Healthy Taco Night

Taco night is one of my favorite family meals to cook and to eat with the family or friends.  All of the flavor components combined are simply delightful. However, with the cheese, sour cream, high cholesterol meats, and fried tortilla shells, taco night can be a high-calorie, high-fat meal.

There are some simple swaps that can make the tacos a healthier choice for you and yours.

1: The cheese is definitely a comfort of taco night, but let's be honest, it doesn't add a lot of flavor.  There are fat free or low fat cheeses out there that can give you the texture and cold element to your tacos if that is what you prefer.  Or you can leave the cheese off completely.

2:  If you are like me, then you love the sour cream on your tacos!  The cold smooth texture with a slight sour element added to my hard shell tacos is the best.  However, switching the sour cream to Greek Yogurt can eliminate some of those unwanted calories and some of the fat as well.  It also adds probiotics and you are not eating a thick sour Greek Yogurt on its own (if you are not into that). 
If you do not enjoy Greek Yogurt, the sour cream can always be replaced with light or fat free sour cream.  I had to do this until I got used to it, and then I switched to Greek Yogurt.

3.  Growing up, we always ate ground beef tacos.  I loved the smell and couldn't wait to load it on to my growing pile that would soon resemble a taco. A few years back, I decided to try ground turkey instead.  It was fabulous!  It had the same texture and the flavor was more mild.  I have never gone back to ground beef.  It is a poultry, so it is a leaner choice of protein.  I have already switched my families point of view on this as well.

4.  Hard shells! Yum!  Who doesn't love hard shells with their tacos?  I actually love the tostadas (flat hard shell).  I would heat up my oil and let it sizzle, snap, and pop until it was golden and crisp.  I knew that I was just eating all the oil that was soaked up into the tortilla, but I didn't care!  It was my comfort food.  After starting to be more health conscious, I would eat soft shells, knowing they were more healthy for me.  Until one day, I decided to bake them!  Brilliant!  Only, they were never as crisp as when they were fried.
Luckily, there is a solution!  I now heat my oven to 350* and spray both sides of the tortillas with Pam.  I then throw them in the oven and let them get crisp.  I never have to flip them over because the Pam helps to conduct the heat against the baking sheet.  They are now just as crispy and golden brown as when I would fry them.

These are a few of the ways you can adjust your tacos to be more healthy.  You could also add vegetables to them or leave out the meat entirely and have veggie tacos.  Tacos are a great meal to make adjustments to because there are so many components that small swaps will not be highly noticed.

I would love to hear what swaps you make to your taco night...

How to Treat a Burn

Picture this...

You have a dinner party planned for this evening, and you are in the home stretch.  Your hors d'œuvres are out and presented; the table is set.  The only thing remaining is for you to pull the roasted lamb rack.  While you reach for the handles of the roasting pan, you realize the towel in your hand is wet.  "OUCH!" You scream, wondering how you are going to get this pain to go away before your guests arrive. 

Coming from an industrial kitchen, this used to happen to me and my co-workers on a nightly basis.  I used to lather on the burn creams, throw on a band aid and a glove over it; however, this did little for the pain.

I am rather skilled now at cleaning and wrapping cuts, but not great at treating burns.  I became careful not to burn myself; nevertheless, there were always the exceptions when I would. 

One night when I was at the fish/sautee station, I was burned pretty badly by the cook next to me.  He threw his ingredients into a pan with hot oil and it splattered on my forearm.  Normally that wouldn't bother me, because I don't use my forearm to cook.  Since my arm was constantly over heat that night, the pain was unbearable.

The other Jr. Sous Chef, told me to put a tomato slice on the burn.  I looked at him like he was crazy.  He explained to me that the acid in the tomato will neutralize the pain.  I thought, "what could it hurt?"  Sure enough, I placed the tomato on the wound and the aching started to slowly go away.

I have worked in several other kitchens since then, and taught that trick to many other cooks.  Not only tomatoes work; my personal favorite is lemon.  Squeeze some lemon juice on your burn or hold a lemon slice on it.  The pain will start to minimize.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a cure-all.  The skin will still be tender and sore to the touch, but it does relieve burn pain. I am sure there are other burn remedies out there, but I find this one to be easy, fast and convenient.

If you have other burn treatments, please share on the comment section below...

How to Chop an Onion

Ever wonder why your eyes burn when you cut into an onion?  With a strong onion, it can be the most unbearable sensation.

When an onion is whole, it encapsulates certain enzymes.  These enzymes are amino acid sulfoxides from sulfuric acids.  Once the onion is split open with a knife, cells are dividing amino acid sulfoxides from sulfuric acids.  Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. explains why this affects our eyes. "Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfuric acids to produce propethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward towards our eyes.  This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid.  The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away" ("Why Do Onions Make You Cry?").  This chemistry explains why people cry when they are cutting onions.  Now that we know the why; how do we prevent this from happening when we chop onions?

Helpful hints about chopping onions...

• Refrigerate the onions before you cut into them.  (Some kitchens peel them and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes before they chop onions)
• Use a SHARP knife!  Dull knives release more of the vapors because it is smashing the cells apart as opposed to cleanly cutting them.
• Cut the onion with as few knife cuts as possible. It is not parsley, do not go over the onion back and forth with the knife. 
• My personal secret... I wear my contacts.  I don't know the "why" behind it, but when ever I use my contacts instead of my glasses, I never tear up.  When I wear my glasses, it is almost as if the glasses trap in the onions gasses even more.

