Happy New Year! Well, we made it through 2020, and if you’re like me, I’ll bet you’re looking forward to having more fun in 2021 … and that, my friends, includes having more fun in the kitchen cooking new, nourishing, and delicious recipes your family will love. To the rescue this week with recipes that satisfy, is my guest, Mona Dolgov. She’s the author of SATISFY: Delicious, Healthy, and Full-Filling Meals for 500 Calories or less!, a new cookbook packed with 120 easy and delicious, gluten-free recipes made with real ingredients, real portions, and lots of vegetables. Every recipe is nutrient-dense, clocks in at 500 calories or less, and will leave you feeling full and satisfied.
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On today’s show, you’ll learn about Mona’s career in nutrition and food, plus her unique brand of recipe inspiration. Together, we’ll share a recipe for Mona’s Fudgy Chocolate Chip Avocado Cookies, Pecan-Crusted Chicken, and Salmon Scampi Salad. Mona Dolgov also has a delicious hummus recipe to share with half the calories of the usual version. We’re also discussing simple ways to cut added sugar from your family’s diet and why Mona believes 65% of your plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables. Mona also tells us how to join her cooking classes on Zoom and Facebook. Your everyday meals, snacks, and desserts are about to get a whole lot healthier, interesting, plant-forward, and satisfying.
The combination of warm food and cool food in the same dish brings something that is extra satisfying to the taste buds.
– Mona Dolgov
Giveaway News:
Enter for a chance to win SATISFY: Real Ingredients; Real Portions; Real Simple. Post a comment in the Comments section below and tell me what you and your family are doing to eat a healthier diet in 2021. What changes are you planning to make to your everyday diets, and/or are there any new habits you’re planning to adopt in the new year? I’ll pick one lucky U.S. winner on January 20th.
Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Butternut Squash from SATISFY.
Fudgy Chocolate Chip Avocado Cookies from SATISFY.
Show Highlights:
- Get to know Mona Dolgov: she lives in the Boston area with her husband, loves when her two children make it home for a visit, and wants to make a difference in people’s lives with food and nutrition
- Why Mona identifies portion control as an important element of the healthy and delicious recipes in Satisfy
- The value of “plant-forward” meals that are 65% vegetables
- Some of Mona’s favorite recipes in her book are Chicken Marsala, Egg Roll in a Bowl, and Smoked Salmon Salsa
- The secret to Mona’s Peanut Sauce, made with peanut butter (or almond butter or sunflower seed butter), fresh ginger, coconut aminos, honey, crushed red pepper, rice vinegar, and sesame oil
- Why gluten-free alternatives bring SO many choices to the table
- Mona’s Grilled Salmon Scampi Salad is a pleasing combination of warm and cool food; it’s assembled with grilled fresh veggies, grilled salmon, and a light sauce of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic– then placed atop a bed of fresh greens and tomatoes
- How Mona’s hummus recipe checks in with half the calories of the usual version because it doesn’t include olive oil
- Mona’s tips for reducing the added sugar in the typical American diet
- Mona’s delicious Chocolate Avocado Cookies are made in the food processor with an egg, avocado, unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar (only ¼ cup!), baking soda, dark chocolate chips, and a pinch of salt. It’s a dairy-free and gluten-free recipe
- Mona’s Pecan-Crusted Chicken with Butternut Squash is a delicious sheet pan meal made with gluten-free bread crumbs, chopped pecans, dijon mustard, and honey; the key is to pound your chicken breasts to a uniform thickness and uniformly cube the butternut squash and Brussels sprouts
- Mona’s community, which includes Facebook, Instagram, and weekly Zoom cooking classes
Resources:
Mona’s website: www.monadolgov.com
Instagram @MonaDolgov
Buy the cookbook:
https://www.monadolgov.com/satisfy-cookbook
SATISFY Zoom cooking classes: https://www.monadolgov.com/january-event
Liz’s links:
Liz Weiss, MS, RDN
Food & Nutrition Blogger, Podcast Host, Author, Speaker, Spokesperson
Author, Color, Cook, Eat! coloring book series
Website: Liz’s Healthy Table
Listen to my Podcast
Read my Blog
Media Excellence Award winner – Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
Have a question about the show or a suggestion for a future show? Ask away by posting a comment below or joining my Podcast Posse
We’re thinking of doing a modified Whole30.
