Nutritious Eating Tip and a Recipe Too!

My days have gotten to be really busy, especially with classes, tutoring, and clinical hours. But just because my days are busy, does not mean that I can skimp on making nutritious and delicious dinners for myself. There are tons of recipes out there for all different types of eating, especially those high calorie, high fat ones that may taste great and are easy, but really hurt the waistline. To combat this, I like to do a little substitution of the high fat and calorie ingredients for ones that are nutrient dense. I recently did that with a recipe I found on Pinterest that I was going to share with my  nutritious and filling meal for all.

If you're trying to lose weight, or watch what you eat, I highly recommend you try to substitute the energy dense foods, for the nutrient dense options. For example, instead of using sour cream in a recipe, try Greek Yogurt, instead of whole milk - try low fat or fat free milk, make all your grains whole grains, choose leaner cuts of meats instead of high fat ones, bake your foods instead of frying them, and choose fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables instead of frozen, canned or out of season vegetables! These simple changes can help you to eat cleaner and eat more nutritious foods, without sacrificing flavors.
Below is the recipe from the dinner I made last week and the substitutions I made. I also roasted Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts with Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, and Parmesan at 400 degree for 45 minutes.

Oven Roasted Smoked Sausage and Potatoes

Ingredients1 package of smoked sausage, sliced into rounds
1 large onion, peeled and chopped5 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
olive oil
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
sweet paprika
dried thyme
a handful of greated strong cheddar cheese
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400*F. Line a large baking tray (with sides) with several sheets of foil, and spray with cooking spray. Set aside. Put the sausage rounds, onions, and potatoes into a large bowl. Drizzle with a couple TBS of olive oil and season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika and dried thyme. Toss together with your hands until everything is evenly distributed. Pour this out onto the baking tray, and spread it out as much as you can. Place into the heated oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are golden brown and tender. Turn off the oven. Scatter the cheese over top of the cooked meat and potatoes, Pop back into the oven a few minutes to melt the cheese
SUBSTITUTIONS I MADE- I used smoked lite turkey kielbasa with low sodium instead of regular kielbasa to cut fat and sodium down which can cause bloating and is good for those who have hypertension.  I also substituted Parmesan cheese instead of cheddar cheese to cut down on fat.

  

All nutrition majors do is cook and count calories, right?

Some people might be wondering, especially those who aren't nutrition majors, what exactly I do during the week as a nutrition major. A lot of people have the common misconception that all we do is take cooking classes and learn how to count calories. That could not be any more false. Nutrition majors actually have a pretty busy schedule, and it only gets busier if you're in a coordinated program. For those who don't know, a coordinated program allows the student to do their supervised practice hours, which are required for the certification exam, while working on their bachelor's degree in nutrition. I am one of the few people in my class crazy enough to want to fit 1400 supervised practice hours into a full course load. Coordinated Programs usually start the junior of college and will continue through the summer between junior and senior year, and end at graduation. I am currently doing some of my supervised practice hours twice a week, Tuesday's and Thursday's, at two different facilities off of school property. Tuesdays I am doing a Food Service Management rotation at a local hospital, and Thursday's I have my Community Nutrition rotation at an insurance office doing corporate wellness. Both facilities have certain goals and objectives I need to meet in order for me to get credit for these hours. Besides being off campus for two days a week, I also am taking 16 credits worth of classes. Mondays are packed solid for me with classes like, Management-to learn how to be an effective manager and leader in all areas of the profession, Sports Nutrition- my favorite and focuses on fueling and refueling athletes for performance, as well as learning about different aids that may be used by athletes, Community Nutrition- learning how to develop strategies for health improvement and disease prevention for all people of an area, and Music and Theater- "to make me a more well rounded professional" at least that is what the university says it'll do. Wednesdays include all of these classes, except Music and Theater, and with the addition of Weight Lifting, as part of the requirement for my minor in exercise science. On top of having an 8 hour rotation on Thursdays, I also have my Food Service Management and Production class at night. The best part of my week is that I have no class on Fridays! But this time is always used to work on some of the many projects I have this semester, as well as work on events for a committee I am on at school.

This week I have been working on my goals and objectives for my community rotation, as well as designing an infographic to accompany a brief educational presentation on handwashing for my Food Service Management rotation. So, to the question that was posed in the title of this post, no, we do so much more than cook and count calories. If that's all we did every day, then anyone could be a dietitian! There's so much this profession and major has to offer, that we learn something new every day and the scope of nutrition expands daily worldwide.

Feeding the sick and working the tray line- life of an RDN intern.