Savory Slow Cooker Beans with Rice

Let this savory bean dish cook all day and have dinner ready when you get home from work. If you want to skip the first step, you can soak dry beans overnight in a large pot of water. These beans get great flavor from celery, garlic, and diced green chiles.
Total Time: 11 hrs. 25 min.
Prep Time: 5 min.
Cooking Time: 10 hrs. 10 min.
Yield: 6 servings, about 1 cup of beans each
Ingredients:
1¼ cups dry red beans (or dry red kidney beans), rinsed
Water
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium celery stalks, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1 bay leaf
2 cups low-sodium organic vegetable broth
1 cups water
1 (14.5-oz.) can stewed tomatoes
1 (4-oz.) can diced green chiles, undrained
Hot sauce (like Tabasco) (to taste; optional)
3 cups cooked brown rice, warm
Preparation:
1. Place beans in large saucepan. Add enough water to cover beans by two inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat; gently boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for one hour.
2. Place beans, onion, celery, garlic, basil, bay leaf, broth, water, and tomatoes in 4-quart slow cooker. Cover; cook on low heat for 9 to 10 hours (or on high heat for 4 to 5 hours), or until beans are tender.
3. Remove bay leaf. Add chiles and hot sauce (if desired); cook for an additional 30 minutes.
4. Place ½ cup rice in each of six serving bowls. Top evenly with bean mixture.
Nutritional Information (per serving):
Calories: 279
Total Fat: 1 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 281 mg
Carbohydrates: 55 g
Fiber: 10 g
Sugar: 5 g
Protein: 12 g
P90X/P90X2 Portions
1½ Vegetable
½ Tuber/Legume Carb
½ Grain Carb
P90X3 Portions
½ Protein
3 Carbs
Body Beast Portions
1 Vegetable
1 Protein
1 Legume
1 Starch
Containers
1 Green
2 Yellows

Infused Water

What Are The Benefits of Infused Water?

Besides tasting great and having zero calories, a water detox has many additional health benefits, including:

• Improves your mood.
• Flushes toxins from your system.
• Fills you up so you don’t eat as much junk.
• Naturally helps your body release fat cells for water weight loss.
• Keeps food moving through your system.
• Keeps your organs healthy while you’re sweating.
• Reduces muscle fatigue while working out.
• Helps you recuperate faster from a workout.
• Keeps you from feeling groggy in the afternoon.

Water and weight loss go hand in hand. Drinking water to lose weight and be healthier is one of the easiest habits you can have, especially when you can make so many types of  infused water recipes to choose from.

Drinking Water to Lose Weight

Studies have shown that drinking infused water may help improve weight loss and support long term weight loss maintenance. (2)
Drinking water increases the amount of calories you burn by as much as 24-30% within 10 minutes of drinking water, and this water weight loss increase can last for as long as 60 minutes! (3,4)
So if you want to lose weight fast without much extra effort, try drinking more water.

I found this great bit of info at lose weight by eating

Strawberry Lemon Basil Infused Water

Ingredients
Servings	1	5 (pitcher)
Water	2	5
Strawberries	2	8-10
Lemon	1/4	1
Basil Leaves	3-4	15

Directions:
Slice the strawberries and add to the bottom of your glass or pitcher. Pour in water and squeeze the lemon in as you place into the water. Tear the basil leaves and stir into the drink Enjoy

How to use the water recipes i will be posting

Most recipes include ingredient amounts for a single serving and a pitcher (about five servings). Note that some ingredients do not show a full five times more than the single serving. For example:  1 serving will get 1 cinnamon stick while 5 servings will get 4 cinnamon sticks.

This is because when you make a pitcher, we assume that you will only be pouring one or two glasses at a time. When you put the rest of the pitcher back in the fridge, it has more time to soak in the ingredients making the water more flavored. When preparing a full pitcher, you will want to remove any citrus fruits from the water after a few hours. Peels can cause the water to become bitter.

 Don’t worry about perfection!

When it comes to making the infused drinks, the amount of ingredients are not crucial. If a recipe calls for 5 strawberries but you only have 3 left, just use three! You can adapt these recipes to your liking and amount of ingredients you have on hand. You can also use the recipes as inspiration to mix, match and create make your own drink creations!

 

 

From: 78 SUGAR-FREE drinks to satisfy your cravings...naturally Copyright 2016 by Smart Diabetes Solutions

Bringing out the Flavor of infused water

Bringing Out Flavor

• Slice & Dice: The softer the fruit, the thicker you slice. The harder the fruit, the thinner you slice. This way you can get the most flavor and nutrients from the fruits you put in. Larger fruits like mangos can be diced.

