Need we say more?

One tip:  The great northern bean is very delicate in flavor & can be easily over powered. Mix your dip & allow it to sit for an hour before you add any additional seasoning – especially the garlic. You can also use black beans as a substitute for the great northern.

Since this dip has no fat, you can splurge a little by eating with tortilla chips & still be okay on your fat intake for the day. Read the chip bag’s nutrition facts for fat content. Regular tortilla chips are usually 1 gram of fat per chip – but do have protein also…

Ingredients:

2 -15 oz. cans Great Northern Beans. Try Westbrae Organic – no “consequences” with this brand!

1 – 10 oz. can of diced tomatoes with chilies like Ro*tel

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning – or to taste

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or 1/4 fresh minced garlic  (be very careful – this dip can end up tasting like a bowl of garlic really quick)

Salt & black pepper to taste

Optional:

Squeeze a bit of fresh lemon or lime juice

Dash of celery seeds

Chopped bacon

Minced shrimp

Cilantro, parsley or fresh rosemary for garnish

Directions:

Drain your cans of beans & tomatoes with chilies  Put all your ingredients in your blender or food processor & pulse until you get the consistency you want. Let the dip stand for an hour before tasting to perfect your seasonings.

As with red chili, white chili is high in fiber (helps increase metabolism & colon health), protein (protects muscle mass & mandatory for brain function) and minerals such as: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and iron.

<strong><em><span style=”color: #07408a;”>Make it a dip!</span></em></strong>   For a party or just a daily snack leave out the chicken, then use a hand blender, or food processor to blend the chili until it’s chunky or smooth (like hummus). Serve with various bell pepper boats, celery, scooped out roma tomato boats or low fat tortillas or low fat tortilla chips.

<strong>INGREDIENTS:</strong>

4 teaspoons olive oil
2 pounds shredded chicken breasts or ground chicken (or try ground turkey too!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 cans (15 to 19-ounce) white northern beans (or cannellini), rinsed and drained
One 16-ounce jar mild salsa verde (green salsa)
One 14 to 14 1/2-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
Fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

<strong>Optional Extras:</strong>

1 tablespoon chopped scallions (2 calories), 2 tablespoons reduced-fat Cheddar (40 calories), low fat tortilla (50 calories, 5 restaurant-style tortilla chips, such as Tostino’s (100 calories), 1 tablespoon reduced-fat sour cream (22 calories).

<strong>DIRECTIONS</strong>

In a 6-quart pot, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil on medium-high until very hot. Sprinkle the chicken with 1 teaspoon salt &amp; pepper to taste.

Divide the chicken into 2 batches. Add the 1st batch of chicken to pot and stir until the chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken with tongs or slotted spoon to a bowl or plate.

Add another teaspoon of oil to the pot &amp; cook the remaining chicken as above.

After all the chicken is cooked, pour the rest of the olive oil with the garlic and onions to the pot and cook on medium heat until browned (stir occasionally).

Stir in the cumin, oregano, cinnamon and cayenne pepper, and cook 1 minute. Add the beans, salsa verde, broth and chicken, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook the chili for 15 minutes to blend the flavors. Garnish with fresh cilantro, or parsley if you like! Yields 8 servings.

Each serving: calories 370, total fat 18g, sodium 815mg, total carbohydrate 25g, dietary fiber 5g, protein 25g.

It’s also super portable, since you can put the seasoning in a baggie with your avocado for guac on the run.

Ingredients

1 Avacado

Tony Cashere’s Original (or any flavor) Creole Seasoning to taste.

Optional:

Lime juice to taste

Cilantro

Directions

Cut open your avocado, de-seed, place on a plate or in a bowl – cut or mash with a fork & sprinkle the Tony Cashere’s to taste.

If you have lime juice & cilantro on hand, add it!

Instead of using chips, try low fat tortillas, Roma tomatos scooped out to form a “boat” or any color of bell pepper cut for scooping. Boosts nutrients, fiber & tastes great!

This salad is so easy, yet so full of flavor & nutrition! For a single or double serving, just cut the recipe in half. You can also eat leftovers the following day. (4 to 6 servings)

Ingredients:

2 Regular or English cucumbers (also known as seedless or hothouse)
1/3 cup to 1 cup crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves chopped or torn
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced or green onion
juice of 1 or 2 lemons
Lemon zest to taste
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil depending on your taste
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Slice cucumbers as thin. A mandolin or vegetable slicer will make quick work of it. Toss together the cucumbers and a large pinch of salt in a mesh strainer set over a bowl. Combine the feta, oregano, garlic and shallots in a separate bowl. Add the juice of 1 lemon, (optional zest) and whisk in the olive oil.

