Evolve With Mary: February 2014

Hi Friends!

Today I'm sharing a few articles from the New York Times, all about health, wellness, and fitness. I enjoyed reading them and I have a sneaky suspicion that you will too. I try to watch the news and read a newspaper everyday to keep up on current events. I'm not successful every week, but this week I was.

Enjoy!

Less Fat Kids

Data reported in Major Federal Healthy Survey is the first "clear evidence" that the obesity rate for young children is decreasing fast.

43% drop in obesity rate amoung children ages 2-5 over the past 10 years

Children that are overweight or obese at 3 to 5 years old are 5 times as likely to be overweight or obese adults

Around 8% of 2-5 year olds were obese in 2012 which is down from 14% in 2004

"The first time we've seen any indication of any significant decease in any group" said Cynthia L Ogden, a researcher for Center for Disease control and Prevention

1/3 of Adults and 17% of youths are obese

For full article click here

Information found in NY Times article : Obesity Rates for Young Children Plummets 43% in a decade by Sabrina Tavernise on Feb, 24, 2014

Trust Us...No Condoms Needed in Egypt

Doctor, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Abdul Atti confidently announced late last week that the military has developed a cure for the virus that causes AIDs and Hepatitis C

"Defeating the virus is a very easy process, but God grants wisdom to whoever he wants "said Major General Ibrahm Abdal Atti, who also bragged about treatments that have cured 100% of AIDs patients and more than 95% of Hepatitis C cases

Independent experts are skeptical about the generals new "so called cures"

This could be very damaging to public healthy and the reputations ofEgyptian Scientists and Doctors

Dr Essam Heggy calls the latest announcement "a scandal for Egypt that hurts the image of its scientist and science in the country"

For full article click here

Information found in NY Times Article: Disbelief after Egypt Announces Cures for AIDS and Hepatitis C, by Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh on Feb 26, 2014

Get Married and Pass the Salt

A new study published in The Journal of Hypertension proves people who are maried, especially men, are much more likely to improve their blood pressure, compared to people that are not married

"Marriage might provide a level of social support that leads people to better manage their healthy and stress levels" (as stated in the NY Times (24, February 2014))

For full article click here

Information found in Ny Times Article: Marriage May Be Good for Your Blood Pressure, by Anahad O'Connor on Feb 24, 2014

Get Fit in Minutes

High Intensity Interval Training are both very effective and very short but are becoming enourmously popular because of the results

Interval training shows immediate post exercise increase in blood levels, muscle tissue, and endurance capacity

For Article Click Here

Information found in NY Times Article: How to Get Fit in Minutes, By Gretchen Reynolds on Feb, 26, 2014

Don't forget to complete your cardio interval training this week

Thats all today Folks

Hope you enjoyed these articles

Blessings

Mary

References:

NY York Times

Kareem Fadhim

Mayy El Sheikh

Maj, Gen, Ibrahim Abdul Atti

Dr, Essam Heggy

Gretchen Reynolds

Anahad O'Connon

Jouranl of Hypertension

Harvard Medical School

Dr. Finnian R. McCousland

Hi Friends

Today we are talking about my favorite healthy snacks.

Who doesn't love snacking? Sometimes snacking is my favorite part of the day. Here are some my favorite healthy snacks and a few reasons why they are so good for you.

Raw Mini Sweet Peppers

(any raw bell peppers)

Bell Peppers are a natural weight loss food
Bell Peppers can boost our metabolism
Bell Peppers keep immature fat cells from developing into full fledged ones
Bell Peppers are loaded with vitamins

Boiled Eggs

Protein - Protein - Protein
Boiled eggs add good fats to your diet
Boiled eggs pack important vitamins to help protect your eyes and keep your bone strong

Smoked Salmon

Protein - Protein - Protein
Smoked Salmon provides a good source of good fat and essential minerals including iron
3oz servings of smoked salmon provides 41% of the recommended omega-3 fatty acids intake for women, 28% for men

String Cheese

Individually packaged food lets you know exactly how many calories you are eating
String cheese is a good source of Calcium
String Cheese contains a large amount of other essential nutrients such as phosphorous, zinc, riboflavin, b12, & vitamin A

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes are high in B6
Sweet Potatoes are a good source of Vitamin C, iron
Sweet Potatoes are a good source of magnesium which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral

