Dream Dinners Recipe
Baby Spinach Salad with Fresh Mango-Lime Dressing
(Serves 6)
Salad Ingredients:
12 cups baby spinach, pre-washed & dried
½ cup cashews, roasted, unsalted pieces
Dressing Ingredients:
2 ½ cup mango, peeled, seeded, diced
¼ cup sweet red bell pepper, minced
¼ cup fresh orange juice
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
3 Tbsp. red onion, minced
2 Tbsp. cilantro leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp. brown sugar, packed
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
- Place all dressing ingredients in bowl and combine well.
- Toss spinach with dressing, serve garnished with cashews.
Pairing Suggestions: goes great with Dream Dinners March 2010 Menu items Citrus Marinated Fish Tacos or Dijon Honey Lime Grilled Salmon!
Nutritional info per serving: 159 calories, 4 g protein, 28 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (1 g saturated, 3 g monounsaturated, 1 g polyunsaturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 4 g fiber, 180 mg sodium.
New recipes make time and money-saving meal assembly service even more delicious
After tasting the way through hundreds of entries from across the country, Dream Dinners, Inc., the nation’s leading meal assembly chain, is pleased to announce the four grand-prize winners of its second annual recipe contest. In addition to receiving a $500 Dream Dinners gift certificate, the four winning recipes now appear on the March 2010 menu.
The winning Dream Dinners recipes are:
- “Bacon and Bleu London Broil” by Rebecca Rode of Branford, Conn.
- “Simmered Chinese Chicken with Jasmine Rice” by Kristi Van Ness of Yorba Linda, Calif.
- “Sage Crusted Pork Chops” by Brenda Crawshaw of Framingham, Mass.
- “Citrus Marinated Fish Tacos” by Megan Parcell of Vacaville, Calif.
The second annual Dream Dinners Recipe Contest solicited nationwide entries during the fall 2009 season, and called for recipes in four categories – steak, chicken, pork and seafood. Out of hundreds of entries, Dream Dinners reviews the top 10 recipes in each category and tests them for ease of preparation, taste and presentation to select the grand prize winners.
“The recipe contest is a fun way to involve our many loyal guests,” said Stephanie Allen, Co-founder of Dream Dinners “Most people who use the Dream Dinners’ service are repeat customers who visit our stores routinely every month in order to cook several meals at once, and they have made Dreams Dinners a standing part of their lifestyle and cooking routine. Many of our visitors are themselves wonderful cooks, who simply enjoy the time-saving convenience that meal assembly offers, so this contest is a way to share the spotlight with them!”
Visit Dinnersforlife.com to: Find a location near you | Preview our March Menu
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Half of the mothers who took part in a study thought that their obese four or five year-old was normal weight, as did 39 % of the fathers and when it came to overweight children, 75 % of mothers and 77 % of fathers thought that their child was normal weight. Further, mothers and fathers of overweight and obese children were significantly heavier than the parents of normal weight children. These statistics certainly give us something to think about.
Many kids are spending more time in front of the TV, computer, or playing video games these days. As a busy parent, we seem to have less and less time to prepare a nutritious, home-cooked meal. Fast & easy is the new reality for many families.
The best way to help your kids learn about a healthy lifestyle is by example. This means doing something as simple as sitting down to dinner as a family or starting an exercise routine together. Getting more sleep and reducing time spent in front of the TV, computer or playing video games also makes a difference. Doing one or more of these things helps your children live a healthier life.
There are many resources on the subject, here are a few recent articles with some great ideas, facts and tools:
- KidsHealth.org > Kids BMI calculator
- Article -3 Home Habits Help Youngsters Stay Slim
- Article – Most Parents Don’t Realize Their 4 Or 5-Year-Olds Are Overweight or Obese ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2010)
We believe that families who eat together and play together, live happier, healthier lives. For those of you who checked your child’s BMI – were you surprised to find your child is classified as overweight, obese or close to the 85th percentile? What small step could your family make to help encourage a healthier lifestyle for your family? We would love to hear about it!
Here is a great recipe that goes well with our Asian Pork Loin!
Stir-Fried Sugar Snap Peas with Mushrooms
(Serves 6)
Ingredients
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced ¼” thick
4 cups sugar snap peas, fresh, cleaned of strings & stems
2 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. lite soy sauce
2 tsp. fresh garlic, minced
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
Directions
1. Combine water, soy sauce, garlic, salt & pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in large frying pan or wok until hot.
