Healthy Mini-Muffins

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Dr. Irina

Why most people cannot keep a diet? Because they experience the dramatic change in consumed food, and can’t sustain that. You agree that replacing a buttery croissant with a celery stick is pretty challenging, and even thinking about that makes you depressed.

The replacement strategies should come into the scene here, to rescue you and your healthy efforts. When the replacement is equivalent and new meal is similar to the food you consumed for years, your life becomes much easier and a chance to success is much higher.

I made these mini-muffins to show you that healthy food may be delicious and fun!

Ingredients:

  • 1 can (25oz.) Natural Apple Sauce (no sugar added)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Divide the mixture into two portions to make 2 kinds of muffins:

Farmer cheese muffins

  • Add to the basic mixture 8-10 tablespoons of oatmeal flour
  • 2-3 tablespoons of Almond Meal (or almond flour)

Spoon batter into small muffin caps, filling each two-thirds full. Place  ½ teaspoon of 0% farmer cheese on top.

Walnuts and strawberry jam muffins

  • Add to the basic mixture 2-3 tablespoons of oatmeal flour
  • 8 tablespoons Almond Meal (or almond flour)
  • 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
  • Ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon

Spoon batter into small muffin caps, filling each half full. Place ½ teaspoon of 100% fruit strawberry jam on top, and cover with additional 1 teaspoon of muffin batter. Sprinkle with more ground cinnamon, if desired.

Bake in a 390*F oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden, and inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups for an hour.

Do you like the idea?

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Crispy Almonds-Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Dr. Irina

It’s Sunday! Decided to bake cookies, and healthy ones. Well…replaced the regular flour with Almonds and Oatmeal flour and here they are: crispy, flavorful and simply delicious. Try them either and enjoy your Sunday!

  • ½ cup almond flour
  • 9 tablespoons oatmeal flour
  • 5 table spoons pure fructose or Splenda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • 1 stick of margarine
  • 3-4 tablespoons cold water

In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients. Cut in margarine and chop by knife until the mixture resembles small crumbs. Gradually add cold water mixing the dough by hands.

Firm balls and place them 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet covered by baking paper. Flat them with folk.

Bake in a 380* oven about 8 minutes or until edges are set. After removing from the oven leave them on the baking sheet and let cool.

Almonds are one of the most nutritious of all nuts.

  • · The fat in almonds is unsaturated, or the “good” fat
  • · Contain calcium and magnesium – for strong bones
  • · Vitamin E, B2, phosphorus, copper and compounds called phytochemicals, which helps to protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer.
  • · Lower blood cholesterol level
  • · The GI of almonds is only 15, therefore they help to lose weight

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Eating Blueprint

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Dr. Irina

What is a Blueprint?  This is how it is described in the dictionary:

Blueprint:

1: a photographic print in white on a bright blue ground or blue on a white ground used especially for copying maps, mechanical drawings, and architects’ plans

2: something resembling a blueprint (as in serving as a model or providing guidance); especially: a detailed plan or program

For example, a house blueprint is a detailed plan or design for that particular building. It is created BEFORE the house physically built.

The same applies to our Personal Blueprint and Eating Blueprint. There is a particular design, a plan, an existed programming in our mind, which determines our behavior and our physical word.

Let’s admit it, we LOVE to eat. At least I do, for sure. We eat not because we just need a refill; we eat because we enjoy it. Nowadays, the variety of food products is huge and renewed endlessly. There are so many choices that I think we hardly have the time to taste even a fraction of the offerings in supermarkets. We all have our everyday preferences, plus we periodically buy new food according to a recipe or recent commercial.

We may not be conscious of it, but our preferences are dictated by our Eating Blueprint. Have you ever looked at other people’s shopping carts at the supermarket? It is interesting to see how differently people buy their food. Some shopping carts are full with pre-cooked packages, others with snacks, some overloaded with cookies, bagels, ice cream and waffles; you can also recognize fish lovers, meat loves or vegetarians. Where those preferences are coming from? They come from people’s Eating Blueprints.

Have you ever thought of YOUR Eating Blueprint?


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Zucchini Latkes

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Dr. Irina

Enjoy the traditional Hanukkah dish, modified in a healthy way!

  • 3 grated zucchini
  • ½ cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • About 2/3 cup of oatmeal flour (to get a “sour cream texture”)

Grate zucchini on a big grater, press them a little bit to remove a juice.

Add all other ingredients and stir well. Let mixture stand for at least 30 minutes. You can also keep the batter in a refrigerator up to 6-8 hours and cook latkes later.

Preheat a pan on medium heat. Take one tablespoon of the batter and cook it on the olive oil for about 1-2 minutes each side.

Serve warm with 0% Greek yogurt if desired.

The recipe doesn’t contain high Glycemic Index carbohydrates and saturated fats.

And…simply delicious!

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Low Carbohydrates Nutrition Prevents Cancer

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Dr. Irina

Researchers at Genesis Prevention Center at University Hospital in South Manchester, England, found that restricting carbohydrates two days per week may be a better dietary approach than a standard, daily calorie-restricted diet for preventing breast cancer and other diseases, but they said further study is needed.

“Weight loss and reduced insulin levels are required for breast cancer prevention, but [these levels] are difficult to achieve and maintain with conventional dietary approaches,” said Michelle Harvie, Ph.D., SRD, a research dietician at the Genesis Prevention Center, who presented the findings at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.

