only 20 percent of the actual content. And although New York City’s Board of Health recently introduced regulations requiring restaurants to post the caloric content of the food served, it did not mandate any standards for accuracy. The restaurants are on the honor system.

Making it harder for us to judge serving sizes is the supersizing of portions over the past 20 years. Here are a few dramatic comparisons in calories resulting from the supersizing of portions:

1988 2008 Difference

Cheeseburger 330 590 260

Bagel 140 350 210

Turkey sandwich 320 820 500

French fries 210 610 400

Soft drink 85 250 165

In general, today’s food portions contain over three times as many calories as the portions served 20 ago. We’ve become so accustomed to oversized, calorie-packed versions of our favorite foods that ordinary-sized servings seem woefully skimpy and certainly no match for our appetites. Who, for example, eats the standard serving size— 1/2 cup or 1 scoop—of ice cream? Aren’t we more likely to have 2 or 3 scoops?

Distinguishing between a portion, the amount of food served, and a serving, the measure of caloric and nutritional content, is essential for weight management. If you are not mindful of this distinction, you will underestimate the total calories consumed even though you are diligent in keeping a food journal.

The following list of common foods, along with a few tips, will help you gain perspective on what constitutes one serving:

1 slice bread

1/2 cup cooked grain, such as rice, oatmeal or pasta (about the size of a cupcake wrapper)

3/4 cup cereal

1 medium potato

1/2 cup cooked vegetables (about the size of one tennis ball)

1 cup raw leafy vegetable, such as lettuce

1/2 banana

1 cup melon or fresh berries

3/4 cup fruit juice

1/4 cup dried fruit

1 ounce meat, poultry or fish (3 ounces equals a deck of cards)

1 ounce cheese (equals about 4 dice)

1 egg

1/2 cup beans or tofu

1/3 cup nuts

2 tablespoons nut butter, such as peanut butter

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cottage cheese

2 teaspoons oil, butter, margarine or mayonnaise

2 tablespoons regular salad dressing

4 tablespoons reduced-fat dressing

Until you are familiar with serving sizes of various foods, it’s helpful to use a measuring cup, tablespoon or teaspoon to measure food. This exercise will help you gauge a normal serving size until the serving size looks familiar to you.

Knowing how many calories your body requires and keeping track of your food intake are good foundations for weight management. Accuracy in gauging serving sizes, however, is just as critical. If the numbers on the scale aren’t moving in the right direction, keep this handy guide in your kitchen so that you can quickly identify your serving sizes and make corrections.

"The greatest gift that you can give yourself is a little bit of your own attention."                         Anthony J. D'Angelo

Enlightened Favorites

I’m not about to quit serving our family’s favorite dishes, even though we are trying to manage our weight. None of these dishes are fancy, yet they benefit from tradition. Many were once the signature dishes of my grandmother’s, then my mother’s and now mine. When family members come for a visit, they’d feel cheated if I didn’t serve at least one of these old-time favorites.

But given everyone’s concern about keeping surplus pounds off, I’m challenged to be creative at lowering the calorie count of these standby favorites. Moreover, because I don’t want to spend more time in the kitchen than I have to (I’d rather be playing tennis), my calorie-lowering tricks must be simple and quick.

Here are four favorites:

1. Chili: Nothing satisfies like a bowl of hot, steaming chili on a night when the air outside is nippy. To reduce calories, mix one 12-ounce can chopped tomatoes with every 3 cups of chili. The chili flavor is preserved, and the calories are reduced by about one-third. Combine the chili with hearty bread and sliced fresh fruit for a complete meal. I sometimes triple the recipe so I have cartons of frozen chili in reserve for nights when we need a quick dinner.

2. Pasta with Mushrooms and Prawns in Lemon Chicken Sauce: Combine 2 cups cooked pasta, 2 cups raw prawns and 2 cups chopped mushrooms in a big mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, combine 2 12-ounce cans reduced-fat cream of chicken soup and 2/3 cup lemon juice. The sauce will be thick. Combine the sauce with the pasta-prawn-mushroom mixture and transfer it to a shallow, oiled casserole dish. Bake covered at 350 degrees for about 30 to 35 minutes. Add a salad and supper is ready.

3. Meat Loaf: In an oversized mixing bowl, combine 2 pounds ground turkey and 1 pound lean ground beef. Add 2 cups finely chopped onion (we like lots of onion), 1 cup finely shredded cabbage, 2 tablespoons parsley flakes and 2 cups crushed saltines. To add zip to the meat loaf, add 2/3 cup ketchup and 1/3 cup mustard. Season with salt and pepper according to your taste. If the mixture seems dry, add your favorite low-calorie salad dressing until you get the texture you want. To bind the mixture, add 2 eggs and 3/4 cup egg substitute. If you prefer, you can eliminate whole eggs and use egg substitutes. Usually 1/4 cup egg substitute replaces one egg, but check the product you intend to use for equivalency. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for one hour in a loaf pan.

The same recipe can be used for meatballs. Roll the mixture into 1-to-2-inch balls and bake on a cookie sheet for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. I frequently double this recipe so I can serve meat loaf or meatballs one night and have a second meal ready in the freezer for another time.

4. Crustless Apple Pie: Peel, quarter and thinly slice 3 or 4 Granny Smith apples. Combine apples with 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon flour and 1/2 cup sugar or sugar substitute. Mix and press the apple mixture into a lightly oiled, shallow baking dish (8 inch by 10 inch) and cover lightly with 2 or 3 layers of phyllo dough. Sprinkle sugar or sugar substitute and a little cinnamon on top of the phyllo dough and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. The aroma of baking apples will fill your home. The pie can be served warm or cold with light ice cream or nonfat dairy whipped topping.

