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MyPlate Guidelines
Anti-inflammatory Diet Carb Counting Heart Healthy MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Salmon and Red Potato Hash with Dijon Aioli

Salmon and red potato hash with dijon aioli

 

This delicious dish is a copycat of a breakfast from a favorite restaurant of ours – the Ironwork Grill at McMenamin’s Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, Oregon. The original is made with a dill sauce but I always swap it for this dijon aioli, and I’ve never been disappointed!

The salmon, veggies, and potatoes make this a complete, protein- and potassium-laden anti-inflammatory power meal. Plus, it is so, so tasty and very easy to make!

 



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Salmon and Red Potato Hash with Dijon Aioli

This dish is a complete dinner - it's loaded with omega-3, antioxidants, and other anti-inflammatory power punches. It's also very easy to make!

Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Salmon and Vegetables

  • 4 fillets salmon
  • 1 diced red bell pepper
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 10 spears asparagus, cut into 2" lengths
  • 1 Tbsp canola oil
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp black ground pepper

Dijon Aioli

  • 1/4 cup avocado oil mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

  2. Place fillets skin-side down in a greased 9 x 13" baking pan. Surround with vegetables.

  3. Drizzle with canola oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  4. Bake for 25 minutes or until thickest part of salmon measures 145 degrees.

  5. While salmon is baking, whisk together mayonnaise and dijon mustard.

  6. Serve salmon with aioli spread on top.

Recipe Notes

Each portion contains 499 calories, 29 g carbohydrate, 32 g protein, 3 g saturated fat, and 458 mg sodium.



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Anti-inflammatory Diet Carb Counting Heart Healthy MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Recipe: 5-Minute Heart Healthy Pizza Sauce

We LOVE pizza at our house – especially as Super Bowl season draws near! Unfortunately, our Seahawks didn’t make the playoffs this year, but we can still enjoy the spirit of the game with a few slices of pizza pie. Store-bought pizza sauces can sometimes contain added sugar or, more often, high levels of sodium. Not to mention the sodium in everything else that goes on your favorite pizza!

 

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If you’re looking to eat less sodium or simply cook more from scratch, this pizza sauce recipe is a great option! It’s very easy and fast to make – just stir it up in 5 minutes and spread it on your favorite pizza! The tomatoes, herbs, and spices add an antioxidant punch to any pizza-flavored dish.

 



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5-Minute Heart Healthy Pizza Sauce

If you're looking to cut sodium or simply cook more from scratch, this pizza sauce recipe is a great option! It's very easy and fast to make - just stir it up in 5 minutes and spread it on your favorite pizza! The tomatoes, herbs, and spices add an antioxidant punch to any pizza-flavored dish.

Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 16 kcal

Ingredients

  • 15 oz. canned tomato sauce (no salt added)
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
  • 1/4 tsp garlic salt
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp basil

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe Notes

Contains 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 0 g fat, 63 mg sodium per 1/8 cup serving.



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Anti-inflammatory Diet Carb Counting Heart Healthy MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Green Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake

img_0781I love pumpkin in the fall. Love it. Stereotypes be darned, I do not care. This scrumptious squash finds its way into curries, soups, muffins, cookies, pancakes, and steamers around my house as soon as the leaves start to turn.

Pumpkin takes a front seat in this seasonal smoothie that is filling, nutritious, and delectable. I started with the Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe here and modified it to boost the protein, control the carbs, and add some greens, because if you’re making a shake, why not add greens? You can’t taste them and it’s an easy-as-pie (…see what I did there?) way to get an extra serving of veggies.

Try it for a tasty breakfast that is (bonus!) carb-controlled, heart healthy, and contains servings from 4 different food groups.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (you can definitely use dairy milk but carb-counters be aware it will add about 12 grams of carbohydrate)

1 handful spinach or kale

½ cup pureed pumpkin

¼ cup light vanilla Greek yogurt

1/8 cup plain whey protein (I love the bulk whey protein from Winco!)

