Get a printable version of the recipe and get Karen’s tips on choosing a sauce when you go to the Thrive Facebook page.

What might you fill a lasagna roll with?

On a snowy winter afternoon, my mind wandered back to the summer of 2009, when my husband and I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Tanzania. This trip inspired me to add Tanzanian flavors (like curry, mango and mint) to dishes at home. Tanzania, typically known for its game areas, tropical beaches and Mt. Kilimanjaro, has some captivating culinary marvels. From 17 varietals of bananas to plump juicy mangos, goat meat and plantains, I am fascinated by traditional East African cuisine.

I am excited to share these simple, yet invigorating flavors with my son. Listening to “African Playground,” the Putamayo Kids CD, got us in the mood to cook our Tanzanian delights. I invited my son to help me roll out the dough for the chapatti, unleavened flat bread that is an East African staple. And I paired the chapatti with a simple vegetarian curry dish.

Chapatti Recipe

Ingredients:

¼ cup finely sliced organic onion

2 cups flour

Pinch of salt

Hot water (about 1 cup)

Oil

Preparation:

Chop or grate the onion into very small pieces. Then, mix the onion, flour and salt with enough hot water to make smooth, elastic dough. I used about a cup. Coat the ball of dough with oil and roll flat on a floured surface until ½-inch think. Let the dough sit for at least 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll into a round flat pancake (about ¼-inch thick). Be sure to have extra flour on hand to prevent the rolling pin from sticking to the bread. This is the fun part! And if your kid is anything like mine, he’ll enjoy helping you roll the dough while getting covered with flour.

Now you can let your toddler play, while you do the cooking. Add enough oil to cover a griddle or frying pan, add one pancake and cook until the dough is set. This will take about 2 minutes. Then carefully lift the dough, add more oil to the pan and flip it, Cook until the dough is golden brown and bubbly (about 1 minute on this second side). Repeat this process until you’ve cooked four pieces of chapatti for the family.

Tanzanian-Inspired Vegetarian Curry

Ingredients:

1 large organic onion, chopped

1 organic green pepper, chopped

2 organic tomatoes, chopped

2 cans organic chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

¼ cup organic chicken broth

1 organic lime

1 TB organic tomato paste

1 tsp curry powder

Chopped mint

Preparation:

Chop the onion and pepper and sauté in a pan for 5-7 minutes. While that is cooking, chop the tomatoes and drain the cans of chickpeas. Once the onions and peppers are soft, add the tomato, chickpeas and chicken broth. Let these ingredients simmer for an additional 7-8 minutes. At this point, slice the lime and squeeze the juice into the pan. Add the tomato paste, curry powder and mint. Let all of the ingredients cook together on low heat for another 3 to 4 minutes and serve.

I am happy to report that my family sat down and enjoyed a Tanzanian-inspired meal on a cold Michigan Saturday. My son loved dipping the chapatti bread into the curry. The bread is soft and chewy in the middle, so I pulled the chapatti into small pieces for him and he ate it up fast. It brought my husband and I back to the warm climate in the African bush, surrounded by wild animals and some of the friendliest, most fascinating people that I have ever met. We topped the night off with sliced mangos and bananas for dessert.

What exotic food adventures do you like to share with your family?

 At Cucina Antica, it’s all about the tomatoes — ripe, farm-fresh San Marzanos grown in Southern Italy, where rich volcanic soil yields some of the world’s tastiest tomatoes.

Chef/Owner Neil Fusco, a native of Italy, knows what a great San Marzano should taste like. His family has grown the prized plum tomato variety for 200 years! Neil works with the same farmers year-round and personally visits their farms to ensure the best quality.

At age 7, when Neil’s mother first taught him to cook, he learned that creating perfect tomato sauce is an art of simplicity. “You’ve got to keep it simple,” Neil says. “Our first ingredient is San Marzanos, and that’s what really stands out.”

Cucina Antica tomato sauce is cooked in small batches using a traditional method with no added water, sugar or tomato paste or purée. The tomatoes are gently crushed and minimally cooked. “Our philosophy is to cook it just enough to highlight the true flavor of the ingredients,” Neil says.

Recently, Cucina Antica also introduced a line of organic salad dressings and ketchup, created with the same emphasis on farm-fresh flavor and simple ingredients.

Carrot Cake Pancakes	Ricotta-Strawberry Pancakes
Whole Wheat German Pancake with Pears	Fruity Flapjacks
PB & J Pancakes	Oatmeal-Apple Pancakes
Fluffy Cottage Cheese Pancakes	Zucchini Pancakes

Got more room on your griddle? Try these five flapjacks.

Double Chocolate Pancakes

Cinnamon Pancakes with Blueberry Compote

Apple Walnut Pancakes

Honey-Sweetened Buttermilk Pancakes

Extraordinary Blueberry Pancakes

I’m off to flip a batch! What are your favorite pancake toppings and add-ins?

