1 diced roma tomato

1 cup ground turkey

1/2 cup basmati rice (cooked)

1/4 diced onion

1 taco shell

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cilantro

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon coriander

a pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven at 300 degrees. Cook your rice (1 cup water, 1/2 cup rice.) Brown your ground turkey. Once no longer pink, mix in lemon pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onions and coriander. Put taco shell in oven for 5 minutes. Once rice is finished, take an ice cream scoop and make two scoops of rice in the center of your plate. Take diced lettuce, and put it on top of the rice. Next, add turkey, tomatoes and cilantro to top it off. Break taco shell into triangular pieces, and stick in the side of the rice. Add your salsa to the top of the pile. Sprinkle the pinch of salt across the top of the dish. Ta da!

This way, I get my little bit of meat, my “full” feeling, and my full taco salad enjoyment without all the extra calories from the big giant taco shell, the creamy dressings or the heavy oils. Give it a shot!

Taco Salad Remix is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: No Meat In Your Taco Bell Taco
2. Taco Bell Thinks You’re Stupid: Try The Drive-Thru Diet!
3. Weekend WTF: The 98,824 Calorie Taco Night & The 71,000 Calorie Lasagna

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

You heard right. This is my “Sexy Ranch” dressing.

I heard you askin’ already – why is it Sexy Ranch?!

Here’s why:

My ranch is sexy because this ranch… is not.

16tbsp = 1 cup. I paid about $2.50 for 1 cup of ranch dressing in a funny shaped supaskinny bottle with semi-modern package design.

Inside that $2.50 cup of ranch dressing, I get 16 tablespoons of dressing, with each tablespoon giving me 140 calories.

Inside that $2.50 cup of ranch dressing, I get ingredients like phosphoric acid, natamycin, disodium guanylate, and xanthan gum. Yeah. If you can tell me what any of that is, that’d be great.

I snatched up some stuff from my kitchen that definitely cost more than $2.50 altogether. I snatched up things like:

1/3 teaspoon of sea salt (maybe even less.. just a pinch worked for mine)

about 1/3 cup of parsley

2 tablespoons of finely chopped green onions (chopped however finely you’d prefer it in your dressing)

1/3 teaspoon of black pepper

1 cup of real mayonnaise (do us BOTH a favor and don’t use Miracle Whip) (~700 calories)

buttermilk (I used about 2 cups, you may use more or less) (about 100 calories per cup)

2 teaspoons of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of cream cheese (~10 calories)

1 tablespoon of finely chopped onion

I tossed everything in the bowl, except the buttermilk. Go on and mix that all up. Give it a taste and see how you like it.

Then, go ahead and pour in your buttermilk, one cup at a time. Stir it after each cup, and give it a little pinky-taste-test. You know, put a dollop on your pinky and taste it to see what kind of taste it leaves on your tongue. Add the second cup. At this point, decide whether or not you want it thinner (and if so, add more buttermilk.)

Want it more tangy? Go with squeezing a liiittle lemon over it. Want it spicy? Hit up the paprika and cayenne pepper. Want somethin’ different? Add a little flax seed to it, or grab the chili powder. Make this YOUR recipe. YOU are the one that has to enjoy it, and you need to convince yourself that this is the safer option for your ranch fetish. Is time an issue? Tell yourself that the only way you can enjoy ranch dressing is if you make it yourself.

I recommend making sure you have extra ingredients left over just so that you can personalize the recipe the way you want. Ranch is, essentially, about throwing the whole farm in the pot and putting it the way you like it – I put a little paprika in mine, I squeeze a little lime over mine… might even put a little lime zest (lime shavings) on top and stir it in.  Try anything – try everything! Make use of your kitchen. I can assure you, it’s totally fun… and takes all of 15 minutes. Grab a squeeze bottle from your nearest dollar store or grocery (or dump out your old ranch and rinse the bottle, LOL), and pow – you’re all set!

Now.. let’s compare. Even if you had to BUY all the ingredients for my ranch, you can still use them in other dishes. I had everything in my home already. It’s not a total loss on the investment.

I used 2 cups of buttermilk. This gave me a little more than 3 cups of ranch dressing. Let’s do the math:

3 cups of dressing = 700(calories from the mayo) + 200(calories from 2 cups of buttermilk) + 10(calories from the cream cheese)

Kraft’s 1 cup of dressing totals 2240 calories. 2080 of which are from fat.

My 3 cups of ranch total 910 calories. Putting it on par with the Kraft, that means that for every 1 cup, my dressing gives you about 303 calories. I didn’t calculate fat calories, but I can assure you it’s much less than 2080.

303…is much less than 2240. Seriously.

My ranch is Sexy Ranch because it’s not gonna prevent you from preserving your sexy. I’m serious.

Best of luck, and don’t forget to tell me how it turns out!