½ medium banana

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp honey (or your sweetener of choice)

Instructions:

  1. Add almond milk and greens to blender. Blend for 30-60 seconds or until leaves have been completely blended and the mixture looks like green, frothy milk.img_0780
  2. Add remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Makes 1 16-oz serving. Contains 303 calories, 35.1  g carbohydrate, 14.6 g protein, 2.9  g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, and 251 mg sodium. Includes 1 serving dairy, 1 serving fruit, 1 serving vegetables, and 1.5 oz protein.

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MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

The common cold has fogged my brain (or sapped my motivation) enough that I haven’t done much research in the last few days. I have a couple of MyPlate recipes stocked up that I had not yet posted, so I thought I’d grace you with one today. I present to you a fiance favorite: The Spinach Lasagna Roll-Up.

done

Ingredients:

10-12 lasagna noodles (you’ll only use 8 but you want to have extra in case some tear)

1/2 pound lean ground beef

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, sliced

1 cup spinach

3/4 cup fat free sour cream

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella

1 (15-oz) can no salt added tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon minced fresh basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

  1. Cook and drain the lasagna noodles according to the package directions, minus about 2 minutes (you want the noodles to hang together well for the roll-ups).cooked noodles
  2. While the noodles are cooking, brown the ground beef over medium heat and drain the fat (if you prefer a vegetarian option, these are deliciously mushroom-y without the beef too). Add in the olive oil, onions, and mushrooms and saute until soft.mushrooms and meat
  3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add in spinach, fat free sour cream, and 1/2 cup of the shredded mozzarella. Cook until cheese is melted and spinach is slightly wilted.spinach and meat and sauce
  4. Lay the lasagna noodles out on a plate. Spread a thin layer of the beef and mushroom mixture on each noodle. Roll the noodles up and place in a 9×13 baking dish.rolling
  5. In a bowl, stir together tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and garlic powder. Pour on top of lasagna roll-ups. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.sauce and cheese
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve two roll-ups with a side of veggies and some fruit for a complete MyPlate meal. Oh, and try not to splash sauce all over the edge of the plate like I did. =)plate

Two roll-ups count for 1/2 cup vegetables, 2 ounces grains, 2 ounces meat, and 1/2 cup dairy. They contain 457 calories, 58 g carbohydrates, 31 g protein, 13 g fat, and 280 g sodium.

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MyPlate Guidelines

MyPlate Wrap-up

Well, this is it! 21 days of MyPlate completed. Here are the stats for the whole project:

Weight changes: -1 pound

Waist changes: 0 inches

Average calorie intake: 1984

Number of days MyPlate food group guidelines were met: 13

Average cost of groceries per week: $33

Pros: The MyPlate diet is pretty easy to follow because you can quickly check just by looking at your plate. It promotes intakes of a wide variety of foods and as such is a good way to encourage balanced nutrition, control portion size, and get all of your vitamins and minerals.

Cons: As I mentioned in previous posts, not everyone agrees with the Guidelines. Some say they are too carb-y, some say too fatty, some say too loosey-goosey with restrictions on substances like sodium and saturated fat. Honestly, I can’t say I’ve read enough to develop my stance on those specific issues yet, but I’ll continue to research these topics as I move through the diets.

Observations: The diet was not drastically different from my normal way of eating, so I never really felt much different because of the foods I was eating. I covered a lot of the things I learned in my last post, but overall I gained an appreciation for the experience of tracking food and calories. It was pretty interesting to me to learn about the Guidelines, where they came from, and the controversies surrounding them.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t get to research as much in those 21 days as I had hoped. There is so much information to read and only so much time. One of the great things about studying nutrition is that everything really is connected. As I move into my next diets I will come across concepts I started researching last month. And on and on. Please send me a message through the Contact page about any specific nutrition questions you might have. I’d love to learn more about what my readers what to know!

Collage

Keep checking back! Readers voted and chose the Paleolithic (or Paleo) diet for me to follow next. Send me a message through the Contact page if you have any specific Paleo questions you would like me to answer!

