Diabetic friendly Crunchies

Frozen Peanut-Banana Crunchies Recipes

2 cups peanut butter
48 graham cracker squares
2 cups mashed ripe bananas

In a large bowl, mash ripe bananas into a smooth paste. Mix in peanut butter using a large wooden spoon. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Drop 2 tablespoons banana mixture onto one square graham cracker, cover with second graham cracker square. Freeze until ready to use.

from: Kitchen Cooking Recipes

1 starch, 1 medium fat meat, 1 fat exchange

196 Calories, 12.2 Fat, 6.4 Protein, 18.0 Carb., 0 Chol., 188 Sodium

White Bean-Pesto Bruschetta

Healthy Eating Planner:

31 Days of Healthy, Low-Calorie Snacks

167 calories
White Bean-Pesto Bruschetta

Practicalities

I walked for an 1hr10 today. My feet are sore - feel like blisters may develop (Might need to shoes). I felt physically tired but mentally proud of myself. Now that I have cooled down my feet are still sore but I have energy for the rest of the day.

I am now starting to work through the CHIP workbook. The first unit is on the topic of balance.
I am making to do list and at the very top I have included exercise. Last week I did exercise three times. This week I am increasing the intensity a bit.

Managed to spend almost £25 less on my food budget last week and hoping to do the same this week.

Here is a money saving alternative suggested in the CHIP program - Crisped Tortilla Chips.


VIDEO: Low Fat Baked Tortilla Chips

Crisped Tortilla Chips
1pkg 12 corn tortilla
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Tasty baked lime and chilli tortilla chips you make at home.
Serve with your choice of dips and salsas.

Recipe provided by: Allrecipes

Ingredients

(See nutrition)

1 packet Corn Tortillas

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon salt

• Oven baked potato chips
• Baked Pumpkin Bread
• Avocado Tortilla Wraps
• Crispy cheese twists
• Pesto pita toasts

▲ Less

Preparation method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. 2. Cut each tortilla into 8 triangular wedges and arrange in a single layer on a baking tray. 3. In a spray bottle, combine the oil and lime juice. Mix well and spray each tortilla wedge until slightly moist. (Lightly brush on the oil and lime juice if you don't have a spray bottle) 4. Combine the cumin, chilli powder and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on the wedges. 5. Bake for about 7 minutes. Rotate the tray and bake for another 8 minutes or until the wedges are crisp, but not too brown. Serve warm or room temperature with salsas, dips or guacamole.

Chocolate Banana Coins

Bananas contain all eight amino acids that our bodies cannot produce themselves. There you have it—eight reasons why you should eat them. If you have a sweet tooth, add a little chocolate for a melt-in-your-mouth dessert with all the health benefits of bananas.

Chocolate Banana Coins

By Sophie Pachella
May 13, 2009

Ingredients:
1 banana, cut into coins
1 ounce dark chocolate, melted in microwave
1 tablespoon crushed almonds

Directions:
Using a fork, dip one side of the banana coin into the chocolate, then into the almonds, and place on wax paper. Do this with all remaining coins and freeze for an hour before eating.

FAJITA FIESTA

Two 5 A DAY portions per serving

Serves 4
Prepare 15 minutes
Cook 20 minutes
Costs £1.88 per portion

For the fajitas

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 skinless chicken breasts
• 1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow pepper (chopped)
• Handful of mushrooms (roughly chopped)
• Packet of fajita mix
• 8 soft flour tortillas
• 1 chopped onion

For the salad

• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Lettuce

---

1. Heat the oil in a large pan
2. Add the onion and diced chicken
3. Add the other vegetables to the heat and stir
4. Stir in the fajita mix
5. Meanwhile prepare a mixed salad of tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce leaves
6. Warm the tortillas in a heated oven for 3 mins or a microwave for 1 min
7. Serve all together

Vegetarians

Swap the chicken for more veg

Extra twists

1. Serve with a tomato salsa for exra flavour
2. Carrot stick dips with hummus or guacamole makes a great starter
3. Use leftovers as sandwhich filler or with a baked potato

From 5 a day tips

Healthy Sangria

Kids' Sangria

Rather than using the traditional sangria ingredient of red wine, this kids' recipe calls for cranberry/raspberry juice.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
	4 cups cranberry/raspberry juice
	3 oranges
	2 limes

1. Pour the fruit juice into a large pitcher. Slice the oranges and limes thinly, remove any seeds, and add the slices to the pitcher. Serve in tall glasses filled with ice. Serves 4.

from Disney Family Fun

Link for the Week

http://eatseasonably.co.uk/

What’s awesome in August? Raspberries.