Would you rather hang out with your friends on this sometimes special/sometimes tricky day? Here are a few ideas for how you can share your love with the pals who lend you their shoulders (and who need your shoulder too).

• Host a tasting with chocolates or cheeses from around the world and pair with unique foods and wines.
• Check in with a long walk, a cup of coffee, hot cocoa, tea or just a phone call — stay connected with a little time spent face-to-face.
• Deliver care packages of homemade treats to their doorsteps with cards that share why you couldn’t live without them.
• Keep a bowl of fresh fruit at your desk or in the break room to share with sweet coworkers.
• Host a matchmaking dinner party for your single friends. Instead of nametags, enlist a friend or two to write interesting facts about your friends (or their sweet friend qualities) and tape them to their backs. Instant party conversations!

How about spreading your love outside? Here are some simple ideas for taking it to the streets and sharing your love with the ‘hood that you call home sweet home.

• Volunteer or donate items to a local soup kitchen, food bank or animal shelter.
• Unofficially adopt a stretch of road you walk or ride along and pick up litter — or organize a roadway cleanup.
• Renew your bird-feeding vows by cleaning and stocking your birdfeeder.
• Make a donation to a local nonprofit, library, museum or community garden.
• Plant a heart-shaped garden bed in your yard, filled with wildflower seeds.

What are your suggestions for showing your love to your friends and community this Valentine’s Day?

We’re pretty excited about the newest products in our stores and think you will be too. Rest assured, we’ve vetted them down to the last crumb! Add them to your shopping list, then tell us and other shoppers what you think by rating and reviewing them on our product pages.

Here’s what’s hitting the shelves in February.

Late July Organic Multigrain Snack Chips

Satisfy that snack attack with these lightly salted, crunchy whole-grain chips from a family-owned company. Sea Salt at the Seashore contains seven whole grains and seeds and How Sweet Potato It Is contains 18 grams of whole grains per serving. Plus, they’re organic, so you can appease your appetite and your values.

Laurel Hill Pretzel Chips

These thin, light and crispy oven-baked pretzels have a great shape and are the perfect size for dipping. The satisfyingly delicious flavors include Honey Multigrain, Sea Salt and Everything.

Lifeway Lowfat Mango Kefir

This creamy and delicious mango drink delivers 12 live and active cultures (the good bacteria) to support digestive health. It’s a yogurt-like smoothie that the whole family will enjoy on-the-go or at the table. Plus it’s lactose free!

Saffron Road Macaroni & Cheese

Made with a blend of Wisconsin cheeses, this classic dish has the added bonus of Jerusalem artichoke pasta. It’s also Halal certified and vegetarian. Now that’s comfort food.

Saffron Road Three Cheese Lasagna

This Halal-certified and vegetarian lasagna is made with eggplant and zucchini. The Italian cheeses and a ratatouille sauce make for a bold flavor. Warning: a second serving is a sure thing!

Saffron Road Manchurian Dumplings

This flavorful Indo-Chinese fusion dish features veggie dumplings with a kick of ginger and red chile sauce. Because it’s Halal certified and vegan, everyone at your table can enjoy.

Saffron Road Thai Basil Chili with Tofu

Served with aromatic basmati rice, this dish of veggies and tofu with a zesty blend of Thai seasonings makes for a fuss-free and tasty weeknight meal. It’s Halal certified and vegan too.

Stonyfield YoKids Organic Blueberry/Lemonade Squeezers

A kid favorite, these handy, squeezable, portable tubes are perfect for school lunches and snacks on-the-go. The new delicious blueberry/lemonade flavor delivers six live, active cultures for digestive support making it one snack that you won’t feel guilty about sneaking into your lunch too.

Udi’s Gluten Free Pizza

Created by a team of expert bakers, these new arrivals have a thin, crispy and (drum roll please) gluten-free crust! The savory sauce is made with vine-ripened tomatoes, garlic and olive oil making this a winning combination. Choose from Margherita, Pepperoni or Three Cheese.

Wallaby Organic Greek Lowfat Yogurt

Authentic, rich and creamy, this Greek-style yogurt is made with organic milk from small farms. At 12 grams of protein per serving, you’ll happily make it part of your daily morning meal. Available in Blueberry, Cherry, Honey, Strawberry and Plain.

Which of these new products will you try?

Roses

These blooms are the tried and true favorite when Valentine’s Day rolls around. (From romantic love to friendship, different colored roses symbolize different things. Mixing colors is the perfect way to customize your message or simply create a vivid bouquet!)

Tulips

Mix and match in large bunches, or keep it simple and sleek. With their bold colors, sweet charm and low price, tulips are a great way to shake things up! (They represent true love.)

