Bacon Explosion Recipe - Heart Attack Waiting to Happen

A big hit on the internet is a heart attack waiting to happen!

Photo Credit: BBQ Addicts

Superbowl 2009 is a couple of days away, so I totally get that some appetizer recipes are going to be circulating around the internet right about now. But the New York Times took note of one that's over the top. The big one this year comes to us from the BBQ Addicts website and it's so fatty it makes the Bloomin' Onion from The Outback seem like diet food. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but when I saw the picture of this Bacon Explosion appetizer with layers of bacon and fatty Italian sausage all rolled up, it really did look like an artery filled with plaque to me. I may not have been so far off...

Photo Credit: BBQ Addicts

There are 4 ingredients to this recipe, half of which are two of the fattiest, highest saturated fat foods you could put on your plate-bacon and sausage.

I figured the 2 pounds of bacon, 2 pounds of Italian sausage; jar of barbeque sauce and jar of barbeque rub would make 16 appetizer servings which means each appetizer serving contains:

506 calories
43.5 g fat
15 g saturated fat
82 mg cholesterol
15 g protein
13 g carbohydrate
1263 mg sodium

But if you are interested in making a lighter mini version of the Bacon Explosion (let's call it "Bacon - Save Your Life- Appetizer"), check out the following recipe that you can make in your oven and that contains half of the calories and 2/3rds less fat, and saturated fat compared to the Bacon Explosion.

Mini Bacon-Save Your-Life Appetizer

Ingredients:

12-ounce package Louis Rich turkey bacon (or similar)
1 tablespoon favorite
barbeque rub or spice blend
12 ounces Jimmy Dean Reduced Fat Pork Sausage
(or similar)
1/2 cup favorite barbeque sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees and line a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with foil.
2. Create a square of woven turkey bacon slices by laying 5 slices of turkey bacon on a flat surface from north to south and 5 more from east to west then create a tight weave of turkey bacon.
3. Sprinkle a teaspoon or two of your favorite barbecue seasoning on top of your bacon weave. Fry up the remaining turkey bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels then crumble the slices into smaller pieces; set aside.
4. Unwrap your package of light sausage and stretch out the sausage to create layers so it covers the bacon weave, leaving one row of bacon uncovered at one end.
5. Take the crumbled pieces of bacon and sprinkle them evenly over the layer of sausage. Drizzle the barbecue sauce all over the bacon pieces. You can sprinkle some more barbecue rub (a teaspoon or two) over the top of this if desired.
6. Carefully separate the front edge of the sausage layer from the bacon weave and begin rolling up the sausage with the bacon filling, Once the sausage is all rolled up, pinch together the seams and ends to seal all of the bacon goodness inside. Now roll the sausage forward completely wrapping it in the turkey bacon weave. Set the rolled up turkey bacon and sausage roll into the prepared loaf pan (it will just barely fit).
7. Sprinkle some barbecue seasoning on the outside of the bacon weave roll if desired. Cover the loaf pan with foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Uncover the dish and continue to bake until the sausage is cooked throughout and the bacon weave on the outside is dark brown (about 10 to 15 minutes more). Let the bacon roll rest for 10 minutes. You can brush a couple of tablespoons of barbecue sauce over the outside of the roll if desired.
8. Cut with serrated knife into 8 or more slices. Serve this by itself as an appetizer or serve it with whole wheat crackers or sliced baguette bread.

Yield: This mini version makes about 8 appetizers.

Nutritional Analysis per serving: 220 calories, 12 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 15 g fat, 4.4 g saturated fat, 59 mg cholesterol, 930 mg sodium.

Photos reproduced with permission from the BBQ Addicts.

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• Super-Fast and Easy Appetizer Recipes
• 10 Foods that Are Health Horrors
• Get the Healthy Recipes Newsletter delivered to your inbox!

Fat Bashing...Do You Participate?

