Cottage Cheese Onion Dip

This low fat recipe for onion dip was shared on our forum by Liz.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Cottage cheese, low fat
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1/2 Cup Plain yogurt, low fat
• 1/4 Cup Green onion, chopped
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Pinch Pepper

Preparation:

This is a basic low calorie onion dip. You can customize this dip with a little curry powder, hot pepper sauce, or your favorite herbs or onion soup mix. In blender, process cottage cheese with lemon juice until blended. Add remaining ingredients. Process just until blended. Refrigerate for at least four hours.

Hummus Recipes

Hummus is a dip/spread that is made from chickpeas. In fact, hummus is the Arabic word for chickpea. You may notice that many hummus recipes call for garbanzo beans, not chickpeas. Don't worry, garbanzo is the Spanish translation of chickpea. They are called cece beans in Italy.

Hummus is one of the oldest foods dating back to ancient Egypt. We know that chickpeas were used quite frequently over 7,000 years ago.

Hummus Recipes

If you frequent Middle Eastern restaurants and eat the hummus, you know that hummus tastes different everywhere. Some types of hummus have a strong lemon flavor, some have an overwhelming garlic flavor, and some hummus has a spicy tone.

When making your own hummus, you have to keep your own tastebuds in mind. If a recipe calls for a lot of tahini and you don't like tahini, scale down the amount or simply omit it. The fun about Middle Eastern cooking is that the ingredient amounts aren't set in stone. Add a little of this and take away that and you still have a culinary masterpiece!

These days hummus is made a million different ways, flavor included. Here are some excellent hummus recipes that have a variety of ingredients make hummus more exciting!

Healthy After School Snacks for Teens

Since schooldays usually end earlier than workdays, your teens probably spend some time at home alone after school. The good news is that they're old enough to go to the kitchen and feed themselves. They don’t need you to make their snacks for them anymore.

The bad news is also that they are old enough to go to the kitchen and feed themselves. When teens come home from school with growling stomachs, they may not be too interested in making the healthiest of choices. A big bag of greasy potato chips, some dip and sugary soda will probably become the after-school snack of choice because it is easy and tastes good, not because it is good for them.

Good snacks like fresh fruits refuel your teen and give them important nutrients. Poor snacks add extra sugar, saturated fats, and sodium to your kids’ body. And if portions aren't controlled, these snacks may ruin their appetite for your healthy family dinner later.

You can help your teen by providing healthy, easy-to-prepare after school snacks:

Frozen Grapes

Buy a pound of seedless grapes and pluck them from the vine. Wash them and place a handful of grapes into several sandwich-sized freezer bags, and put the bags in the freezer. Once the grapes are frozen, they develop a popsicle-like texture and taste deliciously sweet without any added sugar.

Precut Vegetables and Dip

Teens love chips and dip, but they don’t need the extra fats and sodium. Replace the chips with fresh-cut raw vegetables. Try carrot sticks or slices, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, snap peas and celery. Even picky eaters will find one vegetable to eat.

Your kids can dip the raw vegetables into veggie dip, regular chip dip, nacho cheese dip lite or regular salad dressing. Obviously some dips are healthier than others are (cheap nacho cheese dip from the grocery store probably lacks real cheese), but I think the main goal with this snack is to get those extra vegetables into your teen.

Whole Grain Bread and Peanut Butter

Make the switch from white bread to 100% whole wheat bread, and any sandwich is instantly healthier. Peanut butter adds protein and healthy fats. If your teen has a sweet tooth, bring home a jar of 100% fruit spread that is naturally sweet rather than a jar of jelly that has extra sugar or high fructose corn syrup. You can also enjoy other types of butters such as soy nut butter, almond butter and cashew butter.

Lite Popcorn

What could be easier than tossing a bag of popcorn in the microwave? Popcorn is high in fiber, so it makes a good snack if you don’t drown it in butter or margarine. You can choose brands that are lower in fat and salt or buy a microwave popcorn popper. Let your teen experiment with different seasonings to add flavor and zest.

Whole Wheat Pretzels

Whole grains are important because they add fiber to your teen’s diet. Fiber is important for a healthy digestive system, and most teens don’t get enough. Regular pretzels are made from over-processed flour that has had all of the bran and much of the fiber removed. Whole wheat pretzels retain the goodness of fiber and still taste great slathered in mustard.

