Spinach Soufflé

By Dr. John M. Berardi, PhD and Dr. John K. Williams, PhD, authors of the bestselling optimal nutrition book, Gourmet Nutrition.

Given the excellent nutritional properties of spinach, it would be a shame to restrict our intake of this leafy green to the occasional salad. Anyone who’s ever cooked spinach quickly realizes that a giant mound of fresh spinach reduces to a tenth of its original size. So unless you enjoy eating Volkswagen-sized salads, some cooking is in order.

Most people’s preconception of cooked spinach is the slimy stuff that Popeye pulls from a can. Judging spinach on the basis of the canned variety is like dismissing the entire Beatle’s White Album because of the song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”. Don’t torture yourself; fast forward to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and pull a nice spinach soufflé out of the oven. Life is good.

Ingredients

2 packages frozen spinach (10 oz. each), thawed and drained
1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
½ cup egg whites
1 tsp baking powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
Dash of ground nutmeg (1/8 tsp)
Salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees F.

Combine spinach, cottage cheese, egg whites, garlic, nutmeg, and salt/pepper in a blender or food processor. Blend until you have the desired consistency. For a more textured final product, blend just until mixed. For a smoother dish, blend thoroughly.

Stir the parmesan cheese and baking powder into the blended mixture, and then pour everything into a casserole dish coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly set. Test to see if it’s done by shaking the dish slightly: the center should not jiggle.

Makes a large meal for one, or 2 servings as a side dish.

Nutritional information (entire dish)

Tips: Preparing your spinach; soufflé in a hurry

Be sure to thaw your spinach entirely before preparing this dish. This can be done in the microwave, or simply by placing the spinach in the fridge for a couple of days. Squeeze as much of the water from the spinach as you can before mixing.

If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to bake it in an oven, use a microwave safe casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap, and cook on high for 3 minutes. Release the steam, recover, and cook on high for another 3 minutes, or until thoroughly cooked.

*Disclaimer: cooking this dish in a microwave is vastly inferior to the taste of the oven-cooked version. Do yourself a favor and spend the extra 15 minutes to cook it in the oven.

Food Fact: The power of spinach

Spinach and other leafy greens pack an incredible amount of nutrients into each calorie compared to other foods. There are at least 13 different flavonoid compounds in spinach that function as anti-oxidants and anti-cancer agents. In addition, spinach contains a carotenoid called neoxanthin, which both combats and helps prevent prostate cancer. Need more? Spinach is also one of the best sources of the elusive vitamin K, which helps maintain bone health. Anti-inflammatory nutrients, protecting the brain from oxidative stress, better eyesight…the list of benefits from spinach is seemingly infinite.

Want to change your body — while still eating meals that taste this good?

If you want to build the body you never thought you could have, start eating the meals you never thought you could eat! The Gourmet Nutrition book contains over 100 recipes and a no-nonsense nutrition plan that will show you how to make it work. Find about more about the Gourmet Nutrition book

Recipe: Frittata

A frittata is a type of Italian omelette that frequently features fillings such as meats, cheeses, and vegetables. Like a traditional French omelette, a frittata is prepared in a skillet. However, whereas an omelette is cooked on a stovetop and served folded, a frittata is first partially cooked on a stovetop but then finished under the grill (broiler) and served open-faced.

-    Wikipedia

1. Preheat your oven to the top broil setting.
2. Add whatever veggies you want: onions, mushrooms, red pepper, yellow pepper, spinach, broccoli, etc.
3. Add some meat: bacon, turkey bacon, chicken, pork, sausage, or any meat that you have left over.
4. Cook in a little bit of oil, olive oil not extra virgin olive oil, in a non-stick OVEN SAFE pan. If you’re using spinach, throw it in at the end and just stir until it wilts.
5. Whip as many eggs/egg whites as want and pour into pan.
6. Throw a little shredded cheese on top.
7. Let cook without stirring, until bottom is firm, but top is still gooey.
8. Put in oven and let broil for about 4 minutes or until top is getting a little golden and puffy.
9. Take out, let sit. Eat.
10. Marvel at how damn tasty it is.

The mixture should be about an inch deep or so in the pan for the best effect.

Time saving tip:
Make this in a larger pan and reheat a portion for a few seconds in the microwave later.

5 More Fat Burning Tips for You

5 More Fat Burning Tips for You

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

At this time of year, we can use every last tip to help avoid
holiday weight gain.

So here are 5 more fat loss tips for beginner & advanced readers.

1) No liquid calories (with the exception of a post-workout drink).

Get rid of all the juices, the sodas, and the sports drinks. Liquid
sugar is the last thing you need when you are trying to lose fat.

You must also limit your alcohol intake - especially if you are
adding mix to drinks…that is a double calorie bomb! A single “Jackand Coke” is over 200 calories (100 calories from booze and 100 calories from mix).

