Bickford's Food Blog

A former college athlete's quest for healthy meals that satisfy a food fanatic's palate! I will be posting photos, recipes, and health tips related to my meals. Enjoy =)

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Bickford’s Healthy Pad Thai!

Ingredients:     2 ounces dried wide rice noodles     2 ounces shaved zucchini (noodle-sized)     2 ounces shaved yellow squash (noodle-sized)     1 large red/green/yellow bell pepper (your choice)     1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)     3 tablespoons tamarind juice     4 tablespoons mirin     3 tablespoons peanut oil     1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled with tails on (or sub chicken)     4 garlic cloves, finely chopped     2 yellow onions, sliced     1 fresh red chile, sliced     1 large egg, lightly beaten     1.5 cups shaved/grated carrots     1 cup bamboo chutes     1 cup shaved/grated cucumber     1 cup fresh bean sprouts (or more if you like)     1/2 cup chopped unsalted raw almonds (healthier than peanuts)     1 lime, cut into small wedges     1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves Directions Soak the dried rice noodles in cool or lukewarm water for 30 minutes, or until they’re limp but still firm to the touch; later, while cooking in the wok they will soften. Drain the noodles thoroughly in a colander and set aside while preparing the other ingredients. In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, tamarind juice, and mirin; stir well to combine thoroughly. Taste and adjust flavors to the desired combination of salty, sour, and sweet. Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the oil and quickly stir-fry the shrimp until they turn pink and are almost cooked through; 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the shrimp to a plate and cover to keep warm. Add the remaining oil to the wok and toss in the onions, bell pepper, and chile; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Then push them to 1 side of the wok.  Pour the egg into the center of wok. Scramble the egg lightly until set, breaking it up into pieces with a spatula. Add the drained noodles, and noodle-sized strips of squash and zucchini to the wok, stirring and tossing quickly with 2 spatulas to separate the strands. Pour in the fish sauce mixture, tossing well to coat the noodles and squash to keep them from sticking (if the noodles are still too firm, drizzle with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to help them cook.) When the noodles are in good shape, toss in 1/2 of the bean sprouts, garlic and almonds; save the remaining sprouts and almonds for garnish. Continue to stir-fry, to combine. Return the shrimp to the wok and toss the pad thai together to warm everything through. Serve the pad thai on a platter, pile the remaining bean sprouts, cucumber, carrots and almonds on 1 side of the dish and garnish with the lime wedges and cilantro. Squeeze lime juice over each portion before eating.

I really hope you enjoy this healthier modified Pad Thai dish!  Substituting 2/3 of the rice noodles with squash and zucchini vastly reduces the calories and carbohydrates of this dish when compared to traditional pad thai.  However, you don’t miss out on any flavor!  You can definitely substitute chicken rather than shrimp for this dish, or whatever other meat you like.  Stay healthy my friends!

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Crisp and Fresh Fruit Salad: For this fruit salad I used Apples, Kiwis, Bananas, Mango and Basil leaves.  The basil just brightens the dish by giving it some light floral notes.  It really perks up the flavor of the mango!  I also mix it with some fresh squeezed lime and fresh carrot juice for added nutrition.

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Some facts for Bacon lovers! http://bacontoday.com/top-10-reasons-bacon-is-actually-healthy-for-you/

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Sinfully Spicy Sweet Potatoes: 2 Large Organic Sweet Potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes 2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 TBSP Organic Coconut Oil 1 TBSP Dark Chili Powder 1 TBSP Ancho Chile Powder 1 TBSP Cinnamon Powder 1 TBSP Cayenne Pepper 1 TBSP Smoked Chipotle Chile Powder 1 TBSP Turmeric Powder 1 TBSP Fresh Cracked Black Pepper 1 TBSP Salt

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March Seasonal Superfoods!

It’s march, and a few fantastic foods are in season!

Collard Greens- Rich in potassium, fiber, Vitamins A and C, and higher calcium levels than many other greens. Scallions- Contains anti-oxidants that prevent cancer, more mild flavor than onions or shallots. Turnips- Rich in potassium, fiber, vitamin C, and a host of antioxidants. Their leaves are high in Vitamin K, iron and calcium, as with other leafy greens.

Radishes- Member of the cabbage family and rich in vitamin C, folate and potassium. They’re also super low in calories.

