Eat Out Eat Well

Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

Buy Me Some Peanuts And Cracker Jacks

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Baseball season is in full swing.  What accompanies a visit to the stadium – food, of course!

Oh, the food!  Oh the calories!  Hang on – this post is not about ignoring the good time food.  Of course, there are always healthy food options:  you can bring your own or be scrupulous in making healthy choices. And, there are now many more gourmet options available (but usually still loaded with calories). But honestly, do you think that most people really want to eat low calorie foods when they’re at a ballgame? No way.

So what do you do when you’re at these places with food vendors about every 20 feet hawking dogs, ice cream, and beer?

There Are Ways And Then There Are Ways

If you’ve got a will of iron, I guess you could ignore the food and drinks.  But if you’re like most people and you’re tempted at every turn, you can try to minimize the damage without taking out the fun.  If you know you’re going to be having a stadium or food court meal, do some thinking, planning, and learning.  The best choices are not always the obvious ones.

Do you need both peanuts and popcorn?  Can you make do with a regular hot dog instead of a foot-long?  Can you keep it to one or two beers instead of three?  Can you choose the small popcorn instead of the jumbo tub?

Make Your Best Choice

Here’s some info to help you make your best choice.  Just a heads up – we’re not talking about the most nutritious choice because given these foods, quality nutrition is not front and center.  You can, however, enjoy your day and make the best caloric choice (with a nod to fat and sugar content) and still eat traditional ballpark and amusement park food.

  • Cotton Candy: Nothing but heated and colored sugar that’s spun into threads with added air. Cotton candy on a stick or wrapped around a paper cone (about an ounce) has around 105 calories; a 2oz. bag (common size) has 210. A lot of sugar, but not a lot of calories – albeit empty ones.
  • Cracker Jack (officially cracker jack, not jacks): candy-coated popcorn with some peanuts. A 3.5oz stadium size box has 420 calories but does have 7g  protein and 3.5g fiber.
  • Hamburger: of beef with a bun has about 490 calories — without cheese or other toppings which up the ante.
  • Grilled Chicken Sandwich, 6oz., 280 calories – not a bad choice.  6oz. of chicken tenders clock in at 446 calories.  Barbecue dipping sauce adds 30 calories a tablespoon.
  • Hot Dog: Most sold out stadiums can sell 16,000 hot dogs a day. A regular hot dog with mustard has about 290 calories: 180 for the 2oz. dog, 110 for the bun, zilch for regular yellow mustard. Two tbs. of sauerkraut adds another 5-10 calories, 2 tbs. of ketchup adds 30, and 2 tbs. of relish another 40. A Nathan’s hot dog racks up 320 calories; a foot-long Hebrew National 510 calories. Hot dogs are usually loaded with sodium.
  • Pizza: Stadium pizza is larger than a usual slice, about 1/6 of a 16-inch pie (instead of 1/8) making it about 435 calories a slice.
  • Super Nachos with Cheese: A 12oz. serving (40 chips, 4oz. cheese) has about 1,500 calories!!! Plain French fries look like a caloric bargain by comparison.
  • French Fries: A large serving has about 500 calories. A serving of Hardee’s chili cheese fries has 700 calories and 350 of them come from fat.
  • Potato Chips:  One single serving bag has 153 calories (94 of them from fat).
  • Peanuts in the Shell: What would a baseball game be without a bag of peanuts? Stadiums can sell as many as 6,000 bags on game days. An 8oz. bag has 840 calories; a 12oz. bag has 1,260. Yes, they have some protein and fiber.  But wow on the calories.
  • Soft Pretzel: One large soft pretzel has 483 calories – giant soft pretzels (7-8oz.) have about 700 calories.
  • Draft Beer: A stadium draft beer, 20oz. cup (the usual size), has about 240 calories. A light draft saves you 60 calories.
  • Coca Cola:  A 12oz can has 140 calories –- and close to 10 tsp. of sugar.
  • Helmet Ice Cream: Your team’s mini-helmet filled with swirly Carvel, 550-590 calories.
  • Souvenir Popcorn: At Yankee Stadium a jumbo size has 1,484 calories and a souvenir bucket has 2,473 calories.

Is Your Coffee Or Tea Giving You A Pot Belly?

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Morning coffee.  Coffee break.  Afternoon tea.  A nice cup after dinner. Many of us love – need – our coffee or tea.

