Welcome to Heart Tips Tuesday, with recipe and products

Good Morning Sweet Friends,

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How are you this fine day???  

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I am laughing to myself because you are not up yet,

it is 2:30 in the morning.  lol  

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I am having one of those delightful nights,  where I was

tired when I went to bed, but as soon as my head hit

the pillow,  I don't know what happens I am just wide

awake.  Tried praying for awhile and thought surely

that would do it,  but to no avail,  so decided I might

as well give it up and do something constructive.

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Welcome to Heart Tips Tuesday!!

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Today I am gonna be talking about the things you

are suppose to eat daily on the Mediterrean diet.

If you want to see the Mediterrean diet pyramid click here.

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The first thing is dairy products, milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage

cheese are basically the dairy products we use.  I believe they

 use whole fat products, but we only use low-fat products.

and you are allowed 2 servings a day, since we eat lowfat

products I don't worry so much about the servings.

We don't go crazy of course,  but we may eat 3-4

some days.

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 We use 1% milk, 2% cheese,  1% cottage cheese, mainly

 cause I use it in lasagna or italian dishes  that have other cheese

 as well, and it just says lowfat on the yogurt.  I got hungry so

 decided to go get one.  Yum!!  Strawberry!!

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We use the flavored and it has sugar, but it sure is good.

If you can handle the plain and add your own fruit

then that is great,  and go for it!  Cause that is even

better for you, way less sugar.

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Next is oils,  and the Mediterrean diet sticks basically

with olive oil,  which is what we do.  The only other

oils we get is when we eat something that already 

has some other oil like soybean or sunflower oil,

or whatever the product has, just as long as it

does not have hydrogenated or partially Hydro-

genated oils, palm oil or palm kernel oil.

