5-Minute Meals That Slim

5-Minute Meals That Slim

20/05/2009 12:12:29 PM

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Slim down for summer with these fast, easy, MUFA-rich recipes.

By Tracy Gensler, RD, Prevention

More Links: 25 Belly Flattening Meals How Many Servings Are You Really Eating? 100 Ways To Cut 100 Calories

Your Flat Belly Building Blocks

If you think you're too busy to lose weight, we have one word for you: MUFA (pronounced "moofah"). Also known as "monounsaturated fatty acids," these plant-based compounds are the basis of the Flat Belly Diet, which can help you drop pounds and reduce belly fat. The even better news? Delicious foods such as olives, nuts and seeds, avocado, oils, and dark chocolate are some of the best sources of these healthful fats.

Our dietitians have developed a week's worth of unique Flat Belly Diet-approved meals and snacks that are easy to prepare and ready in 5 minutes or less, so you can slim down without stress. Research shows that eating this way may put you on your way to weight loss success: A study commissioned by Prevention at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center found that overweight women who followed the diet for 28 days lost 8.4 pounds and nearly 2 inches around the waist. Choose four meals a day from this list (organized by MUFA so you can easily find a meal that suits your mood)--and you'll save time, flatten your belly, and boost your health.

MUFA Olives

HUMMUS, OLIVE, AND TOMATO
Spread 2 Tbsp hummus on each half of a toasted whole wheat English muffin. Top each half with 5 thinly sliced olives and a slice of tomato. Have 1 medium orange. Total calories: 362

MEDITERRANEAN SALAD
Toss ½ c chickpeas, rinsed and drained, with ½ c halved cherry tomatoes, 1 chopped cucumber, 10 large black olives, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Serve with 1 toasted large whole wheat pita. Total calories: 398

WAFFLES FLORENTINE
Prepare 2 whole grain waffles and spread with 2 Tbsp black olive tapenade. Top with ½ c egg whites, scrambled in cooking spray, and ¾ c spinach leaves. Have ½ c green or red grapes. Total calories: 393

ROAST BEEF SANDWICH
Toast 2 slices whole wheat bread and spread with 2 Tbsp green olive tapenade. Top with 3 oz organic deli roast beef. Have 1 medium pear. Total calories: 400

GRAB & GO CHEESE & CRACKERS
Mix ½ c fat-free cottage cheese with 1 c chopped red bell pepper and 10 sliced large black olives. Serve with 6 small whole wheat crackers. Have 1 medium apple. Total calories: 378

SPANISH-STYLE EGGS
Fry 1 whole egg with 1 egg white in 1 tsp olive oil. Place on top of ½ c salsa and 10 sliced large green olives. Eat with 6" whole wheat tortilla. Total calories: 383

MUFA Nuts & Seeds

ALMOND BUTTER WITH FRESH FRUIT
Spread 1 slice whole wheat bread with 2 Tbsp almond butter. Eat with ½ c each sliced strawberries and sliced kiwifruit. Total calories: 350

MANGO WALNUT SALAD
Top 3 c spinach with ½ c chopped mango, ¼ c sliced red bell pepper, 4 chopped baby carrots, 2 Tbsp walnuts, 2 Tbsp vinaigrette, and 1 Tbsp raisins. Eat with ½ large whole wheat pita. Total calories: 395

HAZELNUT PEAR CRACKERS
Spread 4 RyKrisp crackers with 2 Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedges and top with 1 sliced medium pear and 2 Tbsp hazelnuts. Total calories: 383

CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS
Spread 6 Bibb lettuce leaves with 2 Tbsp hummus and top with 3 oz sliced grilled chicken and 2 Tbsp walnuts. Also have 1 c raspberries and 6 small whole wheat crackers. Total calories: 405

TAHINI TUNA PITA
Blend 3 oz can chunk light tuna, drained, with 2 Tbsp tahini, 2 Tbsp chopped parsley, and finely shredded ½ small carrot. Stuff into 4" whole wheat pita. Total calories: 364

SUMMER TOMATO SALAD
Layer 1 c arugula with 2 sliced tomatoes, 2 oz thinly sliced part-skim mozzarella, and 5 thin slices red onion. Dress with 2 Tbsp pine nuts; 1 tsp olive oil; and balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. Total calories: 391

MUFA Avocado

AVOCADO TOMATO HERBED WRAP
Spread 1 whole wheat wrap with 2 Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedges and fill with 1 sliced small tomato, ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, whole basil leaves, and 1 tsp balsamic vinaigrette. Total calories: 367

AVOCADO MANGO SALAD
Mix 1 cubed mango with ¼ c diced Hass avocado and 2 Tbsp minced cilantro. Squeeze with juice of ½ lime and sprinkle with ground red pepper. Serve with wedges of 1 toasted large whole wheat tortilla. Total calories: 367

DIJON EGG SANDWICH
Scramble ½ c egg whites in cooking spray. Place on toasted whole wheat English muffin spread with 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard and top with 1oz reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese and ¼ c cubed Hass avocado. Total calories: 386