Interesting. How will you modify it? That’s a pretty strict diet so I’m curious how you’ll change it up.
Happy New Year! My goal for this year is to include lunch in my weekly meal planning. Usually I only plan dinner and breakfast and end up winging it at lunch. This translates into less-than-healthy takeout. Can’t wait to listen to the latest episode!
Our goal is to eat less sugar and incorporate more fruits and veggies!
My daughter and I are eating a smoothie for breakfast Monday thru Friday. The Smoothie Project cookbook is our current favorite. Themis, as always, for the fun opportunity!
That’s a cute cookbook!
It is delicious and so full of great ingredients. I feel super before 9 am every day😁
My daughters and I plan to explore new horizons of healthy cooking for ourselves and our families!
A healthier life style is our goal. We will be locating new recipes that reflect and help us gain our desire for good health. We hope to instill a natural and healthy style of nourishment that will become second nature to our families’ children as well as adults!
Yes! The key is to make it second nature. I love that!
Plan meals with fruits and veggies as the stars and complement them with lean protein, dairy/non-dairy choices, and whole grains. Drinking lots of water.
That sounds like my kind of plan too!
Portion control. That is not something I am good at and need to work on it myself and teach my children.
So important. You know, Mona wrote another book a few years ago called, Perfect Portions. Check it out on her site: monadolgov.com 🙂
I’m trying to practice waiting before going back for seconds
I am working on planning our meals more in advance so we can eat healthier!
My daughter and I are also working on better meal planning a week at a time. Trying to stay gluten free!
I want to start meal planning with my two teen girls. I think it will be fun to involve them and then they can help cook as well.
I think I need to do another podcast on Meal Planning. It’s such a popular and important topic. I recorded a show a few years ago on the topic that you may want to listen to (if you haven’t already): https://www.lizshealthytable.com/2018/10/03/dinner-dilemma-solved-with-jessica-levinson/
I’m continuing to make changes from store bought to homemade. My goal is to learn and implement 10 more staples like tortillas/tortilla chips and mustard while continuing the ones I’ve previously learned like ketchup, ranch, yogurt, and taco seasoning.
Finding recipes is easy. Finding recipes that meet my expectations on flavor vs time requirements is a little trickier.
I hear ya. That’s why I think you’ll love Mona’s recipes. And of course, the recipes right here on LHT 🙂
I’m trying to cut down on carbs and add more veggies to my diet.
We are continuing to work on incorporating more real foods into every aspect of eating. Our greatest challenge is snacks and satisfying the sweet tooth. We need help! I am also starting to plan one month of meals at a time to eliminate late afternoon stress and turning to take out. We have shakes, overnight oats, etc. for breakfast and make good meal choices overall but we know our downfalls.
I love overnight oats! Mona shared lots of tips for cutting sugar during our podcast conversation, so tune in. And last year, I interviewed Jennifer Tyler Lee for a podcast on Half the Sugar, All the Love. Tune in!! https://www.lizshealthytable.com/2019/12/18/podcast-half-the-sugar-all-the-love-jennifer-tyler-lee/
This year our family made the commitment for everyone to be more involved in meal prep. So far we have had our boys help with cutting fruits and vegetables with their new Playful Chef knives and work on recipes from their kids cookbook from Santa. My daughter has enjoyed helping me meal plan for the upcoming week. I’m also so glad to have my husband set a goal of planning and preparing 3 meals on the weekend with the kids involved. Having my family involved is a friendly reminder that food is a great way to nourish our bodies and souls. I want to teach my kids to have a healthy mindset when it comes to eating.
I love this plan. Getting everyone involved is sure to make meal prep more fun … and less stressful. Good luck!!
This is going to be the year of the smoothie. I find that if I make a smoothie as soon as I walk in the house after work, I don’t mindlessly try to fill myself up with snacky stuff. A smoothie a day!
I love that strategy! You listened to my Smoothie show last month, right?!
Continue meal planning for myself. More family outings trying snow shoes and/or cross country skiing!
My family has committed to making better choices when planning and shopping for meals. We have a weekly “meeting” and talk about the proposed menu for the week and how we can make the meals healthier by adding spices, herbs, and taking out some of the not-so-good ingredients. We sort of do a meal makeover together!
We also are exercising daily – my go to is now Yoga through the new Apple Fitness+. Eating healthy is a family commitment and I know this year will be great!
