Blog Posts by The Editors of EatingWell Magazine

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Ever heard of yonanas? It's a one-ingredient frozen dessert made with ripe bananas that has the texture of soft serve ice cream without any added fat or sugar. Sounds pretty good to me, except that I'd have to purchase a $50 machine to make it and I've made a commitment not to buy single use appliances. But I am curious to try this wonder dessert.

With a little searching it appears as though you don't actually need the machine to replicate this fruity soft-serve-like goodness. (You actually don't need an ice cream maker to make creamy frozen yogurt either--your food processor does an excellent job of finely blending berries with yogurt. What about your blender? Although blenders can get a finer texture, blending thick frozen berries with yogurt is difficult. Air pockets form over the blade and you're left doing more stirring than you would using a food processor.)

Don't Miss: Kitchen Tools Every Cook Should Have

4 Ingredients of a Get-Skinny DinnerBy Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

When you're trying to slim down, every meal--and calorie--counts. But that doesn't mean that dinner has to be a skimpy salad. You can build a filling, diet-friendly dinner (that includes dessert) around these four slimming ingredients.

Related: Find out how many calories you should be eating to shed pounds here.

1. Salad greens. Start your supper with a simple salad: it's low in calories and research out of Penn State shows that eating a first-course salad can cut your overall calorie intake at a meal by up to 12 percent. Plus, a vegetable-packed salad delivers fiber, a must-have when you're dieting. Fiber helps you stay satisfied longer--and, according to one study, upping your fiber intake may help prevent extra pounds from creeping on and even promote weight loss.

2. Lean Protein. Beef, chicken, pork, fish, tofu or beans--it doesn't matter which you pick--all are protein-rich. Gram for gram,

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Although I love a steak or a burger hot off the grill, it's vegetables that I really prefer cooking over flames. They cook quickly and are so delicious with just a hint of smoke from the fire. Plus you don't have to panic about whether they're over- or underdone in the middle like you do with meat. In most cases, you can tell if they're ready just by looking at them.

Don't Miss: 9 Great Vegetables to Cook on Your Grill

Here are my tips for perfect grilled vegetables:

1. Oil Them Up: Vegetables dry out when they hit the heat without a little oil. Before they go on the grill, toss them with a light coating of oil. Don't use too muchit not only adds unnecessary calories, but dripping oil causes flare-ups and off flavors. Plus tossing them in oil helps your seasoning stick more uniformly.

2. Monitor Closely to Prevent Burning: Some vegetables, such as thinly sliced onions or peppers, take a minute or two to

6 Expert Tricks for Packing Your Burgers with FlavorBy Matthew Thompson, Associate Food Editor for EatingWell Magazine

We're big fans of burgers here at EatingWell. And no wonder--these iconic little rounds of beef are practically vacuums for flavor. They suck up the smokiness of the grill and the savoriness of any other ingredients added to them: garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder. You can top them with any range of condiments, veggies or cheeses.

That's why I love the advice meat expert, grilling aficionado and chef Bruce Aidells shared in EatingWell Magazine about his tricks to make a flavor-packed burger. His most fundamental piece of advice: start with quality ingredients. Here are some of Bruce's top tricks for packing your burger with flavor.

Don't Miss: Bruce Aidells's "Fajita Burger" & More Healthy Burger Recipes

Tip 1: Go Beyond All-Beef: Combine Lean and Fattier Meats
Go beyond all-beef burgers and experiment with pork, turkey, chicken and lamb. Bruce's tips for the best combos? Add a

5 Foods for Flatter AbsBy Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

It's summer--and that means your summer vacation is probably just around the corner. If you're looking to slim down before you slip into that bathing suit (and who isn't?!), you're in luck. Cutting calories and exercising are, of course, must-dos--and you can try this 7-day weight-loss meal plan to lose up to 2 pounds this week. But new research shows that some foods may have waist-shrinking properties. Here are five tummy-tamers to add to your diet--as reported by Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D., for EatingWell Magazine.

Try or Skip? The Pros and Cons of 4 Popular Celeb Diets

1. Canola Oil. Already dubbed a heart-healthy cooking oil, canola now touts another boon: when Brazilian researchers fed rats a diet containing either canola or soybean oil for two months, the soybean-oil eaters gained nearly 20 percent more fat in and around the organs of the belly (also known as visceral fat) than those that chowed on the

How To Stop Wasting Food And Start Saving MoneyBy Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

I am guilty of letting some things "go" in my fridge. I don't finish all my salad greens, so they wilt and I throw them out or I find blue fuzzy mold in the sour cream, so I toss it. A little waste here and there feels harmless, but I certainly wouldn't ever throw dollar bills in the trash can and, in a roundabout way, that's what I'm doing when I throw out rotten food.

Don't Miss: 6 Ways to Save $2,997 on Groceries

I bet if I figured out how much food I wasted over the course of a year, I might be a little more aggressive about using it all up. The average American wastes more than 200 pounds of food a year--that's a lot of wasted dollars too! Here are a few tips that may help you and me stop wasting food and money:

1. Check expiration dates before you buy: This may seem like a no-brainer, but often you'll find varying expiration dates on identical products. Stores use expiration dates to indicate

By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

I hear of a new health benefit of a different food virtually every day as associate nutrition editor of EatingWell Magazine: Broccoli could fight cancer! Coffee may help you live longer! But what I hear about less often is how various foods interact-and, therefore, act-when you eat them together. Some foods, like iron-rich beans and calcium-packed cheese, fight for absorption in your body of their respective key nutrients when you eat them at the same time. But other foods have a synergistic effect-helping their star nutrients work even better in your body. Here are 5 such power pairs, many of which Jessica Girdwain reported about in the May/June issue of EatingWell Magazine:

Broccoli & Mustard
Raw broccoli is a good source of the powerful cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane. But cooking destroys the enzyme (myrosinase) in broccoli that makes sulforaphane available to your body. The fix?

6 Surprising Salsa IngredientsBy Emily McKenna, Recipe Developer & Tester for EatingWell Magazine

My husband and I are salsa addicts. We eat it with chips and quesadillas, on our burgers and stuffed inside grilled cheese sandwiches.

Lately, though, we've wanted more variety than traditional tomato-based salsas and have started to experiment with fruity, summery ingredients like cherries, mango, pineapple and nectarines that make great fresh salsas! Here are 6 surprising foods to make salsa with and sensational salsa recipes from EatingWell that we love and now make all the time at home.

Serve with Your Salsa: Healthy Margarita Recipes and More Mexican Drinks
Healthy Homemade Chips and Dip Recipes

1. CHERRIES
Like tomatoes, cherries are sweet and tart, and they have enough body and integrity to stand in for tomatoes in salsa, especially when mixed with smoky chipotle chiles. This rich salsa is a fantastic accompaniment to these grilled pork fajitas.

Pork Fajitas with Smoky Cherry Salsa