AVOCADO BRUSCHETTA
Spread 2 slices toasted whole wheat bread with ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, mashed, and top with 2 sliced small tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Have 1 medium apple. Total calories: 374

SOUTHWEST VEGGIE BURGER
Fill 1 whole wheat bun with 1 black-bean veggie burger, 1 c mixed baby greens, ¼ c canned corn, ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, and 2 Tbsp salsa. Total calories: 383

MUFA Oils

CHEESY BEAN DIP
Mix ¾ c rinsed and drained kidney beans, mashed, with ¼ c diced onion, 1 Tbsp walnut oil, and 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with ¼ c shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese and microwave on medium until cheese is melted. Serve with 1 c sliced red bell pepper for dipping. Total calories: 389

SIMPLE SALMON SANDWICH
Mix 3 oz canned boneless, skinless wild salmon, drained, with ¼ c chopped red bell pepper, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Top with romaine lettuce leaves and serve on whole wheat roll. Total calories: 413

ITALIAN TUNA
Blend 3 oz can chunk light tuna, drained, with ¼ c chopped red onion, 2 Tbsp capers, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Serve with 4 RyKrisp crackers. Total calories: 346

SESAME SLAW
Mix 2 c broccoli slaw with ¼ c red bell pepper slices, ¼ c chopped canned water chestnuts, 1 segmented medium orange, 2 Tbsp sesame seeds, 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, and 1 Tbsp sesame oil. Total calories: 348

GREEK LENTIL SALAD
Mix ½ c canned lentils, rinsed and drained, with ¼ c each chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, and chopped red onion; 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar; and 1 Tbsp canola oil. Sprinkle with ¼ c crumbled feta cheese and 2 tsp dried oregano. Total calories: 383

MUFA Dark Chocolate

CHERRY CHOCOLATE SMOOTHIE
In a blender, combine 1 c fat-free milk, 1 c frozen cherries, 3 oz fat-free vanilla yogurt, and ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips. Mix until smooth. Total calories: 402

GRAB & GO CHOCOLATE CHERRY TRAIL MIX
Toss together ½ c whole grain O's cereal, ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips, and 1 oz dried cherries. Drink ½ c fat-free milk. Total calories: 429

STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE COTTAGE CHEESE
Sprinkle 1 c fat-free cottage cheese with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and ¼ c sliced strawberries. Sprinkle with chopped mint leaves. Total calories: 379

CHOCOLATE BANANA BLAST
Mix sliced ½ small banana and ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips with 6 oz container unsweetened fat-free Greek-style yogurt. Total calories: 352

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY OATMEAL
Mix ½ c dry oats (cooked with water to desired consistency) with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and 1 c raspberries. Total calories: 419

BLUEBERRY WAFFLE
Top 1 frozen whole grain waffle, toasted, with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and place in toaster oven or oven set to 350°F to slightly melt chips. Top with ¼ c blueberries and 2 oz fat-free vanilla yogurt. Total calories: 350

More slimming meals! Visit prevention.com/5minutemeals for 15 extra superfast belly-flattening recipes. If that doesn't satisfy your craving, check out the new Flat Belly Diet Pocket Guide, which packs 90 more delicious MUFA-packed meals. Available at flatbellydiet.com/pocketguide or wherever books are sold.

CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

Jun 8, 2004
Source : Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP-AP)--The Stanley Cup final was a bonanza for the CBC and a bust south of the border.

Tampa Bay's 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 drew an average of 4.862 million viewers Monday night, making it the second-highest rated NHL game ever for CBC. Only coverage of Game 7 of the 1994 final between Vancouver and the New York Rangers drew more, with 4.957 million tuning in for the Rangers' 3-2 win.

But those numbers include pre-game and post-game coverage. The game itself Monday drew 5.560 million Canadians, which was up from 5.404 million in 1994.

The entire final averaged 3.735 million viewers--the highest-rated final round since the ratings were introduced in 1989. Last year's final between Anaheim and New Jersey averaged 1.507 million.

All four rounds of the 2004 playoffs averaged 2.154 million viewers, up 35 per cent from last season's 1.593 million.

The record audience for a sporting event in Canada, with more than 10 million English and French-language CBC viewers, was the Canadian men's gold medal hockey win over the U.S. at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

In the U.S., the average rating for the five Stanley Cup final games on ABC were the lowest since the network began broadcasting the final again in 2000.

Monday's game got a 4.2 rating with a 7 share. That's down nine per cent from the 4.6 with an 8 for New Jersey's 3-0 win over Anaheim in Game 7 last year--the highest-rated NHL game since broadcast networks began carrying the final in 1998.

Still, the rating for Monday's game was well above the five-game average of 2.6 with a 5 share.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. Share is the percentage of homes with TVs in use. Each rating point represents about 1.08 million households.

The U.S. ratings were anemic throughout the series. The first two games were on ESPN, with Game 1 tying for the lowest-rated Stanley Cup final game on the cable network since 1990.

