0 Want to Lose Weight? Ice Cream Cone Awesomeness!

Ice cream cones are far from a whole food, void of nutrients, and lack even a bit of fiber!  So what is so great about them?

Ice Cream Cones are an awesome tool for PORTION CONTROL and FUN (for kids, AND adults!), with a cost of very few calories!

Chocolate Covered Katie's Cherry Garcia!

Consider single serving cheeses (Babybel and Laughing Cow) and these cookie packets (Almond Addictives)!  Similar to these products, you can have a "cone" of ice cream and be done!  You can actually eat the "half-cup" serving suggested on food labels without it looking like a pea in a jar.

You can also use a SMALLER DISH for meals; you need less food to fill your plate -- fool yourself into satisfaction after eating less :)  Check out this video if you could use a laugh :)

Homemade ice cream is often very healthy, so you won't even have to worry about portion control!  No matter what, you're going to have very few ingredients, and it's likely that most ingredients will be very healthy :)

Chocolate Covered Katie and Melissa of My Whole Food Life have some great recipes! Yikes!  Check out Katie's Frozen Treats! and ice cream recipes under Melissa's Dessert Recipes!

Here is a machine you can try for making ice cream from fruit the Yonanas Ice Cream Treat Maker (also available at Target)!

Try raspberry sorbet! or make it with frozen mango!

Maybe some day I will get an ice cream maker!

If you're CHOOSING an ice cream to buy, look for few ingredients, look for wholesome sounding ingredients, choose something delicious, and just eat, ENJOY a half-cup serving in (or out of) a cone, and be done!  NO GUILT, please.

COMMENTS: What is your favorite part of summer?  You don't have to pick just one thing!  I love the warm weather, relaxing pool days, the beach!, less schedule, ...can't think of anything I DON'T like about summer!  Though it's not my favorite!  Fall wins, but it is a photo finish!  ...ok I'll stop :~ Your turn!

Detail: Want to Lose Weight? Ice Cream Cone Awesomeness!

0 Tasty Tomato Sandwich

Simple, yet satisfying.

Tasty Tomato Sandwich

1 wedge Laughing Cow Low-Fat Swiss Cheese wedge
1 fresh tomato, or a handful of grape tomatoes
2 slices whole wheat bread (Ezekiel bread works great!)

Toast bread, spread cheese, slice tomatoes, and enjoy!
A little pepper tastes great on it too!



LAUGHING COW cheese's greatest benefit is it's PORTION CONTROL -- only 35 calories!  -- find it at Costco for a bargain, or nearly all grocery stores!  For other great Costco pick's click HERE!

Fresh TOMATOES are high in potassium, vitamins A, C, and E.  They also have some lycopene, though you can get a lot more of this and other phytochemicals in tomatoes by cooking the tomatoes -- like in pasta sauce and salsa!  The small amount of fat in the cheese will help to absorb some of these valuable nutrients, which help with anything from cancer prevention to weight loss!

A great article about the benefits of tomatoes is written by Dr Leo Galland, author of Power Healing: Use the New Integrated Medicine to Cure Yourself and you can read it HERE!

For more recipes with cooked tomatoes try:

Easy Eggplant Parmesan
Healthy Mexican Lasagna
Chicken Guacamole Pizza
Mexican Fiesta Bowl (2-minute Friday Night Dinner)
Super-Easy Guacamole

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

First of all how do you get it?  Look at the INGREDIENTS LIST.  The FIRST ingredient should be WHOLE wheat or WHOLE grain.  The word ENRICHED should NOT be on the ingredients.

If you get a product like this, you will find that your bread will have:
MORE FIBER
MORE PROTEIN
MORE vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals!

SHARE IF YOU DARE!  Do you like your tomatoes better raw or cooked?  Or not at all?  What is your favorite veggie?

