Healthy Grilling that is Father’s Day Friendly and Diabetes Friendly

Let's celebrate our Fathers.  For many of us Father’s Day is synonymous with outdoor grilling and the smell of barbecue.  It makes us think about all we love about summer.

When June comes around we all look forward to spending more time outside, enjoying time with family around a picnic table and hanging out with friends by the grill.  The challenge is to stay mindful of what we are grilling and serving as we look for simpler ways to provide meals in the summertime. Eating healthy does not have to be time consuming or complicated.

Preparing your meats for grilling. There are simple ways for us to add flavor to our proteins without adding unnecessary calories. For instance, Walt and I have come up with savory rubs that are made up of pure spices and herbs with virtually no calories, absolutely no fillers, no sugars, and that are heart-healthy, bariatric-friendly, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, and sugar-free. We also offer tenderizing marinades that make for juicy, melt in your mouth, family-friendly options. These are all offered on our blog, always for free. Check out some of the choices below:

Meat and Fish Rubs

Super Easy Chicken Marinade

Super Easy Chicken Marinade

Recipes for Easy Sides. To make it a meal, provide a few different salads that can make serving up healthy meals outdoors healthy and tasty. The great thing about summer salads is that they can be made ahead of time, at your convenience, and then served up later when it is mealtime.  Here are a few of our favorites from our blog:

Broccoli and Sweet Apple Slaw with Dried Tart Cherries

Classic Potato Salad

5 Fruit Salad

5 Fruit Salad

A simple meal hack.  Buy store-bought salads from pasta salad, carrot salad, or a green salad with various lettuces and then put them in your own bowls for serving. Help everyone measure out right-sized portions by hooking the recommended LivSpoon® (a stylish serving spoon with measurement) on the side of the bowl of the salads you are offering so people can naturally serve themselves appropriate servings. 

For dessert. To make it super easy, offer fruit popsicles or get pre-made cookies out of the freezer like our original Rosemary Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.  

Summertime meals can be easy, tasty, and healthy! 

Healthy Eating Tip: Introducing our new LivSpoons in the much-desired sizes of ⅓ cup and ¼ cup! Now Livliga is offering the completed suite of LivSpoons to make it convenient, comfortable, and a cinch to prepare and serve up healthy and right-sized meals anytime and for any season! Mindful eating just got a little more effortless!

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Cooking Light With Livliga: Tasty Meatless Lasagna

Overnight Vegetable Lasagna—Low Carb, Easy and Delish! 

As so many people are looking to add more vegetarian meals to their weekly diet, this recipe from my favorite Cooking Light cookbook, Low-fat Low-Calorie, is a great one to add to the repertoire. It is my go-to vegetarian meal when I need to plan ahead. It is truly an overnight recipe that you can make a day ahead and then bake at your convenience.

This recipe was the first vegetarian meal I prepared for my young family and that they liked. In fact, years later, our kids still request and enjoy this lasagna. It is the only lasagna I make!

What is amazing about this lasagna, in addition to being vegetarian, using lots of zucchini (really!?!), and is easy to make, is that its generous servings have only 35.7 carbs! To be considered low carb a recipe has to have less than 43 carbs in it. For a lasagna that uses real pasta noodles and also provides nice-sized servings, this is a dream come true!

Ingredients

• 1 (14 ½-ounce) can stewed tomatoes, undrained, cut into smaller pieces if desired
• 1 ½ cups fat-free, no-salt-added pasta sauce
• 2 cups nonfat cottage cheese
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• 9 lasagna noodles, uncooked
• 12 ounces fresh zucchini, trimmed and shredded (about 3 medium)
• 6 (1-ounce) slices provolone cheese, cut into thin strips
• Vegetable cooking spray

Directions

1. Combine tomatoes and pasta sauce in a small bowl; stir well, and set aside. 
2. Combine cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, and pepper in a small bowl; stir well, and set aside.
3. Spoon one-third tomato mixture into bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2 -inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles over tomato mixture; top with one-third zucchini. Spoon one-third cottage cheese mixture evenly over zucchini; top with 2 slices provolone cheese. Repeat layers twice with remaining tomato mixture, noodles, zucchini, cheese mixture, and provolone slices. 
4. Cover and refrigerate casserole overnight or for at least 8 hours until you are ready to bake.
5. Bake at 350°, still covered, for 45 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 additional minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Make-it-a-Meal Tip: We completed the meal  with a simple tossed green salad with 2 tablespoons of lite balsamic vinaigrette for 60 calories and a slice of grilled garlic bread for 112 calories. The total calories for the meal are 480. It is a delicious and satisfying meal all members of the family enjoy.