Artichokes- High in fiber and vitamins C and K and according to the USDA they’re one of the 10 most antioxidant rich foods!

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Fruit for the week!

I portion out the frozen fruit I use in my protein smoothies ahead of time.  This fruit blend contains a wide range of different nutrients!  I use Mango, Pineapple, Kiwi, Strawberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries and Cherries.  Each baggie contains 3 servings of fruit, and they blend very well together =)

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Beef and Veggie Stir-Fry 1 pound beef (your choice what cut you prefer) cut into 1-inch pieces

1 Mango

3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup Aji Mirin

1/4 cup lite Teriyaki sauce

3 tbsp Nam Pla (fish sauce)

1 bell pepper (red, yellow, orange, green, your choice)

1 medium yellow onion

1 cup match stick carrots

1 small zucchini, cut to your favorite shape

2 baby bok choy

8oz chopped mushrooms

*1 cup fresh snow peas *optional*

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup cucumber, cut in thin match-stick strips

In 3tbsp toasted sesame oil, saute your mushrooms, onions, zucchini, bell peppers, snow peas, and carrots over medium heat until onions are soft and semi-translucent.  In food processor, combine soy sauce, mirin, teriyaki sauce, fish sauce and mango and puree.  Pour liquid sauce mixture over sauteed veggies in your wok.  Cook 2 minutes, then add beef.  Cook 2 minutes, then add bok choy.  Cook another 2-4 minutes until beef is cooked to a safe temperature, and bok choy has begun to soften.  Top stir fry dish with basil, cilantro and fresh cucumber.  Enjoy!

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Bickford's Amazeballs

24 oz lbs ground turkey

8 oz spicy Italian Sausage

1 bulb roasted garlic (crushed into a paste)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano (grated)

2 oz Tomato paste

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

2 TBSP high-quality, aged Balsamic vinegar of Modena

Salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, dried oregano to taste

Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a large plastic mixing bowl (USE YOUR HANDS!).  Form meatballs into whatever size your heart desires.  In a cast iron skillet, over medium high heat sear meatballs in oil of your choice (recommend grapeseed oil due to its high smoking point and mild flavor).  Once browned, set meatballs aside.  Grease a baking dish (I recommend 9x13) with extra virgin olive oil.  Add meatballs to dish.  Top with Bickford's Healthy Robust Tomato Sauce (or other inferior tomato sauce of your choice ;) )  Make sure tomatoes are adequately covered in sauce.  Bake in 275 degree oven for 2.5 hours.  Meatballs will be melt in your mouth tender, and full of flavor!  Enjoy!

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Healthy Robust Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

28 oz can crushed San Marzano tomatoes

14 oz can diced tomatoes (no salt added)

2 oz Tomato paste

1.5 Chopped Medium Yellow or Vidalia onions

2 Stalks chopped celery

1 chopped bell pepper (red, yellow green, your choice)

1 cup freshly chopped basil

1 cup freshly chopped parsley

1/2 cup diced roasted red peppers

5 cloves chopped garlic

3 TBSP Extra virgin olive oil

3 TBSP Aged balsamic vinegar of Modena

Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste.

Saute onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic on medium-low heat in extra virgin olive oil, add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Once onions are translucent, add roasted red pepper, crushed and diced tomatoes, and tomato paste.  Cook 30 minutes on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.  Add chopped basil and parsley.  Cook 2 hours on low heat, or until desired flavor/consistency  Add balsamic vinegar and stir.  Enjoy!

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The food color wheel.

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Breakfast for dinner!

With the Paleo diet, you can still eat your bacon and eggs, and be healthy doing it.  This balanced meal of 2 eggs, a few strips of crispy bacon, butternut squash, and sugar snap peas packs tons of protein, and is a well-rounded meal =)  *Health Tip*: Cook your bacon until crispy, as this renders out more fat than if it's still chewy.

