Post your favorite healthy recipes please...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

We're starting a diet.I just got diagnosed Borderline Diabetic. We're cutting sugar and cutting down on the carbs. We'll be eating more veggies and meats, and cutting potatoes almost entirely from our diet. Please post some really awesome, tasty, easy recipes for us. Thanks!
Duckie

[flvegan]

1. Read this

http://www.parkc.org/vegan_diet_diabetes.htm

Just think about it...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. That sounds great....

But I don't think I could ever give up cheese and eggs.
Duckie

[flvegan]

3. I'm just gonna come out and ask...

why not?

Though, I do certainly understand. Maybe cutting back???

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. Oh, cutting back is on the table...

I'm trying to change my lifestyle. I have to lose 150 pounds. I have started drinking Skim milk and fat free yogart. There are just some things that are hard to give up.
Duckie

[flvegan]

5. I agree.

VERY hard to give up. I'm glad you're cutting back.

150 lbs is a LOT of weight to lose. Do you have a plan?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

7. Tae Bo, Yoga, better eating and portion control...

I'm also really into fruit, and the diet the doctor gave me has bananas, oranges, and strawberries on it. I usually eat a couple bites of sorbet after dinner. It's not fattening and I can eat three bites and put it away. I'm working on it. I have to ease into it too. I'll get there...
Duckie

[lady raven]

16. Hey Duckie!

I'm trying to lose a lot of weight too. I've lost 60 pounds so far and it seems like it's taking forever. I eat lots of fruits and veggies and try to keep my intake of refined carbs and white starches as low as possible.

Doctors around here aren't much help, though.

[qnr]

12. If you drink sodas, I'd recommend Waist Watcher - they have some

great flavors (diet chocolate fudge?) and they use a Splenda/ace-K ... so far, I've really enjoyed all of them except for their ginger ale, the local Shaws diet ginger ale beats it.

http://www.waist-watcher.com/

[radwriter0555]

26. You don't need to, especially if you get out and get active for about a

1/2 hour a day.

Get the metabolism back into an active mode and everything changes.

We eat more eggs and cheese than ever, but it's combined with fresh made veggies, soups, fresh meats, pasta, and I get into the gym 4 days a week for at least a 1/2 hour.

Keep in mind, we typically eat one meal a day. We snack otherwise, but focus on one large meal usually for lunch, with a decent snack at dinner, or something very light and sweet.

My daughter and I have both lost weight by really just cutting back on the number of meals we have.

Toast or muesli & vanilla yoghurt for breakfast with coffee, milk or juice. She has a sandwich, fries or pizza for lunch, I have a quiche or soup, or cheese, tomato, etc. We only keep healthy, fresh snacks. No huge closets filled with processed food, just a small cupboard with staples and the freshest of whatever is available... it works really great.

We trade off on the large meal. If we eat large for lunch, we have no big dinner, but if we're planning a big dinner, we have a very light lunch. It's all a trade off and we get to eat all the great food we really love.

[LeftyMom]

6. Interesting link

I'd never read that before. It's interesting to me that study participants reported less need for athsma meds. I went from needing my inhaler daily to being on no meds at all when I cut animal products out of my diet but doctors always look at me as if I've sprouted a second head when I tell them that. I figured maybe it was an undisgnosed dairy allergy (I have a few other symptoms that suggest that) but maybe it's a more common thing than I thought?

[lakemonster11]

8. This is a healthy recipe of mine (I made it up when I was on a diet)

2 small whole-wheat tortillas (as low-cal as you can find)
1/2 can fat-free or vegetarian refried beans
1/4 cup chopped onions
as much tomato salsa as you want (nothing with corn or anything)
a small sprinkling of mozzarella cheese

Spoon half of the refried beans onto each of the tortillas, cover with onions, salsa, and sprinkle with cheese. Roll into burritos. Microwave until hot.

Made with Larry's Market brand whole-wheat tortillas (which are the best I've been able to find---they're significantly lower in calories than any other brand I've found), the two burritos together end up being less than 300 calories. And they're filling. Since it's so easy and fast, if you keep the ingredients around, you have no excuse for breaking your diet.