2) No fast food.

Do not eat at fast food restaurants. Even if you choose what you
think is healthy, remember this:

Fast food restaurants are all about profit.

And in order to profit while giving you cheap, quick, and easy to
prepare foods, the quality of the food ingredients will be poor -
especially the protein.

Now you might have read that you can still make healthy choices at fast food restaurants. But you know what, that’s just
politically-correct opinion. If it’s fast food, it’s poor food.

Walking into a burger joint and grabbing a chicken breast on a
white bread bun with a piece of old lettuce and a half-green,
half-pink tomato is “barely” healthy eating.

The politically-incorrect truth is that it’s going to take time and
effort to eat properly. You will have to plan, shop, and prepare
healthy meals. You will have to spend time cleaning, cutting, and
cooking your food. That’s the truth.

But believe me, it will taste so much better than fast food, and
healthy eating will make you more alert. Eating fast food will make you feel terrible, and will make you want to have an afternoon nap at your desk.

Make one small improvement to your nutrition everyday for the rest of your life.

3) Eat more fruits and vegetables.

If you are eating 2 servings per day, then go up to 4 servings per day by the end of the week. And even if you think you are doing great by having 5 servings per day, you still need to double that (take 2-3 weeks to work your way up to 10 servings per day).

Stick with fiber-rich fruits and vegetables - organic if possible.

4) Eat 1oz of almonds or walnuts per day (1/2 oz in the AM, and the other half in the afternoon).

Most nuts are roasted in oils (possible source of trans fats), so
stick to natural or dry-roasted nuts.

Don’t panic…this small amount of nuts won’t make you fat, but will fill you up and help you lose weight.

5) Be consistent with your workouts.

And make sure the workouts are efficient and effective. To make it easy for you to follow, stick with the Turbulence Training fat burning workout system.

It doesn’t matter if you train in the morning before or after
breakfast, or at night before or after dinner, or at 1pm on days
when the moon is in line with Saturn…don’t worry about the
details, just train consistently.

Click here to get Turbulence Training
==> http://www.turbulencetraining.com

6) BONUS TIP: Go for a walk after lunch or dinner (or anytime you eat a big meal). Research shows this will help you control your cholesterol and triglycerides, plus any movement is better than sitting around watching the TV and snacking.

Improve your lifestyle everyday,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS - Change your workouts to beat a fat loss plateau.

“The constant shakeup is amazing. I look forward to my workouts. I feel so much better than I did 6 weeks ago. I had almost given up on fitness as I was becoming very frustrated with my plateaus. I started out at 233 lbs and am already heading for 225 in only a few short weeks. Thank you for developing this truly amazing program and for sharing with the rest of us. It’s very refreshing to enjoy working out again!”
Dave Heffernan

“Turbulence Training is AWESOME! I started working out in 2004 first time in gym at 39 yrs. Then I discovered T.T. in 2006 and started receiving unbelievable info on xercises/nutrition. Immediately I started incorporating T.T. in my busy schedule which is improving my strength, definition, flexibility and nutrition. Craig is quick to reply to questions and supportive. My confidence and strength has definitely improved. If I only knew of Turbulence Training in 2004. The gym crowd is really checking me out now.”
Kimmie Clark

“I lost 14 pounds this month and the weight is just falling off me.
My wife says I now look like when we first met and I still have
more to go. I can fit into my old jeans again which is a big deal
for me. I just cut back on starches and bread and do your routine 2-3 times a week. I never thought in a million years that just 10-20 minutes of weight training followed by some cardio would get me such steady results. I even cheat a bit on the weekends.”
Billy Williams

Turn your health around with Turbulence Training:
==> http://www.turbulencetraining.com
About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Gourmet Nutrition Desserts

Do you like to eat desserts? If so, then you will enjoy John Berardi Gourmet Nutrition Desserts EBook and the best part about this book is it free. The Gourmet Nutrition Desserts Ebook, is full of “Precision Nutrition approved” dessert recipes, that are beautiful photography. It is 44 pages long, includes 15 desserts recipes and come with hints on how to eat the foods you love without gaining the fat you hate.

Some of the recipes that I have tried and like so far are: the Peach Mango Cobbler, Lemon Cheesecake and the Mixed Nuts Cookies. Now, come on who doesn’t like cheesecake? Especially when it is good for you.

Note: Click on the “Download Gourmet Nutrition Desserts (PDF)” link, as the image link does not work. I have sent an email to the author about this problem.

Also, if you enjoy the free edition of Gourmet Nutrition, you should check out Gourmet Nutrition 2.0. Gourmet Nutrition: The Cookbook for the fit food lover, is over 6 times longer then the free edition, at 280+ pages, and has 100+ new recipes, to help please your inner fatty.