Tag Archives: MIND diet recipe

Pecan Cinnamon Scones for the MIND diet recipe makeover

Olive Oil, Recipes,

Scones are one of my favorite things to have for breakfast.  All of the recipes I have for them including cutting in butter or margarine sticks. I decided to try to use the rules I found to substitute olive oil for the sticks.  Looks like the rule is to use about 3/4 as much oil as the butter or margarine the recipe calls for.

I am using this Pecan Cinnamon Scones recipe as a starter. It looks good and I especially like that it has pecans in it, because I like pecans and because nuts are recommended on the MIND diet.  I used all whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup of brown sugar, which was plenty sweet. Following the rule to use 3/4 as much olive oil as butter, I used 3/8 of a cup (6 TBSP) instead of 1/2 cup. I also used regular salt and regular 1% milk instead of buttermilk.

Pecan Cinnamon Scone
Pecan Cinnamon Scone

My scones turned out great!  The brown sugar and whole wheat is so good with the pecans.

They are moist yet a bit crumbly good. There is a down side, though. The calorie count with all those pecans is 372 per scone — more than I usually eat for breakfast.  Bur, they have whole grains, nuts, and olive oil.  I suppose they count as a “pastry or sweet” so I will have to count each as one of my four per week to get the point for avoiding pastries and sweets.

Pecan Cinnamon Scones for the MIND diet                 PDF version

  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 6 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 4 to 5 TBSP 1% milk
  • 2 tsp. white sugar
  1. Toast the pecans in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes, turning after each minute.
  2. Mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
  3. Whisk the egg and add the olive oil and vanilla to it.
  4. Gently stir the liquid into the dry ingredients just until barely mixed.
  5. Add 4 TBSP of the milk and the pecans.
  6. Mix gently as little as possible. Knead it with clean hands right in the bowl. If it doesn’t cling together well, add 1 more TBSP milk.
  7. Turn out onto greased baking pan and pat into a round disc about 6 to 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.
  8. Cut into 8 wedges but don’t separate.
  9. Sprinkle with the white sugar
  10. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Scone after kneading in bowl
Scones after kneading in bowl
Scones after than have been cut
Scones after they have been cut

 

nutrtition info
Calculated in MyFitnessPal

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins – MIND diet Makeover

Berries, Recipes, Whole Grains, ,

I found a recipe for Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins with Blueberries at a site called Making Healthier Decisions.  It just needed a few tweaks to make it optimal for the MIND diet.

I substituted olive oil for the vegetable oil, used all whole wheat flour instead of half white flour, and added a whole cup of blueberries (fresh, not frozen)  instead of half a cup. I also used old-fashioned oatmeal instead of quick-cooking, just because that is what I had on hand.

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins                     PDF Version

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup oatmeal, instant or old-fashioned
  • 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12 cup muffin tin

Mix the oil, brown sugar, applesauce and egg.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and oatmeal.  Combine the two very gently, as little as possible. Blend in the blueberries very carefully.dipping

Use a heaping 1/4 cup ice cream  type scoop to divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

These are good muffins. The major change I made was using all whole wheat flour. I see that lots of recipes use the half and half way, but omitting the while flour seemed to work fine in this recipe.

The calorie count came out at 171 calories, so I can eat one for breakfast along with some additional fruit or cottage cheese. I believe I can count it as 1 of my 3 whole grain products for the day. There is only 1/12 of a cup of blueberries in each muffin, though, so I won’t be counting it as one of my berries for the week. Using olive oil will contribute to being able to say I use olive oil as my primary oil.

I do feel a little bad about the brown sugar. I hope that does not put these muffins in the Pastries and Sweets category. I guess that wouldn’t be a big problem because up to 5 of those are allowed per week.

 

Mexican Party Salad–Recipe make-over for MIND diet

Recipes, ,

I was looking for a salad recipe to take to a potluck and found Betty Crocker’s Layered Mexican Party Salad that was just about right.  It already had three ingredients that are recommended on the MIND diet (leafy, green vegetable; other vegetable; and beans), but I wanted to make it over to include more.

It was easy to use olive oil for the vegetable oil. The biggest problem was the Suddenly Salad Pasta salad mix.  I have never purchased this product, but I didn’t think it comes in a  whole grain.  Since that, I found that there is a Southwest Grains version that is based on brown rice and whole grain quinoa. However, it looks like it has lots of ingredients (intended and unintended) that I might not want to use it anyway.

Anyway, I tried to duplicate the Suddenly Salad Classic Mix using whole grain rotini. I cooked about 6 oz to the al dente stage. I made the flavoring for it by mixing dried parsley, garlic powder, and pepper into the olive oil, with the cumin and water and mixed that into the rotini.

I didn’t use refrigerated guacamole. I mashed one avocado and added a bit of lime juice instead. It was ok, but I didn’t take it much. Next time, I will either add 2 or 3 avocados or omit it altogether since it didn’t add much to the taste.

I have to admit that I did add the cheese, so that would have to be my cheese serving for the week. Ouch!  I did omit the chips. They just get soggy anyway.

The result was “OK,” but it was a little flat. The leftovers were good when I added some Italian salad dressing and taco sauce. Next time, I will add more spices, maybe a taco seasoning mix or my recipe for the home-made version of taco mix. Also, it was maybe a little heavy on the rotini. I think 4 oz would have been plenty.

I still think this is a good recipe to make-over. With the olive oil and whole grain, it would hit 5 of the 10 recommended foods on the MIND diet.

I need to make this again. Next time, I will try to remember to take a picture!