3. Add mushrooms, stir-fry 2 minutes to brown. Add sugar peas and water/soy sauce mixture.
4. Stir-fry 4-6 minutes or until tender.
Nutritional info per 2/3-cup serving: 74 calories, 2 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 5 g fat (I g saturated, 2 g monounsaturated, 2 g polyunsaturated), 2 g fiber, 172 mg sodium
Even Small Dietary Reductions in Salt Could Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths
Heart health month isn’t just about awareness but also about providing some simple solutions. You have probably heard or read the statistics regarding salt intake in our everyday diet before we even pick up a salt shaker and while it may be some time before the “fast food” and “junk food” industries reduce the salt in their products, there are a few simple adjustments you can make to help reduce your daily salt intake.
- Buy low-salt or reduced -salt versions of your favorite foods
- Choose fresh or frozen over canned when possible
- Salad for lunch or dinner? Leave out the croutons or bacon
- Limit your intake of high sodium foods (bacon, tuna, pickles, olives, gravy, etc)
- Take the salt shaker off the dinner table
- Use high-salt condiments, such as ketchup and mustard, sparingly
Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year according to a new study done by researchers at Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in health care costs, the researchers add. For more information about this study check out this great article in Science Daily (Jan. 21, 2010)
To learn more about what you can do to decrease sodium in your diet check out these great resources:
Give the gift of flowers to someone you love and do good at the same time. For every bouquet you send by February 14th, TrialPay will donate $20 to the American Diabetes Association’s movement. Simply click on the link below, place your order with ProFlowers® and the donation will be made as soon as you complete your purchase.
If you have a chance to watch the Oprah Winfrey show this afternoon, she is dedicating her show today to diabetes. In collaboration with NDEP’s leadership at the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, the CDC assisted the show’s producers by providing statistics, maps, and other resources.
The CDC is offering helpful resources today and tomorrow (February 4-5) through CDC’s social media tools on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CDC), Twitter (www.twitter.com/CDC_ehealth), and the eHealth texting pilot (www.cdc.gov/mobile/).
NDEP will also support this effort to promote diabetes awareness, so don’t forget to connect with NDEP on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ndep) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/ndepgov)
Learn more on USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-04-Oprahdiabetes04_ST_N.htm
February is American Heart Month – Take steps to improve your heart health
Just in time for American Heart Month, the American Heart Association has introduced “My Life Check“, a personalized heart score and a custom plan using seven simple steps (the “Simple Seven”) to help you start improving your heart health.
The seven simple steps to live better are:
- Stop smoking
- Get active
- Lose weight
- Eat better
- Manage blood pressure
- Control cholesterol
- Reduce blood sugar
Stop smoking: This is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the U.S.
Get active: Acknowledging how tough it is to make time for exercise in our over-scheduled lives, the American Heart Association reminds us that benefits for health are so great it is worth the effort.
Lose weight: Obesity is now recognized as a major risk factor for heart disease and with 145 million of us being overweight or obese it is a concern for many of us. Losing even a modest amount of weight and keeping it off goes a long way to improve our health.
Eat better: A healthy diet and lifestyle are your best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease according to the American Heart Association. Since there is a lot of conflicting information about these issues it is best to get information from credible sources such as the American Dietetic Association, the American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society, to name a few.
Manage blood pressure: High blood pressure is the single most significant risk factor for heart disease according to the American Heart Association. One in three adults has high blood pressure but almost a quarter of them don’t know it and of those being treated, over fifty percent do not have their blood pressure down to goal.
Control cholesterol: Too much cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for heart disease. Following some of the steps already mentioned above will help reduce blood cholesterol but many people also need to take medication to get cholesterol down to where it needs to be.
Reduce blood sugar: Diabetes is one of the six major controllable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Adults with Diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke than adults without diabetes according to the American Heart Association.
Check out the American Heart Association’s My Life Check to get your personalized heart score and custom plan and start taking steps today.
Cindy Farricker, MS, RD, CDE
Despite being a root vegetable, turnips are actually related to broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage and the mustards.
I like to pluck one out of the ground, wash it off with the garden hose and take a crisp, sweet, peppery bite right then and there. Turnips and their greens are high in Vitamin C.
To learn more about eating well and living the good life, visit www.beekman1802.com