A nice hot steaming cup of coffee or tea can hit the spot and a hot skim latte is a great snack – soothing, calorie controlled, and protein laced.  On the other hand, a giant hot coffee drink filled with syrup and whipped cream – often clocking in at 400 to 500 calories — might be soothing but sure isn’t great for your waistline.

Black Or Light And Sweet?

How do you like your coffee?  Black, light and sweet, regular?  Do you add sugar and pour milk until the color and taste is just right?

As you dump sugar and pour cream into mugs and those too hot to touch cardboard containers, have you ever thought about how many calories you’re actually adding to an otherwise very low calorie drink?  Probably not. They’re calories not usually measured and all too easy to forget.

What Do You Put Into Your Coffee Or Tea?

There are about two calories in eight ounces (a small cup) of unsweetened black brewed coffee or tea – doesn’t matter if it’s hot or iced. Not a bad deal.

What a lot of us don’t think about is how many calories are in the add-ins that we stir into our coffee and tea.

How much milk or half and half do you add to your coffee or tea? How much sugar? Bet you don’t have a clue.  We all do a freehand pour.  Try measuring how much you pour and you might be really surprised.

The Add-Ins

  • Heavy cream, 2 tablespoons:  104 calories
  • Half and half, 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup):  40 calories
  • Whole milk, 2 tablespoons:  18 calories
  • 2% (low fat) milk, 2 tablespoons:  14 calories
  • Non-fat milk, 2 tablespoons:  11 calories
  • Table sugar, 1 tablespoon:  49 calories
  • Table sugar, 1 teaspoon:  16 calories

How’s This For An Eye-Opener?

Say you have 3 grande (Starbucks) – or 3 large (Dunkin’ Donuts) – size coffees a day.  Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.

If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each that’s adds up to128 calories for the additives and around 5 calories for the coffee.  That’s 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee. Have three of those and you’ve added 399 calories a day from coffee (or tea).

Do that every day for a year and mathematically that’s the equivalent of 145,635 calories. Does that make you stop and think?

Are You Eating A Bread And Butter (or oil) Meal Before Your Actual Meal?

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Have you been known to invade the breadbasket with gusto as soon as it lands on the table?

Then do you mindlessly continue to munch before and during your meal either because you’re hungry or because the bread is there for easy nibbling or for sopping up gravy or sauce?

Butter or Oil?

Olive oil for bread dipping is giving butter some stiff competition.  Olive oil arrives green or golden, plain, herbed or spiced.  It can be plopped down on your table, or poured with a flourish.  Some restaurants offer a selection for dipping – and attempt to educate you about the variation in flavors depending upon the olives’ country of origin.

Butter can also appear in many forms.  It still may still arrive in shiny foil packets – what would a diner be without them – or mounded in  pretty dishes sprinkled with sea salt or blended with various fruits or herbs.

Don’t be misled by the presentation — butter and oil, although delicious, are high calorie, high fat foods. Certain oils may be heart healthy, but they are still caloric.

Who Takes In More Calories – Butter Or Olive Oil Eaters?

Hidden cameras in Italian restaurants have shown that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread consume more fat and calories than if they use butter on their bread. But, the olive oil users end up eating fewer pieces of bread than the butter eaters.

In a study done by the food psychology laboratory at Cornell University, 341 restaurant goers were randomly given olive oil or blocks of butter with their bread. Following dinner, researchers calculated the amount of olive oil or butter and bread that was eaten.

The researchers found:

  • Olive oil users used 26% more olive oil on each piece of bread compared to block butter users (40 vs. 33 calories)
  • Although the olive oil users have a heavier hand than the butter users when slathering or dipping their bread, over the course of the meal the olive oil users ate less bread and oil – the olive oil users ate 23% less bread over the course of a meal than the people who used butter
  • Olive oil users took in 17% fewer bread calories:  264 calories (oil eaters) vs. 319 calories (butter eaters)

The Caloric Punch of Butter, Oil, And Bread

  • A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, a tablespoon of butter has 102 calories, one pat of butter has around 36 calories
  • Butter and oil are all fat; olive oil is loaded with heart healthy monounsaturated fat, butter contains heart unhealthy saturated fat
  • Bread varies significantly in calories depending on the type of bread and the size of the piece; harder breads and breadsticks are often less caloric than softer doughy breads
  • Most white bread and a small piece of French bread average around 90 to 100 calories a slice; dinner rolls average 85 calories each
  • If you’re eating Mexican food, bread may not appear, but a basket of chips adds around 500 calories

If you’re thinking of switching up your bread and butter routine when you eat at home, why not consider an attractive oil canister for pouring some extra virgin olive oil onto a plate for dipping your bread (or for dressing your salad or some vegetables).  Here are some very attractive ones at different price points.  All are available through Amazon Prime.

