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Get-Fit Clicks

October 25, 2011 at 1:06 pm, by jbrown

* It is possible to indulge in Halloween candy without developing a pumpkin-shaped belly. The trick: learn to spot the healthy-ish treats. (FitSugar via Fitness)

* If the thought of joining a gym is intimidating, let Fitbie put all your fitness fears (“I look fat!” “I’ll get hurt”) to rest. (Fitbie)

* Ah, coffee—is there anything it can’t do? New research suggests that drinking more than three cups of caffeinated java daily may help reduce your risk of basal cell carcinoma (the world’s most common cancer) by 20 percent. (HuffPo)

* Treat yourself to new workout clothes at Sports Authority today. Download this coupon for 25 percent off one item. (Deal News)

* The healthy recipe we can’t wait to try: black bean and butternut squash burritos. (Oh She Glows)

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Perfect Pairing: Two Wines, One Salad

October 6, 2011 at 4:02 pm, by Tom Claire

My wife, Lindsay, has an arsenal of delicious salad recipes, and and as luck would have it, a friend sent over two new wines for us to sample. Each bottle pairs perfectly with the same salad recipe (with one simple ingredient modification). It was so good, I had to share.

Lindsay’s Couscous, Lentil and Blue Cheese Salad
1 cup lentils, cooked
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup couscous, cooked
½ tsp salt
¼ cup olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 head romaine or other lettuce
1 lemon, cut into wedges
6 plum tomatoes or 1 small beefsteak, cubed
¼ cup mint leaves, chopped
¾ cup (3 oz) blue cheese, crumbled

The key to this recipe is making it once and then adjusting it to taste, though you might nail it on the first go. Salt and pepper the cooked lentils to taste, having stirred in 1 tbsp lemon juice. In a separate large bowl, add 1 tbsp oil to cooked couscous and fluff. In a small bowl make the dressing: To minced garlic whisk in remaining 2 tbsp juice and 3 tbsp oil and salt and pepper to taste. Then stir the lentils and dressing into the couscous and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Before serving, shred romaine on a platter and stir tomato, mint and cheese into salad, then turn salad onto romaine. Garnish with lemon wedges and additional tomato wedges. Makes plenty for leftovers.

Wine Parings:

2009 Marilyn Merlot (Napa Valley; $30) With a full body and wonderful mouth feel, this wine’s mature red fruit and toasted oak flavors in a well-balanced acidity make it fun to sip, and its dried-herb bouquet invite you to pair it with Lindsay’s salad recipe. It also happens to have a long, smooth finish that mellows to memories of chocolate and vanilla—consider it built-in dessert.

2007 Simi Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma; $25) This wine’s price is no reflection of its quality: It drinks like a $100 bottle and it makes a bold statement, showing aromas of red cherry and blackberry with hints of licorice, toasted oak and spices and its palate offers more of the same, plus generous vanilla and caramel in a long finish. This is (need I repeat?) a big, bold, strapping wine.

To pair the Simi Cabernet Sauvignon with the salad recipe above, stir some cooked cubed ham or cold cooked bacon bits in before serving. The reason for larding up the salad is to add to the welcoming viscosity of the cheese—it gives the wine’s acidity something to balance out. Just add fresh baguette slices for a complete meal.

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Ali Vincent’s Biggest Loser Blog: Episode 17

April 27, 2011 at 10:49 am, by Sonia Harmon

What a week! I had so much fun going back to the Biggest Loser campus like I do every season. One of my favorite things about being the first female biggest loser is probably that I have kind of become the unofficial Biggest Loser mom. Every time I meet a contestant I give them a huge hug and whisper into their ear that “this too shall pass.” Most of us had no idea what we were really signing up for when we tried out for the show, and only being on campus can quite explain it. It helps to know that others have been in your shoes and have not only survived, but also thrived.