Make It At Home: Sexy Ranch Dressing is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: I’m Too Sexy For This Ham
2. Q&A Wednesday: Exercise Won’t Make You Thin?
3. Q&A Wednesday: I’m Not Gonna Make It Through Labor Day!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: saving money

I always advise that you read through the recipe before you dive in. If you’re new to these spices, give them each a taste before you stick them in. I tried to organize the spices in a fashion that would allow you to experience the addition of different types of flavors – first the spices, then the sweets, then the tangy – and see what they do to a fairly common flavor, tomato.

I hope you like it!

• 6oz (or 3/4cup) of Tomato Paste
• 6oz (or 3/4cup) of water
• 3tbsp parmesan
• 1tsp minced garlic
• 1tbsp brown sugar (like it sweet? add in more brown sugar teaspoon by teaspoon!)
• 1tsp minced onion
• 1/4tsp coriander
• 1/4tsp basil
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• pinch of red pepper flakes (and I do mean pinch)
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of sea salt

Mix the tomato paste in with the water, then add your parmesan and garlic. Next, go for your onion, coriander, basil and black pepper. At this point, taste your sauce and see how it’s coming along. If it’s a little too earthy, keep that in mind. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. If you’d like it sweeter, add your brown sugar in a teaspoon at a time. At this point, adding in a pinch of sea salt should make things much brighter flavor-wise… at least, it does for me. I add a pinch (not a shake, but a PINCH) of cayenne pepper and a pinch (shoot, maybe even a half pinch!) of crushed red pepper flakes last, because sometimes I may not even feel like using it at all.

I usually pour my sauce inside of a cleaned out jar, and store it in the fridge. I can enjoy the fact that my entire jar is probably no more than 300 calories altogether (90cals for the tomato paste, 60 cals for the parmesan cheese, maybe 60 cals for the brown sugar, no more than 50 cals for those spices?) and not feel guilty about using it.

Happy eating!

The Best Pizza Sauce Ever is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Pizza Gallery: Who Says You Can’t Have Pizza?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: condiment, homemade, Recipes, tomato sauce

I don’t eat wheat grass and cattails all day, darn it. I like my edible hedonism to come in the form of nice gooey cheesy things. Like Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

I’ll talk about my philosophy on “treating” yourself or “cheating your diet” another day… ’cause all you want is the recipe, anyway!

• 1 cup flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4th cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• your choice: either 1/4-13rd cup of parmesan, or 1/3rd cup of sharp cheddar

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine everything except the cheese in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don’t want to mix too thoroughly.  Add cheese, milk, and garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don’t over mix. I take parsley and shake it over the top of the dough, and mix it in a little more. Just makes it more attractive to the eye, to me.

3. Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, you can also mmix a little olive oil with garlic powder and some dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic spread over the tops of all the biscuits.

I will tell you, the parmesan version is MUCH lighter on the calories, and thanks to the combination of flavors, you can get away with using less of it and still getting great flavor. I make these literally maybe every two months. I’m not one for “treating myself” with food anymore. I treat with shoes. Mmm… shoes.

Cheddar Bay Biscuit Recipe is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Have You Voted In The BGG2WL Recipe Contest Yet?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes

What is Clean Eating?

Clean eating is eating as close to the source as possible. What is the source, you ask? The source is Mother Earth, of course. Sure, it sounds like hippie stuff, but think about it – look in your pantry or cabinets, then look in your refridgerator. If the vast majority of the foods you own reside outside of your refridgerator, and you consider yourself overweight? Chances are, that pantry or those cabinets are why.

Basically, living a life of clean eating is living a life of simplicity. You’re probably not going to overindulge on the breads – or eat much bread at all -while eating clean. No refined white rice. No deep fried goods. No processed foods. I mean, don’t get me wrong — I can acknowledge and appreciate the fact that our little friends in the box or plastic wrapper have allowed us to do a lot in a short amount of time (I can get scalloped potatoes with only a little milk and a microwave? I’m in there like swimwear!), but it is certainly not clean eating. If you’re going to embrace the challenge then the boxed goods, canned goods and plastic shrink wrapped packages… have got to go.

Clean eating, with all the “Mother Earth” talk, might sound like hippie speak (I am a self-proclaimed hippie and all), but it isn’t. It’s making sure that we use and respect the Earth for what it is supposed to give to us while, in turn, giving it what it needs. I don’t have to tell anyone that after we’ve enjoyed our boxed and plastic-wrapped goods, that that trash has to go somewhere…and it’s usually buried in a forest…er…landfill somewhere. Clean eating, because you’re using items that rarely come with wrappers, are less harmful to the environment.

Okay, no more hippie moments. For now.

What are the basic tenets of clean eating?

Avoid processed foods. Outside of my usual spiel about why you should avoid foods laden with chemicals we don’t understand, there is actually a multi-layer reason for why this is important.

For starters, processed foods usually come with an excessive amount of sugar. I mean, let’s face it – sugar tastes good. The companies who make our favorite foods know that sugar makes their food so irresistible, so they’re good for putting it in, well, everything. Avoiding unnecessary and unnatural sugars is a key part of clean eating, and you can’t do that in a lifestyle that includes processed foods.

