if all the raindrops were hot chocolate, oh what a rain that would be

It's been raining for most of the day in the Mitten today. I actually love rain during the day (though sometimes it can get to be a little much), and the perfect rain seems to be the one that comes on those Saturday mornings, the ones where you magically don't need to do any work that day and can justify laying in bed for an extra hour or two.

Yeah, yeah, keep dreamin', I know.

Rainy day about a month ago à la my backyard.

So what is one of the perfect companions to any rainy day? Rainy hot chocolate, of course! Standing outside with my mouth open wide....ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! 

Erm.....anyone else out there familiar with this song?

Anyway, this hot chocolate tastes creamy and is absolutely delicious. Today when I made it, we had this guy in the cupboard:

  

Mr. Hershey's Special Dark! So I decided to whip up a mug - dark chocolate style - and man, was it GOOD. Not to mention full o' antioxidants and flavonoids. There is research floating around, however, that consuming dark chocolate with milk reduces your body's ability to absorb the antioxidants. Also, Dutch processed cocoa usually is lower in antioxidant content than naturally processed cocoa. And the jury is still out whether or not dark chocolate successfully reduces blood pressure. Many studies out there are either inconclusive or have determined that you would need to eat a lot of dark chocolate to experience those health benefits.

Regardless, dark chocolate is known to promote feelings of satiety since it's so rich and oh-so-satisfying, so why not include it in your balanced diet today? And as always, it's important to watch your portion size since it's easy for the fat content of chocolate bars to add up!

Honestly, when I make this hot chocolate, I always eyeball the proportions and make it "to taste". Feel free to play with it and make it your own!

 Creamy Hot Chocolate

2-3 tsp. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa

  1-2 tsp. sugar

3-4 tsp. hot water

12 oz. almond or soy milk (this is what makes it creamy and delicious!)

In a small bowl, mix together cocoa and sugar. Add hot water and mix to make into a chocolate-y paste. Heat in microwave for about 10-20 seconds. Pour chocolate-y mixture into microwave-safe mug of milk. Mix vigorously to combine, and heat mug of chocolate-y goodness in microwave, about 2-3 minutes. Devour.

A splash of vanilla or peppermint extract would also make this hot chocolate amazing. Or a dollop of whipped cream!

Nutrition Information

I usually don't like to focus on calories, but wanted to include this to prove that this hot chocolate is better than the rest ;)

Made with Silk original almond milk, 2 tsp. sugar, and 3 tsp. dark cocoa powder:

Calories -  140 kcal

Fat - About 4g

Protein - 2.5g (Use soy milk or skim milk for a protein boost!)
Sugar - About 19g (If sugar is a concern for you, try preparing with unsweetened almond or soy milk)

Fiber - 3.5g

Iron - 16%

Calcium - About 65% DV

the celebration-food bandwagon: taking rides in moderation

So what has happened between now and my last post on April 7? DESSERT! Yes, my friends, that fateful Easter day was April 8 and that means dessert has been back in my life. I've given up desserts for every Lent since I was about 15, which makes Easter day a delectable feasting of cakes, cookies, chocolates, you name it. And did this RD dig in?

HECK YEAH, SHE DID.

I'm sure this dessert bounty served-up on holidays sounds familiar to many of you out there. There will always be Aunt Millie's famous pumpkin-roll at Thanksgiving dinner and that tall cake oozing with chocolate for your mother's birthday. No way around it, food is an integral part of our celebrations year 'round. While many people embrace this time to eat, drink, and be merry, there are others who worry about how much they will go "out of control" and "overdo it".

So what are we to do during these times? How do we find a balance between enjoying ourselves and not going overboard?

The trick is to do exactly that. Enjoy yourself. Eat the foods you want to eat. There are no bad foods out there, only "bad" portions. I hold a firm belief that eating smaller portions of a full-fat treat is much more nutritious than eating multiple servings of its fat-free counterpart. I'm talking mostly about those fat-free desserts out there or that dessert your friend made who describes it like this:

"Oh, I substituted applesauce for the oil, and bananas for the eggs, and I took out the walnuts that were supposed to be in it, and replaced the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. And....it's a cake!! And it's good for you!"

Yes, it may be a cake, but now it tastes like a granola bar cake. Or a brick. Also, many times when someone says that a food is "good for you", we often take that as an invitation to eat more of it. Just because a food is fat or sugar free doesn't mean we need more of it in our bodies. Another reason why we may eat more of a dessert that has been given a healthy make-over is simply because the fat is no longer there. Fat is extremely important since it sends messages to the satiety centers in our brain, telling us to stop eating because we are full.