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MyPlate Guidelines Wellness Tips

21 Things I Learned in 21 Days on the MyPlate Diet

 

Today marks my last official day following the MyPlate diet. Starting in one week, I will begin on the next. I thought I’d sum things up a bit with a bunch of things I have learned, and that have already started to change the way I view food and work with my patients:

  1. My body regulates its calorie intake pretty well. I quickly realized that even if I wasn’t tracking my food throughout the day, I would end up eating 1800-2000 calories without feeling deprived or overfull. Bodies are cool like that.
  2. 1 cup is not as much as I thought. 0208140842aExhibit A: 1 cup of orange juice in a standard glass. Pouring appropriate servings took some practice.
  3. 2 tablespoons is a lot more than I thought. As the standard serving size for many condiments, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, mayonnaise, or any kind of salad dressing was waaaaaaaay more than I ever thought. I had always assumed I was eating more than that by default, but when I measured out 2 tablespoons of almond butter to eat with my apple I couldn’t even finish it!

  4. “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” mealsThis nifty little saying is something I had heard over time to flip the traditional “American” way of eating on its head. It makes sense because when you eat breakfast, you’re fueling your body for the whole day, so you need to eat more and eat well. At night, you’re only fueling your body for another hour or two. It worked beautifully for me when I was trying to get all of my food groups in. In the morning I was motivated to eat well and get all of my groups in and by the evening I was tired after work and more likely to go for something easy. It worked with my plan, rather than a common diet pattern of eating basically nothing for breakfast and lunch, then bingeing at dinner when you’re tired and starving. I heard a dietitian at a conference once refer to that as the “weight gain diet.”
  5. Meal plans can be helpful. They are also really annoying. It was a love-hate relationship for me. It was nice to know I had everything already bought and decided for what I was going to eat. However, making the grocery list, having no flexibility, and feeling like I “cheated” when I didn’t eat exactly what was on it were all big cons for me. Check out this article for more thoughts on meal plans.
  6. Vegetables are really low in calories. Like, REALLY low. I knew this already in my brain, but putting 1 cup of spinach, 1/4 cup of mushrooms, half a tomato, and half a cucumber into your tracker and getting a grand total of 37 calories kind of drives that one home.

  7. Tracking everything you eat is exhausting. It was kind of fun in its way…for about a week. After that it became very tiresome, especially if I got behind and had to catch up. From now on, I think I’ll recommend that clients track for about two weeks, and then maybe one day each week just to keep in check. After a week or two you get a pretty good idea of how to do it in your head, anyway.
  8. Tracking websites and apps help with this a lot. My fitness pal screenshotsPersonally I like My Fitness Pal, but there are negatives to it also. One thing I really love is that you can enter in homemade recipes, calculate the nutrition facts, and save them to go back and use later.
  9. Eating three servings of dairy a day is really repetitive. milkYogurt, milk, cheese, yogurt, milk, cheese, yogurt, milk, cheese.
  10. Vegetables are not really as difficult to get in as I expected. They can go in most anything. My friend Abbie taught me this the weekend I stayed with her. Abbie puts veggies in everything – scrambles for breakfast, soups for lunch, and side dishes for dinner. Just chop, chop, chop and sautee, bake, boil, or steam. They add tons of flavor variety too.
  11. It is extremely difficult to eat less than 2300 milligrams of sodium per day. Except for when I was traveling, I cooked most everything at home from scratch. I ate a ton of fresh produce. I rinsed the canned beans. I stayed away from the packaged, the processed, the sodium-laden. It was a terrible struggle. I’ll have a lot more empathy for my heart failure patients from here on out.
  12. It is even more difficult to eat more than 35 grams of fiber per day. TONS of veggies, beans, and whole grains was not enough to get me there most of the time. I was about to start gnawing on cardboard in the evenings just to reach my daily goal.
  13. Eating MyPlate at restaurants is really not very tough (with the exception of limiting sodium). Portland mealMany places have fruit side dish options and milk as a beverage choice. The struggle here? Whole grains.
  14. Telling people you’re on a diet can be awkward. Most people were really supportive of me and the reasons I’m doing it, but that wasn’t always the case.