Cucina Italiana Ceramic Olive Oil Dispenser Bottle, with Set of 4 Bread Dipping Plates, Honey Yellow

One Quart Olive Oil Dispenser, Stainless Steel Olive Oil Can Drizzler with Drip-free Spout

Michael Aram Olive Branch Gold Olive Oil Dispenser

My posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy through one of the links you won’t pay a penny more but I’ll receive a small commission. I do not get compensated for reviews.

How Long Can Your Turkey Safely Stay On The Table And The Leftovers In The Fridge?

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Once Your Bird Is Cooked, Does It Matter How Long You Leave It Out?

It definitely matters – and the clock starts ticking as soon as the bird comes out of the oven, fryer, or off the grill.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of reported cases of food borne illness (food poisoning) increases during the holiday season. Leaving cooked food at room temperature is an invitation for bacteria that can cause food poisoning to multiply and reheating leftovers doesn’t always destroy their toxins or spores.

You shouldn’t leave turkey or any perishable food out for more than two hours (one hour when the air temperature is 90 degrees or above), any time of the year. Food that stays in the temperature “danger zone” which is 40-140 °F (4-60 °C) for more than 2 hours should be discarded. To save turkey leftovers, remove the stuffing from the turkey cavity, cut the turkey off the bone, and refrigerate or freeze all the leftovers.

The Basic Rules For Leftovers

According to the USDA the mantra is:

2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days

  • 2 Hours from oven to refrigerator: Refrigerate or freeze your leftovers within 2 hours of cooking (taking them off the heat or out of the oven). Throw them away if they are out longer than that. Think about your buffet table – or even your holiday dinner table. How long does the bird, stuffing, and accompaniments sit out as people eat, go back for seconds, and pick their way through the football game and conversation?
  • 2 Inches thick to cool it quick: Store your food at a shallow depth–about 2 inches–to speed chilling. Are you guilty of piling the food high in storage containers or in a big mound covered with tin foil?
  • 4 Days in the refrigerator – otherwise freeze it: Use your leftovers that are stored in the fridge within 4 days. The exceptions are stuffing and gravy. They should both be used within 2 days. Reheat any solid leftovers to 165 degrees Fahrenheit and bring liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.

How Long Can Leftover Turkey Stay In The Freezer?

Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month. To successfully freeze leftovers, package them using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy-duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave any air space. Squeeze the excess air from the freezer bags and fill rigid freezer containers to the top with dry food. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless. Leave a one-inch headspace in containers with liquid and half an inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

Turkey: Nutrition

Keep that turkey safe to eat because whether you’re eating it during the holidays or for several days afterward, it’s good to know that it is low in fat and high in protein. A 3.5 oz serving is about the size and thickness of a new deck of cards. The fat and calorie content varies because white meat has less fat and fewer calories than dark meat and skin.

Calories in a 3.5 oz serving (from a whole roasted turkey):

  • Breast with skin: 194 calories; 8g fat; 29g protein
  • Breast without skin: 161 calories; 4g fat; 30g protein
  • Wing with skin: 238 calories; 13g fat; 27g protein
  • Leg with skin: 213 calories; 11g fat; 28g protein
  • Dark meat with skin: 232 calories; 13g fat; 27g protein
  • Dark meat without skin: 192 calories; 8g fat; 28g protein
  • Skin only: 482 calories; 44g fat; 19g protein

 

Ice Cream or Gelato, Sorbet or Sherbet? What’s the Difference?

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The cold deliciousness of ice cream, gelato, sherbet, and sorbet is hard to beat.  There are an astounding number of flavors with varying degrees of fat, calorie, sugar, and dairy content.  The sad truth is that no matter how innovative food scientists and savvy marketers have become, a three-scoop sundae or a chocolate dipped waffle cone still isn’t going to rank at the top of the health-o-meter.

The Difference Between Ice Cream And Gelato

In the US, the government regulates what can be called ice cream, but in some other countries ice cream can mean all frozen desserts.

Ice cream and gelato are usually dairy-based but differ in texture, fat and air content, and ingredients. Because gelato is made and stored at a higher temperature than ice cream, it’s softer, smoother, and quicker to melt.

