February 21, 2011
10-Second Recipes: Better Beverages Boost Savings and Health

(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)

By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking  at Creators Syndicate

Unfortunately, drinking too much isn't a habit that only adults have. When it comes to all beverages - from seemingly healthful juices to sugar-filled soda pop  - nutritionists say everyone from infants to seniors is overdosing. The American Dietetic Association, among other heavyweights, has dubbed empty calories from imbibing one of the top reasons for the obesity epidemic among both children and adults. There are 10-second solutions to this crisis that improve flavor, nutrition and savings (by often stretching the use of the primary ingredients). Whether it is an omission of one ingredient, addition of another less expensive and healthful one or simply trimming portion sizes, there is a fountain of quick, imaginative fixes both you and your kids probably will love.

Homemade oat milk, for instance, is quick and economical, as well as thick and creamy. Pomegranate seeds are a nutrition-packed innovative way to replace bulkier juice in sensational smoothies. Soda can morph into ice cubes to flavor iced green or herbal teas. Quick store-bought enhanced products are also at your fingertips: The Trop50 brand from Tropicana began with a water-infused orange juice that's calorie-controlled and has since expanded to the "superfood" antioxidant-filled group, including Pomegranate-Blueberry. The new V-8 Fusion line packs a wallop by including fruit and vegetable juice as well as green tea in every serving.

Food preparation and cooking can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast - as the following split-second family-friendly sensations prove. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare . The beverage boosts are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home food prep and, more importantly, the healthy family time in the kitchen that goes along with it! Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts . These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows." 

JUICES

Seeds as Substitutes
Pomegranate is considered one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Some of the calories and excess sugar (fructose in juice is calorie-laden, too) will be eliminated from a blend if you replace part of the juice with pomegranate seeds. Place them in a blender with your choice of juices and water (another good strategy for replacing straight juice) and swirl. Strain before serving.

Dazzle with Swizzle Sticks  
Make your juice serving smaller than usual and supplement it with calorie-free flavored fruit seltzer as well as a fresh fruit-heavy swizzle stick. Pierce a variety of chunks of fresh fruit with the stick and use it to stir the beverage, thereby adding even more flavor to both the fresh fruit and the drink!

Add Vigor with Vegetables
Most vegetables are much lower in sugar, carbohydrates and calories than fruit, as well as lots higher in fiber. Consider investing in an inexpensive juicer and juicing carrots to blend into fruit juices. Even if you don't have a juicer, blenders are terrific for greens smoothies, like swirling handfuls of romaine lettuce or fresh spinach, cucumbers or celery along with equal handfuls of chunks of fresh apples, oranges or pineapples.. A lemon or lime's worth of fresh juice squirted into the mixture makes the vitamin C soar at the cost of only about 10 calories.
 
SODAS

Defusing Diet Sodas
Diet sodas are void of both calories and nutrients and some studies have shown them to lead to high-calorie cravings and possibly play a role in a variety of health problems. However, when you or your kids do drink them, consider "seasoning" them with complementary antioxidant-packed herbs and seasonings. Ground cinnamon and ginger, for instance, goes well with the flavors of cola. Squeeze your own lemon, lime, tangerine and grapefruit juices right into a base of lemon-lime diet soda and then add fresh chopped mint, lemongrass or rosemary.

Easy Icy Fun
To add the flavor of regular sodas without much of the calories, pour it into ice trays and make ice cubes. Then add a few to iced green or herbal tea, flavored seltzers or fruit juices.

Do-It-Yourself Drinking
Search for homemade soda recipes on the Internet and make it a crafts project with your kids. Learn the long American history, too, like for root beer for which it stretches back almost 150 years. They'll marvel at the fresh, creamy taste of homemade vs. store-bought sodas. You also can have control in taste-testing and adding less sugar or sweetener (like honey or molasses), as your own taste buds see fit.

MILK-BASED

Nutty for Milk
Nuts are nutritional powerhouses that are high in the right fats so they have been shown to help with weight loss and cholesterol management as well as with other health ailments. Homemade nut milk is highly economical. You soak nuts in water overnight, blend and strain and have a nut-flavored alternative to cow's milk.

Oh, My! Outstanding Oats
Have you ever thought of using your leftover breakfast oatmeal to make milk? Oat milk is a great choice that's mild in flavor, but thick and rich in texture. It's wonderful in cream soups, sauces and salad dressings - and it's easy and inexpensive to prepare!  Add cooked oatmeal, cornstarch (1 to 2 teaspoons for every cup of cooked oatmeal), sugar substitute, nutmeg, vanilla and salt to a blender container. Add hot water and blend, adding more or less hot water until it's the consistency you'd like.

Creamy Credibility  
Kids need all the milk that nutritionists recommend for their growth and development. However, adults who like creamy milk often make due with skim or low-fat to try and watch their weight. Soft silken tofu, though, mimics that missed creaminess. Just try this Ambrosia Breakfast Smoothie (based on the classic dessert) adapted from "Vegan Planet" by Robin Robertson. In a blender combine drained soft silken tofu, ground flaxseeds, cold unsweetened coconut milk, cold orange juice and frozen bananas.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Pickles are often considered a nutritional zero, since they have virtually no nutrients, except often unwanted sodium. Popular nevertheless, you can easily pep up your condiment. Serve cut as chips and use as a palette for additional gourmet flavors in the form of antioxidant-filled super seasonings. Sweet bread-and-butter and gherkins, especially, benefit, but the snap of dill works, too, with sprinklings of cayenne pepper, oregano, black pepper, cumin and ginger.

Lisa Messinger  is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes   (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on Dr.Laura.com.

Posted by Staff at 3:43 PM