Easy Healthy Recipes: Healthy Eating in College, Part 2

There is a wonderful article on Easy Healthy Recipes in college from the Cooking Light Magazine. It is a worthy read.

However, I suggest two wonderful books for any college students who want to enjoy delicious meals. The book offers easy way to cook, save money, and your friends will beg you to cook again. This is a great way to take good care of yourself and impress anybody.

You can get it at Amazon.com. The book is The Healthy College Cookbook and Cooking Outside the Pizza Box.

From my experience, I buy bag of almonds and sneak the fruits out of the cafeteria every time. From time to time, I buy hummus and multi-grain crackers. It is appetizing and you don't feel stuffed. It is always in my room and when I get hungry I eat nuts and fruits. It prevent me from binging out of snack machine or order in. It also save money that way, too.

Have a pitcher of water is also great way to keep yourself hydrate. It beat buying bottled water. Read Fast Company magazine report on the bottled water. It is a great article about bottled water. You will be surprise when you read about the Fiji water. Now, I have no problem drinking water from the tap.

Read first part of Eating Healthy in College.

Easy Healthy Recipes: Healthy Eating in College

Flexible class schedule, massive loads of beers, meeting interesting people, and lot of special deal just for students. I miss college. But, I tell you what I don't miss, the freshman fifteen.

My first semester at school, I lost 15 pounds. Yes, I know it is odd for me losing 15 pounds. I think I lose the pounds due to new transition since being away from home 800 miles and being in new environment of a big city which I hailed from small town. Later, my body began to adapt and I began to love the college life. Weekends, I order take-out Chinese, pizza, and getting invite to mixer party where the drinks are free. Oh, the Ramen Noodles are awesome! I had lot of fun. The summer approached and I came home.

*GASP* The weight scale read out "160". What have I done? Keep in mind, I am 5' 4" with a medium body frame and weigh 140-145 at that time.

That summer, I worked out hard in the weight room, doing high intensity interval training, and watch what I eat. It was time for me to face my enemy, the weight scale. As I entered the bathroom, the tension grew. I took a leak to empty the water weight. I took all of my clothes off. I did not eat anything so my stomach is empty. I deliberately took my left foot gentle step on as my right foot followed. My body tensed up as my I hold my breath and look down slowly. My eye fixed on the window of the weight scale. It read out 150 pounds.

Rejoice! Praise the Lord! I was so elated.

Not that I did this alone but I have all support from my family who encouraged me. My mom joined me that summer as my exercise partner.

I achieve the greatest challenge that summer too. I am proud to said I have not drink soda for last four years. I have no temptations or craving. It was tough for few weeks and after that I have no desire. This does make a big difference in weight management since soda is filled with high calories and high fructose corn syrup. It kill you.

All of my learning experience was supported by two books. The first one I started was Body for lIfe by Bill Phillips. It offered sensible guide on eating and exercise. No diet fads or any kind. You do it in a healthy way and keep it off for life. Later, I purchase Eating for Life by Bill Phillips too. This book match all of Easy Healthy Recipes Criteria. Two thumbs up! There is latest book for women by Pamela Peeke and Cindy Crawford, Body for Life for Women.

Other book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, by Tom Venuto is the best hand down. His research and his profession give you more than what you expected. It is highly credible and very good. He break down in manageable size for you to digest as you read his book in order to understand better. I enjoy his newsletter on healthy issues, supplementation, and natural way to lose weight. You can subscribe or buy the book at http://tomvenuto.com/reviews/burnthefatreview.shtml.

It was time for me going back to college. I know that I have to bring my A Game on. The first thing I need is to recognize the pattern and identify the resources.

I recognized that I missed breakfasts, not drink enough water, and not exercise often. And then I move on to the resources, make time for breakfast, buy Nalgene, and put the weight room to good use. It is cost-effective and what do I have to lose. I start on drink responsibility which made a difference. I keep up with watch what I eat. I am blessed that my university decide that the cafeteria food will be organic and local. It helped me a lot and make my eating plan easy. I have protein powder and snacks such as almonds and fruits in my room to control my appetite and keep up with several meals a day eating habit. Create a list of easy healthy recipes and prepare weekly and your life will be easy. Pack it in a sandwich bag and put it in fridge. It will be easy for you to grab when you are on to go.

After you identify the change you can make at college, it is not hard after all. You can always join the intramural teams, using gymnasium, hit the pool, stock up your room with fruits, nuts, and healthy bar. Fill up water from the water fountain. The incentive is shown by research by Mickey Trockel, Michael Barnes, and Dennis Eggett the college students who ate breakfast carry higher grade point average than those students who don't eat breakfast. How true, your body is empty after 8 hours and the metabolism has slow down. It is important that you eat breakfast to start up your metabolism. It will help you control your appetite better and increase your alertness.

All I can said study hard, drink responsible, and have much fun you can. It will make an impact on your future. College year is short and maybe the unique experience during part of your lifetime. Seize the moment much as you can.

Reading second part of Healthy Eating in College

Apple Spice-Raisin Snack Mix

Ingredients

3 cups whole grain oat cereal squares
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons apple pie spice
no-stick cooking spray
1 (11.5-ounce) can dry-roasted mixed nuts
1 cup raisins

Preparation

Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl. Coat cereal mixture evenly with cooking spray. Transfer to an aluminum foil-lined jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 7 minutes. Stir mixture, and coat evenly with cooking spray. Bake 7 more minutes. Stir in nuts and raisins. Cool. Store mixture in an airtight container.

