Good Eating Austin

Vegans & Vegetarians Rejoice!

2011-02-17T13:12:00.005-06:00

New designations on the menu

Over the past year, I have picked up more and more vegetarian/vegan clients and those of you who have been a client for a few years, may have noticed a trend towards more of these types of items.

Not being a vegetarian myself and having loosely based the Good Eating concept on my diet as a competition body builder, I always considered the protein the starting ingredient in each menu item. And by protein, I meant meat. Last year some time, I started offering many of the dishes I do with a tofu option. I was surprised by how many of my non-vegetarian clients were ordering the tofu option. So that has become a staple item on every menu and I make sure to include at least 2 - 3 vegetarian items per delivery.

Recently, I've had more than a few requests for vegan items. I sometimes find it hard (though I try) to meet all of my clients needs, all of the time. And I've found it a bit difficult to provide enough variety to produce an entire vegan delivery but I have begun to incorporate more dishes that are vegan or can easily be altered to accommodate a vegan request.

Starting this week, you will see the following letters after each meal:

V - (Vegetarian)
VE - (Vegan)

These symbols will be used to designate dishes that either are vegetarian and/or vegan OR can be altered to be made vegetarian and/or vegan. For example, the Vegetable Enchiladas are already vegetarian and can be easily made vegan by eliminating the cheese topping the enchiladas. (If you are a practicing vegan, you can always throw on some soy cheese, if you have some in the fridge at home.) The stuffed peppers, on the other hand can't be altered that easily and will just stay a "meat-eater" dish.

For those of you tracking your intake, please keep in mind that the nutrition information listed after each menu item is for the unaltered recipe. While I am more than happy to make the changes necessary to meet your needs, I cannot provide accurate nutrition info on altered orders.

Busy Wednesday at the kitchen

2011-01-27T14:27:00.004-06:00

We're cooking some delicious sausage and peppers with green beans and egg noodles. If you'd like to peek at this week's menu, click here: http://goodeatingaustin.com/

2010-04-06T17:09:00.007-05:00

A couple years ago, my mom came to Austin to visit. It was spring and I had been wanting to plant a little herb garden. Since my mom has no less than three green thumbs (ok, two thumbs and a finger, but you get the point), I asked her to help plant it. And she did. And it was awesome! Full of parsley and thyme and mint and basil, we picked our herbs fresh from the garden all spring long. And then summer hit and the tarragon suffered, then the basil, then.. well, you get the point. So our poor little herb garden was forgotten and neglected all winter long. And since my mom didn't come to visit last year and I'm not that much of a gardener, I let it sit all of last year with no pruning or weeding or replanting.

The Kitchen Space is situated on the east side of town, not too far from Boggy Creek farm and our soil is quite awesome. The garden itself is on the back side of the walk in refrigerator, which juts out from the building proper. It is situated so that the drain from the walk in trickles into the garden, essentially watering itself. Since it is behind the building, I will admit that I had checked on it in months. So we hit the garden store and picked up all our supplies and headed over to the kitchen. I was totally surprised to find that not only had most of the herbs survived, but that they were thriving and with absolutely no attention for over a year. So much so, in fact, that the parsley and mint had so filled up the space that there were virtually no weeds. So we ...ok, my boyfriend, got to work digging and pulling and fertilizing (organic) to get the little garden in order. After he pulled out the majority of the parsley and the arms of mint that had run amok, he uncovered the French thyme, chives & oregano from the original planting. We added a new basil and tarragon as well as a small tomato plant.

I also intended to put in a cucumber plant, but realized that I had actually picked up an okra plant, so we went ahead and put it in. The tag said 45-50 days till it fruits, so I would expect to see an okra dish or two on the menu in late May or June. I'm really excited to have the garden all cleaned up and will definitely be using its bounty in our meals for as long as the season lasts!

A big bowl of parsley (and some mint) that we pulled from the garden.

Some French thyme, recently used in the split pea soup and soon to be in every other soup too!

Portion Size, Then Vs. Now - DivineCaroline

2010-01-12T11:24:00.001-06:00

"Many of you are aware that portions have been increasing, but maybe not by how much. This article breaks down a few of our favorite treats and how they've grown."

