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Family Features
A
ll across the country, food lovers are cooking up something wholesome and flavorful. They are making a commitment to eating better on their own terms by making more meals at home. They are finding that home cooking with real ingredients is inherently healthier — and it’s surprisingly easy. With a few simple changes, you can make a big difference in the healthfulness of everyday meals. “By adding herbs and spices, it’s easy to make healthy foods more flavorful. And it’s a smart way to freshen up your family’s standby recipes while gradually reducing reliance on sugar, sodium or fat,” said Chef Mark Garcia, of the McCormick Kitchens. For freshened-up family favorites, try making these simple, healthful changes that are simply delicious: n Replace
the heavy breading on chicken tenders with a flour mixture spiced with paprika, black pepper and oregano.
Hearty Beef Stew with Roasted Vegetables
Bake it in the oven to reduce fat and calories. n For
a healthier take on beef stew, use low sodium broth and serve over whole grain pasta or brown rice instead of mashed potatoes.
n For
a delicious twist on traditional chili, try using boneless, skinless chicken breasts with black beans and corn. Pump up the authentic Southwest flavor with cumin, garlic powder and red pepper.
Expert Tips to Provide Birds with Basic Needs to Weather Winter BRANDPOINT
Winter is prime time for attracting birds. Beckoning birds to your backyard in winter can be easier than in any other season if you provide what they need to weather and survive the coldest months. Scarcity of natural available food, cold temperatures and severe storms push bird mortality high all winter long. You can help birds meet their nutritional needs during wintertime, and will surely be rewarded with a diverse, frequent flock of feathered friends. There's lots of birdfeed to choose from, and much of it is produced as a sideline business and can contain low quality fill that birds just won't eat. Some birdfeed has even been identified as containing toxins known to be harmful to wildlife. Responsible research on your bird feed choices will provide birds with the food they require and protect them from toxic chemicals. Look for all natural products with absolutely no fillers, preservatives, mineral oils, or pesticides, so you can be sure you're giving your backyard birds the best in high quality, safe food choices they'll love. Birding expert Elaine Cole offers some timely tips to ensure birds in your backyard this winter season.
backyard birds love this highcalorie, fat-rich nut. Because peanuts don't freeze, they're perfect for winter feeding.
Food - Feeding birds is by far the simplest way to attract them. Adding the best winter bird food choices to your feeders when the temperatures drop, will give birds the extra energy they need to survive even the worst weather. Foods high in oil and fat are the most popular winter picks.
Niger - Also known as thistle seed is a favorite food for winter finches such as pine siskins, redpolls, and goldfinches. Another oily seed that offers lots of calories, niger helps birds store fat they need to keep warm.
Black oil sunflower seeds - Seeds have slightly thinner shells and a higher oil content than other types of sunflower seeds, making them a more efficient and nutritious food. Offer them in platform, tube or hopper feeders to attract a wide range of hungry birds. You can eliminate discarded shells (that lie under snow and damage new grass in spring) by serving Sunflower Meats with shells already removed.
Fruit - Many songbirds that favor fruit migrate in winter, but many other birds that stay in snowy areas year-round will also enjoy the treat. Offer chopped apples, orange wedges, or banana slices, on platform feeders, spikes or nailed to trees. Chopped or dried fruit can also be added to suet mixtures.
Suet - For maximum calories, suet is an optimum winter food choice. Look for no-melt suet cakes as well as suet specialty feed blends that include nuts, seeds and other enticing elements into the suet. Peanuts - From jays and titmice to nuthatches and chickadees, many
Oven-Fried Chicken
See page 4 for recipes.
Changes to Expect When You Get New Health Insurance METRO GRAPHICS
Seed mixes - For convenient and economical winter feeding; nothing beats a good-quality birdseed mix. While birds can probably tell a good mix just by looking at it, humans cannot. Choose a mix that features large proportions of sunflower seeds and millet, but avoid mixes with large proportions of unappetizing fillers such as wheat, milo and corn. Birds will pick out the yummy
stuff and leave the filler — and a big mess — behind. Water - Fresh, liquid, moving water using birdbath spritzers or fountains will readily attract many backyard birds in winter. Add a heater to your water supply and you'll be surprised at the number of birds that use it. Shelter - A cozy place to roost will keep your backyard birds secure and comfortable even in the worst weather. Bird roost boxes and other shelters are essential to protect small birds from frigid, dropping temperatures. Offer birds a source of winter nesting material to use as insulation.
Health insurance plans have grown increasingly expensive, and many employers shop around regularly in order to save money as well as keep prices affordable for their employees. This could mean that at the start of every new year, individuals have a new insurance card in their pockets and a new plan to learn. Over the last couple of years, annual increases of around 9 percent in insurance costs have been the norm. While the rate of increase going from 2011 to 2012 was lower, at about 5.5 percent, according to information from CNN Money, that is still around a 2 percent difference in the rate of inflation and salary growth. Due to these rising costs, employees are bearing more of the financial burden of paying for health insurance by paying higher deductibles and co-payments. When adapting to a new health insurance plan, people can take the following steps to make the transition easier. Understand the type of plan you have Health plans are largely broken down into two main categories: HMOs and PPOs. All managed plans contract with doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and laboratories to provide services at a certain cost. Generally this group of medical providers is known as a “network.” HMOs, or health management organizations, require you receive most or all of your health care from a network provider. You also may need to select a primary care physician who oversees and manages all of your health care requirements, including approving referrals for tests or approving visits to specialists. PPOs, or preferred provider organizations, create a list of preferred providers that participants can visit. You will not need to select a primary care physician and likely won’t need referrals to visit specialists. Should you choose to stay in-network, you will pay only the co-payment required. However, you also have the option of going out of your network, and will have to pay the co-insurance,
which is the balance remaining for the doctor after the PPO has paid their share. Many plans will cover 70 to 80 percent of the out-of-network bill, and you will be responsible for the rest. HMOs are the least expensive option, but they’re typically the least flexible as well. For those who have a family doctor who is in-network and will not need to see doctors outside of the network, it is financially beneficial to go with an HMO. Those who routinely see specialists or want greater say over when and where they can go to the doctor, a PPO is a better option. Having said this, understand the type of plan your employer is now offering. If you will be using an HMO, you may have to find an entirely new set of doctors to see and should be ready for this reality. Take note of co-payment and co-insurance changes It is generally the patient’s responsibility to know what is expected of him or her at the time of payment. Doctors take many different plans, and some prefer not to manage the terms and conditions of each and leave it up to the patient to understand the specifics. As such, you should know your copayment requirement for tests, office visits, lab work and the like. You will be responsible for making these copayments at the time of your visit, as
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