A Life Less Sweet

Peter Rabbit Organics fruit pouch review and giveaway!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:17:00 +0000

I am really excited about the product of the day. Why? I just think it's so refreshing to find a fruit puree made of something other than apples. Not that applesauce is a bad thing, but my family is just not that crazy about it as a snack.

Read the rest of the review and enter the giveaway!

News, links, and recipes from me to you!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:14:00 +0000

A Life Less Sweet is now on Facebook! Become a fan for even more info, links, random musings, and a unique opportunity to provide input.

A Life Less Sweet has been included in the 100 Best Blogs for Healthy Parents! Lots of great blogs in this list, and more that I'm looking forward to discovering!

Next, a great blog that I came across recently - Fix Me A Snack. This blog's tagline - "A healthier approach to family friendly snacks." Scroll through this blog whether you have kids or not. There are lots of great looking snacks! Like Cheesy Sweet Potato Balls (on my to do list for today!), or Pizza Muffins, or Apple Crisp "C ookies." We're always on the search for tasty snacks that happen to be healthy too, so this blog is like a dream for me!
Last, I want to tell you about a great new site for kids that will be going live soon. PBS Kids Go is launching Fizzy's Lunch Lab, a site for elementary kids to explore food and nutrition in a fun way. Kids will join Professor Fizzy and friends as they "prepare tasty snacks, investigate the difference between good and bad food, and learn what happens once the food you eat goes into your body."

I love this concept! It sounds like Fizzy's Lunch Lab is a very comprehensive look at the foods we eat. I love that they're tying in what happens to food after it's eaten. I think that this site has great potential and can not wait until it's fully ready for my kids to explore.

You can preview Fizzy's Lunch Lab now, and then go back on November 16 when it launches. The preview has an introductory video and a yummy looking recipe (click on the "Print this recipe!" tab for the recipe - Apple Banana Chillers).

In the meantime, here are some recipes from Fizzy's Lunch Lab - a taste of things to come! All of their preview recipes are healthy, loaded with fruits and veggies, and are recipes that you can get your child to help with. The two recipes that I'm sharing (compliments of PBS Kids Go!) are two that looked especially good to me. Check out all of the Fizzy's Lunch Lab preview recipes at the PBS Parents Nutrition site.

(Click on each card to see recipe bigger.)

Added Fructose - Trick or Treat?

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Trick or Treat? You get a little of both with fructose. Fructose from natural sources - treat! Fruits and vegetables rarely have much fructose and that fructose is bundled along with vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and good stuff we're only beginning to learn about. Fructose is present in much higher quantities in honey and maple syrup (closer to a 50/50 mix of fructose and glucose), but it also comes bundled with good stuff.

In small amounts, fructose may actually be good for you. In large amounts, the opposite is true. Too much fructose is implicated in many health issues such as high triglyceride levels and type 2 diabetes. Our bodies just aren't equipped to handle large amounts of fructose.

Obviously, we've given up HFCS (for more reasons than just free fructose these days), but what about added fructose? I wrote a post way back in the beginning that talked about how we were also avoiding products with fructose as an ingredient. If I'm concerned about the free fructose in HFCS, why would I not also be concerned about free crystalline fructose used as an ingredient? Recently I found out a bit about this ingredient.

Crystalline fructose is often marketed toward diabetics because of the low blood sugar response of fructose compared with glucose. Your liver is doing other things with fructose, however, that might negate any benefits from the blood sugar response.

What is crystalline fructose? Crystalline fructose (often simply listed as fructose on an ingredient list) is simply fructose in a pure, crystalline form. Crystalline fructose is a relatively new ingredient that has only been available since the late 1980s. Lovely images of fruit juice being concentrated and the fructose (aka fruit sugar) crystallizing out of solution pop into one's head with this ingredient, but that coudn't be farther from the truth. In America, crystalline fructose is almost always produced from...corn! Yes, crystalline fructose is a derivative of our friend high fructose corn syrup.

According to the Sugar Association, crystalline fructose is produced "by allowing the fructose to crystallize from a fructose-enriched corn syrup." The separated crystals are 98% fructose and 2% water and other trace impurities.

So...in case you missed it the first time, I'll say it again. Crystalline fructose is produced from high fructose corn syrup (aka HFCS)!

To be fair, in other countries where corn is not king, crystalline fructose may be produced from sugar. In Brazil, for example, where cane sugar rules the roost, I would expect that crystalline fructose would be produced from sugar. Being produced from sugar, however, does not make it a better ingredient.

Where is crystalline fructose found? So many places! I find fructose listed as an ingredient in lots of "health" foods that know HFCS as an ingredient would turn people away. Foods that wouldn't dare use HFCS will use crystalline fructose and then proudly declare themselves "all natural!" Hmm. That "all natural" designation really is slick marketing with no real meaning behind it.

Trick or Treat? Well, from where I sit, fructose as an ingredient is definitely a trick to be avoided. Worse yet, it's a trick that is touted as being an "all natural" treat.

Just as with HFCS, I've found that it hasn't been a big deal to rid our lives of added fructose. We avoid a lot of junk "natural" processed foods as a result. All you have to do is flip that package over and peruse the ingredient list for the ingredient "fructose" or "crystalline fructose."

Meatless Monday - Empanadas de choclo y queso (corn and cheese empanadas)

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:26:00 +0000

A big thanks to Meatless Monday for featuring my pumpkin muffin recipe this week! They've got a day's worth of pumpkin recipes for you to try this week in honor of Halloween. Using their recipes, you can have pumpkin for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert! I plan to put a little twist on my pumpkin muffins and turn them into pumpkin cupcakes for my son's class Halloween party by adding some vanilla frosting and a few decorations. I think that they'll love them!

I love going to our local Farmer's Market. It's always such a short-lived treat - good live music, delicious fresh produce, and fantastic food. This year there was a wonderful addition to the Farmer's Market scene - a group of Latina women serving "Authentic Latin Food." (If you're in the Jackson, WY area, they cater under the name A Fuego Lento.) I'm drooling a bit just thinking about their food - tortas, tamales (and we're usually not fans of tamales, but these were yummy), salsas, some dishes I can't quite remember, and empanadas...always empanadas. My kids and I struck up a love affair with their empanadas and bought some to munch on every week.

Our favorite empanada had a corn and cheese filling. Simple, but so good. A couple of weeks ago my stomach was growling for some of these delicious little hand pies, and I discovered thanks to Google and Google Translator that Empanadas with Corn and Cheese are actually a very traditional dish in the Latin community. And, even better, they're easy to make!

There are lots of different recipes for Empanadas de Choclo y Queso, but it seems that most have these basic components - white sauce, sweet corn (fresh preferably, but canned or frozen work in a pinch), cheese, and empanada shells. I bought my empanada shells (Goya brand in the freezer section), but the dough looks easy enough to make (see a couple of different recipes here and here). Empanadas are traditionally deep fried, but I opted to bake mine instead.

We all loved my homemade Empanades with Corn and Cheese. My son actually packed two for his school lunch today. I added some green chiles to a third of the batter for the adults, and it was a good addition, but not necessary. We served our empanadas with Mexican rice and black beans. Empanadas come in every flavor under the sun - meat filled, spinach and cheese filled, etc. - so, as always, take this recipe and make it your own!