© Canadian Press

Pakistan’s British-Drawn Borders

May 5, 2009

Pakistan’s British-Drawn Borders

By Robert Mackey

Library of Congress A map of the border between Afghanistan (in yellow) and British India (in pink) from 1893, the year the Durand Line was drawn. The Swat Valley was then considered a part of Afghanistan.

In their fascinating account of a series of interviews with a Taliban tactician in Tuesday’s New York Times, Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah point to “one distinct Taliban advantage: the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan barely exists for the Taliban.”

In previous posts on The Lede, we’ve mentioned that Pakistan and the rest of the world believes that Afghanistan ends (and Pakistan begins) more or less where a 1,600-mile line was drawn on the world map in 1893, at the direction of a British colonial officer named Henry Mortimer Durand, who sought to define the outer edge of what was then British India. At the time, the Afghans grudgingly accepted this map, despite the fact that what became known as the Durand Line cut right through Pashtun tribal areas and even villages that they considered part of Afghanistan.

Sir Henry, whose portrait can be seen in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery in London, drew his line with the memory of Britain’s two failed wars against the Afghans fresh in his mind. Not long before, in 1879, during what the British call the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Sir Henry had completed and published an account of “The First Afghan War and Its Causes” begun by his father, Sir Henry Marion Durand. As Sir Henry noted in his introduction to the book (which has been scanned and posted online in its entirety by Google), his father, who died before he could complete the history, “had some special qualifications for the task,” having participated in that first, disastrous attempt to subdue Afghanistan, four decades earlier.

So, as the entry on Pakistan in the Encarta encyclopedia explains, splitting the Pashtun tribes was in some sense the whole point of what is still known today as the Durand Line:

As the British sought to expand their empire into the northwest frontier, they clashed with the Pashtun tribes that held lands extending from the western boundary of the Punjab plains into the kingdom of Afghanistan. The Pashtuns strongly resisted British invasions into their territories. After suffering many casualties, the British finally admitted they could not conquer the Pashtuns. In 1893 Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the colonial government of India, negotiated an agreement with the king of Afghanistan, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, to delineate a border. The so-called Durand Line cut through Pashtun territories, dividing them between British and Afghan areas of influence. However, the Pashtuns refused to be subjugated under British colonial rule. The British compromised by creating a new province in 1901, named the North-West Frontier Province, as a loosely administered territory where the Pashtuns would not be subject to colonial laws.

In November, 2001, as the United States confronted the Taliban in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Cener and the Pentagon, Vartan Gregorian explained on The Times’s Op-Ed page how the arbitrary line the British colonial administration in India drew through “Pashtunistan” in the 19th century, which still forms much of the modern border, created problems that have still not been resolved in this volatile border region.

As the scholar Barnett Rubin noted in an article in Foreign Affairs in 2007, when the British left India in 1947 and the northwest part of the territory was carved into the new state of Pakistan, the Afghans stopped recognizing the Durand Line as a border:

Afghanistan claimed that Pakistan was a new state, not a successor to British India, and that all past border treaties had lapsed. A loya jirga in Kabul denied that the Durand Line was an international border and called for self-determination of the tribal territories as Pashtunistan. Skirmishes across the Durand Line began with the covert support of both governments.

While the two governments today are not actually fighting a war over the location of the border, the fact that the Durand Line runs right through the traditional Pashtun lands means that Taliban fighters from Afghanistan blend easily into the local population on the Pakistani side of the frontier. Suggestions from Pakistan to stop illegal border crossings by either putting down land mines or erecting a fence have been rejected by Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, who is himself Pashtun.

In January, Pierre Sprey, a former Pentagon official, told Bill Moyers in a discussion of American strategy for fighting militants along the Afghan-Pakistan border, calling the Pashtuns who live along both sides of the Durand Line “a tribe,” can be misleading. In an interview, Mr. Sprey said:

It’s not a tribe. It’s a nation. This is 40 million people spread across Afghanistan and Pakistan, you know, who don’t even recognize that border. It’s their land. … There’s 40 million of them. That’s a nation, not a tribe. Within it are tribal groupings and so on. But they all speak the common language. And they all have a very similar, very rigid, in lots of ways very admirable code of honor much stronger than their adherence to Islam.

Pakistan’s other borders were created in 1947 by another British colonial officer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was made chairman of the boundary commission and given six weeks to carve a Muslim-majority state from British India. As the historian Karl Meyer wrote in his book “The Dust of Empire,” Sir Cyril “was a curious choice,” since he had never previously visited India. In a chapter called “Pakistan: Sins of Partition,” Mr. Meyer explained:

As Radcliffe’s former private secretary, Christopher Beaumont, later remarked in an interview, the chairman had never traveled east and “was a bit flummoxed by the whole thing. It was a rather impossible assignment, really. To partition that subcontinent in six weeks was absurd.”

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the ethnic cleansing that followed the imposition of the new border Sir Cyril drew between India and Pakistan. W.H. Auden made the absurdity of the way the border was created the subject of the poem “Partition,” published in 1966:

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
“Time,” they had briefed him in London, “is short. It’s too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.”

Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.

The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.