Smoothie Recipes

Ok, you've frozen some fruit, you have a good protein poweder and a variety of yogurt and you are ready to get started. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

Creamsicle smoothie

237 calories

47 g carbs

12 g protein

¾ cup ice, covered with water.

One 6 oz cup of low calorie orange yogurt

2 oz orange juice

1 packet of carnation instant breakfast vanilla

Combine in blender in order listed, blend until smooth Yummy..

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Protein Dessert

One cup of Ice

Cover Ice with water

One package of Chocolate Instant Breakfast Powder

One package of Fat Free hot Coco powder

One scoop of American Whey Dutch Chocolate Protein powder

6 frozen cherries or raspberrise (optional)

Blend until smooth. I like to get mine about the consistency of a milkshake so you can experiment with the exact amount of Ice and water you need to get the consistency you prefer.

Banana Yogurt Smoothie

2/3 of a frozen banana
1 container low calorie yogurt
1 scoop of protein powder
1/2 cup cold water

Blend until smooth. The frozen banana makes the drink creamy and rich. You can experiment with the yogurt. Strawberry, cherry, vanilla and respberry and orange are some of my favorites.

The entire drink is about 300 calories. You will get about 25 grams of protein a 1 or 2 grams of fat and 40 grams of carbs. Not too shabby for a very tasty morning drink.

Those are the basics, play with them and lets' share ideas. Remember to keep an eye on the bottom line: calorie/protein/fat content. I've been to smoothie shops and some of the concoctions are diet busters. I've seen 900 calorie smoothies. so read the lable and ask what is in it before you assume it's a good choice for you diet program.



(tip peel and break up the banana before you freeze it, my first approach was to freeze a unpeeled banana. Let me assure you that the peel is much easier to remove when the fruit is at room temp) Store the banana in a sealed plastic container or a zip lock bag in the freezer.

Apple Cider Yogurt smoothie Easy and interesting taste.

1 packet of Powered apple cider mix
this is low calorie and has only about 10 caloires per packet.
1/2 cup of Ice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 packet stevia

Blend and serve.

Protein Smoothies

Basics to making great Protein Drinks

Protein drinks Protein drinks are a great snack or even a meal substitute. My approach is to use a high quality whey protein with little sugar or carbs. There are a lot of options and you can make a drink that is tasty and keeps you on your diet. You can opt for lots of weight gainer products, most of them are full of sugar. If I am gonna put a ton of sugar in my smoothie I'd rather use fresh fruit or yogurt of juice instead of a powered version of the same thing. I feel like the closer you can stay to real food the better.

Of course, you may well ask, why not just use milk or yogurt or fat better yet fat free cottage cheese as a whey protein source? I have to admit I do that sometimes too. There isnt' always protein (at least the powered kind) in my shake.

One of my favorite ingredients is frozen fruit. Bananas, Berries, cantelope all bring great flavors to the drink and are packed with minerals, vitamines and fiber.

Yogurt is a great addition to the smoothie. Sometimes I go for the low calorie fruit yogurt. It taste great, comes in a variety of flavors and it's only 80 calories per container. However, it is sweetened with nutrasweet, so there is a down side. If your a purist and want to avoid the artificial sweeteners you can move a little closer to the cow and opt for the fat free plain yogurt. Of course you will need to work a little bit to make this smoothie tasty as well as virtueous. You can sweeten this with a little fruit juice, but we are adding calories along with the taste. However, there is a way to make a tasty smoothie without a lot of calories and not artificial sweeteners. You can add Stevia to your smoothie. This amazing sweetner is a herbal extract and is very sweet but adds no calories. It's like sacarin without the carcogenic karma. Stevia is available in health food stores and the health food section of many major grocery chains. I actually picked up a box in Kroger this week.

Low Calorie Tacos

Low Calorie, Tacos

Ingredient list

Fat Free soft taco shells

Fat Free sour cream

1 lb ground turkey breast

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Green Peppers, medium

Onion, small

Fat Free Cheese (I buy the grated kind but you can start from a block if you like)

Taco Sauce (mild, medium or hot)

This is an easy receipt. It does take a little bit of time, and there is some chopping and prep work so it goes faster with a friend. Use one pound of ground turkey breast. Brown the turkey in a skillet using some butter spray to keep it from sticking too much.

Add a package of taco seasoning and ¾ cups water the cooked ground turkey. Cook, stirring until the water is absorbed and evaporated. Set aside.

Chop vegetables as desired

Heat taco shells spray a medium size skillet lightly heat the taco shell on each side

Add ground meat and toppings as desired

Enjoy.

This should make 4 -6 Tacos

Each shell has about 120 calories all carbs

Each quarter pound of ground meat has 120 calories about 28 grams of protein

We could go crazy with the math on each vegetable and sauce ingredient but I think it’s safe to assume they are about 50 calories from carbs so each taco with ¼ pound of ground turkey has 300 calories about 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat and 40 grams of carbs. Not too bad.

