Friday, March 21, 2008

pumpkin, the super food...

I read an article a while back on iVillage called "5 Superfoods for Weight Loss". The 5 foods on the list were:

Grapefruit
Sardines
Pumpkin
Grass-fed Beef
Green Tea

The one that interested me the most was pumpkin. The article said it was one of the greatest weight loss foods ever. And I like pumpkin. But I don't have the occasion to eat it unless it's around the holidays: pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin mousse, etc. I started looking for pumpkin recipes and found mostly breads, muffins, pies, and pastries. All of which aren't that great on the WW diet.

Then I got an email last week from VeryBestBaking.com a website (I think) published by Nestle. I've been a member of their site for years. They have a great community for really good recipes. Anyway, the email had a small little box at the bottom that says "Find out the power of pumpkin". So I clicked on it and was taken to a phenomenal website about pumpkin. Looks like its sponsored by Libby's. It has a bunch of recipes, games, nutritional informatoin, etc.

But the most exciting part of the website is a page called PlusPumpkin (or rather +Pumpkin).

It shows how you can add pumpkin to every day meals to add fiber and vitamin A. And by doing this it will reduce the fat and sodium in your regular meals. How great is that!??! I know I could use a lot less fat and sodium in my meals, how about you??

It has suggestions to add pumpkin to:

Spaghetti Sauce
Chili
Macaroni and Cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Hot Cocoa
Rice
and a bunch of other stuff.

It's exactly what I was looking for. A way to add pumpkin to my diet without having to eat pumpkin pie or pumpkin milk shakes.

I'm going to try it and then start experimenting with adding pumpkin to other things, too.

Have you ever put pumpkin in something weird (like the list above) and it turned out normal tasting?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

pumpkin to mac n cheese huh? Let me know how that goes, I am really interested.

Have a great weekend!

--cara said...

I put 2 tablespoons of pumpkin in my cream of wheat this morning for breakfast and I could hardly taste it. What a way to put an extra kick of vitamin A and fiber in my diet. I'm going to try it in alot of other things. Can't wait.