NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
October 7, 1999
October brings with it certain demands. According to the North Dakota Newspaper Association, it's National Dessert Month, National Pizza Month and National Popcorn Poppin' Month. It's also the month of my wife Nicki's birthday. And of course, there's always Halloween.
If a person were to partake of all these celebrations, the end result could be a plateful of added calories. It's a good thing I began the month by running the Twin Cities Marathon, an event guaranteed to burn calories, those unwanted and then some. But aside from being stubborn enough to train for a marathon, I'm really quite weak-willed when it comes to passing by my favorite foods, some of which include chocolate cheese cake, sausage-mushroom Chicago-style pizza and butter-soaked popcorn.
So, I guess the trick I'll need to perfect this month is moderation--going easy on some of the treats October celebrations provide. Except for the night Nicki turns 45 (oops!).
On that night, I'm guessing we'll eat out, probably at some place that does up shrimp with a flair. Nicki likes shrimp, especially if it's bathed in butter and lavished with garlic, cooked only until it reaches a shade of pink as delicate as its texture. I'll probably devour a pile of pasta doused with my preferred topping: red clam sauce--to be preceded by a Caesar salad, its vinaigrette dressing dancing on my taste buds as its crunchy romaine sings inside my head.
As for dessert that night, well, maybe we'll have something at home. I might make the recipe that follows. It's an adaptation; the original appears on the Web sit for the National Dairy Council (http://www.whymilk.com/tastebuds/desserts/cinrasp_ricepud.html ). Granted, it's no birthday cake, but rice pudding is one of Nicki's favorites, dating back to her childhood--a fact which proves once again that old habits die hard.
Cinnamon-Scented Rice Pudding with Raisin Sauce
Yield: 6 servingsIngredients:
1 cup uncooked regular long-grain rice
6 cups skim (fat-free) milk, divided
½ cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flourProcedure:
Heat oven to 350 F. In a medium saucepan, combine rice, 4 cups of the milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Heat to simmer and continue simmering for five minutes. Turn mixture into 2-quart baking dish that's been sprayed with cooking oil. Cover with foil and bake until rice has absorbed most of the liquid, about 35 to 40 minutes. Meanwhile, combine raisins and 2 cups of milk in the saucepan used for simmering rice. Heat raisin mixture until it simmers. While raisin mixture heats, melt butter in small saucepan and add flour. Cook butter-flour mixture (roux) for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk roux into raisin mixture and allow sauce to thicken. Remove rice from oven and let stand about 10 minutes. Divide rice among six bowls and spoon about 1/3 cup of raisin sauce over each serving.
What's Your Take on This, Julie?
Dean Hulse would make a good research subject. If Dean continued to eat his usual amount of food and stopped running, just how much weight would he gain? Would he fit in the cab of his pickup truck, or would he have to be hauled in the pickup bed?
An extra 3,500-calorie input without 3,500 calories of physical activity usually results in a pound of weight gain. Thankfully, we don't all have to be marathon runners in order to be reasonably fit. According to the Surgeon General's recommendations, 30 minutes of moderate activity on five or more days each week can promote better health. That amount of moderate activity burns about 150 calories.
If you're attempting to shed a few pounds, don't cut out milk and other calcium-rich foods. According to a recent study of premenopausal women ages 44 to 50, weight loss also resulted in bone mineral density loss--particularly at the hip and spine. This could increase the risk of osteoporosis, a bone-crippling disease especially common in American women.
Cinnamon-Scented Rice Pudding with Raisin Sauce provides low-fat energy with plenty of bone-building calcium. At 360 calories and 2.7 grams of fat per serving, this stomach-warming comfort food provides a cup of milk per serving. Milk contains about 300 mg calcium per cup, which is just under one-third of the current daily calcium recommendation (1,000 mg) for adults 19 to 50. The current daily calcium recommendation is 1,300 mg for children 9 to 18 and 1,200 mg for adults over 50.
Calcium is best known for helping us maintain strong bones and teeth. In fact, about 99 percent of the calcium in our bodies is found in our skeletal structure. With help from vitamin D and weight-bearing physical activity, calcium helps maintain bone density. The other 1 percent of calcium is found in the bloodstream, where it assists with blood clotting, nerve transmission and muscle contraction.
Remember that fluid milk is our most popular source of calcium but not the only one. Other dairy foods such as yogurt and cheese also are good sources of calcium. Pudding, tofu, fish with edible bones (such as salmon), broccoli, greens and calcium-fortified orange juice are other good calcium sources.
Don't throw in the towel thinking you have to keep up with marathon runners. Top off your daily walk with a glass of low-fat milk.
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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187
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