Sugar, Sugar Everywhere

Here's a quickie to consider: Have you ever looked at food labels to see what kinds of food contain a sweetener?

I looked through my cupboards, and here's what I found on a few ingredient lists:

Propel water - high fructose corn syrup
Uncle Ben's rice - sugar
Mahatma Saffron rice - sugar
Ortega taco sauce - corn syrup
Ortega fajita seasoning mix - sugar
Publix brand Thousand Island dressing - high fructose corn syrup AND sugar
Wishbone Italian dressing - high fructose corn syrup
Texas Pete cocktail sauce - sugar
Ragu pasta sauce - sugar (9 grams for 1/2 cup)
Dinty Moore beef stew - sugar (in the beef gravy)
Peanut butter - sugar
Kraft Ranch dressing - sugar

In all fairness, I add a little sugar to certain homemade items. A bit of sugar in a tomato-based soup or sauce will cut the acidic tomato taste. But extra sweetener in Italian dressing? Really?

Smashed Cauliflower

My goal is to try one new fruit or veggie every week. For years, I've stuck with the same basics: apples, grapes, cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce, corn, and green beans (just not all together). Trying a new one every week is a bigger challenge than I thought it would be.

Photo from Sallycat101 on flickr

This week, I tried cauliflower. I'd heard great things about mashing it like potatoes. I'd been told with the right ingredients (like cheese and chicken broth), it'd taste just like potatoes. I searched for mashed cauliflower recipes, read over a few, and mixed and matched what I liked about each one. Smashed Cauliflower from AllRecipes.com was the closest to what I actually did with my head of cauliflower. I steamed it instead of boiling it, and then added enough chicken broth for taste.

The verdict: It's DEFINITELY cauliflower. Unless someone has never tried mashed potatoes, you're not going to fool anyone into thinking they are eating potatoes. When I eat something mashed, I want it to be potatoes. Mine also came out a little runny. Some sour cream or Greek yogurt would've helped a bit. I decided I liked cauliflower, but not cooked like this. Maybe next time I'll try this Broccoli and Cauliflower Casserole, but I'll follow the healthy advice in the reviews.

Take Action: Share the Good Stuff

Photo from michael.seth on Flickr

I started heavily getting into couponing a little over a year ago. I was getting tons of great deals (many things for free), building my stockpile, and had plenty left over to give away. However, most of those great deals were for heavily processed, nutrient-void foods. Throughout the past year, I've donated many bags of it to a local food bank, church, school, and whoever else could use it. In theory, this is all fine and dandy. When we're blessed with an abundance, we should share it with others who need it. I'm a strong believer in volunteer work and donations - we should all pitch in and help out somehow.

As I learned more about the chemicals and lack of nutrients in the "food," the hamster started spinning the wheel in my head. If I won't eat this food, why in the world am I buying it to subject other people to it?

For the school/church/etc.: Junk food is often a reward in schools, churches, and other kid-related groups. I've donated my fair share of junk food: cookies, ice cream, chocolate, candies, sodas, and "theater style" popcorn with lots of salt and butter. I've been blindly participating in the conspiracy to get kids hooked on junk food. It makes them hyperactive, fills them up so they don't want dinner, and gives a bad example that all of this stuff is fine for their bodies. As a teacher, class parties are the worst...cupcakes, cookies, sodas, candies. Nothing else can be done after they've had all of that. My question: How did we get started giving so much junk food to the kids? They'll still like rewards that aren't edible, and parties can include sweet fruits or fruit juices, frozen yogurt, and frozen juice pops. There are also somewhat healthier brands to replace Chips Ahoy.

And the food bank: By donating to a food bank, I may be introducing a family to a new food. If they get back on their feet, they may buy more just because they've tried it and liked it. People who receive these donations are also probably not getting many whole foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables...all they'll receive is the kind of food I donate. It will be my fault that they're eating such low-grade food.

Most food banks can't keep fresh foods, so processed is generally the only option. But some processed foods are definitely worse than others. I volunteered at the food bank in my community for a day and noticed the kinds of things they try to put in every food bag - sugar or flour, rice or pasta, grits or oatmeal, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, and canned meat, veggies, beans, fruit, and soup. I can at least donate unbleached flower, raw sugar, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and fruit in 100% fruit juice. Also, ask if your local food bank has a fridge and/or freezer - I can donate frozen veggies to the one in my community.

