Food For Thought - A Delish HEALTHY Dinner

People often ask me for ideas on meals that will be healthier but still be enjoyable. It is pretty well known that I have always enjoyed entertaining, from parties to dinners with friends. In my younger days I would throw parties where I served things like ham and cream cheese rolls, chips with salsa/cream cheese spread, brownies, cookies, sandwiches loaded down with processed luncheon meat and cheese, loaves of bread baked with kielbasa in the center, 7 layer dip... you get the idea. You can also probably tell how I ballooned up to 205 pounds - I ate the majority of the food at the party and ALL o f the leftovers.

So making the change to a healthier lifestyle made it a little complicated. You still want to entertain but you have to feed people food that they will like. It just takes some time, some thought, a little preparation. A lot of the time it's just a question of changing one little thing or another. When I entertain I almost always serve some kind of poultry or fish. Then I add a green and I find something festive to top it with.

In this video, you will see that I have served chicken breast that I trimmed all of the fat off of and grilled. There are so many healthy alternatives to cooking chicken these days that don't involve frying. I'm not a fan of baking, either, because the chicken just sits and cooks in its' own fat. So I use a Nuwave oven (I've mentioned it in previous blogs and you can find it on the internet) but you can use a George Foreman or an outdoor grill or, at the very least, a broiling pan. You can spice up your chicken any way you like. I tend to be rather traditional; I like onion and garlic and crushed red pepper. I buy dried spices from an international market near my home but you can get anything from the spice aisle at the store. Mrs Dash makes some good sodium free spices. Sodium really isn't necessary and it's not good for you. So I spice up my chicken and I grill it. Once on the plate, I drizzle a pretty pattern of hummus over it. Now, I admit it: I have not learned how to make hummus but Jennifer tells me it is really easy. So I buy an all natural hummus from the health food store - nothing with lots of additives and preservatives. Then I put it in a pastry bag and decorate the poultry.

Now that your meat course is done, you can focus on the vegetable. I steam almost everything; but Pat and I have found that tossing some vegetables in a little olive oil and spices, they can grill up really nicely. In this video I have some asparagus that is steamed so it is still crunchy and not baby food. On top of it I put a little mixture of red peppers, sliced up fresh garlic and cherry tomatoes that have been cooked down a little in some olive oil and dusted with some grinds of fresh pepper (start with the garlic slices, cook them til they start to look a little crisp and then add the peppers and a minute later, the tomatoes). Ta da. Meat. Veggies.

Now.

Dessert.

I took some light sour cream and an entire orange and put them through the blender with some scoops of ISOPURE peach mango protein powder. You have to play around with it and find a texture and taste that works for you. When the protein powder made it taste a little chalky, I add another orange or some fresh squeezed orange juice. Once you have found the texture and taste that appeals to you, put it in a flat tupperware or baking dish and put it in the freezer, checking back every ten or so minutes. Once it starts to harden, scrape it back from the top. It makes a nice kind of ice that you can scoop into a dish and serve with an orange wedge on top.

Healthy. Yummy.

What more do you need?

Guests.