Should you insist on indulging in foods that come wrapped in a package, check the ingredient label – if it contains an ingredient that you wouldn’t keep in your own kitchen (monosodium glutamate? what? – (changed for clarity)) then try to find something a little more chemical-free, or pass on the item altogether.

If you avoid processed foods, you’ll also be avoiding unnatural fats (like trans fats) and unnecessary carbs. All carbs aren’t bad, but the processed foods that tend to contain the highest amount of carbs and fats usually have the least nutritional value… and that gets in your way when it comes to achieving the next target of clean eating.

Get the most out of your food choices. Usually, this means going for the fruits and veggies over the chips and dip. And remember, we’re eating as close to the source as possible… so get the regular peach and skip the fruit cups.

When you choose to eat something, aside from “make sure it tastes great” and “make sure there’s no [insert food allergy] in it,” add “make sure that it’s chock full of vitamins and minerals” and “make sure this is the most nutrient-filled choice I can make” to your list. So no, the white bread isn’t going to give you as much as the whole grain bread might. And if you don’t know whether or not your favorite sub spot offers whole grain bread? Call ahead of time and ask.

Practice portion control. I’ve written on this before, but this is one part nutrition, one part eco-friendly. There’s no reason to take more than you need. Your body will only suffer through trying to churn through all this extra food, and it’s excess and unnecessary calories to burn. And you all know I love counting a calorie or two…hundred.

Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. That’s right.. I said 8. That should keep you sooo busy, that you can’t drink your pepsis or your coca colas or your hawaiian punches or your capri suns. Outside of the fact that water has the ability to help you feel full (more on that later this week) and flush your body of impurities, it has zero calories.

Say it with me. Zero. Calories.

Those are the basics, but we’ll be counting down to the start of the challenge by digging deeper into the principles of clean eating. This week will have one post each day about clean eating – everything from drinking (and enjoying) water to eco-friendly organic living to shopping lists to preparation for a healthy lifestyle (check out “Fitting Clean Eating Into A Busy Lifestyle“)… and topping it all off with a Q&A Wednesday centered all around the challenge (posted here).

You now have… 6 days. Tomorrow comes the sample shopping list (said sample shopping list is now posted here). Get your questions in this week, so you’re prepared for the next. Tell your Mama, tell your friends, tell everybody… build your support system and we all can connect and do this together!

Who’s with me?

Presenting: The 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: Clean Eating Challenge Style
2. Q&A Wednesday: Is Clean Eating An Eating Disorder?
3. What’s In My Clean Eating Healthy Kitchen?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 47 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating, ecofriendly, overeating, processed foods

Definitely not my kitchen.. my kitchen usually has spices everywhere.. and random crayon markings. Sigh.

I think, because we always see these amazing chefs on our TV screens, that we think we know what “great cooking” looks like.  Aside from the fact that not everyone thinks TV chefs are, in all actuality, great chefs… we shortchange ourselves idolizing these people.

I mean, I’ll keep it real – Sandra Lee cooks everything from a box or a can. It might look “great” (again, questionable) in the end, but her style of “cooking” doesn’t serve our purposes, here at BGG2WL. Rachael Ray, while she’s all over the place with magazines and books lauding her cooking, is the comfort food queen. Comfort food, if you’ll recall, is the stuff we use to emotionally eat.

I think that idolizing these TV chefs only serves to further separate us from our goals of becoming the person who can create an amazing dish with limited resources and in a short amount of time. I know that when I’m in my kitchen tossing stuff around trying to figure out what, on Earth, to cook… I don’t rock an outfit perfectly matching my kitchen, with perfect makeup, and every perfect piece of equipment in my kitchen. Sometimes, I get gritty. Sometimes, I even sweat (not in the food, though.) And sometimes, I even – gasp – screw up. Having said that, there are five things that I think we should remember when it comes to making ourselves better kitchen dynamos.

1) You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on high-tech equipment to be an amazing chef. Can it help? Yes, much like wearing high heels can make you sexier. Sure, they help you accomplish your goal, but a creative person certainly can accomplish their goal without it.

At least half of my kitchen was stocked thanks to the dollar store. Yes, the dollar store. Spatulas, ladles, cutting boards, graters, kitchen scissors, measuring cups, measuring spoons, pot holders, colanders and knives. All things that you can stand to purchase for a dollar.

News flash: Products on clearance aren’t always “less than” their full price counterparts… especially when that product was full price a week ago. Approximately 99% of my kitchen appliances were purchased on clearance. Have a little patience, save your money for a clearance… then go in for the kill. I own an awesome 15-piece stainless steel cookware set… superclearance for $40. It’s lasted me 3 years thus far.. no trouble.

Beyond all that… there are cultures that make amazing food with little more than a mortar, a pestle, and a bonfire. Amazing food. I’m almost certain they would cringe at the thought of using our fancy equipment. Just another way to show that the equipment doesn’t make the chef.

