Tag Archives: healthy snacks

Recipe: Coco-Choco-Chia Pudding (Gluten-Free!)

September 24, 2017celiac disease, Dairy-free, Dessert, Dietitian, Food, gluten, gluten-free, health coach, Healthy Diet, mason jar, meal planning, Meal Prep, Recipe, Snacks, splenda, sugar, Vegan, VegetarianDairy-free, Dessert, gluten, gluten-free, healthy snacks, mason jar, meal plan, Meal Prep, recipe, snack, treat, vegan, vegetarianAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

We are so excited about publishing our first Celiac Disease ebook that we are sharing gluten-free recipes in advance of our gluten-free focused special deals for October! First up is a coconut, chocolate, chia seed pudding. So much yes!

This is one of three gluten-free, treats (snacks or desserts) we are showcasing at our next Make & Take Meal Prep Workshop but we love it so much we are sharing it with you here too. By the way, this recipe is also dairy-free and vegan! And yes, it can be all these things and still delicious!

If you want to also learn to make Peach (or Pineapple!) Cheesecake and the Peanut Pecan Dream, we invite you to join us at the October 13, 2017 workshop (or see Upcoming Events to find the next workshop!) where you get to make three gluten-free, healthy, and delicious desserts – that can also fit in as a great afternoon snack – and take four meal-prepped treats home with you. You will get the recipes and learn about what makes these treats a healthier option and what’s really going on with sugar and your health.

Yes, I said healthy AND delicious. I mean, where else can you get 10 grams of fiber, 20% of the Daily Value (%DV) for Vitamin D, and 50% of the DV for calcium in a dessert!?? This is one treat you can feel good about giving your little ones (or enjoying for yourself!) because this sugar comes with some solid nutrition as well!

Without further ado – here is the recipe! Click for printer-friendly PDF!

Coco-Choco-Chia Pudding

A Mason Jar Meal-Prep Workshop Recipe by Alexia Lewis RD / N.E.W. Motivation Coaching

Makes 1 serving

INGREDIENTS & SUPPLIES

1 Mason Jar, 1-cup size

3/4 cup Almond milk, dark chocolate

2 Tbsp Chia seeds

1 packet Alternative sweetener

1 Tbsp Coconut, shredded, no sugar added

1 pinch Salt

2 Tbsp Coconut whipped topping

DIRECTIONS

1. Measure all ingredients except coconut whipped topping into blender

2. Blend for 30 seconds

3. Pour mixture into mason jar

4. Top with whipped topping

5. Close jar tightly and store in refrigerator until ready to eat (up to 3-5 days)

NUTRITION PER SERVING

250 calories, 14 g fat (5 g saturated fat, 0 trans fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 275 mg sodium, 30 g carbohydrates, 10 g fiber, 15 g sugar, 5 g protein plus 50% DV calcium and 20% DV Vitamin D

NOTES

This will have a slightly “gritty” texture due to grinding the chia seeds, you can skip grinding (and skip alternative sweetener) but you should refrigerate 2 days before serving or pudding will be much more liquid.

Reduce added sugar/carbohydrates by using unsweetened almond milk plus 1 scoop chocolate protein powder.

If Hunger is the Problem, Food is the Solution

June 30, 2016Diet, Dietitian, Food, hunger, Snacks, weight lossdiet, dietitian, food, healthy diet, healthy snacks, hunger, snacking, weight lossAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

Yesterday I was so hungry. I wanted to snack my way through my afternoon. I am working on weight loss so how much I eat is a factor. I try to eat enough food to fuel my body without eating more than I need at any one time.

Here’s the question – a person is working on weight loss and is hungry in the afternoon, what should they do?

Some common answers might be:

Ignore it, the hunger will pass
Drink a huge amount of water to fill up your stomach
Eat a snack pack bag of carrots (low calorie) or a boiled egg (protein) and then stop
Give up, go off the diet, feel bad, pledge to start again tomorrow

I’ve heard all these answers in practice and they don’t address the problem in a realistic way. There is a mindful eating saying that if hunger isn’t the problem, food isn’t the solution. (Read that again). So true and if I were bored or pissed off, then food wouldn’t be what I needed. However… I was hungry!

Isn’t the flip side of that saying: If hunger is the problem, then food is the solution?

Here’s the thing, our bodies are not steady-state machines in terms of how much energy (calories) they need each day because we don’t ask our bodies to do the same things every day AND all those inside workings are different day-to-day (immune responses, stress, etc.).