I also tried another receipt but it’s not perfected. I wanted to experiment with a taco pizza using the soft taco as a base. I use salsa instead of pizza sauce and added the toppings described above. I’m not satisfied with this one yet; if anyone wants to work on it and give me their feed back I’d appreciate it.

Gazpacho

Gazpacho. Low Fat Tacos

Gazpacho

I’ve read a lot of recipes for this one so feel free to add anything you like however some folks like to add oil to the recipe. I think it just adds calories and not much flavor so I skip that ingredients.

2 large cans of tomato juice

1 large can of V 8 Juice

4 large cucumbers diced and peeled

1 green pepper diced

½ cup of red wine vinegar

1 cucumber blended with some of the tomato juice.

1/3 red onion diced

I remove all of the seeds from the cucumbers before adding them to the soup.

For seasoning I use some Cajun seasoning, pepper, chopped garlic and some salt. You could probably skip the salt because the tomato juice is loaded with it. Or if you are on a low salt diet get low sodium juice for your Gazpacho.

1/20th of this Gazpacho has

40 calories

2 g protein

9 g carbs

0 g fat

430 g sodium. (use low sodium if that's an issue for you)

Breakfast Cereals (anytime snacks)

Breakfast Cereals

There are a lot of choices out there, I like Kellogs Complete there is wheat and an oat bran type. I prefer wheat because it doesn't get as soggy. (I have some other favorites that I'll include later) One cup is about 100 calories and you get 5 or 6 grams of fiber from it.

What you put on your cereal can turn a healthy breakfast into a high fat breakfast.

Let’s compare milk choices

skim milk 85 calories Protein 8 g Carbs 11g Fat 0

1%-118 calories protein 9 g Carbs 13 g Fat 3

2%-137 calories Protein 10 g Carbs 13g Fat 5

Whole-148 calories Protein 8 g Carbs 11g Fat 8

With skim milk and no sugar the entire breakfast is only 180 calories and you get 8 grams of protein from the milk and a couple more from the cereal.

With whole milk the breakfast is 248 calories with an extra 9 grams of fat.

If you prefer whole milk and drink it regularly, you could cut lots of fat out of your diet by changing to skim or 1%.

Learn to appreciate the natural taste of you cereal. You have learned to enjoy the taste of sugar and salt on everything. If you can learn to appreciate foods without these additives you can make changing your diet easier and more enjoyable. Sugar just adds empty calories. A teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories; a packet of sugar has 22 calories. If you want to add flavor to your cereal add half a banana or berries, frozen blueberries are great and they make the milk ice cold (I like that)....

Fast Froze low fat high protein dinner

Chicken and pasta dinner in 30 minutes

This is a fast, easy dinner.

Lean Cuisine garlic chicken: serving 1/2 of a bag

415 calories

Protein 30g Carbs 54 g Fat 9g

I add some extra chicken breasts because I eat a lot of protein to maintain my muscle mass, and because I seem to function better. That’s me, try it if it’s not you then modify it, everyone is different.

1 oz chicken breast w/o skin:

55 calories...8.5 g protein, 2 g fat 0 carbs and

The frozen chicken tenderloins are a great addition to the dish. You can just marinate them in water, garlic, lemon, some salt. (it’s just a matter of taste, use whatever you feel like except for high fat items like oil or cream. Keep it light, tomatoes marinara, barbecue sauce soy sauce, lots of times low fat or fat free salad dressing make great marinades. Marinates are a good time to use alcohol, the calories pretty much cook out and your left with the flavor. Tequila and chickenwith lime is a good choice.

One of my favorite meals is to just sauté a skillet ofthese tenderloins in fat free zesty Italian dressing with a little salt and pepper.

I added about 6 oz. of chicken to my Lean Cuisine entrée so the total was about:

700 calories, 71 g protein, 54 g carbs, 20g fat

3 g fiber, 990 sodium, 187 mg cholesterol

Lean cuisine has 4 or 5 varieties of prepared dinners, so you can mix it up so it’s not boring. Most any of the Lean cusine entrees have about the same number of calories. Of course always check the label for the details.

Some tips for the chicken. If you defrost the chicken breast or tenderloins first it's faster. If you’re lazy like me you can just toss them into a skillet with about an inch of water in it. Let them boil until they are thawed and about half cooked. Remove the chicken and dump the water, wipe out the skillet and return it to the burner and spray it with cooking spray.

Add the chicken and cook until done. I like to sauté the chicken in some water and minced garlic. I also throw in a little red wine vinegar, hot sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, curry. Keep a measuring cup with water handy and add a little water to keep it from sticking. I like spicy food so a little hot sauce and lots of pepper are usually in my meals.

By the way, did you know that spicy food burns extra calories?

The Lean cuisine meal is idiot proof. Just open the bag and toss it into a skillet stir and adjust heat to keep it from burning. It cooks up in about 10 or 15 minutes.

There you have it, a quick, easy, high protein, low fat satisfying dinner in under 30 minutes.

Pork Tenderloin with Applebutter

Pork Tenderloin with Applebutter

This is a great easy entrée for a dinner party. The leftovers make great lunches.