I had two sisters, was a dancer as my sport, became a dietitian which is a mostly female profession, only to become the mother of two teen girls who spend a lot of their time at a dance studio. You could say I've been around a lot of women. One thing is for sure, when swimming in estrogen-infested waters, some women like to trash talk themselves in front of other women. I guess some call it "fat talk" and they even like to "discuss" other peoples bodies too. And it doesn't seem to matter what age the women are, even in their 40's they are spending time talking about physical appearance.

You know what fat talk sounds like, right?

"I had such a fun weekend but now I'm paying the price...my jeans are so tight." "I wish I could wear a swimsuit like you-but I would look like a beached whale."

Some women skip the fat talk and go straight to the pounds.

"I can't believe I gained 2 pounds on vacation!" "I have to lose 2 pounds by Friday."

Granted kids are walking around in leotards and such at the dance studio but some mothers like to comment on the teens bodies too. When my oldest daughter was going through puberty, her "thinner" body seemed to be a popular topic of conversation. And I'm asked occasionally if my other daughter (who is naturally a bit more curvacious) has "lost weight." I usually answer, "I don't think so-we don't have a scale in our house and she's not trying to."

Then there are the women who tend to talk about diets or dieting what seems like 24/7. They always know what the latest diet book is. They can tell you which celebrity women have gone on which diet without skipping a beat.

You know what I tend to do when women around me start bashing their bodies, pondering pounds, or dishing about dieting? I just walk away. I don't participate in it. I don't try to convert people to the "love your body" camp. I just walk away. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've been in that circle plenty of times before telling women, "you look great!" or sharing post baby weight gain stories.

I would like to think I've moved beyond this. There are more important things in life to talk about with your girlfriends. It's simply not good for women. This doesn't feed our hearts and souls to participate in fat talk and it's certainly not good for children who might be within earshot of this sadly socially acceptable body bashing.

If you feel the same way I do, then next time the women around you start talking the talk, boycott the bashing and just walk away or politely change the subject to something that truly matters. The truth is "fit and healthy" comes in all shapes and sizes and thank goodness we all look different.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Being Big and Fit: Is it Healthy?
• Study Gives the Skinny on 'Fit and Fat'
• Obese and Healthy?

Beauty Comes In All Shapes & Sizes

I met this lovely woman a couple of months ago while we were both about to go on a television show in San Francisco. Her name is Rosanne Olson and she is the author of the book, This Is Who I Am: Our Beauty in All Shapes and Sizes. I saw her holding the book closely as we were both nervously sitting on the cozy couch in the "green room" and couldn't help but notice the woman on the cover was, well...not wearing any clothing. That instantly got us talking about the meaning of her photograph-rich book - women celebrating themselves and their differences and their life journeys. Music to my ears!

I was even more fascinated to hear that each woman profiled and photographed in the book (all without clothing) had unique struggles and experiences. One of the women was a breast cancer survivor, another a survivor of domestic violence, and another battled an eating disorder. The women who participated in the book shared their raw and honest stories because they believe women need to combat the rigid "body fascism" perpetuated in magazines and movies, and they hoped their stories and photographs would help other women - and men - find the real beauty in their own selves. Again, music to my ears!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all loved ourselves no matter what our size and shape? Wouldn't it be wonderful if all women felt beautiful inside and out? Maybe then some women would stop criticizing the looks of other women? I love one of the quotes in the book; it comes from Barbara who is 51. "I love being comfortable in my body. It has a certain grace that is distinctively mine."

Related Topics:

• Love Your Body Inside and Out
• Moms, Kids, and Body Image

Taste Test Tuesday: Cheddar Chex

100 Calorie Snack Pouches

In bright red letters you see, "70% less fat" in big print on the package of 100-calorie Cheddar Chex snack pouches. Then underneath that in smaller print you see, "than regular potato chips."

One pouch of this snack won't get you too far if you are extremely hungry, but it will be a nice sideline to a healthful sandwich or quick nibble when you just need something tasty to munch on. To be honest, I was hoping for maybe two grams of fiber per pouch but alas, it adds up to 1 gram. Also be forewarned that there are quite a few food-coloring additives in this product, courtesy of the orange powder posing as cheddar flavoring.