We can't battle the fake food epidemic and the stronghold of Big Food companies by keeping all of the good food news to ourselves. The biggest impression will be made in sharing the food so other families can try it for themselves. Let's get others used to these healthier versions by sharing "the good stuff" whenever we're donating food.

Take Action: Buy Local, Buy Local, Buy Local

"Buy Local" is one of those mantras that I'm tired of hearing. It's like a popular bandwagon that everyone is suddenly ready to jump on.

But it's also one we SHOULD jump on. As much as I'm tired of being told to buy local, I do understand the advantages of doing so. It's the first step to helping our health crisis. Here are a few reasons how buying local helps:


1. It keeps more money local so it helps the economy of your own community.

2. In the long run, it helps local non-profit organizations. Local businesses are more likely to donate than larger national companies, so non-profits benefit when local businesses have profits to share.

4. The food you eat is fresher, which means it tastes better and hasn't lost as many nutrients.

3. Less environmental impact. Buying local requires less transportation for your food to get to your table.

4. Money is spread out among more people, rather than 1 large corporation. Big businesses like Kraft, Pepsi, Coke, General Mills, etc. are powerful because of their amount of profits. By buying local, you are cutting in to some of their profits, which also starts to cut into their power over government regulations.

"I Can't Afford to Buy Healthier"

For some families living below the poverty level or on a fixed income, buying healthier really isn't an option. They may not have a car to drive to a supercenter or health food store. Last I checked, most corner marts and gas stations that they'd be within walking distance to don't carry fruits and veggies. Or they may have no time to scout the best prices. Families with extremely tight incomes often spend their time waiting...at the laundromat, at bus stops, etc. There's no time left to hit multiple stores. Some also just have absolutely no money for the higher priced healthier foods.

Which in itself is another problem for another day...why healthier stuff is more expensive than it's more processed counterparts.

But back to the main topic. For the majority of us that are middle class, we can't afford NOT to buy healthier foods. Ignore the double negative for a moment and think about it. By buying the processed stuff in order to shave a few dollars off our grocery bills, we're also setting ourselves up for higher risks of cancer, heart disease, Alzeimer's, etc. Across the nation, our health is quickly getting worse.

Here are a few printable coupons to help with those expenses. Quite a few are still processed, but they're at least organic or use more natural ingredients.

Alexia - Natural frozen foods (rolls, fries, onion rings, potatoes)
Bakery on Main - Join the Club to get coupons
Brown Cow - Natural yogurt
Earth's Best - Organic baby food
Enjoy Life - Allergy friendly snacks
Stonyfield Farm - Organic dairy products
Farm Rich - Frozen snacks and appetizers. Not organic but has no hydrogenated vegetable oil
Homemade Baby - Organic baby food
Horizon Organic - Organic dairy products
Ian's - Snack foods, frozen entrees, and appetizers
Organic Valley - dairy products
R.W. Knudsen - Natural fruit juices and drinks
Seventh Generation - Organic cleaning and other household products

Delicious Living - coupons for a variety of brands, such as Back to Nature, R.W. Knudsen, Lundberg, and Santa Cruz
Eating Well - Coupons for a variety of brands, like Brown Cow, Tofurky, Lundberg, and Quantum Health
Mambo Sprouts - Coupons for a variety of organic or natural products, like Rice Dream and Wolfgang Puck

It's Just My Opinion, but...

Outbursts of anger really don't get you anywhere good. I witnessed an angry yelling match today between some young men with hot tempers. In the end, no one listened to the other's side and they all left frustrated and still angry.

It's ok to get angry, but how you express that anger will determine the outcome. I heard once that "you can't control what goes on around you. The only thing you can control are your reactions to it."

Well I'm angry, too.


I'm angry at the pharmaceutical companies for giving in to greed and pushing harmful, poorly tested medications onto the unsuspecting public. I'm angry at stockholders for expecting pharmaceutical companies to make them rich at the expense of others.

I'm angry at food manufacturers who willingly and knowlingly put unnatural chemicals in our foods and try to avoid us discovering all of those chemicals. And at the government for turning their backs and letting the food manufacturers come up with their own rules. And at farmers who mistreat the animals before they become dinner. And at all of us who force the farmers to find cheaper and quicker (yet more harmful) ways to grow produce and animals because we want more for less cost. Yes, I'm including myself in this. I'm angry at myself and how I fit in to this vicious cycle.

My anger is not directed at specific people, for the most part. It's a whole system that is screwed up, not just one person.

The question is, what is my reaction going to be? Keep checking back for ideas on fighting fake food and bad medicine.

