2010 April | Healthy and Sane

Guest Post: Little Known Ways to Make Healthy Mediterranean Recipes

April 30th, 2010

Hi guys. Adam and I are going to Maine for the weekend. I took a half day at work but I’m still not packed, the house is a mess and I’m a bit stressed out. I’m such a procrastinator sometimes. I think instead of a post from a stressed out Elina, I’ll leave you with this delicious sounding recipe from Felicia. Felicia Mcclinton writes for the healthy mediterranean recipes blog, her personal hobby blog focused on cooking tips to eat like a real Mediterranean and eat healthy to prevent diseases. Enjoy!

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Chops & Peppers

Chops_Peppers

Ingredients

4 pieces large peppers

150 grams of sliced ham

Breadcrumbs

4 tablespoons of flour

2 pieces of eggs

The Chops and Peppers recipe can make 4 servings. You can prepare this in 50 minutes. This recipe is simple and easy to prepare and very inexpensive. You can also use leftover foods in the refrigerator and still get a flavorful meal. Chops and Peppers have low calorie content and less fat.

Preparation

Clean the peppers thoroughly. Leave large slice then roast them. Cool the peppers then stuffed them with sliced ham and cheese. Properly close the peppers. Get a separate bowl and beat the eggs. Soak the stuffed peppers in the beaten eggs then roll each one in breadcrumbs. You can now fry the peppers and serve them hot.

Nutritional Value:

Food	Gr	Kcal	Fat	Carb	Pro	Fib	Water
Green peppers	500	100	0.85	23.2	4.3	8.5	469.45
Ham	150	267	13.53	0	33.93	0	96.81
Bread crumbs	100	395	5.3	71.98	13.35	4.5	6.51
Wheat flour or	40	144.4	0.66	29.01	4.79	0.96	5.34
Hen eggs – whole	40	57.2	3.98	0.31	5.03	0	30.34
Total	830	963.6	24.32	124.5	61.4	13.96	608.45
A head (4)	207.5	240.9	6.08	31.13	15.35	3.49	152.11
Per 100 grams	100	116.1	2.93	15	7.4	1.68	73.31

[Elina] I love how easy this recipe is… and it really does sound delicious. I’m going to need to try it some day. Mediterranean food is one of my favorites!

PS – I don’t know what the access to the internet will be like during the weekend. I’m taking my laptop with me so I’m hoping I’ll be able to stay in touch. Otherwise you can expect a recap post on Sunday night. Have a great weekend!!!!

CEiMB: Southwestern Hash

April 29th, 2010

Morning! I just had a delicious breakfast in honor of CEiMB Thursday. This week’s recipe for southwestern hash was hosted by It’s Melissa’s Kitchen (recipe can be found here).

The choice of this recipe came at the right time. I have a confession: I’ve been bored with my breakfasts lately. I don’t know what it is – they have been delicious, that’s not it. I just wanted something new and exciting. Something completely different from the usual yogurt, english muffin, oats, smoothie, Barney Butter and some kind of fruit combination.

So despite the fact that I’m typically a sweet breakfast kinda girl, I was excited for this recipe. Adam was too.

I meant to prep the ingredients last night but then time got away from me. So I set the alarm for 30 minutes early and got to work. I steamed the potatoes (they retain more nutrients if you steam them instead of boiling them) and then followed the rest of the instructions to the T (except that I of course omitted the onions). In 30 minutes I had breakfast. A delicious and new and exciting breakfast. Success!

Mmm, runny yolk. It really pulled it all together. A little hot sauce over the top brightened up the dish further.

This was flavorful and filling. I have a feeling I should be very satisfied until lunch time.

Are you into a savory or sweet kind of breakfast? What’s your favorite breakfast combo lately?

Misunderstood animal

April 28th, 2010

I learned something new last night while eating chocolate

Bats may be the most misunderstood animal in the United States; however, as consumers of enormous numbers of insects, bats rank among the most beneficial of mammals. Bats are vital to their ecosystems and are also wonderful pest controllers. One small brown bat can catch up to 1,200 mosquitoes in just 1 hour! By helping to control many insect populations that attack farms and garden crops, bats allow us to reduce our dependence on pesticides. While natural predators such as owls, hawks, snakes and raccoons do prey on bats, man seems to be the only animal having significant impact on bat population.

Compassionate action for bats:

provide shelter for bats by erecting a bat house in your backyard
adopt a bat in need
make your backyard a wildlife sanctuary by incorporating native wildflowers, shrubs and trees

This little blurb (and more) was on the back of the package of the endangered species chocolate.

The chocolate was not only educational but delicious. The little cacao nibs inside were great. In fact it was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture of the actual chocolate. I had 4 little squares.

Before chocolate, there was real food…

BREAKFAST

2 Food for Life millet toasts with peanut butter and cherry preserves + a pear & coffee

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Peanut butter choc chip granola bar – mmm

WORKOUT

I took a pilates class during lunch and it was LAME. The was a sub and seriously I didn’t even break a sweat. We “stretched” for like 20 minutes at the beginning (and it’s only a 50 minute class). I guess I need to take it easy anyway if I’m going to fight off this cold but I still couldn’t help but be annoyed at the snail’s pace this woman was leading the class. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

LUNCH

Leftover ma po tofu with steamed broccoli and broccolini

DINNER

Eating Well fettuccine alfredo (recipe can be found here)

I was *this* close to having another meatless day, but threw in some grape tomatoes and bacon in at the end. The bacon really made this dish, I’m not going to lie. Overall the dish was quite creamy and delicious. My only complaint is how calorie dense it is. This was a small portion and I was still hungry after finishing it.

Super charge me cookie to the rescue…