If you want to limit the packaging involved with this product, you can buy it in a big bag instead of pouches. Just pour what you need into a small snack bag (for lunch bags) or in a small bowl (for snacks).

The first 4 ingredients:

Degermed yellow corn meal
Whole wheat
Vegetable oil (soybean, canola and/or rice bran)
Sugar

1 Pouch = 100 calories, 2 g protein, 18 g carbohydrate, 2.5 g fat, .5 g saturated fat, 0 g trans, 1 g fiber, 170 mg sodium. 22.5% calories from fat

Related Topics:

• Quick Tips: Making Healthy Snacks - Get started
• The Smart Way to Snack

Designer Hot Cocoa

Two fun flavors you can make at home!

Hot cocoa is a favorite evening beverage in the Magee house during the winter months, so I came up with a couple of twists on this old favorite…one for the whole family (Peppermint Twist) and one just for the grown ups (Tiramisu Hot Cocoa). You can use a hot cocoa powder, such as Moonstruck American Hot Cocoa which has the cocoa already blended with powdered sugar, or you can stir 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa together with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar in a small cup, which you then stir into the warmed milk.

Photo: Elaine Magee

Peppermint Twist Cocoa (a great way to use leftover candy canes)

Ingredients:

1 cup (8 ounces 1% lowfat milk (or similar)
1/4 cup hot cocoa powder (cocoa and powdered sugar), such as Moonstruck American Hot Cocoa
1 smidgen mint extract (there are measuring spoons available that measure a "smidgen")
1 candy cane stirrer (optional)

Preparation:

1. In microwaveable mug, warm milk up until nicely hot (usually about 1 minute on high).
2. Stir in the hot cocoa powder and mint extract.
3. Serve with a candy cane for a stirrer!

Yield: Makes 1 serving

Photo: Elaine Magee

Tiramisu Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:

1 cup (8 ounces) 1% lowfat milk (or similar)
1/4 cup hot cocoa powder (cocoa and powdered sugar)
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2 teaspoons rum
Ladyfinger cookie

Preparation:

1. In microwaveable mug, warm milk up until nicely hot (usually about 1 minute on high).
2. Stir in the hot cocoa powder, espresso powder and rum.
3. Serve with a ladyfinger cookie for garnish!

Yield: Makes 1 serving

Related Topics:

• WebMD Slideshow: This History of Chocolate in Photos
• Health by Chocolate

Lightening Up The Inaugural Luncheon

White House Chef Meets the WebMD Recipe Doctor

Are you surprised that the most visited page on the official inaugural website was the Inaugural Luncheon Menu & Recipes? We are, after all, a nation of kitchen voyeurs who have made countless chefs and cooks celebrities. If millions of interested Americans can't physically be one of the 200 guests attending the luncheon, maybe they feel like they can at least eat the same dishes that were served...which by the way were apparently fashioned after dishes favored by Abe Lincoln. This was done in tribute to the bicentennial of the birth of the 16th president of the United States. Can't argue with that!

But glancing at the luncheon recipes, I couldn't help but notice how making some small ingredient changes could translate into BIG savings in calories, fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. So humor me a little here and let's take a look at some of the menu changes I would have made if the Inaugural Luncheon Committee had dialed "Recipe Doctor 9-1-1."

First Course: Seafood Stew
Bring on all the seafood - lobsters, scallops, shrimp, and black cod. Loving all the vegetables too - carrots, celery, leeks, potato. But there are two ingredients in this recipe that could single-handedly undo any health benefits from the seafood and veggies:

• Heavy cream
• Puff pastry

Each serving of the Seafood Stew contains .4 cup of heavy cream, which translates into:

328 calories
35 grams total fat
22 grams saturated fat
130 milligrams cholesterol

WOW! But if we switch to whole milk or fat free half and half, each .4 cup now contributes: about 58 calories, 1 to 3 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 5 to 10 milligrams cholesterol.

