Vitae Nutrition and Doula Services – Saskatoon

In May, my partner (now fiancée) and I took the leap into home ownership. This very big step forward was a whirlwind of emotion and activity. Once the dust had settled, our mortgage broker, Elise Hildebrandt, dropped off a lovely herb basket from Countryside Greenhouse and Garden. I have had plans for years to start an herb garden and I got one readymade! As my plants have grown I have become quite accustomed to stepping outside my door for the freshest herbs to add to my meals. The biggest benefit of growing your own herbs is they don’t go bad. Just pick what you need and the rest of the bunch stays healthy and fresh on the plant.

Info: Fresh herbs are a fantastic way to boost nutrition. Compounds in herbs have been found to help prevent inflammation, sooth digestion, and prevent certain types of cancers. Fresh herbs are packed full of antioxidants and offer a variety of nutrients; Vitamin A, folate, and vitamin K, just to name a few. Fresh herbs also offer a great way to spice up your food without resorting to the salt shaker.

Fresh Herb Pasta

Inspiration: Fresh basil from my plant

Ingredients: pasta, fresh tomatoes, fresh picked basil, feta cheese, olive oil, fresh ground pepper, garlic

Instructions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions

2. Chop up tomatoes and fresh basil

Note: How to chop basil without losing flavour

3. Crumble feta

4. Drain pasta

5. Mix together pasta, olive oil, tomatoes, basil and feta

6. Season to taste with pepper and fresh garlic

Results: A quick and easy meal where the star of the show are the fresh ingredients. This is one of my favorite fall back supper in a hurry recipes. You can add in any number of veggies from your fridge. A variation is to put garlic, onion and veggies in a pan then toss with the pasta.

March is Nutrition Month!

Dietitians across Canada, including this one, are helping you, “get the real deal on your meal.” In Saskatchewan, your community of dietitians has launched a five week challenge to help you beat food myths to eat well everyday. Check out the brand new Ask a Dietitian Sask page to keep up each week. This week’s challenge follows.

Myth: Cooking meals at home takes way too much time!

Challenge: Cook and put one meal in the freezer this week to eat at a later date.

Cooking meals at home can be a huge challenge with a new born baby at home. Planning is key. More specifically, planning for leftovers can cut the time you spend in the kitchen for healthy weekday meals. By making double batches when you do cook, you can have meal sized portions in the fridge to warm up when it is 5:00pm and everyone is already having hunger pangs. My favorite meals to cook and freeze are usually one pot wonders such as chili.

Meals aren’t the only thing that can be stocked in the freezer. You can make and freeze items like rice, pasta sauce, and stock to decrease your reliance on pre-packaged convenience foods. Check out more great time saving tips from Dietitians of Canda.

I hope you accept this week’s challenge as a great way to keep healthy meals on the table even in a time crunch!

New Year’s is a time of reflection of the past year and planning for the year to come. One of the most common goals is to be healthier: eat better, exercise more, lose 20 lbs. Each January the gyms are packed with people who have resolved to exercise more.  Check out the same gym in February, many of the newly resolved are gone. What happened?

New Year’s resolutions while well-meaning are often misguided. The goals set as resolutions are often not well defined and formed of grand gestures to social norms of healthy. I am not down on goal setting, just the opposite in fact. I think we should be setting goals more often than once per year. If your new year’s resolutions often fall short, read on for some goal setting tips.

Reflection

To know where you want to go, you need to know where you are. Reflect and evaluate your habits over the past year. How often did you go to the gym? How often did you eat out? Where are your junk food pitfalls? If you did not once go to the gym in the past year, as of January 1st you are not likely going to go to the gym every day of the week.

Baby Steps

If you haven’t heard about the SMART principle of goal setting, it is about time. Goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. So take the goal of, “I am going to exercise more.” It is a good place to start but a SMART goal would be more like, “I will sign up for a 10 week yoga class, starting January 10th and attend once per week.” Now, with this goal, you have a way to measure success. If you complete the yoga class you are successful. With the previous goal, there is no good measure of success.

Celebrate Success

Once you complete a goal that is achievable, you feel great! You should celebrate every success. The great thing about completing a small goal is that you can set a new goal. Create each goal to set you up for success. If the goal feels impossible, then it probably is!

Here are some examples of SMART goals for eating healthy:

I will only eat out 3 times for lunch this week.

I will drink a medium coffee instead of large three times this week.

I will eat a piece of fruit for breakfast two times this week.

Each goal is just a starting point for a larger more all-encompassing goal. So take your New Year’s resolutions and create smaller goals to make your goal achievable, and you healthier in 2012.

Saturated fat is bad, unsaturated fat is good, right? Yes. But it can be more complicated than a simple yes or no question. Coconut oil is saturated fat, therefore bad. However, there are some interesting reasons why that may not be true.

Coconut oil is made up of medium chain fatty acids. This makes it different from most oils that consist of long chain fatty acids. Medium chain fatty acids are digested differently than long chain fatty acids. Instead of mixing with bile salts in your intestine, medium chain fatty acids are absorbed into your lymphatic system. About 98-100% of all fats we eat are long chain. It’s no wonder coconut oil has a different effect on our bodies.

Coconut oil has been touted as a cure all for many ailments. I am not going to tell you that eating coconut oil is going to solve all your health issues. Here are some facts to think about. Coconut oil is made up of capric and lauric acids which are anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal. Because it is a medium chain fatty acid, coconut oil can be very beneficial for intestinal problems. Coconut oil has also been related to weight loss as well.

Whether you believe the health hype or not, coconut oil can be a great oil to cook with. It is great high heat cooking oil. Unsaturated oils can be damaged when cooked at high heats.

So is coconut oil going to solve all your health problems? Probably not. However, it could be a great substitute for butter in baking and cooking.

Check out these links for more info:

http://naturalnews.com/coconut_oil.html

http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/index.htm

http://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp_199426/What_Oil_is_best_to_cook_with_and_which_oils_should_never_be_heated

As October and fun with Jack-o-lanterns are done. What to do with this massive orange (may go rotten soon) veggie? There are many delicious recipes out there for a variety of pumpkin dishes. If you are like me and don’t have the time (or the inclination at the moment) to test these new dishes out, just roast the pumpkin, puree and freeze. You will have plenty of pumpkin on hand for baking when the mood strikes.

Here was my adventure with a giant pumpkin that I saved from the compost heap.

First, I got out the big knife and chopped the pumpkin into large pieces. It is not an exact science, please don’t cut yourself; I have a scar from an acorn squash incident. I put the pieces on large cookie sheets and placed them in an oven at 350 F for about 40 minutes.

 TIP: I have since learned putting them skin side up gives better flavour.

I cut the pieces into chunks and peeled the skin of from the succulent flesh.

Then into the blender with added water…

Voila pumpkin puree to be proud of!