2) Your screw-ups will taste disgusting, be hilarious, and always teach you something. I remember the first time I realized the difference between chili powder and curry powder. It was a bad day for mankind. I also remember the day I learned just how much ginger I could use in a dish before I sent my daughter crying from the table in a fit of dispair. Again, a bad day for mankind. How about the day I learned how to really cook brown rice? That day, I had to give my little one a hug because she suffered through all those traumatic servings of crunchy brown rice. But now that I know how to make an awesome brown rice? I’m unstoppable. Now that I understand ginger better? My stir-fry is awesomeness in a wok. Now that I know the difference between chili powder and curry powder, well… my daughter actually eats her food. Trial and error is fun in my house.

3) There is no such thing as “that’s not a meal.” I’m generally opposed to big giant monument sized dinners – particularly because small portions of a gigantic meal are the same as gigantic portions of a meal with small offerings – but I’m also opposed to the idea that says something traditionally used for one purpose cannot serve another purpose. You might not eat a slice of bread from the grocery for breakfast… but if you bake a loaf of banana bread and give yourself a slice for breakfast? That is a meal. It is hearty, has fruit, fiber, will wake you up.. and save yourself a few calories in place of cereal and milk. Don’t be afraid to make an amazing dish out of a small amount of ingredients. It allows you to enjoy the flavors you’re combining that much more!

4) Just because you don’t like a fruit or vegetable by itself… doesn’t mean you can’t find a good use for it. There are a lot of things I cannot stand by themselves – cranberries, for instance – that go wonderfully in other dishes – for instance, apple pie. If I counted them out completely, I’d never be able to take advantage of that super sweetness they have naturally, allowing me to use less sugar in my apple pie recipe. I cringe – cringe – at the thought of eating eggplant alone, but I do enjoy it chopped up in a salad with sun-dried tomatoes and a little olive oil. Zucchini and I don’t get along at all, but I learned that they are amazing on pizza. Yes. Pizza.

5) There is something actually fulfilling about cooking… and it’s okay to seek out that fulfillment. I don’t know what it is… but there is a feeling I get from mixing up all the ingredients from scratch, watching it cook to my liking, feeding it to my little one, and watching her fall totally in love with it. Biting into my own work, and feeling as if I’ve accomplished a masterpiece? That’s an ego boost… much like when I braid my daughter’s hair into a replica of The Eiffel Tower (I’m kidding… sorta) or if I finish a project early for work. Just makes me feel like I know what I’m doing… and that never hurts.

What do you have to share with newbie chefs? Are you a newbie chef with questions? Have a good kitchen screw-up to share? (Aw, c’mon, I love those!) Let’s hear it!

5 Things You Should Know About Becoming A Great Cook is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Great Hair or Great Body? Straight Hair and Working Out
2. Now That I’m Clean Eating, What Can I Cook?
3. Three Great Ways To Exercise At Home

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cooking, emotional eating, food network, fruits, kwanzaa cake, rachael ray, sandra lee, vegetables

Having said that, I set out to buy my own berries and make my own jam. Is it pricier? It depends on your options. I was already buying jelly AND fresh blueberries (my daughter likes them in her cheerios) so for me, I saved money. Make the jam with my blueberries, and give her a small dollop of it in the center of her cereal. Not only that, but because my jam is made of actual food, my body doesn’t hunger for as much of it as I can slather onto the bread like it would with some commercial jams. Win on both counts.

Oh, and to the question of can you use frozen blueberries? This should answer that:

Not only do I use frozen, but I use generic. They were $3 on sale. Total win.

What will you need? Lemon juice, berries of choice, and sugar (). I’ve made blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry, apples… you name it, you can probably jam it. If you’re like me, you keep lemon juice in the house anyhow as a base for cooking (hint, hint). A $2 bottle goes a long way. As far as the sugar goes, the more organic, the better – not “sugar-in-the-raw”-organic, but organic as in organic cane sugar. I’m not going to even do this like most recipes, because it’s that simple.

Get yourself a nice saucepan. Not too much larger than your berries – you can see how much/how many I had in my pan. Pour about 1/4th of a cup of lemon juice into your skillet, and let it simmer on moderate heat. Dump your berries – assuming you have about 3-4 cups of berries – into your pot, and let it cook for about a half an hour. Keep checking on it to make sure you’re not frying your berries. Trust me, it’ll taste foul if you do.

You should see the berries juicing themselves – lots of gooey goodness oozing out and creating their own little sauce. Give it a good stir to make sure you’re not burning anything, and start mashing. You can use the back of a wooden spoon, a potato masher, the bottom of a glass, whatever – just start mashing.

You won’t get an even consistency like you might with a jar of jelly bought from the grocery because – remember – there’s no actual fruit in there. It’ll be lumpy. It might even taste tart at first because of the lemon juice, but that’s ok. You still have to add the sugar. Once your berries are good and mashed to your liking, grab your sugar and get to work.

Add the sugar 1/4th of a cup at a time, stirring and tasting after every addition. I don’t like mine too sweet, because it reminds me of “grape” jelly and makes me nauseous, so I never need more than a third of a cup of sugar. Not only that, but knowing what I’m putting in my jelly, I don’t want to have to eat those calories and then be responsible for burning those calories. (This is why picking nice flavorful berries is important. Enjoy the flavor of the fruit – don’t overdo it on the sugar.)

