I feel the same way about my crock pot and cast iron skillet – they’re underused magic-makers in my kitchen. Other than this Blackened Salmon, I recently made a Chocolate Dutch Baby in my cast iron skillet. Clearly, that was a wise choice. So…good.

Mr. Prevention and I have been slacking on our salmon-eating lately. Normally, we have at least one fish meal a week, usually salmon…but it hasn’t been on sale lately. Finally, my grocery store had a great deal – wild Atlantic salmon for $6.99/lb! Normally, a “good” deal would be closer to $10/lb, so I was thrilled….and I stocked up!

Blackened salmon is something I would pick off a restaurant menu, falsely believing that it would be difficult to create at home. In reading through the recipe, the preparation couldn’t be any easier. I knew this would be a recipe that Mr. Prevention would love – all of the cayenne and paprika gave this salmon some kick! If you prefer things on the milder side, cut back the cayenne by half.

Because salmon is a fattier (essential omega 3′s!) fish, it is higher in calories. Don’t shy away from the higher calorie salmon, but rather, pair it with a low-calorie side dish of vegetables. To keep with the hint of lemon, I served this Blackened Salmon with a Lemony Potato and Asparagus side…recipe soon to come!

I am running a 5K tomorrow with my business partner! Today will be spent at the clinic and then making a pasta meal at home in preparation. I took rest days yesterday and today to be sure my legs are ready…to…run!

Happy weekend!

I think I may have mentioned this, but the daytime course I teach, Medical Nutrition Therapy (part 2), is the same group of students I had last quarter for part 1.

So I’m lecturing yesterday and my students got way, way outta control. Generally, I keep the classroom a pretty easy-going, light-hearted place that is still conducive to learning, but yesterday there was no focus. I was trying to explain complex processes of how to calculate intravenous nutrition in critically ill and malnourished patients and they were more interested in…anything but me and the lecture.

Class comes to a close, I remind them of their EXAM next Monday and I get a bunch of blank stares…as though this information isn’t readily available to them on the course syllabus (and shared in Monday’s lecture). I have to snicker inside just a bit when my students (who, for the most part, are a few years older than me) whine and BEG for study guides. I’m a pretty fair instructor and for that reason, I gear my lectures 100% towards what I test on…hence, it should be incentive to not only come to class, but to pay attention.

Of course my students swear up and down that they want to be Registered Diet Technicians and love the field of nutrition, but their outward signs would lead me to believe otherwise. Lord love’em.

I can kind of relate my student’s lack of…focus when it comes to blogging, much less healthy blogging. I snicker inside just a bit when all recipes donut, buffalo saucy, and faux fried get hundreds of re-pins and stumbles, but healthier recipes get overlooked and fail to be passed along. My readership is like having a ton of Mr. Prevention’s around…what is a girl to do?!

This recipe is simple, and wholesome…and it isn’t exactly attractive. It’s practical and balanced…it’s made in the crock pot. It probably won’t get passed along, BUT IT SHOULD!

Focus.

Chicken is a blank slate just waiting to be dolled up, but what drew me to this recipe was the plentiful amounts of poblanos it called for. Poblano peppers are one ingredient that are not only easy to find, but they’re cheap and packed with pepper flavor without all the heat from a jalapeno or other spicy chile.

I made this recipe the night before (it does take about 15 minutes to throw together), refrigerated over night, and turned it on in the morning. My recipe actually cooked about 11-12 hours, but it would certainly be ready after 7-8 hours. I always like the option of the crock pot even for really long days because in reality, those are the days I most enjoy the convenience of a pre-made dinner most.

The original recipe recommended serving this chicken over rice, but since brown rice takes about 30-40 minutes to cook, I opted for couscous which is ready in about 6 minutes. You can certainly eat this solo, or swap in another starch of your choice — I could see this served over noodles or baked potatoes, for example.

