This is a guest blog post by Elizabeth Ward, MS, RD

Getting your fruits and vegetables may be the last thing on your mind on Superbowl Sunday. Don’t give it another thought. These winning munchies are so delicious that your family and friends may forget they’re good for you, too. Serve the dips with baked snack chips or toasted whole wheat sandwich wraps broken into chips.

All recipes appear in MyPlate for Moms, How to Feed Yourself & Your Family Better, by Elizabeth M Ward, MS, RD

Snack #1: Salsamole

Makes 2 cups.

Simple, nutritious, and delicious. Use as a dip or sandwich spread.

1 cup fresh tomato salsa

1 cup fresh guacamole

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in medium serving bowl.

Per serving (1/4 cup): 94 calories; 6 grams carbohydrate; 3 grams fiber; 8 grams; 1 gram saturated fat; 2 grams protein; 229 milligrams sodium; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 20 milligrams calcium.

Snack #2: Mango and Black Bean Salsa

Makes 2 1/2 cups.

High in fiber, and pretty to look at, this salsa tastes even better the next day.

2 cups diced fresh mango

2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained, if canned

1/2 cup diced red onion

1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped, seeded jalapeno pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions: In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.

Per serving (1/4 cup): 69 calories; 14 grams carbohydrate; 4 grams fiber; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 3 grams protein; 199 milligrams sodium; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 10 milligrams calcium.

Snack #3 Crispy Chickpeas

Makes 4 servings.

Beans are the vegetable with the most protein and fiber, which makes them a perfect snack.

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients, tossing to coat beans completely.

3. Spread beans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir beans, and cook for another 20 minutes. Allow beans to cool before eating.

Per serving: 185 calories; 24 grams carbohydrate; 5 grams fiber; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 5 grams protein; 314 milligrams sodium; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 30 milligrams calcium.

Elizabeth M. Ward, M.S., R.D. is an award-winning author of several books, including her latest, MyPlate for Moms, How to Feed Yourself & Your Family Better. She writes about nutrition and health for WebMD.com, USATODAY.com, and Men’s Fitness.

Get Fooducated: iPhone App Android App  RSS Subscription or  Email Subscription
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate on facebook: facebook.com/fooducate

Big game today, and lots of snacking in front of the TV. Guacamole has become part of the tradition, as a healthy dip for your tortilla chips. Superbowl Sunday is the single biggest day for avocados every year, with 50 million pounds eaten!

So why settle for a fake guacamole dip with 45 ingredients (Avocado appears only after 7 ingredients on the list) when you can create your own in 5-10 minutes?

Here’s the recipe. Easy.

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe avocados
• 2 limes (lemons OK too)
• half a medium onion
• 1 TBSP Dijon mustard (or more, to taste)
• 2 tomatoes (optional)
• cilantro or Italian parsley (optional)
  salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. halve the limes.
2. peel and pit the avocados, immediately squeezing some lime juice over the the avocado meat to prevent browning.
3. dice one avocado into quarter inch cubes, and crush the rest with the back of a fork. place in large bowl.
4. dice the tomatoes. add to bowl.
5. finely dice the onion and cilantro. add to bowl.
6. add the mustard.
7. mix everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands).
8. taste. add salt and pepper (you’ll need a bit less than normal due to the mustard)
9. douse with juice of the second lime and refrigerate till game time.

Enjoy!

Get Fooducated: iPhone App RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate on facebook: facebook.com/fooducate

This is a guest blog post by Daniel Koontz

Long-time readers know all about Casual Kitchen’s predilection for what we call part-time vegetarianism. Since vegetarian cuisine is typically very inexpensive, one great way to stretch your food budget and make your diet healthier is to replace two or three meat-based meals each week with vegetarian dishes.

However, since we straddle the world of meat-eaters and meat-avoiders, I’m often shocked by the many misconceptions that otherwise perfectly normal people hold about vegetarian cuisine. This post is an effort to put these myths to rest once and for all.

