Ramadan daylight fasting is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith.

This June, our blog site Guest Author is Teba Abdul Lateef, a Registered Dietitian from Pakistan who is contributing to a two-part blog series on Ramadan. Teba is sharing some of her expertise as a devout Muslim when it comes to Islamic traditions. Please see Part 1 of this two-part blog series for links to Teba’s background. (Grand Mosque picture courtesy of barunpatro at rgbstock).

Part 1 covers some background from Teba concerning Ramadan as well as some reported culinary trends during Ramadan for Muslims living in various parts of the world. This Part 2 includes some thoughts from Teba for devout Muslims to consider when it comes to maintaining their health during Ramadan.

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As part of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s signature “Let’s Move” initiative to end childhood obesity in America, on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 the second annual White House “Kids’ State Dinner” as a formal luncheon was scheduled to celebrate the winners of the 2013 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge.

(2017 UPDATE NOTICE: Unfortunately, the Let’s Move website is no longer active since Michelle Obama is no longer the current First Lady.

You may find that previous availability of recipes and information from the Let’s Move program may have been scrubbed from other government related websites as well.)

Selected healthy focus recipes were featured at the luncheon. (Image of Kids’ State Dinner graphic property of Let’s Move and shown for identification purposes only).

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Plans were underway for the year 2013 (2nd annual) Kids’ State Dinner aka celebration of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge promoted by Let’s Move.

(2017 UPDATE NOTICE: Unfortunately, the Let’s Move website is no longer active since Michelle Obama is no longer the current First Lady.

You may find that previous availability of recipes and information from the Let’s Move program may have been scrubbed from other government related websites as well.)

Winners of the recipe contest were announced around late June 2013, although winners in some cases received some local celebrity in their home town locations in advance of the announcement.

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It’s March once again and National Nutrition Month (NNM) is here!

National Nutrition Month helps remind us of the unmistakable link between food, nutrition and health. You can find out more by visiting this year’s NNM site.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of National Nutrition Month, we’d like to share 10 categories of tips with you.

Won’t you join us in making this the best celebration ever of NNM?!

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In Part 1 of 2 of our series on baking with yeast, we mentioned a bit about the history of baker’s yeast and some details concerning fresh yeast and active dry yeast.

In this Part 2 of 2 of our baking with yeast series, we’ll discuss how to “proof” or “bloom” active dry yeast prior to incorporating it into recipes, as well as the various offerings under the category of instant dry yeast and some pointers when it comes to using it. Also feel free to check out our accompanying picture-based recipe blog post on how to make G’s Heavenly Cinnamon Rolls.

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Are you a seasoned home baker who doesn’t hesitate to work with yeast dough, or does the thought of working with baker’s yeast make you nervous?

Have you ever wished you knew more about yeast baking so that you would always be successful in working with any form of baker’s yeast sold to consumers? Have you ever wished you could get some yeast risings to go a bit faster to save some time making a recipe from start to finish? Have you ever wondered about the differences between fresh yeast, active dry yeast, and instant dry yeast?

We’d love to share some background & pointers when it comes to baking with yeast to reinforce your confidence in working with it.

There’s really nothing quite like the aromas that emanate from freshly baked, yeast risen breads, rolls, and pastries, etc.

In this Part 1 of 2 of our series on baking with yeast we’ll mention some background about baker’s yeast and some details about fresh yeast and active dry yeast.

Then in Part 2 of 2 of our baking with yeast series, we’ll discuss how to “proof” or “bloom” active dry yeast prior to incorporating it into recipes, as well as some of the various offerings under the category of instant dry yeast.

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G’s Heavenly Cinnamon Rolls recipe was adapted from other cinnamon rolls recipes by our webmaster to have a more heathful profile overall for baking a yeast-based cinnamon roll.

Each 3+” diameter cinnamon roll from the adapted recipe features an overall lower fat and lower saturated fat content than other typical cinnamon rolls, features applesauce as a replacement for fat in the actual dough, is higher in whole grain content through the use of some* white whole wheat flour to replace some of the all-purpose unbleached flour, is lower in overall sugars, yet when iced still offers the appeal of those typical mall or rest stop type cinnamon roll bakery offerings.

*Next we’re going to try increasing the proportion of white whole wheat flour in the recipe to see if we can’t get closer to having half whole grains in the rolls.

The following approximate nutrient content was quickly calculated using the free Lose It! app version 3.9.3 since we know that is a favorite of many and was a 2012 First Place winner in the Surgeon General’s Healthy App Challenge in the category of Fitness/Physical Activity.