Gerbera Daisies (aka Gerber Daisies)

With big, bright blooms, Gerbera daisies are a great complement when mixed with other flowers or are charming on their own. (These cheery blooms represent innocence and purity.)

Mixed Bouquets

We always have a wide assortment of sizes, designs, and colors available for mixed bouquets, an easy vase-ready gift. Choose a ready-made bouquet or have one custom-made! (By mixing up the flowers, you can mix up the message and really keep your valentine on their toes!)

Potted Orchids — Not every flower has to go in a vase. With their graceful shapes and delicate blooms, these gorgeous plants are sure to please for months to come. (Orchids are said to represent love, strength and beauty.)

When shopping for roses, Gerbera daisies and mixed bouquets, look for the Whole Trade® Guarantee, our label that indicates that the flowers were grown with a commitment to ethical trade, the environment and the highest quality. Think of these as “blooms with benefits” or “roses without the thorns” or “flowers with powers”. Okay flower metaphors aside, buying Whole Trade products supports positive change in the developing countries where the products are sourced. Additionally, one percent of Whole Trade flower retail sales go to the Whole Planet Foundation to help fight poverty in developing countries. Giving Whole Trade flowers is sending a pretty strong message, don’t you think?

What will your flower choice reveal this Valentine’s Day?

“To do meaningful work in the place I love – it makes it easy to get up in the morning,” Meteo explained. He and his brother, Andy, bought Jasper Hill farms in 1998 – previously the farm had been abandoned for 30 years. To learn the trade, Mateo worked with farmstead cheese makers in the USA, England, France and Spain, and he took the techniques and recipes he learned back to Jasper Hill. While the brothers were milking their own Ayershire cows to make cheese for Jasper Hill, they realized they might be able to help local farmers do the same thing.

Vermont has seen a drastic reduction in viable dairy farms in past years — the price farmers get for their milk barely pays overhead and production costs. The Kehlers saw that they could create a network of dairy farmers and cheese makers in their small Vermont community, which would renew industry and create jobs for the region. So, in 2008 they opened the Cellars at Jasper Hill where they age, market and ship cheeses made by local farmers along with their Jasper Hill cheeses. It’s a great way to add value to local milk.

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, an English-style cheddar that’s available nationwide, is made by Cabot and aged at Jasper Hill. The cheddar is rich and deeply flavored – benefitting from many months of ripening in the Cave. The “Cabot Cave,” one of five cellars at the farm, is stacked endlessly high with rounds of the clothbound cheddar. This partnership with Cabot means steady business for the Cellars and acts as an anchor project. By aging the Cabot Clothbound at Jasper Hill, Cabot ends up with a distinctive, artisanal cheese served by the likes of Thomas Keller at The French Laundry.

We toured the other four caves, 35% full at this point, and saw an array of cheeses at varying stages of ripeness. The thing I find compelling about Jasper Hill is that they are constantly looking for ways to work within their environment to create and improve a symbiotic business model. Recently, Rachel Dutton, a Harvard microbiologist, visited the cellars to explore microbial communities in the Jasper Hill Caves. Artisanal cheese only begins with milk, lending most of its character to the microbial species that use the cheese like a blank canvas. Dutton is helping to determine which bacteria are specific to Jasper Hill, creating a “fingerprint” that will help them understand and fully utilize the “terroir” in their caves.

Each batch of cheese has a chart attached, graphing a PH reference curve and compositional targets – almost like the DNA of the cheese. The Kehler brothers are working with an astrophysicist to build an application to create and understand these charts more easily. You may not find these technologically advanced and calculated methods being used in the centuries old caves abroad, but unlike French affineurs, says Kehler, “We just don’t have 500 years to figure this out.”

The innovation at Jasper Hill doesn’t end with cheese. They’re working on a “Green Machine” project, which will use production waste to fuel their operation. Manure from their cows will be screw pressed and used for compost, as well as methane to heat a greenhouse on the property, and to heat hot water for the building — creating an estimated savings of over $30,000. The greenhouse is expected to play a part in a wellness program for employees, which might include a CSA and a yoga studio to stretch out tired backs and arms from lots of heavy lifting and turning. Even the leftover whey from the cheese gets fed to pigs on the farm; once a year, every Jasper Hill employee who wants a pig receives one butchered any way they want.

As we talk about the future of Jasper Hill, Mateo says, “That’s the exciting part…the really exciting stuff is dreaming about what’s next.” Have you tried cheese from Jasper Hill or a cheese like Cabot Clothbound Cheddar that is aged in the Cellars? We’d love to hear what you think.