Some days, I may not need much food; my hunger will be low and I should take advantage and eat less if weight loss is my goal. As long as I ensure adequate nutrition that is – please don’t eat less than your BMR!

Other days, I may need more food (energy) and my body will let me know it’s hungry and so I should… well, according to the answers above… I should ignore that and eat by my plan. I should deprive myself, tell myself I’m a failure if I eat in response to hunger, fight through it because weight loss is hard and this is expected. I should basically spend the afternoon fighting a mental war between my body and mind.

Um, no. Why be so unkind to yourself?

Here’s the question again – a person is working on weight loss and is hungry in the afternoon, what should they do?

Eat.

Simple. Easy. Honoring your body and loving yourself.

First, check in and make sure the hunger physiological. If it is, then FEED YOUR BODY!

Here’s how this dietitian handled a ravenous appetite:

A handful of fresh cherries and about a cup of fresh blackberries. Wait. Still hungry.
Add protein. A fresh apple with a little tub (3/4 oz. or a heaping Tbsp.) of peanut butter. Wait. Still hungry.
Add protein / healthy fat. Pecans, Just under an ounce. Wait Still hungry. Are you kidding me body???
Bring out those carbohydrates. A Flatout with 1 Tbsp. of light olive oil butter, a sprinkle of Splenda, cinnamon. Wait. Finally satiation! No more hunger!

I added nearly 600 calories in snacks yesterday and that put my total calories up a little higher than usual. So what? I ate to satisfy my hunger! Nutritious choices = more food! Choosing a convenience crispy-crunchy or chocolately snack would not have satisfied my hunger. I instead made nutritious choices and got to eat a whole lot until I felt satisfied.

Are you shaking your head at me and saying: I bet you put on weight by giving in to your cravings and eating all that food. Nope. I weigh in every morning and I’m up 0.2 lbs this morning, which is 100% water-not-weight variation. If in doubt, see my last post: Weight Loss: A Long and Winding Road.

The moral of my story is – feed yourself when you are hungry and do it with healthful choices.

(Image for blog from: https://memegenerator.net/)

No More Excuses for Fast Food!

May 12, 2016Diet, Dietitian, Fast Food, Food, Healthy Diet, Lunch, meal plan, Snacksdiet, fast easy meals, food, healthy meal, healthy snacks, registered dietitian, snackingAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

I get it. You’re busy, you’re tired, you don’t have time for meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prepping. You think your only option is that fast food drive through or the quick convenience restaurants.

I completely disagree.

We are ALL busy, tired, and don’t have free time to do all that planning and preparation. You have no less hours in your days that anyone else. You have chosen how to prioritize your time and to what and whom you give your time and effort. I’m not trying to make you feel any certain way but I can already hear your reasons that it’s not your choice and there is nothing you can do to change it.

Perhaps that is true for some people. I’ve been a caretaker for a family member going through a multiple year crisis and I found myself not taking care of myself at first. After devoting all my energy to care-taking, I realized I needed to take care of me too and I found a way to fit it in. (Anyone else ever walked the parking garage stairs and levels at a hospital? Yep, me too).

The thing is – we pay for our choices one way or the other. We pay in dollars and health when we routinely eat most choices available for a quick lunch (and we save time and effort). We pay in time and effort spent every evening or in a block of time on the weekends to meal plan, shop, and cook dinner (and we save our health and dollars). You get to decide which is more important for you in this moment.

The good news is that YOU have the power to shift your schedule and priorities. Maybe not completely; but I challenge you to find ONE SMALL THING over which you have control and can make a change.

Trust me – you’ll feel better if you do. 🙂

So, to help you realize that you DO have some control to choose something simple – like a healthier lunch or snacks – I bring you my “I’m-starving-and-have-nothing-to-eat-for-lunch” list for the grocery store. These are grab-and-go meals and snacks that you can choose instead of a fast food meal. (Spoiler alert – that fast food salad likely has more calories and less nutrition than the bacon cheeseburger).

