A Dose of Health

Veggie Burger Anyone?

Summer is here and the grill comes out of hibernation and my seasonal meat eating debate begins. I love grilled food! I especially love grilled vegetables. Vegetables seem to gain a while new personality once they’ve spent a few minutes on the grill

That’s all well and good, but being raised in a meat eating family, a grill usually means lots of meat. There’s something about eating perfectly seasoned and grilled chicken wings on a charcoal grill. It really doesn’t get much better than that (in my opinion).

In my never-ending attempt to improve my health and eating habits, I decided to forgo my usual turkey burger this Memorial Day and make veggie burgers instead. Being that it was my first attempt I didn’t think they were quite ready to be unveiled on a charcoal grill so I cooked them inside.

For all of you veggie burger makers out there, I welcome any tips, pointers and ideas on how to make the veggie burger consistency better. They tasted just fine, but they weren’t ready to go on a grill because their consistency would cause them to eventually fall in between the bars on the grill and become fire starter.

Here’s what I used:

• Package of dry navy beans
• Package of dry pink beans
• Tofu
• Onion
• Red and green pepper
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Brown rice
• Garlic powder

This is what I did:

After washing the beans, I boiled them in water seasoned with Goya chicken bouillon in a pot until they softened. The brown rice was left over from a meal I served earlier in the week so I didn’t have to cook it.

In a food processor I processed the beans, tofu, onion, pepper and seasonings. Actually I pulsed it so that it wouldn’t turn into liquid mush. I seasoned to taste and then took a scoop full and cooked it in a hot skillet with a little oil.

Although they tasted very good, they were a little too loose so I threw in a little organic whole-wheat flower to tighten it up a little. All that managed to do was give it a crab cake type of texture.

I sprinkled a little cheese on top to make it a veggie cheeseburger and called it a day.

My daughter is hooked. She said that next to French Fries she thinks that veggie burgers are her favorite meal (this from the queen of chicken nugget and fries).

My goal is to create veggie burgers of a grilling consistency. I don’t want to be the one stuck in the kitchen cooking veggie burgers while everyone else is outside having a great time around the grill.

Any suggestions?

The Killer Birthday Cake

My daughter decided that she wanted to have a sleep over birthday party. It was a last minute thing so the preparations were done quickly. We decorated downstairs, came up with a theme and invitations went out the week of the party (it really was a last minute thing).

I ordered pizza and picked up a cake and ice cream from the local store.

It wasn’t until after the party was over that I happened to read the ingredients in the cake that I realized that I was killing my daughter and her guests. I almost called each of the parents to have them take their daughters to the local hospital to have their stomachs pumped, but I realized that was overkill.

Here are the first three ingredients listed on the cake container:

• Sugar
• Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
• Enriched Wheat Flour (it wouldn’t need enriching if the manufacturers used whole grain flour instead)

YIKES! The total trans fat grams per serving: 3 grams. That’s right, 3 grams of trans fat per serving. The 10” round white cake was supposed to squeeze out 26 servings (according to the nutrition label).. That means that each piece of cake should have been cut .38 of an inch thick to get away with consuming only 3 grams of trans fat (ONLY 3 Grams!) per serving.

I probably should have given the girls a plastic bag to eat as it had the same nutritional value as the cake.

Lesson learned, no more last minute parties. It’s detrimental to the health.

Natural Sweeteners

After reviewing my last entry I realized that my writing style had taken on the same style of the American news media. American news media tends to go for blood and gore. The glass is half empty rather than half full, if it bleeds it leads.

My last post on high fructose corn syrup was rather gloomy. Don’t get me wrong, high fructose corn syrup is not a pleasant thing to consume and people should stay away from it but rather than approaching it from the negative, I really should approach it from a positive point of view.

I’m not going to ramble on about the ills of high fructose corn syrup. Rather, I’d like to share healthier alternatives. Yes, there are natural sweeteners that are a much healthier alternative to high fructose corn syrup. Items such as stevia, maple syrup and date sugar, to name a few, are healthier and natural sweeteners.

Since Thomas Stearns Lee, NMD, in his article Natural Sweeteners has done a nice job in describing alternatives and Fran Costigan explains how to use them, I won’t reinvent the wheel. Check out their articles.

Personally, I’m partial to maple syrup while my hubby likes stevia. To each his own, just as long as it’s not the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.

When it comes to high fructose corn syrup, it’s best to stay away from processed foods and man-made juices. I know it’s easier said than done, but if you eliminate and substitute one product at a time, eventually you will significantly reduce your high fructose corn syrup intake.

We’ve got to take our health back one choice at a time.