Prospero's Kitchen

You're too busy, too worn-out, and can't think about being healthy

That sounds like a lot of us, doesn't it? But if you regularly take even a few moments out of your frantic life, you'll see results very soon.

Try walking. You can walk from where you park your car at the end of the parking lot to your office, classroom, grocery story, or shopping mall. You didn't notice that much, did you? If you can't walk, try wall push ups

Try chilling. You're at your desk and the papers are piled up in front of you. They're a mess and you're on edge. Try closing your eyes for ten seconds, breathing deeply, imagining that you're breathing out all that clutter in your mind. Easy. Right?

You're exhausted at the end of the day and can't even think about cooking. What you want to do is stop on the way home and pick up something at the drive-through. Try resisting the urge to grab a quick fix that's usually over salted and high in fat. Instead when you get home, take out a carton of flavored low-fat or fat-free yogurt or a small carton of flavored low-fat or fat-free milk and drink it while you're sitting down. Then, when you've got some energy back, take out some nutritious leftovers or stir-up a Super Easy recipe like the one below. Add an apple or other fruit of your choice and you're on your way to a strong, vital, healthy life!

Toasted Cheese with Tomato Slice

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 teaspoons lite mayonnaise

2 slices whole grain bread

2 slices reduced-fat cheese such as mozzarella or Swiss

2 slices from a large tomato, if available

Method

Cover cookie sheet or toaster oven tray with aluminum foil. Spread lite mayonnaise onto each of two bread slices. Place cheese and then tomato on each slice of bread. Put the cookie sheet into the oven or the tray into a toaster oven. Toast until the cheese begins to melt and the bread turns brown. Remove with a spatula onto plates.

 

I'm Baaack! With Some Pretty Good News

Thanks for being patient. I've been hunkered down going over my soon-to-be-published book page by page, line by line. And in doing so, I've realized this is NOT a gourmet cookbook. It's a collection of delicious, healthy, very easy recipes and shortcuts on how to eat healthily.

Several readers of this blog volunteered to be recipe testers, some from as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia. And surprisingly, I learned most from those recipe testers who weren't gourmet cooks. I also learned from the gourmet cooks about tweaks that the recipes needed.

We, those of us who are foodies, have gotten used to recipes and cookbooks that assumed we all know a lot about cooking and have lots of time to do it. The truth is we don't. And that's where the revised theme of the book started. Busy people won't  bother with the recipes if they seem difficult or speak a foreign gourmet language.  So, the book, Even You Can Be Healthy, now has a subtitle: This is NOT a gourmet cookbook!

Stay tuned. I'll be posting more recipes, more advice on becoming healthy, more ways to do it all easily. So that Even You Become Healthy!

What You Eat Determines Your Health--Mostly

The basics of healthy eating are so simple it'll be hard for you to forget them.

• Eat lots of colorful vegetables and fruit. They can be fresh, canned, or frozen, which is especially high in nutrients because they're packed immediately after harvest.
• Use “good” fats. That's olive oil and canola oil. Other vegetable oils work well, too. The polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and fish lower disease risks. Our bodies absolutely need good fats to function well.
• But we don't need the "bad" fats that clog our arteries and cause diseases. Stay away from saturated fats found in red meats and full-fat dairy and from trans fats, hydrogenated oils, found in processed foods and baked goods.
  
• Whole grains need to be a part of our diets, not white flour, which is considered a "bad" carb. Whole grains are a good source of fiber and needed nutrients such as selenium, magnesium, and potassium.
• Use low-fat proteins, such as skinless chicken breast, beans, and nuts, and lean cuts of beef and pork. And have two servings a week of fish.

Here's today's recipe, a one-pan dish with low-fat proteins, white beans:

Amazing Response from Recipe Testers

My asking for Recipe Testers a couple of days ago got a generous and welcome response. Testers who worked on Chefs of the Triangle recipes from the chefs answered. New testers who are interested in the book and in being a part of its coming into being answered.

I'm grateful and overwhelmed.

My goal is the get the book to the publisher before the end of July. So if you'd like to join the rest of us in testing the recipes, please do. Your reward is that you'll be a part of creating this book on leading a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy food, directed to busy people.

Your name is published in the book and you receive a free published book. Who knows? It might even help you?

Sign on to be a Recipe Tester today!