Over the past few decades, portion sizes of everything from muffins to sandwiches have grown considerably. Unfortunately, America’s waistbands have reacted accordingly. In the 1970s,…

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Have an iPhone? 5 great apps to help you manage your diet

2010-01-12T11:19:00.000-06:00

True Nutrition - $0.99 For those of you not too good at math, this app takes the guess work out of how many calories you actually consumed. Enter in some figures (number of servings, calorie, fat, etc) and it will instantly calculate what you ate, not what you think you did.

Still Tasty - $1.99 Based on the website with the same name, this handy little app lets you know just how long you can keep that stick of butter in the door before it's no longer safe to eat. Updated regularly, the list of info includes shelf/refrigerator/freezer life, tips on handling and storage and even allows you to enter items you've purchased so you can keep track of whats in your fridge! This app actually pays for itself with the money you'll save on NOT tossing things that are still safe to eat.

Drinkfit - $1.99 I couldn't tell you how many texts and phone calls I've gotten from clients and friends FROM THE BAR asking if this drink is better or worse than another. Drinkfit lists nutrition information for over 1,600 different beers, wines and mixed drinks. It even allows you to track your drinking in case you've been questioning your sobriety.

Eat This, Not That - $4.99 (I hesitated to include this app because of the number of negative reviews regarding crashing. They do update quite often so I'm hopeful the problems will be taken care of soon.) This really is a gem of an app! It allows you to easily look up nutrition information for over 13,000 menu items. Other features include a comparison chart for menu items and it even allows you to email me your grocery list for review!

2009-08-17T11:27:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've had quite a few of you ask for my Breakfast Shake recipe. I thought it would be simpler if I posted it on here for everyone to see!!

Good Eating Breakfast Shake

1 Cup Soy or Fat Free Milk

1/4 Cup Rolled Oats, Quaker or any other whole oat

1 T Almond or Natural Peanut Butter

1 Scoop Whey Protein Powder

1 T Cocoa Powder (leave out if using a flavored protein powder)

3 Each Strawberries or (best if frozen first)

1 T Flax Seeds, freshly ground should yield 1 tsp

Ice

Add oats and flax seeds to blender. Pulse to grind.

Add ice, almond butter, protein powder, cocoa if using, strawberries and milk.

You'll need to experiment with your blender to see how much ice you'd like. More makes a bigger shake, less a smaller shake. Also, I found that with my blender (which is starting to die!) it works best if I put all the ingredients in and begin to blend, then add the milk. That may not be necessary with yours, cause it can get messy if you're not careful.

You can substitute out the cow milk for soy or almond, whey protein for soy (flavored or plain) and what ever fruit you'd like. Just make sure that you are not using more than a 1/4 cup serving of fruit.

Salad Dressings

2009-07-26T18:14:00.000-05:00

I've had a few people asking me about salad dressings recently, so I thought I jot down the list for you all! I will pair certain salads with a dressing made especially for it, but don't give one with the Green House Salad. Below is a list of flavorful dressings I've found with minimal calories, fat and/or carbs. Most can be found at Central Market, some at Whole Foods and HEB.

Hope this helps :)

Walden Farms Salad Dressing - Come in a ton of different flavors including Thousand Island, Blue Cheese & Bacon Ranch (my personal fav). After checking out the website it appears they carry a bunch of other toppings such as syrups, fruit spreads and pasta sauces. I've only tried the dressings so I can't vouch for the rest of their products. These dressings can definitely be found in most HEB's (normally on the shelf with the rest of the salad dressings). I've seen limited selections in both the north and south Central Market and I know they don't carry them at Whole Foods. The only downside to them is that they do use a decent amount of artifical flavorings to replicate the original full fat/carb/calorie dressing.

PROS - variety, availability, price, Gluten Free
CONS - Artificial ingredients

Briana's Salad Dressings - I just found these the other day & love, love, love them!! The whole line isn't low calorie, but there are two dressings in particular that make a great choice. The Lively Tarragon Lemon vinaigrette and the Santa Fe Blend (both designated by black labels) are super low in calories, have no fat and no artificial anything! They use xantham gum as a thickener, rather than a traditional oil emulsion. These dressings are a bit pricier, but full of flavor so a little does go a long way!