Extra Lemons?!? Great! Save them for later!

Do you have extra lemons and no use for them at the time? Lemon is a great detoxifying element in water and a great flavor component in foods. 

My mom has a lemon tree, and when it blooms, it blooms!  She has so many extra lemons and I am more than happy to take them off her hands.  As a chef, I love lemon in everything! To me it is as natural to squeeze lemons into a dish as it is to add salt.  It gives food that extra edge.  That flavor that you just can't quite put your finger on.

Well, if you find yourself in a bind and have too many lemons on hand, don't stress.  When there are extra lemons in my kitchen and I know they will go bad before I can use them, I juice them.
Invest in an electric juicer , they can be found for under $20 and are well worth the investment.  Cut the lemons in half and juice them till just the skin is left.  Save the shells for later use.

Once all of the lemons are juiced, there are two options in how to save the liquid.  the first option is to store the lemon juice in Tupperware and freeze for future use.  (This would include thawing out the whole Tupperware to use a small portion.) 
Or the second option (and my preferred way) is to pour the lemon juice into ice cube trays  and freeze overnight.  Once they are fully frozen, pop them out and store them into plastic baggies.  Whenever you need a small portion, pull out however many cubes you will need.  It is fast and convenient!


Now, for the lemon "shells" that you put aside for later.  Cut off the bottoms, or the tips, to create a flat surface at the base.  Once they all have a flat bottom, place them on a cookie sheet and freeze them.  After completely hard, store in a large zip lock bag.  These can come in handy for on the fly ideas.  They make great cups for dessert, appetizers, intermezzo's or anything else you create...

Lemon, raw, without peel

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	121 kJ (29 kcal)
- Sugars	2.5 g
- Dietary fiber	2.8 g
Fat	0.3 g
Protein	1.1 g
Thiamine (vit. B1)	0.04 mg (3%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2)	0.02 mg (2%)
Niacin (vit. B3)	0.1 mg (1%)
Pantothenic acid (B5)	0.19 mg (4%)
Vitamin B6	0.08 mg (6%)
Folate (vit. B9)	11 μg (3%)
Choline	5.1 mg (1%)
Vitamin C	53 mg (64%)
Calcium	26 mg (3%)
Iron	0.6 mg (5%)
Magnesium	8 mg (2%)
Manganese	0.03 mg (1%)
Phosphorus	16 mg (2%)
Potassium	138 mg (3%)
Zinc	0.06 mg (1%)
Link to USDA Database entry Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient Database

Overweight and Obese

Many people are under the impression that being overweight means that they are on a path to obesity; this is a false conception. In fact, overweight has a whole different meaning than obesity, and it is a common mistake to confuse the two.  Overweight and obesity are terms that one can hear from health care providers, news, friends and family; these words are so often used in casual conversation they have lost their meaning.  Another common word that most adults are aware of is BMI; Body Mass Index.  This is a term simply meaning weight to height ratio.  It is commonly read on a chart (see below) like this one.

BMI Categories:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
• Overweight = 25–29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

One can calculate BMI by using the following formula...

Use either of these formulas for U.S. units, depending on how the measurements were made: BMI = weight in lbs. multiplied by 703, then divided by height in inches squared; or BMI = weight in lbs. times 4.88 divided by height in feet squared. Here is an example for a person weighing 172 lbs. and who is 6 feet 1 inch tall: BMI = (172 X 703) ÷ (73 X 73) = 120916 ÷ 5329 = 22.7 rounded to a single decimal. (http://www.ehow.com/how_4529984_calculate-bmi.html)

There are also BMI calculators that you can use if you are not comfortable with these formulas.  Here is just one of many websites to use http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and there are also phone apps available for downloading.

Now that you know what BMI is, how to calculate BMI, and have seen a chart to place yourself in, let us discuss the meaning or significance of these words.

Are your overweight?  What is overweight? Being overweight isn't always negative; however, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't still watch your diet and exercise.

Overweight does not necessarily mean unhealthy; there are four components that make up a person's weight. 

1.  Water

2.  Bone

3.  Fat

4.  LBM - Lean Body Mass

     This includes skin, muscles, hair... any tissue not mentioned above.

If you were to hold 1lb of muscle in one hand and 1lb of fat in the other, the fat would be much larger.  Fat is much bulkier than LBM.

The only one of the four to worry about in "unhealthy" terms is "FAT."  Water, bone and LBM each weigh more than fat, so a person with an "overweight" BMI could be quite fit; consequently, their weight would be higher in regards to their height; athletes commonly have higher BMI's for this reason.  Because of this, the term overweight isn't as bad as what people perceive it to be.

Obesity on the other-hand is unhealthy because any BMI over 30 is unsafe in the fact that with that ratio, there will be more fat in the equation. 

With this new knowledge it is safe to say that it is more important to lose fat than lose weight!  In order to measure progress of fat loss, one needs to measure the circumferences of their body; the arms, thighs, waist, chest, or anywhere they prefer.  Continue to measure throughout the diet and exercise program.  Because we know that fat is more bulky than muscle, when we lose inches, we know that we are losing fat. People get excited when they lose weight; however, this could mean that they are losing water or LBM, not fat.  When a person is getting HEALTHY, they may gain some weight because they are losing fat and gaining Lean Body Mass.