Hi Liz, my husband and I are doing a Whole 30 for January.
Let me know how that goes. That’s a tough plan but I do hear good things about the results. How is it going so far?
My husband is complaining already that he is starving and withering away, because he can’t have sugar, dairy and refined carbs. (Rest assured he is not withering away)🤨
We meal plan every week and my husband is great a picking healthy meal choices for our instant pot. Hoping to find more great recipes for that.
Less sugar, more veggies
Adding more variety of veggies this year, creative ways to get the kids to eat them
Planning meals – especially since we don’t go grocery shopping as often with covid. And planting a garden in the spring!
I’m encouraging my kids (7, 11) to have a source of protein and a fruit or veggie at breakfast. We are buying as much produce/meat/eggs as possible from the local farmer’s market. And my husband is starting to make many of our bread products at home with organic flours.
Menu plan so we’re not trying to figure things out at the last minute!
Hi Liz! I loved this episode and hearing from Mona and all her fabulous recipe ideas and tips for experimenting! I would like to enter the cookbook giveaway. This year I am going to focus on making breakfast healthier and heartier for my family. My goal is to eliminate cold cereal from our pantry! I’m going to do this by making breakfast items the night before like overnight oats, or muffins packed with healthy fats and protein. I am also going to make smoothie baggies prepped with frozen berries, bananas, avocados, etc. and protein powder that the kids can pour into the blender in the morning, add milk, and have a protein shake in minutes. I’m also going to try prepping veggies like onions, peppers, and spinach and storing them in the fridge so they can be thrown in a pan and quickly sauteed with an egg or bacon. Fingers crossed my family will be on board with these shifts away from cold cereal towards more whole food-type breakfasts!
I love everything you just described. Those smoothie packets w/ the protein powder sound perfect. In fact, I am going to share that idea w/ my 22 year old. Maybe he’ll do something like that in college! One can only hope 🙂
For my family, 2021 is going to be the year of homemade snacks instead of store bought snacks! I’m trying to change my kids’ (and hubbie’s) processed food loving palate to a palate of natural ingredients.
Continue meal planning weekly and maintain activity level with daily exercise.
I’m working to include more veggies and to cut evening snacking. I find that in the evenings, my will-power is at a low, so eating dinner a bit earlier and keeping tea or water nearby prevents me from over-indulging without thinking.
My goal is to serve more vegetables with every meal, and to snack on fruit.
Liz this cookbook sounds great! I’m always loading our meals with veggies and always love new ideas. Thanks for your podcast I love all your great ideas you give me and I just really enjoy your personality and style that you interview your guests. I recommend your podcast to everyone!
Thanks Lisa. Means a lot to me 🙂 You are too kind!!
Less snacking, more fruit and veggies. Cooking our own meals and slow down the treats.
Eating more fruits and vegetables and getting more active.
I plan to make out of menu each week and eat more vegetables. Try new vegetables. And cut out night time sweet snacks.
Just making more things homemade.
We are involving our kids more in the menu planning and committing to sticking to our plan! Though our kids have been helping in the kitchen for a long time, they’re a bit older now and able to help with the meal planning part. We hope this will lead to peaceful meal times where everyone is satisfied.
I am glad you was on Liz’s podcast you two were so fun and , so up to date I plan to eat more veggie and fruit..Mona I am sure your cook book will be a big help to people Keep up the good work….I live by myself and I enjoy listening to podcast while I eat dinner every night. Thanks again for the good ideals.
I am planning to add one extra vegetable to our evening meal
Less sugar for sure! I see I’m not the only one with that nutrition goal!
Sugar is a biggie!
I’m currently pregnant and have been focusing on my whole grains and more veggies lately. I’ve noticed how quickly my energy and mood changes when I’m not intentionally adding them throughout the day.
Batch cooking and menu planning with an increase in delicious plant-based recipes to win over my husband’s carnivorous palate.
I love those goals!!
Adding more dried beans and peas each week. Also a larger variety of seafood. Thanks for the inspiration!! In fact I’m making clam chowder today!
I have some serious food allergy challenges and some “need to avoid for chronic Lyme” issues. However, because I am not a huge fruit consumer, that is my goal…figure out how to incorporate more fruit with each meal for those still forced to work from home AND to inspire the other kids to make the same smart choices.
My son has chronic Lyme. What can I do to support you? Are you gluten free?