Not only are all of the myriad forms of chocolate indescribably decadent and aromatic, the darker versions are also good for us! Here’s what I mean:

• Dark chocolate is packed with high-quality polyphenol antioxidants that may promote overall cardiovascular health.
• Cocoa beans include flavonoids (like those found in tea and red wine), which support healthy cholesterol levels and act as antioxidants.
• Chocolate delivers stearic acid, a unique fatty acid thought to be neutral for cholesterol levels.

Here’s a peek at the many glorious forms of chocolate:

• Cocoa Powder is the result when cocoa solids are removed from the chocolate liquor, pressed into a cake and then ground into a fine powder. We use cocoa powder in our recipe for warming Mexican Hot Cocoa.
• Unsweetened Chocolate is also known as baking chocolate, and it’s about 55% cocoa butter and 45% cocoa solids; the tempting aroma is hard to resist, but one bite makes for a bitter lesson – pure chocolate without anything added is NOT sweet at all. Baking Chocolate is the first ingredient in this perfect-for-your-Valentine Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Raspberries.
• Bittersweet Chocolate contains at least 35% chocolate liquor. The higher the percentage, the darker and more bitter the chocolate. Bittersweet Chocolate Chips are wonderful in cookies like these Chunky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fleur de Sel. But if you are looking for a truly romantic bittersweet chocolate experience, look no further than this Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze.
• Dark or Semi-Sweet Chocolate (my favorite) usually contains 15% to 35% chocolate liquor. It is mildly sweet and somewhat bitter. Here is a great recipe for Chocolate Dipped Marcona Almond Biscotti and here is an amazing Dark Chocolate and Coconut Dessert Sauce.
• Milk Chocolate is likely the favorite of most Americans.  Some of the chocolate liquor is replaced with milk and/or milk solids to make sweet, mild, smooth chocolate. You will love this recipe for Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta with Blood Oranges.

To keep chocolate fresh, wrap it tightly, preferably in its original wrapping, and store it in a dry place at about 65°F to 70°F. Since it easily absorbs odors, be sure to store it away from any strong-smelling items.  Properly stored, most chocolate will keep for more than a year, and dark chocolate will keep even longer.

Remember that cocoa butter melts at just below 98.6° F, the body’s average temperature. This is exactly why the best place to melt chocolate is directly in your mouth! But since that’s not practical or acceptable for chocolate recipes, you’ll want to avoid scorching by gently melting at 115°F or less.  You can do this in two ways:

1. Double Boiler Method: Put chopped chocolate into a double boiler or heatproof mixing bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water and stirring gently until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. (Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water or the chocolate may burn.)
2. Microwave Method: Heat chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl at half power, stopping to stir gently every 30 seconds, until completely melted and smooth.

As the chocolate melts, be sure to watch for signs that it may be “seizing” or turning grainy. This happens when moisture, such as a splash of water or a bit of steam, gets into the chocolate after it’s already begun to melt. Some recipes call for melting chocolate along with liquid such as milk. That’s okay, as long as the liquid is added at the beginning.

If you’ve been wondering about white chocolate, it does resembles chocolate and certainly smells like it, but because it’s made of cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar and vanilla and does not contain chocolate liquor, it’s not really chocolate at all.

For more information, here’s our Guide to Chocolate.

Are you celebrating this Valentine’s Day with a chocolate romance? Got a favorite way to indulge with chocolate? Let me know!

Here’s the deal. Right now, and until supplies last, with a Whole Foods Market gift card purchase of $100 or more (whether you purchase one $100 gift card, five $20 gift cards or any other combination), you’ll receive a free The Perfect Sip gift box to treat yourself.**

The Perfect Sip contains three thoughtfully selected bags of whole beans from Allegro® Coffee. Besides being great beans, these roasts also help coffee-growing communities thrive. Here’s how:

• Allegro® African Blend: These beans are sourced from African coffee co-ops that are recognized as Good for All by the Jane Goodall Institute. The Jane Goodall Institute seeks to contribute to the preservation of great apes and their habitats by combining conservation with sustainable livelihoods in local communities.
• Allegro® Costa Rican Dota: This coffee is grown in a high mountain valley region of Costa Rica, of which 87% is a forest preserve. Our nonprofit partner, EARTH University, is dedicated to education in the agricultural sciences and natural resources in order to contribute to sustainable development in the tropics.
• Allegro® Rainforest Blend: This coffee is grown on Rainforest Alliance-certified farms in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Rainforest Alliance farms meet standards for environmental protection, social equity and economic viability.

The Perfect Sip as well as our Snack Express gift boxes are also available to order online, so you can send a treat to your loved ones across the miles. Waking up to a really nice cup of coffee, now that’s a thoughtful Valentine’s gift and a sweet way to treat yourself.

** Receive a free The Perfect Sip gift box with every gift card purchase of $100 or more. Online, new cards only (does not apply to gift card reloads). Offer is only available in the US, while supplies last. Free gift box will be shipped to the billing address of gift card purchaser.