If you’re feeling jazzy, there are a few finishing touches you can add. I dropped a scoop of flaxseed in my raspberry jelly. I took my blackberry jam and made a nice vinaigrette with it. With my apple jam, I added cloves and nutmeg to it. Get yourself a nice jar, and pour your finished jam into it. Give it some time to cool down, then refridgerate it.. and you’re done!

Save Calories AND Money: Make Your Own Jams and Jellies is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Save Money On Groceries: Buy It In Bulk
2. Save Money On Groceries: Go Frozen!
3. Save Money On Groceries: Go… Smaller?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: high fructose corn syrup, Recipes, saving money

Taken from Women’s Health magazine:

Here’s how this deviousness works: Human beings have what food-industry insiders call a “bliss point,” a nirvana of the taste buds triggered by particular amounts of salt, sugar, and fat. Menu scientists (yes, that’s a job!) at popular restaurant chains and packaged-food corporations use their knowledge of the bliss point to manipulate your appetite, adding salt, sugar, and fat to their products in combinations that are designed to create hedonism on a plate—a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain’s pleasure system into overdrive. It’s like a drug. And like any drug, it leads you to obsess about that moment of pleasure so much that you’ll do almost anything to prolong or relive it. The result: a bigger bottom line for them—and a bigger waistline for you.

It’s just the way it is.

So, now you have one more piece of information telling you the chips – literally – are stacked against you. What do you do? Do you give in knowing that it will result in a bigger booty (and no, not in a good way) or do you start limiting and minimizing your fast food/restaurant food intake? These are things to think about!

Overeating: Why You Can’t Stop At One Nacho is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Overeating: Comparable To Drug Use, Cause of Mental Illness?
2. The Three Stages Of “Full”ness: How To Stop Stuffing Yourself
3. Portion Distortion: Stop Eating Out Of The Bag

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bliss point, Fast Food, overeating, restaurants

Then, I hear the salt shaker.

I kind of paused in mid-sentence. I said, “Wait. How do you know your eggs need salt if… you didn’t even taste them, yet?”

“I don’t know… that’s what Mom does.”

How many places do we sneak a little salt? Do you salt your food at restaurants because you just “know” it isn’t seasoned enough? Do you eat a lot of canned or boxed foods? What about your meats – do you check to see if they’re salted before you cook with them? Do you use things like “Garlic salt,” “seasoned salt” or “onion salt” on top of regular iodized salt or sea salt? Do you salt your canned soups, even though they already have – on average – a day’s worth of sodium in each can? And let’s face it – who really splits a can of soup? Not everyone.

When you make baked goods, how much salt do you use? Do you keep tabs on the amount of salt in your processed foods? I’m not even gonna ask about the amount of salt in your favorite fast food dish. I’m just gonna tell you… it’s probably a lot. Salt and sodium hide in places we’d least expect it, which is why consciousness is so important.

If the recommended daily allowance of salt in your diet is only somewhere around 2400mg, then having an order of chili cheese fries from Dairy Queen with 2,550mg of sodium in it seems excessive, right? Aside from having 1,200 calories and being a total fat bomb, slaughtering your daily intake of salt in one sitting does you no favors, trust me.

Our foods come full of salt because certain amounts of it trigger emotional responses in our bodies. Although the amount of salt that triggers the response depends on the kind of food you’re eating, the goal is always the same. To make you feel so good, that you keep coming back for more, because you want that feeling again.

I hate to say it, but that sounds like drugs. I don’t even really have to say it, because there are several studies that say the same. The principle in play, here, is pretty simple. To sum it up, it goes like this:

Our brains have chemical reactions to the food we put in our bodies. As many of us know, chemicals in the brain like serotonin and dopamine play a big part in our moods. Three key ingredients play a major role in the reaction our brains have to the foods we’re eating: sugar, fat, and salt. If a food has an excess of salt in it – without reaching the point where it is unbearable to taste – then your reaction to it will likely be a “good one.” Too much salt, however, can have drastic efects on our systems, regardless of how good it may make us feel.

Having said that, it’s easy to see why foods with excess salt usually come paired with excess fat. It’s all about making you feel good… except… we shouldn’t be eating for food to make us “feel good.” Enjoy eating, sure. But it is not our problem solver.

This excess fat/excess salt combination is how high blood pressure is created. The brand new “padding” that our fatty foods gave us needs blood pumped through it, too… and our hearts have to work doubly hard to make sure that happens. Vicious cycle, isn’t it?

