1. I have a weakness for cheese. Especially mozzarella and cheddar.. I love the texture of melted cheese and well as the salty flavor. The smell gets me too! Portion control is the only way I see making this healthy as well as pairing it with healthier foods.

2. Avocado. The smooth texture of avocado and the mild flavor are what I enjoy most about it. Eating an avocado solo or reducing the number of high fat foods paired with it is how I can make it healthier. For example instead of with a quesadilla and sour cream I would have an avocado sandwich with nothing else in it.

3. Tropical fruits. Growing up in the Caribbean these were my candy as a kid. Got coconut water and jelly every morning with breakfast, had mango, tamarind, guava, and pineapple all summer. I think what many of these fruits have in common, barring coconut are sweet with a slight sour taste and firm texture. You can go a bit overboard on the sugar in these fruits, not to mention a stomach ache so portion control is important. They are loaded with Vitamins but like everything it is best not to overindulge.

4.Berries. . Once I moved to the US berries were the closest I could get to the flavor and texture of the tropical fruit I grew up with. I've paired berries with oatmeal, yogurt, added them to water or iced tea for flavor and eaten them on their own. They make healthy things I don’t like much more palatable without addibg to many calories and they are also high fiber and full of antioxidants.

5. Quesadillas . Quesadillas are versatile you can make them extremely unhealthy or exercise control and make them lower calorie. Plus they have cheese in them! See point 1. I like the texture of them, crispy in the outside but soft on the inside. Cutting down on the cheese and sour cream as well as using veggies instead of meat make them healthier.

6. Iced tea- . Iced tea. Trying to wean myself off of high sugar juices (I never liked soda) iced tea was my savior. I always drank tea hot and unsweetened so iced tea provided a cold drink without the calories. I sometimes would squeeze a bit of lemon or some other fruit in it to had some flavor and sweetness to them. Iced tea helps cut down my sugar and thus my calorie intake each day

murdog3t wrote: »

My favorite food/ snack of all time is POPCORN .....any and all I could eat it all day long and nothing else. I can eat it all dolled up and fancy but I really love it plain popped in flavored oils.

Our fearless leader of Team 6.... this is one of my favorite foods too! My guilty pleasure when my family is away is having a big bowl of popcorn for dinner, lots of butter and NO sharing... heaven!!
I also love fruits and veggies in season, fresh tomatoes, strawberries, peaches...any of our beautiful SW Ontario produce! My favorite food that I crave and eat almost everyday is avocado. Avocado sliced in a salad, mixed with a hardboiled egg, served on top of veggie chili, an avocado half filled with lemon juice and salt and pepper and a spoon, love them all. Creamy and luscious what is not to love!!

My go to snack, Roasted Edamame! High in fiber & protein, fell in love with them when I visited my son in Japan in 2005 ( He is teacher and has lived there over a decade - miss my grandson's terribly! His wife is Japanese) I make them at home occasionally , just roast them in the oven like pumpkin seeds. But I usually just buy them, cheap and healthy on the go snack. All nds are a close second.

In case I didn't do the challenge right....here goes.
I love pasta and potatoes. I love the taste and the textures. I have discovered that cauliflower has a similar texture as potatoes and when adding the right spices, it might not taste exactly like potatoes but its close enough to satisfy me. The same thing with pasta. If I use a spiral gadget on squash or zucchini it resembles pasta and the texture is also similar. It doesn't taste quite the same, but I do like it and I love the fact that I am eating something healthy. My husband actually prefers the zoodles to regular pasta.

1.) Tangerines - Love the taste and convenience. Give good energy boost.
2.) Ground Turkey - Good protein source and low in fat. Love to spice it up with cayenne
3.) Cucumbers - Love the taste, versatile and super low calorie
4.) Sweet mini bell peppers - good for dipping instead of chips, multi-colored for phytochemicals
5.) Quinoa - easy to cook, goes a long way and good protein source for a grain. Also very versatile.

mswanger09 wrote: »

mswanger09 wrote: »

Tacos. They can be made so many different ways, ground meat, grilled, or in the crock pot, you can even go vegetarian or vegan with them! You can season them in a lot of different ways and never get bored with them. And if you don't want all the calories from the shells, you can turn them into salads and just crumb a few chips or a shell on top of them.

Ok here is my update to clarify my earlier response(even though I hit most of the points.):
1. Tacos are my favorite food.
2. I love the variety of flavored that can be used. They can be made with a variety of proteins and they can be made vegetarian as well.
3. If you don't want all the calories from the shells you can make a salad and just crumble some chips on top! Or you can use lettuce leaves as the shell.

Broccoli slaw!!! I should have mentioned broccoli slaw. It makes a great crunchy base for taco salad, as well as many other dishes.

I love most veggies and fruits....just love the taste of berries and to keep it healthy, I don't add sugar....plain and cut up if needed.

Second is casseroles....pasta or rice with chicken or ground beef and with canned soup. To make it healthier we buy low sodium soup and load up on veggies.....peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, mixed frozen veggies etc, cut up and added in. I can get two servings of veggies in a serving of most casseroles and helps to lower the calorie count. I love my food to be crunchy and have lots of "substance" to it.

Nutritional challenge 10 pts

1 - Make a list of your favorite healthy foods.
2 - Once you’ve identified what foods you love the most, you can then determine what it is about those foods you love so much. Perhaps its a particular seasoning, the texture, the color, or even the smell.
3 - Once you identify why you love it, see if you can find ways to bring out those characteristics in more nutritious ways.

I'm also confused by this as I think that since #1 asks for "healthy" food, I'm not sure how we are making it "more nutritious".