Drain off and discard any water that has released from the cucumbers. Toss together the cucumbers and the dressing. If you need more dressing just drizzle in more olive oil & lemon to your taste.

Serve

The nutrition facts depend on your portions of olive oil & how much feta you use. Here’s the ballpark:

Each serving (4 to 6 servings in recipe): calories 100 to 370, total fat 9g to 15g, sodium 80mg to 105mg, total carbohydrate 2g to 4g, protein 2 to 5g.

They are wonderful just as they are, but you can also add various flavors like garlic, or herbs.

Following the directions is easy – don’t make it harder than it is.  The buns will puff up beautifully in the oven, then collapse as they cool.

Be sure to bake them until they are just golden as pictured.  Otherwise, you’ll make them tough instead of tender.

You can find Tapioca Flour at Krogers in their organic & health food section. Otherwise, ask your local grocer or shop online.

One bag of tapioca flour will make 3 batches with some left over.

Ingredients

1 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups Oaxaca cheese, or mozzarella, munster cheese grated (you may want to grate the cheese yourself to avoid anti-caking agents & mold inhibitors)
2 large egg yolks, or the whole egg for extra protein
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream, if necessary

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat a baking pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine the tapioca flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Stir in the cheese and egg yolks. Mix until the dough forms a ball.  If your dough doesn’t make a ball or is too stiff to need, add a little of the cream. Just a little at a time until the dough is needable.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out. Knead the dough with your hands until the dough is smooth, even-textured, and not sticky.  This doesn’t take long, be careful not to over work the dough.

Divide the dough into 9 even pieces and with your hands, roll each into a ball. Shape the balls into ovals and place them 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the rolls are pale gold (not browned), about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes and serve while still warm.  Serve with jam or marmalade, if desired.  Of course if you used herbs & garlic – dip in marinara sauce – YUM!

Each bun breaks out like this:

using whole milk mozzarella using part skim mozzarella

Calories      142   g
Fat                7.22 g
Carbs           13    g
Protein        7.5   g

using part skim mozzarella

Calories      132  g
Fat                5.2  g
Carbs           13   g
Protein        7.5  g

Pilates, stability ball, and balance training again failed to appear on the list of top 20 trends in the health and fitness industry, supporting the theory that these were fads and not trends.

The Top 10 For 2013

10.  Group Personal Training – the answer for sluggish economy is join a small group and share the cost for semi-personal training rather than going it alone.

9.  Core Training – Core training stresses strength and conditioning of the stabilizing muscles of the abdomen, thorax, and back.

It typically includes exercises of the hips, lower back, and abdomen, all of which provide support for the spine and thorax. Exercising the core muscles improves overall stability of the trunk and transfers that to the extremities, enabling the individual to meet the demands of activities of daily living and for the performance of various sports that require strength, speed, and agility.

Core training often uses stability balls, BOSU balls, wobble boards, foam rollers, and other pieces of equipment.

8.  Functional Fitness – Functional fitness may be defined as using strength training to improve balance, coordination, force, power, and endurance to improve one’s ability to perform activities of daily living.

Functional fitness programs reflect actual activities one might do as a function of daily living.

7.  Personal Training – As more professional personal trainers are educated and become certified (see trend no. 1), they become more accessible to more people in all sectors of the health and fitness industry.

6.  Fitness Programs for Older Adults – The concern for the health of aging adults has been consistently at the top of the survey. The baby boom generation is now aging into retirement, and are accustomed to living active lifestyles.

They also heed the examples of their parents and research that staying fit dramatically improves the quality of life long into their future.

5.  Exercise and Weight Loss – For many years, weight loss programs have been trying to infuse a regular exercise program into the caloric restriction diets of many popular commercial programs. This has been a growing trend since the survey began in 2007.

The combination of exercise and diet is essential for weight loss maintenance and can improve compliance to caloric restriction diets and in particular weight loss programs.

4.  Children and Obesity – Pediatricians and fitness experts are all but begging the schools to reinstate daily gym class and put recess back into the school day for pre-k through 6th graders.

