Broil Down to the Basics

Today was yet another great day of cooking.  Although it took me many hours to try and find a healthy recipe that incorporated the second healthy b of cooking, broiling, I finally found the perfect recipe.  Since yesterday's soup recipe could be used as a main course, I knew I had to make an appetizer of some sort today, so I made a black bean dip with Whole Wheat Tortilla Chips.  Compared to the average black bean dip, this one is significantly healthier.  Not only because of the lack of sour cream, but also because it is served with broiled, whole-wheat tortilla chips.  This recipe yields 8 servings.  Each serving contains about 102 calories, and only 1 gram of fat.  This recipe was among one of the more difficult recipes I have cooked thus far.  I used dried black beans, red pepper flakes, garlic, cumin, chili sauce, whole wheat tortillas, and egg whites.  It was delicious!

Along with my cooking, I have also been actively researching, trying to learn as much as I can about healthy eating.  What I learned today was that it is extremely important to notice serving sizes on the nutritional labels of all foods.  Usually, the serving sizes on food labels don't correlate with how much we actually eat.  This is a major cause of weight gain.  Research has shown that Americans continue to eat more and more food, contributing to the widespread epidemic of obesity.  By carefully monitoring your serving sizes, you will be able to practice better portion control, keeping your diet under control. 

Because serving size is extremely important, when I create or find recipes, the serving size and nutritional information are the first things I look at when deciding if the recipe is healthy and beneficial to people dieting.  Tomorrow, I am going to experiment with the final "B" of healthy cooking: baking.  Check back tomorrow to see what healthy dessert I decide to bake!

RANDOM FACT: Temperature can have a large effect on appetite.  The colder a person is, the hungrier the person is!