Harvie and her colleagues compared three diets during four months for effects on weight loss and blood markers of breast cancer risk among 115 women with a family history of breast cancer. They randomly assigned patients to one of the following diets: a calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate diet for two days per week; an “ad lib” low-carbohydrate diet in which patients were permitted to eat unlimited protein and healthy fats, such as lean meats, olives and nuts, also for two days per week; and a standard, calorie-restricted daily Mediterranean diet for seven days per week.

Data revealed that both intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets were superior to the standard, daily Mediterranean diet in reducing weight, body fat and insulin resistance. Mean reduction in weight and body fat was roughly 4 kilograms (about 9 pounds) with the intermittent approaches compared with 2.4 kilograms (about 5 pounds) with the standard dietary approach. Insulin resistance reduced by 22 percent with the restricted low-carbohydrate diet and by 14 percent with the “ad lib” low-carbohydrate diet compared with 4 percent with the standard Mediterranean diet.

“It is interesting that the diet that only restricts carbohydrates but allows protein and fats is as effective as the calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate diet,” Harvie said.

She and her colleagues plan to further study carbohydrate intake and breast cancer.

Source: http://www.aacr.org

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Impress your family with this new and delicious stuffing

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Dr. Irina

Who told that Holidays should bring us extra pounds? Not anymore! This turkey stuffing does not contain  ‘bad carbs’ and delicious!

  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 1 pound of ground chicken
  • 2 big onions
  • 5 celery sticks
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 green pepper
  • 2 bunches of scallions
  • 6 gloves of garlic
  • 1 Smoked sausages
  • 1 can (6oz.) of tomato paste
  • 1 can (6.5 oz.) of sliced ripe olives
  • Salt and black pepper

Olive oil for cooking

Cut onions and cook them on olive oil. Add meat and cook for 5 minutes stirring with a wooden spatula. Cut all other ingredients and add them in sequence to the pan, while continuing stirring and cooking.

This is it! Total cooking time is only 20 minutes – quick, easy and no bad carbs!

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Chocolate Mousse

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Dr. Irina

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons of instant coffee
  • 11oz. dark chocolate with 70% cacao
  • 2 fl oz. Coffee flavored Brandy
  • 1 orange
  • 2-3 table spoons of fresh orange juice
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 pinch of salt

Make a 1/3 cup of coffee using the instant coffee.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate, coffee and brandy. Stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick and smooth. Remove from the double boiler.

Grate the orange zest, using only the surface part of the peel. Put half the zest in the chocolate and mix.

Separate the eggs and put the yolks in a large salad bowl. Whip the whites until stiff, and add 1 pinch of salt.

Pour the melted chocolate into a salad bowl with the yolks. Mix well.

Add orange juice and whites gradually, stirring gently.

Fill individual dessert dishes, sprinkle with the rest of the orange zest and chill for at least 6 hours.

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Sweet Memories Apple-Cranberry Cake

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Dr. Irina

You are willing to keep your ideal weight, but missing a flavor of warm apple cake? Not a problem at all. This upside-down country style cake will satisfy your appetite, your memories, and will keep you slim.

4 big apples of your choice cut into thin lobes
½ cup fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Batter:
4 eggs
½ cup pure fructose or Splenda
2/3 cup oatmeal flour
1/3 cup sprouted flour
1teaspoon baking powder

Cover round cake pan with a baking paper; arrange layers of apples and cranberries. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, stir in fructose (or Splenda) and beat another 2 minutes. Add flour and baking powder and stir gently. Pour batter over apples and cranberries.

Bake in 360*F for 35-40 minutes, or until inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean.

By pulling the baking paper remove the cake from the pan. Place it upside-down on the plate and take out the baking paper.

You can now sprinkle it with more cinnamon, and serve warm or cold.

So, what do you think?

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Your Super Self

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Dr. Irina

I can’t wait to share with you a couple of new paragraphs from my book “Taste of Thoughts”

“In everyday life we usually use a term ‘Self Esteem’. We may talk that “her Self Esteem is high” and that’s why she is happily married, or that “ his Self Esteem is low” and that’s why he got involved with wrong people.

In fact, the Self Esteem is only one component of your Super Self. There are other two: Self Image and Self Confidence.
• Self Image describes what we THINK about ourselves
• Self Esteem describes what we FEEL about ourselves
• Self Confidence is how we ACT

What is the taste of your thoughts?
• Health and happiness or fear of diseases and failure?
• Happy relationships or “it is not for me, I am not worthy”
• Abundance or fear of poverty?
• Do you love yourself or you don’t?
• Are you proud of yourself or feel guilty?
• Are you the best or not worthy?

Thoughts, Feelings and Actions are our Inner world, our Super Self. The more SUPER we think, feel and act, the more SUPER our results”

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your experience,
Dr. Irina.

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Hurricane IRENE

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Dr. Irina

Today is a scary day in New England. My namesake hurricane IRENE was pretty strong. I spent all day at home listening to that crazy rain and wind outside. Since I was living so many years in Israel, I know how to be prepared for disaster. I packed my emergency bag with all my diplomas, passport and computer hard drives. That’s it. When you think about hurricane – nothing has more value except of those simple things. Seriously, this is it. We need to think more about that and be grateful for everything we have NOW.
Looks like my IRENE is calmed down now. She brought me a huge fallen tree in by backyard (thanks God not on my roof, otherwise I wouldn’t writing this post now) and three edited chapters of my upcoming book ‘Taste of Thoughts’.
It was a really productive day, and it is still not over. Maybe I’ll edit chapter 4 this evening. I am SO excited about my upcoming book, and IRENE helped me to speed it up. Thank you IRENE and thank you the UNIVERSE!

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