My New Lunchbox Came in the Mail!

I'm trying to eat healthier lunches, which means fewer frozen entrees (I LOVE Marie Collander's). For awhile, I was eating one almost every day.

As I started changing my diet, I was bringing more and more items in ziploc bags. I didn't want to buy and waste so many ziploc bags (I didn't do so well reusing the bags) or juggle so many plastic Glad containers with mismatched lids, so I gave in and bought a bento box from Laptop Lunches. They are free of pthalate, bisphenol-A (BPA), and lead.

Photos are from Laptop Lunches

Bento is a home-packed meal that is common in Japanese culture. According to Wikipedia, a typical meal consists of rice, fish or other meat, and a veggie. It's supposedly typically common for the Japanese to spend considerable time creating an appealing lunch.

As the bento concept spreads, we're mixing up the meals with sandwiches, leftovers, fruits, etc. Whole forums and websites are dedicated to bento lunch ideas, many of which can be prepared in 10 minutes or less.


My new lunchbox has a strong plastic smell right now, but I'm assuming that will change after it's aired out and been washed. I won't be using it much until school starts back in August, so I'll update then with whether or not I like it. So far, I'm excited about it!

Food Additives at a Glance

I need a translation dictionary to understand food labels. The long, hard-to-pronounce names of the various chemicals are like trying to read a foreign languarge. I'm weary of any kind of man-made chemical, but I wish I had a clue what most of the chemicals are.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has simplified the ingredient lists a little with their chart of food additives. It clearly shows which additives appear to be safe, which are harmful, and which to be cautious with.

Working With What You Have

I had a craving for something sweet and bready today, like cake or cookies or something. I didn't want to wait long or work hard for it, so I looked through the cupboards for something quick.

Here's my solution to working with what I have:
1 millet & flax seed wrap
Spread with a little honey and sprinkled with cinnamon
Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes

Millet and flax seed wraps are not common in my kitchen. It just happened to be what I had on hand today.
The final result was a sweet wrap that was crispy on the edges and a little chewy towards the center. Most importantly, it worked on my craving.

Working with what we have doesn't have to be elegant or pretty. We don't always need elaborate recipes. The final result just has to be tasty to us.

Variety of Veggies

I've only started cooking within the past year, so almost everything I make is an adventure. I'm constantly looking for new dishes to cook and new seasonings to mix together. While looking for great veggie recipes, I came across this site:

A Veggie Venture - Vegetable Inspired Inspiration from Asparagus to Zucchini

Author Alanna Kellogg provides readers with bunches of free, vegetable-based recipes. It is not specifically a vegetarian or vegan site, though few recipes include meat. At the end of the recipes, she gives nutrition info and "Kitchen Notes," which are further suggestions for the dish.

Two recipes I really want to try are Cauliflower Spanish Rice

and Zucchini Pumpkin Bread.

Food Cravings

A couple of weeks ago, I had a desire for something sweet. I thought I had complete control of what I put in my mouth...that I could bypass the cakes and cookies and sodas if I just had enough willpower. That the sweet desire could be silenced with a piece of fruit.

And that's a load of crap.

I remembered seeing a bag of marshmallows on the kitchen table, which was currently loaded down with grocery bags of stuff. Without realizing it, I was suddenly clawing through everything on the table until I found those marshmallows. I could feel a slight panic rise up at the thought of them not being there.

Photo from Flickr: ukaa

So I gave in and ate the marshmallows...warmed in the microwave and mixed with rice krispies for a bowl of a sticky, gooey, yummy mess.

If a science experiment proved that food manufacturers add specific chemicals to keep us addicted to their foods, I'd believe it.

These last 2 weeks have been spent trying to find ways to curb the cravings for junk food. I'm an emotional eater...eating when I'm stressed or upset. I'm also a bored eater...eating when there's little to do. That's probably from eating in front of the TV as a child and eating to stay awake in class during school. But it's not simply "eating" - it's cravings for JUNK like Chips Ahoy cookies, Breyer's ice cream, and Lay's potato chips.

As an emotional eater, I've got to learn to go to something besides food for comfort. I was reading recently that when you're first trying to get past these cravings, you should pamper yourself. I liked the sound of that and got my shoulders massaged.

As a bored eater, I'm trying to get active any time I feel like "munching." Tonight, I played the Wii Sports. The way these cravings for processed sugars are going, I'm going to have some killer calf muscles from the Wii.

