December 2014

Heart Health Understanding Heart Disease

high blood pressure

heart failure

arteriosclerosis

atherosclerosis

angina

heart attack

stroke

cardiac arrest

Test yourself to see what you know about heart disease? Which disease best fits the definitions to follow:

a condition in which the heart suddenly stops beating

chest pain caused when the heart does not get Enough oxygen-rich blood -

an interruption of blood flow to a portion of the brain

hardening of the arteries

Heart Health

high blood pressure

heart failure

arteriosclerosis

atherosclerosis

angina

heart attack

stroke

cardiac arrest

Can you match these?

a condition in which the heart becomes unable to pump the amount of blood needed for life

a condition in which increased pressure in blood vessels forces the heart to work harder to pump the same amount of blood it pumped before the increased pressure

death of a portion of the heart muscle

The accumulation of plaque in arteries

There are a number of risk factors for heart disease. The good news? Many are controllable.

Smoking: smokers are more likely to develop heart disease, as well as those exposed to secondhand smoke

Exercise: an active lifestyle of 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise 3 days a week can lower your risk for disease

Cholesterol: High levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, as well as decreased HDL, increases your risk. Decreasing saturated and trans fat and increasing fiber can help to lower your risk.

Blood pressure: high blood pressure makes your heart work harder and can cause arteries to harden faster. Diet and exercise can lower your blood pressure, as well as medication if needed.

Weight: being at a higher weight puts you at risk for heart disease, as it raises your blood pressure and has a negative impact on blood cholesterol. Excess fat around your waist is also a risk factor.

Diabetes: About 75% of those with diabetes will die from heart or blood vessel diseases. There is an even greater risk if blood sugar is not controlled.

Heart Health Risk Factors…

Many of these risk factors can be reduced by following a healthy diet, in conjunction with physical activity.

The American Heart Association recommends eating: A variety of fruits and vegetables

Whole grains instead of refined

Low fat dairy

Healthy fats: poultry, fish, nuts

Limit high fat red meat as well as sugary foods and drinks

Also, the AHA recommends being aware of the amount of calories you consume.

Heart Health & A Healthy Diet

Healthy eating during the busy holiday season can be a challenge!

Be Well suggests…

Making it through the busy holiday season with…

… BATCH COOKING!

Batch cooking is the process of preparing multiple portions of several meals at one time and portioning and storing them for later use.

This could be meals for a week, month or several months! You decide how much time you want to invest up front.

What is Batch Cooking?

When batch cooking, you know exactly what is in your meal Many recipes incorporate whole grains, healthy fats, and

vegetables Portioning meal items allows nutrient control During the busy holiday season you always have healthy foods

to prepared and ready to eat Helps you to keep a balanced diet, when you skip a meal you

may eat more later Helps you avoid excessive intake of sugary or high fat foods at

when on the go Reduces daily time spent in the kitchen, so you can fit heart

healthy exercise into your schedule!

The Connection to Heart Health

The hustle and bustle of everyday life can get in the way of making healthy meals.

Time, money, health and wellness can easily slip away…

With a little planning, you can stock your freezer with healthy options for nights you just don’t have the time or energy to cook.

Added bonus: When you have a freezer full of food, you can then fill your fridge with salad greens, spinach, and other veggies so you can make a big, healthy salad on the side. Perfect!

Why Batch Cooking?

Preparing double or even triple recipes and freezing portions for later, means you don't have to cook every night to have a delicious and nutritious meal on the table.

It also means you don’t have to eat out, pick up fast-food on the way home, or order take-out/delivery!

Some food is better suited to freezing and reheating than others. For example, casseroles, soups, chilis, and meat loaf all stand up to the freezer well and most cooked dishes will keep for two to three months in the freezer.

Batch Cooking

You can make entire meals, or…

…prepare versatile staples from different food groups to be used for quick meal assembly.

Different types of batch cooking

Identify one day a week, two weeks, or a month to dedicate to cooking all of your meals for that period in advance.

To do this you’ll need a detailed meal plan and have the pantry and fridge stocked with all the ingredients you'll need before your day of cooking.

You’ll also need either a deep freezer or have a very roomy freezer to store all your meals.

Then dedicate the entire day to your kitchen and cook, cook, cook.

It’s a mammoth job, but once you've done it, you can kiss goodbye to cooking for the week, fortnight or month!

