Watching Calorie Intake

Hope you have heard about or maybe even tried our new Under 500 Calorie Meals.

Here are more great ideas that will cut calories from your daily intake, possibly without your even noticing:

Downsize Your Dishes. Use smaller plates and bowls to help you eat less. We tend to fill up the dish we’re using and then eat it all. Our brains also think we are getting more when the same amount of food is placed in a smaller dish.

Savor Your Meals. Eating slowly helps you consume only what your body needs to feel satisfied. Eating too quickly, in less than 20 to 30 minutes, leads to overeating and feeling uncomfortably full afterwards.

Leave Some Food on Your Plate. This is especially important if you grew up in the “clean plate club.” By leaving even a few bites, you can focus more on your internal signals of satisfaction and less on eating food just because it is there.

Don’t Eat Out of a Bag or Box. When you eat out of a package, you are likely to keep eating until it’s all gone – no matter how many servings the package actually contains. Pour one serving into a small bowl.

Choose Your Glass Wisely. Here’s another place where our eyes play tricks on us. When glasses are short and wide, we tend to fill them with more fluid and to drink more. Use a slender glass for any beverage except water.

Rethink Your Drinks. High-calorie beverages like soft drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees and alcohol add calories just like solid foods. Whenever possible, replace these drinks with plenty of water.

View these helpful hints and more at www.eatright.org under For the Public section

One of the favorites from the cafe during National Nutrition Month,

Eat Right With Color!

National Nutrition Month® 2011 Recipe
American Dietetic Association

Vegetable Fried Rice
6 servings
1 tablespoon canola or corn oil
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1⁄4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1⁄2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1⁄2 cup thinly sliced carrot
1 1⁄2 cups diced cooked chicken (about 9
ounces)
1 large egg, lightly beaten, or 1⁄4 cup egg
substitute
4 green onions with green tops, sliced
diagonally
3 cups cooked white rice
Chinese five-spice powder is a key ingredient in this colorful recipe. A pungent mix
of ground spices (usually consisting of equal parts cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed,
star anise and Szechwan peppercorns), it’s available in most grocery stores and
Asian markets. Serve this rice as an entrée or side dish.
1. Heat a nonstick wok or large skillet; add the oil and coat the surface. Add the soy sauce,
vinegar, sugar, five-spice powder, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat
for 1 minute.
2. Add the broccoli and carrot; stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the chicken, egg and green onions; stir-fry until the egg is cooked.
4. Add the rice and toss to mix well; cook until the rice is heated through.
Serving size: 1 1⁄2 cups
Nutrition Facts per Serving:
Calories: 250 Calories from fat: 60 Fat: 7 g
Saturated fat: 1 g Cholesterol: 73 mg Sodium: 371 mg
Fiber: 2 g Sugars: 4 g Protein: 17 g
Carbohydrate: 30 g
Exchange Approximations: Starch 1 1⁄2 Vegetable 1 Meat, lean 2

Getting to know us at Tanner Cafe

Welcome to the first post to the new Tanner Café Connection blog—a new way to bring Tanner Health System employees, family, friends and area residents to the “Tanner table” with recipes, nutritional information and more.

At Tanner’s Café in Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, we take great pride in the quality of food we serve. Hospital food doesn’t have to be bad!

One of our mottos is: if you wouldn’t serve it to your mother, then don’t serve it here!

Our goal for this blog is to keep you informed of our activities and the wonderful choices we have here at Tanner’s Café, as well as to share some of our favorite recipes, help you make good dietary choices and help you become as excited about cook and nutrition as we are.

Every day at our Italian station, you’ll find a wide variety of freshly prepared pizzas and calzones, and don’t forget to check out our Italian Baker. We have a different item prepared here daily.

Moving on down to the Expo station, you can have you meal made right in front of you! We offer a wide range of options, such as a complete vegetarian meal on our “meatless Mondays” and, coming soon, 500 calorie meals! No guessing needed; each meal will be served to you in the proper portions.

Deli, deli, deli! Order yourself a sandwich or wrap prepared just the way you want it! Don’t forget to try the meatball sub or Rueben prepared in our Panini press and served with warm German potato salad.

Some days we just need comfort food. Don’t miss the chance to have fried apple dumplings at our Tanner Grill. You also have the choice of any of our premade items—from turkey or veggie burgers to fried chicken sandwiches and sweet potato fries. Look for “fryless Friday” on our calendar, and you can have baked fries and chicken strips. Look for our daily special and don’t forget to ask for Ms. Ruth’s special sauce for dipping.

Just like mother made it! Our hot line offers three different entrée’s and four different veggies to choose from, all of our veggies are prepared with vegetable stock and contain absolutely no meat stock. You can also dip yourself a hot cup of soup. Choose from two soups every day.

And don’t forget the PIE—cherry, peach or apple! Which is your favorite? Not a pie fan? Try one of our other scrumptious desserts or yogurt parfaits!

We are always willing to help and assist with any needs or concerns that you may have.

When you stop by Tanner’s Café in Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, feel free to ask for me, Kim McLendon, the retail/catering manager, or one of our supervisors: Kevin Danburg, Chad Welborn, Larry Echols or Debbie Cooper. We all will be more than happy to help you.

We look forward to serving you in Tanner’s Café. And we welcome your comments and suggestions, whether in person or here in the new Tanner Café Connection blog.
And finally, here’s a great fresh, low calorie frozen drink recipe just in time for spring and summer:

Lemon Watermelon Slush
1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed, with pulp (from approximately 4 large lemons) 1/2 cup sugar 8 cups seeded, diced watermelon 30 to 40 ice cubes 2 tablespoons fresh mint for garnish
In a small saucepan, bring lemon juice and sugar to a boil. Stir until all sugar is dissolved and remove from heat. Chill syrup well. Blend watermelon in blender, in four batches. For each batch, place 2 cups of watermelon into blender, add 1/4 of the chilled lemon syrup, and blend until mixed well. Add ice cubes to blender one at a time, approximately 10 per batch, until mixture is thickened. Repeat for three remaining batches. Serve in chilled glasses and garnish with fresh mint. Makes 8 servings.
Nutritional information: Per serving, 100 calories, 0.5 gram fat.