Here's another quick snack idea:

Take a piece of whole-wheat sandwich bread, spoon a little bit of pizza sauce onto it, cover with the vegetable toppings of your choice (I use onions, bell peppers, and greek olives), sprinkle a very small amount of mozzarella cheese on top, and cook in the oven until the cheese starts to brown.

Two of these pizzas also come out to just under 300 calories.


Another thing to keep in mind is that you're going to be hungry after you work out, especially if you use weights (which I highly recommend---muscle tissue requires a lot of calories to maintain, so if you increase your muscle mass, you will burn more calories even when you're sleeping). Eat something with protein as soon as you feel that first pang of after-workout hunger. I recommend a piece of wheat bread with a reasonable amount of peanut-butter or a banana and a cup of non-fat yogurt. If you're on-the-go, a Luna bar is a great option---they have about 10 grams of protein and only 180 calories. The main thing to know is that the after-workout hunger is almost always a protein craving. If you give your body a bit of protein, you won't be hungry anymore, and you will have prevented yourself from overeating.

Good luck!

[Arugula Latte]

9. I'm really into beans & legumes.

I think they are wonderful, tasty, high-fiber, versatile, protein-laden foods. (Yes they can make you toot -- oh well!)

I make the following concoction a lot, and it varies each time. I chop the veggies so they're about the same (small) size.

Mix together:

One or two cans of drained black-eyes peas
chopped celery
chopped red peppers
chopped scallions and/or chopped red onion
chopped parsley and/or chopped cilantro and/or chopped basil
very finely minced garlic to taste
dollops of olive oil
dollops of vinegar (balsamic, red wine, whatever)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

The more it marinates together, the better it tastes. You could also ad chopped carrots or whatever else you want to throw in there.

Good luck with the weight loss!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. Beans make me sick...

Psychosomatic reaction to childhood torture. :shrug:
Duckie

[Arugula Latte]

14. All beans?

'cuz there is a lot of variety.

That's too bad.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

18. Refried beans are good...

And I like Bean Dip, but other than that...Yeah, I won't eat them.
Duckie

[qnr]

13. They're wonderful. Too bad they have so many carbs :/

Sounds delicious.

[radwriter0555]

21. Carbs aren't the culprit. I eat a whole baguette every day, and I've lost

12 lbs since I started doing that a few months ago.

I also eat pasta several days per week... but we do eat lots of veggies and fruit. We don't drink diet soda, but lots of whole milk and plenty of water.

[qnr]

28. Not strictly a weight matter, just the initial 'getting down to the less

than 140 mg/dL level" and staying there. My A1c was greater than 14, I was a bad boy :)

[meti57b]

10. mushroom-spaghetti

slice and cook fresh mushrooms (not canned),

add a little bit of whole wheat flour to thicken the juice that cooked out of the mushrooms.

chop up Roma tomatoes, add to the mushrooms and thickened juice.

add some peas or other veggies

cook some whole wheat spaghetti

combine spaghetti and mushroom-tomato/veggie mix, but use more mushroom-tomato mix than spaghetti.

add salt or other seasonings.

[DemoTex]

23. My mushroom pasta sauce (from The James Beard Cookbook)

1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt & pepper
Lemon juice

Slice the mushrooms thin and saute them in the hot oil until soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

If you must have some meat flavor, add some tiny slivers of Prosciutto Parma or Westphalian ham (to taste). If you use the ham, don't add the salt until you taste the sauce with the ham in it.

[MidwestMomma]

15. Whole wheat tortilla wraps are good

Get whole wheat tortillas or the low carb tortillas...Mission has really good low carb ones. Buy some good salad mix...something with field greens or other dark leafy lettuce, add chicken or steak, some cheese and a tasty salad dressing.

On salad dressing...you're better off using the regular than the low fat as normally the low fat has less fat but more sugar.

You can add any veggies you like to these. Peppers or mushrooms. It's basically a salad in a roll up but you get a little bit of carbs with your veggies.