Lunch?
- Tuna (or salmon packet or packaged grilled chicken strips) mixed into prepared green salad (from produce section) with dressing of your choice
- 1 whole wheat roll with sliced meat and cheese (all from the deli so you get only what you need!) plus a mustard packet and box of high-fiber crackers
  - Bonus – now you’ve got crackers to stash at your desk for snack-time!
- Sushi roll with edamame (if store has this option)
- Diced fruit and nuts on cottage cheese (major yum!)
Going back to the office?
- Frozen dinner and steamer bag of vegetables (no sauces please)
- Can of low-sodium soup plus green salad (from produce section) with dressing
Snacks?
- Cheese stick with those crackers you stashed in your desk
- Chopped fruit from produce section with a handful of nuts
- Yogurt with Grape Nuts (really, don’t spend money on “granola” or “trail mix” as Grape Nuts give you the crunch without added sugar or ridiculous price!)
- Apple with peanut butter (single packs are now sold! Try the natural no-sugar-added kind)

Oh, and do yourself one more favor and just grab a simple, cold, refreshing bottle of water (or fill up your bottle!) on your way out of the store.

Tell me your other ideas and tricks for eating healthy when crunched for time?

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

February 11, 2013Baking, Dessert, Dietitian, Healthy Dietcookie, fiber, flax, healthy snacks, heart disease, oatmeal, registered dietitian, vegan, vegetarianAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

Today, my mission was to rework an oatmeal cookie recipe to be more heart-healthy and vegan. Oats are already a heart-healthy food so I didn’t have much work to do there; but I have not done much vegan baking. This was going to be a challenge! I ended up making two batches of oatmeal cookies. One is low-fat and the other is vegan. You decide which one fits into your healthy eating goals better.

I started with a basic oatmeal cookie recipe and focused on the ingredients that needed to be swapped out.

First up, vegetable shortening. Great for flakiness and flavor in baking; but it contains trans fat which is about as far away from heart-heatlhy as you can go. For the low-fat recipe, I swapped 3/4 cup vegetable shortening with 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup mashed banana to retain moistness and flavor. In my experience, when I replace more than half the fat in a recipe with a fruit puree, the final product loses some “yummy.” This wouldn’t do for the vegan version however since butter is a dairy/animal product, so I chose refined coconut oil. The refining removes some of the coconut flavor and leaves you with a solid fat that is good for baking. This swap removes the trans fat; but it adds some saturated fat. I think I could find a better option; but this is at least a baby-step towards heart-healthier.

Next replacement was the egg for the vegan version. Mixing 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water makes for a nice egg replacement. If you buy flaxseed from the bulk bins, it is much cheaper! I was about to spend $4 for a bag of ground flaxseed and ended up spending $0.65 on a small amount of seeds from the bulk bin. Shop smart!

Flaxseed - before and after grinding — Flaxseed – before and after grinding

Ground flaxseed mixed with water is a great egg replacer

Finally, I wanted to add more fiber. I swapped half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour and called it a day.

Rolled oats coated with all-purpose and whole wheat flour and baking soda

There was a difference in the batters as well as the final cookies when they came out of the oven. The vegan batter was drier than the low-fat batter. If I were to recreate the vegan recipe, I would add more water for a more moist batter and cookie.

Into the over for a quick 14 minutes and both cookies spread a little while baking. I didn’t adjust cooking times at all from the original recipe.

I was a little disappointed in the nutritional changes. The low-fat and vegan cookies both had fewer calories than the original and no trans fat. These are both heart-healthy changes. The vegan cookies had the same about of total fat and a more saturated fat that the origial due to the coconut oil. I still think that’s more heart-healthy than having a cookie with trans fat. The catch is not to eat so many cookies that the fat starts adding up! Finally, the fiber content didn’t increase as much as I’d hoped.

Per 1 cookie	Original	Low-Fat	Vegan
Calories	70	60	50
Fat	2.6	1.5	2.5
Saturated Fat	0.6	0.5	2
Trans Fat	0.3	0	0
Cholesterol	2.6	4.5	0
Sodium	11	11	8
Carbohydrate	11	11	8.5
Fiber	0.7	1	1
Protein	1.4	1.5	1

The important thing is how they tasted, right? I preferred the vegan cookies because they had a sweet brown sugar flavor, are more oat-ey, and have a nice crispness. The low-fat cookies are softer and moister; but they had a bit of a banana flavor. I don’t know about you; but I’m not looking for banana in my oatmeal cookies! In the future, I’d consider adding dark chocolate chips or walnuts to boost the heart-healthy properties of these cookies.

Whichever cookie you prefer, I hope you now have some strategies for adjusting recipes when baking and that you will enjoy that occasional cookie, even on your heart-healthy diet!

A day's work for an RD — A day’s work for an RD

Veggies In Dessert – Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

November 30, 2012Baking, Dietitian, Grains, Snacks, Vegetableschocolate chip, cupcakes, dietitian, eggplant, healthy, healthy snacks, muffins, vegetable, vegetable pureeAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

If you missed my segment on First Coast Living, you can watch me talk about Veggies in Desserts by choosing the tab for Food (click the right arrow to see more tabs) and then scrolling to Wednesday September 26th UNF Nutrition.