And each serving of the puff pastry adds:

239 calories
17 grams total fat
3.7 grams saturated fat
129 milligrams cholesterol

Actually we could eliminate this ingredient completely (the stew is served in a ramekin and the puff pastry is baked on top of the stew) and top the stew instead with a nice mixture of panko crumbs, fresh herbs and shredded Parmesan.

For a grand total savings of:

509 calories
50 grams total fat
25 grams saturated fat
249 milligrams cholesterol per serving!

Second Course: Duck Breast with Cherry Chutney
I love how lots of flavors are coming from wonderful ingredients like garlic, shallot, cumin, Dijon mustard, red bell pepper, etc. And I'm digging that 1 tablespoon of olive oil (high in the preferable monounsaturated fat) was chosen to sauté the vegetables. And then we come to the featured fowl - duck breasts WITH skin. Duck is already a fairly rich and oily meat so why would they feel inclined to include the skin, which is where roughly half of all the fat is? Don't answer that - I already know what you are all going to say.

You can shave off all kinds of calories and fat just by taking off the skin before cooking. It depends on the type of duck used, but just by taking off the skin you could potentially save (per serving):

150 calories
13 grams total fat
6 grams saturated fat
10 milligrams cholesterol

The duck is served with a side of Winter Vegetables featuring a lovely assortment of veggies doused in butter and twice as much olive oil. Each serving of vegetables comes with almost 1/2 tablespoon of butter and almost 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I think we can get away with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cooking fat total! The butter (4 tablespoons total) is blended with orange zest and is used to top the carrots and wax beans. We can keep the orange zest, switch to whipped butter and drop down to 1 1/2 tablespoons total or 1/2 teaspoon per serving. Then we'll drop the olive down from almost 9 tablespoons to 3 tablespoons total or 1 teaspoon per serving.

Add these savings to the skinless duck savings and you've got a grand total savings of:

245 calories
23 grams fat
8 grams saturated fat
18 milligrams cholesterol per serving!

Note: Another side dish served with the second course is Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes. The recipe is abundantly flavored and sweetened with orange juice, molasses, and maple syrup, so they probably technically don't need the 2 tablespoons of butter called for in the recipe. But since the recipe makes 16 servings (1/2-cup each), the savings aren't going to be that big per serving. That would just be nutritional knit picking.

Third Course: Cinnamon Apple Sponge Cake
This wasn't what I expected when I read the recipe name. This is a complicated dish that includes pieces of brioche bread dipped in a total of 14 tablespoons butter (for 10 servings) used to line individual serving molds. A homemade apple filling made with 4 tablespoons butter is at the center of the individual sponge cake and then a stovetop caramel apple sauce is drizzled over the cake and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Here's the thing...given our last two courses, I'm thinking we can lose the sponge cake altogether and go straight to a nice scoop of light vanilla ice cream topped with that stove top caramel apple sauce.

I'm including a recipe for a lighter version of their recipe using double the amount of diced apples sautéed in 1 tablespoon of whipped butter (instead of regular) and tossed into half the amount of caramel sauce. I added 2 tablespoons of lowfat milk to help cream up and thin out the thick caramel sauce too.

Do this, and we save a grand total of:

662 calories
36 grams fat
21 grams saturated fat
120 milligrams cholesterol per serving!
(And this doesn't even include the brioche bread!)

Inaugural Inspired Cinnamon Apple Ice Cream Treat

Ingredients:

1/2 cup caramel sauce (store bought ice cream topping)
2 tablespoons lowfat milk or fat free half and half
1 tablespoon whipped butter
2 1/4 cups granny smith apples, cored, diced small
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5, 1/2-cup servings of light vanilla ice cream

Directions:

1. In 2-cup measure of small bowl, combine caramel sauce and lowfat milk using whisk or spoon. Set aside.
2. In medium nonstick saucepan, begin to melt whipped butter over medium-high heat. Stir in the diced apples, granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Continue cooking until the apples are lightly browned (about 4 minutes). Remove saucepan from heat and stir in the caramel sauce mixture.
3. Add a 1/2-cup scoop of light vanilla ice cream to five dessert dishes and top each with a nice spoon of the warm cinnamon apple topping.

