I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been branching out. Yes, I’ve crossed over into the category of folks that like to eat fungus! It’s only been recently that I realized that I liked them. It was kinda one of those situations where you stay away from something because you think you won’t like it. I was wrong! Cooked the right way, mushrooms can really be very tasty!

I recently got to meet Cynthia Sass, a Registered Dietitian you may have seen on TV or in magazines. She’s been on all of my favorite daytime shows and I was floored to meet her and just chat about healthy eating. We had a conversation about substituting things in your meals and snacks to make them more nutritious. There is nothing like enjoying a meal that is good for you without sacrificing taste. It actually is possible!

For instance, instead of loading up brownies with oil and sugar, try using black beans instead. You’re bumping up the protein and nixing the butter and oil, without losing the chocolatey taste. Or how about that pot of chili? Instead of ground hamburger meat, try slicing up mushrooms and throwing those in. Amazingly enough, you can also enjoy the swapability of mushrooms in burgers and on pizza. Mushrooms give the same feeling of being full without packing on the calories. Just cook them up the same way that you would meat!

Did you know that it’s National Nutrition Month? The Mushroom Council, a US group of mushroom growers are celebrating the month of March by helping to “get your plate in shape” with healthier options that include mushrooms. Because they are so low in calories, they make a great addition or replacement for several meat dishes. It’s what they call “swapability”. I think that I’ll be trying them in tacos soon. Mushrooms are affordable as well which makes them all the more appealing to use as a healthy alternative.

Eager to learn how to swap out or adding mushrooms in your next dish? Here’s how:

1. Chop the mushrooms up to match the consistency of ground beef or turkey.
2. Cook and season them up the same way you would with the meat. (ie- Worcestershire sauce, onions, etc.)
3. Combine the meat with the mushrooms and use it to complete your recipe!

And of course if you’re going to completely swap them out, just add more mushrooms and don’t use the meat.

You can find lots of amazing recipes that include mushrooms including Chocolate Chili, Mushroom Flatbread, and pictured below, Cremini and Pork Meatballs. All of which sound incredibly yummy!

Did You Know? Mushroom Facts

Mushrooms are not only fat free, but they are also low in calories.

Their flavorful umami content allows for less salt to be used in a dish, without compromising taste

Mushrooms are the ONLY fresh fruit or vegetable with Vitamin D

Mushrooms provide B vitamins, including riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid; B vitamins help to provide energy by breaking down proteins, fats and carbohydrates

Have you been enlightened yet? I know that I have! It’s incredible how such an ugly vegetable can be so nutritious and tasty at the same time.

For all of you Twitter-ers, you’ll want to join #Mushrooms Twitter Party on March 12th at 8pm PT! Awesome prizes will be given away and of course a little talk about this low-cal veggie- the mushroom! Use the hash tag #Mushrooms. You can RSVP and get more information HERE.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of National Nutrition Month with the Mushroom Council. I was compensated for this post, but all opinions are 100% my own and honest.

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Thank you to everyone who entered the $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! It was a very big success and I’m so thrilled to have such awesome readers already!

There were 158 fabulous entries. I appreciate all of your input and feedback on the new site. I always strive to make things as easy for YOU (and me) as possible. I hope that you caught the new Print and Save Recipe Feature that I added this week. I plan to eventually add those options to the top right of the blog so that you can always view your saved recipes with the click of a button.

I’m still gettin’ the hang of this food blogger stuff. I’m so used to the fast paced frugal deal sharing on Saving with Amy that it’s almost tranquil to come over here where it’s calm and delightful. I just love food y’all, it’s my favorite. 🙂 I’m also working really hard on improving my food photography. I never knew how difficult it was to get really great pictures of food. You see these photos on all the big blogger sites and on the food sites and think it’s so simple. I can tell you, it’s not.

Anywho, if any of you have any requests or want to send me recipes please do so at amy (at) pennywisecook (dot) com. I’d love to hear from you!

And P.S.- I love comments by the way. If you check out a recipe, I’d love to hear your thoughts or suggestions. It kinda helps me to know that I’m not all by myself over here. 🙂

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I’m so thankful to you who have been providing me feedback for this blog so far. I’m not yet used to being a “foodie” blog just yet, so I’m just getting my feet wet with what you guys need and what I need to do to make things easy for you. One of the things that I’ve been working on it getting the recipes printable for you! I finally have found a plugin to make it simple to click and print each recipe. And you won’t have to worry about the entire post printing too- just the recipe itself.

All of the recipes are going to have a dotted-line box around them like this. You see the print button which you just click and it will give you your printer prompt to select how many copies and all that fun stuff.

Next, check out the Save Recipe button.

In order to use this feature, you’ll have to have an account but I think it’s totally worth it All it takes is an email and password. No big profile to fill out. Your ZipList Recipe Box can be used with any blog or website that has this option. Trust me, there are tons. You may not have noticed before, but on many websites it’s there. Once added to your Recipe Box you can come back to it anytime (by going HERE) for printing or reference and your recipes are all collected in one place.

It will even give you the option to add things on the ingredients to your shopping list like so. They even predict what you might have on hand. Of course you can add them to your list if needed.

How cool is all of this? I have already added this option to ALL previous recipes and posts and it will be there from here on out. Will you be using this? Let me know what you think, I really appreciate your input!

Note- to print recipes, you will not need to login or create an account.

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