Empanadas de Choclo y Queso (Corn and Cheese Empanadas)

packaged frozen empanada shells (find in the freezer section)
2 TBSP butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
Lowfat evaporated milk (about 1/2 a can)
2 oz Monterey Jack cheese or cheese of choice
1 green onion, finely chopped
corn - 4-6 ears fresh or 1 can or 1 1/2 - 2 cups frozen (I used a bag of fresh corn that I froze last summer)
1 small can green chiles (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

White Sauce - Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender. Whisk in the flour and cook for about a minute. Slowly whisk in the evaporated milk until your sauce is the desired consistency. Cook for a couple of minutes adding more evaporated milk if necessary. (My sauce at this point was very thick but pourable.)

Add in cheese, green onions, and corn as well as any other optional ingredients. Stir to combine well.

The filling (without green chiles)

Place a tablespoon or two of corn and cheese filling in the center of an empanada shell. Wet the outer edge of the shell with a little water and press edges together to make a sealed pouch. Place empanada on an oiled baking sheet. Continue until all of your filling and/or empanada shells are used.

Bake at 400 F for 10-15 min or until empanada bottoms are browned. (You can also brush an egg wash over the top of the uncooked shells to brown the tops as well.)

My recipe doesn't quite match that of A Fuego Lento, but I'm very happy with it and will definitely make it again. Next time, I might add a little more evaporated milk to make the final filling creamier, and I might also add a little queso fresco as well. A little cilantro would be a good addition. Or...I might just make it the same again.

A new POM Wonderul juice to try and more

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:39:00 +0000

But not here...head on over to A Life Less Sweet Reviews! to read my thoughts on the new POM Wonderful juice flavors. Definitely worth a try!

And then run on over to Fake Food Free to read my guest post where I wax poetically about why we gave up HFCS and what it has meant for our diet.

Meatless Monday - Homemade toasted ravioli

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:23:00 +0000

For lots more info on Meatless Mondays - news, tons of great recipes, information and links galore - don't forget about the official Meatless Monday site! It's a great resource!

This week's Meatless Monday recipe gets BIG thumbs up from my kids - toasted ravioli! I got the idea from Clean Eating magazine, but this is a recipe that is so easy to make your own. Pair the ravioli with the sauce of your choice and have fun dipping!

I used a very simple goat cheese and roasted red pepper filling for my ravioli. I'm a huge goat cheese fan, so these were right up my alley. The goat cheese is rich, so I think that next time I might try cutting it with a little pureed sweet potato or (if I want to stick with a cheese ravioli) some ricotta cheese. We paired our ravioli with a simple marinara sauce from a jar. The kids had a lot of fun picking up and dipping their ravioli - another plus to the recipe.

Take this recipe and make it your own! Simply replace my filling with whatever suits you (though, I must say, my filling is pretty darn good) - Pureed vegetables, your favorite cheese, whatever! You could even do a Mexican twist by filling your ravioli with Mexican cheeses, onion, and and a little cumin and dipping in salsa or guacamole. You're only limited by your own imagination!

Toasted Ravioli with Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Filling

1 package wonton wrappers
1/2 cup goat cheese
1 green onion, thinly sliced
2 TBSP fresh basil, minced
chopped jarred roasted red pepper, water packed
grated parmesan cheese
Marinara sauce (we used Newman's Own Marinara)

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a bowl, mix the goat cheese, green onion, and basil together.

Spoon about a teaspoonful of filling in the center of the wonton wrapper. Add roasted red pepper to taste. I added just a little as the flavor of the peppers is intense. (If your wonton wrappers are too big to make a nice size ravioli, cut them to the size that works best for you.)

Dip your fingers into a little water and wet the edge of the wonton. Fold the wonton in half and seal the edges together. Place wonton ravioli on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with oil.

Spray tops of ravioli with a little oil (use a light hand with the oil) and top with grated parmesan cheese.

Bake for 8-10 min or until the ravioli are golden brown. Serve with a small bowl of marinara sauce for dipping.

And for those nights when you just don't have the time or inclination to make your own ravioli, you can also buy ravioli and serve the cooked ravioli with a dipping sauce. My kids loved picking up the ravioli to dip! Be careful when buying premade fresh pastas, though. Many have hidden trans fat (in the form of partially hydrogenated oils). We've bought and enjoyed Cucina Fresca brand pasta - trans fat free!

Meatless Monday - Chewy granola bars

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Flu, cold (both weather and head), and company - all in the same week! Because of that, I'm whipping out an old favorite for Meatless Monday today - Chewy Granola Bars.

This recipe is a favorite in my house. Better yet, I've had several friends make this recipe, and everyone has loved it! I started making these bars after discovering HFCS in my son's favorite granola bars. Lots of premade granola bars also have partially hydrogenated oil as an ingredient. You know what that means? Trans fat! These bars are super easy to make and just as tasty as store-bought bars, in my opinion. (A caveat, though...don't expect these to taste quite like store-bought granola bars! They aren't as sweet and stick as most store-bought bars.)

I like that I can control the ingredients that go into the bars. I like to add just enough chocolate chips to make it appealing to my son. You could always skip the chocolate and add dried blueberries or raisins or your favorite dried fruit - or add some dried fruit in addition to the chocolate chips. And I often add a little wheat germ in place of flax meal. Both are great additions that boost the nutritional value of the bars a bit without appreciably changing the taste or texture.

Give these bars a try! Easy and delicious!

Chewy Granola Bars

3 cups rolled oats (I used quick oats for a finer texture, but coarser oats would be fine too)
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup and 3 TBSP butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
3 TBSP and 1 and 3/4 tsp packed brown sugar
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (or more if you'd like)
3 TBSP (or more! I think that it could handle more.) flaxseed meal or wheat germ (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly grease a 9"x13" pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter, honey, and brown sugar (and flaxseed meal or wheat germ if using). Stir in the chocolate chips and any other additions.

Firmly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 F for 20 min or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 min and then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving. On hot summer days, might want to store in the fridge so that they're not as crumbly and the chocolate doesn't melt.

Meatless Monday - Delicious, sophisticated nachos

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

For all of you with kids who might be afraid of taking on the challenge of eating a meatless meal once a week, today is a reminder that there are so many ordinary, kid-friendly foods out there that easily lend themselves to being meatless. Pizza, pasta, soups, and - today's subject - nachos, just to name a few. Heck, this is probably a good reminder for some of you kidless adults out there too. Don't let the meatless moniker scare you off! There are plenty of easy, comforting foods that are absolutely meat free.

We made nachos last week. I've got a couple of great nacho recipes. The one I made last week is an adaptation of a nachos recipe from Cuisine at Home magazine. (See another wonderful nacho recipe here.) This homemade salsa is fantastic, and the tomatillo sauce is a nice foil for the salsa. Top with your favorite nacho toppings - green onions, sour cream, guacamole, cheese - and maybe add a few beans, and you've got a fantastic and easy meatless meal!