Mr. Prevention and I enjoyed this dish a lot, but I did opt to serve a salsa verde and sour cream with my helping. I warmed the salsa verde in the microwave and gave it a quick drizzling and a dollop of nonfat Greek yogurt (or sour cream) — it really made the dish all the better!

In completely unrelated news, it was stunning in Ohio yesterday. People were eating lunch outside in t-shirts! I took advantage by running outside and ran 5Kin 29:54 (9:38/mile)! That’s pretty speedy for this turtle! Seeing as I am running a 5K race this Saturday, I’m hopeful that I can repeat that pace and get a sub-30 5K in the books!

Be well,

I’ve got something serious, but fun, to share with you all. Today is not only February 1st (!?) but it marks the start of National Heart Month! When I first started this blog over 2 1/2 years ago, I talked a lot more about vitamins, minerals, and disease prevention. But this month, I’m going “back to my roots” with a month-long celebration of heart-healthy recipes!

While nearly all of my recipes contain healthy aspects or offer a healthier alternative, there will be several recipes this month that highlight and feature specific ingredients that are unique to the health of the heart and preserving our most precious organ.

Luckily, I am not alone in sharing this valuable message and scrumptious, heart-healthy recipes. I have partnered with 3 other health and food-savvy bloggers that are just as passionate about heart health and food — they will also be sharing their heart-healthy recipes with us each Wednesday this month…starting today!

Cara of Cara’s Cravings whipped up a Strawberry Date Avocado Smoothie
Lauren of Healthy Food for Living baked a Winter Blueberry Almond Baked Oatmeal
Amy (and Natalie) of Super Healthy Kids made a colorful Granola Berry Parfait

Um, one of each, please?

As for these waffles (which can be made into pancakes, too!)…they are heart-healthy for several reasons.

• Flaxseed: Ground flaxseed is not only rich in soluble and insoluble fibers, but it is packed with omega-3 fatty acids – 1.8 grams per tablespoon! Omega-3 fatty acids not only help reduce triglyceride levels, but they act as a natural anti-inflammatory and mild blood thinner. Flaxseed also contains lignands which act in a similar way to estrogen and offer antioxidant properties.
• Walnuts: Similar to flaxseed, walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. According to many health professionals, myself included, walnuts are the #1 choice when it comes to nuts due to their lipid-lowering, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Plus, they are way cheaper than pecans and pistachios!
• Whole wheat pastry flour: I use whole wheat pastry flour in everything – it is finer and more palatable in baked goods while maintaining all of the health benefits of whole wheat flour. Offering 12 grams of fiber per cup, whole wheat pastry flour is an excellent source of fiber (plus, vitamins and minerals) that helps protect the heart, control blood pressure, and lower cholesterol.

Obviously these waffles have some heart-healthy benefits to tout, but the taste?

I let Mr. Prevention be the judge.

He not only said these waffles were really, really good (unprompted, I should add!), but he said they were some of the best waffles I’ve ever made. When I told him there was flaxseed in them, he shrugged and said, “Whatever, you can’t taste it.”

These are perfectly sweetened with the maple syrup and have a great crunch and texture from the chopped walnuts. They come together in just a few minutes and are sure to please any waffle or pancake lover. Taking care of your heart never tasted so good!

Please feel free to grab our badge and share your heart-healthy recipes in this Month-Long Celebration of Heart-Healthy Recipes! It’s gunna be great!

Even more fun – a giveaway!

Cara is hosting breakfast this week and has several goodies up for grabs including a cookbook, 201 Healthy Smoothies & Juices for Kids written by our very own Amy Roskelley, Paleonola (grain-free granola that’s packed with heart-healthy ingredients), and Chobani! Head on over to Cara’s Cravings to get in on the giveaway this week – there’s lots of ways to win!

Be sure to check in each of the next 4 Wednesdays in February for more heart-healthy recipes! Next up (Feb 8th): Lunch hosted by…moi!

Be well,

Mr. Prevention put a CostCo membership on his Christmas list. Since he’s so hard to buy for, this is what I got him for Christmas (so romantic, I know). For a household of 2, I’m not sure that there’s too many deals to be had. Truth be told, I enjoy CostCo for all the samples.

