1) Health tip here: Many of you have written asking about margarines & buttery spreads. You’ve been scrutinizing labels -- good -- but they still make it impossible to understand. The aggressively marketed brand names are “Promise” this & “Healthy” that...but the labels say, um… I’ll back up here, but first do a little experiment. Leave your margarine on the kitchen counter for an hour, & then look at it. Is it still solid?

Probably. Because margarines and spreads MUST contain either saturated fat or hydrogenated/trans fats, or they’d be liquid at room temperature. Really! And how could they sell a “buttery spread” if it’s goopy? Some food manufacturers are more upfront; even gleefully spin it as “We’ve gone back to the old-fashioned goodness of butter.” Great. So maybe they’ve put a little butter in with the palm oil (bad) or white lard they cut right off steer meat. Butter is gloriously delicious…but saturated fat is saturated fat, the 2nd worst of the artery-fillers. (Stick to olive & canola oil.)

What’s the first worst artery-filler? You know the answer. But you’re thinking “Hey, I thought trans fats were outlawed!” Sigh. I know this is getting repetitive, but for those of you who’ve just joined us, take a look (ugh) at this page.

If they were to hydrogenate olive oil, it would be bad for you. So what, really, does “hydrogenate” or “partially hydrogenate” mean? To hydrogenate means to pass bubbling hydrogen through a tube into any unsaturated cooking oil. This turns the oily liquid into a solid at room temperature. Until 2006, it was sold to manufacturers of baked and processed foods, or colored yellow, sent to market where it would have a longer shelf life, and called a butter substitute – despite mounting evidence starting in the early 1990s that the substance was a killer.

Manufacturers love legal loopholes. (It was hard enough getting the ’06 legislation passed.) And until the government catches up with the so-powerful food lobby, if ever, you’re best off sticking to olive oil & canola oil.

Whew! Now for some good eats!

2) MLA Chicken Cacciatore, serves 4, nutrient-intense, double or triple recipe; use for lunch & freeze leftovers in Ziplocs. (MLA means Makes Lots Ahead. Just pull from freezer in the morning, let it thaw, heat ‘n eat for dinner. Make once, no work!)
Per serving: 245 calories

Cooking Spray
1 pound skinless chicken breasts, cleaned of fat
8 oz sliced mushrooms
minced or dried garlic to taste
1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets
1 12 oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup fat free, no sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 lg. sliced onion

Spray skillet with cooking spray and cut chicken into small pieces.
Over medium high heat sautee mushrooms, garlic, and chicken until golden.
*Pour off any drippings (they’re liquid cholesterol)
Lower heat & push chicken mixture to one side.
In cleared place add whole can of pasta paste. Stir in the water, olive oil, chicken broth, basil, pepper, oregano, & more powdered garlic if desired.
Stir & mix sauce. Add broccoli florets. Simmer whole mixture, stirring in onions last so they’ll be crunchy.

*Fish & cleaned-of-fat-&-skin chicken do have cholesterol. What they don’t have is saturated fat.

 
3) Fruit Chocolate Fondue Per Serving: 140 calories

4 strawberries, halved
1/2 apple, sliced thin with skin left on (anti-oxidants are on the dark-pigmented skin)
peach slices

banana slices
2 tbsp fudge sauce

Line outside rim of dessert dish with pretty fruits. In cup or smaller dish microwave fudge sauce for 20 seconds. Remove, place in center of fruits. Fork fruits & dip into warm chocolate.

 
Fudge sauce recipe tweak:
 
Add, to the usual mix of equal amounts of unsweetened, non-alkalinized cocoa & Splenda, 1/2 tablespoon per person of Jello Sugar Free Vanilla pudding powder. Then add water, stir, that’s all! A little water makes a thick fudgey mixture; more water makes fudge sauce, and more water still makes a great cocoa drink. Each tbsp unsweetened cocoa is 20 calories & contains 4,000 antioxidants. Two tablespoons mixed with water make a serving: 40 calories, 8,000 antioxidants, no sugar, no fat. Woo hoo! Win-win!
 
Gotta close with a quote from Tom Hanks, playing Jimmy Dugan in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
 
 
Love that…
Joyce & Bob :)