A disclaimer - I think that these nachos are very kid friendly. My kids, however, would disagree. What can I say? They're picky creatures. So, my husband and I dig into our more sophisticated nachos, and I make very basic nachos for my kids - often just beans, cheese, and chips, though they do have to try a bit of the salsa and tomatillo sauce by the rules of the table. If your child isn't quite as picky as mine are, let them try the whole shebang. It's so good!

Nachos

Roasted Salsa
2 lb Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 cups onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
6-8 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice
up to 1/4 cup jalapenos, seeded and diced, optional (I leave these out as I don't want the heat!)

Preheat oven to 450 F. Combine tomatoes through salt in a 13x9" Pyrex baking dish. Roast for 45 min. Coarsely mash the roasted vegetables using a potato masher. Add cilantro and remaining ingredients. Cool to room temperature.

The finished roasted salsa. Yum! Keep going for the tomatillo sauce...

Tomatillo Sauce
1 - 16 oz jar of salsa verde (I use Herdez Salsa Verde)
3 TBSP butter
3 TBSP all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour to make a roux; cook 2 min, stirring often. Gradually add milk, whisking constantly to prevent sticking. Cook until think, about 10 min. Stir salsa verde into the sauce. Simmer to heat through.

Layer corn tortilla chips with tomatillo sauce, roasted salsa, and whatever toppings you enjoy. Serve with a side of beans (or beans on top!) for extra protein.

This recipe makes a lot of salsa and tomatillo sauce. Unless you halve the recipe, you WILL have leftovers! For us, that's a good thing as all of the components reheat beautifully.

For more on Meatless Mondays, check out the For Your Family article at Kiwi Magazine's Moms Meet website featuring...me! I'm looking forward to finding more kid-friendly meatless meals in their recipes section.

Meatless Monday - Easy Manicotti

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:42:00 +0000

We have a Christmas tradition in our house - manicotti! (Don't worry...this post really has nothing to do with Christmas. Just throwing that little tidbit out there for no apparent reason.) I'm not really sure how it got started, but it's stuck. It's good, filling, and easy. Manicotti is not just for Christmas though, of course. It's a favorite year round with us.

Today I want to share my recipe for manicotti with you. The original recipe came from a magazine - Southern Living, I think - but I've changed it up a bit to suit my tastes. I use jarred marinara for my sauce - Newman's Own Marinara, to be exact - but feel free to use your favorite sauce, jarred or homemade. I also use a bit more sauce than the recipe below calls for. I like my pasta saucy! So, feel free to use more or less sauce depending on your tastes.

This dish is a real kid pleaser, and it's a great one to hide veggies in. I like to add sweet potato puree to the spaghetti sauce, but you could also add other veggies. Maybe saute some mushrooms and add to the spaghetti sauce, or cauliflower puree in the cheese sauce, or carrot puree in the spaghetti sauce, or shredded zucchini in the spaghetti sauce. You get the idea. The sauce and cheese flavors are strong enough that added veggies would add only a subtle flavor.

Easy, Cheesy Manicotti

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
2 cups lowfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 large egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute
3/4 cup sweet potato puree (optional)
12 manicotti shells, cooked per box instructions
1 large jar spaghetti sauce (more or less to taste)

Combine 1/3 cup parmesan cheese and the next 5 ingredients (cheese through egg).

Stuff each shell with about a 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture. Arrange in a 13x9x2" baking dish.

Mix spaghetti sauce and sweet potato puree. Pour sauce over shells.

Cover and back at 375 for 25 min or until thoroughly heated. Uncover and sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes.

A tip for working with the manicotti - if your manicotti tears, don't worry about it! Just put a little filling in the center of the pasta strip and fold the pasta around the filling. Put in the baking dish so that it stays folded in a cylindrical shape. No one will ever know the difference!

Links I have loved - and would love you to read!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:39:00 +0000

Run over and enter my giveaway for a free bottle of POMx Tea PLUS a free bottle of POM Wonderful juice if you haven't already!

I've got some great links to share with you this week! First, a couple of wonderful resources for parents.

Healthy Child, Healthy World has a wonderful site loaded with information. Their Eat Healthy section has great articles, advice from well respected nutritionists, recipes, tips, links and more. Spend some time looking around this site!

Another resource that I have just started to explore is Nourish Interactive. The site is dedicated to helping kids and families learn about nutrition in a fun way. They have a kids' section with nutrition games and more information aimed at kids, a parents' section with tips, tools and more, and an educators' section with handouts, tools, lesson plans, etc. I'm looking forward to exploring this site.

Next, snacks and recipes! What do you snack on when you travel? It can be hard to eat healthy while on the road, but with a little forethought, eating healthy while traveling can be done! Check out these road trip snack ideas from Guideposts.com. (Pssst...these snacks would also be great to pack in a lunch box!)

Do you have some fresh vegetables from your garden or farmers market lying around? Eat. Drink. Better. has a great looking meatless recipe for Classic English Bubble and Squeak with Farm Fresh Vegetables. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks so good! And with a name like "bubble and squeak," how can my kids refuse?

A while back, Kid Appea l was on an oatmeal kick. Check out her delicious recipe for Peaches N Oatmeal. YUM! What a great way to use late season peaches!

Last, a great site chocked full of fun and cheap learning activities for kids. What Do We Do All Day? consistently has creative activities for kids that help them learn about the world around them using household materials and their powers of observation. A recent favorite of mine (might be a project for this weekend here) is making an old fashioned whirligig. If you're looking for a project to do with your child or just want to pick up some good ideas, check this blog out!

Have a great weekend!

Head on over for a POM drink giveaway!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Do you like POM pomegranate juice? Want to read more about POMx Tea? Then head on over to A Life Less Sweet Reviews to find out more about POMx Tea and for a chance to win a coupon for a free bottle of POMx Tea and POM Wonderful juice!

Meatless Monday - Tortellini Soup

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:00:00 +0000

It's a double post Monday! If you haven't already, take a tour of my town, and then head on over to Mahem & Moxie to tour the rest of the West. Check back with them every day this week to complete your virtual road trip across the U.S.

And now...a little Meatless Monday goodness! It's fall here already complete with falling leaves and cooler temperatures. What's better to warm a body on a cold ay than soup? Last year I made a tortellini soup that my kids loved. Cheese stuffed noodles floating in a tomato soup and topped with more cheese...what's not to love? Best of all, it's super easy to make.

After that big lead in, I have a confession. My kids did not like this soup the second time around! Darn fickle kids. I left the soup chunky this time (a mistake and kind of my husband's request). Next time, I'll puree the soup before adding the beans and tortellini and hope that they like it more. For the record, the adults of the house thought that this soup was fantastic.

Tomato Bean Tortellini Soup

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 - 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth (I actually used homemade stock instead, but you could also use vegetable broth for a truly meatless meal)
1 - 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 lb fresh tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1 can white kidney beans or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
about 2 1/2 cups cheese tortellini
1/3 cup shredded parmesan or asiago cheese

In a stockpot, saute onion and garlic in a little olive oil until tender. Add the chicken broth, tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, basil, vinegar, and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25 min.

Leave chunky or if you prefer a smooth soup, insert an immersion blender to puree. (You could also pour the soup in a blender to puree it and then transfer back to the stock pot.)

Add the tortellini and beans to the soup. Bring to a boil until tortellini is cooked, about 3 min or until the tortellini starts to float.