• Squeeze: Squeeze citrus fruits to help release juices into the water.

• Muddle: ginger root, rosemary and lemongrass with a wooden spoon to release flavors. Muddle berries, mango, herbs to release flavors more quickly.

• Tear: Tear or crush leafy herbs like mint, basil and cilantro to release oils.

• Quick Flavor: Cucumbers, squeezed citrus fruits, melons, muddled berries and mint flavor water almost immediately.

• General Infused Flavor: As a general guideline, refrigerate your drink for2 hours to allow it to infuse.

• Overnight Flavor: Apples, cinnamon, fresh ginger root and rosemary, and any dense fruits need an overnight soak in the fridge in order to flavor the water well enough to taste.

• Avoid Waterlog: Melons and sliced strawberries start looking water logged after a few hours; citrus and whole berries look pretty good even after hours in the fridge.

• Avoid Bitterness: After four hours, un-peeled citrus can make water taste bitter. To make a big jug of infused water for a party, peel the citrus before soaking. Or you can soak it un-peeled for four hours, remove it, and add fresh slices for looks. (And keep that water icy cold for food safety.)

• Store for Later: If you don’t drink the water within 24 hours, strain out the solids and refrigerate for up to three days.

• Refills: To keep sipping all day long, refill your infused water container when it’s half full. It will be weaker than your first drink, but still flavorful.

 

From: 78 SUGAR-FREE drinks to satisfy your cravings...naturally Copyright 2016 by Smart Diabetes Solutions

blueberry baked oatmeal

blueberry baked oatmeal

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup low-fat milk or no sugar added nut milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon stevia

• 2 whole large eggs

• 2 egg whites

• 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

• optional: 1/4 cup chopped

nuts for topping

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, add oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix until

all ingredients are evenly distributed. Add all remaining ingredients exception blueberries and mix well. Gently fold in the blueberries and then pour your mixture into your greased baking dish. Transfer to your preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes. If the oatmeal still appears loose after 40 minutes, bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Allow to cool, top with optional nuts and enjoy!

Serves 4

This warm baked oatmeal is the perfect breakfast comfort food. Leftovers store

beautifully, so you can refridgerate, reheat and enjoy for several days. It can even be

enjoyed as a healthy dessert!

NUTRITION FACTS

Protein: 9.03 g

Fat: 5.55 g

Carbs: 50.57 g

Sugar: 12 g

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water Water Water

Before we dig into the recipes, here’s some quick tips for infusing water and simple ways to keep your water tasting great.

What Water Do I Use?

• Still Water: Filtered water, distilled water, spring water or mineral water are all great choices. Basically, try to avoid tap water as untreated tap water may contain unpleasant-tasting minerals. Avoid pre-flavored waters.

• Carbonated Water: Sparkling water, seltzer, soda water, or club soda are all great options. The only difference between them is the process used to create the carbonation. Just avoid any carbonated waters containing flavoring or sugars.

Prep Basics

• Container: Select your container. Glass is best. BPA-free durable plastic works as well. You can find water bottles with infusers in them too. You can use a pitcher to prepare several servings at once.

• Shop: Shop for organic fruits when easily accessible and affordable.

• Clean: Always wash all produce and herbs to remove chemicals, pesticides and other residues.

 

From: 78 SUGAR-FREE drinks to satisfy your cravings...naturally Copyright 2016 by Smart Diabetes Solutions

 

 

french toast oatmeal

french toast oatmeal

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup liquid egg whites*
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon stevia (you may add more or less for taste)

DIRECTIONS

Add 2 cups of water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir in oats, reduce heat to  low and cover.

Cook oats until all the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Once the oats are cooked, stir in the egg whites quickly so that they cook without clumping, this should take about 1 minute.

Stir in the cinnamon and stevia, spoon into two serving bowls and enjoy!

Note: This can also be made in advance, so to reheat simply stir in a drop of water, cover with

plastic wrap and microwave until warm.

*Note: If you are weary about adding egg white into your oatmeal, I can promise you that you

won’t even notice it. The egg whites will help provide you with a balanced meal and the protein
you need to sustain you until your mid-morning snack.

If you would prefer not to add egg whites to your oatmeal, you can cook it without it and enjoy it

with a side of two eggs cooked however you like.

NUTRITION FACTS

Protein: 15.42 g
Fat: 8.92 g
Carbs: 36.61 g
Sugar: 0.33 g