Also, you can cut up squash and zucchini and mushrooms and toss in olive oil and salt and pepper and roast in the oven. Asparagus is also yummy if you toss in olive oil and salt and pepper and roast in the oven. (Basically, any vegetable tossed in olive oil and salt and peppered and roasted in the oven is good I think.)

I know the olive oil is fat but I figure using it on veggies balances it out. :)

I also really like taking frozen vegetables and instead of microwaving or boiling, I like to stir fry them in some sesame oil. They're a little crisper that way and I like the nutty taste of the oil.

(Man, I never realized how much I like to combine oil and veggies. Maybe my ideas aren't that great...)

Anyway, best of luck. Sounds like you are ready to make a change which is most of the battle.

[AlCzervik]

17. i have one for you

you know boca burgers right? Well they have boca burger crumbles which is basically a sub for ground beef, each box has 4 pouches or crumbles, each pouch has 2 servings or in my case 1 serving.

OK this is for chili--no beans.

1 pouch of crumbles
1 small can of rot-el tomatoes or any Brand of spicy tomatoes you like
1/3 of a packet of chili seasoning or to taste
low fat mexican blend cheese--not no fat, no fat sucks and doesn't melt well
hot sauce if you like--i like.

heat up the crumbles in a small skillet over medium heat and then add the tomatoes and chili seasoning until heated through, add cheese and hot sauce to taste.

I swear by this recipe, i've eaten this at twice a week for the past 7 months. I know where you are and you can do it, i'm 62 pounds so far with about 10 more to go and it's been mostly cutting the bad carbs, my whole life has been about bad carbs so unhealthy eating i know. Also try low-carb tortillas, they are a real life saver but watch the fiber content, some are very high and i won't get into it but trust me on this one.

[AngryAmish]

19. Bacon sandwich

Fry bacon
Put bacon on bread
Pour bacon grease on top of bread and bacon.
Mayo on top.

[radwriter0555]

20. A ball of fresh mozzerella, a tomato, a few leaves of curly lettuce sliced

up, drizzled with a nice balsamic vinegar and some good olive oil, sprinkled gently with light salt and a few grinds of pepper... a piece of bread, makes the perfect lunch or light dinner.

It's VERY filling and wonderfully well balanced.

[Arugula Latte]

22. Oh Yum.

That's one of my favorite things to eat in the world.

You can't beat that fresh mozzerella and tomato combo. BUT, it's imperative to toss it with fresh basil. You must!

I sometimes add small chunks of avocado to the mixture, as well.

[radwriter0555]

25. Basil is lovely, indeed, but is best in the summer. With top quality

cheese and oil and balsamic, they really just compliment each other nicely. We had it this evening with a spaghetti carbonara... The mozzerella was actually an amazing concoction of cream rolled with the cheese, that this old guy in italy makes; he sells it at the Thursday market on the beach just up from Menton, across the border from us, in heaven on earth, here on the french riviera.

I made the carbonara with a ricotta cheese he also made, that was just simply amazing, sweet enough to make you weep.

I think I'm going back next week to pick up 3 lbs of the ricotta to make a ricotta cheesecake swirled with chestnut puree... doesn't that sound AMAZING?

[Arugula Latte]

27. Mmmmmmm!

You there in Europe surely know how to eat! :toast:

[DemoTex]

24. My spinach invention from last night.

Fresh, washed spinach
Pepper
Ginger
Soy sauce (I prefer "Lite")
Canola oil
Toasted sesame oil
Rice vinegar (optional)

Put the freshly-washed spinach in a mixing bowl. Drizzle a little toasted sesame oil and soy sauce over spinach. Pepper to taste. Toss like a salad and set aside for a few minutes.

Put a couple of tablespoons each of toasted sesame oil and canola oil in a wok. Heat and add several pieces of thinly sliced ginger root. Stir fry the ginger for three or four minutes to flavor the oil. Remove and discard the ginger root. Add the spinach to the hot wok and stir fry for about three minutes.

Serve the spinach hot as a side dish. A little rice vinegar on the hot spinach is soooo goood!

My guess is that this spinach recipe would be very good on a pasta, too.


Fresh spinach, begging for a good woking.