Mr. Prevention enjoys CostCo for the plethora of frozen food options. His most recent selection was Alexia’s sweet potato fries (which I approve of). He quickly threw 3-pound bag in our cart along with the one other item (maple syrup) stating, “When you make gross onion rings tonight, I’ll make these for me.”

It’s hard to believe that anyone would pass up onion rings…for frozen anything. I love, love, love onion rings! But still, I was surprised at all with his selection or substitution.

P.S. Of course, he really liked the onion rings. Wrong again…

With Super Bowl Sunday this weekend, lightened up onion rings would be the perfect compliment to any game day spread.

Finger food without the grease! Or guilt.

When I first planned to make homemade onion rings, I had planned to use a recipe that involved heating oil on a baking sheet and baking the onion rings in the oil. That recipe is Cook’s Illustrated and has PHENOMENAL reviews. I knew they would be great, but I dug a little deeper into my stockpiles of old recipes and decided to omit the oil all together and bake to a crispy perfection on wire racks.

I ended up combining the two recipes and used aspects from each that I felt would yield the best results. While these were my first attempt at a onion rings, I don’t see any reason to try any other way!

It’s the last day of January – crazy! But, come back tomorrow for a fun announcement and a great, heart-healthy recipe!

Workout then off to work and to teach!

Be well,

Come Monday mornings, it’s a bit unclear to me what I did all weekend long. The little stuff adds up, I guess.

There’s always grading and lesson planning to get done. This weekend, the lesson planning got done, but the grading…err…not so much. There was some workouts — Friday I ran 3+ miles, Saturday I did a 4 mile elliptical workout, and last night, as always, I had a hockey game. At least I was productive with my sweat sessions.

I made some killer waffles yesterday morning and luckily, I have some leftovers to enjoy this morning. On Monday mornings, it’s the little things…

Friday night, Mr. Prevention and I hung low at the house. It was a long week for both of us. Beer, leftovers, and the couch was just what we needed. Saturday night, we had some friends over to watching the Illini…lose. Again. Sometimes, more often than not, it is painful to be a fan of University of Illinois sports.

Yesterday was typical. Laundry (and too much of it), grocery shopping, getting ready for the week, making a nice meal, and playing hockey.

But always, without fail, Sundays are a bit…depressing. Even if you LOVE your job, you LOVE weekends more. Mr. Prevention loves (and I do mean LOVES) to sleep. Sometimes I check on him just to be sure he’s still breathing, because sleeping 12 hours straight is simply unimaginable for me.

For Mr. Prevention, Mondays bring far too early of wake-up calls. If you’ve ever seen the 5-Hour Energy commercials of the guy walking down the stairs saying, “I don’t wanna get up…I don’t want to go to work…” you’ve seen Mr. Prevention in the mornings.

On those mornings (i.e. every morning, but especially Mondays), I encourage Mr. Prevention to take leftovers to work for lunch. Sometimes, I think he’s under the impression I pack everything in single serving Tupperware containers for fun. He usually tells me leftovers are “too heavy” to eat for lunch. Whatever that means.

This meal was one of them — “too heavy”. But I actually “get” what he means with this meal. It’s super healthy, but it’s also really filling…in a good way. This Vegetarian Thai Quinoa Chili is PACKED with fiber (nearly 12 grams per serving) making it a very filling meal that’s sure to keep you satisfied for hours to come. Plus, it tastes great. I’m officially a convert when it comes to quinoa in chilis and soups – so good!

Now for my Monday morning coffee fix…mmm!

Have a great week,

I think I may need a schedule change. With two nights a week spent away from home teaching, and another 1-2 nights for “date night” dinners, I feel as though my dinner-making is suffering. However, my kitchen time is not.

With all the fun winter citrus in season (namely Meyer lemons and blood oranges), baking has taken the place of dinner-making because I can do it at any time.

