Curry in a hurry

I’ve always liked ethnic foods. While others crave burgers and fries, I turn to curries and stews filled with exotic flavors. Indian cuisine is among my favorites — it contains many healthful roots and spices such as ginger (remedies nausea and reduces pain and inflammation), turmeric (detoxifies the liver and protects against Alzheimer’s), curcumin (found in turmeric, it’s been shown to reduce risk of cancer), and cayenne pepper (promotes circulation and helps to rid the body of bad cholesterol). But before you Google the nearest Indian takeout, be aware that many dishes are filled with butter and cream, stuffing them full of calories.

Our new favorite Greek yogurt!

I start most mornings with a Greek yogurt mixed with Fiber One and berries, so you can only imagine my excitement when I was flying to Greece. I was about to eat the real deal! While touring the Greek Islands on vacation, I had a chance to indulge in all the delicacies Greece has to offer. And the best part — the number on the scale didn’t go up. Greek cuisine is inherently healthy, incorporating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, and heart-healthy fats. But even though I feasted on shrimp bigger than my hand, sampled homemade jams flavored with fig or oregano, and snacked on packaged olives sold right next to the potato chips, enjoying my daily Greek yogurt while staring at the ocean was my favorite part by far.

Is fresh breath worth the extra calories?

Every time I go out to eat, I grab a handful of mints when I pay the bill. Who wants to go back to work (or worse — end a date) with bad breath?  Always conscious of halitosis, I find myself popping mints even in the morning after coffee, or right before a big meeting.  So small and light, the fresh-breath candies barely even count as calories, right? Wrong.  Unfortunately, some brands can run up to 25 calories per mint. That means if you’re reaching for a mint after breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, you’re already at adding an extra 100 calories to your day! Keep this up, and it adds up to 10 extra pounds of weight gain a year.

Hold the dressing? Not anymore!

I recently moved back to Florida from New York City and forgot how hot and humid summertime here can be (not that NYC is much better). When it’s hot outside, I tend to crave refreshing and cold foods—which means I eat a lot of salads and well, salad dressing. As a dietitian I feel compelled, even if you’ve heard it a thousand times, to tell you that salad dressing can easily make a healthy, nutritious meal into an unhealthy disaster. Certain restaurant salads can top out at 1200 calories. Often, the dressing is to blame for this exorbitant number.

The best thing to happen to your workout since the sports bra

Monday: Katy Perry’s record release party. Tuesday: Lollapalooza in Chicago. Wednesday: Goldbar in NYC. Thursday: 333 Club in London... Ok, hold up. I’m really not that cool. Really. However, I have discovered the coolest thing to hit the web (and soon your iPhone) this year—Dubset.

An easy way to spice up your dishes

There’s nothing like a dish made with fresh herbs — the intensity of flavor, the gourmet presentation — it can’t be beat. But when a recipe calls for a laundry list of fresh ingredients, it can be a hassle. What do you do with the leftover herbs? They’ll most likely go bad before you can use them. And the time involved with washing and chopping so many ingredients can seriously cut in on your after-work down time....

Minty fresh

Mojitos. They’re my kryptonite in the summertime. The fresh mint, lime, club soda, rum — I can almost taste one. Except I can’t. Because I’m pregnant. And if you’re trying to look cute in your itsy bitsy bikini, then you should steer clear as well. One mojito typically has about 200 calories.

Allergy-free cookies that taste great

I’m not allergic to anything (except kiwis and men who wear a lot of cologne), but the recent explosion in allergies in our society has been very intriguing. In a recent article in Food Allergy, researchers found that there’s increasing evidence that the reason is on a molecular level and has to do with introduction of foods to our children, but the most effective treatment is to eliminate the allergen from your diet completely.....

You say tomato…

I could eat tomato sauce on anything. Ok, maybe not on anything (ice cream with a tomato sauce topping, blech), but added to fish, chicken, veggies, quinoa, brown rice—you get the picture. It’s a sure way to boost the flavor and nutrition of an otherwise bland meal. But while tomato sauce is loaded with nutrition (more on that later), all sauce is not created equal.

Wine ‘Em and Dine ‘Em I recently joined a book club — a seemingly harmless activity. But after the first few meetings, I quickly learned that literature usually pairs with some not-so-low-cal snacks. Wine was a staple at our get-togethers, which meant there would also be cheese and chocolates…and even cannolis at one. When hosting duties came my way, I decided I would go the healthy route. I just couldn’t eat another plate full of cheddar while debating the merits of Chelsea Handler as a New York Times bestselling author. Of course I would serve wine, but I had some questions about how to do it right. Would it matter what kind of wine I served? Could I pair wine with veggies? Which veggies would pair with which wines?