The last 20 years has seen a dramatic decrease in schools allowing physical activity in lieu of more time in the classroom. Not only is this dangerous for the kid’s health, it has shown to adversely effect children’s ability to learn, concentrate & test scores have decreased during this same period.

Many schools have completely wiped out gym class and recess, while others allow gym once a week and maybe 15 minutes of recess. This is NOT enough. This also effects all of us, even if we don’t have kids through higher health care costs.

Make it a point in 2013 to contact your state legislators to use legislation to reinstate both gym and recess a minimum of 45 minutes a day in our schools. (Side note: if you tell the schools 30 minutes, the kids will get 15 minutes, so parents need to monitor for compliance.)

3.  Body Weight Training – Appearing for the first time in the trend survey is body weight training.

Body weight training did not appear as an option in previous surveys because it has only now become popular (as a defined trend) in gyms around the world; this is not to say that body weight training has not been used previously.

On the contrary, people have been using their own body weights for centuries as a form of resistance training. Packaging it as an exercise program has now made it popular in all kinds of gyms.

Body weight training often uses minimal equipment, which makes it an inexpensive way to exercise effectively. Most people think of body weight training as being limited to push-ups and pull-ups, but it can be much more than that. Body weight training may be a trend to watch as more people get “back to the basics.”

2.  Strength Training – Strength training remains at the no. 2 position for the second year in a row but has been a strong trend since the first year of this survey.

This trend calls for both men and women to incorporate strength training into their exercise routines or to use it as the primary form of exercise.

Historically, many clients of both community-based programs and commercial clubs trained exclusively using weights, and there are still those who lift weights for body building.

However, today, there are many other individuals (both men and women, young and old, and children) whose main focus is on using weight training to improve or maintain strength

1.  Educated, Certified, and Experienced Fitness Professionals – It has become clear that in this still sluggish economy, as the market for fitness professionals becomes even more crowded and more competitive, those professionals with a national third-party accreditation have a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

How it’s done:

Combine the tequila, lime & orange juice, chili powder, jalapeno pepper, garlic, salt, & pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken breasts, cover & refrigerate several hours or overnight.

When you’re ready to grill, brush the breasts with oil to prevent the chicken from sticking & to keep it moist. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and grill them skin-side down for about 5 minutes, or until nicely browned. Turn the chicken & cook for another 10 minutes, or until just cooked through. Don’t over cook the chicken. It will continue to cook a bit once your remove it from the grill.

Remove to a plate & cover tightly letting it rest for 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

SERVES 6

Calories: 277

Total Fat: 14 grams

Saturated Fat: 4 grams

Protein: 31 grams

Total carbohydrates: 4 grams

Sugar: 1 gram

Fiber: 0 grams

Cholesterol: 93 milligrams

Sodium: 419 milligrams

Here’s a winter seasonal fruit combo that will bring a smile to your face, your taste buds & your health!

Ingredients:

Fresh Pineapple
Apples
Banana

Sprig of fresh mint for color & flavor.

Nutrition Facts:

Pineapple: 1/2 a cup has 40 calories, 11 carbs, fiber 1g, sugars 8g, protein .5g.
Contains: B vitamins, Vitamin C & A, minerals, omega 3 & 6, phytosterols.

Red Delicious Apple: 1/2 a cup has 29 calories, 7g carbs, 1.3g fiber.
Contains: B vitamins, Vitamin C & A, minerals, flavonoids, phytosterols, omega 3.

Banana: 1/2 a cup (sliced) has 67 calories, 17 carbs, 2g fiber, protein .76g.
Contains: Vitamin A, C & E, B vitamins, minerals (especially potassium), phytosterols.

Mint: 2 tablespoons has 2 calories, 0 carbs, high in vitamin A. Also loaded with calcium, potassium, Omega 3 & 6.

To store your fresh pineapple longer:

Wash your pineapple well. Cut only what you want to eat from the bottom & stick the rest of the uncut pineapple in a plastic bag. The top can stick out – no problem and keep it in the refrig.

Then just cut off what you want per serving for up to 3 weeks depending on how cold your refrig is and how ripe the pineapple was when you brought it home.

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Antibacterial products are every where you go and now a study shows the most common ingredient in these products can seriously harm your muscle and heart health.

