by Camille on July 28, 2010
This crazy hot weather has had me craving a summer favorite: key lime pie. With that in mind, I’m sharing a recipe I first posted almost a year ago. Enjoy!!
In general, I’d rather eat less of a full-fat dessert than more of a low-fat one. (The exception: Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Cream. I don’t know how they do it, but I swear it tastes exactly like full-fat stuff). Yet, when my sister was in town last week and requested that I make her key lime pie, I realized that my version–adapted from my friend Katie’s recipe–contains only a fraction of the fat in your average key lime pie (about 5 grams vs. 20+). Even better? You can’t tell that it’s light, and it takes all of 10 minutes to whip up. Read more…
Photo from (and of) Danielle Lee
Earlier this summer, my AOL editor asked me to try out a Yin Yoga class. I definitely got hooked, thanks in great part to our instructor, Danielle Lee. Afterward, I found out she has a degree from the Natural Gourmet Institute (the nation’s most prestigious health-oriented cooking school) and does a lot of nutrition and personal chef work. Today, we’ve got her on a guest post about summer cleansing. She’s got a great, easy, real-world approach. It’s one that fits well with what we’ve started talking about with gluten–namely, what happens when you cut back on things that may be taxing your body. I’m excited to share her insight! And with that, I’m turning the reins over to Danielle herself…
Why cleanse? We generally think of food as our source of energy, which it is, but every time we eat, we expend a great amount of energy in chewing, digesting, absorbing, assimilating and eliminating. Much of what we eat, in the form of processed foods loaded with sugar, unhealthy fats, salt and artificial additives, and even fruits and vegetables laden with pesticides, put a strain on our body’s work of digestion and assimilation. Some of these substances cannot be processed by the cells and therefore accumulate in the body as toxins. Although the human body has great wisdom and ability to adapt, our ability to handle the toxic load of modern life hasn’t accelerated at the same rapid pace as the chemicals in our foods and environment.
What happens when we cleanse? We relieve our cells and major organs of a great amount of work, and the resulting freed up energy can be used to enhance our body’s own detoxification processes. The reduction of toxic load then allows our cells to focus on repair and regeneration. If you think about it, most illnesses reduce our appetite, and in nature, animals stop eating when they get sick–both a strong indication of a natural way the body heals.
Read more…
by Camille on July 26, 2010
A quick question for you, dear readers. Sara and I are gearing up for a gluten-free-themed week here at SvelteGourmand (actual date TBA!) and would love to hear from those of you who gave up, or have tried giving up, gluten–especially for health reasons other than celiac disease. Did you improve your health? Lose weight? What was the hardest part?
Post below, or email camille (at) camillenoepagan (dot) com; we’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, stay tuned for more on exciting new research about gluten-free diets as well as some amazing recipes.
-Camille
Swedish strawberries...yum!
Last night over dinner, Camille and I were marveling at the fact that Svelte’s almost a year old now! We started talking about our earliest posts–and I was reminded of this recipe. It’s one of the first things I put up here, and it feels pretty perfect for the summer heat. The recipe’s healthy and light while still being satisfying. It’s also both vegan and gluten-free–and totally delicious.
So for this Friday, I present you with some bona fide vintage SG. I put a bit of the original text in there, too, in quotes. It felt a little like looking at an old photograph you like. Nostalgic and even funny, but also weaving the two moments together. You start to see how they fit… Read more…
by Camille on July 22, 2010
Bad news for meat eaters like me: carnivorism comes at a high cost, to the tune of nearly a pound a year. A new study from Imperial College London examined the dietary habits of nearly 400,000 adults and discovered that those who ate the most meat gained about four pounds more over the course of five years than their vegetarian and light-meat-eating counterparts.
