Be Nutritious

Certificate Program in Adult Weight Management in Savannah.

I had an amazing weekend. I went to Savannah, GA to attend workshops for a Certificate of Training in Adult Weight Management offered by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It was an amazing experience and my first ever visit to beautiful Savannah. Even though I did not have much time to hang out in the city, I did not complain. I spent 3 days at the workshops and was able to network with plenty of nutrition professionals from all over the US.

I must say that I have learnt so much and am so glad I attended the event. Now I only have to pass an exam and my precious Certificate diploma will be mailed to me and ready for framing

Certificate workshops

The content of the certification included all of the most important and controversial topics in the area of weight management and was based at the current research. All of the speakers during the event are known authorities on the subject of weight management and are strongly involved in the fight against obesity.

Some of the most interesting topics presented during workshops were: current popular diet programs and their pros and cons, current research on weight management, behavior modification in treating obesity, motivational interviewing of patients and tons of real life case studies. The case studies and some of the exercises definitely taught me the most. I was able to engage in patient-nutritionist role play and see how an interview looks on the other (patient) side. I leant how to apply my knowledge and interviewing skills to help shape patient’s behavior. Needless to say it was a very educational experience that expanded my knowledge and competences.

So now I’m off to studying for the exam. I’m also posting few pictures of charming Savannah. Sorry for the quality though, the pictures were taken from my phone.

Non-GMO Shopping Guides.

I am almost by the end of my last quarter and I am about to graduate in June….Hooray. But before I can leave school I do have to attend few nutrition seminars on which students share the topics they feel passionate about. Today’s presentation was about GMO’s (Genetically Modified Foods) and I wanted to share few things with you. I do not want to get into detail about GMO’s because there’s tons of information out there on the web but I mainly wanted to share few links (found at the end of the post) to a non-GMO shopping guides that can be printed out and used as a help while doing grocery shopping.

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Healthier Lasagna with Turkey, Mushrooms and Eggplant

Lasagna usually isn’t regarded as a healthy food but I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t try to make it healthy so I used lean ground turkey instead of beef, low fat ricotta cheese which has half of the calories of regular ricotta and plenty of vegetables such as eggplant and mushrooms. I didn’t skimp on cheese though, in the end I’m a cheesy girl and eat cheese with everything. Other than cheese you won’t find fat in my lasagna but it doesn’t mean that it has no flavor. Oh no, it’s as flavorful as typical bolognese lasagna. And in just one portion you get full serving of vegetables. Isn’t that just fabulous?

Ingredients:

(makes 8 regular portions or 6 for very hungry and greedy like me)

1 standard size lasagna pan
1 box of lasagna sheets
1 pound of lean ground turkey
1 medium sized eggplant
8 oz mushrooms (I used baby bella)
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
15 oz box of low fat ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 Tbsp italian seasoning
24 oz jar of marinara sauce
1 cup + 1/4 cup of parmesan to sprinkle on a top
2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (1 cup if you want to make it extremely low fat)
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil

Start with peeling the eggplant and slicing it into rounds. Place on a kitchen towels, sprinkle with salt and let ir rest for 30 min to get rid of the bitter flavor.
Meanwhile chop the onion, garlic and slice the mushrooms.
Mix ricotta cheese with 1 egg, 1 cup parmesan, parsley and salt and pepper.
After 30 min wash the eggplant of the excess salt, dry it with kitchen towels and chop into small cubes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Boil lasagna noodles for roughly 2-3 min. I used boil free noodles but I don’t believe in boil-free so I boiled it a little bit. Just make sure that they wont stick especially after you’ll drain them under cold running water in the colander. Don’t let them just sit in the colander, separate them right away or they will stick together and you won’t be able to separate them (yes that happened to me). Also even though it might seem like a lot, it’s better to use whole box just in case.
Heat the oil in a large skillet, add onion, garlic, mushrooms and eggplant. Season with salt and Italian seasoning and let it cook on a medium heat for 10 min stirring occasionally.
Add turkey and separate with the fork to prevent large clumps of meat. We don’t want turkey meatballs.
Cook turkey just until no longer pink and add whole jar of marinara sauce. You can also add half cup water to thin the sauce as I did. Let it cook 2 min more.
Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the lasagna pan. Place the noodles. Evenly spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture on the top and follow with 1/3 of the sauce.
Cover with lasagna noodles and again spread the remaining half of the ricotta mixture. Follow with another 1/3 of the sauce and top with lasagna noodles.
On the top part just spread the remaining 1/3 of the sauce, sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly and top with remaining 1/4 cup of the parmesan.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30 min. After 30 min remove the aluminum foil and bake additional 15 min.
Take out of the oven and let it rest about 15 min before cutting and serving.

