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March is National Frozen Food Month but March 6th is Frozen Food day.
What is in your freezer? Are you stocking up this month – there should an abundant amount of frozen food on sale this month.
Frozen food has come a long way from TV dinners in aluminum foil, frozen pizza that we described as cardboard and Hungry Man dinners that still left you hungry but 10 pound heavier from fat and water retention from the abundance of sodium. At least there are options with frozen vegetables and side dishes to family friendly meals that are conscious of nutrition.
Have you watched the Healthy Choice commercials in the last few months? I was intrigued with their marketing campaign and visited their website once I realized it was Frozen Food month. What I did not know is that they have been running a pseudo campaign to show how Julia-Louis Dreyfus becomes the Healthy Choice spokesperson. In the ads it seems as if she is saying that she doesn’t want to do it and that is what I thought the spoof was but Con Agra, the makers of Healthy Choice, has a website called Spokespersonwanted.com. It is funny to see the commercials again and she how it all comes together.
Also available on the Healthy Choice (http://www.healthychoice.com/) site is product descriptions, nutritional information and coupons to print at home. (http://www.healthychoice.com/news-special-offers/). Check other frozen food favorites of your and see if they have any coupons this month. Visit their corporate website for offers listed and check local ads.
Whether you zap it or bake it – enjoy some frozen food this month!
In honor of Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day (3/1) we are posting one of our favorite peanut butter recipes. This recipe happens to be one of Paula Deen’s called Magical Peanut Butter Cookies.
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup sugar, or 1 1/3 cup sugar replacement (recommended: Splenda)
1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the peanut butter, sugar (or sugar substitute), egg, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Stir until ingredients form dough. Roll the dough into balls the size of walnuts. Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet. With a fork, dipped in sugar/sugar substitute to prevent sticking, press a crisscross design on each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven, and sprinkle the cookies with some of the remaining sugar/sugar substitute. Cool slightly before removing from pan.
Yields 18 cookies.
This recipe can be found online at Paula Deen’s website or in Paula’s Home Cooking/Lady and Sons Too! cookbook Pg. 229. Visit www.PaulaDeen.com for more peanut butter recipes.
Stay tuned for giveaways featuring Paula Deen’s cookbooks and cooking accessories that we are hosting.
Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com
Having a cold is just plain lousy – it’s miserable to have a runny nose, coughs and sneezes. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids and keep your skin well moisturized with an extra dose of Striking Serum layered with Striking Creme. And to help beat the blahs and to give yourself a little TLC, we’re sharing some of our favorite comfort foods.
Cold season is here and when you feel lousy, you want comfort as well as healthy choices. Fitness Magazine highlighted some great choices that should help soothe your cold and keep your diet on track. Each one of these snacks is packed with cold-fighting vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that may help make your cold less severe.
Our traditional favorite – Chicken Soup!
It may be cliché, but Chicken soup is the perfect comfort food when you’ve got a cold! Drinking plenty of hot, nurturing fluids is essential when you’re feeling run down and research at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha showed that chicken soup helps control the production and spread of inflammation and congestion-causing neutrophils (white blood cells).
Recommended serving size: 1 cup
Calories: about 190
Soothing Ginger Tea with Gingersnaps
Ginger helps relieve congestion and has a soothing, spicy taste. To make a throat-calming, congestion-busting tea, steep chopped raw ginger in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Make your teatime a little sweeter by adding a teaspoon of honey to the brew and two crunchy gingersnap cookies on the side. We think this is good on a rainy day, too!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup of tea with 1 teaspoon honey and 2 small gingersnaps
Calories: about 85
Fresh Clementines or Satsumas
Easy to peel, fresh, sweet and tangy all at once, they are a great source of Vitamin C – just two fulfill 100 percent of your RDA of vitamin C.
Recommended serving size: 2 clementines
Calories: about 138
Open Those Sinuses Vegetarian Chili
A spicy veggie chili made with onions, garlic, kidney beans, tomato paste and a good dash of chili peppers not only warms up a cold-afflicted body, it may also have medicinal properties! Onions and garlic have antiviral effects, beans have good-for-the-immune-system B vitamins, and the spices can actually help clear sinuses!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup canned vegetarian chili
Calories: about 160
Tuna Salad
Packed with glutamine, an amino acid that helps step up your immune system’s efficiency, tuna is a great pick when you’re sick. Research at the University of Oxford showed that athletes who ingested glutamine after workouts were less likely to get an upper respiratory infection than those who didn’t; for regular folk, glutamine could have the same beneficial effects. Mix your tuna with a tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise and serve it on 6 whole-grain crackers for a healthy mini meal.