But before you panic and start stocking your fridge with tofu, here are a few easy ways to keep meat in your diet without piling on pounds:
- Go easy on chicken and turkey. The biggest surprise from the Imperial College study: the strongest association with weight gain wasn’t red meat, but poultry. That may be because people give chicken and turkey a “health halo”–that is, they assume that because it’s relatively lean, it’s okay to eat in larger quantities. A better bet: don’t eat more than a card deck-sized portion at any meal, and make sure you’re having skinless white meat (it’s lower in fat and calories than dark meat).
Read more…
Last night, I stumbled on a new-ish study that got my interest—researchers publishing in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research not only confirmed that cranberry juice is incredibly effective in treating urinary tract infections, they also figured out why it works: Cranberries contain chemicals that make E. coli bacteria (the source of 90% of UTIs) un-attach from our urinary tract cells and flush out of our systems. The more cranberry juice we drink, apparently, the better this old-school household remedy works. It was fun to see that something so simple could pack such a significant punch. The scientists wrote that this finding has huge implications for the development of new kinds of antibiotics.
I told my dad—a urologist who’s published a study or two of his own. And here’s what he said: Why don’t they just tell people to drink more cranberry juice? Read more…
by Camille on July 19, 2010
When I order salads at a restaurant, I always ask for dressing on the side. It’s true that dressing can be a major source of hidden fat and calories–but the truth is, I order it separate because I often end up disliking the way it tastes. To me, it’s better to have plain old oil and vinegar than a concoction that overwhelms the vegetables it’s accompanying.
I do love ranch dressing, but only when it’s homemade–and admittedly, my version is pretty lousy. The one tried-and-true salad dressing recipe I have in my arsenal is a simple mustard vinaigrette, which I learned to make on a trip to the Culinary Institute of America in California a few years ago. It’s so easy that once you’ve thrown it together once or twice, you can wing it from there on out. Read more…
Pure deliciousness...
I love how no matter how long you know someone, new quirks can shine through. Better yet, when they’re ones you share. Last weekend, Camille and I were both (or, more precisely, each) about to order a slice of lemon meringue pie that sounded beyond decadent. From a mandarin orange sauce to a shortbread crust, there was a lot going on with this pie. So you can’t imagine how happy/relieved I was when Camille very tactfully asked the server whether there was, still, an actual meringue topping–as opposed to an artistic drizzle or something–on said pie. I’d had exactly the same worry. (Note: The meringue was there in force. And it was great.)
I was planning on posting this recipe regardless, but now knowing that we’ve got two hard-core meringue fans in the house, I’m considering it my duty. What follows is a riff on lemon meringue pie–with meringue in lieu of crust. Courtesy of Kerstin, my mother’s best friend since high school, it’s the best dessert I’ve had all summer. The fact that it’s incredibly easy (and healthy, since the lemon curd’s more of a spread than a filling) doesn’t hurt either! Read more…
by Camille on July 15, 2010
There are tons of reasons to buy organic–chief among them being that organic fare is free of pesticides, hormones and chemicals that have been strongly linked to cancer and others serious health issues–but it does have a downside: people assume food labeled “organic” is lower calorie than it really is, which can lead to weight gain.
Researchers at the University of Michigan asked 200 students whether it was okay for a woman who was trying to slim down to skip her evening run. Their response? If they were informed that she’d had an organic dessert after dinner, they were more inclined to say it was all right–but if she had a regular dessert, they were more inclined to think she should exercise. Read more…
Popbar's pretty assortment
You wouldn’t know it by the NYC rain today, but since I’ve been back from my trip, the balmy weather’s put me on an all-things frozen kick. Ice cream, gelato, yogurt, sorbet–you name it. In hopes of summoning back some good weather, I thought I’d dedicate today to an idea a friend suggested to me. DIY gelato and sorbet sticks. The inspiration came from a great new spot in the West Village, Popbar, that specializes in just those two things. Not only are their offerings delicious, they’re also absolutely gorgeous. Here’s a quick list of need-to-knows… Read more…
Facebook
Camille