Fruit Leather

Fruit leather contains no chemical preservatives or artificial sugars
Dried fruit generally contains high fiver
Fruit leather is a good source of antioxidants
Longer shelf life than fresh fruit

My Homemade Granola Bars

click here for the recipe

Granola helps lower your cholesterol and prevents certain chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer
The Fiber in granola bars help digestion and prevents constipation
Soluble fiber in oats are helpful for lowering bad cholesterol levels

A Handful of Almonds

23 to be exact

Almonds are an easy way to incorporate crucial nutrients in your diet
Almonds are rich in Vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, and potassium
Almonds are a significant source of protein and fiber while naturally low in sugar
There are only 160 calories in 23 almonds (a handful)

Oatmeal

Unsweetened with flax seeds

Oatmeal "may" help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease
Oatmeal can help you control your weight
Oatmeal may reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes

Okra Chips

Okra helps promotes healthy pregnancy
Okra helps prevent diabetes
Okra helps with kidney disease, supports colon healthy, and promotes healthy skin

Here are a few more healthy snacks ideas

Healthy Snack Friends

Blessings

Mary

References:

www.mrbreakfast.com

www.huffingtonpost.com

www.livestrong.com

www.care2.com

www.truthisscary.com

Hi Friends,

Today is all about cooking! I've been trying to save every penny we have for our upcoming trip to Miami, by cooking all of our meals. I've created some delicious healthy recipes that my boyfriend and I adored. I also made a polka-dot layer cake that I'm uber proud of. I hope you all enjoy these recipes as much I as took pleasure in making them.

Cauliflower Pizza

I've seen this recipe on different health blogs recently but it never really turned me on. Pizza curst made solely out of cauliflower.... umm no thank you. While talking to my boyfriends Mother last week, she gave me this recipe to cauliflower pizza, and said it was Delicious. With a recommendations like that, I had to try it out.

Crust Ingredients
2-1/2 cups cauliflower
1 egg white
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of sea salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 F
Spray or grease your pizza pan (I used a cast iron skillet)
Place cauliflower into food processor and chop until fine, if mixture gets watery you have gone too far (if you do no have a food processor use a blender or grate cauliflower)

Combine the rest of the ingredients and spread the dough out evenly onto your pan, making sure it not thin in any spots

Bake crust for 15-20 minutes, until the crust looks slightly brown

Remove from oven to add your sauce and toppings

I made a mini pepper, onion, and mushroom pizza, and sauteed my toppings for 3-4 minutes

Place back in the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes

Cut and enjoy

Picture step by step directions below

This recipe can be made gluten free, vegan, or paleo

This pizza was really tasty. I couldn't believe the crust, it tasted a lot like a regular pizza crust, with none of the guilt. Even my boyfriend asked for a few pieces, it was really that delicious. He also couldn't believe I didn't use any flour in the recipe.

This one is a keeper. It a good way to hide vegetables in common foods that your kids/husband/family will really enjoy

Asian Sticky Wings

2lbs chicke wings
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
2 sliced green onions
as needed non-stick spray

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

In a bowl combine honey, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and teriyaki sauce.

Peek ginger and grate it using a small cheese grater

Press garlic, add ginger and garlic to mixture, and stir to combine

Place chicken wings in a colander and rinse well

Cut each wing at the joint

Add the wings to the bowl of sauce and stir to coat and place them in preheated oven

After 25 minutes of baking, stir the wings to re-coat with sauce then turn the oven to broil

Broil for 3-5 minutes, stir then broil again for 3-5 minutes

Because broiling cooks fast and every oven is different keep an close eye on your wings.

Keep stirring them until they have turned nice and brown

The sauce should have reduced and thickened significantly during the broiling stage

Let wings cool for 5 minutes before serving

Sauce will thicken as chicken cools

Sprinkle sliced green onions on top

Polka-Dot Layer Cake

This weekend we celebrated one of our good friends 30th birthday. If I had to describe this guy using one word it would be: clever. Searching for a birthday present was nearly impossible. Instead of giving him something that he would pretend to love then stuff in the back of his closet for the next 5 years I decided to bake him a cake. Not just any old cake, a polka-dot layer cake.