Red, ripe, juicy and eminently squishable, these furry little numbers may well be the finest tasting of all the berries and are a real summer crowd pleaser.

Our quick and tasty tip:

* Try lightly crushing some raspberries with a little icing sugar and orange juice, then folding through softly whipped vanilla cream and serving with freshly baked shortbread.

Some Good Resources

Hi

I am back. Its been a busy and exciting few weeks. Ended with me getting a cold/hayfever - still recovering from that.

No Tv Week: http://www.screentime.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Depression: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_tips.htm

Fruit and Vegetable Recipes they WILL Eat

Nutrition in disguise

From Health Recipes. com

Secret ways to hide nutrition in foods kids love!

Now that we’ve seen the importance of including fruits and vegetables in our diet, how can we make sure that our family will eat them? By playing a game called, trick or treat; emphasis on the word, trick. Vegetables can be a treat if they are part of a favorite meal. Example: tacos (stuffed with veggies), pizza with vegetable toppings, hamburgers with sliced tomatoes and lettuce, raw vegetable sticks with a favorite dip, cauliflower with cheese sauce, etc. But we may likely rely heavily on the trick aspect of introducing disliked vegetables.

If you take the time to learn what healthy foods your children do love, it will make your job easier. Print the Favorite Healthy Foods and Meals template in the Schedules and Templates section of this book and assign a sheet to each child and/or husband. Write their favorite healthy foods on their assigned sheets. You may be surprised to learn that they actually enjoy quite a few healthy foods. Once you’ve learned what their favorite foods are, you can serve these foods openly. The next step will be to secretly add disliked vegetables into their diet. Here are ways to trick your family into eating nutritious food.

Nutrition in disguise

~ Most children will eat vegetables if they are a part of homemade soup.

~ Pass cooked vegetables in a food processor and add to hamburger patties, meatballs or meatloaf.

~ Finely grate zucchini or carrots and add to pancake batter.

~ Add finely chopped cooked vegetables to canned or packaged soup.

~ Add freshly juiced carrot juice to canned vegetable or tomato juice.

~ Add grated zucchini to square or muffin mixes.

~ Puree vegetables and add to chili or spaghetti sauce.

~ Add grated carrots to tuna or chicken salad.

~ Hide veggies in casseroles and main dishes.

~ Mix fat-free sour cream into a favorite salad dressing.

~ Serve raw vegetables with a favorite dip.

~ Mix regular peanut butter with freshly ground peanuts.

~ Use whole grain bread for grilled cheese sandwiches ~ the toasting will hide the color of the bread.

~ Go from white bread to 60% whole wheat for one month, then introduce whole-grain bread. You can make a sandwich using one slice of the 60% bread and one slice of the whole-grain bread. Serve with the lighter bread slice facing up.

~ Most children will eat a meal that they helped to prepare.

~ Let them make cookies with you. Use whole wheat and carob chips and they won’t know the difference, especially if they are the ones making the cookies. There aren’t too many children who will not eat their own baking.

~ You can create a desire to eat healthier treats by designating a new healthy treat as, mommy’s treat. You can say something like, "these are mommy’s very special yummy cookies, and you can’t have any, okay?" You can even place the cookies in a fancy cookie jar to increase the appeal. Let a couple days go by before ‘reluctantly giving in’ to their requests.

~ Sneak some whole-grain cookies into a bag of favorite mixed cookies, and eventually replace unhealthy cookies with healthier cookies.

~ Use cookie cutters to make fun sandwiches with whole-grain bread.

~ Mix whole-grain noodles into regular spaghetti or macaroni and cheese dishes.