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Spicy Sweet Potato Mash:

3 Sweet Potatoes, peeled

1 TBSP Salt

1 TBSP Smoked Paprika

1TBSP Ancho or Chipotle Chile powder

2TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 TBSP Cinnamon

1 TBSP Crushed Red Pepper Flakes or Cayenne Pepper

Chop sweet potatoes into 1 inch chunks.  In a bowl, combine extra virgin olive oil and spices.  Stir with spoon or mix with hands until all parts of sweet potatoes are coated with oil and spices.  Spread potatoes in non-stick cake pan or baking sheet (spray baking sheet or pan with non-stick spray or coat with small amount of extra virgin olive oil).  Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until soft.  At the half way point, stir potatoes as to cook evenly, and not burn on the tops or bottoms.  Strain potatoes of excess oil after cooked.  In a mixing bowl, mash potatoes until desired consistency.  Enjoy this sweet and spicy healthy treat!

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Asian Shrimp and Veggie Soup

This delicious soup is loaded with veggies and healthy nutrients!

Ingredients:

32 oz Organic Beef Stock (I recommend Emeril's)

8oz bottle of Clam Juice

1/2 Cup water

1 pound Raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined

1/4 Cup Organic lower-sodium Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup Mirin

1/4 Cup Nam Pla (Fish Sauce)

2 or 3 cups Chopped Bok Choy (or baby bok choy)

1 Cup Grated Carrots (or match-stick)

1/2 Cup Grated Yellow Squash

1/2 Cup Grated Zucchini

1/2 Cup Shiitake Mushrooms

1/2 Cup Oyster Mushrooms

1/2 Cup diagonally cut green onions

1/2 Cup sliced yellow onions

1/2 Cup Bean Sprouts

1 tablespoon diced ginger

2 Limes (zested, and juiced)

1/2 Cup Sliced Fresno/Jalapeno/Anaheim/Bell pepper (depending on how spicy you want your soup)

1/4 Cup Fresh Chopped Basil

1/4 Cup Fresh Chopped Cilantro

Sautee your veggies (not the bean sprouts, cilantro or basil in 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil until soft over medium heat.  Add Soy sauce, clam juice, fish sauce, Mirin, ginger, lime juice and zest, and water and bring to boil.  Once boiling, reduce to medium heat and let simmer for 20 minutes.  Add bok Choy, cilantro, basil, and shrimp.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Serve in bowl and top with bean sprouts.  Enjoy!

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Spicy Beef and Spinach:

This dish is packed with tons of protein, veggies, and nutrition! 

Saute 1 chopped yellow onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 can diced tomatoes (no salt added), 2 cups spinach and 3 cloves garlic in 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.  In a cast iron skillet, cook 1 lb 90% (or leaner) ground beef with mexican/southwestern seasoning mix (recipe listen in blog).

Combine sauteed veggies with cooked beef.  Top with small amount shredded cheese if desired.  This dish contains white, red and green veggies, with tons of protein from the lean ground beef.  Enjoy =)

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Healthy Veggie Dip

Tons of people out there LOVE their dips.  Whether it be for veggies, crackers, potato chips, or anything else, dips are absolutely delicious.  However, they're very rarely healthy for you.  If you love Hidden Valley Ranch, but hate how full of fat and calories it is, here's a much healthier alternative!  Take a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix, and mix it with plain Greek yogurt, and a squeeze of lemon juice.  This new dip is still full of flavor, but is fat free, and high in protein.  Slice up some carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, or any other veggies you like and dig in!

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The 10 Commandments of Fat Loss

Thou Shalt Plan Ahead.  It’s a no brainer – to be successful in any area of life, including fat loss, you must plan ahead.

Thou Shalt Eat Clean 90% of the Time.  This weekend we broke this "Commandment."  But you know what, it was part of our 10%.  The key is not that we enjoyed some cake (something people think we would NEVER touch) … the key is that we got right back to normal with the first meal this morning.  Eating cake, desserts, etc is fine … occasionally … as long as you bounce right back immediately after and get back to "normal."  Those types of foods become an issue when they’re more than "once in awhile" foods.  To make this more straightforward, if you eat 4 meals per day, 7 days/week that’s 28 total meals.  90% of 28 means 25ish meals are great choices and it leaves room for about 3 not so great meals. 

Thou Shalt Eat Breakfast Daily.  Simple.  Straightforward, but a MUST to lose fat, preserve muscle, and maintain the fat loss.  The key is making the right choices, which means a lean protein, some fruit and/or veggies (see #6 and 9)

Thou Shalt Eat Protein with EVERY Meal & Snack.  Protein helps fill you.  Protein helps you repair and recover from exercise.  Replacing junky carbs (white bread, sugar, cookies, pastries, etc) with lean protein is smart for permanent fat loss.