Recommended serving size: 1 6-ounce can of tuna packed in water with 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise and 6 whole-grain crackers
Calories: about 290
Excerpted from FitnessMagazine.com, January 2006.
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/snacks/healthy/6-smart-snacks-to-feed-your-cold/
In some parts of the country, snow is abound and continues to fall but that is not the case in the Northwest. Almost overnight the trees have begun to bloom and spring is beginning to show its beautiful face. (Do not fret, the rest of you will catch up very soon.)
When spring begins to surface a feeling comes over us and we have the need to feel refreshed with the urge to try something new. It could be a planning a long, relaxing weekend, getting back to the gym, trying a new hairstyle or adding new pieces to your wardrobe.
Enjoy the changing of seasons and how it makes you feel as we begin to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring and all its beauty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMomMWe5v0&feature=player_embedded
Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. Learn more at www.goredforwomen.org and www.americanheart.org.
As we watch the 2010 Winter Olympics this week it is hard to imagine what life sacrifices it takes to get there. We are inspired by all Olympians but there is one that caught our attention this week.
Her name is Tracy Sachtjen is from Lodi, Wisconsin and was born in 1969. As the oldest female on the US Olympic Team in Vancouver this year she will celebrate another birthday on Saturday with her team. She is an alternate on the US Women’s Curling Team in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Tracy began curling in 1982 and has won several events since then. Here are only some of her career highlights:
2003 World Championships Gold Medalist
US Nationals Gold Medalist in 2009, 2008, 2003, 1999 and 1997
US Nationals Silver Medalist in 2001, 2000 and 1998
US Olympic Trials Gold Medalist in 2009
US Olympic Trials Silver Medalist in 2005 and 2001
US Curling Association Female Athlete of the Year in 1989
US Curling Association Team of the Year in 2003
Tracy is a support member for her team and a role model for kids across the US especially young girls. For more information on Tracy and the US Women’s Curling Team, visit NBC Olympics or read this article posted 2/15/10 on Tracy Sachtjen.
Happy Birthday Tracy!
Happy Valentine’s Day!!!
We hope it is sweet…
Whether you have been together awhile or cannot think of anything special to do this year, here are some ideas that you could do with your Valentine.
Summary of Nina Malkin’s list:
Dine someplace really exclusive – skip the trendy locations and have someone cater your dinner. Or pick up take out from your favorite restaurant and arrange it on your china. Why do the work when someone else can?
Reminisce romantically – put on some tunes that remind you of years past. Reminisce together and enjoy the music and laughter.
Blow some big bucks – do something that you not normally do, like take a helicopter ride, hot air balloon ride or even rent a limo or your Valentine’s favorite sports car.
Plan an indoor picnic – turn the living room into a special relaxing outing. Select food that is finger food and easy to eat on the floor.
Take a Valentine’s adventure – go explore a nearby city that you never go to or spend much time there. You might find a new place to eat or something special you would have missed.
Pen a tale of passion – write a short story together and see where it goes.
Unwind à deux – relax together at home or at a day spa with a couples treatment.
Court with a classic – read romantic poetry together or find a local spot that is doing poetry readings.
Flirt with the future – talk about the future and all of the things you will do together. You never know, you might start planning your next vacation.
Ideas courtesy of Match.com and Nina Malkin at this link:http://www.match.com/magazine/article.aspx?articleid=8796&trackingid=525758&bannerid=666224.
Today is National Chocolate Cake Day!
Need I say more? Go have a slice and enjoy. It is the national holiday and all…
The North American Menopause Society has launched a new newsletter for menopause called Menopause Flashes that can serve as a resource for answering questions and finding resources on menopause. There are so many questions regarding hormone therapy; what is fact and what is fiction? You may have read about hormone therapy in advertisements, online or talked to friends about it. But what is really true and what is not?
There is a great link on this month’s Menopause Flashes that answers questions on hormone therapy by listing the facts and fiction about the topic. To find out what is fact vs fiction go to: http://www.menopause.org/MF200912two.aspx. It might answer some questions for you that you have been wondering about.
For more information on NAMS (North American Menopause Society) visit their website at www.menopause.org.