Top with cheese and enjoy!

No picture today. I realized that I should have taken one after we demolished our pot of soup. So good!

Around the Blogosphere in Wyoming

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the Three Bay B Chicks from Moxie Media. They wanted to take a virtual road trip across the U.S. and visit bloggers in each of our 50 states. Sounded like fun to me! They sent their mascot - Moxie Mona - to take a tour of my fair valley. So, today, sit back and learn a little about this wonderful place that I call home!

I am fortunate enough to live in beautiful Jackson, WY. Jackson is a small town (population of about 10,000 permanent year round residents) at the south end of the valley of Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole, with about 20,000 year round residents, is about 80 miles long and 15 miles wide. We're bordered on the north by Yellowstone, hemmed in on the east and west by the Teton and Gros Ventre mountain ranges and taper to a canyon at the southern end. Grand Teton National Park consumes a good portion of the valley.

Looking down on Jackson from atop Snow King earlier in the summer

Jackson has four distinct seasons - Summer, Fall, Winter, and Mud. Summers are short but divine. Winters are long and can be brutally cold here, but with two ski resorts (the well known Jackson Hole Mo untain Res ort and the lesser known town ski hill Snow King), who cares! Bring it on! And if you don't downhill ski, you can always snowshoe, cross country ski, snowmobile, or just hunker down by a nice, warm fire. Mud season (otherwise known as spring in the rest of the country) is when residents do their best to leave this beautiful valley to get a warm, green fix elsewhere.

We did our best to show Moxie Mona (aka Supergirl to my daughter) a few of the sights in my small town. First stop, a view of the Tetons!

A tourist hub in Jackson is the town square. There's an antler arch at each corner of the square. Don't worry - no animals were harmed to get these antlers. Elk, deer, and moose naturally shed their antlers each year. Like every good tourist to Jackson Hole, Moxie Mona needed a picture in front of one of the famous arches.

She's there - really - at the very bottom of the arch on the inside left hand side.

While the locals tend to avoid the square in general (can you say tourist central? Though there are some good stores aimed as much at locals as tourists - and great restaurants - on and surrounding the square.), the local farmer's market draws us to the square every Saturday. It's not easy to grow stuff in our high mountain valley, so local fare can come as far away as Washington. It's fall here already, so we took Mona to the last farmer's market of the season - whimper!

Going on at the same time, the Fall Arts Festival. One of the highlights of the festival is the Quick Draw. Selected artists set up on the square with a blank canvas and have two and a half hours to complete a work of art all while a gaggle of people watch. It's fascinating to watch the works of art unfold.

You can kind of see the start of a painting of a bear in the background.

Alas, our time with Moxie Mona has come to an end. Wish we had time to show you more of the wonderful things this valley has to offer, but life is busy and Moxie has more places to visit. Hope she - and you! - had fun learning a little about our home in northern Wyoming!

Head to Mahem & Moxie to check out the other blogs involved in the Around the Blogosphere event. Take a virtual tour of the nation with Moxie Mona!

Meatless Mondays - Peach pizza

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I love peaches. I love peaches so much that I bought two boxes of organic Colorado peaches in late August. We've been eating these peaches in everything imaginable as well as putting some away for the winter. Recently we experimented with using these wonderful peaches on a pizza. Weird? Maybe, but it worked! I must admit, the idea was not my own. I saw a description for a peach pizza with a balsamic sauce on the menu of a local restaurant and was intrigued. I didn't get a chance to try the restaurant's peach pizza, but the idea of making one myself stuck in my head. Then I saw this post for a Paprika and Peach Pizza from Bon Appetite and was absolutely sold on the idea of making a peach pizza.

My pizza has a kind of balsamic BBQ sauce base, and I've topped it with some of my favorite pizza toppings - roasted garlic, caramelized onions, and fresh basil. I thought that the sweetness of the peaches really paired well with the balsamic sauce. And, as weird as this pizza may sound, it works flavorwise.

A note on the sauce - this sauce has a strong flavor, and a little goes a long way. The sauce ingredient measurements are as I made it, but it makes a lot - way more than you'll need for this pizza. You could make a quarter of the sauce and have plenty for your pizza. So, feel free to half or quarter the recipe if you would rather not have leftover sauce!

Peach Pizza with Balsamic BBQ Sauce

Sauce:

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup tomato paste

Cook for 30 min to thicken and reduce.

Pizza dough:
Use your favorite pizza dough or go here to get my breadmaker pizza dough recipe.

Toppings:
caramelized onions
several cloves of roasted garlic
fresh basil, chopped - to taste
1-2 peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
Asiago cheese, grated

Spread a thin layer of the sauce over the dough. Add the toppings evenly over the pizza. Bake at 425 for 15 min or until crust is done. Enjoy!

While my husband and I liked our peach pizza, the kids won't touch it. They're pizza purists and just want their plain jane cheese pizza. I recently made the pizza sauce from Eating Well Anywhere, and the kids loved it! My son claims it's his favorite sauce ever. My only change was to add a little oregano in to make it taste more pizza saucy. The sauce freezes well.

Freezing summer

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Summer is way too short in my neck of the woods. Though winter is still a little ways off, the trees are already starting to change color, and we've had a few frosts already. I've been wiling away my time trying to preserve a little of the summer goodness that we have been enjoying by freezing just a few of our favorite summer foods.

Freezing foods can be time consuming, but the results are so worth it. There's nothing better than pulling out a bag of properly frozen peaches in the dead of winter to enjoy in a recipe or just eat straight. It's a little bit of summer in the dead of winter. I don't freeze all of the summer goodies that come our way for various reasons - I don't like the end result of frozen green beans, for example - but there are a few that I find well worth freezing. So...I'm going to lay out a little primer of what I do with these favorites - corn, raspberries, peaches, and sweet potatoes (not really a summer food, but I happened to have a ton of sweet potatoes at my disposal this summer).

Corn Corn is so easy to freeze. This year I bought 3 dozen ears of really good, sweet, fresh corn from my local vegetable stand to freeze for winter. It's easy to properly freeze corn. Simply shuck and silk the corn, and then boil the corn (blanch it) for a few minutes (I did them in 3 min batches this year). After boiling, quickly cool in a bucket of ice water. Then cut the kernels off of the corn. Be sure to scrape your knife across the cob after cutting the kernels to get all of the leftover milk and juicy bits! Put in a bag, and freeze. Easy-peasy.

The resulting corn is quite a bit different than the corn you will find in the freezer section of your grocery store. It seems in texture more like a creamed corn (without all of the added sugar, though). When I'm ready to use my frozen corn, I just stick it in a pan with just a little bit of water and add salt and onion powder (my own thing - you can always leave that out) to taste. YUM!Raspberries This is my first year to freeze raspberries. We were fortunate to inherit a big bunch of raspberry canes when we bought our house. The raspberries from our canes are impossibly tender - definitely not like the raspberries you find in the grocery store - and so sweet and juicy. Usually we just eat them out of hand as we pick them, but we always have more than we can eat, so this year I decided to freeze the extra raspberries.