~ Mix soaked soy bits in the ground beef. Slowly increase the soy/ground beef ratio in meals over time and they won’t notice that they are eating soy bits instead of ground beef.

Recipe of the week

Potato Cases

400g potatoes, peeled and grated 3/4 cup reduced fat cream cheese 1 egg 1/4 cup fat free soy or dairy milk 1/2 cup corn kernels 1 tablespoon chives	15 min 40 min 24 Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Lightly spray two 12 x capacity mini muffin pans. Squeeze potatoes of excess moisture then firmly press into pan to form cases. Spray with oil and bake for 20 minutes. Place cream cheese, egg and milk in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Fold in corn and chives then spoon into potato cases. Bake a further 20 minutes.

This recipe contains 1g of saturated fat per serve.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" Aesop

Articles of Interest

Five Ways to Cut 100 Calories from your Diet

How to Prevent Freezer Burn

How to Stretch Your Food Budget (still eat healthily)

Tip for the Day (from igoogle page)
Eat several small meals each day instead of three big meals. Your metabolism will stay high and burn more fat

Light Chocolate Mousse

Serves 4
Prep time: 5min
Cooking time: 5Min
from: http://www.sanitarium.com.au/

2 egg whites 1/4 cup caster sugar 1/4 cup reduced fat soy or dairy milk 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 2 tablespoons arrowroot 2 cups reduced fat vanilla yoghurt 10g chocolate shavings, to serve Place egg whites in a clean bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until dissolved. Place milk, cocoa powder and arrowroot in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, whisking continuously. Remove from heat and fold in yoghurt. Gently fold egg whites into yoghurt mixture. Place into four serving dishes. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Decorate with chocolate shavings and fresh fruit. Per serve: 945 Kilojoules (225 Calories). Protein: 10g. Fat: 3g. Carbohydrate: 41g. Total sugars: 35g. Sodium: 130mg. Potassium: 400mg. Calcium: 245mg. Iron: . Fibre: <1g.

5 min 5 min 4

This recipe contains 2g of saturated per serve.

Granola Recipe

I plan to try this recipe out. I love granola especially with yogurt.

My lack of post are an indication of my life picking up pace and not going in the direction I want.

However, this week I plan on doing my

2009 Wellness Goals Visionwork - TODAY

This comes from the Granola Diet Site

I recommend experimenting with each of the basic elements and finding what suites your taste.

Ingredients:
Whole Oats- organic best
Oil - canola, peanut, etc
Sweetener - honey, molasses, corn syrup, or sugar free syrups
Spice - salt, cinnamon, coriander, etc
dried fruits - raisins, dates, apricots, etc.
nuts/seeds - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almonds, etc

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Combine 6 cups of raw oats with 1/4 cup of oil, 1/2 cup of liquid sweetener, and spices into large glass baking pan
3. Mix very thoroughly with spoon
4. Cook for 45 minutes
5. Allow to cool
6. Stir in choice of fruits and nuts

When eating I recommend using either rice mild or soy milk and avoiding cows milk.

Cooking Apples

I was given some cooking apples and I have been looking for low fat/low Gi recipes. I made apple crumble this past weekend for the first time but it did not fall into either of these categories , it was for a potluck so I figured i was safe (in that I would not eat it all). I have actually never been an apple tart fan.

This recipe looks good (not sure its really low 7g fat- if I remember correctly it has to be 5g/100g to considered that but I guess its musch lower than a normal muffin)- not quite sure what they mean my wholegrain breakfast cereal - I am guessing anything like wholegrain sheddies, weetbix or soemthing like that.

Vanilla Apple Muffins (from Sanitarium Recipes)
2 cups wholegrain breakfast cereal

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour

2 apples, cored and diced

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg, lightly beaten1 cup

low fat soy milk

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Combine cereal and flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.
Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.
Spoon into a lightly greased 12 cup capacity muffin tray and bake at 180ºC for 20-30 minutes or until golden.
Makes 12

Per serve:

760 kilojoules (180 calories).

Protein 4g.Fat 7g.Carbohydrate 27g.Sodium 160mg.

