Slow Cooker Turkey Kielbasa, Cabbage and Potato Soup

Slow Cooker Turkey Kielbasa, Cabbage and Potato Soup

With cooler weather approaching, everyone loves a healthy pot of soup brewing on the stove.  

Ingredients:
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
¼ teaspoon anise seed
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 small onion, diced
1 14-ounce can cannellini beans or white beans, drained and rinsed
12-ounces small potatoes, cut in half
7 ounces turkey kielbasa, cut into half moons
2 cups chopped cabbage
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
1 cup croutons, optional (gluten-free if desired)

Preparation: 

Whisk broth, water, rosemary, anise, sea salt and pepper in a large slow cooker. Add onion, beans, potatoes, turkey kielbasa and cabbage and stir to combine. Set slow cooker on high for 4 hours or on low heat for 8 hours. Top with cheese and croutons if using.

Healthy Chicago Cubs Fruit Dessert Pizza

Healthy Chicago Cubs Fruit Dessert Pizza

So, where are all of my Chicago Cubs Fans?  Here is a fun dessert to share at your next World Series Game get together to celebrate the Cubs' victory!! Enjoy!

Makes 1 large pizza

Crust Ingredients:
3 cups soft pitted dates
2 cups whole almonds
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup raw honey
1/4 cup almond butter (or peanut butter)

Topping Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups vanilla Greek yogurt
for the toppings
strawberries, sliced or raspberries
blueberries

Preparation:

1. Use a circular pizza pan
2. Place dates, almonds, coconut, and cocoa powder into blender until broken down completely. 
3. Add the honey and almond or peanut butter and process until it comes together and forms a ball.
4. Form the mixture into a ball. Using slightly wet hands, press the mixture onto the pizza pan. Use a rolling pin or your hands to press the mixture to the edges of the pan. Work the mixture so it is evenly distributed all the way to the edge of the pan.
5. Put the crust in the freezer for 10 minutes.
6. Use a spatula to spread the Greek yogurt on the crust.
7. Top the crust with the fruit spelling Cubs. Chill until ready to serve.

Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This is a comfort food that is very much enjoyed by our family on cold days.  I hope you enjoy it also.

Yields 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups chopped broccoli (peeled stems included)
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons coconut spread
4 tablespoons whole wheat flour
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1⁄2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring broth, broccoli (about 1 med. head will yield 3 cups chopped broccoli) and celery to a boil over high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until broccoli is tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, melt coconut spread in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir in flour, salt and pepper; cook for 1 minute.
5. With a whisk or wooden spoon, add milk gradually, beating constantly to prevent lumping.
6. (It will thicken like paste at first; keep beating in milk to thin it.) Bring to a boil.
7. If you want a smooth soup, puree broccoli in blender.
8. Now add broccoli mixture (smooth or chunky) into large saucepan with the milk.
9. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.
10. Serve immediately.

Container Equivalent: 1 Green, 1 Blue 
Photo by: dianegrapegrower

Spicy Maple-Cashew Popcorn

Photo: John Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr

Popcorn is a family favorite, but is often not allowed because of the sodium. Here is a healthy alternative to the traditional high sodium recipes.

Spicy Maple-Cashew Popcorn

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernels (about 6 cups popped)
1/4 cup cashews
1/3 cup stevia
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut spread
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a medium heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. While saucepan heats, line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper; set prepared pan aside. Add popcorn to oil in saucepan; cover and cook 2 minutes or until kernels begin to pop, shaking pan frequently. Continue cooking 2 minutes, shaking pan constantly. When popping slows down, remove pan from heat. Let stand 1 minute or until all popping stops.
2. If you are low on time, place unpopped popcorn kernels in a brown lunch sack and microwave 30 seconds at a time until popping stops.  
3. Pour popcorn into a bowl and stir in cashews.
4. Combine stevia and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool 1 minute.
5. Pour hot syrup mixture over popcorn mixture; toss well to coat.
6. Immediately spread popcorn mixture out onto prepared jelly-roll pan. Cool 3 minutes.

Tip: If you do not like it spicy, just omit the red pepper flakes.

Container Equivalents:  1/4 cup = 1 Yellow, 1 Blue

Cheesy Cauliflower Breadsticks

Who doesn't love a yummy cheesy breadstick.  Here is a healthy guilt-free version to enjoy!  

Cheesy Cauliflower Breadsticks

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 egg
2 tsps garlic powder
1/2 cup 1% shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the cauliflower in a saucepan until tender
3. In a food processor chop cauliflower until it looks like rice. You want it finally chopped but not total mush.
4. Place the cauliflower rice in a cheesecloth or thick paper towel and wring out all excess moisture.
5. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Combine cauliflower with egg, garlic powder, cheese, and seasonings.
6. Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper (leaving extra parchment paper so that you can lift the loaf out of the pan) and spray with olive oil. Dump cauliflower mixture into the bread pan and press down evenly. 
7. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
8. Like a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with olive oil. When loaf is finished baking, remove from oven, carefully flip the loaf onto the baking sheet so it is upside down. You can lift it out of the bread pan by the parchment paper if necessary.
9. Bake for 10 more min until loaf is golden brown.
10. Turn oven to broil.
11. Remove loaf from oven, sprinkle worth a little more mozzarella cheese, salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Broil for 1-2 min until cheese melts. Serve with a side of marinara sauce.