I showcased three desserts during this segment: Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes (see previous blog post), Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Black Bean Brownies. As I mentioned, none of these recipes were my creation and you can find them at these links:

Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

Black Bean Brownies

The main points from my segment were:

1. Add vegetables to your day in any way you can!

Americans do not eat enough vegetables. The recommended amount for generally healthy adults is 2-3 cups per day and data shows we are eating 1.5-1.8 cups/day (2004 NHANES)! Sneaking vegetables into desserts can help us to baby-step our way towards the recommended daily amount – remember, it’s still dessert so it won’t get you all the way there!

2. Use vegetables to increase the nutritional content of your favorite desserts by reducing calories and fat, increasing fiber, and adding vitamins.

3. Methods (not covered in segment)

If using a puree, replace half of the fat with the puree. If it’s a liquid fat (oil) use 3/4 the amount that you are replacing and if it’s a solid fat (butter), use 1/2 the amount you are replacing. Reduce the oven temperature or check sooner than the recipe calls for or it might over-bake.

If using chopped vegetables, some have a high water content so you may need to reduce the other liquids in the recipe.

Now, on to my favorite of the three recipes – the eggplant chocolate chip muffins!

Start by making sure you have all the ingredients you will need on hand.

Ingredients for Eggplant Chocolate Chip Muffins

Next, figure out how to chop that eggplant! Here’s a suggestion, start by cutting into smaller sections with straight edges so the vegetable will sit flat when you start chopping.

Now, peel the eggplant. Honestly, when I make my second batch of these muffins today (yes, they are that good!) I will not peel the eggplant and see how that goes… but the recipe called for peeling, so I did.

Finally, chop the section in half (again to give you a flat edge for safer chopping) and make smaller and smaller cuts. These pictures show going from the whole section, to half the section, to slices, to matchsticks, to a small chop.

Finally - Chopped Eggplant! — Finally – Chopped Eggplant!

Moving on to the other ingredients, you will end up with four bowls of goodies. Top left is the flour mixture, top right is the butter mixture, bottom left is the chocolate chips, and bottom right is the chopped eggplant.

The beautiful thing about making muffins is that it is so easy! Simply make a well in your flour mixture (dry ingredients) and add your liquid ingredients. Be careful how much mixing you do! Gluten develops quickly once liquid is added to flour so you want to mix as LITTLE as possible while still combining the ingredients so there are NO DRY SPOTS of flour. Then fold in the extras (chips and eggplant) and mix just enough to distribute those extras throughout the batter. The mixture should be lumpy!

This recipe yields 24 muffins. Here they are before going in the oven

And after! YUM!

Compared to store-bought chocolate chip muffins, these have 50 less calories, 4 grams less fat, double the fiber, and we’ve added vitamins A and C.

Per muffin:

Calories	180
Carbohydrates (g)	26
Protein (g)	3
Fat (g)	8
Sat Fat (g)	3
Trans (g)	0
Cholesterol (mg)	30
Sodium (mg)	170
Fiber (g)	2.1
Vitamin A	3%
Vitamin C	7%
Calcium	2%
Iron	4%

Original publication date: September 30, 2012 at http://newmotivationcoaching.blogspot.com.

Veggies in Dessert – Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

November 30, 2012Baking, Dietitian, Snacks, Vegetablesbeet puree, beets, cupcakes, dietitian, healthy snacks, muffins, red velvet cupcakes, vegetablesAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

Did you know it’s “Fruits and Veggies – More Matters” month?

I’m doing a media spot this month and decided to focus on sneaking in more vegetables by using them to create desserts. My first adventure in the kitchen was red velvet cupcakes made with beets. I’m happy to report no red stains anywhere in my kitchen from the beets!

The recipe is from: http://www.dominosugar.com/recipe/beet-red-velvet-cake-7560 with no alterations. I did add store-bought cream cheese icing because making these cupcakes – which is more like making cake than muffins – was enough for one day.

Lab coat, check. Hair back, check. Hands washed, check. All ingredients on hand and measured, check. And we are ready to go!

Step 1: Cream sugar and butter. Note that a husband with strong hands is helpful for this step!