This week was truly a week of celebration, and a week of favorites. Sam and I got to share a couple of our favorite recipes with the contestants and run them through some of our favorite circuit moves, while Tara competed against the contestants in one of the ultimate Biggest Loser challenges. But most importantly, we each had the opportunity to spend quality with the contestants.

This is the point in the season when a good heart-to-heart is not only wanted, but also needed. By now the remaining contestants know what to do to lose weight, so now is the time to ensure that the dots get connected in regards to why they continue to lose weight or why not. The truth is that although The Biggest Loser is a gift to everyone who’s had the chance to participate, in reality it’s only 2.2 seconds of our entire lives. Returning to our lives back at home is what really puts us to the test and challenges us to succeed in communicating, loving and experiencing our old worlds with our renewed spirit. So this is when why you’re losing the weight becomes more important than how to lose the weight. Read more

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Dishing It: Sirloin Tips and Arugula Rice Pilaf

March 24, 2011 at 12:19 pm, by Amelia Harnish

I’m a cheater. I went vegetarian in January to see what it was like, and I haven’t eaten meat in almost three whole months. Well, I should say hadn’t. My newfound love for Indian food and chickpeas aside, I just couldn’t say no to Rachael Ray’s sirloin tips and arugula rice pilaf from LHJ‘s March issue. When I signed up to try this recipe for “Dishing It,” I thought it’d be easy to hand over the sirloin tips to my roommate, but after cutting and trimming and spicing and cooking, how could I resist? I deserved a feast, I thought. And a feast it was… at least for me. I hadn’t eaten meat in three months (except for that pepperoni pizza incident–an accident, I swear!) Anyway, this recipe really could not be easier. If I, a just-out-of-college, clueless-in-the-kitchen, cheating vegetarian, can handle it, then I’m pretty sure anyone can.

My biggest issue when cooking is that I’m impatient. I also never read the recipe through, and I always, always end up doing things out of order or cooking things too long because I’m googling a cooking term I don’t understand. For example, deglaze. What the heck does deglaze mean?  Zest? What exactly is zest? This time, probably because I knew I was going to have to share this experience with all of you, I pre-googled and was ready.

I set up my ingredients, and got to work. I did make a few substitutions–instead of chicken broth, I used veggie broth. At this point I was still operating under the assumption that I wasn’t going to eat steak. Instead of grated Parmesan cheese, I used the powdered stuff because it’s what I had. Same goes for dried parsley, instead of fresh. I’m sure it would’ve been that much better with those two, so if you have the time to get them, I highly recommend it. I also used whole grain brown rice because I’m healthy like that!

As per the directions, I started by toasting the orzo and then adding the rice and broth. While my pilaf was simmering, I turned my attention to the steak. I trimmed and cut, salt and peppered, and then cooked. Easy! After adding the parsley, garlic and zest, it was then I knew I was going to cheat. The temptation was unbearable. It smelled delicious, and as easy as it was, I made it myself. It would’ve been wrong not to indulge, am I right? Once my rice was done, I mixed in the arugula and my powdered-Parmesan. Man, I wish I had gone with grated, I thought. But hey, it still works.

Ta-da

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Dishing It: Lamb and Feta Meatballs

March 3, 2011 at 7:23 am, by Ladies' Lounge

For this week’s Dishing It, I made the Lamb and Feta Meatballs featured in the March 2011 issue of LHJ. I absolutely had to make these after tasting them on the photo shoot a few months back. I decided to test them out on Monday for what my friends and I call “Family Dinner Night.” We started this tradition a few months back when I complained that I wanted to cook more, but lived alone and had no one to cook for. So now every Monday I prepare dinner for two of my best friends and we watch a movie and drink old fashioneds. As I was at the grocery store after work I got a text from my friend saying he wasn’t going to be able to make it because he had to work late. Normally, I would have just left the store and gone home, but not tonight–tonight I was having lamb and feta meatballs!