By:  Beachbody

Healthy Marinara Sauce Recipe:

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: Makes enough for one pound of pasta.

Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free, Low Fat, Refined Sugar Free

Ingredients:
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder (feel free to use 2-3 cloves fresh)
1/2 tsp onion powder (feel free to use 1/2 a fresh onion, minced)
Pinch red pepper flakes (add a few pinches if you like your sauce to have a little heat)
Pinch black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for at least 20 minutes, up to an hour.

Container Equivalents: 1 green, 1/2 of a blue and 1 tsp ( 3 cauliflower sticks )

7 Ways to Bust an Exercise Plateau

The exercise plateau is the bane of almost everyone who works out. Despite continuing to hit it hard, you’re no longer seeing results. It hardly seems fair and on the surface might not feel like it makes sense — after all, you’re still exercising and eating right — but there are physiological reasons for why an exercise plateau occurs.

A few of these include lack of overload principle, taxing the nervous system, and overtraining. Eventually, your muscles, body, and joint connections adapt and get bored with your activity.

“Most people who work out will hit a plateau,” says exercise physiologist Tom Seabourne, Ph.D., author Personal Trainer Guide and a Guinness World Record­–holding ultra-endurance athlete. When it comes to getting past one he says,“Let your goals be your guide. If you want to get stronger, you have to do things that will get you stronger, like running hills or lifting heavier weight. If you want to be faster, add sprint intervals.”

According to Seabourne, it takes as little as 4-6 weeks for your body to adapt to a workout, which is why you need to provide it with new challenges to tackle and skills to learn. To that end, here are seven real-world strategies to help you sail past a frustrating exercise plateau and get the results you want.

Strategies for Overcoming a Frustrating Exercise Rut

1. Keep a Log. Consistently.
Studies have shown that self-monitoring, by keeping some type of food and exercise diary on most days of the week, is a tried-and-true method for losing weight.

For cardio, note the mode, duration, distance, and intensity.
For strength training, record the exercise, weight, reps, sets, and rest periods.
The American College of Sports Medicine even suggests listing how you feel right after a workout to discover subtle obstacles that might impact your workout, including how you slept the previous night, specific aches and pains, timing of a previous meal, and stress.
Consistency is critical. Review your log weekly for inconsistencies, to see how you’re progressing, or even what may be holding you back.

2. Stock Your Fridge.
Those shelves should be more crowded than your cabinets if you’re eating a clean diet of whole foods versus packaged, processed fare. There’s an old diet adage that says abs are made in the kitchen, but the point goes way beyond abs. Fueling your body with the food it needs will help you get better results when you’re exercising too. Load up on fresh veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains.

3. Perfect Your Form.
Something as simple as widening or narrowing your grip during a bench press or a lat pulldown can alter the muscles you’re recruiting and provide new stimulus, says Seabourne. Have a personal trainer monitor you or check out our step-by-step technique videos.



4. Try New Techniques.
Supersets are back-to-back resistance exercises that are time savers and calorie burners. Drop sets are when you do multiple sets in a row without rest and decrease the weight each time. Both can fatigue a muscle group very efficiently.
Circuit training, where you do one set of each move in order, often interspersing some form of cardio in between sets — jumping rope or burpees, for example — can torch more calories than regular weight training and saves time by combining cardio and strength.
Intervals and HIIT training are also good options if you’re just bored with your workout or can’t find enough time to be consistent.

5. Add “Good” Stress.
Seabourne explains that the key to strength training is progressive overload. “If you only lift 12 pounds, you’ll only be able to lift 12 pounds.” You have to gradually stress the body to make it stronger. Some of the variables you can play with besides the pounds and exercises you’re doing include reps, sets, and rest periods. Not seeing your weight-lifting personal record increase as expected? Add speed work, hills, form drills and core training.

6. Use Periodization.
Athletes typically do something called periodization to avoid injury and ensure they peak in time for competition. An overview of this type of training, published in the Journal of Human Kinetics, indicates periodization trumps “traditional” training when it comes to long-term strength training results. While it can be complicated, the broad definition of periodization means systematically varying your workouts, usually with specific goals in mind. Many Beachbody workouts are based on this approach.

7. Recover. Recover. Recover.
Recovery is one of the keys to seeing great results. If you’ve been pushing yourself hard, but you’re not seeing results and are feeling more fatigued than usual, you might be overtraining. In that case, taking a week off to allow your body to fully recover will help you escape the plateau.

In addition, what you do post-workout in terms of eating, rest, and even myofascial release (like massage or using a foam roller — one of Tony Horton’s fave tools) affects how your body responds to exercise. Refueling properly after big workouts, getting plenty of sleep and releasing tight muscles, can all improve athletic performance and help you break through any exercise plateau.

By:  Beachbody

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Feta Cheese, Spinach, and Walnuts

If you enjoy pasta salad, you will enjoy this healthy side dish.  This is perfect to bring along to a family dinner.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound whole-wheat fusilli or other spiral shaped pasta
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 1/2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta, rinse it under cold water, and put it in the refrigerator to chill.
2. In a dry saute pan toast the walnuts in olive oil over a medium-high flame until they are fragrant, about 2 minutes. Set the walnuts aside to cool then chop them coarsely.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the chilled pasta, walnuts, feta cheese, onion, and spinach. In a small bowl whisk the oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and mustard. 
4. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss to combine.

Adapted from the Food Network