Side note: I'm not trying to completely go off of sugar, etc. like this post sounds. I just don't want to be controlled by it. My health has also taken a downward spin lately, and I believe at least some of it is contributed to nutrition (or lack of).

Blueberry Pomegranate Smoothie

I was looking at Eat Better America, and came across this smoothie recipe. It combines 2 of my favorite fruits...blueberries & pomegranate. Here are some possible health benefits of blueberries and of pomegranates.

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup milk

Place ingredients in blender. Blend on high for 1 minute or until smooth. See the complete recipe for nutritional info. Makes 1.5 cups.

My tips:

Blueberries can be expensive, so you can substitute some of these (like 1/4 to 1/2 cup) for other fruits like grapes or sweet apples.

Forget the Soda

I love sodas...Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, even generic brands. They're sweet and flavorful, and I love the fizz that tickles my nose and throat. And yet they're all packed with sugar or high fructose corn syrup and lots of other preservatives/chemicals. I was only drinking one can every day or 2, but that was still too much. Now, I'm pretty good at avoiding it (sweet tea is a current weakness), but there are times when I just CRAVE that fizz.

Let's see if I've got my science right: That fizz is just bubbles of carbon dioxide. For typical sodas, they have their "special syrups" that are mixed with carbonated water (sparkling water sounds better, doesn't it?). So in theory, any kind of concentrated liquid or syrup could be mixed with sparkling water to make a "soda."

Eureka! Why hadn't a company thought of this before?! Carbonated juice...healthy AND fun!

Well, maybe it wasn't such a brand new idea. The Switch beat me to it.

The Switch drinks ("The" is actually upside down and backwards, but I unfortunately can't type like that) are made of juice concentrates, filtered sparkling water, natural flavors (any idea what that could be?), and ascorbic acid. I tried the Watermelon Strawberry, and it was delicious. A kick of strawberry with a hint of watermelon, and just the right amount of fizz.
Go here to find a store near you that carries it. Just keep in mind not all stores are listed. I found it at a local Whole Foods Market, but that wasn't on the list for my state.

Food, Inc. - The Movie to See This Summer

Ready to know what you're eating? Check out Food, Inc. this summer. I don't know about you, but it scares and disgusts me to know what I've been eating, and still crave, and still eat. And yet knowledge is power, so I want to know all I can about the food around me.

From the official movie website: "In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults."

Watch the trailer:


Premier times vary from today to August 7. Check here for a theater that will be showing it near you.

American Yogurt vs. Greek Yogurt

I'd like yogurt for breakfast, please. Hold the sugar.

I was looking at the ingredient lists of some common yogurts in the grocery store...Yoplait/Yoplus, Dannon, store brand, etc. Did you know all of the light or fat free yogurts I picked up contained aspartame? To manufacturers, light or less fat typically = less sugar. But that sweet taste has to be replaced by something, so they use a chemically engineered sweetener such as aspartame.

I finally found a lowfat fruit on the bottom Publix brand yogurt with no aspartame; it's 2nd ingredient was sugar and it also had artificial coloring. (Regular or full fat yogurts contain sugar, too. Lowfat was just the most abundant so it's what I picked up to look at.)

It should be easier than this to have a sugar/sweetener-free breakfast.

I picked up Greek Yogurt. I had heard it was the most natural of any yogurt. Cha-Ching! The only thing in the ingredient list was cultured pasteurized organic nonfat milk & 5 live active cultures. All the good bacteria without any of the junk. (We'll save the pasteurized debate for another day)

Greek Yogurt is comparable to sour cream. It's thick and creamy with a bit of a tang and is actually a good substitute for sour cream, even in baking. I'm not a calorie-counter, but sour cream has 60 calories for 2 tbsp compared to Greek yogurt's 60 calories for 1/2 cup.

I tried Stonyfield Farm's Oikos Greek Yogurt. Go here for Stonyfield coupons (they also make regular yogurt, yogurt for baby, milk, and ice cream).

Greek yogurt is less likely to curdle when heated. It is also richer in protein and has less lactose than regular yogurt.

Some Ways to Eat Greek Yogurt

1. On a baked potato, in place of sour cream.

2. In a smoothie, in the place of milk. Careful what kind of smoothie you add it to. Greek yogurt won't make it sweet like common American yogurt.

3. With honey, nuts, berries, or other fruit. (Though honey is technically a "sweetener," so I try not to include it too often.)

4. Tzatziki - a Greek cuisine often served with (or over) kabobs or fish.