Countdown to Fitness

Ricotta Cheese - Original image by Paola Sersante

Since my family and I have stopped eating flour, I needed something special to make for my husband’s birthday.

During the summer, we went to a reunion and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast where Marin, one of the innkeepers, made a fantastic dessert in the evening — panna cotta, which I had never had before.  I came home and looked it up.

While this quick recipe, which I’ve been experimenting with, is not the real panna cotta, it is a good desert that isn’t loaded with some type of sugar (honey, table sugar, etc.), which no matter what type, is unhealthy in large amounts.  (The American Heart Association suggests no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women and 9 for men.)  Next time, I’ll try less honey, and spoon over top a 3/4 cup of fresh strawberries, which I will cook down first to concentrate the natural fruit sugar.  Then, I’ll cut a strawberry into 6 slices and place 3 pieces on top of each serving. (more…)

This recipe tastes like a gourmet dish, and I’ll happily make this again.

I bought some perch at the store and wanted a new recipe, so I did a website search and happened upon one of my favorite recipe websites, Simply Recipes.  While the recipe was for sole, perch is similar, so I substituted it.  I changed the recipe a little to suit my needs.

Perch is a low-fat, low-calorie fish (3 oz, or 85g, has only 77 calories, 1g of fat, 16g of protein). (more…)

I got a butternut squash from my CSA, Three Rivers Community Farm, so I needed a recipe.  My recipe below was inspired by the one at Simply Recipes. Note: It is spicy, so if you don’t like too much spiciness, use less red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper.

A cup of butternut squash (140g) has 63 calories, 16g carbs, 3g fiber, 3g sugar, 1g protein.  It’s a great source of Vitamin A (298%), Vitamin C (49%), Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol 10%), Thiamin (9%), Niacin (8%), Vitamin B6 (11%), Folate (9%), Calcium (7%), Magnesium (12%), Potassium (14%), and Manganese (14%).

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