Potassium 140mg.Calcium 40mg.Iron 1mg.Fibre 3g

Check-in

Nothing to report on weight - need a scale!

I have done a bit of exercise, eaten too many biscuits (would love to blame the visitors) - its funny how our weakness change as we get older.
Mine has changed from chips to chocolate to biscuits.

Ratatouille is becoming one of family favourite meals we make it at least once a week.
My husband walked my daughter to school this morning. I will have to make sure I do some exercise. She does swimming today, so we will probably pick her with the car.

Ratatouille

A soul-warming, guilt-free, gastronomical gift from on high.

Fun Factoid: 98% of the world's olive oil comes from the Mediterranean region, which has a 6,000-year history of olive tree cultivation.

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
2 small eggplants, cubed (about 2 cups)
1 small zucchini, cubed (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used low fat cheese)
1 lb. whole wheat spiral pasta (I use low-GI 100% durum pasta - any shape)

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a 4-quart sauce pot over medium heat.
Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add both the red and yellow peppers and sauté for another couple of minutes. Toss in the eggplant cubes and cook a couple more minutes.
3. Add the zucchini, garlic, bay leaf, and oregano.
Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook for a couple more minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 40 minutes, uncovered.
5. Boil and drain the whole wheat spiral pasta.

Guiltless Cheesecake to go with a guiltless life

I am back from a long break!!!!!
The damage - I went up 2kg - now weigh in at 111kg - my highest weight ever. I have now been in Northern Ireland for 3 weeks and I am starting to settle down a bit.
My daughter has gotten me to watch the biggest loser and she is very determined that I become one. So we have agreed to do our own Biggest Loser at home. She is 7 years old.

I am going to have to make dishes and desserts at least once to twice a month and I love cheesecake.
My husband sent me this recipe. Plan to try it out.

Yesterday we did a walk that left me breathless. Today I have not exercised my sinusitus is pretty bad, I have a lot of flem on my chest, coughing and feel dizzy.
Have a post nasal drip.

I am going to have to look for work if we are going to live comfortably here. I am determine to apply the 4 Day Win plan to my life.So I am going to start at the beginning. Up my intake of water and reduce junk food and coffee.

Yes, you heard me right coffee. That is one bad habit I have started again. Plus the sugar here taste less sweet than South African sugar, so I have been using too much.

I look forward to visiting my friends from the Healthy You Challenge and anyone else who leaves a comment.

Here the recipe:

Yogurt Cheesecake

Contributed By: menfe
California Milk Advisory Board

Cheesecake can be almost guiltless - that is, rich in good taste but low in fat. The trick is to use nonfat yogurt - see recipe below!
Ingredients
4 quarts (8 lbs) nonfat plain yogurt (do not use yogurt with gelatin)
1 cup Low-fat graham cracker crumbs
2 tbsp Butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
1/4 cup Flour
1 tbsp Vanilla
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
Assorted berries and/or cut fruits in season as desired, for garnish

Preparation

1. Set a colander over a large bowl, supporting it so the base of the colander is at least 2 inches above the bottom of the bowl. Line colander with 2 layers of cheesecloth. Spoon in yogurt.


2. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Chill 12 hours or overnight, pouring off whey as it drains. Scrape yogurt from cloth.


3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


4. In bowl, mix crumbs and butter. Pat evenly over bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven; set aside. Raise oven temperature to 450 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat yogurt, sugar and eggs on high speed for 1 minute. Mix in flour, vanilla and zest just until blended. Pour into prepared crust. Bake 10 minutes.


5. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees and continue to bake for 1 hour or until center barely jiggles when cake is shaken. Run a thin-bladed knife between cake and pan. Cool slightly, then refrigerate, uncovered, until cake is completely chilled, at least 3 hours. Garnish as desired. Cut into wedges to serve. (If making ahead, cover when cool and chill up to 1 day.)
Nutrient Information
Calories 338
Total Fat 6 g
Saturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Carbohydrates 59 g
Protein 11 g
Vitamin A 64 RE
Vitamin C 2 mg
Calcium 348 mg
Sodium 267 mg
Iron 1 mg
Fiber 0 g