Make Your Own Trail Mix

Does your teen like to grab a granola bar for a quick treat? Granola bars sounds like they should be good for you, but many of them contain unwanted fats, sugar and extra calories. You can make a healthier alternative by making your own trail mix. Just blend one cup each of two different whole grain cereals, like whole grain Cheerios and Shredded Wheat. Add one cup of mixed nuts and one-half cup of raisins or other dried fruits. You can even add a half cup of chocolate chips. You can also add shelled sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or soy nuts.

Smoothies

Fruit smoothies are much better for your teen than milk shakes or malts and are fun to make too. Frozen bananas make a good base for smoothies. So when your bananas become a little too ripe for your taste, cut them into one-inch chunks and keep them in the freezer. To make a smoothie, just toss four or five chunks of frozen bananas into a high-quality blender with a cup of low-fat milk, a handful of strawberries or blueberries and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and pour into a tall glass.

Hummus and Pita or Crackers

As an alternative to vegetables and dips, have some hummus on hand to serve with whole-wheat pita bread or with whole-grain crackers or breadsticks. Hummus is made with chickpeas (or garbanzo beans), which makes it a terrific source of protein and healthy fats.

Yogurt Parfait

Plain yogurt is good for your teens who probably aren’t getting enough calcium, but the taste may be kind of boring. Spruce up yogurt with berries, sliced peaches and crunchy cereal flakes, nuts or seeds. Plain yogurt can also be used for healthy, low-fat veggie dips.

Healthy Beverages

Teens often have a fondness for beverages with lots of sugar and caffeine like sodas, coffee drinks and energy drinks. Not a good idea, especially later in the day. The caffeine may make for some sleepless nights and the extra sugar is just extra calories. Make sure you keep healthier beverages that still taste great such as 100% fruit and vegetable juices, low-fat milk, sparkling water and plain chilled water. Keep sliced lemons and limes handy to add a bit of flavor to plain water.

Getting Rid of the Bad Stuff

It may not be enough to supply healthy snacks, you may need to get rid of the unhealthy foods as well, depending on your kids’ eating behavior. One teen can easily ignore a tub of ice cream in the freezer while another can’t resist the temptation to devour it. If you have a teen (or adult or child) in your home who has a difficult time resisting high-calorie foods, keep such foods out of the house.

This doesn't mean you have to deprive your family of fun foods (every kid needs a treat now and then) just regulate them. When you decide that an ice cream treat is in order, hit the ice cream shop. Don’t buy bags of candy bars at the grocery or discount store, but occasionally bring home one individual candy bar for each family member. The same idea applies to eating cakes, cookies, greasy chips and donuts: They should be considered treats, not daily dietary staples.

High-Fiber Foods

High-fiber foods have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and to help to keep your digestive system healthy. Find out which foods are high-fiber foods.

Dietary Fiber

Dietary fiber is only found in plants, and functions like a skeleton to help maintain their shape and structure. Humans eat plants but we cannot digest the fiber so it passes through the small intestine into the colon. The fiber helps to keep the colon healthy. Some disorders like diverticulitis, constipation and irregularity may be connected with not getting enough fiber in the diet.

Types of Dietary Fiber

Insoluble fiber is the type of dietary fiber found in high-fiber foods like whole grains, nuts, wheat bran and vegetables. Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water so it helps to move material through the colon faster by increasing the bulk of the stool. This can be very helpful to people who suffer from constipation or irregularity. Diets high in insoluble fiber may also decrease the risk of diabetes.

Soluble fiber is also found in many high-fiber foods like oats, citrus fruits, apples, barley, psyllium, flax seeds and beans. Soluble fiber absorbs water, which helps to soften stools making them easier to eliminate from the body. Some soluble fibers, like beta glucan found in oats, bind to bile acids in the intestinal tract. Bile acids contain cholesterol and normally your body reabsorbs some of those bile acids, but when their bound to beta-glucan, they are eliminated through the stool. This reduces the amount of bile reabsorbed into your blood, and in turn helps to lower cholesterol levels. Research shows high-fiber diets with this type of soluble fiber has been shown to reduce cholesterol closer to healthy levels.

