Healthy Cooking Classes for June

Healthy Eating on the Run. Learn how to make healthy, delicious meals in under 15 minutes. Lots of new recipes! So even if you’ve taken this class before, you’ll get lots of new ideas!

Tuesday, June 3^rd, 6:30-8:30PM, Frances Anderson Center, Edmonds

Registration: 425-771-0230. Cost: $18.00

Around the World in less than 20 Minutes. I will demonstrate how to prepare an international smorgasbord of delicious, healthy dishes – each ready in 20 minutes or less! These classes are filling up quickly.

Monday, June 2^nd, 6:30-9PM, Issaquah PCC

Wednesday, June 11^th, 6:30-9PM, West Seattle PCC

Wednesday, June 18^th, 6:30-9PM, Greenlake PCC

Registration: PCC Foodworks! 206-545-7112

Munchie Madness. Many of you have requested a class dealing with healthy quick meals and snacks for kids. I will demonstrate easy, delicious, kid-friendly recipes, as well as discuss how to encourage kids to eat healthier. Class appropriate for parents of toddlers through teens.

Thursday, June 26^th, 7:15-9:15PM, Richmond Highlands Rec Center, Shoreline

Registration: 206-418-3383

Sacred Pampering Day & Health Fair for Women

The Women of Wisdom Foundation is an internationally recognized organization created to provide diverse and innovative programs that offer women opportunities for personal growth and transformation. Enter a healing temple and sample a diverse variety of products & services from different experts in the art of pampering women such as massage, facials, reiki, psychic readings….I will be offering 15 or 30 minute nutrition consultations.

Held at Town Hall

8th and Seneca

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Saturday, June 7th

$34.95 members / $39.95 non members

Limited number of tickets available, choose between morning
and afternoon sessions for individual appointments.

Call 206-782-3363 to register, visit www.womenofwisdom for more info.

Trading Places

If you can’t figure out how to cut down calorie consumption, or if you’re having trouble getting all the fruits and vegetables you know your body needs, the answer may be right in front of you. Look at what’s on your plate: any time you see fruit or vegetables in tiny, garnish-like amounts (or absent completely) is an opportunity to trade some food on your plate for more fruits or vegetables. In the process, you’ll probably cut calories, too.

Simple trades in portions solve a lot of problems. For example, although the serving size posted on a box of cereal is often one cup, many people find that, if they actually measure their usual portion, it’s close to two cups, or 180 to 200 calories more than they thought they consumed. If they would eat just one cup of cereal and filled the rest of the bowl with sliced fruit, they’d be just as full. They would also have consumed about 100 fewer calories. And they would be starting the day with the fruit’s fiber and nutrients that are so important to good health.

Pasta salad is another great place to make a switch. Most versions contain 90 percent pasta. A little chopped celery, carrot, or pepper is added for color and crunch, but not enough to provide a serving’s worth of antioxidants and health-promoting phytochemicals. Many people concerned about calorie content focus on the amount and type of salad dressing they use. But there is another, major consideration. Each half-cup of pasta supplies about 100 calories, but the same amount of chopped vegetables supplies only about 25. By switching the proportions of salad ingredients so there are at least equal amounts of vegetables and pasta (preferably, more veggies), you can cut at least 75 calories from each one-cup portion.

Proportions can also get out of control with sandwiches and subs. To keep hunger at bay for several hours, adequate protein is important. But a towering sandwich or sub with a mountain of meat and a single lettuce leaf and slice of tomato is out of proportion. Start with two to three ounces of turkey or other lean meat, or a low-fat cheese or vegetarian filling. Then “supersize” it by piling on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and other veggies.

The same principle applies to eating ice cream, which sometimes is garnished with a dab of strawberry sauce. Turn that bowl of ice cream into a colorful fruit fiesta. Stick to a half-cup of ice cream (preferably low-fat), and fill the rest of the bowl with whatever fruit is in season. The calorie savings add up quickly, and it’s a delicious way to feast on fruit. The idea is to have a little ice cream with your fruit, not a little fruit with your ice cream.

Each half-cup (a handful-size) portion of potatoes, pasta, rice, or cereal has about 100 calories. Lean meat, poultry and fish contain about the same amount, but high-fat ground meat and deep-fried or breaded choices are at least double that. On the other hand, the same one-half cup filled with most vegetables (without added fat) is only 25 calories, and a similar portion of fruit (without added sugar) averages about 50 calories.

Each half-cup trade to boost fruit or vegetables saves 50 to 75 calories. Yet you’ll still eat the same total amount of food. And you’re a half-cup closer to the recommended five to ten servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by health experts.

Source: American Institute for Cancer Research

Product of the Month

Fresh Wild Alaskan Salmon is coming into the stores this month. Wild salmon is high in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids that help prevent cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and depression.

Alaska, with it’s low population density and lack of heavy industry is thousands of miles from large sources of pollution (like mercury) that contaminate the human food supply in other parts of the world. Wild salmon swim free in their natural habitat and eat only natural foods like shrimp, herring and squid. Farm-raised fish, on the other hand, are raised in crowded pens in conditions ripe for the spread of disease. Salmon farmers combat this threat with vaccines, antibiotics and other chemicals. Farm-raised salmon are also fed synthetic carotenoids to color their flesh.

Salmon farming as it is currently practiced is not ecologically sound, and in fact threatens the health of wild salmon runs. Conservation organizations including the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club recommend eating wild salmon and avoiding farm-raised salmon.

Recipe of the Month

Broiled salmon with lime ginger marinade

For the lime-ginger marinade:

½ tsp. lime zest

2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 tsp. olive oil

2 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

½ tsp grated fresh ginger

For the salmon:

2 wild salmon fillets

In a small bowl, stir together the marinade ingredients. Pour half of the marinade into the bottom of a baking dish. Place salmon on top, pour on the remaining marinade. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours, turning salmon occasionally.

When ready to cook, place the oven rack 4-5 inches from the heating element and preheat the oven broiler. Remove the salmon from the marinade and place on baking sheet or broiler pan. Broil the salmon for 5 minutes, turn, and brush with marinade. Broil the second side for about 5 minutes; check to be certain salmon is cooked through. Discard the remaining marinade. Serves 2.