Finished!

Done!

I've emailed the last two projects (power points) so now I have completed the course.
I learned a lot about Human Nutrition for this course and how it can effect your life, right now and in the future.

Hope every one has a good summer!

Recipes!!!!

Dinner By Me!

Honey Dijon Chicken (original)

chicken pieces

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup dijon mustard

2 - 4 tsp curry powder

pinch cayenne pepper

Modified

2 tbsp flour

salt + pepper to taste

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp liquid honey

2 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp olive oil

I made the modified recipe more of a glaze then a sauce by browning the chicken first. By doing this I was able to omit the butter (and therefor saturated fat) and instead used a bit of olive oil to brown the chicken. Olive oil is incredibly healthy for you, rich in heart healthy fat instead of saturated fat. By brushing the glaze on before baking, I could reduce the amount of honey (sugar) that was used while still getting the honey dijon taste.

Healthy Sides

The sides components of a meal can be a great way of getting extra servings of veggies or grains but they can quickly turn unhealthy by slathering the dish with butter or mayo.

Instead of Mashed Potatoes or Fries that contain unhealthy saturared fat..

Roastie Potatoes!

4 -5 Medium Potatoes

~ Tbsp Olive Oil

Sprinkle of Montreal Steak Spice

Roast for about an hour until crispy.

The olive oil on these provides healthy fat.

Pasta Salad: This is a healthy alternative to mayo based pasta salads

1 box tri coloured pasta

1 red pepper, chopped

1 oz cubed mozzarella cheese

Roasted Red Pepper Salad dressing to taste ( 1/3 - 1/2 cup??)

Prepared pasta first and then rinse with cold water. Add remaining ingredients and mix well! Serve cold.

The mozzarella cheese adds much needed calcium, while the salad dressing contains healthy fats.

Veggie - Bean Burgers

Nothing says summer like burgers, but store bought ones are often high in unhealthy saturated fat. This is a healthy, easy, vegetarian (and vegan!) alternative.

1 onion diced

1 glove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp cumin

3/4 cup diced mushrooms

1 tsp parsley

15 ounce can pinto beans, drained, rinsed ( I used a can that contain a mix of beans instead)

3 green onions, diced

salt + pepper to taste

saute garlic and onion, until onion is soft. Add green onion, cumin and mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are cooked.

Mash beans with fork until well beaten. Add to mushroom mix and add parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well and shape into patties. Heat through in frying pan.

Beans are a great source of fiber and iron. Perfect for the vegetarian or vegan. This recipe also provides a sneaky source of vegetables.

Honey Oatmeal Cookies

Original

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup liquid honey

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups oats

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Modified

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

2 cups oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup raisins

I was nervous to reduce the butter this much because I didn't think it would work. But my family didn't really notice too much of a difference.

I also reduced the honey a bit and added raisins for more nutritional value. Raisins are a good source of fiber, iron and anti oxidants. They also contain boron which the body needs in small amounts to help in bone health. The anti oxidants found in raisins also help with eye and dental health.

Sooo I haven't blogged for a little bit because its been kind of crazy but I am still on track and making good progress with my nutrition course. I am almost ready to start my last unit and have got a couple recipes coming up pretty soon. I am hoping to finish this course within the first week or two of june. I've spent the last little bit looking at the effects of healthy and unhealthy eating, long term and short term, we well as looking at different fad diets that have been circulating around for the last couple years. Um some of them are kinda crazy and kinda gross!

This week I looked at vegan and vegetarian diets including the benefits and stuff that they need to watch in order to be healthy. Because they are missing out on a lot of nutrients from meat and dairy they need to be very aware they are getting all their nutrients. I also worked on my unit 3 project and am hoping to be able to hand it in early next week.

I would like to do another recipe modification this week and am thinking of doing a vegetarian or vegan recipe.

Raisin Scones

This weekend I did a recipe modification for raisin scones.
Original Recipe:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup raisins
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

I changed it by making half the flour whole wheat, cutting the butter in half and substiting in vanilla yogurt. By doing this I increased the fiber ( whole wheat flour), decreasing the calories and saturated fat (less butter) and increasing the calcium content (yogurt). They came out pretty good but were deffintally better fresh from the oven then they were cold.

My Recipe
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsps baking powder
1/4 cup unsalted butter
~ 3 tbsp vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup raisins
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

This week I continued to look at different types of superfoods and picking the ones that I am going to include in the Unit 3 project. I also looked at the different things that make these foods super foods (antioxidents, fiber, etc.) and the benefits of these. I also looked into vegan/ vegetarian diets and the concerns with these types of diets ( enough protein/ iron)

This weekend I am hoping to do another recipe modification.

Loving this sun! (vitamin D!!!!)

Superfoods

At the beginning of this week I finished off my unit 2 project. It strays a little bit from the rubric that I made because of the information relevance but it is still based on the Canadian Food Guide, which is what the PLOs wanted when I made up the course. I also used MyPyramid (basically the american food guide) to help me with it.

