It's hard to find a good flood blog or website, that offers healthy and skinny eats! Well, look no further, because here are some other sites that I enjoy!
- Skinny Tastes
- Do It Delicious
If you have any websites that you refer to for skinny eats, contact me and let me know!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Why Eat Organic?
My Mother in Law badgered us for a couple of years about eating organic. She warned us of the crap they put in the food we buy from the grocery stores, and especially kept on us about the meat we bought. I started buying a few things, like canned goods, organically...but then one day I watched the documentary Food Inc. on Netflix.
It changed my world.
Once I saw how the cows are fed and treated, and the chickens are fed and treated, and the poor little pigs are fed, treated, and killed...I was done with ever buying/eating any meat that wasn't fed, and killed in the correct way.
What got me the most was how these big beef companies treat their cows. They cut a hole into the second stomach of a cow, and shove corn into it. The corn helps them get fat quicker, except that cows can't digest corn. God didn't design them to eat corn. On top of how they are fed, they always keep the cows 'stored' on concrete pads, standing in their own manure, and when they are butchered...the beef companies combine the meat. So, that hamburger patty that you bought from the local grocery store...isn't even the result of one cow...but rather 10 or 20. Is that not disgusting?
Instead, buy your beef from a grocer that sells grass fed beef. You won't have to worry about E Coli or any other form of contamination.
Did you know that in the 1950's the average lifespan of a chicken from baby to adult was more than 90 days before they were killed? Now, chicken companies are able to raise a chicken from baby to adult in 30 days! They are injected with different growth hormones that make them grow so quickly, their bones don't even have a chance to grow strong. Thousands of chickens are kept in dark coops, never seeing the light of day, and they are only able to walk a few inches before collapsing. We won't even talk about how the chicken is treated after they are killed, but let's just say...instead of being rinsed and cleaned in water...they are soaked in ammonia. So think about that the next time you eat chicken that was not raised in a healthy environment, and being fed vegetarian.
Now, let's move on to our fruits and vegetables. We'll just cover the basics, although, this is yet another detailed topic. It's no secret that our veggies are sprayed down with pesticides and God knows what else to keep the veggies from going bad, or being devoured by hungry little bugs. Did you also know that on fruits like apples, and lemons...they also put a wax covering on them to make them shine more? Who wants to eat wax? I can't even begin to tell you the difference in taste from a non organic fruit or veggie, to an organic one. The organics definitely have the better taste and feel. For instance, I've never liked tomatoes...like never. Then, I bought my first organic tomato and I swear to God it actually had a pretty fantastic taste. I eat tomatoes now...but only if they're organic. Non organic tomatoes make me sick!
I would say that now, over the course of the last few years or so, 99 percent of the food I buy in the grocery store is organic. I still haven't switched over to organic milk, but mainly because a gallon is like seven bucks...and I just can't do that. I can tell you though, how much better our food is, and how much healthier we are because of it. I know that the argument about organic food being so expensive is true, but if you have to pay an extra dollar or so for food that isn't going to kill you or your family...I say it's worth it. If you cut out the money you spend on junk food, or other stuff you don't need...buying organic is totally affordable. We are a low income family, and I still manage to buy mostly organic groceries each week. Make the decision to go organic for you, your son, your daughter, your husband. It will be well worth it.
It changed my world.
Once I saw how the cows are fed and treated, and the chickens are fed and treated, and the poor little pigs are fed, treated, and killed...I was done with ever buying/eating any meat that wasn't fed, and killed in the correct way.
What got me the most was how these big beef companies treat their cows. They cut a hole into the second stomach of a cow, and shove corn into it. The corn helps them get fat quicker, except that cows can't digest corn. God didn't design them to eat corn. On top of how they are fed, they always keep the cows 'stored' on concrete pads, standing in their own manure, and when they are butchered...the beef companies combine the meat. So, that hamburger patty that you bought from the local grocery store...isn't even the result of one cow...but rather 10 or 20. Is that not disgusting?
Instead, buy your beef from a grocer that sells grass fed beef. You won't have to worry about E Coli or any other form of contamination.
Did you know that in the 1950's the average lifespan of a chicken from baby to adult was more than 90 days before they were killed? Now, chicken companies are able to raise a chicken from baby to adult in 30 days! They are injected with different growth hormones that make them grow so quickly, their bones don't even have a chance to grow strong. Thousands of chickens are kept in dark coops, never seeing the light of day, and they are only able to walk a few inches before collapsing. We won't even talk about how the chicken is treated after they are killed, but let's just say...instead of being rinsed and cleaned in water...they are soaked in ammonia. So think about that the next time you eat chicken that was not raised in a healthy environment, and being fed vegetarian.