High-Fiber Foods

According to the Institute of Medicine:

The recommended intake for total fiber for adults 50 years and younger is set at 38 grams for men and 25 grams for women, while for men and women over 50 it is 30 and 21 grams per day, respectively, due to decreased food consumption.

People who currently have low-fiber diets may want to increase their daily intake of high-fiber foods slowly because some fiber may increase gas and bloating. The body adjusts the increased amount of fiber over time and the gas and bloating will decrease.

Here are some examples of delicious and healthy high-fiber foods from the USDA National Nutrient Database:

• one-half cup cooked navy beans - 9.5 g
• one-half cup baked beans, canned – 9 g
• one-half cup cooked lentils – 7.8 g
• one-half cup cooked black beans – 7.5 g
• one-half cup dates – 7.1 g
• one cup raisin bran cereal – 7 g
• one-half cup cooked kidney beans – 6.5 g
• one-half cup cooked lima beans – 6.7 g
• one-half cup canned tomato paste – 5.9 g
• one-half cup cooked garbanzo beans – 6.2 g
• one-half cup bean with ham soup – 5.6 g
• one-half cup frozen red raspberries – 5.5 g
• one medium bran muffin – 5 g
• one-half Asian pear – 5 g
• one-half cup cooked artichoke – 4.5 g
• one-half cup frozen peas, cooked – 4.4 g
• one cup oatmeal – 4 g
• one-half cup frozen mixed vegetables, cooked – 4 g
• one-half cup raw blackberries – 3.8 g
• one-half cup canned pumpkin – 3.5 g
• one-half cup cooked whole-wheat spaghetti – 3.4 g
• 24 almonds – 3.3 g
• one apple with skin – 3.3 g
• one-half cup cooked barley 3 g
• one cup broccoli – 2.4 g
• one red sweet pepper – 2.4 g
• one nectarine – 2.3 g
• 28 peanuts – 2.3 g
• one slice whole grain bread – 2 g
• 15 walnut halves – 2 g

Fiber Supplements

Fiber supplements are available and may be added to a low-fiber diet, but fiber supplements shouldn't replace high-fiber foods in your diet because high-fiber foods are usually high in vitamins and minerals as well.

Green Tea - How to Brew Green Tea

Green tea lovers may tell you that the best-tasting green tea is brewed for under one minute with hot water that hasn't reached the boiling point yet. It is also steeped for a short period of time. Boiling water and longer steeping times impart a bitter flavor to green tea.

Researchers, however, have found that using boiling water and longer steeping times increases the amount of polyphenols in the green tea. Polyphenols are the antioxidants in green tea that are responsible for the health benefits that green tea is believed to have.

The results of the studies done suggest that the following preparation guidelines can boost the polyphenol level in green tea:

Size of tea leaves - Small loose leaf green tea is the best choice, because it infuses quickly. Tightly curled or large leaf tea requires a longer infusion time.

Loose leaf vs. teabags - Loose leaves are preferable to teabags. In order to increase the extraction of polyphenols, teabags should be continuously dunked in the teapot rather than left to float on the water.

Temperature - Boiling water promotes the extraction of polyphenols.

Steeping Time - Tea should be steeped for two to five minutes. The polyphenol content of tea increases with steeping time, while a shorter steeping time results in a high caffeine content but low polyphenol content.

Free Radical

Definition: As the body uses oxygen, these by-products cause oxidative damage to the cells of the body. Free radicals come from smoking, pollution, poisons, fried foods, and as a by-product of normal metabolism. Free radical damage is associated with an increased risk of many chronic diseases. "Antioxidants" such as vitamin C, carotenes and vitamin E reduce the damage caused by free radicals.

Antioxidants

Definition: May protect the cells in your body from oxidative damage. As the body uses oxygen, there are by-products known as "free radicals" that can cause damage to cells. Antioxidants are known to repair these free radicals and are associated with a decreased risk of many chronic diseases. Some examples of antioxidants include beta-carotene, vitamins A, C, and E, lutein, lycopene and quercetin.

Green Tea

Every superfoods list needs a healthy beverage or two. Green tea is rich in antioxidants that may offer health benefits and has no calories (unless you add lots of milk and sugar), so it frequently makes the cancer-preventing superfoods lists.

