Sweet Potato and Parmesan Bake
Only $0.45 per serving when buying ingredients at Walmart

SWEET POTATO AND PARMESAN BAKE

Makes 6 servings (approximately 2/3 cup each)

Ingredients

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-1/2 inch chunks

2 tablespoons fat free milk

1 tablespoon light buttery spread

1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dry

2 tablespoons Great Value Finely Shredded Parmesan Blend

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Place potatoes in large pot of water to cover and bring to boil; cook potatoes until very tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Drain and return to pot; add milk, buttery spread and thyme and stir with a wooden spoon or potato masher until smooth. Transfer potato mixture to a 1-1/2 quart baking dish and sprinkle with cheese.

Cover and bake in center of preheated oven 15 minutes; uncover and bake 5 to 10 minutes longer until cheese is melted and potatoes are bubbly.

Disclosure: Walmart is a client. I am paid for my time but not my opinions.

A baseball portion
Rice or Pasta = 1 cup

You have heard it before…the key to weight loss is through portion control. This is true. I have seen it over the last 17 years with my own clients. But what is a proper portion size? As consumers, you must be well informed and take responsibility for the portions you eat.

Portioning out servings to the appropriate sizes allows you to better manage your weight by limiting your calorie intake of certain foods and boosting your intake of nutrient rich, low calorie foods.

Fortunately, many food companies and restaurants are now offering more portion-controlled options to help you achieve your portion control goals such as Skinny Cow Mini Fudge Pops or my client, Grimmway Farms, Carrot Dippers. Another good way to control your portions is to eyeball your food in terms of sizes you know.

Planning meals in advance helps you control portions by choosing the amount you prepare. If eating at a restaurant, check the menu online beforehand to identify the smart choices. Make it a habit to eat sitting down, from one plate, while chewing slowly, to savor your food and make the most of the portions you have given yourself.

Some good ways to “eyeball” your food portions…

•Baseball= 1 cup of pasta or rice

•Deck of cards/ palm of your hand= 3 oz meat, poultry, or fish

•Golf ball= 2 tablespoons peanut butter

•4 dice= 1 oz of cheese

•Small postage stamp= 1 teaspoon butter

•Computer mouse= ½ cup cooked beans or frozen yogurt

In my work as a registered dietitian, I have seen that many people overindulge in the rice and pasta department. I often aim to get my clients to limit their portion to a baseball-sized portion at mealtime. This works especially well for my work with the Kansas City Royals baseball players since they know the size of a baseball very well! Check out my previous articles on 5 Ways to Curb Overindulging, 100 Calories In/100 Calories Out, and Do You Know Your Calorie Budget?

Other easy ways to reduce portions: share an appetizer and entree, buy smaller plates at home, and ALWAYS stop eating when you are satisfied. Remember the key to a balanced and satisfying diet is portion control.

Don’t forget that you also want to make sure you are burning calories with exercise. This will help you to achieve and maintain your body weight goals and offers many additional health benefits such as boosting lean muscle mass and improving bone health.

Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas:
Only 27 cents per serving with ingredients purchased at Walmart.

Ingredients

Makes four servings.

Disclosure: I work with the folks at Walmart.

Walmart’s New “Great For You” Icon

I’ve recently been given a very unique opportunity to help millions of Americans eat healthier foods at affordable prices and I’m very excited to share the news with all of you.

Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, launched a five-year healthy foods initiative in 2011. Walmart committed to helping American families put healthy, affordable food on the dinner table each night. Their commitment is grounded in the idea that no family should ever have to choose between food that is healthier for them and food they can afford.

The program builds on the success of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. Mrs. Obama has applauded Walmart’s commitment and recently visited a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri to celebrate the retailer’s progress in making food healthier, more affordable and available to consumers across the country.

During the first two years of Walmart’s commitment, the company has made it easier for customers to create healthier diets which ultimately helps them to live better lives.

Walmart’s healthier foods initiative has five key elements which include:

1. Improving the nutritional quality of Walmart’s Great Value brand and national brands by reducing sodium by 25%, added sugars by 10% and removing all industrially produced trans fats by the end of 2015.

Progress:

• Reduced sugars by more than 10% in items including dairy, sauces and fruit drinks.
• Reduced sodium by 9 percent in items including grain products, luncheon meats, and salad dressing. Partnering with the suppliers, Walmart has decreased sodium in the bread aisle by 13% by helping to eliminate more than 1.5 pounds of salt from the diets of Walmart shoppers, or 35 tractor trailer loads.
• The number of products containing industrially produced trans fats fell by 50%! Less than 10 percent of food and beverages sold at Walmart in 2011 contained industrially produced trans fats.

2. Create a front-of-package icon to help consumers easily and quickly identify healthier food options, such as whole grain cereal, whole wheat pasta, leans cuts of meat and low-fat milk.

