July 2010

What’s the best way to lose weight?

It’s a frequently asked question in this land of expanding waistlines.

And every diet guru believes his/her approach is the best.

There are hundreds of books and programs all claiming their’s is the best weight loss plan and many offer contradictory advice – cut the carbs, flush the fat, go vegetarian, eat like a caveman, count calories.

It can be confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming, to say the least.

Best Selling Best Ways to Lose Weight

If you are like me – curious and on the lookout for the “perfect” way to eat and lose weight – you may have tried lots of different weight loss plans and read more diet books than you want to admit. My personal diet history includes: Atkins, Best Life, Blood Type, Body for Life, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Fat Flush, Flat Belly, Glycemic Index, Marilu Henner’s Total Health Makeover, The Mediterranean Diet, The Omega Diet, Pritikin, Rosedale, Schwarzbein, Sonoma, South Beach, Special K, Sugar Busters, Suzanne Somers, Ultrametabolism, Volumetrics, Weight Watchers, and The Zone. (I am sure there are more that I have forgotten – since my diet history dates back to 1976!)

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When I saw this recipe for tomatoes, basil and brown rice in the Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family I knew I wanted to try it.

It’s the perfect salad to make during the summer, when tomatoes are at their flavorful best.

If you are on the lookout for easy healthy recipes this fits the bill. With just a handful of ingredients you can make it in minutes, especially if you have leftover brown rice in the refrigerator.

Cooking up a large pot of beans, or brown rice, or lentils, or quinoa once or twice a week to have on hand in the fridge can be a real time saver at meal time.

At the moment I have both a stash of cranberry beans and brown rice available.

With brown rice in the refrigerator and tomatoes and basil on the counter, I was able to whip up this wholesome brown rice salad in less than ten minutes.

Tomato, Basil and Brown Rice Salad

Tomato, Basil and Brown Rice Salad

To make this salad a day ahead, leave out the basil until you are ready to serve it, then stir it in at the last minute. (You may need to adjust the seasonings again too.)

If you are like me and find it difficult to cook rice, you may want to do what I did – invest in a Rice Cooker. It’s made my life so much simpler.

Sticky and/or scorched rice are now a thing of the past. In the meantime, if you need a little extra brown rice cooking guidance, here is a great blog post from Pinch My Salt for How to Make Perfect Brown Rice on the stove.

Tomatoes, Basil & Brown Rice Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes (or none with leftover rice in the fridge)
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

The super simple salad recipe calls for champagne or rice wine vinegar. Since I had neither I substituted red wine vinegar with good results. I also used honey instead of sugar.

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1/4 cup champagne or rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves, chopped

Preparation

Bring 2 1/4 cups water to a boil and add the rice and 1 teaspoon salt. Return to a boil, cover, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed. Transfer rice to a large bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, remaining teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Pour mixture over the rice. Add the chopped tomatoes and basil. Mix well and adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes. This salad is best served at room temperature.

More Easy Salad Recipes

Shrimp Salad Recipes Easy & Delicious – a great collection of easy recipes for shrimp salad
Egg Salad Recipe – a great simple egg salad recipe with lots of ideas for delicious variations
Easy Green Salad – a simple green salad of shredded romaine and dill with a lemon vinaigrette
Easy Corn Salad - a simple salad of corn, tomatoes and basil perfect for summer when they’re in season
Homemade Salad Dressings - A great collection of easy homemade salad dressings for topping simple green salads
Pasta Salad  Recipe – one of my favorite cold pasta salads
Old Fashioned Potato Salad Recipe – a classic creamy potato salad with lots of great flavor

 

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15 Recipes for Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

July 23, 2010

Is it possible to occasionally indulge in healthy chocolate chip cookies that taste good? Yes, and I have gathered more than a dozen recipes for healthier chocolate chip cookies to prove it. Prefer cookie bars? Here’s a yummy recipe for Low-Fat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with only 3 WW PointsPlus that will make you [...]

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Healthy Weight Loss Tips

July 20, 2010

What are the secrets to healthy weight loss? Losing weight and getting healthy is about more than just what you eat. To get healthy for a lifetime, we need to change our relationship with food and with ourselves. When we change the focus to getting healthy instead of losing weight, we learn to really nourish [...]

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Free E-Cookbooklet Full of Healthy Granola Bar Recipes

July 16, 2010

I’ve got a FREE gift for you – my first ever e-cookbooklet full of favorite recipes for healthy homemade granola bars. (Don’t you just love getting free healthy recipes?) This 22 page cookbooklet has 11 easy recipes for homemade granola bars, a great recipe for applesauce granola cookies, and two homemade healthy granola recipes, along [...]

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