Begin with a 2-4 lb pork tenderloin roast. Remove all visible fat. Cut ¾ (leave about 1" uncut) so you can open up the center of the tenderloin. All a layer of apple butter and chopped garlic salt pepper, a little hot sauce if you like it spicy, rosemary and any other favorite spices you like to the center. Close and top the roast with the same ingredients. Roast the tenderloin in a baking pan with a rack to prevent the tenderloin from standing in drippings, at 350 for an hour or until done.

A three ounce serving (about the size of a deck of playing cards) has:

147 calories
5 g fat
67 mg cholesterol
24 g protein

Easy Snack Ideas

Easy snacks

Snacks

Today someone told me that they bought a bag of Paul Newman pretzels becuase they thought it would be a healthy snack only to find out that after finishing the bag the contents added up to 1000 calories. It's easy to get in trouble with snacks. Baked Potato chipe, dried fruit, chocolate covered rasins all sound like healthy snacks, and in limited amounts they are ok, but if you are gonna finish the bag they quickly add up to a thousand calories.

I've listed some of my favorite snacks and at the end I've added a list of suggestions from the American Heart Association which separates snacks by craving category. Check it out and see what works for you.

Here are some ideas on reasonable snacks. Of course you can eat cut vegetables. Carrots, celery, brocolli, cauliflower, cucumber, peppers all colors. You can use a fat free salad dressing or low fat dip (just be sure you take a look at the calorie content and add it in for the day)

Fresh fruit is a good snack. Apples, cantelope, pairs, grapes, oranges, bananas. Grapes are a little sweeter and have more calories than most fruit so be sure to watch the amount of the serving of these.

Crunchy/salty snacks. I use air popped popcorn a lot. I spray it with a butter flavored cooking spray that gives it a bit more flavor and lets salt stick to it. If you skip that all the salt falls to the bottom of the bowl and it's like eating cardboard.

There are a lot of varities of soy crisps out there. GenSoy makes a bag which is fairly large and had only about 300 calories in the entire bag. Plus you get about 20 or more grams of protein from the chips.

The problem with salty snacks is they are salty, high in sodium so if your watching that you may need to skip these.

A bowl of high fiber cereal is a great snack. Use skim milk or eat it dry as a crunchy snack.

You can add some cereal to a container of lite yogurt and it makes a good snack.

Protein drinks are a good sanck and can make a reasonable dessert substitute. If you use frozen fruit and mix it with a little less water it's close to icecream.

OK. There are a few of my thoughts on Snacking. If you have any other ideas please e mail them to me.

Crunchies
• Apples and pears
• Breadsticks
• Carrot and celery sticks
• Green pepper sticks
• Zucchini circles
• Radishes
• Broccoli spears
• Cauliflowerets
• Unsalted rice cakes

Hot Stuff
• Clear soups - homemade vegetable or tomato (commercially canned soups may be high in sodium)
• Cocoa made with nonfat milk

Munchies
• Unsalted sunflower seeds
• Whole-grain breads
• Mozzarella (part-skim)
• Ricotta (part-skim)
• Plain low-fat yogurt
• Bagels
• Almonds, walnuts and other nuts

Thirst Quenchers
• Nonfat milk or buttermilk
• Unsweetened juices
• Tomato or mixed vegetable juice (commercially canned vegetable juices may be high in sodium)

Sweet Stuff
• Unsweetened canned fruit
• Thin slice of angel food cake
• Baked apple
• Raisins
• Dried fruit gelatin gems
• Frozen Bananas
• Frozen Grapes
• Fresh fruit

Apple Cider Yogurt smoothie

Easy and interesting taste.

1 packet of Powered apple cider mix
this is low calorie and has only about 10 caloires per packet.
1/2 cup of Ice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 packet stevia

Blend and serve.

March 7 White Chili

White chicken/turkey Chili

This is one of my favorite high protein, high fiber meals. It's easy to make, mostly opening cans. I like to use a slow cooker, so you dont have to watch it and you can come home from work and dinner is ready. If you dont know the joys coming home to the fragrance of a home cooked meal in the slow cooker you must give it a try. This little device is a great way to make dieting easy, and tasty.

Begin with 2 cans of fat free chicken stock, and 4 cans of fat free Great White Northern beans, one can of pumpkin. Open and mix all ingredients in the slow cooker. Add the following spices to taste. Dash of hot sauce, Table spoon of Curry, two teaspoons of salt and pepper, and chili.

In a skillet brown the leanest ground turkey or chicken you can find. My favorite is ground turkey breast. add two tablespoons of chopped garlic and some chili power to taste while browning.

Lightly spray the skillet with butter spray and add meat you can add a bit of water to keep the meat from sticking. Add the spices while the meat is wet so it will blend well.

Once done add ground meat to the slowcooker and let it cook for 3 or so hours.

This yields about 18 servings

each 1/2 cup serving has
153 calories
18 g protein
30 g carbs
.14 g fat
677 mg sodium.. it's high in sodium so if that's a concern find lower sodium beans, chicken stock or make your great northern beans from dried beans that way you can control how much salt you use.