Progress:

• Created Walmart’s “Great For You” icon which will appear on more than 1,300 Great Value and Marketside food and beverages in Walmart U.S. Stores.
• Evaluated more than 4,000 private brand products against the “Great For You” nutrition criteria with about 32% of fresh produce, meat and packaged items receiving the icon. Soon, the icon will be available to national brand products that meet the “Great For You” criteria and qualify for the icon.
• Developed rigorous nutrition criteria to back the “Great For You” icon using the latest nutrition science and authoritative guidance.

3. Save customers at least $1 billion a year on healthier food.

Progress:

• Walmart customers saved $1.2 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables in 2012.
• Combined with the $1.1 billion in savings in 2011, customers have saved $2.3 billion during the first two years of the program.

4. Increase Americans’ access to fresh, healthier and affordable food by opening between 275 and 300 new stores in urban and rural food desserts by the end of 2016.

Progress:

• Opened 86 new stores serving food deserts since 2011 to help serve customers in rural and urban areas.
• More than 264,000 people now have more options for fresh, healthier groceries.

5. Help all Americans better understand nutrition and healthier eating options by increasing charitable support for nutrition programs.

Progress:

• Since, 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have provided more than $26 million in grants to nutrition education. 

Wow! I am super impressed by the progress Walmart has already made within the first two years of their pledge. Since Walmart sells more groceries than any other company in the US, as a nutrition expert, I feel confident this will help Americans eat healthier and positively impact the health of these families.

I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to partner with Walmart by helping customers learn exactly how they can eat delicious and nutritious foods at affordable prices. Walmart has already done a lot of the work, I will get to show you how you can use “Great For You” products by sharing simple recipes that are quick, easy, and affordable. As a working mom of two young daughters, I understand the challenges of feeding a busy family, healthy meals on a budget. I will also be sharing other nutrition information and some of my favorite healthy food finds at Walmart! This will be a lot of fun and since my passion is helping people get healthy and fit, this will allow me to help a lot of Americans!

Follow me on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook to make sure you get the latest recipes and nutrition information! Also, feel free to share with me your favorite healthy food finds at Walmart and be on the lookout for the “Great For You” icon while shopping to make it easier for you to make healthy and affordable choices.

Learn more about Walmart’s healthy food commitments.

This is not only a problem of bloating and discomfort.  Intestinal health is critical to overall health as it impacts what is taken up and absorbed into the body and what is left for excretion in the digestive tract.  When healthy, the cells lining the digestive tract take up important nutrients, while leaving toxins and unwanted chemical compounds behind for removal.  This critical function makes the gut the most important and largest immune organ in the body.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that it’s impairment may be causing a host of other problems aside from the well-known symptoms of constipation, gas and diarrhea.  Some studies suggest that poor digestive health may be playing a role in the rise of autoimmune disorders such as Celiac’s disease, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Unfortunately, many of these illnesses connected with digestion are not easily resolved and oftentimes become chronic.  Most OTC medications help with the symptoms of GI distress, but don’t actually fix the underlying issue.  Some even exacerbate the problem, bringing short-term relief, but a long-term reliance on the medicine itself.

The positive news is that many are finding relief through the use of probiotics.  Probiotics are supplements or food sources that contain healthy gut bacteria such as lactobacillus and L. acidophilus.  By taking in good gut bacteria, the ecology of the intestinal tract is improved as the good bacteria move in and crowd out the bad.  This is important as the health of the digestive tract relies on a sensitive balance between the different species gut flora.  The best thing that anyone can do for their digestive health is to make sure to include foods rich in probiotics in diet on a regular basis.

Here are the Top 6 Sources of Probiotics. Try to incorporate several in your diet on a regular basis to take full advantage of the health benefits of these friendly gut helpers.

1. Yogurt with live bacterial cultures
2. Aged cheese that has not been baked such as cheddar and blue cheese
3. Kefir, a yogurt beverage available in the health food section of most grocery stores
4. Sauerkraut, fermented cabbage (pictured above)
5. Kim Chi, a Korean fermented vegetable dish
6. Fermented Soy Beans such as Miso & Tempeh

Assistance provided by Allison van Camp

Glee Club Sandwich

1. Applegate Deli Meats- in my family we love to eat these deli meats often. Their meats are real, worry-free and convenient. Families can read the Applegate ingredient labels without confusion or worry: no antibiotics, artificial ingredients or preservatives. Applegate deli meats make busy moms feel good about what they are feeding your children. These work great in sandwiches or as a snack with a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge. Check out the Glee Club Sandwich Recipe!

2. Simply Snackin- these gourmet dried meat snacks are delicious and convenient with only 60 calories and packed with 10 grams of protein. Made with high quality ingredients, these are perfect protein snack to keep in your purse or travel bag. My daughter’s volleyball team also loves eating these between games.

Disclosure: Product samples were sent to me by Simply Snackin’ and Applegate.