To freeze the raspberries, I simply laid the washed and dried raspberries in a single layer on a baking sheet and put in the freezer. Once the berries were frozen, I transferred them to a ziploc bag and back into the freezer. This winter I'll pull them out to use in pies, put into yogurt and smoothies, or maybe make these divine looking dark chocolate raspberry bars from Fake Food Free.

Peaches This is my second year to freeze peaches. I was so happy with the results of last year's frozen peaches. Such a treat in the middle of winter! It's a little time consuming, but I promise well worth the effort. I froze my peaches three ways this year. First, last year I made these frozen peach crisps in a jar from Eating Well Anywhere. Delicious! Well worth making.

Second, I used Alton Brown's method of freezing peaches. This method works well. The peaches retain their color and flavor and much of their texture all through the winter in the sugar/vitamin C solution. I should note, however, that I left out the Hungarian paprika his recipe calls for. I just want my peaches plain. Last year I used Fruit Fresh instead of crushed vitamin C (which is essentially what Fruit Fresh is), and the results were equally satisfying. I'll pop open a bag of these peaches in the middle of winter to make some peach bread, some peach BBQ sauce, or whatever peachy dish tickles my fancy.

Last, I froze my peaches whole. Kitchen Scoop peaked my interest with this article about freezing whole peaches. I did things just slightly different, though. I cut my peaches in half to remove the pit, but left the peel on. I'm really curious how these peaches will turn out. This is by far the easiest way to freeze peaches, but I'm a bit worried that they will be a mushy mess - that without the sugar pack they'll lose their texture - when they thaw. But, even peaches that are a mushy mess will be delish in a smoothie! I'll let you know next Spring what I think of this freezing method.
Sweet Potatoes Ah, sweet potatoes! A favorite among the adults around here. I was fortunate enough to be gifted two boxes of sweet potatoes this summer - that's 80 lbs of delicious orange tubers! Sweet potatoes keep in a cool, dry place for a long time, so we used them fresh as long as we could (my kids groaned when they saw sweet potato fries coming their way by the end of the summer), and then I got busy freezing.

I froze my sweet potatoes two ways. First, I froze them as a puree. I like to keep sweet potato puree on hand to throw into my dishes. It's great mixed into taco meat, spaghetti (adds a little natural sweetness), pizza sauce, soups...anything I can think to throw it in. This is a great way to get a little extra goodness into picky kids (as long as you also offer the unhidden deal often to give their taste buds a chance to accept the whole vegetable or whatever you're hiding), and my husband and I have found that we actually like the taste of the foods that we add sweet potato puree better. The puree doesn't add an overwhelming sweet potato taste to most dishes, just a little sweetness.

To make the puree, I roast my sweet potatoes for an hour at 425 F. You could also boil, steam, or microwave the potatoes. Once they're cool enough to handle, I remove the peel and put the sweet potatoes (cut into large chunks) in my food processor. Process until a nice, smooth puree. I like to then freeze my puree in ice cube trays. Once frozen, I can put the cubes in a ziploc bag, stick them back into the freezer, and have nice cubes of pureed sweet potato ready to use when I need it.

The second way I froze sweet potatoes this year was whole. I took my roasted sweet potatoes, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and put them in the freezer. I've never done this before, but I think that it will turn out ok, and it's a great way to bulk freeze sweet potatoes. How will I use these? We'll see! It depends on what the texture is like. I hope that the texture holds up enough that I can use these to make sweet potato hash or other dishes with cubes of cooked sweet potatoes. If not, they'll always be good eaten as a plain old baked sweet potato!

There you have it. Maybe next year I'll add more to my repertoire, but this little bit makes me happy for now!

Do you preserve summer's bounty? Tell me what you do in the comments!

Time for Lunch! Let's get REAL FOOD in schools!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:46:00 +0000

What's for lunch at your child's school? Are you happy with it? My son, a kindergartner, will likely eat lunch that his school serves most days. He's completely enthralled with the idea of buying his school lunch and likes the food. I just can't take that away from him. I would so much rather pack his lunch for him every day so that I know he's eating good, healthy foods that will help his body and brain grow.

What do I have against school lunches? The school lunch menu at my son's school isn't as awful as I had feared, but it still feels like my son is going out to eat at a fast-food restaurant every day for lunch now. Some days the lunches are better than others, of course. My fears weren't eased when I found out that every Thursday is Dominoes Pizza day in the cafeteria. For real. The indoctrination into junk and fast food starts early - even in the schools.

To be fair, it isn't all bad. Some sort of fruit or vegetable is served along with lunch in his school every day. His class has a "fresh fruit grant" that will provide his entire class with a healthy snack of fresh fruit each day. Gotta applause moves like that! And his school doesn't have vending machines peddling sodas and junk food in convenient snack packs like so many schools do - at least not at the lower grade levels. And to be fair, it isn't like I am against my son having Dominoes or food such as that on occasion...or that I always serve a completely nutritious lunch at home. My kids have their share of boxed macaroni and cheese, I am not proud to admit.

But, I have a problem with schools condoning junk food and striking deals with fast food franchises (and yes, I most definitely lump Dominoes in that group). Our schools should be teaching our kids about eating healthy through example and through what they serve. It's easy to forget that how we eat - and how that food affects our bodies - can be an important factor in how we learn. If schools want to raise their test scores, they should remember that how their kids are eating and how much activity they are allowed during the day can have a big impact on how much information they retain.

Fast food, like Dominoes, used to be a treat in my home - something bought strictly as a treat or (more typically) out of necessity when we travel. Now it will become a weekly occurrence sanctioned by his school. I don't know about your child, but my young child equates something sanctioned by the school as being good and good for you. That's a big a hurdle for me to overcome.

Why do schools serve the food that they do? Money, money, money, and maybe a little lack of creativity. They serve what they can afford to serve and what they know kids will eat. On the second reason, unfortunately, they seem to serve to the lowest common denominator of kids' taste buds without even trying to challenge them to eat better food - or without realizing that good, healthy food can still taste delicious and be appealing to children. There are ways to take old favorites - taco salad, for example - and make them healthier for our kids.

On what they can afford to serve, well, that's a trickier nut to crack. But some schools are finding ways to serve good food within their limited budget. I imagine that it takes a lot of creativity and drive to produce a really great school lunch menu within the given budget instead of resorting to the tried and true (and outside company funded) school lunches. A school official in my district went on record saying (paraphrasing - it's been a while since I read his quote) that he would love to serve all healthy foods but that they can't afford to cut out high fructose corn syrup and other problematic ingredients. In other words, they're going to keep serving the junk because it's cheap, and they've got enough issues to worry about.

How can we change our school's lunches? One small thing you can do is coming up. Time for Lunch (part of Slow Food USA) is having a national "eat in." On Labor Day, there will be a "National Day of Action to get real food into schools" at various locations around the country. The purpose? To send a message to congress and our local schools that we think its time that our schools serve real, healthy food to our children. You can read more about the Time for Lunch platform here.

Why now? The National School Lunch Lunch Program, which sets the standard for what kids eat every day at school, is set to be reauthorized this month and will be the standard that schools look to when planning school lunches for the next 5 years.

To find out if there is an "eat in" near you, go to the Time for Lunch website. You can also sign a petition telling Congress that you support the Time for Lunch platform and want to see changes in the school lunch program. And of course, you can always take action into your own hands and talk directly to your congress men and women and school officials.