The same goes for sugar. I've recently eliminated artificial sweeteners from my diet because I had the tendency to drink multiple servings of diet pop/Crystal Light each day. However, when the craving for a Coke hits me like a brick wall every few weeks or so, gosh darn-it, I drink that Coke! In fact, as I write this, I'm drinking one right now. The trick, however, is to stop at ONE CAN. For me, this is easier to do since I am much more satisfied after drinking a Coke can of sugar rather than aspartame.

And if you're a multiple-can pop drinker out there and want to reduce your intake, try this visual: imagine your pancreas working very hard to keep up with your sugar intake by shooting out enough insulin to keep your blood sugar levels normal. And a pancreas working very hard isn't necessarily a happy pancreas. Lately, thinking of how much harder the body has to work when we eat higher-fat and higher-sugar foods has helped me to make healthier changes, and maybe this will work for you, too :)

And one last thing...if you DO go overboard with a certain food: no feeling guilty, bad about yourself, or the F-word...fat. Your eating choices for one day, one week, or even one month do not define you in any way. Food does not have that power over you, and you have the power to live a healthy life: eat your favorite foods in reasonable portions, get in your fruits, vegetables, and lean protein, make half your grains whole, consume three servings of dairy, drink plenty of water, and exercise. It's as simple as that, and it's never too late to make a healthy change in your life.



These nutrition opinions are meant for healthy individuals without diet restrictions due to a medical condition. As always, please consult your own doctor or dietitian to make nutritional recommendations for your individualized needs.

how sweet it is: beverages

So today I had the opportunity to teach high schoolers about nutrition! The kids were awesome and it was a great time! I believe this is beginning to solidify the fact that I actually really enjoy talking in front of people (I never thought I would say that), especially teenagers! They have so much energy, great questions, hilarious questions, and are just a good time to be around.


What did we talk about today that might be of interest to y'all?


Sugar. Okay, and MyPlate, basic MyPlate guidelines, sneaking fruits and vegetables into your diet, eating out, and portion distortion. However, let's sidetrack a bit and let me explain this deal with sugar: I don't mean to talk about sugar all the time, but my educated guess is that we are discussing it frequently for this reason:

Lent.

Yes, my friends, you are talking to a nutritionist who has frequent love affairs with sugar and every Lent, I give up desserts. So I'm guessing that while dessert is not in my body, it's on my mind. At least subconsciously.

Anyways, before I go all USDA on you and demand that you make half your grains whole, I want to give you a little more sugar-low down. Today with the kids, we talked about sugar in sweetened beverages and we calculated how many teaspoons exactly were in certain drinks. Let's take a look:

My favorite has got to be the Vitamin Water. There's so many enhanced waters out there - Vitamin Water, Life Water, etc. etc. - that claim that their drink has electrolytes! B-vitamins! 10,000% percent daily value of vitamin C! Improves energy! Improves focus!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

You're wasting your money! Sure, these enhanced water drinks may taste good. Sure, they do tend to have less sugar than other sugary beverages. But the vitamins that these drinks boast about are what we call water-soluble vitamins.  These vitamins are not stored in the body, so it's important to replace them every day.  Water-soluble vitamins include vitamin C and B-complex vitamins, like thiamin (or vitamin B1), riboflavin (or vitamin B2), niacin, folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, biotin, and pantothenic acid. To get even more in the nitty gritty of it, these vitamins help with a slew of functions in our body, like maintaining metabolism, keeping the nervous system working properly, skin health, and red blood cell formation.

While these are all critical functions for good health, this is where the manufacturing companies get us. If we are in good health, it is very, very difficult (if not, impossible) to have toxic levels of water-soluble vitamins accumulate in our bodies due to the efficiency of our kidneys. When we consume water-soluble vitamins in excess, they go in...our pee. Meaning that this relationship is true in regards to consumption of enhanced waters in most situations:

'Tis true, my friends. So moral of the story is, think twice before you spend $2 on a Life Water. If you're drinking it because you a pop kind of guy or gal and are trying to make a healthier choice that has a little bit less sugar, then it's a good stepping-stone drink to reducing your sugar intake. But if you drink them day after day, that sugar will add up very quickly, as will your dollars!

how sweet it is: breakfast make-over

So have I got the breakfast recipe for you that is perfect for this beautiful spring/summertime weather we've been getting in the Mitten! Yes. COLD oatmeal. Maybe some of you have had oatmeal made like this before. I just discovered this recipe during my food service rotation with Dexter School District back in January, and man, oh man, I think it's delicious. The best part? This recipe lets you mix n' match what goes in it to make and endless combination of oatmeal yumminess - a great way to prevent breakfast from becoming ho-hum. Today's concoction? Cinnamon banana walnut oatmeal!

