Love pop art and supporting your community hospital? Bid on four pieces from artist Steve Kaufman, former assistant to Andy Warhol, during the Carroll Hospital Auxiliary Ball’s online auction.
Baked Chicken Veronique
Grape season is here! A choice fruit for late summer, grapes are full of powerful antioxidants. Many of us are familiar with the study that came out years ago that left the media presenting the suggestion that we should drink one glass of red wine a day for our heart health. This is because the powerful antioxidant resveratrol has been shown to help prevent damage to blood vessels and reduce out “bad” cholesterol, known as LDL. However, alcohol is considered a toxin and can be damaging to our health. So how do we get resveratrol in our diet without red wine? Grapes. You can also find it in other fruits, such as blueberries and blackberries. Grapes are a common snack, but most people don’t use them in their cooking. This recipe is a unique sweet and savory way to cook with grapes and get some heart-healthy antioxidants in your system!
Corn Salad
Corn gets a bad reputation for spiking blood sugar, but there are benefits to this misunderstood starchy vegetable. Corn is a good source of fiber, which can actually help reduce an extreme fluctuation in blood sugar. This recipe has extra fiber added through the additional veggies, and the protein from the cottage cheese can also help reduce blood sugar spikes. Corn is also a good source of nutrients, such as zeaxanthin and lutein, which are carotenoids that may help improve eye health.
Zacusca (Eggplant Pepper Spread)
Eggplant may be a challenging vegetable for many to cook. It doesn’t have a ton of flavor on its own, but it does a great job of soaking up the flavors of other things. Think of eggplant as a flavor sponge. This is one of the reasons you’ll see it baked or grilled as a cooking method, because it soaks up all that deep smoky flavor. An eggplant is mostly water, so it doesn’t have much caloric value. While it’s not very nutritionally dense as far as vitamins and minerals, it does have a decent amount of fiber and is rich in phytochemicals, such as anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants. These are particularly dense in the skin of the eggplant.
Traditionally, zacusca recipes remove the skin from the eggplant, but if you’re using a food processor, the skins will break down into the spread. Just give them a rough chop first. Alternatively, you can stuff your leftover skins like you would a stuffed cabbage. Then if you topped that off with the zacsuca, what a meal that would make!
Eight Tips for Breastfeeding Success
While expecting a baby, you think about getting the room prepared, picking names, registering for gifts and maybe taking a childbirth class. But, after having a baby, many parents wish they would have learned more about breastfeeding and how to be successful.
In honor of National Breastfeeding Month, here are eight tips I wish someone had told me about breastfeeding when I was young (and not a lactation consultant!):
Take a breastfeeding class before delivery.
Carroll Hospital offers a virtual class once a month. Breastfeeding is natural, but there is a learning curve for all new mothers and their infants.
It’s all about the latch!
Breastfeeding should not hurt if the infant latches properly with a wide-open mouth. Have the lactation consultant work with you in the hospital during your stay.
Learn different ways to hold the baby as you nurse.
Lying down to nurse can be helpful when you are tired.
Feed throughout the night at first.
This will help bring in an excellent milk supply and assure that your baby will start gaining weight quickly.
Babies are fussy, irritable and eat a lot the second day and night.
Feeding frequently is called cluster feeding. It is normal newborn behavior. The baby needs to cluster feed to bring in your milk supply. It is exhausting, but it will not last too long.
Use it or lose it.
The best way to make more milk is to feed the baby. An “empty” breast makes more milk.
Don’t wait too long to introduce a bottle.
By 3 to 4 weeks of age introduce a bottle of your pumped breastmilk to your baby and learn how to pace bottle feed (which gives your baby more control of the feeding pace).
Attend a breastfeeding support group.
Mother-to-mother support is so helpful to continuing your journey and help you meet your goals! Carroll Hospital’s breastfeeding support group meets weekly.
Angela Baublitz, RN, IBCLC, is a lactation consultant in Carroll Hospital’s Family Birthplace.
No Sugar Added Watermelon Ice Pops
We all love an icy-sweet treat in the end-of-summer heat, but balancing our sugar intake with healthy foods can be a challenge. Here is your answer: fruits! There’s been a rumor going around that we need to limit our fruit intake because of the all the sugar found in fruit. This is not true.
Although fruits have naturally occurring sugars, they also contain a ton of other things that are beneficial to our health, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidant phytochemicals. Added sugar is the real culprit we want to watch out for, as it comes with the same energy punch, but lacks all the other nutritional benefits that fruit has—and it’s more likely to cause a spike in blood sugar.
Added sugars are also sneaky; they aren’t just in sweets. You can find them in savory things like salad dressing, soups, pasta sauces, breads and crackers. So always check your food label. The daily limit for added sugar is a about 6 teaspoons (24g) for women and 9 teaspoons (36g) for men, while children 2 years of age and older should stay below 6 teaspoons of added sugar, and children under two should avoid it as much as possible (excluding infant formula.)
Crunchy Parmesan Kale Salad
It’s easy to get stuck in the same old salad routine. It’s time to add some pizzaz to your greens with this crunchy, cheesy kale salad recipe. Kale can be difficult for some people to introduce into their diet. It’s high fiber, which is great for your health, but it’s difficult to chew; it also has a strong, bitter taste. This recipe calls for a technique called massaging. It’s exactly how it sounds. With clean hands, squeeze and squish the kale with your dressing. This does two things. One is that manually squeezing physically helps to break the fiber in the leaves, making the kale more tender. The acidity of the dressing will also help with this. The crushing also impacts the flavor, making the kale less bitter while maintaining its nutrition. You can use this technique on all sorts of bitter greens in your salad. Try this technique with arugula, mustard greens, chard or collards.
Refreshing Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce
It is HOT out, and all the hefty meats and sides that come with barbecue season can leave us feeling sluggish and tired. This recipe is a great break from that feeling. It’s light and refreshing, giving you the energy to move through the heat of summer.
Spring rolls are a great way to get in a ton of nutrition-dense veggies and include some antioxidant rich herbs like mint, cilantro or basil as well. This dish also packs in the plant-based protein and heart-healthy fats between the tofu and the peanut sauce—plus it’s so easy and fun to make!
White Bean Pizza Dip
Tomato season is coming in, and many are looking for new creative ways to use tomatoes. This bean dip is high in fiber and protein but still gives the cheesy satisfaction of pizza. This recipe would also make a great topping for grilled or baked chicken or shrimp. Pair with a fresh salad, and you have a delicious and healthy summer meal the whole family will love.
Mason Jar Soup
Meal prep can get boring — chicken with brown rice and broccoli, or some leftover dinner— same old, same old. This meal prep idea is fresh and unique and provides a healthy alternative to a classic meal you might remember from your college days: Cup o’ Noodles! … except this version is packed with nutrition.
This recipe leaves room for you to get creative with your veggies; you can really add anything you want. Have you heard the phrase “eat the rainbow” before? Every color in our veggies correlates to a different set of nutrients, and if we “eat the rainbow,” we get in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients to optimize our health. I encourage you to try some new colored veggies when you make this mason jar noodle soup. Top it off with a soft-boiled egg to make this meal prep extra satisfying.