Five media companies and Pinterest have teamed up with first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign to consolidate all of their MyPlate-worthy recipes into one place. Photograph courtesy of Pinterest.com/MyPlateRecipes.
We know how hard it can be to eat healthy meals every single day. In an effort to make the job easier for all of us, the White House announced the partnership of major media companies and the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign to compile all of their nutritious recipes that meet the USDA’s MyPlate guidelines.
“As a mom, I know how challenging it can be to think of new meal ideas that your kids will like and that will be good for them,” Michelle Obama said in a statement. “This partnership takes the guesswork out of finding healthier recipes and gives parents the information and the tools they need to make healthy choices for their families every day.”
Media companies involved in the partnership include Conde Nast, Hearst Magazines, Merdith, Food Network, and Time. The recipes will be featured on the companies’ cooking websites, which include Epicurious, Real Simple, and Food Network, to name a few.
These banana peanut butter bars contain a wealth of protein, and addition of chocolate chips will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
We love getting a glimpse into local health experts' and athletes’ diets with our weekly Food Diaries series. So much so that whenever we see a delicious breakfast or healthy dinner, we immediately ask for the recipe so we can try it ourselves. Case in point: Haley Coghill’s banana-peanut butter protein bars from her Food Diary.
Coghill says the recipe was adapted from one she found on FitSugar. While the bars are delicious right out of the oven, they’re also great snacks for when you’re on the run. Another plus: Even if you don’t have protein powder, the banana, peanut butter, and eggs should provide a healthy dose on their own.
This vanilla almond porridge recipe adds applesauce and flaxseed for an extra nutritional boost. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
When group exercise instructor Chase Leist shared her one-day food diary with Well+Being, you wanted one thing: the recipe to Leist’s breakfast porridge, with egg whites, almond milk, flaxseed, applesauce, and cinnamon. With the addition of a fruit of your choice, this hearty porridge is a great start to anyone’s morning.
If you're in charge of baking the Valentine's Day dessert this year, you can bet these recipes will be tasty and healthy.
There’s a reason chocolate and Valentine’s Day go hand in hand: Sweets can win over almost anyone, especially if they’re homemade. And when you’re the one doing the baking, you can make sure your treats are tasty and healthy. So this year, impress your friends/coworkers/significant other with one of these great recipes.
Blueberry-Almond-Flax Breakfast Cookies
If your big plan is to serve your sweetie breakfast in bed, look no further. These blueberry-almond-flax cookies make for a healthy breakfast treat, as they’re filled with protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants.
Healthy brownies? It's possible, when you swap out fatty oils for chia gel. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
We love chia seeds for a wealth of reasons: The tiny seeds provide energy surges for athletes, they contain even more omega-3 fatty acids than salmon, and they’re a healthy addition to baked goods.
Local dietitian Carlene Thomas’s chia seed brownie recipe is simple and delicious proof. Just swap chia gel for oil when making your favorite boxed mix, and you’ll have a sweet treat with an extra-healthy kick.
Ingredients:
1 box brownie mix
2 eggs
⅓ cup chia seeds + 1 tablespoon chia gel
2 tablespoons water
These feta-stuffed buffalo chicken bites make for a great, non-messy Super Bowl appetizer. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
We love scouring food blogs and Pinterest boards for delicious recipes to try, and we were pleased to find so many great Super Bowl recipes making their rounds this week—including some of our own.
We’ve got one more recipe for you to make for Sunday: feta-stuffed Buffalo chicken bites. These poppers can be made a day ahead, and they’ll save you a lot of messy eating while watching the game. We made half of the recipe with feta and half without, for those looking to cut back on fat.
Yield: 16 to 18 meatballs
Per-serving nutrition: 92.2 calories; 6 grams fat, 2.2 grams saturated fat, 200 milligrams sodium, 14.5 milligrams potassium, 3.2 grams carbohydrate, 7.3 grams protein.
Munch on these snacks and meals guilt-free on Super Bowl Sunday.
We know: Super Bowl Sunday just has to arrive as soon as you shed your holiday weight. No worries, though, because we’ve got you covered with meals and snacks that you can munch all night without feeling too guilty. Make one (or all) of these recipes, from personal pizzas to spicy chips and dips, and you’re sure to be a winner in everyone’s book.
10-Minute Pita and Pepper Pizza
Have everyone over for a make-your-own pizza party. This recipe will save you time and money, since it switches out dough for a pita and only takes ten minutes of prep and bake time.
This pita pizza only takes 10 minutes to prepare and bake. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
There’s no doubt homemade pizza is delicious. But by the time we’ve waited for the dough to rise, rolled it out, added our favorite toppings, and put it in the oven, our stomachs are growling and we wonder why we didn’t just order takeout. That’s why we love Real Simple’s idea to use a pita, naan, or flatbread as the dough. Even better: The entire process only takes 10 to 15 minutes, so it makes for an easy meal or a creative idea for a no-hassle pizza-making party.
But the real beauty of making your own pizza is that you can add whatever toppings you’d like. For this recipe we used orange peppers, ham, mozzarella, and arugula, but it’s easy to forgo the meat and add more veggies if you’d like.
Ingredients
1 pocketless pita (or naan or flatbread)
Handful of chopped ham
8 to 10 thin slices of orange pepper
½ cup of mozzarella
1⁄3 cup marinara sauce
Handful of arugula
Dash of oregano and black pepper
This cauliflower winter pasta provides a wealth of vitamins C and K and folate. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
After making a delicious slow-cooked Moroccan lentil soup last week, we were left with a bunch of leftovers—including a good amount of cauliflower.
We’d hate to waste a perfectly good-for-you vegetable—cauliflower is rich in vitamins C and K and contains a wealth of folate. So we found this pasta recipe, which forgoes the typical tomato sauce in favor of a slightly sweet cauliflower sauce.
This moroccan lentil soup is heart healthy and low in calories, but high in nutrients. Photograph by Melissa Romero.
When it comes to cooking at home, we look for recipes that are delicious, easy, and healthy to boot—and this Moroccan lentil soup from Eating Well magazine is exactly that.
Filled with vegetables such as carrots and cauliflower, lentils, and a cornucopia of spices, this recipe is heart healthy and low in calories, cholesterol, and fat. The ingredients can be thrown into a slow cooker before work and are ready to be eaten by dinner. The bonus is that there are plenty of leftovers, and the soup gets even tastier with time.
Yield: 12 servings
Per-serving nutrition: 152 calories, 1 gram fat, 28 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams protein, 9 grams fiber, 618 milligrams sodium, 681 milligrams potassium.