Thou Shalt Lift Weights.  Let’s face it — if you to get in the best shape of your life, you MUST include some type of resistance training. Cardio won’t cut it so if you’re running or walking for exercise and think that will transform your body, it won’t.  Maybe to you that means body weight training.  Fine.  You can certainly challenge yourself with the TRX like we do daily. 

Thou Shalt Eat Veggies with Each Meal.  Most people think you can only eat veggies at night … if at all.  Wrong.  Mix them into eggs like I do in this healthy breakfast video, add some to a wrap for lunch, use a wide variety for the base of your salads AND at dinner.  Not many foods in the diet provide more bang for your buck than veggies.

Thou Shalt Not Eat Cereal with Cartoons on the Box.  So while the "2nd Commandment" says to eat breakfast daily, it doesn’t mean eating sugar filled junk … and that’s exactly what the "cartoon on the box" cereals are so avoid ‘em like the plague.

Thou Shalt Move Daily.  While this may sound the same as the "4th Commandment" it’s not … this is in addition to training with weights.  Lifting weights is great, but let’s say you do that for 60 minutes per day (and that would even be pushing it for most people).  What are you doing the other 23 hours?  Usually sitting … all day at the office, all night in front of the TV.  If this is you, you’re an active couch potato.  Move as much as possible.  Take a walk at lunch time for half your break.  Get out after work, take the kids to the park, etc.  Just move.  As much as possible.

Thou Shalt Eat Fruit with Each Meal.  We often hear that fruit has too much sugar or certain fruits are off limits.  Couldn’t be further from the truth.  No one became overweight from eating too many fruits.  The more colors you eat, the better, so mix in a nice variety of dark colored fruits regularly).

Thou Shalt Only Eat Ingredients You Can Pronounce.  This means eating less packaged foods.  We had cake this weekend.  Kara made it.  From scratch.  And it was a pretty nice looking Elmo, if I say so myself!  This even goes for "energy" bars, shakes, or other pseudo health foods (yes, even the organic ones) that have a laundry list of ingredients. 

Print this list.  Keep it close to you and we guarantee that if you follow these "commandments" you’ll certainly be much better off with your weight, health, appearance, energy and pretty much everything else in life… http://www.mohrresults.com/mohr-results-weight-loss-2/10-commandments-of-fat-loss/

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51 Healthy Feel-Good Foods you should be eating

51 Foods You SHOULD Be Eating (in no particular order)

Spinach

Wild salmon (fresh and/or canned)

Blueberries

Raspberries

Swiss chard

Ginger

Walnuts

Pistachios

Barramundi (often called “the sustainable sea bass”) can be found in the frozen section of Whole Foods & has half the calories, yet equal omega 3′s to coho salmon)

Plain Greek yogurt

Apples

Red bell peppers

Yellow bell peppers

Orange bell peppers

Lean red meat (we prefer grass fed beef)

Whole Organic eggs (free-range are best)

Blackberries

Almonds

Sardines

Carrots

Black tea

Green tea

Pink grapefruit

Turmeric

Kale

Cauliflower

Red grapes

Raw Almonds or Cashews or Almond or Cashew butters

Coconut (either fresh, where you crack the shell or unsweetened, shredded)

Strawberries

Avocados

Tomatoes (raw and cooked as both have unique benefits)

Pumpkin (we often add canned, unsweetened 100% pure pumpkin to our smoothies)

Unsweetened, raw cocoa powder or cocoa nibs (we also often add to smoothies or Greek yogurt)

Pineapple

Sweet potatoes or yams (technically not the same, yet they’re often used interchangeably)

Romaine Lettuce

Tuna (raw, cooked, or canned.  Super high protein, super low fat)

Garlic

Broccoli

Red and green cabbage

Onions

Dark Cherries

Cinnamon or Cassia (both have unique benefits)

Bananas

Beets

Parsley

Mushrooms (all types)

Extra Virgin Coconut and Olive oils (replace other less healthy fats with these, don’t simply add these to the diet)

Bean or Brussels Sprouts

Coffee (without sugar, cream and everything else)

It's important to eat a variety of different foods for optimal nutrition.  Replace other, less healthy foods with these tremendous food choices, and watch your body fat melt away, while you feel great!