Now, let's move on to our fruits and vegetables. We'll just cover the basics, although, this is yet another detailed topic. It's no secret that our veggies are sprayed down with pesticides and God knows what else to keep the veggies from going bad, or being devoured by hungry little bugs. Did you also know that on fruits like apples, and lemons...they also put a wax covering on them to make them shine more? Who wants to eat wax? I can't even begin to tell you the difference in taste from a non organic fruit or veggie, to an organic one. The organics definitely have the better taste and feel. For instance, I've never liked tomatoes...like never. Then, I bought my first organic tomato and I swear to God it actually had a pretty fantastic taste. I eat tomatoes now...but only if they're organic. Non organic tomatoes make me sick!
I would say that now, over the course of the last few years or so, 99 percent of the food I buy in the grocery store is organic. I still haven't switched over to organic milk, but mainly because a gallon is like seven bucks...and I just can't do that. I can tell you though, how much better our food is, and how much healthier we are because of it. I know that the argument about organic food being so expensive is true, but if you have to pay an extra dollar or so for food that isn't going to kill you or your family...I say it's worth it. If you cut out the money you spend on junk food, or other stuff you don't need...buying organic is totally affordable. We are a low income family, and I still manage to buy mostly organic groceries each week. Make the decision to go organic for you, your son, your daughter, your husband. It will be well worth it.
Freaky Greek Pasta
Jessica Seinfeld has a wonderful cook book and website, full of healthy and EASY recipes. Healthy and easy are what I'm all about! This meal is fantastic! It has a bit of a Greek kick to it, but don't let that scare you off. It's delicious!
Freaky Greek Pasta 
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 pound penne
- 1 large bunch broccoli, cut into florets (about 5 cups)
- 8 ounces Feta cheese, crumbled (2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Kosher salt to taste (optional - I didn't use any salt and it was excellent)
Directions:
Start boiling your water. Cook pasta 3 minutes less than the package directions call for, then add the broccoli to the pot and cook 3 minutes more, until the broccoli is tender and the pasta is al dente.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the Feta, lemon zest, oregano, red pepper and black pepper (12 turns on pepper mill.) Place the almonds in a small skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. When the pasta and broccoli are done cooking, drain them, add immediately to the large bowl and toss. Drizzle with oil, add the toasted almonds and toss again. Salt to taste.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 pound penne
- 1 large bunch broccoli, cut into florets (about 5 cups)
- 8 ounces Feta cheese, crumbled (2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Kosher salt to taste (optional - I didn't use any salt and it was excellent)
Directions:
Start boiling your water. Cook pasta 3 minutes less than the package directions call for, then add the broccoli to the pot and cook 3 minutes more, until the broccoli is tender and the pasta is al dente.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the Feta, lemon zest, oregano, red pepper and black pepper (12 turns on pepper mill.) Place the almonds in a small skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. When the pasta and broccoli are done cooking, drain them, add immediately to the large bowl and toss. Drizzle with oil, add the toasted almonds and toss again. Salt to taste.
Potato, Ham & Cheese Soup
This has been a family favorite for several years now, every since I ran across this recipe on the web. It started out as a fattening meal, but with a few minor adjustments...I transformed it into a lighter version of the original. You shouldn't definitely try this!
Potato, Ham & Cheese Soup
Serves: 4
Ingredients
-1 stick of butter
-A pair of shallots
-1 Cup of chopped/cubed ham
-1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
-2 cans of fat free, low sodium chicken broth
-2 large white potatoes, cut into cubes
-16 ounces of fat free half & half
-1 cup of graded fat free or 2 percent sharp cheddar cheese
-Dash of black pepper
Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter. Add shallots and cook until translucent. Add ham, flour and stir. Add chicken broth, stir until smooth. Simmer until thick & creamy, stirring frequently. Add potatoes, continuing to stir frequently until potatoes are tender. Add cheese, and half & half, stirring together. Add pepper to taste, and serve.