Myth #1: You can’t get enough protein eating vegetarian food.
Nonsense. The standard Western diet contains several times the amount of protein the human body needs, thus those of us who embrace part time vegetarianism and eat two or three veggie meals a week have absolutely nothing to worry about. Moreover, full-time vegetarians only need to eat a well-balanced diet with a serving of dairy or eggs every day or so to meet their protein needs. Vegans have a bit more work to do here to get enough protein, but a diet containing generous servings of whole grains, legumes, and nuts will easily do the trick.

Myth #2: There isn’t enough fat in a vegetarian diet.
Anyone who’s ever met up with a big tub of delicious guacamole knows that fat is hardly limited to meat-based meals. And the standard Western diet is so fat-laden that we can easily ingest far more fat than we need. The fact that most vegetarian meals contain much less fat than most meat-centered meals is an advantage, not a disadvantage. Veggie cuisine makes eating healthy a lot easier.

Myth #3: Vegetarianism has to be all or nothing.
Here at Casual Kitchen, we embrace and enjoy vegetarian cuisine, but we are not–and probably never will be–vegetarians. Nobody says you have to make a one-way, Do Not Pass Go, permanent-for-all-time conversion to vegetarianism. Try veggie cuisine with an open mind once in a while, enjoy the health and cost benefits, and just see what you think. And then feel free to go right back to your regular meat-based diet.

Myth #4: Vegetarian diets are limited and boring.
Actually the exact reverse is true: so many meals depend on meat that cutting it out as the centerpiece of your diet literally forces you to vary your diet more. In my experience, vegetarians and partial vegetarians generally eat a much wider range of foods than the typical meat-eater.

Myth #5: You can’t eat junk food on a vegetarian diet.
Heavens no. Not even close. Remember, Oreos are vegetarian. So are Doritos, potato chips and ice cream. Heck, so are Krispy Kreme donuts. You can eat a hellaciously bad diet and still call yourself a vegetarian. If you want to, that is.

Myth #6: Vegetarian food never fills me up.
Count us among the people who used to think this–until we tried some amazing, mind-opening recipes like Groundnut Stew from the amazing Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, or Smoky Brazilian Black Bean Soup, or Spanish Chickpea and Garlic Soup. Try out these recipes in your home, and when you find that you can’t get up from the dinner table, you’ll also change your mind about how filling vegetarian food is.

Myth #7: Vegetarian culture is too weird. And I don’t want to wear tie-dye.
You’d be surprised how much the demographics of vegetarianism have changed over the years. Sure, thirty years ago, back when vegetarianism was a smallish clique of crunchy communities in places like Berkeley, CA and Ithaca, NY, you could make the argument that crunchy behavior and tie-dye clothing used to be the standard. But the typical vegetarian today is more Sex and the City than crunchy–in other words, the modern vegetarian is the type of person who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing tie-dye.

Myth #8: Vegetarians are freakish militants intent on banning all meat.
If you took the time to actually get to know some vegetarians, you’d find the vast majority of them are quite peaceful, and they certainly don’t lie awake at night worrying about what you just had for dinner. Yes, you’ll find a few proselytizers here and there, but you can usually scare them off by waving your leather belt in a threatening manner. Most vegetarians quietly go about their business eating a healthy and perfectly satisfying diet, and they are okay with you eating meat if that’s what you choose to do.

Daniel Koontz is the author of Casual Kitchen, a blog dedicated to helping readers cook more, think more and spend less.

.

.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

The single biggest day for for avocado is Superbowl Sunday. Avocado is a super food, providing you with heart healthy mono-unsaturated fats, just 250 calories and vitamins A, C, E, the B vitamins, as well as fiber and potassium.

You can scoop it from the skin using a spoon straight into your mouth. It’s just that good. Squeezing a few drops of lemons juice and a tad of salt make it even better. But for most of us, avocado equals guacamole dip. “Guacamole” is Aztec for “Avocado Sauce”, the original recipe calling for crushed avocado, tomatoes and salt.

Unfortunately today, many people settle for sub-par, store brought guacamole dips, which not only taste like bird droppings, but are also nutritional atrocities. We covered one such bastardization of the term guacamole a few months ago.