Freeze the meals, label and date them, and all you have to do is thaw, reheat, and serve.

Preparing for a batch cooking session

An important part of cooking up these dishes is making sure you do it safely.

The last thing you want is ruining the quality of your dishes with freezer burn. Or worse, contaminating your food so that it can get someone sick.

Source: The Food Network blog

Food safety concerns

There are four simple steps that must be followed properly when cooking in large batches:

1. Cook: Cooking food to the correct temperatures is

essential to kill any lingering bacteria. 2. Cool: Food should be cooled as quickly as possible, and

shouldn’t remain at room temperatures for more than 2 hours. Hot food that’s placed in the freezer will raise the temperature of the unit, making it work harder and increasing your electric bills. Improper cooling can also leave the center of foods warm at temperatures that allow bacteria to grow and spoil your food. Consider letting your meal cool in the refrigerator overnight prior to dividing the portions and storing them.

3. Store: Follow these simple guidelines in order to keep food safe while in your freezer.

Use freezer wrap or heavy duty freezer bags to cover your frozen meals.

Make sure containers are air-tight. Label or color-code items so you can easily identify what they are

and when they expire (for prepared dishes, they shouldn’t be stored over 3 months).

Don’t overstuff the freezer.

Source: The Food Network blog

Food safety practices (cont’d)

4. Defrost and Reheat: The most common mistake when defrosting food is leaving it at room temperature, where bacteria thrive. There are three safe methods that can be used to defrost food:

The microwave: Follow your microwave’s guidelines when defrosting and cooking in the microwave.

The refrigerator: Food should be placed in the refrigerator a day or so before using it so it will have enough time to defrost.

Cool, running water: This method can be used while food is still in a container or sealed in a ziplock bag.

Cook it right up: A few meatballs or cube of frozen stock can be tossed right into the pot without previously thawing.

Once food has defrosted, cook it up to an internal temperature 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Use your handy thermometer to check if the correct temperature has been met.

Food safety practices (cont’d)

Organize your freezer: consider using bins to organize by food groups.

Freeze individual portions so you don’t have 12 servings of something stuck together. You could use muffin tins to freeze grains, soups, fruit compote, etc. Muffin tins hold about 1/2 a cup.

Labeling keeps you from having to “break the seal” and peel the foil back or open a container. A Sharpie writes as clearly on foil as it does on plastic.

Additional tips from experienced batch cooks!

One helpful thing you can do is to write, along with what the dish is and the date, baking/warming instructions on each package, i.e. “375/40 minutes.” Of course, you’ll need to add the thawing time to that (or adjust the baking time accordingly.)

Keep items simple and season after you reheat. That way you don’t get bored with eating the same thing over and over. Herbs, spices, salsas, vinaigrettes, and pesto sauces (which can be frozen in an ice cube tray) are good things to have on hand in order to doctor up your pre-cooked grains and proteins.

Gather family and friends: make it a batch cooking party!

Additional tips from experienced batch cooks (cont’d)

following are some FREEZER-FRIENDLY recipes FROM www.cookinglight.com

Pork and herbed white beans

Although this dish takes a while to cook, the majority is hands off. You can easily prepare it over the weekend and reheat during the week. Plus at only $2.37 per serving, it's easy on your budget. Click here for the recipe.

Mild sweet potatoes and black beans take on smoky, spicy tastes from cumin and chiles. These pies are great served hot out of the oven at a party; leftovers also make a tasty room-temperature snack. Find the recipe, here.

Sweet potato and black bean empanadas

This weeknight-friendly stew featuring lean pork tenderloin, chopped bell peppers, and hominy comes together in just 40 minutes. Double the batch and freeze for up to two months to save for busy nights. Find the recipe, here.

Ancho pork and hominy stew

Whether you're serving up breakfast for dinner or a delicious weekend brunch, make an extra batch and freeze to save for busy mornings. Find the recipe here.

Whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes

Serve this saucy dish over rice tossed with chopped green onions. You can also use cooked chicken in place of turkey if you prefer. Because it freezes so well, we suggest doubling the batch and saving half for later. Find the recipe here.

Smoked turkey almond mole

To keep this comforting family favorite healthy, this recipe adds vegetables for moisture and nutrition. Herbs and spices, including Sriracha for a spicy kick, create flavor without adding fat. Find the recipe here.