Potato, Ham & Cheese Soup
Serves: 4
Ingredients
-1 stick of butter
-A pair of shallots
-1 Cup of chopped/cubed ham
-1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
-2 cans of fat free, low sodium chicken broth
-2 large white potatoes, cut into cubes
-16 ounces of fat free half & half
-1 cup of graded fat free or 2 percent sharp cheddar cheese
-Dash of black pepper
Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter. Add shallots and cook until translucent. Add ham, flour and stir. Add chicken broth, stir until smooth. Simmer until thick & creamy, stirring frequently. Add potatoes, continuing to stir frequently until potatoes are tender. Add cheese, and half & half, stirring together. Add pepper to taste, and serve.
Healthy Cheesy Popcorn
I love popcorn! Especially movie theater popcorn, but that doesn't exactly aid in being healthy. So I found the next best thing...a healthy, cheesy popcorn recipe that you should definitely try out!
Cheesy Popcorn
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 Servings, about 1 Cup Each
Ingredients
- 4 cups hot air-popped popcorn
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Cayenne pepper to taste
Directions
- Toss popcorn with Parmesan & Cayenne to taste
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 Servings, about 1 Cup Each
Ingredients
- 4 cups hot air-popped popcorn
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Cayenne pepper to taste
Directions
- Toss popcorn with Parmesan & Cayenne to taste
Hashbrown Casserole
Hashbrown Casserole is one of those comfort food meals, that you can enjoy with half the fat! It's good for those cool Fall nights, and it is rather tasty!
Hashbrown Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 can of fat free cream of chicken soup
- 1 onion
- 16 ounces of fat free sour cream
- 8 ounces of fat free sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 bag of frozen cubed hashbrowns
- 1/2 cup of reduced fat butter (or margarine)
- Ritz crackers or Corn Flakes
Directions
- Combine hashbrowns, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, onion, and cheese. Mix them all together until blended well.
- Poor ingredients into a 9x13 pan
- Sprinkle cheese on top of the casserole
- Crumble up Ritz crackers, and sprinkle over the cheese and top of casserole until covered
- Drizzle melted butter over the top of the Ritz Cracker crumbs
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour, or until bubbly
Note: In the picture above, Corn Flakes are used as topping instead of Ritz
Ingredients
- 1 can of fat free cream of chicken soup
- 1 onion
- 16 ounces of fat free sour cream
- 8 ounces of fat free sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 bag of frozen cubed hashbrowns
- 1/2 cup of reduced fat butter (or margarine)
- Ritz crackers or Corn Flakes
Directions
- Combine hashbrowns, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, onion, and cheese. Mix them all together until blended well.
- Poor ingredients into a 9x13 pan
- Sprinkle cheese on top of the casserole
- Crumble up Ritz crackers, and sprinkle over the cheese and top of casserole until covered
- Drizzle melted butter over the top of the Ritz Cracker crumbs
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour, or until bubbly
Note: In the picture above, Corn Flakes are used as topping instead of Ritz
Welcome to The Skinny on the Street!
Welcome to The Skinny on the Street, a new blog dedicated to bringing you the skinniest recipes I can find in a fattening kind of world. I believe that making America a healthier place, starts in the home and so I have set out to bring you some healthy, yet satisfyingly delicious skinny recipes to aid you in your quest to be healthy!
I haven't always been a skinny eater. I wasn't really brought up in a skinny kind of family. I'm not blaming my Parents, but I am blaming all of the processed and boxed meals that appeal to so many working families. Both of my Parents worked, so it was easy to just pop open a box of Hamburger Helper or a boxed Macaroni and Cheese and let us youngin' have at it...along with a glass of Pepsi or Coca Cola. By the time I got into the first grade, I was getting chunky and I continue to get chunkier until I became...what I considered myself to be, a fat kid.
Fortunately for me, when I was in the eighth grade...I got braces put on my teeth and this aided in helping me lose a lot of weight. If you've ever had braces on your teeth, you know what I'm talking about it. Eating is pretty much more of a nuisance that it is anything else, so you find that you're not eating near as much as you normally would have. I was able to maintain the weight I had lost for a few years, mostly eating what I wanted...noticing my pants getting tighter, laying off a bit on the food, and then right back to eating what I wanted. I think this is called Yo-Yo Dieting. It worked...or so I thought it did, and then I got pregnant.
I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy, and was the largest I had ever been after giving birth...weighing in at 150 pounds. That's a lot of pounds for a person who is only five foot tall. So, I thought that I could revert back to my yo-yo dieting that I had used before I got pregnant. The weight would come off, but not like it should have been. I realized that I was going to have to do more. I bought an exercise DVD to use at home. It helped me shed maybe ten pounds or so, and during that process I began educating myself on food.