Lately, I've been making this oatmeal with thawed out strawberries and blackberries that are in my freezer, which makes me feel like I'm getting a sneak peak of summer. Freezing berries from the summer is a GREAT was to extend their life, and you can eat them all through the winter months if you freeze enough of them! Just make sure to pre-freeze them first by laying them out on a cookie sheet. This makes sure that they don't clump together to form a lovely ginormous ball of ice. After they're rock solid, transfer your now nicely frozen berries into Ziploc bags. Currently, mine are in gallon-sized bags, but snack-sized bags are a good idea since then you can take the berries out in more realistic sized portions.


However, I probably could eat at least a half gallon bag of frozen berries....they are just that delicious.


Showing off my summertime oatmeal, berry-style, is for another day, though. Let's talk about this concoction right here and how you can make it, too.

Summertime Oatmeal
1/2 cup uncooked oats
1/2 cup milk of choice (Lactose-intolerance has made me an almond and soy milk fan, so that's what I usually reach for)
Mix-ins of your choice! Some good ideas are: Chopped walnuts, almonds, raisins, bananas, berries (all kinds!), cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, Greek yogurt, the sky's the limit! The nuts are especially good sources of monounsaturated fat that will help keep you satisfied.


Mix up the oats and milk into a bowl. Stir in any fruit or nuts that you want to add. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, take out your oatmeal and top it with any flavorings you like - this means spices or natural sweeteners (like a few drizzles of honey or flavored Greek yogurt - more on this in a second). Stir it up, and devour!

 A great thing about this oatmeal is that it is sweetened naturally and without the extra sugar that you might find in those oatmeal packets. Think of the ones that come in Peaches N'Cream, Cinnamon N'Suga, and even Dinosaur Eggs flavors. If you currently add a decent amount of brown sugar, sugar, maple syrup, etc. to your daily bowl of heart healthy goodness, why not explore some alternatives? According to the USDA in 2000, an average of 31 five-pound bags of sugar were consumed per capita (or per person) each year. 

It is almost no wonder, then, that complications with type 2 diabetes is in the top 10 leading causes of death and that more than one-third of American adults are obese. Extra weight gain also puts us at risk for obesity-related conditions like heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer.


So what can we do?  Well. The first step is to start eliminating unnecessary sugars from your diet. Gradually, of course. Cold turkey is just a recipe for disaster. Since many breakfast cereals, oatmeals, and granola bars usually have a good dose of sugar in them, a good start to reducing your sugar intake is taking a look at what you eat in the morning. Let's start with this oatmeal that we've been talking about.


Soy milk and almond milk have a different kind of flavor and sweetness than non-fat milk, and using it in this recipe is a great way to utilize it as a natural sweetener. However, it's important to be aware that almond milk has only about 1 gram of protein per 8 oz. serving, while most soy milks have about 6-8 grams per 8 oz. serving (non-fat milk has 8 grams). Both, when calcium fortified, will provide you with about 30-45% of your daily needs for calcium (depending on the brand). Just make sure it is fortified with vitamin D, as well, or all that calcium will be for naught, since vitamin D is necessary for our bones to take up the calcium we consume.


Fruit is another great natural source of sweetness, and adding loads of it to this recipe can help satisfy your morning sweet tooth. I also mentioned in the recipe that adding some flavored Greek yogurt (about 1/4 cup might do the trick) is another way to amp up the sweetness in your morning grub, without adding spoonful upon spoonful of sugar. The protein-boost in Greek yogurt will also help to keep you full and satisfied until your next meal or snack comes along.


Try these tips a few times a week and see what happens. Listen to your body. Do you feel satisfied after eating a more protein and whole grain rich, naturally sweetened breakfast? Maybe you will notice that you are able to concentrate better during the morning hours and are able to keep your focus until lunchtime without that sugar rush and crash that refined sugars tend to give us. Give it a whirl!