I've now started Unit 3 which looks at some different components of nutrition (antioxidents, etc) as well as different ways of eating (vegetarian/ vegan diets). It also looks at what are called "superfoods", and there are a lot of different opinions on which foods are true superfoods. It seems that almost every food was considered a super food at one point! I think I will end up just looking at the ones that come up the most and be very aware of what websites and resources I am using to get the info.

Ahead of Schedule!

This week I worked on completing my Unit 2 project. I am pretty much finished it now but am waiting to hand it in because I want to print it off at home with a coloured printer. This unit revolved around looking at Canadas food guide and eating to meet its recommended requirements. I feel that this is a good foundationto base a healthy diet on but it would be incredibly hard to meet every single requirement every single day.

Handing this in on Monday will put me almost a week ahead of schedule in my course. :)

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancakes

Who doesn't love a pancake breakfast? Surprisingly pancakes can actually be made really healthy, especially when topped with fruit or yogurt instead of butter and syrup.

Original Recipe

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup milk

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

My recipe

1 egg

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup milk

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

I traded the all purpose flour for whole wheat to add the nutrients and fibre that whole wheat flour provides, omitted the oil, reduced the sugar and added cinnamon.

Cinnamon has some surprising health benefits. Studies have shown that it has a regulatory effect on blood pressure, an anti clotting effect on the blood, it boosts brain function and also contains calcium and fibre. Not bad for a spice!

Last week I was looking at different food groups and thought it would be interesting to see what this recipe provided:

For half the recipe there is

2 servings whole grains

1/2 serving of milk/ alternatives

Back at it

I have now started unit 2 which is looking at canadas food guide and the different requirements needed for different ages/ periods of life. I've also looked at different countries food guides and have found that they are all pretty much the same with a big emphasis on fruits/ veggies, whole grains and smaller amounts of dairy and meat/ alternatives.

Next week I will be looking at where different nutrients come from, although I feel that I did a lot of that in the last unit.

Ready for the Break

This week I worked on my Unit 1 project and completed it this morning. I learned a lot through this unit and focused my project more on fats, proteins and carbohydrates which is what I was interested in. Completing this project means I am right on schedule, and I don't have to work on it over spring break. My only goal for spring break is to get another recipe modification up.

Hope everyone has a good break! Hoping for sun!

Breakfast Bars

I did my first recipe modification yesterday. I wasn't really sure what to make and since my families goes through a ton of granola bars that I would make something a bit healthier to replace them.

the Original recipe looked like this:

2 egg whites

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup chopped nuts (any)

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

My recipe looked like this:

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

The original recipe called for egg whites but that seemed like a waste to me. What would I do with the yolk? Besides, an eggs yolk is where all the nutrients is! It is filled with fat soluble vitamins and essentially fatty acids. Why throw away this nutritional powerhouse?

Because I wanted this to be more of a breakfast/ granola bar, instead of a dessert like snack the original one was, I halved the sugar and added in 1/2 cup of oats. Oats have been known to lower cholesterol levels, contain antioxidants that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and are a good source of fiber (among many other things!).

For the flour I replaced 1/2 the amount with whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour hasn't been as processed as all purpose flour so it contains more nutrients.

I used pecans and sliced almonds for the nuts because they were what I had on hand. Nuts are a good source of healthy fat and other nutrients. I only used half the amount of nuts that the original recipe called for because I ran out (oops!) and I improvised by adding in 1/2 a cup of raisins. Raisins are a good source of antioxidants and the trace mineral boron. Boron is especially important to women health and is related to bone development and can help prevent osteoporosis.

The result? The were actually pretty good considering the amount of alterations I made. These were a heartier bar and weren't as sweet as the original would have been. They would make a perfect snack or quick breakfast.

The nice thing about these bars is that I think you could do a lot of different variations of them using what ever you had on hand. They would be really good with things like coconut, dried crandberries or chocolate chips (antioxidants!).

My brothers comment? "They tasted like marshmellow"

....um what?! haha

Low carb? No fat? No thanks!

I've spent this week learning about the different essential nutrients. The ones on my course outline were carbs, fats and proteins but I also did a bit on minerals and vitamins. I've learned a bit about these last semester in Bio 12, but at a different angle then what I'm learning about now. I had no idea how important fat is to a diet!!! Considering you always here stuff about eating low fat/ no fat foods, they really aren't the evil thing the media is making them out to be. Its the same with carbs. I've also noticed that there are certain foods that keep coming up, obviously these are what they mean by superfoods! I was quite happy to see almonds show up so many times :)

I think I've just about finished what I'm going to do for this Unit and hopefully by the end of next week I will be able to hand in some sort of project, but it might have to be finished over the break. My goal for the weekend is to do my first recipe modification.

Metabolism and Physical activity

Okay so I've started my first unit! I've set up a plan for myself and Ive got about 2 weeks to finish this unit and then over spring break I will put together my first unit project. I'm hoping to do a recipe or two over spring break as well. This first unit is on how the body metabolizes food and uses different nutrients. Last week I did a lot of research on what metabolism is and how it relates to physical activity. Its really interesting how everything its all connected!

Getting Started!

Finally underway! This will be where I post what I am learning about each week in Nutrition and I will also post different recipes that I have modified to be healthier.