Both are usually made from sugar, milk, eggs, and flavorings — although gelato is often made from fresh fruit. Gelato has less butterfat than ice cream, usually about 4 to 8% compared to ice cream’s 10 to 20%.

Gelato has a higher sugar content than ice cream, and the sugar/water combination acts like anti-freeze, preventing the gelato from freezing solid. Most US commercial ice creams are frozen in an assembly line freezing process while gelato is frozen very quickly in small batches.

Both ice cream and gelato are churned during the freezing process, which incorporates air. Most commercial ice cream contains about 50% air while gelato contains much less, generally 20-35%, producing a denser product with more intense flavor.

Ice cream is sold by weight, not by size, so a pint of cheaper ice cream which is fluffed up with more air than premium or artisanal ice creams will feel lighter than better brands which are pumped up with just enough air to make the ice cream nice and smooth.  Compare pints of different levels of quality when they’re fresh out of the freezer.  Which one is heavier in your hand?  Not surprisingly, the premium brands will also be higher in calories, probably have more intense flavor, and be higher in price.

Ice cream, with its higher fat content, can be stored frozen for months. High-quality artisan gelato, when stored carefully at consistent, low temperatures, only keeps its peak flavor and smooth texture for several days.

What’s In The Frozen Desserts?

According to US federal standards, a frozen dessert must have a minimum of 10% milk fat to be called ice cream.  Economy brands usually have the least amount of fat and super premium brands have more.  Milk fat content of less than 10% makes the product ice milk or light ice cream.

  • Premium ice cream has between 11% and 15% butterfat, which makes it richer, denser, higher in calories.
  • Regular ice cream – what you usually find in the larger containers in the market — is somewhat less dense and contains 10% to 11% butterfat (perfect for milkshakes).
  • Economy ice cream, by law, has 10% butterfat        
  • Light ice cream has either 50% less fat or 33% fewer calories than the producer’s regular ice cream. Here’s the hitch: because of the higher starting point for fat content especially in premium brands, light versions of premium ice cream can have more fat and calories than the regular version of other brands.
  • Reduced fat ice cream must, by law, have 25% less fat than the regular ice cream produced by the same vendor.
  • Soft serve ice cream is the same as regular ice cream but is served at a higher temperature.
  • French Style Ice Cream also called glace, has a custard base that includes eggs, which makes it silky and rich.
  • Gelato (plural, gelati) has more milk than cream (if any) so its fat content is significantly lower. It doesn’t saturate your taste buds as much as ice cream so the flavor seems more intense. It’s often flavored with fresh fruit, nuts, chocolate, and other natural flavors. Gelato is served at a higher temperature than ice cream making it look more like frozen yogurt or whipped cream than ice cream.
  • Sorbet, which means water ice, is made from fruit, wine, or liqueur, but not milk and is sometimes flavored with herbs and spices and then whipped to lighten its texture. It’s sometimes used as a palate cleanser.
  • Sherbet, like sorbet, is traditionally fruit flavored but with milk added for creaminess. By law it contains between 1 and 2% butterfat – which makes it lighter in flavor and texture.
  • Granita is similar to sorbet but not whipped. Ice crystals give it a granular appearance and a crunchy texture.

How Many Calories?

There’s a huge variation in nutrition so it’s best to check labels if you’re counting calories, fats, and/or carbs. These are the general caloric ranges for “naked” ice cream and gelato (without sauce, toppings, nuts, and whipped cream):

  • 5 ounces of milk-based gelato has between 120 and 160 calories, 4g to 8g of fat, and 30 g to 45g of carbs; milk and soy-based gelato has between 3g and 5g of protein
  • 5 ounces of American ice cream (not churned, light, or reduced fat) averages 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 24g carbs
  • 5 ounces of light ice cream can vary between 100 to close to 200 calories depending upon whether it is just light or if it is slow churned light.  The flavor and the add-ins can significantly raise the calorie count.

Tip:  Order a small serving of ice cream or gelato instead of a medium or large. You’ll probably be just as satisfied.  Even if you indulge in your favorite full-fat flavor, you’ll save as many as 550 calories with a 5-ounce size of ice cream instead of a 12-ounce size.

Don’t be led astray by frozen yogurt which has a wide range of calories depending on fat content and flavorings. Frozen yogurt can be as caloric, if not more caloric, than other frozen desserts.