Creamed Butter and Sugar — Creaming Butter and Sugar is Easiest with a Fork

Step 2: Add eggs

Other bowls of goodness ready. Note that if you don’t have a sifter, you can use a wire mesh strainer. I did this and it sifted beautifully. Top left: flour mixture. Top right: sugar, butter, eggs mixture. Bottom left: buttermilk mixture. Bottom right: pureed beets – pretty!

Ingredients for Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes Ready for Mixing!

Once mixed together = big bowl of batter and a wooden spoon that will probably always be slightly reddish…

The recipe does indeed make 24 cupcakes

These have a nice moistness and grain but are not as red as conventional red velvet cake (even with sneaking a few drops of red food coloring in the batter…shhh!)

Cooked Cupcake - Look at that Grain!! — Cooked Cupcake – Look at that Grain!!

And the final product with the icing, which I will be bringing into work tomorrow to share!

These are husband-approved, so you know they must be good, and they sneak in a vegetable that many people dislike in it’s pure form. Simply by making the vegetable into a puree, you can add beets to your diet! Next is the nutrition information as compared to a store-bought mix for red velvet cupcakes. The rows in pink are where the biggest nutritional changes are seen.

Original publication date: September 16, 2012 at http://newmotivationcoaching.blogspot.com.

How To Be a Healthy Snacker

November 30, 2012Dietitian, Healthy Diet, Snacksfat, healthy, healthy snacks, hunger, insulin, portions, snacking, weight lossAlexia Lewis RD, LD/N, CHC, CPT

I am a snacker.

I typically do not leave the house without two things: a snack and my water bottle. Snacking used to have a bad reputation. The standard American diet consisted of three square meals a day, not snacks. Snacking was linked in people’s minds with overeating and weight gain. It was a bad thing to do.

Oh how things have changed. Snacking is no longer the exception, it is now the norm and it may help people to lose or maintain their weight.

I got to thinking about this because I came across an article entitled “Frequent Snacking Linked to Healthier Diet” (1). This article reports on a five-year study of over 11,000 people aged 20 and over which found that snackers consume more healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits, and milk products and less high-sodium foods. Well, it sounds like snackers do have healthier diets! As one reads on, the study also reported that snackers also consumed more sugar, solid fats, and alcohol along with fewer vegetables. Hmmm. Finally, the article reports on another study in a younger population (teenagers) that found that teen snackers also consumed more fruit and dairy products.
Another study on snacking from the November 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2) looked at women in the 30-60 age range and grouped them by BMI. The study found that normal weight women had the highest number of snacks (2.3 snacks/day), followed by those who had lost weight and were maintaining that loss (1.9 snacks/day), followed by those who were overweight (1.5 snacks/day).

This all seems to point to the fact that snacking may actually be beneficial in terms of BMI as long as we choose healthy snacks.

But is there a downside?

Let’s say that we eat a snack that includes carbohydrate-containing foods, such as fruit, milk, or grains. For most people, it takes 1 to 2 hours for all consumed food to move through the stomach and reach the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed. Absorption of glucose (blood sugar) from the carbohydrate-containing foods triggers the hormone insulin, which is needed move glucose into our cells for use.

If we graze all day or have large snacks of carbohydrate-containing foods in between meals, we are asking our bodies to continue to release insulin and our insulin levels do not have time to go back down in between meals. On the flip side, if we eat three big meals a day, we see a big spike of glucose after that big meal and we may overload insulin’s ability to be effective. Both overloading our insulin with high levels of glucose at one time and having constantly elevated insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance and potentially to type 2 diabetes. Insulin also promotes energy storage – in other words, it makes our bodies store fat.

What’s a snacker to do?

It sounds like moderation and balance are the keys. I think we have heard that somewhere before. Here are some guidelines to help you keep your snacking healthy.

1. – Respect your body and eat when you are physically hungry. If your stomach is grumbling and you have been drinking your water, then it is time to eat something.

2. – Pick your snacks wisely. Focus on healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains, and lean proteins. If you decide to have a “fun food” for a snack, then pay attention to the next point!

3. – Watch your portion size. A snack should not be the same as a meal in size or calories.

As always – enjoy your food!

Original publication date: December 4, 2011 at http://newmotivationcoaching.blogspot.com.

References

1. Frequent Snacking Linked to Healthier Diet. Today Health Web site. Available at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45307103/ns/today-today_health/t/frequent-snacking-linked-healthier-diet/

2. Bachman et al. Eating Frequency is Higher in Weight Loss Maintainers and Normal-Weight Individuals than in Overweight Individuals. Available at: http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(11)01376-9/abstract

3. Image from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images.

Coco-Choco-Chia Pudding

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