It was quite the adventure, with a huge reward. This was my first layer cake, and it turned out excellent.

The recipe is simple, the extra steps are a little time consuming, but you can do it.

Basic White Cake

All the recipes I found called for boxed cake, but I'm not a boxed cake kind of girl. You can substitute box white cakes if you are in a hurry, but this recipe is just as simple, with no added preservatives.

**I tripled this recipe

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 package dry vanilla pudding mix (jello brand)

food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Grease and flour a 6x5 inch pan

In a medium bowl, cream together sugar and butter

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla

Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well

Stir in the milk until batter is smooth

Pour or spoon batter into prepared pans

Bake for 30-40 minutes in preheated oven, for cake pops bake for 20-25 minutes

Cake is done when its springs back to the touch

Since this is a polka-dot cake we have to make our polka-dots first. I purchased a cake pop pan from target for $20, I wanted to keep searching for cheaper pans, but I didn't have the time.

Spoon a few tablespoons of batter into 4 separate bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl creating different colored batter. I used red, blue, green, and orange.

Place batter in cake pop pans and bake for 15-20 minutes. You don't want the cake pops to be fully done, they will re-cook in the layer cake

Once colorful cake pops are done, trim off any excess cake, making sure each cake pop is a perfect circle

Add a few tablespoons of batter to the greased layer cake pans.

(I searched high and low for 6x5 inch pans, I finally found them at Sur la table for $12.99. They were difficulty to find, but worth the trouble)

Place the colorful cake pop balls on top of the the batter in the layer cake pans, then cover them with the rest of the batter

Cook cakes for 30-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean

Let cakes cool on wire rack while you make your frosting

Basic Vanilla Frosting

I tripled this recipe

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp butter softened

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients and beat on medium speed until smooth and fluffy

Once Frosting is done, and cakes are cool frosting your cakes

This was the first time I've ever frosted anything and I was NERVOUS. I remeber my mother making her first few layer cakes and having to hold it together with tooth picks. This was the deciding moment for me. I couldn't serve a cake held together with toothpicks. I also remembered some of my mothers cakes comming out crooked. OMG what did I just get myself into???

I started by piling on a few spoonfulls on frosting on the top of the bottom layer. I knew that some frosting would end up squriting out of the sides, and since these cakes are taller then normal, I wanted to make sure I got enough frosting in the middle.

Once I was happy with my frosting job, I place the 2nd layer cake on top. Just like I imagined, a lot of frosting started pouring out of middle of the cake, but since I piled it on pretty thick I wasn't too worried. I piled more frosting on to of the cake and used my frosting spreader to slather it on as smoothy as possible.

At some points my cake started to tilt, instead of freaking out, I just kept frosting it, and tried to correct anything I could. In the end the cake stood up perfectly straight and the frosting actually looked smooth. I placed the cake in the refrigerator over night to set.

The next day I removed the cake and was thrilled to see it actually looked like a real layer cake. No tooth pics, not sloppy sides, no drooping.

I cut out a big E out of white paper and placed it in the middle of the the cake.

Then I used my hands to press sprinkles all over the cake and all around the E.

This is the finished product.

Can you believe I made this?? I couldn't, my boyfriend was very impressed, but I was still nervous about the taste and the frosting the cake ratio.

We spent the entire day with our friend celebrating his birthday with an all-you-can-drink brunch, some bowling, and a good old fashion house party.

We all ended up at a bar by the end of the night, that's where I presented the cake.

Once I pulled it out of my cake holder everyone ohh ahhhhhhed

Did you really make that cake???

OMG look at all the sprinkles.

The birthday boy jumped up and down with excitment.

We lit candles, sung happy birthday, and then came the most exciting part, I got the honor of cutting the cake.

It took me a while to actually cut a piece. When I finally did everyone went crazy. Are those poka dots in the cake? How did you get the circles so perfect???

I passed it out and got nothing but great feed back. The frosting to cake ratio was perfect. The cake was moist and fluffy, not too sweet. Everyone was impressed, I spent the next 20 minutes explaining how I got the color balls into the cake. Everyone loved it. The cake was gone within 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it guys! I pulled off my first layer cake.

Tips

Next time I'm going to search for 6x3 pans so my polka-dots are more pronounced.