How Green Tea May Protect You From Cancer

Green tea contains antioxidants called catechins that may slow down the growth of cancer cells. In laboratory studies, catechins stop free radical damage to cells and reduce the number and sizes of tumors. The most commonly studied catechins, called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), may cause cancer cells to die, rather than grow and spread. In human research, two large studies found that people who drank more tea were at a lower risk of developing certain cancers, while another study showed no correlation. The research isn't conclusive, however, as other dietary and lifestyle factors can affect the outcomes. Clinical research is needed to determine whether or not green tea can really prevent cancer.

How Is Green Tea Different From Black Tea?

Green tea and black tea both come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. Black tea is made when the leaves are allowed to ferment. Green tea leaves are steamed or heated immediately after picking to prevent fermentation, and they contain more of the polyphenols than black tea.

How to Enjoy Green Tea

There are many brands of green tea available that are conveniently packaged in tea bags. Simply place the tea bag in a cup, add hot water, steep for two minutes or so and remove the bag. There's very little mess and no waste because you brew each cub individually.

Tea bags are convenient, but quality differs widely. You can buy loose leaf green teas for an unbeatable flavor. You'll need an infuser (Buy Direct). Place the leaves into the infuser, set the infuser into an empty tea cup, and add the hot water. Experts suggest that you use boiling water and a longer steeping time for a higher polyphenol concentration. If you like the loose leaves, you may wish to invest in a teapot with an infuser built in (Buy Direct), rather than steeping each individual cup.

Green Tea in Cooking

The easiest way to serve tea is steeped as a hot beverage, but here are some fun recipes using green tea:

pH

Definition: The term pH is used to describe the measurement of acidity or alkalinity of a substance.

• pH of 7.0: Neutral
• pH below 7.0: Acid
• pH above 7.0: Alkaline

The pH of body fluids is regulated, but different parts of the body have different pH ranges. For example, stomach acid has a low pH and blood has a pH that is slightly alkaline.

Sodium Benzoate

Chemical preservatives are frequently used in processed foods to prevent growth of bacteria, yeast or other microorganisms. Sodium benzoate is a type of preservatives commonly used in the fruit pies, jams, beverages, salads, relishes and sauerkraut, typically foods that have an acidic pH. Sodium benzoate and water produce benzoic acid, which is the active form of the preservative. Benzoic acid is found naturally in some fruits such as cranberries, plums and apples.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has studied sodium benzoate extensively and found that it is safe when consumed in amounts found in normal diets. It would take approximately 90 times the amount of sodium benzoate found in a typical diet before any problems might occur.

Benzoates and Benzenes

Sodium benzoate is sometimes used as a preservative in soft drinks, along with ascorbic acid (vitamin C). With excessive heat exposure, the two additives may interact to form benzene, which is known to cause cancer. Low levels of benzene were detected in a variety of soft drinks in 2005, however all levels were far below 5 parts per billion, which was considered safe for humans.

Vitamin C

Definition: Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is a member of the water-soluble family of vitamins. It's required for normal growth and maintenance of most of the tissues of your body.

Vitamin C is well-known as an important component of your immune system; it's also a component of collagen, which is needed for healthy connective tissue. Getting enough vitamin C from your diet will also help your bones and teeth stay strong.

Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that protects the cells in your body from free radical damage.

Daily Requirements

Males

1 to 3 years: 15 mg per day
4 to 8 years: 25 mg per day
9 to 13 years: 45 mg per day
14 to 18 years: 75 mg per day
19+ years: 90 mg per day

Females

1 to 3 years: 15 mg per day
4 to 8 years: 25 mg per day
9 to 13 years: 45 mg per day
14 to 18 years: 65 mg per day
19+ years: 75 mg per day

Vitamin C supplements have been recommended for relief of colds and flu, and as an alternative treatment for some forms of cancer. However, research hasn't provided sufficient evidence for these recommendations.

Taking large amounts of supplemental vitamin C may result in diarrhea or loose stools. The Institute of Medicine established 1800 to 2000 milligrams per day as the upper tolerable intake level.

Vitamin C is found naturally in fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and potatoes. Eating a diet deficient in vitamin C can lead to dry hair, gingivitis, slow wound healing, a weakened immune system, anemia and nosebleeds. Scurvy is a disease that will occur after a long-standing vitamin C deficiency.