Today we’d like to offer you a quick recipe. This guac recipe takes less than a time-out to make and will have you dishing out a super bowl filled with a tasty dip that everyone can dig into with whole grain tortillas.

Ingredients:
6 ripe avocados
2 limes (lemons OK)
2 tomatoes (optional)
A bunch of chives
1 TBSP Dijon mustard (or more, to taste)
cilantro or Italian parsley (not a must)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. halve the limes.
2. peel and pit the avocados, immediately squeezing 2 lime halves over the the avocado meat to prevent browning. Optionally add the pits to the avocado mass, it seems to repeal the browning process as well.
3. dice two avocados into quarter inch cubes, and crush the rest with the back of a fork. place in in your super bowl.
4. dice the tomatoes. add to bowl.
5. finely dice the chives and cilantro. add to bowl.
6. add the mustard.
7. mix everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands).
8. taste. add salt and pepper (you’ll need a bit less than normal due to the mustard)
9. douse with juice of the second lime and refrigerate till game time.

Enjoy!

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

New! Choose a better breakfast with CerealScan™ by Fooducate

Salutations, today is Cinco De Mayo. Originally a Mexican holiday commemorating a great military victory 150 years ago, it has come to symbolize, especially in the US, Mexican heritage day. A very important piece of that heritage is the scrumptious Mexican food so abundant here, especially in the southwest.

Today we’ll take a look at guacamole, Aztec for “Avocado Sauce”. The classic dip is composed of very basic ingredients – ripe avocados, onions, lime / lemon juice, salt and pepper. Additions include chili, tomatoes, and herbs and spices. (see our easy recipe below).

So how different can a supermarket guac dip be from the basic configuration described above?
We were S H O C K E D when we laid eyes on Dean’s Guacamole Dip.

Here’s a look inside the label. Read more…

1. Over 45 Million pounds of Avocado will be consumed today, Superbowl Sunday!

2. Avocado competes with buffalo wings and pizza as The Superbowl Food, thanks to a successful marketing campaign by avocado growers over the past 2 decades.

3. All Haas avocados are genetic replicas of a single tree planted in the Haas family grove in the 1920′s.

4. A shortage of avocados is looming this spring, due to the 2008 drought in southern California, where 90% of domestic Avocados are grown.

5. Have no fear, Mexican avocados will be here to supplant any shortage. In fact Mexico is the world’s largest Avocado producer.

6. Avocados are unique fruit. They have a high fat content, but this is a “good” fat – monounsaturated fat.

7. A whole avocado contains 200-300 calories and is a good source of vitamin A, C, E and the B vitamins, as well as fiber and potassium.

8. Guacamole is Aztec for “Avocado Sauce”, the original recipe calling for crushed avocado, tomatoes and salt.

9. Supermarket guacamole tastes plain bad. Avocados don’t store well, that’s why store bought guacamole needs a lot of help from food additives. Here is a sample list of ingredients you’ll find in a ready made container -
Food Starch,
Sodium Alginate (emulsifier – keeps oils and waters mixed together),
Xanthan Gum (increases viscosity),
Erythorbic Acid (retains food’s color) ,Potassium Sorbate (anti mold), Sodium Metabisulfite (anti spoilage)

Ouch.

Luckily, making your own guacamole is quick and easy. Spend ten minutes to make your own. The difference in flavor, let alone chemicals, is worth it:

Simple Guacamole Recipe (serves 4-8 people):

Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados
2 limes (lemons OK)
2 tomatoes (optional)
half a medium onion
1 TBSP Dijon mustard (or more, to taste)
cilantro or Italian parsley (not a must)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. halve the limes.
2. peel and pit the avocados, immediately squeezing 2 lime halves over the the avocado meat to prevent browning.
3. dice one avocado into quarter inch cubes, and crush the rest with the back of a fork. place in large bowl.
4. dice the tomatoes. add to bowl.
5. finely dice the onion and cilantro. add to bowl.
6. add the mustard.
7. mix everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands).
8. taste. add salt and pepper (you’ll need a bit less than normal due to the mustard)
9. douse with juice of the second lime and refrigerate till game time.

Enjoy!

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com