Tip of the Week: How to lighten-up store bought items

Does this sound familiar? You love tuna salad but hate the abundance of mayonnaise on the store-bought version, yet you are too lazy to make your own? Me too! This is what I do: I buy a cup or a pint of my favorite kind of Whole Foods tuna salad (Lemon-dill or Mediterranean - YUM) and then I pour it into a larger container and add a can or two of plain canned tuna packed in water. Then I stir it up and it becomes delicious low-mayo tuna salad that I can make 4 meals out of (I tend to stick to a half cup if I'm having it on grainy bread or crackers but go for closer to a cup on lettuce with chopped veggies). This actually saves money and calories! There are lots of ways you can stretch other items too: add plain lemon juice to store-bought organic oil and vinegar dressings (I recommend this over buying low-fat versions which often just have more sugar in place of the healthy oils), add chopped rotisserie chicken and apples or grapes to store-bought chicken salad, add chopped veggies to a pasta salad...you get the idea. Add, stretch and enjoy the feel of lightening your waist and your wallet!

Multi-tasking Whole Grains

Those words are everywhere! MULTI-GRAIN! WHOLE GRAIN! Once the new (and highly-flawed) USDA pyramid came out recommending more whole grains, every food maker from Kellog to Kraft slapped the words "contains whole grain" on their boxes. Never mind the fact that if it comes in a big box with pictures and promises of good health on it, it is highly processed and probably not healthy at all. Because of all the money poured into misleading marketing, there are a lot of otherwise smart people out there thinking that Cheerios are a fantastic source of whole grain. This is becoming a pet peeve of mine so I thought I would tell you about some truly amazing sources of whole grains. These are the type of carbohydrates you should be eating MORE of!

Cheerios have 3 g of fiber and 3 g of protein per serving PLUS the following: modfied corn starch, sugar, salt, tripotasium phosphate, oat fiber, wheat starch, vitamin e (mixed tocopherols) added to preserve freshness ...

These whole grains below, which are all as easy to cook as rice, have more fiber and protein per serving and none of the junk!

Pearled Barley: 8 g fiber, 5 g protein per serving!
Quinoa: 4 g fiber, 6 g protein per serving!
Kasha: 3 g fiber, 5 g protein per serving!
Wheatberries: 6 g fiber, 6 g protein per serving! These are my favorite - nutty, dense and delicious.

These are grains that multi-task and will give you great energy. You can find them at Whole Foods or any major health food store. Not sure how to cook them? Just google "how to cook quinoa." It really is that easy. Enjoy!