(It is no mystery as to why the scale fails to tread downward!)

Unlike some recent creations, this one comes with a much kinder calorie count. Worst case scenario, you eat the WHOLE Chocolate Dutch Baby. Worst case scenario, that’s under 950 calories. Glass half-full, folks…glass half-full.

Best case scenario, a generous slice runs a mere 118 calories…and you feel no guilt over eating chocolate or dessert. You’ll think you just hit the “diet dessert” lottery. Added bonus for any low-carbers or diabetics — this recipes comes in at 14.4 grams of carbohydrate per serving!

You heard it here first, mkay?

Before giving any thought to actually Googling, “What is a Dutch baby?” I perused the ingredient list only to find out that I had every ingredient on hand. Chances are, you do, too.

It wasn’t until after tasting the Chocolate Dutch Baby that I 1) fell in love, and 2) Googled to find out what the heck a Dutch Baby actually is.

As it ends up, it’s more than just a cute, random name. Who knew?

Traditionally, a Dutch baby is a breakfast item and is described as being very similar to a pancake (I would say “crepe” is more accurate, but I’m on the right path). The Dutch baby has German roots and is generally baked in a metal pan, such as a cast iron skillet.

Seeing as this Dutch baby contains chocolate and is mildly sweet, I consider it a dessert…that’s on the lighter side. They come together in less than 5 minutes and are likely to only stick around that long once being removed from the oven. I have to say, Dutch babies have me as a fan club member — delicious!

It is complete coincidence that this week’s menu is all fish and seafood and I can’t say I mind at all, whatsoever!

Weekly Menu: January 29th – February 2nd

• Sunday: Fancy Fish Sticks with Oven-Fried Onion Rings
• Monday: Blackened Salmon with asparagus and potatoes
• Tuesday: leftovers
• Wednesday: Rockin’ Red Curry Shrimp Soup
• Thursday: leftovers

I’ve got some serious lesson planning and grading to get done today. I’d also love to learn everything there is to know about Lightroom ASAP. With Picnik gone as of April, I need a solid back-up plan for photo editing! But of course, Lightroom isn’t what I would call “user friendly” by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots to do before dinner and hockey.

Be well,

Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time in the car. Therefore, breakfasts for on-the-go are a must most days of the work week. And if I don’t have a plan for breakfast, my car wants to do an autopilot to Tim Hortons for more than just my morning cup of joe.

I really enjoy smoothies and make them often, but I have to admit that no matter how HUGE they may be, they don’t tend to keep me satisfied until lunch.

That is, until I added oats to my smoothie.

Not only do the oats add lots of fiber and staying power, but they help to make the smoothie creamy, thick, and rich. As for protein, this smoothie uses Greek yogurt to add some balance and increase satiety.

For whatever reason, people feel they have to justify what they’re eating when they’re around an RD.

Case in point. Yesterday afternoon my boss was SWAMPED at work and being the only nurse at the unit, she couldn’t leave. She hadn’t eaten all day and finally asked me to go to Chipotle and grab her a burrito. She followed up her request with, “Next week, I’m going on a green smoothie diet!”

After great success with this recipe and staving off hunger until lunch, I suggested oats to my new boss and her smoothie endeavors. She seems to think that I’m the most brilliant dietitian to ever walk the face of the earth. And you know what? I’m going to let her think that!

There, I let you in on my little secret…that I have Martha and Pinterest to thank for

Not much going on this weekend…just some errands, workouts, hockey, grading, and lesson planning.

Be well,

TGIF!

Yesterday was…stressful. But the most unfortunate part of yesterday was having to settle for a Subway dinner rather than leftover lasagna. I was 45 minutes away from home at my unit, Lily had been home for 8 hours already, I had to teach, and Mr. Prevention had a meeting. It was clear there would be no letting Lily out, or having leftovers for dinner. Why do meetings with doctors always run late?

I know 3 very important things about this recipe.