Spicy turkey meatloaf

Great for parties, this dish uses leftover mashed potatoes to make a big batch of Indian-inspired snacks. Serve warm or at room temperature with the cilantro and mint chutney. Find the recipe, here.

Vegetable samosas with mint chutney

INGREDIENTS (makes about 24 patties) 1 cup uncooked quinoa 2 cup broccoli – finely chopped (or put through the food

processor with the garlic & onions 1 brown onion – minced (or processed as above) 4 cloves garlic – minced (or as above) 1 cup almond meal salt & pepper to taste 2 cups tuna 6 eggs Coconut or other oil of your choice for frying. DIRECTIONS Put the quinoa and about 12 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 12 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. In a food processor (or by hand) chop the onion, garlic and

broccoli into a finely minced consistency (the less chunky the mix, the better the patties will stick together.)

In a large bowl mix the broccoli/onion mix with the almond meal, eggs and add the cooked quinoa. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.

Form the mix into patties, about palm size and leave in the fridge to set a little.

Heat the coconut oil in a fry pan and fry in batches, about 4 minutes a side, over med/low heat.

Flip gently! Serve as a burger, or with a salad or as a simple snack with a

dipping sauce.

Tuna, quinoa, and broccoli burgers

Source: Mamabake.com

…are not something you want to serve up night after night, how about making a few staples that you freeze and then whip up into a variety of meals later? Here’s some ideas: Make simmer sauces such as Marinara Sauce which can

be frozen and stored for up to six months and used as the basis for an array of meals.

Roast a whole chicken once a month, cut it up and freeze the meat pieces in 1 cup serving portions in the freezer to be used when you want to cook speedy stir frys, quick chicken pasta dishes or just a quick simmer sauce meal. Or follow this recipe to make slow cooker shredded chicken.

Brown and store bulk-buy ground meat in meal portions to make a variety of quick meals on the cheap.

Having cooked protein on hand, pretty much guarantees that you will be able to make a healthy meal in around 10 minutes. Simply sauté a healthy vegetable in coconut oil or olive oil, add precooked quinoa (or another precooked whole grain) and shredded chicken. Spice and season to taste and you have a healthy, balanced meal!

If freezer meals…

INGREDIENTS 6 -12 chicken breasts (use as many as you want) 1/2 cup chicken broth, low sodium 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or minced garlic INSTRUCTIONS Place the chicken breasts in the crock pot. Mix water and spices together and pour

over the chicken. Cook on the low setting for 8-10 hours. Remove chicken breasts, shred or pull the meat from bones, removing skin (it should

all fall off easily at this point anyway) Use fresh, in a recipe or place meat in individual freezer bags or containers and freeze

until needed for recipes. Defrost and add to any recipes that call for cooked chicken.

Slow cooker shredded chicken

Beyond soups, stocks are indispensable in the kitchen for a variety of recipes. Here, roasting the chicken and vegetables browns the chicken and caramelizes the vegetables, lending a deeper, richer flavor—and color—to the stock. Freeze extra stock for up to six months.

Roasted Chicken Stock

Invest a little time in preparing homemade vegetable stocks. You'll get a huge payoff from the fresh, pure flavors and less sodium than in many supermarket stocks:

Mushroom stock

Roasted vegetable stock

Simple vegetable stock

Vegetarian Stocks

1. Get together - organize a date and time and get a small group of friends, family, or coworkers together. You only need at least one other to reap the benefits. The perfect number is about 4 people but no more than 6. Each person will need to bring: ingredients needed for his/her meal, any special utensils required, LOTS of take away containers for the batch-cooking booty.

2. Cook together! Or, if that’s too much or your kitchen is too small, organize for some of the batch cookers to cook theirs before they come. Or, you may find that some of the people won’t be cooking anyway and just need a little bit of countertop space.

3. When everything is cooked (allow 3-4 hours together) pop the big pots of meals on the table and divide each meal out between you. You will need those take-away containers.

4. ..and that really is it. The host’s kitchen is usually left cleaner than it was when the batch cookers arrived in the first place. Could this be your next holiday gathering?

The MamaBake model

If time, money, and health slip through your fingers a little too easily during the

busy holiday season, perhaps a batch cooking adventure may be just what

you need to try this year!

Email us at be_well@ehhd.org to share your batch-cooking experience!

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