Courtesy of Southern Living magazine

Toasted Hazelnut and Shredded Carrot Salad

Ingredients

1/2 cup peeled hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, eyeball it
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound shredded carrots
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup currants or black raisins
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, a couple of handfuls

Preparation

Place a small skillet over medium heat, add the
chopped hazelnuts and toast until golden, stirring and flipping them about for
about 5 minutes. While the nuts are toasting, juice the lemon into a salad bowl
and add the mustard and some salt and pepper. Whisk in the extra-virgin olive oil
in a slow steady stream. Add the shredded carrots, red onion, currants and
parsley. Toss to coat in the dressing and sprinkle with the toasted hazelnuts

Courtesy of Rachael Ray and the

Easy Healthy Recipes - Organic Foods Explained

Redux

The organic food is not new. It is more of a new realization in 1990s. We came to a better knowledge of how conventional food differs. It all start in 1940s during the World War II period when the armed force used the chemical such as ammonium nitrate use for explosive has found that it help fertilize the crops. The variety chemicals using by armed force shift to the use for agricultural. The conventional food transform our life because of wonderful discover that chemicals increase the production capability. It elevate our ability to do more than what traditional life has offer over slow, manual, and the timing of seasonal replace with fast, automatic and demand on time.

Definition

By definition, organic food is category as produced without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones, irradiations, and antibiotics. In groceries, the organic food can be misleading by the brand packing. The "100% organic" on the package means that the produces and meats use all organic ingredients. "Made with organic ingredients" use 70% of organic ingredients. The "organic" on the package mean there are 95% of organic ingredients. Seldom, you will see a package with word, transitional, is the business that communicate that the organization and the farmer has a 3 years planning of going from conventional to organic in farming. It is always good to follow "USDA Organic" on the package. The government has a role in organic produces and meat also impose the standard for the farmer to abide in develop an organic food.

Changes

The conventional food has raise our knowledge of potential risks it may cause by synthetic fertilizer and pesticide thus the organic farmer has take a closer look and reinvent the better way to grow their produces through innovation biology. The farmers have replaced the conventional method by using natural fertilizer to feed the soil. Bring in the insect predator such as bee to prevent the other insects attacking the crops and promote pollinating. The farmer invests more energy to understand the science of cropping. With better knowledge of farming, the farmer use crop rotation, mechanical tillage, and management is more manual by hand pulling the weeds.

The assets of organic farming has contribution to restore an ecological balance that help conserve energy and protect the environment as result of prevent soil fertility or pest problems. Through ecological conscious, it improves biodiversity by having better genetic pool to increase the plants and animal species. The reduce of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides usage, the agriculture is up-bring naturally that it help prevent the nutrient losses and it also reduce the greenhouse effect that cause the global warming.

Drawbacks

We acknowledge that organic produces and meat has play a great health role in assisting our body by provide quality nutrients that is free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides which is known cause cancer risks. On other side of coin, organic produce and meats have its own drawback. Since the organic farmer has decide to use natural fertilizer. One of natural fertilizer is using the manure. The use of manure may spread the contaminants if mishandled. Fungicides are not allowed since it is chemical treatment approach and we may risk getting mycotoxins from molds in foods. The meat may have E. coli bacteria since the animal are to be free of antibiotic. Bioengineering such as genetic manipulation in produces and meats are considered conventional. The bioengineering aims to solve world hunger problems and be able to grow anytime and anywhere with higher quality of nutrients packed in food. The resist of conventional method may affect the demand for food. Also by not allowing the chemical treatment to be used and the chance of shelf life of food life shortens. Organic food is expensive since the supply is small that create higher demand. The labor for organic food is greater thus it increase the production costs.

Changing and Growing

The increase of obesity and the knowledge of healthy responsible has drive us to take care of ourselves better by exercise and proper eating. The countries are already facing the threats of global warming that force us to change the way we do with our daily living such as recycling, reduce the transportation that use fuel, and conserve the water. Our knowledge are better than ever and the procedure of organic farming has got better and is oversee under strict standard. This has reduce the downside of organic farming and put the conventional farming to a shame.

Closing

In order to create a easy healthy recipes, the quality of nutrients we get are important in create a gourmet and healthy meal. The advance of knowledge and technological has make our cooking easy. Healthy recipes has grown daily due to the demand to living a higher and better quality of life. The preparation of meal has got better because it is free of synthetic chemical that may has damage the natural flavoring. We are shift to natural living and to live to its simple ingredients at its finest.

Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons sherry
* 1 tablespoon sesame oil
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 2 inch pieces
* 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained (in natural juice or water)
* skewers


Directions

1. In a shallow glass dish, mix the soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic powder. Stir the chicken pieces and pineapple into the marinade until well coated. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Thread chicken and pineapple alternately onto skewers. Grill 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, or until chicken juices run clear.

Recipe courtesy of allrecipes.

*This recipe has been modified to match the Easy Healthy Recipes criteria

Easy Healthy Recipes Criteria

Criteria for Easy Healthy Recipes

1. It will be easy to prepare
2. It will be healthy which are free of trans fatty acid and high fructose sugar
3. It will take protein and complex carbohydrate in considerate
4. It will be sensitive for those who are conscious about the budget
5. It will taste great
5. Easy Healthy Recipes will be exciting and fun