It’s easy to make your own grilled chicken,
fish, kebabs and roasts in this Cuisinart
Vertical Rotisserie.

One of our most popular articles last January was 10 Appliances For Low Calorie Cooking.

Take a look at how you can whip up low calorie foods—with high taste—using a:

Find our favorite low calorie products in THE NIBBLE’s Diet Foods Section.
  

Some people don’t eat more whole grains because they take too long to cook.

But with a pressure cooker, brown rice is ready in 10 minutes, beans in 20 minutes (and really long cookers like short ribs in 40 minutes).

Start your healthy New Year with a pressure cooker. We love our top-of-the-line Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, but there are less expensive (and smaller) alternatives like this Presto pressure cooker for $29.99 (we haven’t tested it).

As a rule of thumb, an hour in a conventional pot becomes 20 minutes in a pressure cooker.

With a pressure cooker, there is no need to pre-soak your beans. Hearty and healthy beans ready in 40 minutes are difficult to pass up!
 
HOW TO COOK BEANS IN A PRESSURE COOKER

1. RINSE the beans under running water. Place them in a pressure cooker and cover with liquid to 2 inches above the top of beans. For more flavor, use stock or broth instead of water. You can also add dried herbs.

2. COOK for 20 minutes under high pressure. Remove the lid of the pressure cooker and cook for another 20 minutes or so, stirring and testing occasionally. Depending on the beans, they may be finished well before 20 minutes; so keep checking until you reach your desired texture.

3. DRAIN, season and serve.
 
TIPS

[1] A pressure cooker helps us eat healthier: beans, brown rice and other whole grains are a snap (photo courtesy Kuhn Rikon). [2] If you have a bay leaf, toss it in the pot. It pairs well with different types of beans, below (photo of bay leaf on the tree courtesy Doobee). Here are the different types of bay leaf.

Here are pairing suggestions from The Kitchn:

[1] Alas, our beloved Corn Flakes are not whole grain. We’ve switched to Cheerios and oatmeal (photo by Hannah Kaminsky | © THE NIBBLE).

[2] Switch white rice for brown rice (photo © Village Harvest).

[3] Switch white potatoes for sweet potatoes (photo © Burpee).

[4] Popcorn is a nutritious, whole-grain snack (pho6to © Crunch Daddy).

These painless, easy switches to whole grains and other foods can give you more nutrition, more whole grain fiber and a new perspective on broadening your culinary repertoire.

Why do you need to eat more whole grains? Check this out and you’ll switch even faster!
 
 
EAT HEALTHY WITH THESE 15 EASY STARCH-SWITCHING TIPS

Send us your favorite switches and we’ll add them to this list.

Any nutritionally-aware person realizes that sugar tastes great but simply is not good for you.

How about a natural sugar alternative that tastes great and is good for you?

That’s agave nectar (also called agave syrup), made from the juices of the same plant that produces tequila: the blue agave. In the bottle, it looks like honey or maple syrup.

Light agave nectar is a neutral sweetener, though some brands can taste like very light honey. Agave dissolves instantly in cold or hot beverages, and is used to sweeten lighter-flavor foods (like fruit salad).

Dark agave nectar has caramel flavors, and is used in recipes and as a substitute for maple syrup or honey on pancakes, bread and other foods.

The best part is that agave is a low-glycemic food. It has half the glycemic index of honey, maple syrup and table sugar; and it’s 25% to 50% sweeter, so you need much less of it.

Agave is a real find. Make it your “find of the year.”

 
 
WHAT IS THE GLYCEMIC INDEX?

The Glycemic Index, or GI, is a system that ranks foods on a scale from 1 to 100, based on their effect on blood-sugar levels.

The smaller the number, the less impact the food has on your blood sugar. Bad carbs have a higher GI, good carbs, lower.

Here’s a detailed description of the glycemic index.
 
 
The Glycemic Index Of Popular Sweeteners*

The blue agave plant produces a sweetener that looks like honey, but is lighter, easily pourable, not as sticky and has half the glycemic index, It’s better for you! Photo by Cristian Lazzari | IST. Bottom photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

†Brown rice syrup is not recommended for diabetics. Consult your healthcare provider.
  

You can make a salad with celery as the main
ingredient. Photo and recipe courtesy
Whole Foods Market.

Lettuce is a low calorie food. Most varieties have just 5 to 10 calories per cup. Just don’t heap on creamy dressings at 100 calories/tablespoon. Instead, use a vinaigrette with heart-healthy olive oil or a reduced-calorie dressing. And pre-dress the salad immediately prior to serving. This enables you to use the least amount of dressing to cover the ingredients.

No matter how you might enjoy a crunchy salad of romaine or an iceberg wedge, it gets boring day after day. So here’s how to enjoy a different salad every day:

• Find a good produce market and go to town with a different lettuce—or mix of lettuces. Switch among arugula, bibb lettuce, Boston lettuce, curly endive, endive, leaf lettuce, mâche (lambs’ lettuce), mesclun mixture, mizuna, oak leaf lettuce, radicchio, red-tip leaf lettuce, romaine (cos), Swiss chard and watercress.

• Keep it interesting by adding at least two non-lettuce items to your salad: beans, beets, carrots, celery, cheese shavings/shredded cheese (in small amounts), cherry tomatoes/sundried tomatoes/tomatoes in season, cucumber, fennel, fresh fruit (berries, julienne of apples or pears; orange or tangerine segments), green beans, mushrooms, olives, onion or green onion, peas, pickles and other pickled vegetables, sprouts, water chestnuts, etc. There are scores of choices. You can add rice, grains, even leftover bacon—in moderation.
• And don’t forget the herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, parsley or other favorite will really pick up the flavor of your salad.

Speaking of celery, you can make a salad with a base of celery—or fennel, green beans or any green vegetable . Here’s a recipe from Whole Foods Market that serves four:

CELERY & CITRUS SALAD RECIPE

Crunchy celery and sweet, tender citrus create a lovely salad that shows how just a touch of a highly flavorful ingredient—here feta cheese—can elevate a dish without adding too much fat or sodium. And balsamic vinegar is one of the great, high flavor/low calorie ingredients one can use in many different dishes.

Ingredients

• 5 honey tangerines, Murcott or Satsuma oranges
• 1 ounce (about 1/4 cup) feta cheese crumbles
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 4 cups (about 1/4 pound) mixed salad greens
• 1 cup roughly chopped celery leaves
• 3 cups sliced celery

Preparation

1. Squeeze juice from one of the oranges into a large bowl.

2. Add feta cheese and vinegar and mix with a fork, mashing the cheese to make a dressing.

3. Peel remaining citrus and separate into segments. Transfer to bowl with dressing.

4. Add salad greens, celery leaves and celery and toss well. Serve.

Nutrition Per Serving: 110 calories (15 from fat), 1.5g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 5mg cholesterol, 190mg sodium, 23g total carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 17g sugar), 4g protein