Buttermilk & Oat Waffles

These waffles are surprisingly delicious. We made them once before, but it's been a while. This snowy morning seemed like the perfect morning to make a big breakfast. Matt came in from shoveling snow off the docks and requested waffles, and this is what we made! He likes these better than regular waffles. They have so much more texture and flavor. He ate his with peanut butter. I ate mine plain with just a little trans-fat-free margarine. They'd also be good with sugar-free jam or jelly, or with yogurt and berries. They're great leftover, too. Freeze them for up to three weeks, and re-heat them in the toaster. Try them! I think you'll like them.

Buttermilk & Oat Waffles

1 cup whole-grain flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons granular sugar substitute (i.e. Splenda)
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/4 cups low-fat or fat-free buttermilk
1/2 cup water
1 large egg
Dash salt

Combine flour, oats, baking powder, sugar substitute and salt in medium bowl. Whisk together oil, buttermilk, water and egg in separate bowl. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Heat waffle iron. Coat lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Pour 1/4 of the batter on the waffle iron and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Makes four large waffles.

Jambalaya

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Quite good! Nice, spicy kick.

Ingredients:
Jambalaya Mix (see recipe below)
2 cups water
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I actually used crushed tomatoes)
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 pound turkey sausage, browned and diced
1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken tenders or breasts, browned and shredded

Jambalaya Mix:
1 cup brown rice
3 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf

In a small bowl, combine rice, onion, parsley, bouillon, thyme, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, and bay leaf. (You can make this ahead of time and store in an airtight container.)

Directions:
In a medium size sauce pan combine Jambalaya Mix, water, tomatoes and tomato sauce. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaf. Add meat, stir and serve. Serves 3 to 4. (Shrimp would be a nice addition, as well.)

January is National Soup Month!

This is one of my favorite soups! If you have a copy of the Ozark County Cookin' Magazine, you might have seen it already. Either way, you should try it! It's hearty, it's healthy, and even better... it's easy!

Lentil Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes (petite or crushed)
1 pound lentils (approximately 1 1/4 cups)
8 cups low-salt chicken broth
4 to 6 fresh thyme sprigs (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, salt and pepper and saute until all the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices. Simmer until the juices evaporate a little, and the tomatoes break down, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add the lentils and mix to coat. Add the broth and stir. Add the thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until the lentils are almost tender, about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan.

Sometimes living well means getting away...

Hi, folks! Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but we've just returned from the British Virgin Islands. I am excited to get back to blogging here regularly. I hope all is well with everyone, and your new year is off to a great start! The next Living Well column is coming up in next week's Ozark County Times. I'm working on it now! Cheers to all, and have a good weekend. More soon...

Health Tip

I like today's Health Tip of the Day... (see below, right)

"Surround yourself with people and things that remind you to live a healthy lifestyle."

That's good advice. It's so much easier to eat healthy and exercise when the people around you care about those things, too. Strength in numbers!

Chick-please!

Remember how I said we try to substitute healthier ingredients when we can when cooking our old favorites? Well, here's an example: I made vegetable soup for lunch today, and instead of using white potatoes (a common ingredient in veggie soup), I used chickpeas - or garbanzo beans. Huh? I know, it sounds like a strange substitute for potatoes. But, the texture is similar. And chickpeas are a good source of protein and high in fiber. If you've never cooked with chickpeas, you should! They're great on salads, too. You can buy them in a can, but be sure to rinse and drain them first to wash away all that excess sodium you don't need.

I told you it's a soup kinda week! (If you live here, you don't need me to tell you that. Brrrrrrrrr!) Cheers, and warm thoughts to all!

Interesting article

Saw this article - Top Weight Loss Foods for 2010 - on the Yahoo home page just now. It's interesting... full-fat cheese can help you lose weight? Yee haw!

"Fat Free" isn't always the better option

Did you know "fat free" foods aren't always the best choice? For example, fat-free dressings can be so deceiving. Sure, they boast 0 grams of fat, but look at the sugar content! Fat-free stuff is often loaded with sugar - a lot more sugar than the full-fat version. A reader asked me, "What do you count?" Meaning, do I count calories? fat grams? carbs? points? Well, to be honest, I don't count anything. I pay attention to calories, of course, when shopping for and eating food. But, what I really pay attention to - more than fat grams or carbs or anything else - is the sugar content, especially when buying dressings, sauces, marinades, etc.

