Ten Days of Healthy Swaps – Day 2

Trade your traditional beef burger to a wild caught salmon burger as a healthier option

Red meet has been getting a bad rep for a while, and there is a good reason for it. But first things first.

Fat. Dietary fat is not a bad thing, if the right type of fat is consumed in the right amount. Saturated fat (the one found in meat, no matter how lean it is) is a naturally occurring fat that’s solid at room temperature. The problem with saturated fat, is that it’s been linked to heart disease. Consume too much of it, blood cholesterol levels rise leading to the narrowing of arteries due to too much plague, preventing arteries from expanding as normal, which puts too much strain on the heart, causing high blood pressure, increasing our chances of a heart attack.

So what can you do? You have a couple options. If you must have your beef, go with the leanest parts (such as the top round, eye of round, round tip). Or better yet, trade your beef for wild caught salmon.

Wild salmon is better, because it is natural. Farmed salmon, in a lot of cases, has artificial color added and eats whatever it’s fed. Which is not always healthy.
Other great benefits of salmon over beef include:
– higher protein content
– Omega-3: Omega-3 improves vision, reduces high blood pressure (the exact opposite of what consuming too much red meat does), regulates heart rate, improves learning and behavior, makes us smarter (your OBGYN will hopefully make sure your prenatal vitamins have DHA & EPA Omega-3’s to get your child off the a great start), and makes skin smoother
Who wouldn’t want these, right?

RECIPE

I won’t leave you hanging though, here’s the recipe for the above pictured salmon burger.

Ingredients
4 oz wild caught salmon filet, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1/4 of a smaller red onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp (or less, if you’re not a fan) of crushed garlic –
1/2 tbsp barbecue sauce (you may use a whole tbsp 😛 )
garlic salt to taste
pepper to taste

Procedure
Heat a half tbsp on olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Saute celery, onion until translucent, adding garlic about half-way through to avoid it getting bitter. After onion mixture has cooled down a bit, mix it with the rest of the ingredients, forming a patty (if it doesn’t want to take the shape of a patty, which for me happens 90% of the time, just use one of those one egg frying pans, does the trick every time). Grill the patty, cooking it thoroughly – about 6 minutes on each side. Serve on a whole wheat bun with a spring mix, mashed avocados and tomatoes.

Enjoy 🙂

Ten Days of Healthy Swaps – Day 1

Who doesn’t love pancakes for breakfast? Sophie and I have pancakes at least once a week. It’s good for her, it’s good for me. Or is it? A lot depends on the topping. We recently have decided to try layering our pancakes with fruit and yogurt topping, instead of maple syrup. It tastes amazing, and here are some additional benefits:

Four tbsp of a typical maple syrup is 200 calories. You know what makes up those 200 calories? Pure sugar. 53g of pure sugar. (The multiplier is 4 in case of carbs).
Breakfast should be about empowering you. It should give you a boost in the morning. With so much sugar, the only thing you get is a quick boost followed by a crash soon after. You know what stays though? Fat does. Excess glucose (a simple carb, one form of sugar) is stored as body fat. And that’s something most of us are trying to minimize. So drop that maple syrup.

Instead, try plain Greek yogurt flavored with liquid stevia (any flavor, I like vanilla, and you need a surprisingly small amount).
Four tbsp of a typical Greek yogurt is 47 calories, over half (~25) of those calories comes from protein (10 from carbs, 9 from fat). Much better composition, isn’t it? Protein repairs and replaces bones & muscles and can help burn excess calories. Now we’re talking.(In case you’ve opted out of dairy products, coconut or almond milk yogurt are way better options than maple syrup as well. While these barely contain protein, if any, both are considered healthy fat and contain fiber.)

RECIPE

So now the recipe for that yumminess above (gluten free version below).

Ingredients
3/4c all purpose flour
1/2c coconut flour
1.5tbsp packed brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1/4c natural almond butter (choose one that contains only almonds, no additives)
1 1/2c almond milk

Procedure
Mix dry ingredients with a fork. Mix almond butter and almond milk until smooth. Mix everything together. The trick for these pancakes is to make them smaller than regular ones. I usually use medium heat, drop about 1.5tbsp mixture into pan, cover the pan, after about a minute, I flip the pancakes, cover, about 2 minutes later I flip again, not covering this time, and I let them cook through.
Cooking time depends on your pan.

GLUTEN FREE VERSION:

Ingredients
1/2c gluten free flour
1/2c coconut flour
1.5tbsp packed brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
dash of salt
1/4c natural almond butter (choose one that contains only almonds, no additives)
1 1/2c almond milk

Procedure
Mix dry ingredients with a fork. Mix almond butter and almond milk until smooth. Mix everything together. The trick for these pancakes is to make them smaller than regular ones. I usually use medium heat, drop about 1.5tbsp mixture into pan, cover the pan, after about a minute, I flip the pancakes, cover, about 2 minutes later I flip again, not covering this time, and I let them cook through.
Cooking time depends on your pan.

Enjoy 🙂