I started buying healthier things, and I started seeing the weight come off more. I moved from the cardio DVD I had bought, to Pilates and from Pilates to the Wii fit...but it was two years later when I met the product that would change my life forever.
In April 2010 I started P90X. If you're not familiar with P90X, you should be! It is an amazing, 90 day program that is designed to get you fit..."super sonic x style fit!". It was hard...but it was everything that I needed. Tony Horton and the makers of P90X literally changed my life for the better. With their amazing product, they also educated me in the area of food more so than I had ever been in my life. I started finding out about those processed foods, and those boxed meals and those frozen meals and those veggies in the produce aisle that weren't exactly organic. I began finding out about the risk a person takes when not eating beef from a grass fed cow, or chicken from an unhealthy non vegetarian fed chicken farm. P90X didn't teach me all of this (the documentary Food Inc did), but it opened the door for me to educate myself further.
And now, here I am...more than a year later and I find myself cooking in a completely different way than how I first set out four years ago. Ninety five percent of the food I buy is organic. I only cook things low in fat, sodium, sugar, etc. I only eat whole wheats...no white, and this applies to pasta. I am loving my organic veggies and fruits; you wouldn't be the difference in taste. Rarely do I eat red meat, and I've given up pork completely. I'm mostly on a chicken diet, and mostly find myself eating vegetarian. I have gone from a whopping 150 pounds four years ago...to a fit and muscular 115 pounds today.
I want to help you and your family get fit and skinny!
I have never felt better
I haven't always been a skinny eater. I wasn't really brought up in a skinny kind of family. I'm not blaming my Parents, but I am blaming all of the processed and boxed meals that appeal to so many working families. Both of my Parents worked, so it was easy to just pop open a box of Hamburger Helper or a boxed Macaroni and Cheese and let us youngin' have at it...along with a glass of Pepsi or Coca Cola. By the time I got into the first grade, I was getting chunky and I continue to get chunkier until I became...what I considered myself to be, a fat kid.
Fortunately for me, when I was in the eighth grade...I got braces put on my teeth and this aided in helping me lose a lot of weight. If you've ever had braces on your teeth, you know what I'm talking about it. Eating is pretty much more of a nuisance that it is anything else, so you find that you're not eating near as much as you normally would have. I was able to maintain the weight I had lost for a few years, mostly eating what I wanted...noticing my pants getting tighter, laying off a bit on the food, and then right back to eating what I wanted. I think this is called Yo-Yo Dieting. It worked...or so I thought it did, and then I got pregnant.
I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy, and was the largest I had ever been after giving birth...weighing in at 150 pounds. That's a lot of pounds for a person who is only five foot tall. So, I thought that I could revert back to my yo-yo dieting that I had used before I got pregnant. The weight would come off, but not like it should have been. I realized that I was going to have to do more. I bought an exercise DVD to use at home. It helped me shed maybe ten pounds or so, and during that process I began educating myself on food.
I started buying healthier things, and I started seeing the weight come off more. I moved from the cardio DVD I had bought, to Pilates and from Pilates to the Wii fit...but it was two years later when I met the product that would change my life forever.
In April 2010 I started P90X. If you're not familiar with P90X, you should be! It is an amazing, 90 day program that is designed to get you fit..."super sonic x style fit!". It was hard...but it was everything that I needed. Tony Horton and the makers of P90X literally changed my life for the better. With their amazing product, they also educated me in the area of food more so than I had ever been in my life. I started finding out about those processed foods, and those boxed meals and those frozen meals and those veggies in the produce aisle that weren't exactly organic. I began finding out about the risk a person takes when not eating beef from a grass fed cow, or chicken from an unhealthy non vegetarian fed chicken farm. P90X didn't teach me all of this (the documentary Food Inc did), but it opened the door for me to educate myself further.
And now, here I am...more than a year later and I find myself cooking in a completely different way than how I first set out four years ago. Ninety five percent of the food I buy is organic. I only cook things low in fat, sodium, sugar, etc. I only eat whole wheats...no white, and this applies to pasta. I am loving my organic veggies and fruits; you wouldn't be the difference in taste. Rarely do I eat red meat, and I've given up pork completely. I'm mostly on a chicken diet, and mostly find myself eating vegetarian. I have gone from a whopping 150 pounds four years ago...to a fit and muscular 115 pounds today.
I want to help you and your family get fit and skinny!
I have never felt better
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