Monthly Archives: January 2014
Crock Pot Cooking….Italian Style!
Today, January 31st, in the Culinary Corner we made a veggie lasagna in a crockpot. This dish was a healthy alternative to normal lasagna because there was a reduced amount of calories and fat, but will all same flavor….what’s not to love?!
The finished product!
Here is the recipe if you want to try it out at home! Happy Friday!!
Slow Cooked Veggie Lasagna
• 1 box lasagna noodles (uncooked)
• 15 oz low fat or fat free cottage cheese
• 1 25 oz jar pasta sauce
• 2 cups zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and/or spinach
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1. Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse to roughly chop.
2. Place the cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, herbs, garlic powder, salt and egg in a
bowl and stir to combine.
3. Pour half of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a crockpot.
4. Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce, covering the entire surface, breaking
the noodles to fit the pot.
5. Layer half of the cottage cheese mixture on top of the noodles, followed by 1 cup
of the chopped vegetables and then one cup of mozzarella cheese.
6. Repeat with another layer of noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese
mixture and the chopped vegetables.
7. Pour the remaining pasta sauce on top of the lasagna and top with the remaining
cup of the grated cheese.
Cook on low for 4 hours. Serve.
Super Bowl Food Makeover
The Super Bowl is this Sunday February 2nd and many of us make it an excuse to eat a lot of snack food. The typical snack foods of the Super Bowl consists of; nachos, wings, chili, chips, dip, and much more. Here are some ways you can makeover these typical high calorie foods for this years Super Bowl.
When making chili or any other dish that calls for hamburger use lean ground turkey or lean ground sirloin. This substitution lowers the saturated fat content.
When making Nachos use pork tenderloin and bacon- studded beans. As for cheese you should use the fat-free kind. To make these nachos even more flavorful add salsa and chunks of avocado; this way you can skip the sour cream and cheese sauce.
When it comes to those tasty dips make sure you avoid the mayonnaise and cheese. Creamy dips that contain these ingredients usually have many hidden fats. A way to make a better dip for the Super Bowl is to puree white beans, onions, garlic, black beans, green chilies and parmesan cheese together. You can modify the dips to your liking too.
To see some great Super Bowl food makeovers check out the following sites.
http://www.cookinglight.com/entertaining/holidays-occasions/low-fat-super-bowl-recipes-00400000063811/page6.html
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20338949,00.html
Running with Lynn Show
Good day UND!
We are looking at a sunny day today! Right now we are sitting at -1 degrees. Want to get out of the cold? No problem catch the movie of the week! Every movie is a good movie in this cold weather but I will have to make a suggestion The Lone Survivor. This action packed movie based on a true story that will keep you on the edge of your seats all two hours and one min, and after stop in to Mamma Marias and have a warm bite to eat. This time of year is the cold season, so for all of you that get tired of saying the same old thing “bless you” try something new, say “you are so good-looking” that will make anyone feel better after they sneeze.
have a great day everybody.
Texas Caviar
January 28th, 2014
Texas Caviar at Cheap, Fast, and Healthy
Make your own twist on this southern salad. This is one salad with lots of fiber and tastes like summer. It is perfect for the winter when you need a little reminder of those summer days! You can’t beat the quickness of this recipe so try it yourself. Follow the easy steps posted in the picture above and let us know what you think!
Student-Athletes and Alcohol Use
Student-athletes may be under more pressure than just the average college student. Student-athletes are expected to perform well in the classroom, and to perform for their coaches and teammates when it’s game time. Unfortunately, for some student-athletes, this stress is not always handled in the right way. Research shows that athletes tend to overestimate the amount of alcohol that their teammates and friends consume (Martens, Page, Mowry, Dmann, Taylor, & Cimini, 2006). It is proven that athletes often have larger groups of friends than non-athletes which may account for part of the misconception, but it also puts athletes at greater risk for binge drinking behavior (Nelson & Wechsler, 2000). College athletes report a higher rate of binge drinking (57%) than their non-athlete counterparts (48%) (Nelson & Wechsler, 2000).
Consuming 5 or more drinks in one night can affect the brain and body for up to 3 days after consumption, interfering with the athlete’s ability to learn new plays and strategies. Athletes’ use of alcohol has no direct benefit to their body or training because the high calories in alcohol cannot be converted into energy for the body (Firth & Manzo, 2004). So when athletes of any kind are feeling stressed with school, practice, traveling, and competition, they shouldn’t turn to alcohol as a way to relax. It only will put you more behind.
Family Fun Day pretzels
Today in Culinary Corner, we made pretzels for Family Fun Day. They were a big hit, everyone loved them and I couldn’t copy the recipes fast enough to give them out. We gave out over 50 cup fulls of pretzels to attendees and staff!
Seasoned Pretzels
Ingredients:
1 package original Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
One 15-20 oz. bag of pretzels
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and coat pretzels. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.
runing with lynn show
Good morning UND looking like a chilly windy day, we are setting at -12 right now so bundle up.