I'm curious...how are the lunches in your child's school? Whether you have kids or not, what do you think of this issue?

Other sites with school lunch information and resources that you might find interesting:

Respected nutritionist Marion Nestle weighs in on school lunches
School Lunch Talk is a cornucopia of information on school lunches and policy
Better School Food supports parents, educators, and health professionals in their quest for better school lunches. Loads of information here.
Farm to School programs are increasingly available through the U.S. connecting schools with local farms. What a great idea!

Let them eat trans fat free cake!

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

We've had a couple of birthday to celebrate in the last month, and with birthdays comes birthday cake. Now, I know that I could actually make a cake from scratch, but I'm happy to admit that I like the convenience of a boxed cake mix. I especially like a boxed cake mix when I'm preparing for a party and don't really want to have to think about baking. I just want to dump, mix, and bake and know that it's going to come out consistently good.

So, perhaps you can imagine my dismay when I started scanning the ingredients on cake mix boxes early last month only to find that every single one (save one - more on that in a minute) had partially hydrogenated oil (in other words, contains some amount of trans fat) in it! Really, I was disgusted. Duncan Hines...Betty Crocker...you let me down!

I did find what I was looking for on the organic aisle. A single, unassuming box of Dr. Oetker Organic Vanilla Cake Mix saved the day. No partially hydrogenated oils on the Dr. Oetker ingredient list. In fact, the ingredient list for the Dr. Oetker cake mix was a lot simpler and pretty much consisted of ingredients that I can find in my pantry - unlike that box of Betty Crocker cake mix I had just looked at.

How did it taste? Not bad! The final cake from a Dr. Oetker mix is different from a cake produced from a Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines mix. For one thing, it's smaller. Really, there just wasn't quite as much batter produced by the Dr. Oetker mix, and it didn't rise quite as much during baking as a Better Crocker mix would. The crumb was a little different too. The Dr. Oetker cake wasn't quite as tender as a Betty Crocker cake. Nonetheless, we were all completely satisfied with the end result. The cake was moist and tasty. And best of all, I still have my boxed mix that I can just dump and bake.

Dr. Oetker's mix is the only wheat flour containing cake mix that I could find that was truly trans fat free in my grocery store, but there are others out there. I would guess that all of the gluten free cake mixes are trans fat free (and I can attest that they taste better than you might think!), and Barfoot Contessa also has a line of trans fat free cake mixes. And, of course, you could always make your own cake from scratch.

Meatless Monday - a day to celebrate others

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:43:00 +0000

I'm taking the easy way out today. The start of school for both of my kids (a first!) is this week on top of birthday preparations and festivities as my little boy turns 6. Busy, special times! So, today I want to share a few recipes from other blogs that I haven't tried yet but plan to. I've three recipes for you that look fantastic and are meatless to boot!

Before I get to the great recipe links I've found, a big thank you to the people at Meatless Monday for featuring my Greek Wheat Berry Salad this week. I'm thrilled to be able to participate with the Meatless Monday movement in this way, and thrilled that the editors there liked my recipe enough to put it front and center!

And, now the links. First up, a fantastic looking Whole Wheat Sour Cream Coffee Cake from Zesty Cook (actually a guest post from Simply Savor). This looks like a great coffee cake for breakfast. Love that it isn't loaded with sugar and that it uses whole wheat flour. I think that I might try adding in a little wheat germ for a little more protein and goodness.

Next, a very unique and delicious looking potato salad from Vegan Visitor - Creamy Potato Salad with Avocado. Never would have thought to substitute avocado for mayo, but I think it's a wonderful idea. The only downfall to this potato salad that I can see is that leftovers might not be that appealing with so much avocado present - so better eat it all! I think most everything is better with a little onion, so I'm sure that I'll add some when I make this along with some cilantro.

Last, dessert! I would have killed for a vegan brownie recipe a couple of years ago when I was on a strict dairy, wheat, and egg free diet for my little girl. This one looks really good - vegan or not. And if you're gluten intolerant, this is a perfect recipe to do a one-to-one substitution of the flour of your choice for the whole wheat flour. A recipe like this can handle most any flour. Vegan or not, check out this recipe for Vegan Dark Chocolate Brownies with Sea Salt from Simply Savor.

Meatless Mondays - Pumpkin muffins, one more time

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I've already done a couple of posts on pumpkin muffins, but my kids like them so much that I'm going to do one more with the latest incarnation of the recipe.

To recap, I don't like pumpkin. Shocking, no? I am nothing if not picky! So, I was a bit flabbergasted when my son came home from preschool last fall begging me to make pumpkin muffins. Seems they made them a couple of times in his preschool class, and he loved them. So, knowing how good pumpkin is for you (you can read about that in my original post), I decided I would give it a go for him. I found a recipe at Smitten Kitchen and modified it a bit, and then a bit more, and then more still. My final recipe really bares so little resemblance to the original recipe, which I'm sure was absolutely delicious as it was, that I'm calling it my own. But thanks to Smitten Kitchen for getting me started!

So, how do they taste? They're very moist, and the kids gobble them up. Although they have as much pumpkin as flour in them, they don't have a heavy pumpkin flavor. The flavor of the pumpkin pie spice (substitute cinnamon if you can't find pumpkin pie spice) is the dominant flavor. My kids, as I've said, love these. Even better, their friends love these. (My son told me that every time he brought my pumpkin muffins as his preschool snack, a friend of his who loved these muffins made a point to pick the muffin crumbs off the floor at clean up time...and eat them. I'm flattered, but ew!) There is just something about these muffins that makes them a kid magnet.

And they're great for adults too! I cook them as mini-muffins (portion control), but they'll do just as well as regular muffins, just increase the cooking time a bit. I can have a pan of muffins made in less than 30 min in the morning. Fast, easy, tasty, and good for you! Give these a try for breakfast or a snack sometime!

Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups packed pumpkin (from a 15-oz can - be careful not to get a can of pumpkin pie filling!)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line mini-muffin pan with muffin cups.

Mix together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Mix together flour and baking powder and add to the pumpkin mixture. Mix until just combined.

Add batter to each muffin cup so that each cup is about 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 min. Makes about 3 dozen.

If you don't have white whole wheat flour on hand, you can use regular whole wheat flour for a final product with a slightly wheatier taste or change the flour proportions to 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup regular whole wheat flour.

Meatless Monday - Roasting vegetables and kohlrabi

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Have you heard of the vegetable called kohlrabi? I have been dying to try some kohlrabi for months now, but our grocery stores don't sell it, sadly. Happily, my local summer vegetable stand had a few (and just a very few) for sale last week, and I snatched some up. So glad that I did! This crazy vegetable was hit in our household.

So, what is kohlrabi? Kohlrabi - aka "cabbage-turnip" is a cruciferous vegetable that is pale green or purple in color, kind of circular, and smooth, except for the where the leaves sprout out of it. The kohlrabi I bought had the leaves already removed.