So… how can we cut the salt? Here are 3 quick and easy ways to start off:

1. Skip the canned goods. If you’re buying canned veggies, buy frozen instead. If it’s soup you’re after, try to make it from scratch (here’s a tip: save your meat bones and boil them with veggies… save the water. That’s soup water!) Give up the canned meats altogether.
2. Drop the seasoning salts. Do you use garlic salt? Go for garlic powder. Onion salt? Onion powder. Seasoned salt? Sugar, paprika, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder. Seriously, grab some different seasonings and play with ‘em. Try to use no more than a pinch when you cook – especially if you have a day where you have to eat something high in salt.
3. Double check your TV dinners. If you’re big on microwaveables, try to avoid the ones with too much salt in them. A single pot pie shouldn’t have 3,387mg of salt in it, alas… it happens.

I will admit it. I used to LOVE gooey-fat-nasty-juicy-salty foods. Me and my salt shaker were best friends. However, once I took the time to try to appreciate the natural saltiness in some foods combined with using different spices, I found that I couldn’t treat salt the same… and I haven’t ever since. Give it a try, and who knows – you might find something you like!

Anyone else out there run into this problem? Are you having a hard time with salt? Did you kick your salt habit? Let’s talk!

Identifying – And Eliminating – Excess Salt In Your Diet is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. The Realities Of Cooking With Salt
2. The Effect Of Excess Sugar On Children’s Teeth
3. Identifying A Scam: Religion-Based Weight Loss Scams

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Post tags:

Lime Broccoli Chicken Pasta

Honey Mustard Rice

Balsamic Chicken and Carrots

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Basil Rubbed Chicken A La Erika

That’s just the beginning! Check out the recipes section, and give yourself a head start! 7 days will feel like a breeze!

Now That I’m Clean Eating, What Can I Cook? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Q&A Wednesday: Is Clean Eating An Eating Disorder?
2. What’s In My Clean Eating Healthy Kitchen?
3. Fitting Clean Eating Into A Busy Life

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Post tags: clean eating

All hell broke loose.

After an embarrassing jump-and-squeal combo, I immediately jumped on the phone with my mother, who I told “Mom, I feel like I’ve been eating these things since before I was alive.”

“That’s because you have been – my sister used to make these for me when I was pregnant with you.”

As a little girl, I spent my summers in Selma, Alabama. I lived for my great grandmother’s backyard, even though I didn’t have much to play with back there other than milk crates. I didn’t sweat it, though – I was a math-y, architect-y, build-y type of kid. They were like giant lego blocks to me.

Every now and again, I’d get to play in the garden. It wasn’t huge, but it was just enough to sustain a single woman throughout her summer. I have vague memories of the other vegetables growing under her care, but I specifically remember those tomatoes.

They were just beautiful. Literally. A stunning shade of green… different shapes… all to be used for different reasons. My great grandmother is a woman who lived in a time before we were spoiled by the grocery store. “No, you don’t get to enjoy things that can’t be grown during that season. You’re going to eat what’s in this garden and like it!” You didn’t get to “dislike” a vegetable. You had to figure out a way to enjoy it.

Enter.. the “fried green tomato.” Much like many other strange recipes with decades (centuries?) of tradition behind them, the idea of battering and frying a green tomato (specified as green because the tart flavor works so well on the inside) came from that ol’ school idea of “we might only have a small amount of vegetables on hand, but we will flip this one ingredient 439,857,458,754 ways and ensure that we will be able to eat a new dish every night.”

For some strange reason, no one dares ask my great granny her recipe… but my Mother’s sister – my Aunt Pookie (hush, everyone has a Pookie) – knew it. Unfortunately, when she passed, she kept the recipe with her. I knew the recipe was lost, my mother knew it… but seeing these tomatoes at the farmer’s market pretty much felt like a sign that she wanted us to go in (and go hard) on trying to figure out her recipe.

On the inside, I’m cringing like crazy. Part of me is whining “all that flour, all that dairy, and the ooooooooil… c’mon, man… can’t I just bite into the tomato by itself?” Another part of me is shouting “Family! Tradition! DO IT!” I had to figure out a solid solution to this conflict. If not at least for my own pleasure, at least for my Mother’s sake.

Every week, I purchased a pair of tomatoes, and every week, I failed. I was failin’ left and right! But finally, after about $40 worth of green tomatoes and seven weeks, I was finally able to perfect the recipe. Trust me, there was nothing more pleasing than the look in my mother’s eye when she bit into that tomato and looked up at me. “That’s just like how my sister used to make them.” That was all I needed to hear.

Cooking this recipe brought me closer to the routine used to create a childhood favorite of mine. The challenge of identifying the recipe, however, was enough to keep me away from fried foods for an eternity. Perhaps learning the intricate details of my Southern treat ruined the mystique of it all… or maybe I only set out to help my Mother relive a moment with her sister. It certainly didn’t help to hear my mother say, as I handed her the last batch, “Gosh, you look so much like my sister.”

I don’t have to eat the darn things every day or even every month, but I at least know the recipe to pass down to my daughter… and let her playfully agonize over whether or not to indulge in a five-generation old delicacy… only to give in and fry up a batch for dear ol’ Mom.

That’s a lot to lead into a recipe… but if I’m going to share a family tradition, I can at least help someone feel a little bit of the love that goes into it.

