Julie Van Rosendaal
Julie Van Rosendaal was an avid cook as early as age three. When her father, known for his insatiable sweet tooth, found out he had high cholesterol, Julie took her expertise in the kitchen and began creating healthier and low fat recipes for cookies and sweets. After spending years doing research and experimenting in the kitchen, Julie developed a knack for taking recipes of foods that she craved, typically high in fat, and creating a healthier version. At the same time, she realized that dieting was silly and began to live on her own terms. She simply cooked and ate healthier versions of the foods she loved. In addition to giving her ideas for health-conscious cookbooks (which would eventually become bestsellers), this change in lifestyle led Julie to lose 165 pounds—a testament to the effectiveness and practicality of her recipes and food philosophy. Quickly the demand for her delicious low fat recipes became so great that she opened her own low fat bakery in Calgary, Alberta. With the great success of this bakery, Julie decided to share her low fat recipes with the world—in One Smart Cookie, among other cookbooks. Referred to as the “queen of the skinny sweet” and the “poster girl for low fat cooking,” Julie is in high demand for her knowledge and expertise. She has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, led many cooking demonstrations across North America, and regularly contributes to newspapers and magazines.


Best of Bridge Sunday Suppers

Gatherings

Grazing
Our crazy schedules and love for food make snacking common and portable food hugely popular, whether we eat three meals a day like our moms taught us to or not. Many of us grab whatever might pass for breakfast on the way out the door. If you eat lunch anywhere but at home, you’re either taking it with you or buying it somewhere. And who doesn’t eat in the car? Everyone needs a little smackerel of something after work or school or before a workout. If you have kids, they require an almost constant supply of snacks. Then there are parties and social functions, that empty space beside your latte, and the absolute need to munch during a movie. Grazing has become our eating pattern of choice, and the good news is—doctors and nutritionists all over the world believe that it’s the healthiest way to eat! Eating several smaller meals and snacks over the course of the day (rather than two or three big ones) keeps your energy levels high and blood sugar levels on an even keel. And studies have shown that grazing also lowers your cholesterol, and consequently your risk of heart disease and stroke. Eating regularly also keeps your mind alert and hunger at bay, which will make you less likely to become ravenous and devour enough food to sustain an entire Boy Scout troop. (Not that I’d know from personal experience or anything.)




One Smart Cookie

Cutting back on fat in your everyday cooking isn’t difficult, but baking is another matter. Baking is more of a science, and fat plays an integral role, adding and enhancing flavor but also acting as a tenderizer in cookies, muffins, brownies and cakes. While many muffins, quick breads and cakes use healthier oils, most cookies rely on lots of butter for their flavor as well as characteristics such as crispness, chewiness or melt-in-your-mouth texture, so creating a low-fat cookie can be a challenge. Fat coats the proteins in flour, inhibiting the formation of gluten and thus tenderizing the crumb. It also keeps cookies moist and helps them last longer. You can no more omit the butter or oil in a cookie recipe than you can omit the flour. And the truth is, we all need some fat in our diets, so I’m a strong believer in low-fat rather than fat-free. Besides, remove all the fat from a cookie and you have a cracker. Our concern should be with both the quantity and quality of fat, that is, how much and what kind. To put it simply, fats are either saturated (bad) or mono- or poly-unsaturated (good). Healthy mono- and poly-unsaturated fats such as canola and olive oil and the fat in nuts and avocados should be included as a regular part of our diets, as they go a long way to prevent coronary heart disease. Trans fats?—?produced during the hydrogenation process that transforms an otherwise healthy liquid fat into a solid fat such as stick margarine?—?are particularly harmful and should be avoided entirely. If you’re concerned about calories, because fat contains more than twice as many (9 per gram) as protein or carbohydrates (4 per gram), cutting back on fat is also the best way to trim calories.


Beans. We know them well, but as familiar as they are, a huge number of us don’t have a clue what to do with them once we get them home to our kitchens. It’s amazing that legumes, which have been around for centuries and are present in nearly every cuisine around the world, are still such a mystery even to skilled cooks. The process of soaking and simmering seems daunting, even though it requires even less culinary skill than cooking rice or pasta. All legumes—beans, chickpeas, peas, and lentils—are high in fibre, protein, and other essential nutrients. They’re low in fat, cholesterol-free, versatile, environmentally friendly, and cheap. They could very well be the world’s most perfect food.

Beans. We know them well, but as familiar as they are, a huge number of us don't have a clue what to do with them once we get them home to our kitchens. It's amazing that legumes, which have been around for centuries and are present in nearly every cuisine around the world, are still such a mystery even to skilled cooks. The process of soaking and simmering seems daunting, even though it requires even less culinary skill than cooking rice or pasta. All legumes-beans, chickpeas, peas, and lentils-are high in fibre, protein, and other essential nutrients. They're low in fat, cholesterol-free, versatile, environmentally friendly, and cheap. They could very well be the world's most perfect food.