I’m not used to cooking lamb, even though it is one of my favorite meats to eat, so I was a little nervous at first. But I thought, “How hard can it be, is it really any different from ground beef or pork? Nah!” This turned out to be one of the easiest dishes to make, and one of the tastiest. Basically, you throw everything into one big bowl and mix. Then you have the choice of cooking them up in a sauté pan or baking them. I’ve never baked a meatball before so naturally I just went with what I knew and threw them in a sauté pan. I think this probably wasn’t the best option. The lamb is a lot more tender than beef and I had to be extra super careful when rolling them over so they wouldn’t fall apart.

So I cooked up a pan full but realized I had tons of extra meat mix (I mean it was just for me after all). So I decided to follow our food editor Tara’s tip and freeze the rest. Super simple: Just roll them into balls, place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze. The next morning I put them in a Ziploc bag. Done and done.

When the meatballs were done cooking, I decided to go the healthy route and serve them on top of salad. I cut up romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers and kalamata olives, and crumbled feta on top. Then I just sliced up a few meatballs and threw them in. I topped it off with the yogurt sauce that Tara suggested, and voila! A healthy and super tasty meal. So even though I didn’t get to enjoy them with my Family Dinner Night crew, I did get to plop down and enjoy them with my Golden Girls marathon (don’t tell my friends but it was secretly just as much fun). And what will I be serving at next Monday’s Family Dinner Night? Well frozen lamb and feta meatballs of course. —Laura D’Abate

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Dishing It: High-Fiber Peanut Butter Bran Muffins

February 10, 2011 at 12:50 pm, by Lauren Piro

Let me guess. You first saw the word peanut butter in this muffin recipe from our February issue and got all excited to make it. But you then saw that the first ingredient was wheat bran and grumbled. I can just hear you now…

I just know wheat bran will be SO hard to find.
OK, so this is might be true, depending on where you live. I went to my local supermarket only to turn up empty-handed, and even Whole Foods had just one option in their bulk grains aisle (which actually turned out to be quite a find, as you’ll see below). However, our trusty food editor Khalil tells me to look more closely next time among the Bob’s Red Mill grains and head to a health food store like GNC for more options.

Sure, but even when I do find it, I’m sure it will be expensive.
The total for my self-serve bag of wheat bran came to a whopping 32 cents, and I had leftovers! What else, I ask you, can you get for 32 cents these days (besides this cancer-fighting, heart-healthy grain!)? Plus, I guarantee you already have the rest of the muffins’ ingredients in your pantry, so you won’t break the bank.

You’ll never use the leftovers, though! What a waste!
How about stirring some into your morning oatmeal? Or adding it as a healthy boost to pancakes? Or – make more muffins!

But… but… WHEAT BRAN??
Stop right there. Try this recipe and I promise you’ll be singing a different tune, and be well on your way toward getting more of that little powerhouse nutrient we here at LHJ keep reminding you to eat (psst – the correct answer is fiber).

Baking these muffins is a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, which is exactly what I did. In a nutshell, you put the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry in another and stir until combined (I also gave the peanuts a quick spin the food processor to chop them up – but don’t go overboard or you’ll end up with mush!). Totally easy for even the baking-phobic.

Click “read more” below to see how they came out!

Read more

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Dishing It: Brownies Made Healthier

January 27, 2011 at 12:14 pm, by Sonia Harmon

Who’s ever heard of a healthy brownie? Not me—at least not one that tastes good—until I saw this recipe in our February issue for “Brownies Made Healthier.” I love baking, and most of my favorite recipes include more butter and sugar than I’d like to admit, so I knew I had to give this whole healthy brownie thing a shot.

The ingredients certainly surprised me. The health boost mainly comes from a few sneaky ingredient swaps, including squash and olive oil instead of butter and whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour. As for the recipe itself—it was a piece of cake! (Or brownie?) The only trouble I ran into was defrosting the squash. I forgot to leave it in the fridge that morning so it could defrost while I was at work, but if it weren’t for that little hiccup the prep probably would have taken me only about 5 to 10 minutes. Next, the brownie batter went into the oven at 350 degrees for 23 minutes.

Read more

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