When it comes to cooking, I’m no Julia Child, but I am smart enough to figure out that no one in my family is going to give up eating anytime soon. And when my family is hungry, they look to me. Until I hang up my apron, my solution is to find guilt free ways to enjoy our favorites.

If you have clever ways of reducing calories in your family’s favorites, please share them with us.

New Year Resolution: Change your Perspective and Your Proportions

Earlier in our country’s history, when many Americans engaged in farm work or other demanding physical labor, they sat down to meals with plates filled with heaping portions of meat and potatoes. Almost as an afterthought, a cooked vegetable, maybe canned green beans or corn, was added.

Today, this entrenched eating pattern is making us fat and may be increasing our risk of cancer. To live more healthfully, we need to increase our intake of vegetables and grains and reduce our consumption of animal fats. With a little imagination, we can eat better tasting food even as we eat healthier fare.

Here are three ideas from the American Institute for Cancer Research for making the shift to healthier proportions. These ideas and wonderful recipes can be found in their new cook book, The New American Plate Cookbook.

1. Get creative with your vegetable dishes and consume them first. Use exotic mild spice blends like Asian curries to enhance flavors.

2. Prepare two contrasting vegetable dishes for every meal. For example, steamed green broccoli and white cauliflower provide visual contrast. Or try steamed green kale and white beans drizzled in a bit of olive oil.

3. Replace the meat-and-potatoes meal plan with “one-dish” meals where meat is an incidental ingredient. Here’s one: sauté brown rice in a bit of olive oil with spices and onions. Then add water or broth and cook in a large pot. About 10 minutes before the grains are done, add chopped vegetables of your choice. If you to wish to add protein, add a cup or so of chopped cooked chicken or, perhaps for color contrast, 2-3” pieces of salmon.

After a very short time, this new way of cooking will bebe the “norm” for you and your family and guests. NoNo one will miss the heavier meat and potato fare. They will, however, appreciate your thoughtfulness in preparing nutritious, delicious—but not fattening—meals.

Before long, you’ll be sharing your new ways with family and friends, encouraging them to adopt healthier habits as well. Here’s to good eating and even better health!

Fitness Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Do you receive those wonderfully attractive catalogs in the mail for calorie-laden cheese-and-sausage gift baskets? If you’re like me, you’ve sent these gifts in other years, hoping to please the palates of those you care about.

Today, almost all of my friends and family are, like me, conscious of their weight and trying to become more fit. So what can I give my family and friends to encourage healthier eating and exercise habits?

Here are some ideas:

1. The Great American Eat-Right Cookbook ($29.95) by Jeanne Besser and Colleen Doyle, MS, RD. This is one of the best cookbooks I’ve come across lately. Readers get 140 great-tasting, good-for-you, easy-to-prepare recipes. Each main dish, snack and dessert recipe includes a nutritional breakdown per serving of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium and protein. Curried chicken salad, Provencal fish and chocolate-almond biscotti are just a few of the recipes in this multicultural collection. As an added bonus, the purchase benefits the American Cancer Society.

2. Pedometer ($15—$50). This wearable device tells users the number of steps they take each day as they walk or run. It provides an easy way to keep track of one’s exercise. More importantly, it will spur users to reach their daily goal of the recommended 10,000 steps.

3. Heart monitor ($40—$80). This device will help wearers keep their heart rate within the recommended guidelines for their age range while they exercise. It will also help them make sure they reach their recommended aerobic level of exercise.

4. Hand weights ($20—$30) or a weighted vest ($120—$200). By carrying extra weight, users can increase their heart rate and build muscle as they walk, jog, run or even cook or dance.

5. Exercise ball ($10—$30). Your friends can perform exercises and stretches on the floor. But by adding an exercise ball, they can increase the range of their routines; some exercises will help them stabilize their core abdominal strength, which will also improve their balance and coordination.

6. Jump rope ($10—$15). Jump ropes are still in style. A simple 20-minute workout with one of them will get the user’s heart pumping, increase flexibility and build bone mass.
Singing one of those happy playground chants from his or her childhood while jumping will lighten their spirits as well.

7. Mini-trampoline/rebounder ($100). Users can jump with their children or grandchildren. (If they don’t have any, maybe they can borrow some from the neighbors.)

8. Gym membership gift certificate (cost varies). Help someone you love start a new fitness program by doing an online search for local gyms that sell gift certificates. Sometimes folks just need a little financial encouragement to get started.

9. Resistance bands ($20—$30). These bands are small and portable—perfect for helping users maintain their exercise routines while away from home.

10. Yoga mat and/or yoga class gift certificate ($10 and up). Encourage your friends and family to study yoga to increase flexibility, improve circulation and prepare the body for exercise and/or meditation. It’s important to have the guidance of a trained yoga practitioner to ensure success and prevent injury, so search for a well-established yoga studio that sells gift certificates as well as yoga mats.

11. Subscription to a fitness magazine ($10—$20). Here’s reading material that will inspire and educate your friends while they work out.

12. A fresh-fruit gift basket ($25—$50, depending on weight and recipient’s location). Navel or mandarin oranges are high in vitamin C and contain antioxidants. For friends and family who live in colder climates, these are a sweet treat.

And if you can’t think of anything else, you can always give your friends and family a copy of my book, From Fat to Fit. The story of a community of over 1,000 folks who changed their lives by working together has a happy ending, just like this blog!

My best to you during this holiday season.