– —————————————

As I sit here putting the finishing touches on this post, I receive the word that my great grandmother has passed away today. I don’t necessarily know what to make of that – the fact that I wrote this post (and a few others) detailing my early experiences in her garden, the same garden helping her to live to 99 years of age – but I do know that she is a remarkable figure in my life. Though I’m saddened in a selfish way because I’ve lost someone without being able to properly show my love and appreciation for their influence, I do believe she is at peace.

I’ll post the recipe at a later date.

—————————————–

Fried Green Tomatoes

2 baseball-sized green tomatoes

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 cup corn meal

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

frying oil

Take your tomatoes, and slice them very thin – about as thin as the width of a toothpick (not the long way), or close to it. Grab three bowls – pour your flour in one bowl and your buttermilk in the second bowl. In your third bowl, mix together your bread crumbs, corn meal, salt and paprika.

Take your skillet, turn it on 8/10. Put your frying oil in your skillet – you’ll want it to cover the entire tomato.

Grab a tomato slice, dunk it in flour and coat it completely. Then dunk it in the buttermilk, covering the tomato completely. Lastly, drop it in the corn/crumb mixture and shake it up so that it gets coated fully. Then… drop it in the fryer. Pretty easy.

Really, this is a good way to batter just about anything – zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, chicken tenderloins, whatever. I definitely wouldn’t eat this kind of stuff on a regular basis, though – since the day I figured out how to make these… I’ve ate them once. I may make another batch today to commemorate my great grandmother’s life, but I at least know that I’ll have the recipe with me forever… and I’m okay with that.

Breaking Up With Fried Green Tomatoes is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Weekend WTF: All Fried Everything

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Post tags: tomatoes, tradition

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Tarragon leave

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon flax seed (optional, but flax seed is awesome)

1 teaspoon poppy seed (also optional)

Chop up all your strawberries as thinly as you can. You want tiny bits for this one.

Mix up all of your oil and your vinegar. Toss in your tarragon, poppy seed and your flax seed.

Add your strawberries, and stir everything up really well. Give it a taste. If it’s too bitter, slowly add your honey bit by bit.

I add the honey last, because sometimes, depending on how much vinegar I put in my own mixtures, I may not want the sweet taste.

Vinaigrettes are fun. Play with this one, and see where it takes you!

Strawberry Vinaigrette is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. What’s In My Clean Eating Healthy Kitchen?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes, salad dressing, vinaigrettes

Want to get caught up on the 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge? Start here!

One of the big things with people changing their lifestyles is the fact that sometimes it’s difficult to know where to begin. Sure, you can cut a bunch of stuff out of your daily diet, but what do you replace it with? If you don’t have a readily available substitute, it becomes that much easier to revert back to your old habits… the ones we want to shed.

While broccoli qualifies as clean.. we're going beyond the usual food and usual uses today!

That’s why we’re preparing for this in advance. Part of that preparation is putting together a list of foods that will help you get it in and get it done. That’s also why I’m sharing the goods on what you’ll find in my healthy kitchen. If I can make it do what it do, then so can you!

