FIRST KITCHEN BLOGS

I ran across an article in my Environmental Nutrition newsletter that inspired me to talk about how to make your Chinese takeout a little healthier for you. Their article focused on the sodium content, but I imagine we are all interested in how to limit the calories and fat too.

Chinese takeout is usually pretty economical and also so convenient that we may be tempted to choose it often, but for your health here are some tips:

 

First, limit how often you might have your favorite take out meal.

Try plain rice instead of fried rice as a side. 

The portions are usually large – so plan on having it for 2 meals.   It generally reheats well and as is just as tasty the second time. And just think the second meal was Free!

When choosing your meal, look at healthier alternatives.  For example:

Some good choices for appetizers might be- Hot and Sour Soup, Spring Rolls, Steamed Dumplings or Lettuce Wraps.

Entrees- Choose unbreaded meats, chicken or shrimp with lots of vegetables such as Pepper Steak, Pineapple Chicken, Broccoli Beef, Wok-grilled chicken or shrimp.

Every restaurant has their own name for their dishes, but you get the idea.

P.S. We have a great easy, healthy stir-fry recipe in our First Kitchen.

For those of you who are vegetarians or for those of us that are just trying to eat a little more of a plant based diet, this recipe in the newspaper caught my eye.  I modified it slightly so I'm giving it a new name. 
For summer entertaining, I found this to be a good appetizer served with some garlic toast, but it could be a great lunch entree as well.  A trip to the farmer's market for some fresh asparagus and mushrooms and I was good to go. 
                                                   
4 ounces fresh asparagus, cut in bite sized pieces
3/4 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 cups canned white (or cannelini) beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
Salt
Pepper

Toss asparagus and mushroom in 1 tablespoon olive oil and place in a grill pan; grill about 4- 5 minutes.  Remove from grill and place in a bowl.  Add beans and cheese and toss slightly; season with salt and pepper to taste.
To make the dressing, whisk together oil, lemon juice, garlic  and rosemary; add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir dressing into salad and refrigerate.  Top with additional grated Parmesan cheese and serve with garlic toast.

Ok -it's one week after we all made those resolutions. How are we doing? 

If you're like us, we've made resolutions to eat healthier, exercise more, save money- what ever.  How could one argue with wanting to be healthier- both physically and financially.  But how can we be sure we actually do these things?
In order to make this happen we need to have as a first  resolution to make time for ourselves.   Once we get back to our jobs, our busy routines, it is too easy to to let all of these other things come first and guess what-- by the end of the day- we have no energy for the resolutions we've made for ourselves.

So try to keep this in mind--we deserve to take care of ourselves and if we do, it will result in our ability to do our daily jobs better too.  Can we do it?   We think we can!