Nutritional Information

Serves: 8. Calories: 308. Calories from fat 25%; Fat 8.5g; Saturated fat 5.1g; Mono fat 0.0g; Poly fat 0.0g; Protein 22.4g; Carbohydrate 35.7g; Fiber 2.3g; Cholesterol 23mg; Iron 0.0mg; Sodium 783mg; Calcium 0.0mg

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Perfect Backyard Barbecue

Perfect Backyard Barbecue (photo by LivligaHome)

The great thing about revving up the grill in the summer is that you can do so much of your cooking outside and avoid a hot kitchen and air conditioning on over drive because of it. It is also a pleasant excuse to hang outside as the evening cools, the sun sets and the night critters start their songs. I have found the best conversations have happened at that time of day when everyone is relaxed, sipping a cool drink, and the pressures of the day have receded.

When our children were little and we lived in a house with a big backyard, my husband hung a wooden swing from an old oak tree we had there. Adults and children alike loved swinging on that swing. With a few helpful pushes you could swing high, up and over the fence. The rhythm of swinging as you arced back and forth was exhilarating and comforting all at the same time. So much better than spending the evening inside watching TV.

The grill is an easy focal point for the backyard. The glow and smells draw people to it. The main thing is to keep it simple most of the time so you can enjoy the time grilling instead of stressing over it. The easiest is to grill your whole meal outside. The key is timing. Sometimes everything can go on at once but often the meat needs to go on first and then you add the vegetables for the last few minutes.

One of our family's favorites is grilling marinated chicken legs. Since you can eat them with your fingers they are fun to eat outside and can be enjoyed by all ages. Another fun backyard barbecue side dish is asparagus vinaigrette. These too can be picked up and eaten with your fingers. They can also be made ahead of time and served cool on a hot night. Finally, I love grilling sweet peppers, in all colors, in a basket on the grill. You can add any other vegetable to them and they can be spiced up or cooled down depending on what you want to eat. They add great color to any meal.

Here are the recipes for the Perfect Backyard Barbecue:

Grilled Chicken Legs
These chicken legs were marinated first in a wet marinade, then grilled with occasional basting.

Marinate for at least 20 minutes (check out my marinade choices on previous blogs like Summer Grilling Marinade for Chicken with Lemon Pulp. Place the chicken legs on a hot grill, grilling 4 sides for at least 4 minutes each side, or until cooked. Serve 1 -2 chicken legs per person (kids will most likely want one).

Asparagus Vinaigrette
Clean and snap the ends off a bunch of asparagus. You can grill it ahead of time before the barbecue begins to keep all cooking outside and to add a smoky flavor to the asparagus. If you grill, spray them with olive oil cooking spray first, turn regularly and don't over cook them. Should take 5 to 10 minutes depending on how hot your grill is.

If you prefer, you can steam them inside on the stove top by bringing the water to a boil in a steamer. Steam the asparagus 5 - 6 minutes. Let it cool.

Add 2 tablespoons of the light lemony vinaigrette. This can be made ahead of time, even the day before, refrigerated and then served when needed.

Grilled Sweet Peppers
Buy enough peppers so there is enough for one per person. Get them in all colors-- red, yellow, orange and green (I skip the green because I don't like the "bite" it has) . Wash the peppers, slice them in half to remove the seeds. Then cut them in half again to make large cubes, easy for grilling.  Spray with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with garlic powder and herbe de Provence. Place in a grilling basket then grill until nicely charred and tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. 

Yummm...I can smell the food on the grill...and hear the happy voices of friends and family enjoying a perfect summertime backyard barbecue!

Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN-- Homemade Chili on a Crisp Fall Evening

Homemade Chili Great for a Halloween Supper (photo by LivligaHome)

There is nothing like homemade chili served up on a crisp Fall evening. When the kids were little we had the fun tradition of inviting our single friends and couples without kids over for a Fall Supper of chili, cornbread and salad.  It was usually the weekend before Halloween. The purpose was not only to enjoy each other’s company but to also carve pumpkins. There is nothing more fun than watching adults come up with unique ideas for their soon-to-be-carved pumpkin a long side young, eager children full of anticipation. We did this for many years until our kids went off to college. Click here to read the entire article...



Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com

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No Cook Meal—Tunafish with Wasabi Mayo Sandwich

Tunafish with Wasabi Mayo Sandwich

 

I find it very satisfying to try new combinations of flavors and also be able to clean out leftovers from my refrigerator. We often think of leftovers as "has beens" and "less than perfect" seconds. I have found that by using the leftovers in a different way they become fresh and fun and worthy of keeping and using. I tried out a new combo this past weekend for a tasty lunch.

We had some wasabi dip leftover and I thought it might make a flavorful mayo for a tunafish sandwich for a Saturday lunch for the family.

How I did it:

1 6 oz can tuna
2 Tbls Wasabi Mayo
2 stalks finely chopped celery
2 tsp capers

I mixed all of the ingredients together and then divided it into 4 servings. I toasted 2 slices of bread (90 cal/slice) per person, added a slice of tomato and the serving of tunafish salad to make the sandwich.

It was delicious! The Wasabi Mayo added a little "umph" to an otherwise typically mild dish. I calculated the calories for the sandwich to be 291. To make it a meal I added an orange (87/cal) cut in quarters. Total calorie count for the meal was 378. A definite repeat. 

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Mediterranean Diet--Greek-Flavored Turkey Burgers

Greek-Flavored Turkey Burger @livligahome

Burgers are such a summertime meal. They are easy to assemble and you can grill them outside, not making your kitchen hot. Still on my discovery of Mediterranean Diet recipes, I thought it would be fun to try out a Greek-flavored turkey burger (426 cal).

They were easy to make and very flavorful. The ingredients mixed with the turkey meat include fresh mint, lemon juice, red onion and feta. Once cooked the turkey burger is topped with bottled roasted red peppers. As you can see it looks visually appealing too.

To make it a meal I added baked wild fries (77 cal) and Greek Spaghetti Squash Salad (1 cup serving/80 cal) . The total calorie count for this meal was on the high side at 583.

For us it was a weekend meal with family over for dinner so it worked. We were not so wild about the spaghetti squash salad and will not repeat it. The burger, however, was a winner.

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Mediterranean Diet- Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Mediterranean Diet- Roasted Vegetable Lasagna@livligahome

You can't beat a hearty lasagna as a welcome meal. Finding a vegetarian version that is hearty, tasty and satisfying is a great discovery. This newly found Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable version fits the bill. It does take a bit to prepare but it is worth it. It is also "company worthy" for a weekend meal.  I used whole wheat "no boil" noodles which worked well with this recipe. I couldn't find the recipe on line so I have provided the ingredients and directions below. Here are the ingredients:

Now here are the instructions:

This is a recipe I got from 400 Calorie Fix by Liz Vaccariello. It is a great resource.

In order to make it a meal we added a Greek salad (61/cal) for a total calorie count of 391. If you are having company over you could add a slice of Italian bread and still meet your 500 calorie or less goal for the meal. It was a hit and a definite repeat.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna with Salad@livligahome

Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!

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Mediterranean Diet- Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks

Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks@livligahome

It seems like spring when I find veal and lamb shanks at the grocery store. It is not as usual to find veal so most often we celebrate spring with a lamb shank. In fact, the recipe I found on line called for veal shank and I substituted lamb shank instead. I picked the recipe- Moroccan Braised Veal Shanks- because of all the wonderful spices included and I also had butternut squash I wanted to use up already in my kitchen. This recipe takes about an hour and a half to cook so it is one I would plan for a weekend meal. It is a little higher in calories as well with 455 calories per serving so it is one I save for weekend special meals. It certainly qualifies for a meal to serve your friends.

My family is not a big friend of couscous. We find it a little dry. When I found out it was a form of pasta and not a grain, it made it easy to go ahead and substitute. In this recipe I used barley instead of couscous. It takes about the same amount of time to cook as the shank so you want to start cooking the barley when you begin preparing your dinner.

To complete the meal I served a Romaine salad with my homemade lemon vinaigrette with oregano (40/cal) for a total calorie count of 495. This meal was a big hit. Not a morsel was left on the bone or in the bowl. A definite repeat.

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