Favorite healthy foods and what I like about them:
- berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries); taste is sweet but tart, colors are vibrant, texture is soft but with seeds or sometimes "bursty", like blueberries.
- shepherd's pie; perfect blend of meat, vegetables and gravy! The smell, look and texture remind me of childhood, when I would just mash everything together on my plate. It's one of the dishes that just feel warm and cozy.
- craisins!!!! Tart, sweet, chewy, red. Can't have a salad without these.

I'm not sure about bringing out these characteristics in more nutritious ways. I add berries to greek yogurt so that I can get some protein with the carbs. For shepherd's pie, I would make it with as little sodium as possible. The meat and veggies are already healthy and nutritious. Craisins are eaten in a salad for me, with romaine lettuce, spinach, green onion, carrots, and a protein, like baked chicken breast.

However, if I were to list my actual favorite food (not "healthy" food), it would be chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Sweet, but with that bit of bitterness from the chocolate; moist, soft. Melt in your mouth tasty. The smell - chocolaty! The only thing I've tried to make this more nutritious is making a diabetic chocolate cake recipe, so much less sugar, and having it with a bit of real whipped cream instead of frosting. Not much else you can do with chocolate cake to make it nutritious and still be chocolate cake! Just say, having a small piece of dark chocolate just isn't the same.

1 - Make a list of your favorite healthy foods.
2 - Once you’ve identified what foods you love the most, you can then determine what it is about those foods you love so much. Perhaps its a particular seasoning, the texture, the color, or even the smell.
3 - Once you identify why you love it, see if you can find ways to bring out those characteristics in more nutritious way

Broccoli and cheese. I could eat that every day for every meal. The green broccoli the creamy melted Velveeta, it's so good. Thankfully it's already easy to fit into my meal plans but Velveeta is high in sodium and saturated fat.

So an alternative is broccoli soup using cauliflower as a thickener. Puree the cauliflower with a little sour cream and add to broccoli soup to make it creamy instead of the cream and cheese. Then cheese of any type can be grated on top of the bowl before serving. This is really good with a dash of hot sauce.

120maggie wrote: »

Healthy food
1. Baby carrots
2. They are sweet, crunchy, colorful, filling
3. Because they are so portable you can use them as a nutritious snack anywhere. Have a handful to hold off the grumbling stomach. There is no peel or core or juice to create a mess. You can add them to stir fries for color and crunch.

To add a list of healthy favs: Greek yogurt. Lots of mixed green salads. Couscous, pita breads berries . but got to have the carrots everyday!

I love soup, especially thick creamy soups!
One way I found to lighten them up is using pureed vegetables like potatoes and squash for a thickener instead of cream or milk.

1 - Make a list of your favorite healthy foods.
Spaghetti squash, Greek yogurt (working on making this a favorite), oatmeal with flax seeds, and mashed cauliflower. Unhealthy faves - meatloaf, graham crackers, cheese.
2 - Once you’ve identified what foods you love the most, you can then determine what it is about those foods you love so much. Perhaps its a particular seasoning, the texture, the color, or even the smell.
Love the texture of spaghetti squash because I love pasta but trying to cut unnecessary carbs. The Greek yogurt I am working on loving because it can get me a snack with carbs and protein for my pre-gym snack, which makes it super easy. The oatmeal with flax seeds I love because it is an easy breakfast I can make at work and I love the warmth of it and even the taste although I don't sweeten it with anything other than cinnamon. I love the texture and taste of mashed cauliflower because for me it tastes and feels like mashed potatoes without the carb guilt.
3 - Once you identify why you love it, see if you can find ways to bring out those characteristics in more nutritious ways.
I need to learn how to use the spaghetti squash in more ways and also try zucchini noodles some time. The Greek yogurt, I just need to keep trying and supposedly you become accustomed to the texture and taste. I don't know how to bring out more nutrition in the oatmeal unless I add some fruit to it which I rarely do. For the cauliflower, I need to experiment with more ways to use it as a substitute for potatoes. As for my unhealthy faves, I try to use leaner meat when I make my meatloaf but I should also try making it in muffin tins so you have portion control, as that is my biggest problem when I make meatloaf. My graham cracker addiction is getting worse all the time. LOL. I do keep control in that I can only have so much because of daily calorie limits and most of the time I have so few calories left that I don't dip it in milk. As far as the cheese, I am trying to buy reduced fat cheese sticks and the cheese I am having at home are the smaller cracker cut pieces, so hopefully that helps.

NACHOS! One of very favorite foods. I love the crunch of the chips, the flavor of the meat and/or beans, the coolness of the sour cream and the zing of the jalapenos. I love every aspect of nachos. To cut calories and carbs I just make a huge taco salad without the shell or the chips! Or, if I want some type of crunch, I use pig skins for the chips. Now, I am craving Nachos!

@ka97 This combo of yogurt, peanut butter, and protein powder sounds good, especially as a filling breakfast:
I make a chocolate peanut butter yogurt with greek yogurt, peanut butter (all natural) and chocolate protein powder. It's rich and creamy and slightly sweet but also slightly tangy. I eat it for breakfast almost daily. It's about 300 calories and keeps me feeling full for hours. Sometimes as a snack I will do greek yogurt with chocolate PB2, for a slightly lower calorie count.

Would you mind giving me the proportions so I can give it a try? Either here or on our team thread would be awesome! Thanks!

Favourite food: chocolate. It is the flavour I love, obviously. To fit it into my daily calories I will either have a glass of 1% milk with some Nesquik syrup (this way I get the nutrients from the milk as well as the chocolate flavour) or a fun size York peppermint patty (only 50 calories).

Favourite healthy foods: All Bran buds. I love the crunch. I add 1/3 cup to my yogurt and berries in the morning and get half my daily fibre.

sweet bell peppers: I love the colours, the flavour and the crunch. Perfect to pack in your lunch.