1. It’s incredibly healthy. A filling, protein and fiber-rich meal for under 250 calories?!
2. It doesn’t photograph well. At all. Don’t base this recipe on looks alone – you’ll be missing out.
3. I didn’t expect to like this recipe. And Mr. Prevention…forgetaboutit. This is what I love about recipe swaps…you try recipes that are outside your comfort zone.

However, I was wrong, very wrong, on item #3.

Sometimes, there’s such a thing as “too healthy” (I promise, I’m a dietitian). When a recipe is scaled back to a point that it loses its desirable attributes, it may be “too healthy”. For lasagna to be good, it has to have “noodles”, cheese, and Italian spices. Or at least that’s what I like about lasagna.

But this recipe actually mastered the ultimate health-factor while maintaining the ultimate lasagna-factor. I did up the cheese a bit, and I not only used zucchini and squash, but I used twice as much. While not picture-perfect, this dish is absolutely delicious.

Today will be a better day. But regardless, the weekend is drawing near!

TGIF,

I promise it’s not my intention to make anyone jealous…but the grocer 1 mile from my front door has been stocking 1 lb bags of Meyer lemons for $1.50. Every time I’m in there, I try to convince myself not to seek them out in the produce section.

Because what happens? Baking. Or not baking, but tart-making.

Alas, the pound of sweet-tart lemons ended up in my cart and then sat on my kitchen counter for days. They stared me down and I’m pretty certain I heard some cries of neglect one night. They were on the verge of going bad…I simply don’t drink enough lemon water to use up all those lemons.

Darn. I mean…DARN!

With my new job and my teaching schedule this quarter, I have occasional random weekdays off. Tuesday was one of those days. Tuesday, this tart was made. And while I wish the photo with the fork was a “styling” effort…but no, that’s just poor self-control turned photo opp.

For that reason, Pinterest and free time are both equally dangerous when it comes to baking (however, this tart requires no baking…that must be why it turned out so good!).

I’ll make up for my indulgence today with a super healthy meal tomorrow!

Workout, clinic, meeting, teach…go!

Be well,

The Super Bowl is in 10 days…wheretheheckhasJanuarygone? I care about the Super Bowl for only 2 reasons: food and commercials. I never watch a single commercial thanks to DVR and food, well…an excuse to cook just makes cooking all the more fun!

I couldn’t care less about the outcome of the game (though I’m always game – pun intended – for watching sports). My heart stretches far and wide for college football, but the NFL, I don’t really get too involved with.

Game food made healthy, however? Sign. Me. Up.

I’ll be the game time healthy snacks QB, happily! I am the self-proclaimed queen of faux fried foods, after all. Mr. Prevention confirms my mad skill when it comes to making junk food…healthier. A skill I have marriage to thank for.

While I make that sound simple, recipes like this one needed some tweaking. My first attempt at Baked Mozzarella Sticks was nothing shy of a disaster. Cheese oozed from every end of the wonton and I was left with a sheet of melted cheese and wonton. Uncool.

Attempt #2 was a success. I used an entire eggroll wrapper which enabled me to cover the entire mozzarella stick to prevent the cheese from oozing its way out. I also cut the mozzarella sticks in half. Don’t fret – the cheese spreads and there’s plenty of cheese to go around.

These were delicious. While a bit different than the traditional breadcrumb-coated mozzarella stick, these are far healthier at 90 calories and 1.3 grams of fat a piece!

If mozzarella sticks don’t do it for ya, may I suggest Oven-Fried Pickles, Crispy Baked Eggrolls, Faux Fried Calamari, “Fried” Chicken, Oven Fries, Baked Green Bean Fries, or Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings?

There’s no need to fry when baked is far healthier and just as good…maybe even better!

Clinic, teach, clinic…massage! I haven’t had a massage in years (probably 3…) and I am redeeming a gift certificate that Mr. Prevention got me for Christmas. When I get home? Dinner will be ready…because it was assembled in the crock pot last night. Wednesday is sure starting off right!

Be well,