The movie of the week “THE NUT JOB,” a movie never sounded nuttier then this. Watch this action-packed comedy that will keep you laughing all 1 hour and 26 min! It’s really great –
And now its time for Lynn Haman and what really grinds my gears:
You know what really grinds my gears…. last week I’m enjoying my ice cream while this little kid is bawling and screaming, so I turn to the baby and say, “Why are you crying it’s ICECREAM!?” 🙂
Thanks and have a great day.
Caprese Salad Skewers
Today (1/21/14) in Cheap, Fast, and Healthy at Culinary Corner, we made Caprese Salad Skewers. This is a very healthy balance of tomatoes, ham, cheese, basil, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The participants loved the idea of a non-traditional version of the recipe where toothpicks were used instead of large slices of tomato arrange in a “salad”.
A workout playlist that’s PROVEN to get results? – Yes please!
If you’re already struggling with your New Year plans to get fit, it may be because you’re listening to the wrong kind of music during your workout.
Sports psychologists from London have discovered that specific genres of music are best suited to specific types of exercise, and listening to the wrong kind of track could hinder your performance.
They found that rap music provides the best beats per minute for stretching and running, while dance music is more suited to strength training.
Pop music is best used during warm up and cool down, but rock music should be avoided during exercise due to frequent changes in tempo that can affect your rhythm.
The research was carried out by sports psychologist Dr Costas Karageorghis, the Music in Exercise and Sport Group at Brunel University in London and Spotify.
The team analysed 6.7 million Spotify playlists containing the word ‘workout’ in the title and compared the different beats per minute (bpm) to those used in certain workouts.
For example, a person’s typical stride rate while jogging or running is 150 to 190 strides per minute.
If these figures are halved it gives a range of 75 to 95 bpm – the beat range found most commonly in urban music, particularly rap.
Many of the lyrics in rap music also ‘imbue the physical energy’ best suited to running, explained the researchers.
Whereas pop is perfect for slower, more repetitive-type tasks, including aerobic warm up and cool down because many pop songs ‘have regular rhythmic patterns and beats.’
Dance music is best suited to strength and weight training because its ‘fast, rhythmical, bass psyches people up before weight training sessions.
Elsewhere, Dr Karageorghis said that for maximum effect, people should use songs that remind them of their adolescence and early adulthood to make them feel youthful and fit.
He said: ‘A suitably motivational playlist can help to ‘colour’ the symptoms of exercise-related fatigue, like breathlessness and a beating heart, in such a way that they are interpreted in a more positive manner.
‘This means that at the point when your body is shouting stop, the music has the power to lift your mood and beckon you on.’
Celebrity trainer Joey Gonzalez added: ‘During workouts, an hour-long mix of strength training and treadmill-based cardio intervals, we try to match our runs and exercises to the beat of our music.
‘For example, timing the treadmill sprints to the chorus of a track with a great hook, or playing a slower song with bass for incline jogs, and even matching steady consistent beats for long endurance runs are all part of our strategy.’
Whereas rock music should be avoid during cardio and high-intensity workouts because the different changes in tempo can affect a person’s rhythm.
Based on the findings, the researchers have compiled a playlist with song suggestions for cool down, aerobic warm up, varying levels of cardio intensity, strength training and cool down. 
Information taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2538601/The-workout-playlist-thats-PROVEN-work-Scientists-analyse-beats-songs-reveal-perfect-exercise-tracks.html
We broke it off.
After almost 7 months of marriage, the time finally came for my hubby and me to take our honeymoon in a tropical paradise. It’s no secret that this winter has been a rough one, so we were looking forward to it with great anticipation- even maintaining an hourly countdown to departure. 3 days before we left, almost-record low temps blanketed the area, leaving us stir crazy to say the least.
Before we left, I told my husband we were taking a break…
from technology, that is.
I asked him to commit to a whole week without carrying a cell phone or iPad around, tuning out the noise of the world. He reminded me that the cost of using phones were nothing less than outrageous for “being connected,” so the temptation to cheat would be greatly reduced. When we arrived at the resort, there were wi-fi hotspots and computer stations set up all over the place, but we remained committed.
We woke up each day not knowing what the weather would be doing.
We had no clue what was happening past the next 3 beach chairs.
Sports scores and Facebook statuses were forgotten and irrelevant.
It… was… AMAZING.
At first I was a little uneasy at the thought of leaving everything to chance, and we decided to keep a phone on for emergencies, but it stayed in the room and was rarely checked.
One of the first and most profound things that I noticed was how much TIME you have when you aren’t “connected” around the clock. We showed up early for most activities (and I tend to run at least 5 minutes late), and had plenty of time to really stop and enjoy our surroundings and talk about everything.
People say that our generation has lost the ability to converse. If you want to test yourself, leave your phone at home for a few days and rely on face-to-face conversations. Yes- it was challenging to come up with things to talk about at times, but in those moments, we learned how to be comfortable with silence– another Lost Art.
Being back home has been a bigger adjustment than leaving. I found so much enjoyment out of disconnecting that I’ve had a hard time forgetting to carry my phone! I’m setting a goal to continue consciously shutting out the noise of social media for a time each day in order to connect with loved ones and unwind.
I challenge you to join me– put down your phone and close your laptop for even an hour a day.
Trust me: YOU HAVE TIME.
And once you develop a routine, you may even look forward to it!
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