G’s Heavenly Cinnamon Rolls UNiced recipe (roll shown above, which is low-fat) will come in at ~ 200 calories/roll w/ ~>110 mg sodium. Using whole eggs, the total fat will come in ~<2 g w/ ~0.3 g saturated fat, ~36 mg cholesterol. Each roll also has ~6 g protein, ~40 g CHO, which includes ~<3 g fiber and ~<10 g sugars. We’d like to decrease the sugar profile.

G’s Heavenly Cinnamon Rolls recipe ICED (roll shown at bottom of blog post below) will come in at ~<250 calories/roll w/ ~>139 mg sodium. Using whole eggs & the icing, the total fat will come in ~<5.5 g w/ ~1.6 g saturated fat, ~>40 mg cholesterol. Each roll also has ~6 g protein, ~43 g CHO, which includes ~<3 g fiber and ~>12 g sugars. We still need to work on tweaking the icing to decrease that fat and sugar profile.

All photographs used in this blog post, including the one above of an UNiced cinnamon roll are ©2012 courtesy of the staff at sensorynutrition.com

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A pulled pork sandwich on a homemade roll is a favorite of the webmaster’s husband and a great alternative to outdoor BBQing. (Photo of BBQ’d Pulled Pork on a Homemade Bun courtesy of & © 2012 GH (Webmaster)/Sensory Nutrition/US12).

Since around the country it is some stage of “back to school” time and folks are extra busy, we thought we would mention it as the pork is cooked in a slow cooker at the same time that the dough is rising for the rolls, all while you can be busy doing something else.

I went to visit the webmaster last month and she met the car I was traveling in about 1 & 3/4 hrs from where she lives and I got into her car at a convenient rest stop transfer point. When we arrived at her house, the pork was conveniently getting done in the slow cooker.  Since I offered to help her finish prepare the supper meal for her family, she put me to work grinding up some extra white whole wheat flour as she was running low on ground flour, but had plenty of nice, dry whole white wheat kernels in storage.

In this blog post we’ll start with how she makes the homemade sandwich rolls. If you use a counter-top oven to bake the rolls off in, you don’t need to create a lot of heat indoors in Summertime if it is still warm where you are.  If evenings cool down now for you, then you might not mind baking these rolls off in a regular oven.

Preparing the sandwich rolls from scratch means YOU control what ingredients go into them.  Since the webmaster is always busy with her family, she doesn’t have any time to to waste. She likes time spent in the kitchen to be satisfying and the results of her efforts to be well worth eating.

By modifying a recipe she found on Allrecipes.com for honey whole wheat bread, she came up with her own approach to sandwich roll making that she says anyone with a stand kitchen mixer can do lickety-split!

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Have you ever wished you could easily build a customized grocery shopping list that would make it easier when it comes time to head to the farmers market and stores for supplies?

There are MANY “kitchen” and “pantry” focused food item shopping lists that have been posted over the years, with some being much more comprehensive than others.

In this technical age there are both low tech and high approaches to dealing with coming up with those grocery shopping lists and we’ll cover some details of each type of approach.

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We’ve discussed the importance of eating food choices from the “rainbow of color” options out there, but some readers wrote in asking for even more specifics than we have previously listed in various blog posts.

Although within the US we have moved from using a model of a food guide pyramid to using a model of a plate to encourage healthful choices in dining, there are still some useful pyramid options out there.

(Fresh Produce on Display in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, graphic courtesy of Betty H)

The “Mediterranean Diet” (general Mediterranean style dietary intake as part of a total lifestyle) visualized as a food guide pyramid is one example; and an anti-inflammatory pyramid popularized by Dr. Andrew Weil is another example.

For infotainment purposes only, we’ll share some anti-inflammatory food item options in the following listing, which is by no means all-inclusive, but should give you the gist of the breadth and depth of wonderful food source options that have been reported to have some anti-inflammatory properties. A dietetic colleague, John S. Pasztor, MPH, RD, CDE, over at the The Regional Diabetes and Endocrine Center, Cape Fear Valley Health System, gladly shares another version of a list from 2009 with his patients and with members of a dietetic practice group one of us belongs to.

We have used for inspiration bits and pieces of various skeleton listings out there and then come up with our own fleshed out infotainment version, subject to change/further updating, which follows. Research is ongoing and some items will show up on one list, but not another, in various reviews of research, so realize the list* is always subject to modification/updating as newer research results are reported and older results further clarified.

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