Kohlrabi, like all cruciferous vegetables, has a lot to offer nutritionally. Kohlrabi is a great source of dietary fiber, and it's an excellent source of vitamin C. Amazingly, a single half cup serving of cooked, diced kohlrabi has about 74% of the RDA for vitamin C and 16% more potassium than a half cup of orange juice. It's a good source of B vitamins, magnesium, and phosphorous, and a very good source of copper and manganese. Throw in antioxidants, a decent dose of iron and calcium, and protein, and this vegetable (like pretty much all of the cruciferous vegetables) is a great one to add to your diet!

I've been so keen on trying this vegetable because of the descriptions I've read about its flavor. I've heard the flavor described as a cross between celery and apple in its raw form changing to a sweet turnip flavor when cooked. Might be the batch that I got, but I didn't get any apple flavor from mine. To my husband and me, it tasted more like a sweet jicama with just a little radish zing. It's really good raw and would be great in a salad. My daughter gave it two thumbs up in raw form, but she's easy that way.

I pondered how to prepare this vegetable after buying it, and finally decided to roast it. I like most any vegetable roasted. The flavor post-roasting was great, but I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I've had roasted rutabagers before (a turnip relative), and roasted kohlrabi is quite different in flavor. It retains it's original flavor, only the flavor is more complex with roasting with some turnip and broccoli characteristics coming out in the flavor. My son thought it tasted just like brocolli. He gave roasted kohlrabi two BIG thumbs up - going back for seconds and thirds. That's high praise from my picky eater!

On to the roasting! I know that this post has been primarily about kohlrabi, but roasting is a great way to prepare so many vegetables - carrots, onions, brocolli, red bell pepper, squash, zucchini, etc. And the method for roasting is pretty much the same for all vegetables - high heat, a little oil, and time. Easy peasy! For our kohlrabi meal, I also roasted some plain carrots alongside the kohlrabi. Young, tender carrots that aren't too big yet are fantastic roasted whole. If your carrots are big, try cutting them into smaller sticks and roasting. Yum!

Here's my method for roasting kohlrabi. Take it and apply to your vegetable of choice!

Roasted Kohlrabi (or vegetable of choice)

Coursely diced kolhrabi
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced (optional)
1-2 TBSP olive oil
kosher salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F. Coat kohlrabi (or whatever vegetable you're using) with olive oil, and spread in a single layer on the baking sheet. Mix in minced garlic.

Roast for 20 min. After 20 min, shake or stir the kohlrabi and check every 5-10 min until the vegetable reaches desired doneness, shaking with every check. Sprinkle kosher salt to taste on top of roasted vegetable. Enjoy!

Now to convince my local grocery stores to start stocking kohlrabi. Spread the word! Kohlrabi is an unusual vegetable that is both very nutritious as well as delicious!

And...if you like roasted vegetables, you might want to check out this book: The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman. A great cookbook with lots of wonderful recipes for roasting and using roasted vegetables.

Surprising HFCS food of the week

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I should probably title this series "Surprising HFCS of every couple of every month or so" now, but I'm sticking with the "of the week" moniker. I'm rarely surprised by foods that contain HFCS now. I can usually see them coming. But, every now and then, a food catches me by surprise. That happened just this week...

The food that caught me off guard? Stewed tomatoes! So obvious, right? Of course there's HFCS in stewed tomatoes. (Sarcasm, in case you didn't pick that up.) I needed a can of stewed tomatoes with Mexican seasoning for a recipe that I made yesterday. I flipped the can over to scan the ingredients, and there it was - my old nemesis high fructose corn syrup. The can that got flipped was S&W Stewed Tomatoes - Mexican Recipe. They weren't the only offender. Del Monte Mexican Stewed Tomatoes also contain HFCS.

I surprised to find sugar as an ingredient at all in stewed tomatoes, but it was in all of them in some form - regardless of the brand. And where sugar is a common ingredient, you can be sure to find HFCS in one brand or another. There were several brands of stewed tomatoes that did not use HFCS - including the generic store brand and Hunts.

Speaking of unusual places for sugar to hang out, I found sugar in the ingredient list for most canned beans. I understand the purpose of the sugar - to sweeten up the beans and make the easier on the tongue - but when I'm buying a plain jane can of beans, I kind of expect to get just that. It took quite a bit of searching to find a can of beans that did not have sugar in it. (Private Selection Red Kidney Beans, Kroger's organic store brand, was added sugar free.)

Just another friendly reminder to read those ingredients! Sometimes you'll be surprised what is in seemingly straight-forward products!

Meatless Monday - Greek Wheat Berry Salad

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Do you know what a wheat berry is? It's the whole wheat grain - what they grind to make whole wheat flour. It's also delicious cooked in its whole form! I have been eying recipes made with wheat berries for a while now, but only tried using unground wheat berries last week. Wheat berries turn out to be surprisingly simple to cook and they taste quite a lot like brown rice. In fact, I couldn't convince my son that it wasn't brown rice!

Uncooked soft white wheat berries

Before heading to this week's recipe, I want to take a moment to explore the humble wheat berry. First, what makes the wheat berry desirable? Well, it's a whole grain. All of the nutrients and good stuff (like fiber) remain inside the little berry. Unlike brown rice, wheat berries stay good for a long, long time. I've read reports of wheat berries that were stored in a cool, dry environment that were good as many as 20 years later! That might be a little extreme, but stored in a cool, dry location they will indeed last many years, and stored in a freezer they will last indefinitely. This is in contrast to ground wheat berries - aka whole wheat flour - which has a relatively short shelf life. Keeping the berry whole keeps all of the good stuff inside of the berry stable and secure.

I'm sure that there are many, many different variety of wheat berries, but I'm only going to talk about a couple of them - red and white wheat berries. Hard red wheat berries (I'm going to talk about both Spring and Winter wheat together) is the type of wheat that is used to make traditional whole wheat flour. It's also used to make all-purpose flour, though white all-purpose flour is made from only the endosperm with the nutritious bran and germ removed. (As an aside, non-whole wheat flour is often "enriched, " meaning vitamins and nutrients that were lost when the germ and bran were removed are added back in. Whole wheat flours are not enriched because those vitamins and nutrients haven't been removed in the first place.) Hard red wheat has a relatively high protein content. There is also a soft red wheat that has a softer endosperm and a lower protein content making it good for pastry and cake flour.

White wheat berries are a relatively new variety, having only been added as a market class in the US in 1990. White wheat and red wheat are nutritionally equivalent. The main difference in the two wheat varieties is that white berries have fewer phenolic compounds and tannins in the bran resulting in a milder flavor. White wheat is lighter in color than its red cousin and has a sweeter flavor. White wheat comes in both a hard and soft variety, just like red wheat. The two flours can be used interchangeably. (For a great comparison of the performance of the two flours, check out this article at The Fresh Loaf.)

The great thing about white wheat is the flavor. I have great success substituting white whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour in my baking because it doesn't really change the flavor. As with traditional whole wheat flour made with red wheat, baked goods behave a bit differently when cooked with whole wheat flours, so all-purpose flour is still a good thing to have around. I'm not much of a baker, but I find that I can substitute 1/2 - 3/4 of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour and have good results, depending on the recipe. Using white whole wheat instead of all-purpose doesn't change the flavor of the end product appreciably, but it may change the texture. If you haven't tried white whole wheat flour yet, buy some and give it a try!