  15. Some kinds of exercise can make really big dents in your calorie intake. 0124141459Hiking, snowboarding, dancing, biking up hills, and plyometrics left my net calories for the day sometimes as low as 1400! I was shocked at how quickly these fun activities added up to big time calorie gaps.
  16. Other kinds of exercise make reaaaaaally teeny dents in your calorie intake. 0124141459Cycling through town or strolling with the fiance was not going to fit the bill if I was trying to even out an indulgent day.
  17. On a related note, it’s okay to have indulgent days. One weekend day out with Abbie I ate chicken wings at happy hour. You may have read about my Superbowl feast. In the end, it all averaged out. Some days were a little low, some days were a little high. I never really felt deprived at all during the entire three weeks.
  18. I don’t need to eat as much ice cream as I usually dish out. I still maintain that the half-cup serving size on the label is insulting and offensive, but two small scoops was enough for me. I rarely eat ice cream because I’m actually hungry…I just want to taste it.
  19. Starting small and working up with salt can go a long way. Make your meal and taste it. Add a little bit of salt only if you feel like you need to. I found that most of the time, I didn’t need to add any salt and when I did it ended up being only a pinch in the entire recipe.
  20. I’m really enjoying being creative with food. God gave us the amazing gift of thousands of different flavors in this world…and there are so many combinations to explore! I’m so excited about trying new foods, new recipes, and new ideas. Send me your favorites! I’d love to try them!
  21. I think it’s going to be hard for me to not pay attention to what I’m eating once the diet is over. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about being obsessed with their food once they have been on diets, and I can totally relate now. It’s a different animal to be completely aware of everything that goes down the gullet – keeping a mental tally of food groups, calories, and nutrients. Honestly, I’m really curious to see how it ends up going on this week off from dieting.

Thanks for your support and following along with me!

 



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MyPlate Guidelines

MyPlate Diet Day #15: A week 2 rundown

Weight change: -2 pounds from last week (loss of 1 pound since beginning of MyPlate diet)

Total cost of groceries: $52. I made a big shopping trip last week with the hope that the groceries will carry me into this week, and it’s looking like they are going to.

Average daily intakes (7 days)*:

  • Total calories (goal=2,000): 2075
  • Net calories (after subtracting exercise): 2029 (I know, I know…I didn’t do very much exercise this week)
  • Carbohydrates (goal=45-65% calories): 260 g (50% calories)
  • Protein (goal=10-35% calories): 65 g (13% calories)
  • Total fat (goal=20-35% calories): 66 g (29% calories)
  • Saturated fat (goal=less than 10% calories): 19 g (8% calories)
  • Sodium (goal=2300 mg or less): 2439 mg
  • Fiber (goal=more than 25 g): 25 g

# of days food group guidelines were met: SIX! Much improved from last week. I made much more of a focus of getting all of my food groups in this week.

The good: Working on getting food groups in changed my focus from what I couldn’t have to what I could. I like foods from all of the food groups, so it was a treat to look at what was left on my checklist to get in for each day. Calories stopped controlling my meal intakes, because (somehow…almost like magic) if I focused on getting the right amount of each of the food groups, I ended up pretty darn close to my calorie goal for the day. Go figure! It’s like they did the math or something.

The bad: I’m starting to feel a little bit of the weariness of tracking everything I eat. It’s funny how when I meet with my clients once a week, and they get tired of tracking their food after only two meetings it feels to me as though they’ve given up so quickly. But now that I’m tracking, it feels like I’ve been tracking my food for twoooooo loooooooooong weeks. Puts a little perspective on it…I apologize to my clients for my naivety!

The ugly: That stinkin’ sodium! My average is only 139 mg over my daily goal, but you should have seen the individual numbers. My lowest day was in the 1,600s, but my highest was in the 4,000s! I’ve always told patients that sodium is tough to keep in check, but I had no clue how tough. Personally, I’m a salt-lover and I would eat a whole bag of tortilla chips with a jar of salsa if left unattended for long enough. I figured that my regular, pre-MyPlate sodium intakes would likely have been off the charts, but I expected once I was following the diet, eating more fresh produce, and cooking more often that it would fall in line. Drat.

*Intakes are rounded 7-day averages. The percentages will not add up to 100%.

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Down Home Dietitian

Diet culture is determined to tell you that you have to be miserable to be healthy.