PROS - no artifiical anything, gluten free
CONS - price

Marie's Salad Dressings - Generally I shy away from all of the dressings in this line due to the amount of calories per serving, but recently one of my clients showed me his Raspberry Vinaigrette for approval. I was surprised to see the minimal amount of fat and calories in it. The website doesn't give nutritional analysis for it's products, so you'll have to do some label reading, but the Raspberry is definitely an option for you. I know that HEB & Central Market carry this line of dressings, but I'll have to check back with you to let you know which ones carry the "good" dressings.

Hopefully this will help you with your salad dressing woe's! If anyone knows of some other good options, please let me know and I'll post them up here for everyone to check out!

Good Eating on the Daily Plate

2009-07-19T15:34:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already heard of The Daily Plate, it's a wonderful website that allows you to look up and track nutritional information for a wide range of restaurants, prepared and packaged foods. You can create a profile for yourself to enter what you are eating through out the day or can be used as a reference tool to look up foods that you are eating.

Designed as open source, any one can enter information and the site encourages its users to upload information on local restaurants and the like.

Annnnnddddd.... while doing a search for something, I can across a slew of entries for Good Eating! It seems one of my wonderful clients has been uploading information for our meals including the dishes name, description and nutritional information!

I know many of you are using Good Eating to help attain or maintain a certain weight. Whether you are one of our Elite Menu Plans or going it alone, having the meals listed on The Daily Plate is an excellent resource for you. If you've ever found yourself searching through old emails looking up nutrition information for a certain meal you've had, now you can find (almost) all of them in one place!

Good Eating Austin on the Daily Plate

Fabulous Find in Round Rock

2009-04-07T21:36:00.000-05:00

Hello gang!! This will be my first installment using the blog feature on the new website. I don't have any set plans for the blog, but plan on using it to tell you about things, places, ideas, etc that I find interesting and want to pass along to you. I am not making any promises, however I will try to make each entry as insightful, humorous and interesting as possible.

Most of you know that as a private chef, I am involved in the menu planning, shopping, preparation and delivery of each of the meals that I offer. I look forward to coming up with new menu items, I enjoy preparing the healthy meals you order and love seeing results with each client because of the meals I provide. The down side to being so involved in the process is that, honestly, by the end of the day, I'd much prefer to go some where and have someone cook for me! This means I am constantly on the look out for restaurants that offer good, solid healthy options. And I'm not talking about the McSalad Shakers at McDonalds :)

I am a huge fan of Chinese food, but am not big on the sugar/salt/calorie laden sauces that most menu items are traditionally doused in. Sooo... I was extremely pleased when I came across an Asian restaurant that offered a "light fare" menu. About six different menu items were offered. Each dish is a combination of low fat proteins (such as chicken breast or shrimp) and fresh vegetables, all steamed and served with the sauce on the side. The down side is that, Bo Asian Restaurant is up in Round Rock.

So I am asking you guys to share some of the "healthy" spots you've found. Tell me (and share with the group!) about the places in and around Austin you frequent when you need to eat, but find yourself out and about without a meal.

Once I figure out how to do it, I will create a list of links to share the places that we came up with!

Ok, I know this is a little lame for a first blog, but bear with me - they will get better!

Good Eating to you,

Melissa

good eating austin

2009-03-09T04:22:00.000-05:00

Whether you are training for your next marathon or bodybuilding competition, trying to lose a few pounds or someone who simply cares about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, Good Eating can help you achieve your goals.

For many busy people, good nutrition often comes second to balancing work and family responsibilities with that of an exercise or fitness training schedule; yet food is the fuel that enables us to keep moving, making it just as important.

Good Eating empowers its clients to focus on their athletic training by taking the stress out of eating healthy!
While there other private chef services in Austin, Good Eating is the only who includes accurate nutritional counts with every menu item, allowing you to track your intake and ensure you are meeting your nutritional goals!
Good Eating meals are created using the healthiest ingredients available, including:

organic items

locally-grown fruits and vegetables

free-range eggs

hormone-free meats and poultry

whole grains