Back to whole wheat berries and the recipe... I used soft white wheat berries for this recipe, but you can use whatever variety you have on hand. My grocery store only recently started selling wheat berries in their bulk bin section and carry both hard red wheat and soft white wheat berries. I'm giving you the recipe basically as I prepared it, but like most of my recipes there's a lot of flexibility. Feel free to increase or decrease the amounts of any of the ingredients to suit you taste. We served this salad as a main dish at room temperature, but it's also good cold. Make the recipe your own and enjoy!

Greek Wheat Berry Salad

2 cups wheat berries (I used soft white wheat berries)
6 cups water
1/2 tsp salt (or chicken bouillon)
2 cups chopped grape tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 TBSP white balsamic vinegar (regular balsamic vinegar would work well too)
3 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp pepper

Boil wheat berries in water with 1/2 tsp salt (or chicken bouillon) for 40-60 min or until they have reached the desired tenderness. (Desired tenderness is subjective, hence the big window.) Drain in a colander.

Combine wheat berries, tomatoes, green onions, olives, basil, and feta and mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, remaining salt, and pepper. Use a whisk to emulsify a bit. Pour over the wheat berry mixture and mix to coat the salad well. Serve and enjoy!

Will I cook with wheat berries again? Hmmm...it was incredibly easy to prepare and makes a fine side dish as well as a base for salads. (I served the cooked wheat berries to my kids with just a little butter on top. They gobbled it up and asked for more.) My only problem with wheat berries is the cost. They're rather pricey where I am, so I am more likely to use brown rice or quinoa (equally pricey but with other benefits that I will discuss at a later date) instead of wheat berries. If I could buy them bulk to bring the cost down, it could possibly become a staple in our household, especially as whole wheat berries stay good for such an incredibly long time.

Meatless Monday - Falafel

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

When we lived in Boulder, CO, I was surrounded by shops selling falafel, but I never tried it. Then we moved to Baton Rouge, LA, and again, I was surrounded by fantastic restaurants selling Lebanese food and falafel. Still didn't try it. Then we moved to northern Wyoming. Not a falafel shop for hundreds of miles. Finally - finally! - I tried falafel on a trip back to visit family in Mississippi. Guess what? I liked it!

Have you heard of falafel? It's a little patty made primarily of chickpeas with some other good stuff thrown in for good measure. Typically, it is deep fried. I love the fried version - it gets a crispy crust that I just can't quite replicate in my non-fried version - but I am not fond of frying.

I'm not fond of chickpeas, but surprisingly I love both falafel and hummus. Both of these dishes have chickpeas as their main ingredient, but they also have other very strong flavors present that temper the chickpea flavor. Chickpeas, like most beans, are a kind of superfood, so I eat both falafel and hummus with no guilt.

I am constantly fiddling with my falafel recipe and trying new ones. My current incarnation comes compliments of Cooking Light - with my own twist, of course. I rarely remember to soak my chickpeas overnight, so my recipe calls for a can of chickpeas, but I have made falafel starting with dried chickpeas with good results.

If you've not tried it before, give my oven baked falafel a try! Stick it in a pita or on a piece of naan with a little tzatziki sauce (the sauce below is not a classic tzatziki, but it's really good) and some tomato, and you've got a fantastic meal!

Baked Falafel Pitas

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 large egg whites

Sauce:
1 cup Greek yogurt
4 TBSP tahini
1 clove garlic, minced
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F. To prepare the falafel, combine chickpeas through garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Spoon mixture into a bowl. Add egg whites and stir until combined. Let stand 15 minutes. Spray a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray. Spoon falafel mixture onto baking sheet and flatten slightly with a spoon to make about 16 - 1/2" thick patties. Spray patties lightly with cooking spray again. Cook for about 10 min. Flip patties over and cook for 5 more minutes.

To prepare sauce, simply mix all of the ingredients together.

Smear some sauce inside a pita and stuff with falafel and whatever toppings are desired. Enjoy!

Is artificial trans fat on its way to extinction?

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

On the trans fat front, two great pieces of news. First, Unilever has announced that they will remove all partially hydrogenated oils from its soft spread margarines. Translation...Unilever's margarines will no longer contain artificial trans fat! (Dairy products used in margarine production may still contain naturally occurring trans fats.) Unilever margarine brands include I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Shedd's Spread Country Crock. Removal of partially hydrogenated oils from their margarine should be complete by second quarter of 2010.

Second, Cargill recently announced that it will cease production of partially hydrogenated oil at its Wichita plant.

"The demand for hydrogenated oils has decreased significantly as a result of trans fat reduction in foods, therefore leaving the plant underutilized," said Mike Venker, president, Cargill Dressings, Sauces & Oils. "We made every effort to keep the production at the plant, but ultimately could not achieve acceptable production efficiencies."

I'm not happy about the jobs inevitably lost with this decision (actually, I hope that they were able to repurpose the line for non-hydrogenated oils and save the jobs), but I am thrilled that the market for partially hydrogenated oils has dried up!

Is this the death knell for trans fat as Marion Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University and author of several respected books, has declared? Let's hope so! In the meantime, read those labels! Trans fat might be on the way out, but that doesn't mean that it's gone yet. I find it in way too many foods still on the shelves.

Special thanks to Fat Fighter TV and Fooducate who broke the news to me. If you need a primer on trans fat and why we should avoid it, check out my post on the subject.

Meatless Monday - Peach bread

less.sweet@gmail.com (cathy) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:24:00 +0000

It's that time of year again - time for fresh, ripe peaches! I bought some almost over-ripe Utah peaches from my local farmer's market last week, and they were so juicy and delicious I could hardly stand it.

What do I like to do with fresh peaches - other than eat them out of hand? So many choices - peach pie, peach cobbler, peach BBQ sauce, and on and on! One of my favorite things to do with fresh peaches is to make peach bread. My peach bread recipe is kind of like banana bread - only moister and full of peachy goodness. Peach bread never lasts long around here. I like it equally for breakfast and dessert.

If you're fortunate enough to have a bunch of fresh peaches around and are tired of the same old cobbler and pie, give this bread a try!

Not the best picture, but can you see the peach bits in the bread? Yum!

Peach Bread
I'm presenting this bread recipe in its original form, but it could handle some modifications. Use some whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier. You could probably cut back on the sugar as well.

2 cups all purpose flour (or substitute white whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all purpose flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 TBSP flaxseed meal (optional)
2 cups very ripe, mashed peaches (about 5 or so medium peaches)
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 TBSP butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup raisins or nuts (optional)

In a bowl, mix flour, sugars, salt, and baking soda. Put mashed peaches in a large bowl. Add beaten egg, melted butter. Stir in raisins or nuts. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into a 9x5" greased loaf pan. Let stand 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 45-55 min. Cool bread in pan 15 min; remove from pan and finish cooling on wire rack.

This recipe might look familiar if you've been reading my blog for a while. I first talked about peach bread last year. It's good enough to post again! If you're looking for more ideas on what to do with peaches, check out the original post for links to an amazing peach BBQ sauce, Alton Brown's peach freezing method (to enjoy that peachy goodness in the winter!), and a fantastic peach crisp that you make in little glass canning jars and freeze for later.