Change your mind about grapefruit with this recipe!

Some varieties of grapefruit are sweeter than others. However, you can improve the flavor of any grapefruit by adding just a touch of natural sweetener and doing a little baking.

This recipe adds a bit of maple syrup or honey but not enough to rack up the calories. In fact, each 1/2 grapefruit serving will have approximately 70 calories. How’s that for a low calorie nutritious addition to a breakfast?

Grapefruit is a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It’s also refreshingly juicy and fun to eat when you are not in a rush. You can easily keep one or two on hand all the time because they can be stored in the fruit bin of your refrigerator for as long as 6 to 8 weeks.

Baked Grapefruit

Ingredients for 2 servings

1 grapefruit

2 tsp. maple syrup or honey

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Cut the grapefruit in half around the “mid-section”

2. Loosen the sections with a small paring knife or grapefruit knife if you have one

3. Drizzle just a teaspoon of maple syrup or honey on each half.

4. Top with cinnamon.

5. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes.

Wonderful! The warmed up juices have just a touch of sweetness and no more tartness or possible bitterness.

Approximate nutrition per serving:

Total calories: 70

1418 I.U. of Vitamin A

38.8 mg Vitamin C

2.6 grams of dietary fiber

18.4 total grams of carbohydrates

NOTE: The original source of this recipe is Food.com. 2011 Details have been slightly modified for this post.

Smoothies are wonderful BUT are you making the best choice when it comes to calories and nutrition?

Berries and Buttermilk Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup low fat buttermilk (about 100-120 calories)

1 medium ripe banana fresh or frozen

1/2 cup frozen berries of choice (blueberries or strawberries work well)

1/2 -1 tsp. vanilla extract

All you need to do is add all the ingredients to a blender or small food processor and blend. Couldn’t be easier. The recipe makes just enough for one very filling serving.

Take a look at the approximate nutrition breakdown:

Total Calories: 282

Total Fat: 4 grams

(Saturated Fat: 2.5 grams)

Dietary Fiber: 5 grams

Protein: 10.3 grams

Carbohydrate: 51 grams

Sugars: 34 grams

Calcium: 305 mg

The carbohydrate and sugar count is high, however, the source is all natural with no added sugars. You’ll get two servings of fruit along with the accompanying nutrients and antioxidants plus one serving of milk. To increase the protein a bit you could opt to add a small amount of whey protein powder.

This smoothie is enough for a full meal for breakfast or otherwise. It’s surprisingly good. Give it a try!

Discover just how good vegetables can be!

That’s what I love about roasted vegetables. They’re easy to prepare if you have plenty of time for roasting or they can be prepared ahead of time and then simply reheated when you are ready to serve. This is particularly helpful midweek when time may be at a premium or you’re feeling tired and stressed after a long day of work.

You can roast just about any veggie but roasting works particularly well with root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and carrots. However, you might also enjoy broccoli, summer squash, winter squash, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower and others.

Here’s what you need to do. First preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then wash the vegetables and then cut them into even sized pieces. I like to cut bite size pieces because that makes them easy to eat. Depending on the size of something such as mushrooms they could be left whole.

You’ll also want to consider how fast the vegetables will cook. The heavier or denser root vegetables and winter squash may take longer to cook (depending on the size of the pieces) than say broccoli, summer squash, cauliflower, or brussel sprouts.

You could choose to cut the denser veggies such as the potatoes a bit smaller than the others. Or roast them on separate baking sheets and get the denser vegetables started first.

When all the vegetables are cut, toss them with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Then sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Over time you can experiment with adding other seasonings.

Layer the olive oil coated veggies on a roasting pan in a single layer. Avoid having the veggies be too crowded. Having a little space around each piece allows for greater browning to occur. Total roasting time will be vary between 30 minutes and 1 hour depending on what you are cooking.

When the veggies are about half done (15-30 minutes) stir them well on the baking tray to redistribute and expose all sides to the heat. When the veggies begin to brown give them a taste to see how they are coming along. Some people like crispy roasted vegetables and others prefer just barely soft.

Easy don’t you think? Roasted vegetables can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Serve them as a snack, as a side with a main dish, or let these veggies be a main dish in and of themselves when served over a whole grain such as whole wheat couscous, brown rice, or quinoa.

Get creative to avoid having the same old same tuna!

Start out by making tuna fish salad with a twist. The secret ingredient is curry powder. This spice adds lots of good flavor and that in turn allows you to save calories by cutting back on the mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

1 can Albacore Tuna (white meat) ~130 calories

1Tbsp. Low Fat Mayonnaise ~15 calories

1/2 tsp. curry powder ~ 3 calories

Break up the tuna into small pieces with a fork. Add all the ingredients to a small bowl and mix well.

This mixture will make enough tuna for 2 sandwiches. (~74 calories per serving without the bread)

Now if you’d like to jazz up the tuna fish mixture a bit and make a more interesting sandwich, I recommend you add a couple of toppings. First start out with a low calorie sandwich thin (whole wheat by Arnold, Pepperidge Farm, and other companies) if you’d like to minimize your calorie intake. Otherwise look for a freshly made whole grain bread for extra flavor.

Spread tuna fish on each piece of bread. Sprinkle with a little Reduced Fat Shredded Mexican 4 Cheese Blend or other reduced fat cheese (2 Tbsp. total or one tbsp. for each slice). Now bake or broil in a toaster oven for just a little while till the cheese begins to melt. Top each sandwich half with some avocado slices (~1/4 small to medium avocado, which would be about 70 calories depending on the size of the avocado).

If you follow the ingredient amounts and use a low calorie sandwich thin, then the total calorie count for this meal (two slices of bread, each slice topped with tuna fish, cheese, and avocado) comes to approximately 300-350 calories or so.

I like this sandwich. It’s easy to make and tasty. Plus it has lots of protein, dietary fiber, and some healthy fat. Hope you like it too!

For about 315 calories you will have a protein, calcium, and fiber rich meal. If you’re making the smoothie for breakfast serve with a clementine to bring the total count for the meal to only 355. You’ll be rounding out your meal with some additional dietary fiber and adding a  great source of vitamin C. All of this will keep you feeling full and satisfied for quite some time.

Low Cal Peanut Butter Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 container non-fat Greek Yogurt (5.3 oz.)

1.5 Tbsp. Peanut Butter

1 medium chopped apple without the skin

1/2 cup nonfat milk (skim milk)

Process in a blender or food processor and enjoy!

Calories and Nutrition for a Smoothie plus one clementine:

~355 calories

~24 grams of protein

~5 grams of dietary fiber

~276 mg of calcium

~92 mg of vitamin C

If you prefer to cut back a little on the smoothie calories you might choose to not add the skim milk and add ice cubes instead. You’ll reduce the calorie count a little (about 40-45 calories) and still have a protein rich meal. About 20 grams protein total instead of 24. However, you’ll also reduce the calcium by a significant amount. A half cup of skim milk has about 150 mg of calcium.

If you find the smoothie to not be sweet enough, you might add a small amount of the natural sweetener stevia.

NOTE: Including a carton of nonfat Greek Yogurt (instead of regular nonfat plain yogurt) is a great way to have a high protein smoothie without the need for adding powdered whey protein. Plus you have the added benefit of getting the additional nutrients such as calcium.

Enjoy!