Snack of the Week: Grape-Nuts Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup reduced fat peanut butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
4 cups Post Grape-Nuts Cereal

Directions

MICROWAVE peanut butter, (I would use peanut-less peanut butter if you have it) corn syrup, and sugar in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or just until mixture comes to boil, stirring after each minute. Add cereal; mix well.
PRESS cereal mixture firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool completely.
CUT cereal mixture into bars. Wrap individually with plastic wrap. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.
MAKES 2-1/2 doz. or 30 servings, one bar each.

Recipe of the Week: Cheesy Tomato, Bacon and Green Pepper Bake

I found this recipe from a great book called, "Cooking Healthy Across America," and oh man, it was so good! I added a couple of ingredients to make it a little more heartier, and I will definitely make it again! The book takes the reader all over the country and exposes them to different kinds of tasty and healthy dishes. I highly recommend this cookbook! Unfortunately, there was no picture of this dish, but I can assure you it is well worth it!!

Ingredients

vegetable oil cooking spray
3 strips bacon, diced
(I put in about 3 chicken breasts as well to make it more filling, but you don't have to)
3 slices whole-grain bread, cut into cubes
1 medium-size green bell pepper, chopped
(I also added one medium-size red bell pepper, chopped)
1 medium-size onion, chopped
6 medium-size tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sage (I didn't have this, and it still turned out great!)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (4 ounces)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish with the cooking spray.
Combine the bacon, bread, (chicken), green pepper, (red pepper), and onion in a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the bacon is crisp and the bread is brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. (If you added chicken, you might want to cook it for a little be longer).
Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, sugar, flour, salt, pepper, and sage in the casserole dishes; stir. Add the sauteed mixture; stir. Top with the cheese. Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes.

Cooking Healthy Across America

Enjoy!!!

Heart Disease

Heart disease isn't just a man's disease. Heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases are devastating to women, too. In fact, coronary heart disease, which causes heart attacks, is the single leading cause of death for American women. Many women believe that cancer is more of a threat, but they're wrong. Nearly twice as many women in the United States die of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases as from all forms of cancer, including breast cancer.
The American Heart Association has identified several factors that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. The more risk factors a woman has, the greater her risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Some of these risk factors you can't control, such as increasing age, family health history, and race and gender. But you can modify, treat or control most risk factors to lower your risk.
Risk factors that you can control include tobacco smoke, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Other risk factors that you can control are physical inactivity, obesity and overweight, and individual response to stress.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4786

Heart disease is deadly. Let's be smart and help decrease the chances of us becoming diagnosed with it by continually living a healthy lifestyle!!!
Here is a clip of "Larry King Live" on Taking One Step for a Healthy Heart.