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Dining Out without the Heart Break

This past Wednesday, I completed my third news segment for WZZM 13 news channel here in Grand Rapids. Per usual, the segment was a great time! With Jennifer Pascua, I discussed how to dine out on Valentine’s Day without the heart break. In this segment, I take you through each course of the meal, providing you healthy tips to avoid extra calories and special food or drink choices to benefit your heart. Some quick pics of the segment…

Some key tips that I highlighted:

1. Opting out of the breadbasket to avoid extra calories from refined sugars.

2. Splitting an appetizer or trying a spinach side salad.

3. Making your entree steamed, broiled, or baked and trying an “oily” fish, such as salmon or tuna to bump up your omega 3 intake.

4. Choosing heart healthy vegetables to make up half of your plate, such as red peppers, sweet potatoes, or steamed carrots.

5. If you’re going to do dessert, choose wisely. Opt for dark chocolate over milk chocolate for added heart health benefits. If you plan on getting chocolates for your significant other, choose the smaller box, instead of the larger one.

Vday segment-chocolate

Check out the segment here! http://www.wzzm13.com/features/on-the-menu-dining-out-on-valentines-day-without-the-heart-break/38051437

A day later on February 11th, Today’s Dietitian magazine named me “RD of the Day” for this segment, which was completely unexpected and truly exciting “news” for me 🙂 Stay tuned for more nosh in the news!

-EAW

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PB&J Ale Cookies

Hear ye, hear ye! And so my blogging journey commences. I hope you enjoy my commentary as I take on this adventure of what is known as “blogging”. Known to many, yet also unknown to many (such as my father, who will likely never see this blog unless I show it to him.) My father is a straight-forward, hard-working, beer and sports enthusiast, but maybe not the most tech-savvy. Bless him. These beer-inspired cookies remind me of the many things my Dad knows and loves…good beer and a delicious cookie. As a native to the Grand Rapids area, I know well where good craft beers originated around here…Founders.

This past weekend I attended the “Firkin Freezeout” event at Founders, only to come across some very interesting spin-offs or “firkins” of some of Founders’ well-known beers. Some of these beers included new added flavors, such as tequila, agave, coffee, vanilla beans, and the list goes on. However, my favorite was the PB&J-inspired Dirty Bastard. Very unusual flavors, yet very, very delicious. I awoke the next morning thinking to myself, “I must re-create these amazing flavors”. So I decided to make these PB&J, Scotch Ale-inspired cookies.

FirkinCookiesPB&J Ale Cookies

Prep time: 15 minutes, Bake time: 12 minutes, Total time: 30-45 minutes

Yield: 3-4 dozen

  • ¾ cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 1¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • ½ cup brown ale beer (Dirty Bastard in my case…P.S. I threw in a little extra here because I wanted a little extra kick of the ale)
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/3 cup creamy all-natural peanut butter
  • 1¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare baking sheets by spraying with non-stick cooking spray or covering with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add egg yolk and vanilla and mix until just combined. Add beer and peanut butter and mix again until just combined.
  3. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cornstarch and mix until just combined. Stir in blueberries.
  4. Scoop out cookie dough by the rounded tablespoon full onto prepared cookie sheets.
  5. Bake at 325 for 12-14 minutes. Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheet after baking and allow to cool to room temperature.

Notes: This recipe was adapted from Jennifer Meyering.

-EAW