Tip: When buying salad dressings, pay attention to the sugar content. Dressings should have 2 grams of sugar or less per serving, which is typically 2 tablespoons. We eat a ton of Newman's Own olive oil and vinegar dressing. It's actually a "South Beach" recommended dressing. Or, you can make your own, of course. Very simple and delicious.

Shoveling snow = Good exercise

This I know. For my husband told me so. The several hundred feet of walkways on the dock we manage are covered in snow this morning. And while I don't anticipate too many people using them this week, they still need to be shoveled. Matt set off to start shoveling this morning, and I asked him if I could help. He said, "No, you'll freeze." Then he paused and said, "It does burn calories. I'm sweating out here!" Sigh. But, I don't feel like shoveling snow!

So, what's the moral of the story? If you despise cold weather as I do, yet you have to get out and work in it - i.e. shovel snow - at least you're doing something good for your body. If you love the cold and the snow, then you're in luck! What better way to burn off some of those unneeded and unwanted pounds gained from all the holiday fun than by playing outside in the fluffy white stuff. At least the sun is shining! Shovel away!

Quick & Easy Taco Soup

With temps in the 20s and 5 inches of snow on the ground, it's only fitting that the first two recipes on this blog are for soup! It's just been that kinda weekend. This is a super quick and easy one to fix. If you're like me, you might even have everything you need in your pantry and fridge/freezer.

1 small onion, diced
1 pound ground turkey
1-2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 package lower-sodium taco seasoning
1 can "hot" chili beans
1 can black beans, drained
1 can rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilis), including liquid
1 cup frozen corn

Heat oil in saucepan. Saute onion 5 minutes or so. Add ground turkey, stir until cooked. Add taco seasoning, 2 cans of beans, rotel and corn, plus 1 to 2 cups of water - or however much it takes for your soup to reach a consistency you like. Bring to low boil and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Serve with reduced-fat shredded cheese.

Your feedback is much appreciated!

An Ozark County Times reader in Koshkonong called me on New Year's Eve. She had read my first Living Well column in the paper in late November, and she was inspired to try the "South Beach" way of eating (notice I didn't use the "D" word). The December 30 issue of the OCT was due in her mailbox that day, and she expressed that she was looking forward to reading my column in it. I was so thrilled to hear from her. If you're a writer, you understand how exciting it is to receive feedback on your work - ANY kind of feedback. The fact that someone is talking about something you wrote is great, but to know you've actually inspired someone... well, that's just super.

She was headed to the grocery store, on a mission to buy healthy ingredients for her refrigerator and pantry, and she wanted some advice on what types of things she should pick up. She had ordered the Good Fats, Good Carbs Guide by Arthur Agatston (the author of the South Beach Diet) after reading about it in my November column, but it hadn't arrived yet. While I'm certainly not an expert or nutritionist, and I don't claim to be, I know what worked for me. And that's what I shared with her. If you're looking to change your lifestyle, including the way you eat, I highly recommend that little guide. It changed my life! I picked it up one day and read it cover-to-cover. It lists just about every food you can imagine and notes whether it's good, should be limited or avoided. (Shop for the book at amazon.com.)

I am just giddy over the Living Well column in the OCT, and I look forward to all of your future comments/questions/suggestions. Please feel free to comment here on the blog or e-mail me at jabetwade@yahoo.com.

Winter Tomato Soup

This soup is so delicious and very easy to make. We made grilled cheese sandwiches on whole-grain sandwich thins (the bread that looks like a really flat bun), using reduced-fat cheese slices. We cut the grilled sandwiches in strips for easy dunking in the soup. Enjoy!

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped (or 1 teaspoon minced garlic from a jar)
2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
1 teaspoon granulated sugar substitute (i.e. Splenda)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, including juice
1/4 cup fat-free milk
2 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt or reduced fat sour cream

Heat olive oil in medium saucepan. Cook onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, sugar substitute, thyme, bay leaf, tomatoes and 2 cups of water. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes.

Remove bay leaf. Use a handheld blender, regular blender or food processor to puree until smooth. (Be careful if using a standard blender, as the hot liquid might spray out.)

Heat milk in microwave for 30 seconds or until warm, then stir into puree along with yogurt or sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parmesan.