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Healthy doesn't have to be hard.
Dietitian | Exercise Physiologist | Speaker | Youtuber

Becki Parsons
#Repost from @yourfitnessdietitian because I could #Repost from @yourfitnessdietitian because I couldn't have said it better my self! 👏🙌 Listen up for New Year's everybody!
As some of you surely have already noticed...I've As some of you surely have already noticed...I've rebranded - Dietitian on a Diet is now Down Home Dietitian! This change comes with a new and improved website, as well as the big news: a YouTube channel!
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I'll be switching it up from written content to video soon, and continue to deliver realistic, down-home wellness info. I'm going to bring you more simple, delicious, nourishing recipes cooked by a real person in a real kitchen. Nothing "gourmet" but the taste. I'll also be adding some gardening tips and you-can-totally-do-this workouts!
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My first video will be up in a few days!! For now, check out my new website at downhomedietitian.com and subscribe to Down Home Dietitian on Youtube so you don't miss out on all the fun new healthy things!

P.S. Every new website switch creates its own set of broken website pieces - I can use your help! Please let me know if you find any I missed so I can get right to work putting them back together!
One of the very, very important parts of my winter One of the very, very important parts of my winter routine is sitting unobtrusively at the top left of this pic: vitamin D supplements. Since we get a significant amount of our vitamin D through sun exposure, well...if you live where I live you know that's preeeetty iffy this time of year. That's something worth talking about because vitamin D is anti-inflammatory and needed for bone health, a strong immune system (sounds good right now, right?), and prevention of certain brain, nerve, and heart disorders.
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Well over half of Washingtonians are vitamin D deficient, particularly in the winter, and I'm one of them! I can't hang in normal ranges without supplementing vitamin D3 from October to April (my reading inside, non-gardening season 😂). Everyone is a bit different and the recommended daily amounts of vitamin D are still up for debate, but it's worth a look no matter where you live! Have your doctor check your vitamin D levels and if you're low, ask your doctor or dietitian for a supplement recommendation to give your body what it needs to serve you well! #vitamind #supplements
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! My mom always said Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! My mom always said she knew she was a grown-up when she was more excited to give Christmas presents than get them. Tell me about the gift you had the most fun giving!
Winter breakfast recipe: Gingerbread Oatmeal 1/2- Winter breakfast recipe: Gingerbread Oatmeal

1/2-1 c. oats
2 shakes of cinnamon
1 shake each of ginger and nutmeg
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp molasses
1 Tbsp almond butter
1/4-1/2 c. (or more) water, depending on your preference
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Add plain or vanilla protein powder or serve with a protein for fullness and blood sugar balance.
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Mix and cook until oats are soft. I topped mine with chia seeds, bananas, and berries! Mmm...
Is there anything better than a simple breakfast t Is there anything better than a simple breakfast that came entirely from your land or the work of your own hands? ❤️
I'm learning to celebrate the beauty in everything I'm learning to celebrate the beauty in everything, so I wanted a nice little presentation for my evening snack. Because why shouldn't it be fancy and have all the cozy Christmas vibes? 
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Shout out to my alma mater @wsupullman for the most delicious apples ever! #cosmiccrisp #gocougs #winningtheapplecupthatmatters
Happy Halloween from the office of i'mPowered Nutr Happy Halloween from the office of i'mPowered Nutrition & Fitness! Seeing my awesome clients, wearing my kitty ears today!

I decided not to wear my full costume to work since I would need my husband for anyone to know who I am supposed to be! 😆 Any guesses? Have a great holiday everyone!
Today's the day!!!!! 😍 🤤 @fisherscones #scon Today's the day!!!!! 😍 🤤 @fisherscones #scones #happyday #delicious
Earlier in the year I mentioned that I needed to h Earlier in the year I mentioned that I needed to harvest zucchini "before they become baseball bats." My son was intrigued - he had no idea how big they could get. We selected a nice hefty one and let her grow and grow and grow. We went out to visit her, showed her off to friends and family, and affectionately referred to her as Big Bertha. Well, it's about to get frosty out so we brought our 10-lb squash friend inside! #giantzucchini #bigbertha
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