Today's Recipe - 5-Spice Chicken in a Bowl

Today's Recipe
If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
The unique use of spices in the broth combined with the chicken gives you a great combination of flavors in this easy-to-prepare addition to your Healthiest Way of Eating. Enjoy!

5-Spice Chicken in a Bowl
Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 oz each), cut in 2-inch pieces
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 inch sliced fresh ginger, sliced (or 1/2 tsp dried ginger)
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 5 star anise
• 1/2 tsp dried fennel seeds
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped in big pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped in big pieces
• 6 whole medium dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 lb green beans, ends cut off
• 1/2 cup minced scallions

Directions:

1. Chop onion and garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to bring out their hidden health-promoting benefits.
2. Healthy Sauté onion in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Add chicken broth, ginger, cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise, fennel seeds, and shiitake mushrooms. Turn heat to medium-high and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. While broth is simmering, cut ends off beans and cut into 1-inch pieces.
4. Strain broth mixture (saving shiitake mushrooms) and put liquid back into pan. Bring to a boil and simmer on high heat with chicken pieces and green beans. You may need to skim the surface a little while chicken pieces are cooking. Slice shiitake mushrooms and add to chicken and broth. Add scallion as well as salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4 Serve with brown rice. For optimum flavor and nutrition serve with:

• Napa Cabbage Salad

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Healthy Food Tip
How can I help manage my appetite? I often feel hungry even after eating the required foods for the day.
One thing you may want to look at is why you are still hungry. Your daily food intake requirements vary with many factors, including your level of physical activity. Taking just this one example, if you have been more physically active, you may actually require more food to meet your caloric needs. You might also, however, not have any easily identifiable factor like increased exercise to help you make sense of your ongoing appetite.

Nutrient-rich foods help satisfy appetite

I don't think that there is a magic bullet, like one food or pill, which can help suppress appetite. Rather, I have seen that when people start eating nutrient-rich foods, particularly those high in fiber, and take the time to have relaxed meals they find that their appetite is more satisfied. Here are the reasons why:
Many nutrient-rich foods are very filling. Think about a cup of broccoli, bell peppers, or cucumbers, for example. These foods are rich in fiber that helps to fill you up and yet they contain minimal calories. One cup of broccoli has 43 calories, bell peppers 24, and cucumber 13. Another example of a filling nutrient-rich food is legumes. For example, one cup of black beans will supply 60% of your daily value for fiber! Although they may have more calories than some other types of foods (226 in a cup) they are a great choice to make you feel satisfied and satiated for a long period of time; that�s not only because of their rich fiber content but also because they are concentrated in protein and have a diversity of other nutrients.

Enjoying your meal can help satisfy appetite

Another important aspect of satisfying your appetite is to eat slowly and enjoy your meal. Take time for your meals and make them a celebration. If you focus on the foods you are eating, rather than just making eating something to satisfy your appetite, you may feel more fulfilled and less hungry. Also, chew your food well as this allows for enhanced digestion and better absorption of nutrients.
Make sure you are giving your body time to register the satisfying effects of your meal. It takes about 15-20 minutes after consumption of most meals for your body to fully register the impact of the meal in terms of satiety (quenching of appetite). Sometimes people will feel continuing hunger during this period of 15-20 minutes that convinces them more food is needed. But if they wait for 20-30 minutes, this hunger will naturally subside.
Finally, I recommend that you consider a basis for increased appetite that might not be focused on physiology or nutrition in any way. There may be times when our days are lacking in the overall pleasure department, and we find ourselves trying to derive this pleasure solely from food. What we really need in this situation is better balance in our life activities that can put the pleasures of food into a more complete context.