Yield: Makes 5 servings
Nutrition Information: Per serving (using light vanilla ice cream): 230 calories, 4 g protein, 42 g carbohydrate, 5 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 22 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 176 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 20 percent.

Related Topics:

• The Obamas: First Couple of Fitness
• Diet Tools and Tips Board
• Healthy Cooking: Elaine Magee, RD

Taste Test Tuesday: Fiber One Toaster Pastry

Well, it's finally happened...pop-tarts have gone whole grain! Well, not all of them, but now if you want your toaster pastry to contribute 5 grams of fiber (3 from soluble fiber), you have an option - Fiber One Toaster Pastries.

I found two flavors in my supermarket, brown sugar cinnamon and strawberry, but there is also blueberry. Whole grain wheat flour is the first ingredient with water as the second and corn syrup as the third. Sugar is the fourth item listed in the ingredient list with high fructose corn syrup as the fifth and vegetable oil (palm, canola) as the sixth. That sure sounds like a lot of sugar to me and with 16 grams of sugar per pastry, it comes to 33.5% calories from sugar.

1 pastry =

190 calories
4 grams protein
36 grams carbohydrate
34% calories from
sugar
4 grams fat
1 gram saturated fat (0 trans fat)
5 grams fiber
140 mg sodium

How did it taste?
I'm used to whole grain everything so I hardly noticed they were packed with fiber and that the pastry looked more "brown" than usual. The brown sugar cinnamon flavor was definitely on the sweet side and would probably satisfy most pop tart-loving teens.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Helping Your Kids Eat a Healthy Breakfast
• The Most Important Meal of the Day

A Healthy Use for Your Cookie Jars!

Got cookie jars? If you happen to be looking for a great use for cookie jars that you want to keep on your kitchen counter but you don't exactly keep copious cookies around...I've got a healthy use for your cookie jars.

Convert your cookie jars into tea jars!

Photo Credit: Elaine Magee

It's a great way to keep an assortment of tea bags conveniently located near your stove where you boil your water. This year I handed some winter cookie jars filled with an assortment of tea bags to a few of my friends and they loved it (at least that's what they said). You can make them more "gifty" by wrapping them up in cellophane and adding colorful ribbon. Here's a photo of the cookie jars I gave to my friends this holiday.

Drinking more green tea is a great New Year's resolution too for two reasons, the health benefits (from the antioxidant phytochemicals in tea) and the fact that if you are drinking tea, you are less likely to be drinking something with calories like soda!

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Green Tea for the Skin
• Green Tea Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
• Green Tea Puts Sleep Apnea Woes to Bed?

"Other" Carbohydrates On the Label

What Does It Mean, Exactly?

One of the WebMD visitors on my Healthy Cooking community board posted a great question:

"I'm a diabetic (type 2) and I need some information about total carbohydrates and what does it mean when the label says "other carbohydrates"?

I know all of these terms can be so confusing. Basically the total carbohydrates includes everything and then some labels will break that out into subgroups like:

• Fiber grams (this is not digested and will eventually exit the body)


• Sugar grams (includes natural sugars too in dairy, fruits, etc.)


• "Other carb" grams

You'll find that these three often add up to the grams of total carbohydrate. The category "other carbs" represents the digestible carbohydrate that is not considered a sugar (natural or otherwise). Some labels will also break out sugar alcohols. I always take a look for these because they give me intestinal issues even at low levels. But that's another story (LOL).

For anyone with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, feel free to check out the third edition of my book for type 2 diabetes (it just came out in November), titled, TELL ME WHAT TO EAT IF I HAVE DIABETES. I incorporated the "latest" research from the past 5 years into it!

Related Topics:

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs: Why Carbohydrates Matter to You

Eating Carbohydrates and Fiber With Diabetes

Is the NEW "Green Pan" ™ Worth Trying?