1. Spinach Leaves – Aside from being a great base for salads and a wonderful addition to pastas, they’re extremely low-calorie. 4 cups of spinach for 20 calories? Come on. Try a salad with spinach leaves, mushrooms, sunflower seeds and my strawberry vinaigrette.Last time I checked the grocery, a bushel was about $2… and it can easily last you several days if you’re exercising portion control.
2. Apples – Slice ‘em up and toss ‘em in a salad, chop ‘em into chunks and cook ‘em with chicken (recipe to come), or stew a few in some apple cider vinegar and make apple butter. Either way, apples are inexpensive and versatile enough to be a mainstay in my kitchen.
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sesame Oil… – Anything except vegetable/canola oil. In fact, I have the extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, too, when I simply need a base for my skillet when I cook a little chicken and don’t want the heavy oils. Is oil a bad thing? Not these kinds, and not if used sparingly. So no, you cannot deep fry something in these oils (and at the price tag of about $3 for two cups, trust me – you don’t want to), but you can certainly get a good stir-fry-style skillet going with some veggies. If you don’t have sesame oil available? Don’t sweat it. The olive oil will work fine.
4. Garlic – In the form of minced garlic in a jar, regular garlic cloves, or garlic powder… garlic rocks. It definitely has its health benefits, but it is a light flavor that packs a mean punch. Combine the garlic with the extra virgin olive oil (maybe a half teaspoon of garlic to 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a big pinch of oregano and a big pinch of basil), and you get a nice sauce for the occasional pasta and chicken dish.
5. Almond Milk – Regular pasteurized milk and I don’t get along. It made my skin feel slimy and I hated the way it felt sliding down my throat. I used to drink rice milk, but then I gave up drinking milk altogether. Then… I discovered almond milk. Now, I keep a carton of the original and vanilla versions on the fridge. I will tell ya, though – it is pricey, but Whole Foods sells it at a price much higher than your local grocery might (if they have it.)
6. Berries! – Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries… you name it. Around this time of year, the price goes down quite a bit from winter, and the berries come out to play. Chop ‘em up in your cereal, your oatmeal, pancakes or give yourself a nice light snack throughout the day. They are an awesome source of “sweet” taste, and can serve multiple purposes (remember.. I make strawberry vinaigrettes, blueberry preserves. I’m gettin’ the most out of my money!)
7. Seeds – Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds. Oh yes. I use poppy seeds in my vinaigrettes, salads, pastas and chicken dishes as an additional little bit of texture. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds, tho? That’s just for me to munch on throughout the day. I’m a fan of snacking. Yes I am. Poppy seeds should be available in your grocery’s spice section.
8. Peppers – No matter whether they’re green, red or gold… I love peppers! You can cut them into strips, toss a little olive oil on ‘em and roast them. You can chop them into little bits and throw ‘em into a diced chicken dish. You can cut it into big chunks, bake it with some garlic and vinegar and make your own hot sauce (toss a little mango in it for extra points.) You can make your own alfredo sauce and toss a few in there. Make strips, throw ‘em into a salad. Very versatile. Depending on where you are, they might be as pricey as $2 a pop. Dice it up thinly, and use sparingly. They’re really sharp to the tongue, so you don’t need much, anyway.
9. Vinegar - Plain white vinegar is only about a dollar, with apple cider vinegar coming in at maybe fifty cents more. You can get red wine vinegar for a little more, and generic balsamic vinaigrette may top out at about $3.50. Use ‘em to add a little tang to meats without salt, mix with spices and olive oil to create your own vinaigrette, or use it as a base for a pasta salad. Try that balsamic vinegar with garlic and wrap it in your ground meat before you cook your burger… you’re welcome in advance! Either way, it’s an inexpensive way to get a lot done.
10. Dried beans, lentils, quinoa – I’m heavy on the black beans. I live for ‘em. One bag goes for about $1.50, and they can last forever. Toss ‘em in a big pot with some water, chopped onions and cumin and just let it soak overnight (or before you head off to work… if you have that kind of time during the week.) That’s right… no heat. Wake up, cut ‘em on medium heat for about an hour, and I promise you’ll love ‘em. Pinto beans cook pretty much the same way. Without all the excess salt. Lentils are closer to peas than they are beans, but they’re awesome too. Soak these overnight with a little garlic in the pot, and then cook ‘em after a few hours. Golden. Quinoa is more like… a soft yet chewy kind of seed, but it acts more like rice in a dish. They don’t have to soak overnight, but give ‘em ten minutes in the pot before you cut on the heat.

You may not love all of these things, but if nothing else, take from this list an idea of how versatile you can make food items. Apples in your salad, cooked with your chicken, or stewed to make apple butter. I can buy a bag of apples for $3 and stretch it for almost a month. $3 is a box of 20 taquitos, that lasted me maybe a week. My money stretches like you wouldn’t believe, now.

Aside from the basic staples – brown rice, tomatoes, broccoli, lemons and limes, your meat of choice, etc etc – these are some of the things that I live for and love, and the different ways I take advantage of them in my healthy, clean eating kitchen. I cook three times a day for two people and with appropriate portion sizes, most of these last me about a month and total about $22.

What’s in your healthy kitchen? Help me compile a list so we can all do this challenge together!

What’s In My Clean Eating Healthy Kitchen? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Clean and Healthy Eating on Food Stamps
2. Presenting: The 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge
3. Q&A Wednesday: Is Clean Eating An Eating Disorder?

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clean eating

Since my game plan was to begin cooking everything myself, I decided to start stocking up on the spices. I couldn’t tell you how many are there, only that there are quite a few and I’ve used them all. They all look like one brand – many of them are Badia spices that I’ve collected from various trips to the grocery store. That’s a local Miami brand, so I try to support.

Buying them all happened over time – I opted to get 3 during one visit to the grocery, another 3 the next time. I always set aside at least $5 for some new spices. If I had the same 3 ingredients, I could probably make 6 different dishes with my spice rack on hand.

Since I’ve been harassed enough about adding recipes to the site, I figured it’d be appropriate to alert you to what spices I have in my kitchen. I’ll probably also be doing a “What’s in my fridge?” post as well, just so that people can see that eating healthier isn’t about eating carrots and seaweed (although, under the right circumstances, both can be pretty yummy.)

• Basil
• Oregano
• Cayenne Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Garlie Salt
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Turmeric
• Old Bay
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Sea Salt (in the ziploc bag above… it usually comes in a box, but I didn’t like that idea too much.)
• Coriander
• Tarragon
• Ginger
• Clove (ground)
• Clove
• Marjoram
• Cilantro
• Black Pepper
• White Pepper
• Lemon Pepper
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Curry Seasoning
• Orange Peels
• Parsley
• Ground Bay Leaves
• Bay Leaves
• Sesame Seeds
• Almonds
• Chili Powder
• Allspice
• Dill Weed
• Sage

That’s what’s in my cabinet. What’s in yours?

What’s In My Spice Cabinet? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

The FULL list of meal plans is currently available. Check it out and get your copy today!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Recipes