Detail: Tasty Tomato Sandwich

0 Colleen's Costco Cart

I LOVE Costco -- check out some healthy Costco Choices!  These are some things I got on my last big (photographed) trip to Costco.  It was expensive, but lots of this stuff lasts a LONG TIME.

 

These DAIRY choices provide lots of vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein, and minimal saturated fat.  As often as possible, choose LOW-FAT, or NON-FAT versions of dairy because the SATURATED fat that's harmful to your heart, arteries, and brain comes primarily from animal products.  HEALTHY FATS come from plant sources.  Read a bit about KEFIR and YOGURT benefits HERE :)

 

Above are some products that are not only low in saturated fat, but also provide PORTION control!  Eat one piece any way you like it and then your done!

 

Costco often offers ORGANIC fresh and frozen options, and this is amazing -- they are often LESS expensive than the conventional version at your regular grocery store!  Corn, broccoli, and berries are three examples of organic for a super-BARGAIN!!  The more WE keep buying organic, the cheaper organic will be -- so stock up!!  In the meantime, read #11 in this post for a simple way to clean produce!

 

Organic greens: salad, spinach, and baby kale, as well as organic carrots from the fresh produce section are awesome -- great price, great food!

Organic strawberries are more expensive, still they are a good place to spend your money, if you choose.  Strawberries are a fruit that is normally a lot higher in pesticide content.  Also, as you might guess, organic strawberries are a steal at Costco compared to wherever else you'll find organic strawberries.

Avocados are an awesome deal at Costco.  It's basically buy 4, get one free, or better, compared to other stores.  If you worry that you couldn't use that many, check out how they can last up to 3 weeks or more (including ripening time) HERE!  Also, avocado BENEFITS HERE!

 

FARRO and BLACK wild rice are great alternatives to your usual healthy grains.  Farro can be used in place of and prepared similarly to rice.  My pickiest child once said “this is my most favorite grain!” when enjoying some farro!

Get a huge supply of popcorn from Costco -- great for stove top or air-popping popcorn! Then, if you haven't yet, try lime-pepper popcorn right away!

I haven’t mastered the whole dried bean-soaking-cooking process, but we’ll talk more about that one day soon!  It is certainly a great way to save money, and storage space!  Above is a lovely mix of dried beans and lentils.

Costco’s brand, Kirkland, has come up with a whole-grain sandwich thin that is just like Arnold’s Sandwich Thins, which are a great grain option, high in fiber, and low in calories :)

 

These are two great snack options, especially for SCHOOL LUNCHES!  Both products have NO-SUGAR ADDED and contain FIBER, vitamins, and minerals!  Perfect alternatives to fruit roll-ups and fruit snacks!

Stretch Island Fruit Strips come in grape, strawberry, raspberry, apple, cherry, and apricot (the last 2 are my favorite flavors!).  Individual packages are convenient and FUN for KIDS!

These Mariani dried apricots are delicious!  Check 'em out more closely HERE!

 

Some healthy FATS!  Natural peanut butter -- no sugar or hydrogenated oils!  Currently, made from conventional peanuts, since the peanut shortage, but hopefully this is a temporary change.  Either way, the container is even bigger now, and a super-BARGAIN compared to prices at regular grocery stores!  For a bit more about peanuts read HERE!

Pine nuts are great for PESTO -- recipe to come on another day -- so you can have homemade pesto in a flash, delicious and nutritious!!  Great in summer when you can grow your own basil, or get some from a green-thumbed friend who does!

 

Here are some great SAUCE options!  Want a healthy MEAL in a flash -- just prepare a nice healthy pasta (a whole-grain variety, or cook any pasta al dente -- like the Italians -- to slow the absorption!), and a quick veggie, and a meal is ready!

To read more about pasta sauce click here!  The orange sauce is an eggplant product -- to read more about the health benefits of eggplant read here!

SHARE IF YOU DARE: What do you love at Costco? What foods and ways do you make the large Costco quantities not go to waste?

Detail: Colleen's Costco Cart