And that’s how it looked when it came out of the oven.

Miso Glazed Cod

Here’s something I’ve been wanting to try for many, many months. Miso glazed fish. I have no idea why I never made it before but I’m glad I finally did. I must say it was delicious, healthy and very filling. Plus very easy to make and impossible to ruin even if cooking is not your strength. It works great with any firm whitefish or salmon. Yes, next time I definitely will make it with salmon. Such a fantastic way to add more flavor to fish without adding fat.

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Halloween Recipe – Bloody Mary Chicken

Bloody Mary is one of my favorite drinks ever. Whenever I don’t feel like drinking sweet cocktails I go for Bloody Mary. Plus it’s probably a drink most commonly ordered during Halloween. Bloody Mary’s spicy and savory flavor could also be great in any other savory dish . My inspiration for the recipe were barbeque wings which are as messy as my chicken. Of course the flavor is different but in both cases you have to lick your fingers and wipe your chin with a napkin from a red sauce. Very messy. I am using chicken drumsticks but chicken breast, whole thighs or wings could work as well in the recipe. I also added a shot of vodka but it’s not really necessary, it doesn’t add as much flavor to the sauce.

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My First Giveaway – Kernel Season’s Popcorn Flavorings

Popcorn is not usually regarded as a healthy food but in my opinion it should. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that huge bucket of popcorn from a movie theater is a healthy stuff, because it’s not. It’s soaked in butter and sprinkled with enormous amount of salt. According to WebMD movie theater popcorn ranges anywhere from 400 to 1,200 kcal depending on size from small to big. That definitely is not a low calorie snack but trust me if I say that popcorn can be a good and a healthy snack. It all depends on what kind of popcorn and a portion you’re going to eat. I always buy 100 kcal mini bags of popcorn. Such popcorn is much lower in sodium and fat. Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop has only 1.5 g of fat per 100 kcal bag, 4% of sodium and 3 g of fiber. Considering quite large volume of a bag it is a healthy and filling snack. The only problem people might find with low fat, low sodium popcorn is a lack of taste and that iss where Kernel Season’s comes in. It adds flavor to your popcorn without adding unnecessary calories or sodium. What could be better than a lot of flavor and not a lot of calories

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Cream of Pumpkin with Roasted Garlic and Sage

There’s a lot of pumpkin soup recipes out there and it’s really hard to chose which one to make. I guess that depends on your taste bud preferences. I never was big on sweet taste that’s why my soup is rather savory with garlic and sage and just slight undertones of sweetness coming from pumpkin itself.

I’m using whole bulb of garlic but remember that first of all roasted garlic loses its sharpness and becomes much more mellow and gentle, second you don’t have to use whole bulb. You add garlic to the blender as you go according to your likeness.

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Sauted Spinach with Mushrooms

For those of you who are totally bored with plain boiled or steamed spinach I recommend this spinach sauted with a shallot, garlic and white button mushrooms. You’re still getting your super healthy greens but in a slightly new form. Mushrooms add different flavor and texture and it’s so good that I could eat it all without sharing.

The ingredients here are for 2 servings. When I was preparing it I was sure it would be enough for 4 people but spinach shrinks so much that a standard 9-10 oz bag can feed only 2 max 3 people as side dish. So obviously if you want to make it as a family side for 4 double the recipe.

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Salmon Farfalle with Sambuca

This pasta is probably my favorite pasta dish at the moment. Well maybe except angel hair with tomato sauce, which always is unbeatable. First of all salmon is not very frequent addition to pasta and I have no clue why because those two things together are a perfect match. Also Sambuca used instead of white wine adds fantastic, new and intriguing flavor. Sambuca, if you’re not aware, is an anisette flavored Italian liquor. It’s sweet and has a strong anisette taste but when cooked with butter, salmon and tomatoes becomes very mellow yet distinctive. I love it, it’s so much different than white wine based sauce. If you’ve ever been to Bonefish Grill and ordered Mussels Josephine, than you definitely know the flavor because it’s also made with Sambuca. It’s pretty hard to describe it, you have to taste it to know what I’m talking about. Oh and by the way, if you think 1/4 cup of Sambuca might be too overpowering, add 3 Tbsp and eventually add 1 Tbsp more later while cooking if the taste is ok.

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Healthy and Fun School Lunches for Kids

So that’s it, summer is officially over. New school year has started and those of you parents who prepare lunchbox for kids again have to come up with healthy and creative ways to make school lunch enjoyable. There is nothing worse that when you prepare some kind of food and it either ends up in a trash can or is completely untouched. Here I have few tips how to make school lunch tasty, creative and still keep it in the healthy zone.

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