Children are at a higher risk because a 30 pound child is a 5th of the size of a 150 pound adult. That means a small child, or fetus in the womb is getting 5, 10, 20 times the exposure than an adult with every use.

Manufacturers of antimicrobial counter tops, furniture, clothing, toys, kitchen utensils, and household linens have incorporated this dangerous pesticide agent into their products to meet the public’s demand for a “germ free” environment.

Even if you think you never buy antimicrobial socks, shoes, kitchen utensils, antibacterial soap or sanitizers, this dangerous chemical can be silently lurking in your bathroom.

Many products like mouthwash, tooth paste, deodorant, and other personal hygiene products contain a hazardous pesticide chemical now re-branded as a “antibacterial agent”.

It’s name is Triclosan and it’s use in our everyday products has exploded since the 1970s.

We should all know by now that to stay healthy, we need “good germs” and bacteria (flora) as part of a strong immune system.

Antimicrobial & antibacterial products kill off the good with the bad germs leaving your immune system compromised & gives the bad germs the chance to mutate into deadly antibiotic resistant super bugs already killing across America.

Now, a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California and the University of Colorado shows even more frightening effects from the use of this powerful chemical.

In their experiment, the researchers produced fully functioning cells derived from primary muscle cells in humans.

After exposing the cells to levels of Triclosan similar to amounts people use daily, Dr. Isaac Pessah (the study’s lead author) and his colleagues found it greatly interfered with the muscles’ ability to contract when stimulated, a response known as ‘excitation-contraction coupling.’

“Excitation-contraction coupling is essential for muscle contraction,” Pessah said. “If you interfere with that process, it can be lethal and certainly debilitating. We were very surprised that Triclosan essentially impaired ECC in both cardiac muscle cells and skeletal muscle cells…It did so at relatively low concentrations and relatively quickly.”

Adding to these shocking results, the team also found that exposure to Triclosan in mice resulted in an 18% reduction in gripping strength, and included a 25% reduction in heart function within an hour of the introduction.

Taking it a step further, the scientists studied the effects of Triclosan exposure on fathead minnows, finding they had a significant reduction in swimming activity.

As a pesticide Triclosan also disrupts the nervous system and is suspected to increase the risks of asthma and other allergies in humans.

This new study also brings question as to the heavy use of hand sanitizer’s, antimicrobial desks, lunch trays, etc. in schools and the increase we’ve seen of children suffering cardiac arrests while at school. Certainly gives one something to think about.

 
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A study of 3,200 male and female students age 14 and up, from 12 states (who admit using anabolic steroids to boost athletic performance) shows an alarming trend.

65 percent of student steroid users, versus 6 percent of non-users said they would be willing to take any pill or powder that guarantees performance, even if it may harm their health.

It gets worse! 57 percent of under age steroid users, versus 4 percent of non-users said they would take any performance boosting pill or powder even if it may shorten their life.

So where does this drive to succeed at any cost begin? Professional athletes.

Of the students in the study, 57 percent said professional athletes influenced their decision to use the drugs and 63 percent said pro athletes influenced their friends’ decision to use them.

What’s more, teenagers believe pro athletes have the right to use steroids, and 60 percent thought using anabolic steroids for athletic purposes is legal.

80 percent of young sports users — and 35 percent of non-users — said they believed anabolic steroids could help them achieve their athletic dreams.

Common slang for steroids include: roids, juice, hype, weight trainers, gym candy, arnolds, stackers, or pumpers.

Negative side effects include:

• elevates certain hormones, causing the teenager’s growth to halt prematurely
• aggressive behavior, over reacting, “on edge”, “bad attitude”
• acne caused by yeast overgrowth in the gut – this can lead to chronic fatigue & more
• injury to the connective tissues
• liver damage and negatively altered cholesterol levels
• sharing needles risks HIV, hepatitis & more
• premature baldness in both girls and boys
• sterility which can be life long
• birth defects such as mental retardation or pseudohermanphroditism – where the child is born with both male and female sex traits (both physical and characteristic)

There are healthy alternatives to steroids! A nutrient dense diet, healthy naturally occurring supplements and specific training strategies all lead to the positive performance attributes  teens are seeking.

If you have a teen athlete, one who is using steroids or considering using them, stop by the store and let our certified sports nutritionist devise a specific meal plan that will help your teen reach their goals.

We can also assist them with training strategies and anabolic steroid alternative supplements for their age group.