At Long Last Exonerated

CNN’s site today features a popular article contributed by Cooking Light magazine listing five foods once considered nutritional sins for various reasons (though I’ve never heard such things said against mushrooms before) but now are considered healthy or even superfoods.

Of course, most of this is a retread of a path we’ve gone down many times before — apparently Americans can’t get enough of being told it’s OK to indulge in peanut butter. (Myself — I think peanut butter’s all right in savory applications, but I could never understand society’s obsession with the stuff.)

Still, the article here is another example of how long-held beliefs about nutrition are being shaken. I remember how freaked out people would get about the dietary cholesterol in eggs, but the info that fat has more effect on blood cholesterol levels is certainly starting to trickle down nowadays.

I mean, low-carb diets were once seen as absolute insanity — everyone knew that fat was what made you unhealthy and obese! Now we’re told all the time about the evils of refined carbohydrates, as in the kind of stuff we all ate back when we were on the low-fat craze.

For more on this theme, check out this entry on the benefits of real food over isolated vitamins on the New York Times Well blog. The things we thought we knew.

Eggcellent Eggs!

Tonight, I made some huevos rancheros that demonstrate three great properties of eggs.

1. I used up some sausage grease and the last bit of a jar of hot salsa that had been kicking around the fridge for a while to make the scrambled eggs. Eggs are great for binding together whatever you have left over into a tasty meal that doesn’t feel like leftovers.
2. By mixing them with leftovers and fats rendered from any meats you might have cooked recently, eggs are both filling and cheap. Where other proteins are expensive (including tofu here in Slovakia, which goes for about $10-15 a pound), eggs are mercifully easy on the grocery budget.
3. Eggs cook fast. It took less than five minutes to cook the suckers to a nice soft set.

Eggs also add richness and binding power to dishes that don’t feature them as the star player, but we’ll save that discussion for the next time I make stir-fry. For now, let’s marvel at the wonders of eggs with a whole collection of egg recipes. Here’s a frittata recipe I like to get you started — keep an eye on it as it cooks, as I found that eight minutes is more a guideline than a rule.

8 Minute Frittata
Source: Kraft
Yield: 2 servings

• 4 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. water
• ½ cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• ½ cup chopped green pepper

SPRAY 8-inch microwavable pie plate with cooking spray. Add eggs and water; beat with wire whisk until well blended.

SPRINKLE with cheese and green pepper.

MICROWAVE on HIGH 6 min. or until eggs are set and cheese is melted.

Notes:
Round Out The Meal
Serve with a garden salad topped with your favorite Kraft Dressing and a fresh fruit cup.

Other fillings:
Bacon, cheddar and hot sauce
Sautéed sweet onions and tomatoes with mozzarella

Milk can be used instead of water.

Nutritional notes:
Calories 270 Total fat 19g Saturated fat 9g Cholesterol 450mg Sodium 330mg Carbohydrate 4g Dietary fiber 1g Sugars 1g Protein 19g Vitamin A 20%DV Vitamin C 25%DV Calcium 25%DV Iron 10%DV

Eggcellent Eggs recipe collection

Omelet Sandwich

Note: I wrote this on June 21, 2005, for another food site I was toying with. It’s still one of my favorite recipes! If you’re looking to lighten it further, you can use turkey bacon, although it lacks something in unctuousness. Also, if you have trouble digesting hot sauce (cayenne often does a number on me these days), try picante sauce (which is a finely chopped salsa).

With a wedding to prepare for, it’s imperative that I start to clean up my eating habits. I’ve read that a wedding is often the only thing that kicks people into gear as far as healthy eating goes. The key will be keeping those habits after the wedding is over, naturally; the same article also noted that married people are heavier than single people. I have plenty of time (two years), but it’s healthiest to lose weight slowly anyway.

I’ve decided to try TV chefs’ recommendation to alter some of my favorite recipes to cut calories. My omelet sandwich seemed like the natural choice. I replaced the egg with a couple of egg whites (a savings of fat and calories without losing most nutrients) and the full-fat cheese with reduced-fat cheese (low-fat dairy products are supposed to enhance weight loss — at least the government is telling us so now).

Original recipe:
Two thick slices bacon: 80 calories, 6g fat
Two slices whole-wheat bread: 160 calories, 2g fat
Dash hot sauce: 0 calories, 0g fat
1 slice American cheese: 80 calories, 7g fat
1 egg: 70 calories, 4.5g fat
1 tbsp butter: 100 calories, 11g fat (8g saturated)
Total: 490 calories, 30.5g fat

Modified recipe:
Two thick slices bacon: 80 calories, 6g fat
Two slices whole-wheat bread: 160 calories, 2g fat
Dash hot sauce: 0 calories, 0g fat
1 slice 2% Milk American cheese: 60 calories, 4g fat
1 tsp spreadable butter with canola: 34 calories, 3.7g fat (1.5g saturated)
2 egg whites: 34 calories, 0g fat
Total: 368 calories, 15.7g fat

That’s a savings of 122 calories and 14.8g fat. I don’t generally like using unnaturally reduced in fat products, but the cheese here is still considered real cheese (albeit processed, but still real). It’s part of Kraft’s Deli Deluxe line, not the Singles line. As for the spreadable butter, it has as much fat and calories as butter but less saturated fat due to the canola oil. It has an advantage over margarine in that it has no partially hydrogenated oils, so it’s not an unnatural fat.

Also, the bacon in the lighter sandwich may have less fat and calories than stated, as I microwaved it rather than baking or pan-frying it. The paper towels soak up a lot of rendered fat.

Omelet Sandwich
Source: Colleen Fischer
Yield: 1 serving

• 2 slices whole-wheat toast
• 2 slices bacon
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 egg
• Hot sauce, to taste
• 1 slice American cheese

Cook the bacon, preferably by baking in a 400-degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Break each cooked slice in half. Toast the bread and put on a plate.

Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium-low flame. Melt the butter in the pan. Whisk the egg until foamy, then pour into the skillet. Stir the egg. As it begins to set, lift up cooked portions with a silicone spatula and tilt the pan to allow uncooked egg to flow underneath. Cook for about two minutes or until the egg is set. It may still look moist on top. Flip the omelet and slide it onto one of the bread slices.

Sprinkle the omelet with hot sauce if desired. Top with cheese slice and the bacon.

Notes:
Lower-fat version:

Substitute 1 teaspoon of butter or spreadable butter for the 1 tablespoon of butter (make sure you use a very slick nonstick pan), two egg whites for the egg, and reduced-fat 2% milk cheese for the regular cheese.

Nutritional information per serving:
Regular sandwich: 490 calories, 30.5g fat
Lightened sandwich: 368 calories, 15.7g fat

Download Omelet Sandwich into MacGourmet.