For more details about that you can click here,
and scroll down just a little.
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You are allowed 3 servings of fruit daily,  and
it is good if you vary the fruit rather than eat
the same kind all day.  We also drink about
an 8oz. glass of grape juice with dinner most
evenings, has the same great affect as wine.
Just make sure it has no sugar added, and it
usually has the heart assoc. sign on the bottle
as well. Believe me,  it is pretty sweet tasting
so you want miss the sugar.  
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It is funny how each person has their favorites,
and as a married couple they are usually
different,  but we are both trying to eat a
variety and learning to eat things like cherries
and honeydew, and mangos, and avocados.
Avocados are great source of nutrients and fats.
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Making fruit salads are a great way to get
that variety you need.  We get a fruit
salad from publix during the summer months
that is to die for, absolutely delicious.
It is watermelon, cantelope, honeydew,
strawberries and pineapple.  A wonderful
salad that you can have on hand when you
get hungry and really great if you have
been working in the yard and are hot.
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Also one of our all time favorites is
Waldorf salad,
and here is the recipe.
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2 apples,  I use gala or red delicious, and
granny smith apples (1 red, 1 green)
I leave the peels on,  just wash them good.
or of course, if you don't enjoy the peel by
all mean remove it.
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4 stalks of celery cleaned and sliced 
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raisens,  just eyeball it,  make sure you have
plenty interspered in there.
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grapes, (optional),  ocassionally I add them and it
is very good. I usually cut them in half.
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Mix the salad all together with 
"Light Hellmans Mayonaise"
You want it coated lightly not gobbed on,
but enough you can taste it.
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Once it is all stirred up and the fruit
is covered with the Mayo,  then add
either chopped pecans or walnuts to the top.
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and Enjoy!!  Makes a great lunch with
crackers and cheese too,  or you can
have it with a meal.
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Next up is Veggies,  you need to have 5-6
servings daily according to the Med. diet. and
almost any diet or eating plan really. In fact,
some say 6-9 a day.  The more veggies the better, 
 I find that if I am starting to get a lil carb heavy cause
I am not eating enough veggies and have maybe
 gained a pound or two,  just as soon as I pick up
 on the veggies I start to loose weight.
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You really can have all the veggies you want.
You only need a half cup to make a serving,
and a whole cup if it is green leafy vegetables
like romaine.  Did you know that iceberg
lettuce has less nutrional value than Romaine
 and other lettuces,  so if you like iceberg lettuce
it is a good idea to mix it with some romaine,
other lettuce, or spinach. 
Or just choose romaine or spinach or
other types of lettuce like bibb or leaf lettuce.
The veggies are not the problem it is what
we put on the veggies that is the problem.
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We have gone to making a lot of roasted 
veggies and love them.  Just cut up whatever
veggies you want throw them in a bowl
put olive oil, salt, pepper, and granulated
garlic on them,  and mix.  Then put them
on a cookie sheet and cook them for about
20 mins or so in a 350 degree oven, or you can
 also do them on the grill in the spring and summer.. 
 You will love them!
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We also eat brocoli and cauliflower raw now,
with ranch dip.  I am working on a new
ranch dip,  cause the one we used to get
at Sam's that only had 1 gram of Sat. fat
and was made with canola oil,  they have
quit carrying much to our chagrin!!
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You can look for it at your market tho,
because it is the best ranch dressing
we have ever had, and who knows they may
 carry it in your stores. The brand is "lighthouse"
and it is called Homestyle ranch.
they also have a jalapeno ranch we have
bought at Target supercenter, which is also very
 good.They also carry other types of ranch dressing
 as well,  but we didn't like them as much.
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And last but not least is the non-refined cereals
and products.  Use only whole-grains:  breads,
cereals, pastas and brown rice.  I am not
 particularly fond of brown rice so what I
do is mix white and brown rice half and half,
and that works well for me.  You are allowed
8 servings a day. We love breads,  and we have
really learned to love these wholegrain breads
and cereals,  and they have multigrain pastas
as well.  I really don't like the whole wheat
ones as much,  something about the taste doesn't
 appeal to me,  but Barilla has a wholegrain pasta
and that is what we use.
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I get tickled everytime Scott's girlfriend comes
to dinner she always loves our wholegrain rolls
and bread.  I check all the bakeries in the grocery
stores scouring for different wholegrain breads.
Publix has some great ones,  but I have also
found some at Walmart and Target as well.
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I will leave you with some products that you
might like to add to your pantry as well.
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These are some great choices for cereals, and
they are very tasty and also go well with fruit.
At least the 2 on each side, those are my favorites,
Jim eats those too, but his favorite is in the middle.
Believe it or not,  you have to checks the labels 
because even some cereals have the bad oils.
amazing!!
These 3 do not,  but I always check the labels
because they are forever changing things.
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You will love this yogurt!  It also come in strawberry, cherry
 and blueberry,  it used to come in peach too, my favorite,
 but I can't find it anywhere... for quite some time now .Poo!
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Hubby drinks the Kefir and loves it,  it is a good probiotic
drink.  It is a lil tart for me,  but it does taste good.
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and I use this half and half all the time for my coffee,
and hubby puts in my scrambled eggs, and then
they aren't as watery as with reg. milk.  Publix
has their own brand and noticed walmart does now
too,  less expensive and just as good,  I use all 3,
just depends on what store I go to that has what.
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I know I showed this before,  but since we were
talking about cheese and wholegrains,  thought
some of you might have missed it.  The cheese 
is by weightwatchers and truly it is the best
string cheese I have ever had,  and these 
crackers are just wonderful.
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Actually the whole wheat macaroni is not bad,  I only buy
whole wheat when I can't get the multigrain.  I only used this
 for home made mac n' cheese. It was delicious!
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I love this Barilla Marinara sauce too, great taste, no bad
 anything and great for a quick meal.  Sometimes I will
buy frozen ravioli if I can find some with low sat. fat,
and put it over those,  cheese or beef.  Remember 
you can control the sat. fat to some degree by your
serving size,  so always check the serving size when
you are reading your label for ingredients.  Cause
it might only have say 2 grams of sat. fat,  but the
servings size might be 2 tblsps. or 6 chips for instance.
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Here's the grape juice.  Just realizing I think I may 
have posted this before but too lazy to go check. lol
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Here's a few that you might not be aware of,  the fat free 
evaporated milk,  I use that when I make quiche,  and I
used the fat free sweetened condensed at christmas time
to make dark chocolate fudge, everyone loved it!!
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Well, Sweet folks,
that is it for today..........bet you are thankful for that!!
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Sorry didn't intend for it to be this long,  but I just get
going and there is so much I can say on each topic.
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I went back to bed finally at about 4:30,  but took 
a bit to get to sleep still,  so slept until 10,  but feel
pretty good in spite of it.  Tomorrow tho,  it will
probably catch up with me!! lol
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Well, you have a delightful rest of the day and evening,
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Blessings n' Hugs,
Nellie