Monthly Archives: March 2016

Not-so-white white sauce for the MIND diet

HOW TO, Recipes, The MIND Diet, ,

White sauce made with butter and white flour are not so good for the MIND diet. However, a few changes can make it healthier.  I set out today to make a white sauce with whole wheat flour and olive oil in place of the butter and white flour.

The first thing I did was search the web to see if anyone had done this. I found these 3 pages that at least used olive oil instead of butter:

The techniques were quite different, though. I decided to go with the “classic French sauce” because it is actually closest to the white sauce I have made in the past.

Not-so-white White Saucenot-so-white-sauce

  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 tsp onion flakes – or raw onion if you prefer – or omit
  • 2 TBSP white whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups 1% milk
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp pepper

Heat the oil. I put about a tsp onion flakes in the oil to rehydrate while it heats. Whisk in the white whole wheat flour and let it cook over medium heat a couple of minutes.  Add the milk all at once and whisk until all mixed.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer about 10 minutes, stirring and wiping down sides frequently.  Add the salt and pepper and any herbs you like.

PDF version to print

This makes a quite thin sauce, but it does finally thicken up a bit after simmering for 10 minutes. I was about ready to add some “Wondra,” but I knew that would not be the best for the MIND diet principles.  I might try using 1 ¾ cup milk next time.

If you use this for 4 servings, the calorie count is 125 calories per serving. You could cut that by using 1 cup milk and 1 cup chicken broth. I kind of wish I had.

Creamed Turkey
I was making white sauce today because I have some left-over turkey I want to use for supper. With 9 oz (about 2 cups) chopped, cooked turkey breast, this makes a little over 2 cups.  I will probably eat half of it, which comes to 391 calories.

MIND diet score for my meal:

  • 1 for primary use of olive oil
  • 1 for whole grain -the little bit in the sauce plus the whole wheat bread I will eat the creamed turkey on  ( did have two other servings of whole grain today)
  • 1 for poultry
  • 1 for the “other vegetable” -peas that I will be serving with the creamed turkey
  • 1 for the glass of wine that I will drink with it.

I had some baby spinach for lunch and almonds for a snack. No fish or beans today but I will make up for that another day this week. I will eat a dish of strawberries for a bedtime snack.  I am feeling good about sticking to the MIND diet today.

Chili con Pollo for the MIND diet

Beans, Olive Oil, Recipes, The MIND Diet

Chili con Pollo, of course, is chili made with chicken instead of beef. I love chili on a cold day! But, the chili con carne that I used to make contains lots of ground beef, which I limit because I am trying to follow the MIND diet. I have tried making it with ground turkey with mediocre results. Today, I tried it with ground chicken and it was oh-so-good!

I think one reason why it was so good was because of the olive oil that I browned the chicken in. I have been trying to use more olive oil in my diet. I had formerly been avoiding oil of any kind as much as possible, because of it calorie contribution. But, now I am reading about the benefits of eating olive oil, so I am trying to work a little more in. So, I started my chili by browning the ground chicken in olive oil. I don’t know if that is what made it taste so much better, but I am definitely going to try it again.

Chili con Pollo   4 servingsChili con Pollo

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • *4 cups “canned tomatoes,” blended to liquefy
  • 1 15 oz. can pinto beans
  • 1 TBSP chili powder
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder
  • ½ TBSP cumin
  • ½ TBSP salt

Brown the chicken in 1 T olive oil and crumble.  This means to cook it so it is really brown, not just cooked.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the chili is as thick as you like it.  I simmered my test recipe a couple of hours.

PDF version to print

Myfitnesspal.com says one serving is 319 calories.

Of course, you are welcome to adjust the spices to your heat tolerance and add anything you like. Onion and pepper would probably be good. I think I will try using about half the chicken next time. This recipe comes out to 4 ounces of chicken per serving plus a whole serving of beans. I don’t really need that much protein, especially when eating it for lunch.

*”canned tomatoes” is not exactly what I used.  I grow a few tomato plants each summer and, when they are being quite prolific, I freeze some.  I just wash and cut out stems and any bad spots and throw then in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer. When I am ready to use them, I run them under warm water for a few seconds and the skins come right off – not really peeling because no knife is involved, they just “slough off.” More about freezing tomatoes.

When I use my frozen tomatoes in chili, I cut them in quarters and run them through the blender with a little water. Sometimes, I heat them a little first to soften them. For this recipe I used 4 medium tomatoes and about 3 cups water. I think that makes an equivalent to about two 15 oz cans  or 1 28 oz can of canned tomatoes. You could probably just put the quarters in the chili and the simmering would soften them up, but my kinds never liked chunks of tomatoes in anything so I always blend them, even when using diced tomatoes from a can.

So, I hope you will try my chili con pollo.  It has four of the recommended foods for the MIND diet and none of the “avoid these” foods.

  • other vegetable
  • poultry
  • olive oil
  • beans

While there are not really any of the foods to avoid, I do need to make an improvement. You might notice that my photo show some oyster crackers in my chili. I love oyster crackers in chili, but I have not found any whole grain oyster crackers yet, at least locally. I did see some on Amazon, but I would have to buy a couple of years worth.  I might have to resort to making my own. That might be my next post.

By the way, I knew that the Spanish word for chicken is ‘pollo’ because I have taken some Spanish in school. However, those classes didn’t prepare me to speak or understand spoken Spanish.  I have now started on a quest to be able to speak and understand Spanish. My main reasons for doing this are because I always wanted to and there are an increasing number of Spanish-speaking people in our area. A bonus is that there is some evidence (or perhaps more hypothesizing) that learning a new language may help prevent cognitive decline. This i just one of the articles that describes why this might work.  While I am not convinced that there is strong research support for this connection, I am enjoying the process and might find it useful.  I am sharing this with you because I am assuming that if you are reading this post, you are interested in preventing cognitive decline.

Hasta la vista