Spaghetti and Pasta Healthy Recipes Mediterranean Style

www.heartmonitron.com How to make healthy spaghetti, pasta and other mediterranean recipes. Three versions are explained. One for weight loss diets and weight maintenance, one for heart care and one for diabetes patient care. Recipe software, such as Cook’n, is used to find nutrition facts and plan best dishes, best menus and meals. Emphasis is put on healthy properties of the recipes. Vegetarian meatless and non-vegetarian meaty versions. The nutritional and health guidelines that we use to make the hM Journals recipes are a compilation, a sort of average of the recommendations of major health institutions. We are strongly inspired by the American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association, The Mayo and the Cleveland Clinic, The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) or the NIH ( National Institutes of Health ), by the recommendations of The American Medical Association (Guide to Preventing and Treating Heart Disease, publishers: Wiley & Sons Inc.). For the control of cholesterol, we adhere to the nutrition guidelines of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Cholesterol (publishers: McGraw-Hill). For healthy weight loss and maintenance, we use the USDAs Food Pyramid as a safety reference to come up with balanced and low-calorie recipes. The hM Journals readers and patients are encouraged to speak with their Doctor, Registered Dietitian or nutritionist regarding their meal or menu planning, some degree of professional supervision is always best …

Cooking on a Budget in One Minute: Pasta Primavera

Pasta Primavera Alfredo-enough to feed 3 kids and me! Let me know what you think.

Frugal Dinner Ideas

What’s For Dinner?

You shouldn’t have to break the piggy bank just to put food on the table, but sometimes it sure feels that way.  Especially with the price of food going up these days…

Here are some tips on how to have a frugal dinner any night of the week:

1.  Cut down on the meat.  If a recipe calls for a pound of ground beef, use 3/4 or even 1/2 pound instead.  I generally will buy ground beef in bulk (especially when it’s on sale), and then will partition it into 1/2 and 3/4 pound portions.  Thanks to my trusty food saver, the ground beef stays fresh for much longer.

2.  Eat more veggies.  Watch for veggies that are in season, on sale or you can use frozen veggies.  I actually like cooking with frozen vegetables better than fresh veggies for certain recipes.

3.  Cook in bulk and freeze the leftovers.  I can’t tell you how much time and money we have saved since I bought my food saver and started cooking more bulk meals.  My family actually looks forward to leftovers now because they stay much fresher with the food saver.  And it’s much easier to plan meals when I’ve got full meals and several side dishes tucked away in the freezer.

4.  Use more pasta, rice and potatoes in your meals.  These are all cheap ingredients that can go a long way in a recipe.  And you can create countless of your own homemade skillet meals with these ingredients (instead of using a box mix).

5.  Make your own spice mixes.  Those packets of taco, chili and other seasonings can get pretty expensive.  Thankfully, many recipes for taco seasoning and other seasonings can be found online, using spices that you probably already have on hand, so it’s very easy to create your own spice mixes instead of spending a dollar or more on one envelope that will last for just one meal.

These are just a few ideas on how to have a frugal dinner.  Please share your own ways to save money on dinner!