Photo Credit: Elaine Magee

With the amount of cooking I do, I've blown through quite a few nonstick frying pans in my day. So, the new grey colored non-stick frying pan, called the "Green Pan" caught my eye on a recent shopping trek to Target.

The packaging states that these pans use "THERMOLON" nonstick coating which is PTFE-Free and is manufactured PFOA-free - two chemicals the planet is better off without. It proudly states that it will significantly reduce your carbon footprint! As many things these days, it is made in China but was designed by teams in Belgium and the US.

The first few weeks I was using the GreenPan I was a happy camper (or cooker) but I know enough to know a cook and her pan needs to get past the "honeymoon phase," as I like to call it, to really know if a non-stick pan is going to work out in the long run. I did notice that food seemed to cook faster with the Green Pan which helps cut down on energy use I would think (another way the pan is "green.")

I did some homework on the product website and noticed they did not recommend using cooking sprays, due to the tendency to leave a residue on the pan, so I used a little bit of canola or olive oil (straight from the bottle) when using the pan. Nothing stuck to the surface the first few weeks, but ironically I found the pan really needs a bit of oil to keep the surface "nonstick." As I was going into the second month with the green pan, I noticed that little bits of food started sticking to the pan. Cleaning the pan involved an increasing amount of soaking time and elbow grease and a light brown residue had permanently attached itself to my formerly beautiful and appealing light grey pan.

At this point, a slightly frustrated Elaine combed their product website (www.green-pan.com) for information on cleaning the residue or preventing the residue but came up short. If there was a phone number I would have called it (even if it went to Belgium) anxiously hoping for advice. I really wanted to love this new light grey colored "green" pan!

On the up side, it appears to be recyclable! I will continue to use this pan and see how much farther I get with it but I'm hoping future generations of the "green pan" will have figured out how to resist residue and to stay as nonstick as it did those first glorious few weeks!

Related Topics:

• 8 Ways to Go 'Green' in Your Kitchen
• Going Green: Eco-Friendly Tips & Advice

Taste Test Tuesday: Promise Activ Super Shots

You'll find these mini plastic bottles in the yogurt section of your supermarket. They are packaged in groups of four shots. I knew the shots contained a good-sized dose of plant sterols (the ones used in Promise Take Control margarine which have been clinically proven to help lower serum cholesterol) but I also expected them to contain some probiotics...based on the "activ" part of the name, "Promise Activ Super Shots." Alas, after studying the packaging in detail, I didn't find any evidence that a probiotic is added to this product. I didn't even find the "contains active cultures" reassurance statement on the packaging.

How much plant sterols?
Each shot contains 2 grams of plant sterols, which is a little bit more than the 1.7 grams that a tablespoon of Promise Activ margarine (formerly Take Control) contributes.

And don't get too excited about the fact that it contains some plant omega-3s (ALA); each shot contains .150 grams of omega-3s and 1.3 grams of omega-6. I have a better ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 with some of the new higher omega-3 eggs.

First 7 ingredients:
Water, cultured nonfat milk, red raspberry puree, sugar, plant sterol esters, canola oil, and pectin

1 Raspberry Super Shot bottle (100 ml) =

70 calories
1 g protein
8 g carbohydrate (8 g sugars)
3.5 g fat (0 g saturated fat)
0 mg cholesterol
less than 1 g fiber
25 mg sodium

How did it taste?
The raspberry has a nice flavor that isn't too sweet (which reminds me - it does contain the alternative sweetener sucralose).

If you are in the market to supplement your diet with some plant sterols, this offers you a tasty and convenient alternative to the margarine. I am personally much more likely to enjoy a shot of raspberry yogurt drink than a tablespoon of light margarine. If they could add some probiotics to this shot drink (maybe probiotics thought to enhance immunity or help the gastro-intestinal tract) I would be killing two birds with one stone!

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Bacteria That's Good for You?
• The New Low-Cholesterol Diet